April 26th-29th 2013 :: Theme: Minimalism
Ludum Dare 26 — April 26-29th, 2013
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My entry for the LD48 is a minimal run and jump game with procedurally generated levels. Your character can slash, jump and use his grappling hook to kill enemies and get ahead in the level.
Watch Here:
http://youtu.be/H4Wk0_9ysIE
It was created almost entirely from scratch in C++ using SDL. The pixel art was made in photoshop, and sound effects in SFXR. I tried as much as possible to program the art instead of just using static sprites.
It seems a large complaint is the controls can seem tricky. I agree with this entirely, and would have taken more time to get right. I would like to provide some more insight into the controls.
The player can only perform a slide when he is running at near full speed. You must hold [down] to keep sliding.
The player can also jump to different heights depending on how long they hold the [x] jump key down.
The jump key [x] also doubles to shoot out the grappling hook when its possible. There is likely a bug in the code for the grappling hook since it is not 100% reliable. You can grapple when you are up to 64 pixels below a ledge.
Also the attack [z] performed when you are on the ground can only be performed when moving less then full speed, so you need to slow down a little to use it. This was intentional to make the movement a little more thought full.
It may be a big letdown to some but there is no win condition in the game. The deadline was too close to implement this and have it tested well enough. My idea was to have some kind of meter that is always counting down. Every enemy that you kill adds to the meter or something. The levels already get slowly harder, making it harder to kill enemies, making death inevitable. The final score reflects how long you survives or something.
Downloads and Links
Ratings
 | Coolness | 99% |
| #9 | Graphics | 4.47 |
| #86 | Mood | 3.69 |
| #139 | Overall | 3.69 |
| #234 | Fun | 3.38 |
| #702 | Theme | 3.39 |
| #703 | Audio | 2.45 |
| #894 | Humor | 1.80 |
| #908 | Innovation | 2.64 |
Comments
How do you use the grappling hook? I accidentally did it once and became obsessed with finding it out. God I love grappling hooks! Needs instructions on that. I love the aesthetics and visual style. You are truly the 8 bit pimp.
Absolutely beautiful. Those leaves..! It's rare to come across a legit original pixel style.
I'd agree with Kortuga98 on the control issue though. Could have been amazing with smooth controls.
Also, it's great seeing a game under a megabyte - I've just started using Unity - so much bloat!
Controls didn't work some times which was wierd. But the art is amazing!
Really smooth. I like the sun and just all of the visuals. I kind of wish it was just a runner where I tore dudes up and grappled on stuff. Nice job
WOW. Amazing graphics. Very beautiful. You run so fast which makes game play almost like an auto-runner.
AMAZING GAME!!
the graphics are spectacular! and the gameplay is pretty sweet too!
I'd love it if you could check out my game :)
thanks man, that was awesome
-ENDESGA
Hi 8BitPimp, here is some feedback.
What I loved :
- art, immersion
- dynamic gameplay
What I think could be improved :
- music ?
- multi input at the same time
- scoring (for a runner it's pretty essential ! you don't even know if you did better from a run to another)
- more explanations on the rules (is there a end ? is the goal to smash ennemies or to run far ? When can the hook be used ?)
I felt a bit frustrated not knowing if there was a end but could not reach it or if it was a scoring game... without score.
Good game overall, thanks for it !
The graphics and mood in this game are spectacular. The game is a bit too fast for my liking, and the controls are.. weird. I really think you nailed it on the mood though. Good job.
Wow, this is an amazing looking game. It plays well too, but sadly it isn't too responsive which makes it really frustrating :(.
So beautiful ! Playing this fullscreen on a big screen made me feel like I was back in 1990 !
Really cool stuff and great style. Controls are quite wonky though and i would have preferred that the ninja run on its own.
Great looking game. Loved the colors, falling leaves, flying pigeons and the randomness.
Best compliment I can give is that I want to see this really finished in a complete game :)
For people wanting music: read the readme.txt
This is pretty good, except forone thing; it is horrendously hard to control!
