Boulevard of Broken Themes by Thingo Studios

[raw]
made by Thingo Studios for LD30 (JAM)
You are DUM LAUDER, an average guy dissatisfied with this year's Ludum Dare theme. You go to the Ludum Dare headquarters to complain, but instead get trapped in a series of parallel dimensions modeled after failed LD themes and interconnected by magenta doors.

Arrow keys to move, up to open doors, and space to do everything else. Press escape to exit. Gameplay switches between diverse genres such as puzzle platformers, maze games, shmups, and dating sims.

If you're stuck on "Under Pressure," check the comments.

Known bugs:
Lost in Space and Another World crash the game if the player misses the door.
You Must Leave It Behind does not display the level name.
NOT A BUG: Yes, you can eat the other players' potato salad. This is intentional, albeit highly impolite.

Fixes in next update:
All those bugs mentioned.
Change in movement in the maze levels so that you don't need to mash.
Additional music not procured from my ass.

Ratings

Coolness 57% 3
Overall(Jam) 3.35 294
Audio(Jam) 2.57 535
Fun(Jam) 3.57 108
Graphics(Jam) 2.34 708
Humor(Jam) 3.91 28
Innovation(Jam) 3.60 113
Mood(Jam) 2.86 512
Theme(Jam) 3.57 186

Feedback

okmmjyygv
26. Aug 2014 · 11:37 UTC
Dude, i really liked your idea. Good job.
burgerdare
26. Aug 2014 · 13:58 UTC
very clever and unique idea. Some of the puzzles (forgotten and under pressure, mostly) feel a bit obtuse. They might benefit from a hint given to the player after a couple of deaths.
Also, the game becomes unplayable if you pass the door in the Lost in Space world.
grillaface
26. Aug 2014 · 19:25 UTC
can't play on mac :(
Tanser
26. Aug 2014 · 19:26 UTC
Nice idea and funny graphics! Good job!
ponk
26. Aug 2014 · 19:36 UTC
Impressive !!
Great job!
arhpositive
26. Aug 2014 · 21:02 UTC
I couldn't get past Under Pressure, so I'll refrain from rating it and come back here later to find what I'm supposed to do. I tried to replicate two distinct tones in the music but that didn't work. :)
🎤 Thingo Studios
26. Aug 2014 · 21:10 UTC
@arhpositive
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtrEN-YKLBM
JavadocMD
26. Aug 2014 · 21:19 UTC
Funny concept, but I agree with burgerdare: there needed to be some hints after a while.
Boberro
26. Aug 2014 · 22:18 UTC
Error: Had to kill the process to exit the game.
carlsommer
27. Aug 2014 · 14:49 UTC
This is brilliant! Hilarious, super entertaining as a whole. (wasn't a fan of the invisible character level though : ) I couldn't get past Under Pressure. I loved the idea and immediately knew what it was, but was having trouble actually executing. Honestly, fantastic work!
arhpositive
27. Aug 2014 · 18:26 UTC
@Thingo Studios

Got it! Thanks :)
christopf
27. Aug 2014 · 19:52 UTC
quite good way to handle that situation :)
ix
27. Aug 2014 · 19:55 UTC
Item Get! :p
There is a ton of gameplay packed into this, congrats.
dook
27. Aug 2014 · 19:57 UTC
Very funny, I didn't get all the way through, but I'm gonna go ahead and rate it anyway :P There were a few bugs here and there, mainly some collision stuff. The under pressure level was evil, but it made me laugh! Great interpretaion of the theme, especially after all the complaints there's been :)
borgi
27. Aug 2014 · 20:26 UTC
Error: Had to kill the process to exit the game. <- this was an issue for me too!
Otherwise nice game, I enjoyed the simple graphics too :D
Victory Garden
28. Aug 2014 · 04:52 UTC
I couldn't do Under Pressure either, which made me sad because I wanted to do more of the game... maybe if you made it so you could access the first door of each sequence at any time? This is so cool and I really wanted to get to all of the genres you put in. I played the two notes in time with the blank spot in the music, but... nothing... :/
🎤 Thingo Studios
28. Aug 2014 · 16:14 UTC
@Victory Garden, carlsommer, anyone stuck on level 6

Okay, this definitely is me guessing people are going to immediately recognize a bit of popular culture they're not familiar with. The four strings in the background in Level 6 correspond to the four strings on a bass guitar. To beat the level, you have to play the bass line to the song "Under Pressure" by Queen & David Bowie. (Or the bass line to "Ice Ice Baby," if you're into that newfangled rap music.) Hit the third string six times, then hit the second string once.

@borgi, Boberro: You have to press escape twice to exit the game: once to get to the main menu, then once more to quit. To my knowledge there are two levels where this won't work (You Are Already Dead and Love) but they're easy enough that you can get to the next level and exit.
badlydrawnrod
28. Aug 2014 · 19:04 UTC
Very inventive. Everyone in my family felt the same way about the theme, but you have come up with an excellent way to get around it and use it at the same time. Nicely done!
caranha
30. Aug 2014 · 17:06 UTC
Pretty awesome idea! Unfortunately I suck and can't get past the invisible character level :-( Maybe you should let more doors open from the beginning?

Played this on Wine, sound was not working.
Adam Thompson
30. Aug 2014 · 23:37 UTC
Hilarious! I like how the actual levels and their design contributed to the humour rather than through traditional means. Would like to see more polish in a post compo version. You could absolutely release this with a little more work :D
andrewkennedy
30. Aug 2014 · 23:43 UTC
Hilarious :P. Saw this on EmotionTheory's twitch and had to check it out for myself!
Sunflower
04. Sep 2014 · 14:55 UTC
I, for a change, thought of what Under Pressure would be like; I just forgot the tune itself. ^^"
Still, while I don't think it's particularly good use of Connected Worlds theme, it's a pretty nice meta game. Forgotten was particularly interesting.

Too bad it doesn't have saving (making me remember some password thing to type somewhere, grumble grumble) and in quite a few points it had insane keyboard mashing which I'm not fond of. Also, it could use something else than standard GM messages... ^^"

Still, that's a pretty solid entry. Good job covering the themes, in pretty creative ways, at that. ;)
Sunflower
04. Sep 2014 · 14:59 UTC
(but seriously, how do you *input* password; I haven't seen info about that anywhere)
thecolorhacker
05. Sep 2014 · 22:03 UTC
Great develoment of the theme and lot of fun to play. Got stucked in the spikes level though.
Literal Games
05. Sep 2014 · 22:44 UTC
Really funny and very different. I felt super chuffed with myself when I worked out the under pressure puzzle.
I did only realise you could press Space to shoot in the space levels after dying repeatedly. Oh well.
Lokarunith
06. Sep 2014 · 18:03 UTC
Amazing concept. I got stuck on level 16, Forgotten. Really well tought levels, I wish there were some hints...
jprogman
13. Sep 2014 · 04:02 UTC
I couldn't pass level 16 where I was told to input a password with the clue "line 1 of 4." My brain went numb after a couple of minutes at that level that I have to quit.
Very fun mix of genres! Also like the music!
apiotrw
13. Sep 2014 · 14:10 UTC
Very funny to play
klianc09
13. Sep 2014 · 19:09 UTC
Great idea and game. Although I'm stuck at 'Forgotten'. Being able to skip one level would have been really handy.
The bgm is short but cool, I just wish it would loop without a gap.