The World Within by Oxeren

[raw]
made by Oxeren for LD30 (JAM)
In child's imagination real world and world of dreams connect.


If you can't get past lava but want to see what's next, play Web 2 post-jam version. Original version stays intact.

For some reason after loading you may need first to click anywhere on game screen to activate the window.

Controls:
WASD or ARROWS
SPACE

Comments are encouraged. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter (twitter.com/Oxeren)

Also, you can read the postmortem: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2014/09/02/the-world-within-postmortem/#more-390945

Ratings

Coolness 84% 2
Overall(Jam) 3.41 248
Audio(Jam) 3.45 196
Fun(Jam) 2.80 520
Graphics(Jam) 4.19 92
Humor(Jam) 2.54 319
Innovation(Jam) 2.96 427
Mood(Jam) 3.59 144
Theme(Jam) 3.79 87

Feedback

Konrad Zegis
25. Aug 2014 · 21:44 UTC
I do love moral of this game, and graphics.
Also it's great that boy can "vaporize" differently based on what killed character.

Too bad in second 'level' it's nearly impossible to avoid shoots from more than 1 enemy at once. I think that playing with scale should help.
psychomonster
25. Aug 2014 · 22:15 UTC
Nice game artwork. Cool way to tell a story, but the gameplay ist very difficult for me... maybe I'm a noob... may try this later again, when I'm not as tired as I'm now!
AortaStudios
26. Aug 2014 · 05:11 UTC
Great artwork and cool use of the theme. Also... I totally want to watch/play Car Wars! Make it your next project ;) good job!
Kinta
26. Aug 2014 · 06:27 UTC
Awesome game! Really like the graphics and the overall mood. :)
Lissar
26. Aug 2014 · 06:34 UTC
I love this concept, it's adorable! Game seemed a tad difficult to me, though.
Suvidriel
26. Aug 2014 · 07:00 UTC
Great art! Maybe a bit too difficult for me though x)
Pfeyffer
26. Aug 2014 · 07:13 UTC
Great game! Don't we still avoid the white tiles in a checkered floor sometimes? :-)
Tanner
26. Aug 2014 · 10:10 UTC
Incredible graphics :) I like it!
rnlf
26. Aug 2014 · 14:37 UTC
It looks really beautiful, but I it's so hard. I only managed to get past the lava level by using your cheaty version. And I could only solve the robot level by keeping out of sight of the robots and firing blindly. The dragon kept killing me over and over again, he should only fire after a second after respawn or something like that.

But it looks so beautiful!
vulpineblazeyt
26. Aug 2014 · 17:14 UTC
I really liked the concept, although the lava level was extremely difficult for me. Thanks for the vote too!
Cosrnos
27. Aug 2014 · 06:24 UTC
It looks really great, and the music/mood are excellent. It was suuuuper hard, and I gave up before I could get very far :(
Phaix
27. Aug 2014 · 06:27 UTC
Nice concept. The lava level was way to hard and more luck to pass.
jjhaggar
27. Aug 2014 · 06:27 UTC
Beautiful game. Maybe the difficulty should be polished a bit more, but overall I liked it a lot. By the way, thank you for making the "cheat version", the game was too hard for me ^^
SilverToad
27. Aug 2014 · 06:27 UTC
Great art and mood, but I think is's need a little bit different gameplay +)
spotco
27. Aug 2014 · 06:28 UTC
Great game, amazing art and excellent music!
The individual gameplay sections could have used a bit of polish, but was worked really great overall!
ninjascript
27. Aug 2014 · 06:28 UTC
Beautiful artwork, but I agree with most of the other commenters that the difficulty is too much. It might just be that your hitboxes are too big?
SilverToad
27. Aug 2014 · 06:33 UTC
I take it back, cheat version - awesome +))
GAFBlizzard
27. Aug 2014 · 06:35 UTC
Kudos for including both WASD and arrow key controls!

Nice job with the music changes in different sections!

Great art!

Unfortunately the gameplay decisions were SUPER frustrating -- it makes little to no sense with the lava for fireballs to look like they are falling from the sky, but have even the trails do damage, and the fireballs never land. If they impacted certain squares so you could dodge, that would help. If they even moved slower that would help. If there were a pattern instead of being random, that would help.

