August 24th-27th 2012 :: Theme: Evolution
So I decided to make an action platformer in honor of Charles Darwin.
This game is probably the most complete I've ever managed inside 72 hours.
There are 3 levels and a boss fight. Several powerups, enemies and environments.
The difficulty is tough, but with some patience you should be able to make it. I really hope you enjoy :)
\o/ All art, gameplay, music, sfx* in 72 hours by myself alone. \o/
[*EXCEPT the Wilhelm Scream which is of course the Wilhelm Scream as comments pointed out]
http://akseli.virtuaalipalvelin.net/darwin/
(Also note that it works best in Chrome, should work in FF and there will no sound in IE at least)
Tools used:
ImpactJS (html5,javascript)
Paint.net
sfxr
FL Studio
Downloads and Links
Ratings
![]() | Coolness | 100% |
#37 | Humor(Jam) | 3.32 |
#88 | Audio(Jam) | 3.16 |
#93 | Fun(Jam) | 3.10 |
#128 | Mood(Jam) | 2.75 |
#146 | Theme(Jam) | 2.69 |
#147 | Overall(Jam) | 2.98 |
#197 | Graphics(Jam) | 2.60 |
#246 | Innovation(Jam) | 2.02 |
Comments
Very frustrating but addictive. :D I like challenges.. Good job.
Nice to see a Javascript entry :) XC took some getting used to.
Hey! You used Impact, too! :D Your music is nice. I tried to ride a velociraptor... I couldn't. heh. Impressed to see multiple weapons and enemy AI. Very Contra. Very challenging gameplay! The jumping is pretty unforgiving. I kept replaying to get farther!
Nice game. I saw it from the impactjs forum. I think the difficulty is perfect. I like a game that I don't win on the first try but need to learn what to expect and remember to avoid/kill certain things.
Good job.
So, pretty funny - love the idea - kind of hard, but that made it fun too
Feels like contra, aka really difficult. I enjoyed the music, especially the title music.
Ah someone made it all the way through :D
Good on you and yeah I wanted the boss to be something special for the few who make it that far!
This was REALLY hard. Mostly because the game is unfair:) But I thought the music and sound effects were hilarious (especially the Darwin head and the Wilhelm scream.)
Funny game! The whole Monty-Python-esque theme really cracked me up. A suggestion: make the jump a bit higher, it was a little tricky trying to jump even small distances. also way points would have been awesome
At first I thought it was too hard, but after a while I beat it. I had about 25 deaths on the first level, 15 on the second, 10 on the third, and 5 on the boss. I think the main thing that stick out about this game is the difficulty curve, as shown in exhibit A.
I love really hard megaman style games like these. The controls were great, and the music, sound effects, and grahpics made it satisfying to play. The level design was good and hard, but overall the game is too unforgiving in my opinion. Upgrades are almost never worth going out of your way for because you usually die getting them. And having a hitpoint would make it easier. I think checkpoint spacing is okay though, as it is satisfying to finally make it through a long level.
Many of the traps were interesting, and enemy placement was great. And there were great jokes, esp. the final boss. Sorry for rambling. I really enjoyed the game! :D
Really hard! A lot of the difficulty for me comes from the jumping and some of the level design where you jump to a platform only to have a dinosaur come running at you before you can run back :(
Despite that, I really did want to get further, so I kept playing, but still can't get too far. I like the enemy design :D The glowy graphics of the power ups and bullets don't seem to fit with the rest of the pixelly graphics though.
I'm not a fan of one-hit kill games (because I always get hit) but I enjoyed the art style a bit and of course the scream :)
Damn hard. Music that sounds a little bit like Doom 1 or 2 'nuff said.
Didn't work in chrome on linux though, but Firefox got it right.
Bonus points for Wilhelm scream!
Very hard game, you don't go very far when you jump, do you? :)
Fun game but (As other people have said) pretty hard! Some of the graphics are really cool, especially the protagonist and the dinosaurs. I liked the humour of it too
Funny idea, and good execution; I really liked the background music and Darwin as a main character. I think the game would be vastly improved for me with just a teeny bit higher jumps; there's nothing more frustrating in a platformer than barely missing jumps, and the two-space jumps in here take a lot of focus. I agree with the waypoint idea; it was very disheartening to lose a bunch of progress for one bad jump or one stray bullet. Fun, though, and very well done.
This is really addictive! The gun with the bouncing bullets was a nice touch too.
Wilhelm Scream + HTML5 + Contra-like difficulty (actually harder) + Upgrades + Cool Story = me gusta :D
So, was the investiment on ImpactJS worth it? I'm considering to buy it...
And thanks for your comment on my game :)
I have basically only nice/awesome things to say about ImpactJS (and the author too). Definitely worth the price, at least if you plan on making tilemap based games.
