April 20th-23rd 2012 :: 10 Year Anniversary! :: Theme: Tiny World
----UPDATES----
v1: The post-compo build includes about another 2 hours worth of work, with sound, graphics tweaks, and better controls for Mac users. This is how I wish it had looked when I submitted it!
v2: Based on feedback, I've increased the ambient light from the player's cube, brightened the light burst, increased the duration of the light burst (increased the AI range for the baddies as well to counteract the light bonuses), and changed the light burst key to 'Z', which seems to be more common/acceptable as an action key. Obviously, all of this has been done to the post-compo build, and the compo version is still what I had at the end of the 48hrs. Enjoy!
I would like to develop the game further. Any suggestions (whether or not you vote) would be appreciated! So far, I'm looking at tweaking the lighting, so that you don't have to spam the ctrl key. Also, a few people have suggested changing the main character from just a plain cube. Who would YOU like to see as a main character?
Follow me on twitter @OnePingSoftware for updates on the game!
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/* ENTRY */
First Ludum Dare. It was a blast!
A simple game in which you must find lost cubes, while avoiding evil cubes. Equipped with only a small light burst (to ward off evil), find as many cubes as you can!
Controls:
Arrows to move
Space to jump
Left Ctrl for light burst
(NOTE: for Mac users, if you run into issues using the Ctrl key + arrow keys, you can alternately use A and D to move, Space to Jump, and Mouse for light burst)
Running into an evil cube will slightly diminish the intensity of your light burst, until you completely run out of light. Collecting lost cubes will brighten your light burst.
/* END ENTRY */
Downloads and Links
Ratings
![]() | Coolness | 100% |
#48 | Mood | 3.65 |
#355 | Innovation | 3.10 |
#434 | Overall | 2.95 |
#438 | Graphics | 2.87 |
#534 | Humor | 2.04 |
#548 | Fun | 2.61 |
#722 | Audio | 1.38 |
#804 | Theme | 2.15 |
Comments
Liked the ambience of it! Is the sound missing or was it my computer?
@karnakgames sadly, I was unable to get sound into it in the 48hrs. For the post- 48hr version (which does have sound in it), go here: http://onepingsoftware.com/ld23/post/
I love the game core mechanics. Collisions work great. Good job!
Cool! Creepy!
I figured out that I could climb walls, but it seemed to be limited to certain places. Or am I just a smutz?
And yes, you can die. I died.
I hope this game gets a medal for 'mood'!
Great stuff here. Cool gameplay, wall wlaking works great. Kinda creepy/scary wich is cool for the mood. Really cool game overall.
Nice ambience; those monsters are scary. I have to say I always find the darkness mechanic sort of annoying though.
@hamburger, thanks for the feedback! I think the game would benefit from multiple levels in which darkness is only one aspect/challenge rather than the mood for the entire game...
Found it pretty frustrating as I kept falling back to the start, maybe if the light burst was much brighter to reveal more of the level it would be a bit more forgiving. Nice interpretation of the theme though.
Being injured by the bad guys looked great.
Nice and scary!!! I like the lightning when you hit an enemy! D:!
@Digitalis, thanks for the feedback! Yeah, I had to scale way back on how the light worked...the more little cubes you collect, the brighter your light gets, but it's probably not too obvious right there at the beginning...
Nice moody visuals. Love the wall climbing. Got cornered fairly quickly by the enemies.
Nice lighting. I kept purposely hitting the enemies because I liked the effect, thankfully they didn't seem to have any sort of negative effect.
Lacking in sound/music though.
The sound and lighting changes you made in the post-compo build were really good. Even without those the mood was still awesomely creepy and scary. Pretty difficult but I made it to the end and felt sweet relief. Maybe add just a tiny bit of light on the walls when you are wall-climbing like you do with the floor.
Great entry! When all of the red eyes appear that's just awesome.
Red eyes in the dark -- cannot fail to be terrifying.
Always had a thing for rolling cubes. There's something satisfying about how they move.
I like the mood of the game, I actually got scared for abit :P
Jesus, going into that game and starting it up, I had no expectation there'd be a slight horror element to it!
Was genuinely fearful of them creatures, spammed the light like there was no tomorrow!
Took me a while before I realised it wasn't completely gravity based: that you could infact roll up walls, which ended up being a cracking mechanic.
Great game, well done
I like how agile the character is: able to run up walls, etc. And those monsters are seriously creepy in the dark, illuminated only by light flashes.