Similarly with the robots, sometimes there would be laser shots that you apparently could not avoid whatsoever, because the level stops you moving up and down.

The result is a game with neat music and great art, but the gameplay makes it a frustration instead of a joy. I do not mean to be rude or unkind, but I am just trying to offer constructive feedback because the good parts are quite good.

I do see that you uploaded a cheat version that addresses the difficulty. :)
Nuclear Napalm
27. Aug 2014 · 06:37 UTC
Brilliant! One of the best implementation of theme. This is much more original and interesting than dozens of "connect-planet-to-trade" or "control-twins" games around here (sorry, guys). 5/5. I'm really happy that I played this game. Thank you!
ruerob
27. Aug 2014 · 08:29 UTC
What a phantastic game. Congratulations for this awesome peace of art. Thank you for your game.
pythong
27. Aug 2014 · 09:12 UTC
the floor is on fire! great artwork
dickpoelen
27. Aug 2014 · 09:44 UTC
Cool game. Had to use the cheat version tough. That Lava's hard!
sikosis
27. Aug 2014 · 10:19 UTC
Digging the art style and such a good concept, even if I did suck at it :(
hundredhundred
27. Aug 2014 · 10:26 UTC
I find the graphics to be the greatest strength of this game. The backgrounds are beautiful and varied. Also nice touch on the falling leaves. The bgm did a good job in creating some mood. I especially like how the music changed when entering the imaginary world.

The gameplay needs balancing. I'm sure you already know about the lava level from the cheat version you posted up. With the lava falling randomly it really puts way too much onto luck. This is especially so when the player is forced to the upper end of the screen, making it impossible to dodge any falling lava. Perhaps fixing the falling pattern of the lava would shift the emphasis back to the skill of the player a bit more. It's almost impossible to dodge in the shooting robots level because of how large the player is . But once you survive the first wave, just shooting blindly forward did the trick. The dragon level is alright. I didn't have to move at all though, I just stood there and kept blocking until the dragon died.

Overall, great job on the aesthetics of the game but the design might need a bit more work.
Shide
27. Aug 2014 · 14:34 UTC
Yeah, you're right, it's very hard sometimes, but overall it's pretty cool, graphics is soft and cool, however animation is lacking quality
leafarz
27. Aug 2014 · 16:11 UTC
man the game is really hard good thing you uploaded the other version haha. gameplay wasn't appealing to me (since i'm assuming the story is the main part). great visuals btw! very unique and beautiful! this kind of art is first in the games i searched here in LD.
great job!
Victory Garden
27. Aug 2014 · 22:45 UTC
Agreed with GAFblizzard and hundredhundred on all counts... it's pretty, but I didn't feel adequately motivated by the long "walking through story" section to continue past the first level.

In particular, the fact that fireballs can hit you before you have a chance to even spawn is really frustrating and anti-fun.
Franklins Ghost
28. Aug 2014 · 14:25 UTC
The art is great in this, especially loved the tree designs.
Pierrec
28. Aug 2014 · 18:26 UTC
The connection between the real boring world the imaginary world of a kid is an awesome idea but the game gets way too hard way too fast. I played the post compo version to get through the lava, but was stuck with the robots just after that. All this difficuly comes from perspective/depth issues.
Teejay5
28. Aug 2014 · 22:38 UTC
I loved how the music changes to fit the levels, nice mood + graphics!
Hypnohustla
29. Aug 2014 · 06:15 UTC
Love the graphics, beautiful. The movement did feel a bit too slow, especially when trying to avoid a lot of hazards at the same time. Still a very good game :)
Dietrich Epp
29. Aug 2014 · 07:02 UTC
Great concept, beautiful game, problems with difficulty level.
micahcowan
29. Aug 2014 · 07:48 UTC
I appreciate that you made it that the robots couldn't shoot bullets you couldn't dodge, considering how much vertical real estate the player character takes up. :)