Caught me by suprise that there isn't sideways collision. But had fun! ;)
Very nice audiovisive assets, but frustrating gameplay and no checkpointing.
Loved it! Pretty tough, but it was so fun that I kept playing until I beat it. Lots of good near misses and 'HOLY SHIT' moments.
The sounds effects were funny. And the pixel art was pretty good!
I appreciated that the game is trying to be slightly different than most retro-platformers.
I would have still liked more checkpoints... or checkpoints at all? Didn't make it that far.
I came from your postmortem to experience frustration first hand :) This is very good and addictive, but hard. I'm afraid I no longer have the patience to just keep trying. It's a curse from modern gaming (IMHO, and I grew up with a C64). Most games are more forgiving now through checkpoints, saves, etc. so when presented with a real challenge we tend to give up more easily.
In any case, props to you for keeping me trying more than the average. Great job!
I could never get into Contra style games because the difficulty was too high. Way to keep with tradition I guess.
Really nice game, but quite hard xD
"\o/ All art, gameplay, music, sfx in 72 hours by myself alone. \o/" - You created the Wilhelm Scream? I don't think so.
nice sounds and graphics style. character feels a little to heavy for me. would maybe improve gameplay if the character was a little more "sportive" :-)
Sorry, i gave up in the first level because of the high difficulty, addictive and you know, it has the smell of good arcade of the old times :3
Definitely influenced by contra. Hilarious idea and also fun for a while, but as a 1-hit-kill shooter it can get rather difficult. Overall great, mainly for its humour, but that won't affect my rating of graphics/sound which were both very much mediocre.
Aarrggh so hard! Started inadvertently doing the Wilhelm scream myself every time I died. Points for graphics & sound, lots of content too
very cool, but a little frustrating. It could use more checkpoints to ease on the difficulty
YES! I BEAT IT!! Pretty challenging, but a lot of fun. I think the replay value is due to the well planned out level designs and good coding. Never once did I feel like I died because of bad controls or bad level communication, but because of player error (jumping too soon, etc). It forces the player to memorize and really understand the level layouts the next time around.
I don't think level checkpoints are necessary. The player is forced to replay a level until they beat it, and the feeling of accomplishment they get really pays off. Kudos!
Very hard game, i could have used checkpoints or auto-fire like in contra. However the game is fun and wilhelm scream was a good idea ^^.
Skaradams
Very frustrating but funny. Sounds are hilarious. WAAAAAWHHH!!!!haha
Sh*t someone else said Contra. Hell ya this was 100% vibing Contra in the most awesome way.
Ok, I'm getting older and I remember the old NES Contra. Jumping from different tier platforms to make your way through the level.blah blah...What I'm getting at here is this game has NAILED some serious platformer points. I found that the timing and layout of the enemies was like the designer of this game playing us like a fiddle.
Top points for this game.
BTW- The sound fx are perfect.
I found the jump to be too weighty and the movement in general needs a bit of work. Loved the humorous sound effects, and the projectiles look pretty cool.
huasuhsahu I love the "character". Congrats to good humor in game.
Ah ah so fun. The main weak point is clearly the character's controls. (The damn jump is too tight!).
Also as you said, it's quite hard :D
Funny idea, and good execution; I really liked the background music and Darwin as a main character. I think the game would be vastly improved for me with just a teeny bit higher jumps; there's nothing more frustrating in a platformer than barely missing jumps, and the two-space jumps in here take a lot of focus. I agree with the waypoint idea; it was very disheartening to lose a bunch of progress for one bad jump or one stray bullet. Fun, though, and very well done.
oh god i am terrible at games like this. this is super tough! i died like 20 times before giving up. its fun though.
That was great! Awesome entry. I loved blasting the guy off the dinosaur and watching him plummet to his death.
I am sick of those annoying fish. Fun game and I like the non-intrusive story scrolling on the start menu.
I really like the sound and music, and the premise is just hilarious ^_^ shooting dudes off raptors to the sound of a wilhelm scream is very satisfying as well - though the platforming isn't quite so well done. I think the "feel" of the character movement needs a bit of work: by feel I mean what Doom or Knytt or Meat Boy have and the rest of us can only dream of. The platforming also required quasi pixel-perfection, which is a little frustrating.
Overall a good game with a good sense of humour - one good enough that you wish it was better ;)
I just have to respond to that: I think the movement in Super Meat Boy is quite awful and floaty :P
But tuning character movement is definitely a job longer than what 72 hours allows.
Quite cool - some fun platforming in there, though it's very hard, and unforgiving with the restarts. The audio is very cool :)
You must sign in to comment.
Aw yeah, I could see ChuckDar is an action hero fo sho. Gameplay is a bit hard, only could get the first gun upgrade. High audio points for working that wilhelm scream in.