This is a gorgeous game, though I agree about the odd control issues. Also, the slash and slide seem superfluous, since if you just run at full-tilt the enemies will never hit you.
Loved the colour scheme, the combination worked really well. The Sakura were a favourite!
Looks lovely! And was fun. Only thing is sometimes the slash wouldn't work. Other than that though very cool
I really like the ambient!
And the smooth motion,
It's like The Legend of Kage on sunset :p
Sorry my brother messed the last one up >:( Loved the graphics. The game quite fun. I enjoyed it.
Great game! I love the art style! :D The slide worked weird for me though.
Your game looks super slick, but unfortunately I wasn't able to rate it (I'm on a Mac). I was a little disappointed that the Web link took me to a Youtube video...because I really want to play this! Maybe consider changing the name of the web link to "Youtube" or "Video?"
Stunning visuals! Nice twist on infinite runners, but controlling speed, jumping AND fighting dudes at the same time overwhelmed me pretty quickly and I ended up just speeding past everything.
I found tapping X feverishly before falling full speed the most reliable way to activate grappling hook.
A beautiful looking game. The gameplay is nothing new, but it's still fun to play. A little bit music would have been nice.
Incredibly beautiful game. The atmosphere and mechanics are clean and simple. Well done!
Canabal style rules :D. Even using a known gameplay style, the touches to the control, and the awesome graphics make it a really good running game :D
Very nice, I liked the pixel art, even tough the sword slash looks very tiny! I didn't really felt I needed to use the slash and slide, but it's very fun!
Great aesthetics! I love the speed and the flow of the game :))
Wow. Please improve this post compo? The graphics were simple and gorgeous. The gameplay was tough at the start, but really improves on the endless runner formula. This game reminded me of Nidhogg for some reason... A huge 5/5
The art style of this game is great, controls are not the greatest but overall i really enjoyed it.
I love the mood and the visuals - the effect on the sun is especially impressive.
The gameplay is great and polished, though I've found it somewhat difficult to control and respond on time.
Beautiful game indeed, I would've liked an option for windowed, since SDL always moves my windows around when going fullscreen.
Really smooth game, but lacks a soundtrack.
this is cool in so many ways! love in particular the graphics style/palette.
great entry
Seriously cool game, run slide slice, simple and yet soooooooooooo addictive
simple and beautiful! =D really something to buy on app Store and google Play ;)
Very nice artwork. Could have used some sort of score system (although that would be less minimal, yes).
I found myself usually just jumping over enemies instead of slashing.
Great Graphics!
Pretty cool game. How exactly does the grappling hook work?
Also it seemed a lot easier to simply jump over the enemies rather than slashing them ( it seemed like you could go faster and it was easier to time ).
Anyhow, Nice Job!
Absolutely stunning, such style. The controls were a bit unwiedly, but it was satisfying to get a good run going and take down a number of enemies. I would love to something larger in this style honestly.
Really stellar style and tone!
I thought it was interesting that I needed to stop running to use my sword, although the enemies were slow enough that I didn't usually have to kill them. Running past is just as effective! Or, well, it is until I fall off of a ledge.
Very nice overall! But it seemed a little useless to slash the enemies when could easily jump over them.
That's a really nice game! I would love to see this finished! Reminds me of those good old Ninja games on the C64 area and I really dig the mood and atmosphere.
Actually I liked the visuals so much, that I really wanted to play the game; but I don't run Windows so I made it compile on Linux. So if there's anybody on Linux too, here's a patch file (better use "save as" because of the CR's):
http://markusfisch.de/downloads/NinjaFlare.patch
Use it with the original sources like this:
unzip NinjaFlare.zip
cd NinjaFlare
patch -p1 -i NinjaFlare.patch
make
./ninjaflare
So far this is my favorite game of the competition. Really well done 8BitPimp and a thanks a lot you provided the sources so I could play it!
When I try to run the game I receive this error: "It's not a valid Win32 application". Judging by the video, looks like a nice game. I would love to play it.
