December 17th-20th, 2010
Theme: Discovery
More Info: /ludum-dare-19-has-begun/
This is one of those games that uses discovery as a gameplay element. The controls are not stated right out, but are made fairly obvious. You use sonar pings to examine the level around you. The "story" (if there is one) is told through hidden messages in each level. Try to find them all! (Hint: Start the first level by pressing the spacebar)
Programmed and Drawn in Game Maker 8
Sound effects made in SFXR
Downloads and Links
Ratings
#37 | Innovation | 3.60 |
#52 | Theme | 3.53 |
#83 | Overall | 3.07 |
#84 | Fun | 2.93 |
#107 | Audio | 2.50 |
#128 | Humor | 2.11 |
#146 | Community | 2.44 |
#186 | Graphics | 2.33 |
#201 | Coolness | 0% |
Comments
Why thank you! SFXR is really good for getting good (albeit retro-sounding) sound effects. Have you beaten it? I'm looking forward to trying yours!
Great idea, but i think it would have been more fun if you capitalized on that orb bouncing around rather than the pings around the play. It was too easy to spam the space button and find my way through the mazes.
I am not a fan of using the theme as an excuse for giving directions to the user... while it seems weird to use sonar to actually be able to see the walls, it worked for me. I did not like the fact I had no idea that I had that ability at first, and was just randomly moving around to find my way through the first level. Then in frustration I hit the spacebar... and the game got better. Still, I could spam hit the spacebar to get the baddies to stay away... just seemed weird. Good job, just not personal cup of tea.
I liked the game mechanic once I figured out the "rules". At first I was spam-hitting the spacebar, until I realized that's not the best strategy at all. I liked the writing on the walls. Nice touch. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get past the level called "The walls have ears". The passageways were too narrow to slip past, no matter how stealthy I was being. Maybe there was some trick I was missing.
Interesting gameplay, and the difficulty increases quite rapidly... Overall, a nice game.
Nice concept, I played right to the end.
I worked out by the last level that some enemies behaved differently (the reference to inky and blinky etc was what made me realise it) but even at the last level I felt like I didn't really understand how I was supposed to be playing. I only won the last level by trying to rush blindly past the last enemy, and getting lucky.
Ah, okay, thanks for the feedback, guys. I edited the post above a while ago to say that you should start the first level with the spacebar. I sort of assumed it was commonly used in keyboard-based gameplay, and that people would try it sooner rather than later. As for the enemies: most of them just bounce around randomly, but if you hit them with a Ping, they tend to get a bit faster, at least temporarily. At least, that's what I was aiming for. Some of them, however, will home in one you, but only if you A) Ping them, or B) switch on a light switch. The former method of alerting them will cause them stop homing if you can avoid them for ten seconds. I considered limiting pings, but I eventually cam to the conclusion that it should be a trade-off: Being able to see or being safe. I hope that that came across, at least in the later levels. By the way, did anyone find the light switches before the level "We're snowed in!"?
Not bad at all. In the later stages the enemies that are not repelled are too fast and catch me too easily.
Other than that it's a neat idea. I also like the hidden messages ;)
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The sound the enemies made was AHHH! (in a good way)