The graphics are fantastic! And the segue from "real" music to "imaginary" music, with the same melody but different timbres, is really awesome.
micahcowan
29. Aug 2014 · 07:52 UTC
I didn't have any problems with the submitted version, by the way, I thought the difficulty level was perfect. Only died once in lava, made it through the rest of the game without dying again. The dragon's great!
yodamaster
29. Aug 2014 · 16:36 UTC
I'd make the collission detection a bit more friendly.
royvanrijn
29. Aug 2014 · 17:28 UTC
Awesome audio!
LTyrosine
29. Aug 2014 · 22:26 UTC
I liked the art and music! This is where this one really shines. But about gameplay, I guess it could be much better. There's not much fun, although graphics alone motivated me to go forward (and see the next amazing level background/music).
wdebowicz
30. Aug 2014 · 14:02 UTC
I had similar Idea but didn't know how to make gameplay on it. You handled it. I also had similar dreams like this boy when I was younger ;-) I was very curious what the next dream will be. I don't like that player was so big, that bullets flying in the middle always hit me. Game with climate.
Two Scoop Games
31. Aug 2014 · 05:58 UTC
Great graphics! I like the concept of the real and imaginary worlds, that's a fantastic take on the theme.
markusfisch
01. Sep 2014 · 20:48 UTC
Perfect match for that theme! I like all that detailed graphics, beautifully made! Good work!
commodoreKid
01. Sep 2014 · 23:01 UTC
I've managed to finish the game and wished it was more rage-free :) I think you spent a lot of time for graphics, that's visible. However graphics should be only a part of the job, not the whole thing. Hope next time you will spend more time on game play and level design to make it more fun to play. (It was still fun for me though, I like raging :P)
SoulGame
02. Sep 2014 · 18:09 UTC
WONDERFUL arts, really loved it. Such a shame you didn't used some kind of bitmap for the background, it would have prevent lag during camera move.
tbam
02. Sep 2014 · 18:10 UTC
Graphics were lovely, the game itself was good, though a bit difficult in parts.
HotBoxGames
02. Sep 2014 · 18:18 UTC
Great concept - really liking the take on 'connected worlds'.

Really nice graphics, simple controls.

Took me 15 minutes to get past the meteoroids!
IamAcoconut
03. Sep 2014 · 01:39 UTC
I like your game. The graphics were awesome, it was a different take on the theme, and I liked the little message at the end about imagination :)! I really wished the meteors would hit the same spot each time. It would have made it a lot easier.
MunkeeBacon
03. Sep 2014 · 03:50 UTC
Great theme interpretation and that background art is tight!
Artamus
03. Sep 2014 · 09:23 UTC
Nice game, congrats!
Sargonius
03. Sep 2014 · 12:17 UTC
Insanely hard, but cheat-version is amazing. Good job!
Traumendes_Madchen
03. Sep 2014 · 15:57 UTC
It was really a sweet experience, I especially like how the music changes when you enters the other world. The dragon part was a bit tedious though. Were you alone to make the game =O ? If so, it's really impressive.
mildmojo
03. Sep 2014 · 17:27 UTC
Nice work! Incredibly pretty graphics. I liked the tie-ins between the real world and the imaginary world, too. It felt very complete.

I would've liked to see the text in a nonstandard font, which is a really minor nitpick and common to most LD games.
OrangeeZ
03. Sep 2014 · 19:09 UTC
Hm, while lava level was badly balanced and caused loads of frustration, I liked the general idea. The art is gorgeous and the athmosphere is awesome. Well done!
Erkberg
03. Sep 2014 · 22:30 UTC
Awesome art and great idea. The difficulty seemed a little unfair sometimes.
jahmaican
06. Sep 2014 · 09:51 UTC
Nice drawings, but I only got to the lava bit and it's too difficult and not in a good way difficult, it just feels unfair.
hadesfury
10. Sep 2014 · 13:30 UTC
Great art !
Mike Mezhenin
10. Sep 2014 · 17:45 UTC
Nice graphics, but it was too hard for me.
Tonasz
14. Sep 2014 · 15:24 UTC
I loved concept of kid going to school and falling into his imaginary dreams. Art is beautiful! But gameplay... First level is impossible to complete because of randomness, but you know this (thanks for "cheat" version!). Second also has bad mechanics. Character has depth, but shots doesn't. Hitboxes should be different, because now you often see that shot should miss character but it doesn't because it hits sprite anyway. Because of this, there are some random situation when can't avoid shot anyway. And in third level I noticed you probably wanted limit block duration to discourage player to just hold block (good idea), but it didn't work properly. I also wish there was more told during walking the "real" world.
egor-idiot
15. Sep 2014 · 17:36 UTC
Norm. Nice grphics.