Caught Between by rooter4

[raw]
made by rooter4 for LD30 (COMPO)
A/D or Arrow Keys = Left/Right
W or Up Arrow = Jump
Space = Shoot

Hint: Jump on the small enemies, shoot the bigger ones.

A laser-eyed cyclops has found himself stranded between two converging planets. He needs to traverse this dangerous situation, gather fuel for his ship, and leave these planets behind before its too late.

This is my first Ludum Dare, and I have to say I actually enjoyed it.

The game is very unforgiving. Due to time restrictions, I was unable to make multiple levels, the compromise was making one big, difficult world.

Tools Used:

Programming: HaxeFlixel w/ Flash Develop
Art: Adobe Photoshop & Pickle Tile Editor
Sounds: Ableton Live 9 , Sfxr, & Audacity
Map: Ogmo Editor
Energy: Powdered Donuts & Gatorade



note - The menu text may be a bit janky in the web version, HaxeFlixel is new to me and there is not alot of helpful documentation.

Bonus for those who wanted to play with checkpoints-
(please don't base your ratings on this version):
http://rooter4.itch.io/caught-between---ld30-v11

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall 3.29 471
Audio 2.91 423
Fun 3.22 405
Graphics 3.23 452
Humor 2.38 519
Innovation 2.82 810
Mood 2.97 568
Theme 3.15 637

Feedback

oobie
25. Aug 2014 路 09:18 UTC
I liked it! I had a bug though where when I was moving it kept moving even when I was not holding down the button. This resulted in me falling of the edge. Good though!
馃帳 rooter4
25. Aug 2014 路 09:35 UTC
Thanks for the heads up! I've been trying to recreate the problem on my end, but with no luck. I'll try uploading the most recent build, because this does make the game kinda unbeatable.
komjaur
25. Aug 2014 路 10:22 UTC
i liked it
43iscoding
25. Aug 2014 路 13:40 UTC
Spikes are so cruel =(
arzi
25. Aug 2014 路 13:44 UTC
Nice platformer. I think the controls work quite well (except it's a bit hard to switch 'side' by jumping, it just keeps reverting back).
Belvar
25. Aug 2014 路 17:45 UTC
Quite challenging but fun game. Beautiful pixel art.
TrickFishPie
25. Aug 2014 路 21:17 UTC
Pretty and really easy controls :) liked it
Andrew Adams
25. Aug 2014 路 21:21 UTC
Checkpoints bro, checkpoints.
ehtd
25. Aug 2014 路 21:21 UTC
Took me by surprise when world rotated. Nice game
Doubstract
25. Aug 2014 路 21:21 UTC
I liked those obvious arrows, it looked pretty silly in start, but after minutes of playing, it really added atmosphere. Good work!
Seraphic Media
25. Aug 2014 路 21:28 UTC
Loved being able to jump between planets, it's like the movie Upside Down
unnamed1334
25. Aug 2014 路 21:41 UTC
A difficult game with good art. I had fun playing but couldn't finish it. I only ever died to the instant death spikes.
micdoodle8
25. Aug 2014 路 23:38 UTC
Neat game, though the spikes are a little unforgiving :P
Lvyn
25. Aug 2014 路 23:42 UTC
Didn't start :( Too bad I like the slug on the picture :(
robbd7
25. Aug 2014 路 23:43 UTC
Reminds me of Kid Chameleon in the best way
Lvyn
25. Aug 2014 路 23:45 UTC
Never mind :D The web version works fine ^^ Nice game ! I like it !
Conk
25. Aug 2014 路 23:45 UTC
Really cool, a bit too hard for me to complete though :P good job!
Tom 7
25. Aug 2014 路 23:51 UTC
Aw man, I have to restart from the beginning every time I die?? The spinning screen made me pretty dizzy, but it was also pretty cool, to flip like that. There was one part where I was trapped in a narrow corridor with enemies that I had to jump on, but if I jumped I'd flip to the other side... I didn't know what to do in that situation (the enemies were lined up with one another so I couldn't just get under one on the ceiling and jump). With a checkpoint system I would have played all the way to the end!
馃帳 rooter4
26. Aug 2014 路 00:04 UTC
I thought about adding checkpoints. I think what made me decide against it at the time was the limited amount of time to make levels. Now that i think about it, the average player wouldn't have time to put 5-10 tries into it and checkpoints would have been a good idea.