Man is the game dark, though. Really hard time finding my way around.
Interested enough to go play the non-comp version...
Great mood. The enemies are suitably menacing. I particularly like the lighting.
Interesting controls in this one. Takes some practice and provides a nice challenge.
Excellent mood! The game seems incomplete though, unless I'm missing something. I didn't like that the post-compo actually seemed darker; that's too dark.
Player movement felt great. Sometimes the inertia carried over when it shouldn't have but that is a problem I've ran into also so I don't blame you. The eyes were a good touch. Nice level design. Fun game here.
@Jedi, thanks for the feedback! I really struggle with level design, so I didn't get to add as much content as I would have liked to for the compo. Good point about the post-compo build being darker. It's not supposed to be; I'll fix it tomorrow.
@Permanent7, Yes, that darn inertia! I really need to sit down and figure out how to deal with this...
@all thanks for your feedback so far; it's really encouraging to hear your thoughts! I look forward to applying it towards making the game better in the future!
[Comments and ratings from this account come from various team members]
Holy crap that scared the hell out of me. Not sure I want to play the version with sound because I could very well soil myself. Cool concept, movement worked well for the most part. Really loved the unique game over sequence and making the game darker when you take damage. This could be really awesome with a bit more work. Going to play the post compo now, hope the sounds aren't as scary as the graphics were the first time.
[Comments and ratings from this account come from various team members]
Ok so I played the post compo and even though I was expecting it it still scared the crap out of me. A lot.
Anyway, whilst playing again I remembered that I wasn't too keen on the way the light worked. I think the controls were a bit off and it felt like I had to spam the button the whole time. Not sure how to fix this but maybe you could let the player hold the light on for a couple of seconds then wait for it to recharge a bit. Another option could be to have the light pulse automatically.
Like most others have already said, this the presentation is fantastic. From the gameplay elements, I think the wall climbing was the most interesting and successful.
What I wished for with the light was that it simply stayed on at all times. Having to constantly spam the Ctrl button just to get around the world was tiring on my hand, and there's no compelling reason to "conserve" your light bursts as they don't diminish unless you hit an enemy and they don't appear to be weapons that ward off the enemies either.
Congragulations on keeping up the pace with a post-compo build!
Like almost everyone, I liked the mood, the graphics and the mechanics. I just didn't like the fact that I was stuck in a part where there are dozens of red eyes and I can't leave nor die. But I player the compo version, so I guess it's just a temporary bug. Good job!
Diogo
I really like the dark theme.
Loved the graphics, physics and the whole game :)
Nice game! I found it hard, wasn't very good at navigating the space. I ended up getting surrounded by those monsters, it was if they were combining into a big demon or something.
coolness!
I like the concept. Scary faces rock.
I had a few issues with controls but they seemed to sort them selves out after a while!
an better main character would be nice! post-ld version? :D
Good mood, it would probably scare the shit out of me if it would have sound :D
can't test, doesnt work properly under WINE, most of the graphics don't show.
@spiral, thanks for the feedback! I've been mulling over the direction to go with a post compo version. Any thoughts (you or anyone) as to a better character?
@vigrid thanks! The post compo build has a bit of sound in it for a more fear-inducing effect (actually scared myself...twice while playing the sound version. T'was a little embarrassing!).
@Raptor85, thanks for the heads up! I've not done anything with Unity on Linux before. I'd be interested in seeing how it behaves/doesn't behave, though! What flavor of Linux are you running?
That was cool! I liked the concept. It was sort of annoying mashing the light button all the time. Maybe easier if you can hold it and it gets dimmer the longer you hold it or something similar.
@Zythiku, thanks for the feedback! I will definitely be changing the lighting system for the next release! I simply ran out of time to adjust it further, and having it last longer would have made the game too easy...
@Zythiku gentoo, that shouldn't matter though, i'm running latest WINE build so it's all up to date. It's nothing really specific for your game it's a common problem with unity, anything really beyond basic texturing and sound tends to not work, mouse grabbing doesnt work either. (they must be doing it in a non-standard way because the non-unity games that do the same things work just fine in WINE)
@Raptor85, yeah I figured that would be the case; did some research and it looks like you're right about the behaviour being consistent with Unity games. Hopefully the Unity to Flash capability with help with this in the future...
Nice mechanics, though the light burst is a little short, little too much so for jumping puzzles. And in the future, please don't use CTRL or SHIFT for a standard key, StickKeys are really annoying when playing a game.
