April 26th-29th 2013 :: Theme: Minimalism
Ludum Dare 26 — April 26-29th, 2013
[ Results: Top 100 Compo, Jam | Top 25 Categories | View My Entry ]
[ View All 2346 Games (Compo Only, Jam Only) | Warmup ]
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you want to place in the final results, you NEED votes. The easiest way to get votes is by rating other games. Judging lasts for 3 weeks following the end of Ludum Dare. For best effect, rate 20 games as soon as possible. Rating more games is encouraged.
MORE TIPS AND DETAILS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE
Pale Brown Dot is a short little platformer with a few puzzly elements.
All of the code, music, levels, and art were made in 72 hours for the Jam. The exception is the bunny, which I had made in a previous LD but released publicly. The credits music I made in less than 5 minutes :P
There are only 2 levels, but I'm thinking of doing a post-compo version.
Time-Lapse : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrSV2yjHT58
Controls:
a,w,s,d OR (arrow keys) : move and jump
space : Absorb life material
Hints (spoilers):
Level 1 - hold space near flowers. You can jump while you're in the air if you haven't jumped yet (as in, run off a platform then jump)
Level 2 - pixel perfect jumps! You can squeeze through many tight places. Drain the life from the rose bushes. Get as far to the right as you can and grab the powerup, then dash your way to victory (by pressing and holding space in the air)
Downloads and Links
Ratings
 | Coolness | 50% |
| #95 | Mood(Jam) | 3.56 |
| #132 | Innovation(Jam) | 3.41 |
| #136 | Audio(Jam) | 3.39 |
| #236 | Overall(Jam) | 3.24 |
| #281 | Fun(Jam) | 2.86 |
| #300 | Humor(Jam) | 2.00 |
| #307 | Theme(Jam) | 3.17 |
| #330 | Graphics(Jam) | 2.97 |
Comments
Got stuck. Not sure what to do with the spiked thing in the tree. Cute block animations.
@DaanVanYperen : check out the "hints" section in the description. Unless you're reporting a bug? Thanks for playing :)
Inspiring music, like a nice day being ruined by an evil cube.
Level 2 was too hard for me, but I love the graphics and music. I think having pixel perfect jumps on such difficult to see platforms may have been a bad idea.
I love it. I really enjoyed all the subtle effects; they made the game feel much more polished than a 72 hour game.
My character did seem to move a few pixels up and/or right when I was life-sucking; made me bounce around a lot even though I thought I was safe.
switchbreak: yes I certainly agree. Level 2 was sort of rushed in order that I could try to polish some of the other aspects of the game. There are actually some tricks that make the level easier that I assumed players would realize, but they didn't. It's a failure of level design on my part. In retrospect, it could have been much better. Thanks for playing, though :)
shawn42 : the shifting up is actually intentional. It was meant to try and force the player to only be able to use the life drain at certain points, but, again, this was just a failure in level design. If I wanted the players not to be able to use that ability, then I should've introduced some other mechanic that limited it, not modify the player's hitbox (which, as you noticed, is pretty annoying and not-intuitive). Thanks a lot for playing and for the feedback. I'm glad you enjoyed it :)
The repeating music did not get annoying and the idea and the interaction fit well together.
But why did the bunnies have to die :(
I am the villain?? D-:
I legitimately felt horrible beating both levels, lol! Great atmosphere!
Since you are always giving amazing reviews, I will try to do the same.
The concept is very interesting, absorb life of nearby plants. Why not animals too? :P
The music was really cool, and so the animations. I understand the lo-fi graphics are because of the theme.
I found out that the absorbing part was really slow, because if you are going to do that every time, it should be super rewarding or very fast. What about absorbing things while moving?
The first level as tutorial was great.
The second one doesn't feel like the second place, because of the increased difficulty. It should have been the third one in my opinion.
The power up concept was interesting, but it's a shame you didn't continue it; I was expecting a new level to use my newly acquired power up.
What about absorbing powers from nature, ala kirby?
Anyway, really neat concept, but it should be worked on further. I would really like to play a full game based on the absorbing thing.
Initially: Aww, what a cute little game.
A little later: <Buster Bluth>I'm a monster!!!</Buster Bluth>
lol, great game. Quick note: on level 2 after it happened... an (unmoving) rabbit was blocking my path through.
Jorjon: thank you very much for the awesome feedback. I agree with basically everything you said EXCEPT the comment about the lo-fi graphics. The graphics choice was made not really because of the theme, but because I simply like the lo-fi aesthetic. I kind of stretched the theme here, and won't be pretentious enough to say what I was going for, but admittedly my tie to the theme was pretty week. Thanks a lot for playing. I probably will continue work on this game and hopefully address some of your feedback in future versions.
joe40001: Thanks for playing! Can you be a little more clear about what you mean about the rabbit blocking your path? Was this after you grabbed the power-up? Did you grab enough souls to activate the portal (and have everything die)? Was the rabbit already dead?
I love: What happens when you stand on bunnies, and riding birds everywhere. I got stuck in the second level because the bunny clogged up the only way to the powerup, and then died when I sapped enough rose bushes. :(
Like the overall look. Some of the platform jumping is a bit strange - rejumping is possible when caught "side by side" with a platforms edge. Platform physics from scratch ?
Tom 7 : sorry about that! Like others have said, the level design needs some work for sure.
mrexcessive : can you be a little more specific about the "rejumping?" If you mean you can walk off a platform but still jump, that's intentional. If that's not what you're describing, can you give me some steps to reproduce it? Where exactly and on what level were you able to double jump?
Thanks for playing guys :)
Interesting mechanics and idea. I like how it looks when absorbing life material.
You must sign in to comment.
TEAMS: Teams entering the Jam should pick a single representative to submit your game, or create a team specific account you can share. We currently do not support Team Voting, but sharing an account and together playing and rating games is acceptable.
NOT LOGGED IN?: If you get a message about not being logged in, even though you are, it’s because your web browser cached the non-logged in page. You can fix this by either refreshing your cache or clearing your cache. CTRL+F5 in many browsers. Chrome is a bit more work. Press F12 to enable Developer Mode, then you can right click on the refresh button and select “Empty Cache and Hard Reload”. This option is unavailable if you are not in Developer Mode.
PORTS: Ports to other platforms can be done after the deadline. That said, the sooner you finish your port, the sooner people can play your game, improving your chances of placing in the final results. For best results, provide a Web version of your game, or a Windows version with no dependencies. Also be sure to rate about 20 games to improve your visibility.
MY GAME DOESN’T SHOW UP: If you can’t find your game, it’s usually because the URL to your downloads are missing ‘http://‘. Fix your URLs (http://mysite.com/mygame.zip) and you will show up.
MY GAME CRASHES, IS UNBEATABLE, OR I MADE A TYPO: We allow you to fix crash or win condition bugs after the deadline (in a sense, like “porting” to support more players). We also allow “typo” bugs. I.e. A true that should have been a false, a word that should have been a different word, very tiny changes that you would have caught if you had more sleep. We leave this open to interpretation, but generally speaking your game should be identical to the game you submitted. No new features, just things you messed up last minute. Typos.
I like eating plant's souls.