Although that gaming high you get when you finally make the perfect run was pretty great.
AdamHarte
26. Aug 2014 路 05:57 UTC
Very well done. Seems to be a lot of content, and I think having one big world is actually something a little different.
vandriver
26. Aug 2014 路 16:58 UTC
i think with checkpoints this would have been amazing. i tend to 'check out' how things damage me when i first go through games and restarting every time kind of killed it. was having fun otherwise, though!
CoolIron
27. Aug 2014 路 04:53 UTC
Nice one. But it's frustrating to start over again and again. It would be nice to have checkpoints here :)
PapyGaragos
27. Aug 2014 路 19:01 UTC
I died near the end. No checkpoints :(
LaFleur
28. Aug 2014 路 13:17 UTC
Great job with this! Really liked the mood and art you presented here!
mihaivdev
28. Aug 2014 路 19:11 UTC
Nice entry! Tight controls, touched the theme well, and I loved the blood particle effect. Bonus points for using HaxeFlixel :)
MechanicMoon
28. Aug 2014 路 22:38 UTC
Really nice graphics! And good music!
mechabit
30. Aug 2014 路 11:16 UTC
Cool game, I liked the swap between worlds but it keeps spinning if you're near both worlds and you hold jump which made me dizzy lol. Also damn those spikes!
EndingChaos
30. Aug 2014 路 14:20 UTC
Good entry man i enjoyed it! Fun platformer
pikkpoiss
30. Aug 2014 路 17:47 UTC
Very cool entry! The art style, music, and sound effects were awesome, and exploiting the gravity shift to fall down on top of enemies and explode them into a shower of pixel giblits will never get old.
pjimmy
30. Aug 2014 路 19:56 UTC
nice, great game
jukimv1986
31. Aug 2014 路 05:25 UTC
Nice intro! Good graphics and decent audio. But the best for me was the gameplay, I didn't expect so many types of enemies and traps, and then to flip between one way and the other. Great take on the theme and good job!
jpmit
31. Aug 2014 路 13:30 UTC
nice job
lkr
31. Aug 2014 路 18:50 UTC
That was really fun :) Love the pixel art, and the platforming controls feel good.
Died right before the last gas can on my best attempt in the compo version - jumping into an off-screen laser :(

The only problem I had was that my character would sometimes keep moving after I let go of the key, which always resulted in a death. Happened in both the compo and checkpoint versions.

Other than that - great game!
Kortuga
31. Aug 2014 路 23:09 UTC
Good idea, although the implementation was sort of lacking. I feel like the gravity-switching should've been utilized more for the gameplay. There were some sections were you had to switch planets to stomp enemies or to grab fuel which I thought were pretty good, I think it would've been better if there were more of that and less platforming / shooting. Also respawn time for checkpoints was kinda long, an instant respawn after the death animation without a button would probably work better.
tchem
01. Sep 2014 路 00:34 UTC
maybe checkpoint will be cool,,,, i like the graphics and idea theme. congrats
malf
01. Sep 2014 路 18:21 UTC
good ole platformer The jump/switch mechanics confused me a bit
Perjoka
02. Sep 2014 路 06:30 UTC
great game!
ninjascript
02. Sep 2014 路 23:14 UTC
Nice graphics and solid gameplay.
Nuclear Napalm
03. Sep 2014 路 03:19 UTC
Nice platformer! Music really helps to immerse into atmosphere of the game.
banana4life
03. Sep 2014 路 13:46 UTC
Switching is sometimes a little bit confusing. But i like the style! :)
Manou
04. Sep 2014 路 10:06 UTC
Interesting graphics and gameplay.
FrankieSmileShow
06. Sep 2014 路 08:13 UTC
Very strong entry. those red laser guns killing you in one hit tho, cmoooon... Not in a checkpoint-less game with health!

Actually, just making all the stuff that kills you in one hit reduce life instead would have made the lack of checkpoints a lot more fair, its that mix of one-hit-KOs and the long level that's problematic really. Makes a huge difference.
I'd say, either make everything kill you in one hit but add checkpoints, or make most (if not all) things damage your health and leave checkpoints out (or have very few of them)
vividhelix
07. Sep 2014 路 03:46 UTC
Nice, took me a bit to get use to the flip but it was pretty well timed and refined. Good game!
John Drury
08. Sep 2014 路 20:05 UTC
Neat platformer, Animations were great.
Snicklodocus
09. Sep 2014 路 20:30 UTC
Cool game! Loved the use of gravity switching, although it was a little buggy and too sudden. I wish there were some more sound effects. But overall I enjoyed this game. Great job!
Lokarunith
14. Sep 2014 路 21:19 UTC
Very entertaining game. Reminded me of VVVVVV.
One thing I think that could have been done better, were the gravity jumps, after switching side the camera rotates in a way that leaves the player very confused. When its needed to switch side many times I even get a bit nauseous. Maybe like in VVVVVV, you should just turn the character upside down, and not the whole environment.