Really beautiful graphics!
Maybe a later version with a scoring system and your meter bar (and some samurai/wuxia music)?
@Markusfisch
Thats awesome that you made a port of the game. Thanks for doing that.
@GranaDa
Hmm, I might guess that you are running winxp? I did read about support for that being dropped in the latest MSVC++ 2012.I will have a go at building one for winxp.
Also yes I plan to extend this game at some point and really improve the controls vastly after everyone's great feedback.
Great concept, great execution!
It's a bit of a let down to now have some kind of measure of how well you did.
A few remarks on the design:
Artwise it's very slick, love all the variation you put in there, and especially the hazing for the background! Although i'd love to see a change in environment if you advance further.
Gameplay-wise i love how the slashing works, it's fun to use it, but it's also rendered useless by the sliding mechanic which is easier and more reliable to use, and splashes through several enemies.
Otherwise the enemy never got to slash me, which removes much of the challenge. I'd love to seem them evade, jump or follow you for a bit.
Good work overall, lot's of fun to play \o Looking out for a post-compo version :D
You need to keep working on it and release it publicly (meaning non-ld for profit or non) looks fairly polished but the combat could use some work. Should also put in some music. Graphics were pretty sweet.
I've found out that the game is even more minimalistic if you only use z and x to move. It's quite difficult, too.
@8BitPimp: Stills a "not valid Win32 application". I'm running WinXP 32-bit.
Great game! Tough to get very far it because of the speed of the controls.
Like the simple style of the silhouettes and the white sword/grappling hook. The shimmering sun in the background was a nice touch also.
WEB links to youtube :< !! I had to download win
Nice game! i liked the sun's effect
Nice atari-esque runner, though a score would be a good addition.
Yeah definitely could benefit from a score :P Really amazing style, seriously. I like the grappling hook but wish it was more forgiving maybe he should sling it even though it's going to miss, then you can see how much give it has. Perhaps there should be more of a point to killing enemies than just not to get hit, because I just end up running through them and playing it like Canabalt! Really nice game.
Great mood and graphics. Wish you could have run and slashed at the same time, that would have given me a lot more incentive to do more than just jump over the enemies. Great work!
It seems all right to me that there is no win condition. but perhaps you could add a score based on kills and distance... something like an infinite runner.
Fantastically atmospheric graphics!
very good game, but the controls felt akward -- not sure why -- and it was a bit too hard at the beginning -- great effort. love the effect on the sun
Really nice work - love the animation! Would be cool to see some different scenery if you continue this further. Judging by your blog post, you are taking this further, and that's a really good thing :)
This game is beautiful. I loved it, and I also enjoyed reading your post-mortem.
Beautiful graphics. Unfortunately the controls don't seem very responsive.
Plus it left my desktop at a stupid resolution when I quit the game.
The visuals are absolutely fantastic. The controls took a little getting used to, and without scoring/leaderboards there was little incentive to slash through the enemy characters. It was also possible to abuse the grappling hook and swing across pretty crazy distances. That said, this was really well done, and with some improvements I could see it being one of the better entries in the Canabalt-like runner genre.
Love the look. I had trouble getting the hang of jumping until I realized that I didn't need to run at full tilt all of the time.
Still, some of the jumps I missed felt a bit arbitrary and I can't help but wonder if the game would be stronger if there was always something to land on, so that missing a jump was just a delay rather than instadeath. Make it easier to keep the flow going and stay in the groove. (And it did seem like you could only press one of the buttons at a time.)
Also, there wasn't really a way to tell how well I was doing, since there isn't a score or much indication of distance or how many warriors you've passed, so I played for a while and then stopped after what felt like a fairly long run.
This game is gorgeous. The sun effect is stunning! Really enjoyed playing it, thanks for the great work!
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Very, very cool game. Visually pleasing graphics and gameplay, however I'd like to see better control responsiveness (you can only attack/jump/slide when there are no other buttons pressed), but other than that i have no complaints.