LudumData

Starcrossed by Decept404

[raw]
made by Decept404 for LD30 (COMPO)
Endless runner/platformer tasking you with passing communication back and forth between two entities trapped on separate, hostile worlds.

Arrow keys left/right control both characters.
Up/down jump each character independently.
Spacebar throws a letter.

Successfully passing the letter bumps the score multiplier.
Enemies appear and must be jumped, or struck with the letter for a 5x multiplier bump. Occasionally, checkpoints appear, which the letter cannot be carried across, but thrown.

Online version uses scoreoid for tracking a global high score. This single line of code is omitted from the Github repo to avoid sharing api keys.

Built with Haxe3 and Flash.
Web http://www.doomsday.no/projects/games/ld30
Source https://github.com/Sunjammer/ld30/tree/Submission
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-30/?action=preview&uid=8635

Ratings

Coolness 32% 1767
Overall 3.54 248
Audio 2.40 714
Fun 3.48 223
Graphics 3.37 385
Innovation 3.67 189
Mood 3.32 284
Theme 3.67 255

Feedback

GAFBlizzard
25. Aug 2014 路 02:47 UTC
This is well-made but very difficult to do two things at once while also catching the letter! If you ever update it, adding WASD as a second option in addition to arrow keys would be super helpful. :)
Boodog
25. Aug 2014 路 06:20 UTC
Nice job! I love the way this works, and the concept :)
馃帳 Decept404
25. Aug 2014 路 10:47 UTC
Thanks guys! I've got several things I'd like to update here but I don't know if adding stuff like WASD breaks the rules.
Also some players have reported poor performance in Chrome :/ Alternative browsers may help, or running the SWF directly (I added a download link to the html).
midgard
25. Aug 2014 路 11:28 UTC
Greatly well-made, there needs to be a curve for difficulty thought, but it was really well done. I liked the overall concept and the theme relation is awesome!
SirJson
25. Aug 2014 路 11:31 UTC
It's a bit too hard at the beginning
veryfinestlions
25. Aug 2014 路 11:41 UTC
This is clever! I really like the letter-passing idea.
馃帳 Decept404
25. Aug 2014 路 15:19 UTC
I really agree on the difficulty curve. I have a development version that goes into solving that with scaling enemy spawns so they allow you easier passage of the checkpoints early on :)
01010111
25. Aug 2014 路 23:01 UTC
I love the idea, and the different color schemes looked great! I'm awful at doing two things at once, but I managed to make it across a few checkpoints!
duncankeller
26. Aug 2014 路 00:40 UTC
There were a lot of games with this general take on the theme, and so far this one is by far my favorite. The multiple things to worry about combined with great tuning for difficulty made it a lot of fun for me. Great all around!
danidre14
26. Aug 2014 路 04:43 UTC
Addicting, but hard life something else!
TrickFishPie
26. Aug 2014 路 19:12 UTC
Really nice to look at, as others I struggled at first with it.
Jupiter_Hadley
26. Aug 2014 路 19:35 UTC
Really nice game, but is a bit challenging - I included it in part 8 of my Ludum Dare 30 compilation video series :) http://youtu.be/_ZcQE6pTBcc
lkr
26. Aug 2014 路 21:10 UTC
Loved the concept :)
I found it hard to keep the checkpoint throwing in mind at the same time as I was jumping over enemies on both sides, but found it very rewarding once I started to get the hang of it.
ChuiGum
01. Sep 2014 路 04:55 UTC
Love the innovation and a really fun game! One of the best games I've rated so far and I've rated 100. Great job!
ncannasse
04. Sep 2014 路 11:49 UTC
Nice but quite difficult. I think that a fixed level design would have help the player getting better by at least learning good timing.
PapyGaragos
06. Sep 2014 路 15:57 UTC
The way characters jump feel a bit 'floaty', so it made the controls feel unresponsive.

The letter-catching mechanism is actually a really neat idea, good find
Noah Ratcliff
07. Sep 2014 路 13:36 UTC
Interesting! Quite difficult, however.
Artamus
07. Sep 2014 路 15:47 UTC
Nice game, congrats!
sephyka
08. Sep 2014 路 07:04 UTC
Very interesting concept and playability.
A bit difficult maybe: I wasn't able to jump over the checkpoint. '^^
Xanjos
08. Sep 2014 路 15:31 UTC
Controls were a bit hard to get used to at first but this was a very fun entry to play and a really cool take on the endless runner genre. I actually like how you can risk literally playing hot potato with the letter to build up your multiplier (and possibly end up getting hit by an obstacle or drop the letter) or decide to play it safe and only throw when you're about to pass a checkpoint.
馃帳 Decept404
10. Sep 2014 路 18:16 UTC
Thank you so much for all the feedback guys :) I have a dev version that implements a lot of fixes to issues, specifically things like difficulty ramp and so forth.

As for the jump floatiness it's a tough one to balance. I've had really short sharp jumps before but for as long as a character is on the ground, it is at risk. I decided being able to float one character while checking on the other made for less painful play. Of course, it's subjective.
Traumendes_Madchen
12. Sep 2014 路 11:59 UTC
The idea sounded fun, too bad it's so hard right from the beginning...
Teejay5
12. Sep 2014 路 23:17 UTC
CURSE YOU THIS IS DIFFICULT but fun! :D