Interesting concept, although I wasn't sure what my end goal was. Was I fighting the bad guys, or trying to avoid them? Was I trying to go somewhere, or collect all of the little squares? With some polish, this could be a good game. Great start.
@ratboy2713, you mean people still use Sticky Keys? :-P Point well taken. Will remap the keys. Excellent feedback. This is the kind of stuff I like hearing!
@KevinWorkman, thanks for asking! It says in the entry itself on this page (collecting the little cubes), but it doesn't have these instructions in-game. Definitely something that needs to be added to future iterations of the game. Thanks for the valuable feedback!
Thanks again to everyone for your kind and constructive comments! Keep them coming!
I'm afraid the game was too dark for me. I had a hard time keeping track of the box's movement because I usually had no visual reference. I tried it on a mac, and the first time through the ctrl key worked. Then I fell off the map into infinity. =/
Second playthrough, ctrl stopped working, so I had to use the trackpad, and Apple's trackpads need actual pressure to click, which is pretty awful. So I wasn't really able to spam the light. I eventually got to a place where I couldn't move and was surrounded by evil eyes. I'm guessing that's an end-game state (not a bug), but a little on-screen text would help.
I also tried the post-compo version, and it was still too dark for me. I would've liked the ambient light radius to be at least 2x as large, I think, to get some sense of the environment. I did make it to the ending, but it was mainly through button-mashing.
Wall climbing worked well when I could see where I was. The monsters were great; I love how the monster eyes are tiny and they appear much larger when they hit you. Creepy.
@mildmojo, thanks for the feedback; I really appreciate it! The bad lighting? That's what you get from developing on a monitor where the brightness was unknowingly set way to high... First order of business for the next version will be to revamp the entire lighting system...
Okay everyone, I've uploaded an updated post-compo build! It includes brighter/better range on the light burst, and doubles it's life, and remapped it to the 'Z' key. This should prolong the life of your fingers and keyboard. Also--and to counteract the lighting enhancements--increased the range at which the bad guys will start chasing you. Hopefully these tweaks will make for a better experience as I work towards a (much) improved release in the coming weeks! As always, rate based on the compo version, and then feel free to leave feedback on the compo AND post-compo versions. Thanks all! You've been a wonderful encouragement to me.
Cool platformer, but the physics were a bit wonky -- I was not sure if the cube could double jump, shinobi jump wall against wall, or just scale one wall spiderman style. Sometimes while on air I would press to one side and the cube would move to the other one, huh.
That said, I really liked the "shine light on your enemies to keep them at bay" mechanics, and the ending screen is very satisfying as well.
Good game!
This is the first game of the kind I've seen in this competition and I enjoyed it! You made me fear for my blue square - though I think it's a bit too dark even when it's not supposed to me. Still, I liked it!
It is nice original idea. Very hard to play (for me). I needed to make 2Hz oscillator from my finger to use it for light bursts. ;) Good job!
Wow, this was incredible. Very dark in a more than literal way. Good job.
Pretty cool concept!
It would be even more scary if the player could actually die.
Mood of this game will be incredibly high, haha. It's seriously great and gameplay is good too.
Wow. you really managed to scare me :)
Good concept, too bad the physics is a weird hard to play with (but that's not very surprising, physics is really hard to tweak, especially in 2 days...). I guess it also lacks explanation and stuff that would turn your proof of concept into an actual game, but I'm already very happy with what you came up with.
Aww, you can climb walls? How was I supposed to know that?
The awesome part of this is mood, of course. It's freaky, and the evil fish silhouette when the red eyes find you is AWESOME. Also the game over screen is great.
On the other hand, I didn't feel like the light did enough. Sometimes it got a little frustrating, like I was trying to find a game with a flashlight.
This is a pretty strong entry for its simplicity. But if you're going to tell the player they can move and jump, you should tell them they can climb. There's no reason to suspect that's possible.
Small criticisms on an excellent submission. Great job. Now I'll go play the post compo version and remember that I can walk on walls.
@Hume, thanks for the good comments! Funny thing is that the wall walking is/was not supposed to be in there...however, everyone seems to like that feature so far sooo... :) Lighting will definitely be reworked in the next version!
Very hard to play since ctrl+arrow keys switches desktops in mac os :/
Great game and fantastic graphics. Freaked me out when I first meat a evil cube. Awesome job!
I loved those monsters! You've got a really cool atmosphere going with this game.
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Good mood, I liked the visual style. Play mechanics weren't too bad either. Seemed like a nice prototype overall, good job!