Greener Grass by CogentInvalid
(NOTE: You can play this game on Mac and Linux by downloading the source and running it with LOVE2D: www.love2d.org)
You have long looked up at the constantly-cycling portal above your world, wishing that you lived in one of the universes up there, particularly one that has a ground rather than the bottomless pit that you have spent your entire life precariously jumping on clouds and fish to avoid falling into. One day, you decide you've had enough of your life's never-ending platforming challenges, and climb up to the portal, jump through... and find yourself in a world nearly identical to the previous one, aside from the color of the sky.
You didn't go to all this effort just to wind up in a palette-swap reality, though, so you decide to keep climbing up to the portal again and again, trying your luck until you finally reach the one universe with a ground.
Can you make it to your ideal world, one with a study ground and soft grass? Of course you can; I believe in you.
CONTROLS:
Arrow keys - move
Z - jump
Hold Z to glide
M to mute, P to pause
EDIT: A post-compo version is now available! If you like the original version, feel free to check out the updated one. It includes lives, an actual difficulty progression between levels, and copious fireballs.
You have long looked up at the constantly-cycling portal above your world, wishing that you lived in one of the universes up there, particularly one that has a ground rather than the bottomless pit that you have spent your entire life precariously jumping on clouds and fish to avoid falling into. One day, you decide you've had enough of your life's never-ending platforming challenges, and climb up to the portal, jump through... and find yourself in a world nearly identical to the previous one, aside from the color of the sky.
You didn't go to all this effort just to wind up in a palette-swap reality, though, so you decide to keep climbing up to the portal again and again, trying your luck until you finally reach the one universe with a ground.
Can you make it to your ideal world, one with a study ground and soft grass? Of course you can; I believe in you.
CONTROLS:
Arrow keys - move
Z - jump
Hold Z to glide
M to mute, P to pause
EDIT: A post-compo version is now available! If you like the original version, feel free to check out the updated one. It includes lives, an actual difficulty progression between levels, and copious fireballs.
Ratings
| Coolness | 52% | 3 |
| Overall | 3.46 | 308 |
| Audio | 3.04 | 360 |
| Fun | 3.67 | 118 |
| Graphics | 3.29 | 424 |
| Humor | 2.64 | 374 |
| Innovation | 3.11 | 598 |
| Mood | 3.27 | 320 |
| Theme | 2.21 | 1097 |
The first level of this game has that feel to it that you might (in lesser games) only encounter when you're about to face the last boss, you've played for hours and gathered the necessary skills, and the game's throwing everything it's got at you.
But here, WHAM, you get hit with all this stuff right off the bat. Platforms appear and disappear all over the place! Fish make you shoot into the air for some reason! Nothing stays still!
This isn't really a complaint. I did enjoy it. One criticism I do have is that it was hard to tell if I was making any progress — I didn't notice any appreciable difference between one level and the next. And when I died, I was taken back to what looked suspiciously like level 1, though I couldn't be sure. Some more differentiation between levels might help.
Neat game though.
@rob: There isn't really any differentiation to the levels, true. The number of arrows at the top of the screen show you how much further you have to go until the end, but I didn't really make that clear.
The graphics are cute, the music is peaceful, it's so much contrast to how brutal the difficulty is!
I also disagree with other comments - I think the game fits the theme pretty well.
Graphics and sound are nice and the premise is cool and well connected to the theme. Good work!