The Last Beacon by Katamori
You are a robot, woken up somewhere underground. You're completely lost: deeply inside the ground, there's no chance to escape. These caves are not visited for decades, so you're on your own. The only way to ask for help if you shoot your laser beam out of this pit - but it's not always that easy sometimes!
"The Last Beacon" 2D platformer game with logic elements, a little bit of arcade feeling, pixelart graphics, 14 levels and a strange story which is not explained properly.
I'm pretty proud of how it ended, though some aspects of the game are lame.
Everything's explained ingame, but don't expect overexplaning. Try exploring some thing on your own.
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NOTE: I suck at making logic puzzles. Prepare for that.
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2014/05/12 Post-compo version uploaded!
- fixed bug that didn't update laser beam when it destroyed a block
- fixed bug that allowed player shooting a buggy laser beam while falling
- reduced breakable block durability
- grappling hook now doesn't work on lvl1
- improved (but still WIP) main menu
"The Last Beacon" 2D platformer game with logic elements, a little bit of arcade feeling, pixelart graphics, 14 levels and a strange story which is not explained properly.
I'm pretty proud of how it ended, though some aspects of the game are lame.
Everything's explained ingame, but don't expect overexplaning. Try exploring some thing on your own.
---------------------------------
NOTE: I suck at making logic puzzles. Prepare for that.
--------------------------------
2014/05/12 Post-compo version uploaded!
- fixed bug that didn't update laser beam when it destroyed a block
- fixed bug that allowed player shooting a buggy laser beam while falling
- reduced breakable block durability
- grappling hook now doesn't work on lvl1
- improved (but still WIP) main menu
| Exe + Love (0.9.0) + Source | https://www.dropbox.com/s/75l17x142y2eenf/Ludum%20Dare%20%2329.zip |
| WIP Post-compo (Love) | https://www.dropbox.com/s/mgz81jkv4kk462t/The%20Last%20Beacon%20-%20Post%20Compo%20%28WIP%29.love |
| Postmortem | http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2014/04/29/the-last-beacon-postmortem-a-k-a-the-success-of-planning/ |
| Gameplay video | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2wPwUqwYNA |
| Original URL | https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-29/?action=preview&uid=25228 |
Ratings
| Coolness | 100% | 1 |
| Overall | 3.43 | 323 |
| Audio | 2.49 | 699 |
| Fun | 2.92 | 649 |
| Graphics | 3.37 | 420 |
| Humor | 2.15 | 769 |
| Innovation | 3.47 | 283 |
| Mood | 3.14 | 420 |
| Theme | 3.66 | 212 |
The game ending text was cut off as the text started at the left of the screen, but the status/time/level box was still on screen, so I missed the first couple words on every line :(
Ending will be repaired soon, I promise - I just have enough of updating since this is the second one today.
Fortunately, the game has way less bugs than I expected, but I could not eliminate the "dead blocks sometimes still stopping the laser", even though I tried.
The time you need to wait would have been decreased easily, I just didn't expect for that it's gonna be too long.
About puzzles: I suck at making puzzles, but I wanted to try making a logic game, as far as it may improve me and this skill.
You've created a good atmosphere and I like the retro styled graphics!
Overall, it's very polished and complete feeling for a 48-hour game. :)
most of the retro-style game (mine included) clearly reveal that they've been made today.. not with this one! great job!
The problem is this (can be repeated 100% of the time at the end of level 4):
In physics.lua inside Mirror_Behaviour the mirror pieces use an if - elseif - end, meaning that they value the other possible direction as an input over the other, because it gets checked first. The right-down mirror (line 81) happens to favour beams coming from the left (x + 1). Then we have a beam coming from beneath, going trough the mirror and "hitting" the block on the way. On the next check the mirror notices that there is also a beam next to it on the right (the beam it just projected!) and shoots a beam DOWN and then exits the function, never updating the projected beam. Restarting the laser works, because now the beam reaches the next mirror on the first try. I "fixed" it by changing the if - elseif - end into two separate if - end -blocks. While it doesn't get stuck anymore it now gets projected into both directions, so that when you shoot a mirror block it also shoots back at you :D. I'm not sure how you would go about fixing this bug because you don't store the direction of the beam anywhere. You could probably just store the points where the beams collided with something and keep polling if they get destroyed, after which you start a new beam going from there.
Ah, yes, there was a game to review! Some of the mechanics felt a bit silly (couldn't fire right next to a block etc.) but obviously the game would be too easy without them in place. The game was still somewhat easy, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing for a Ludum Dare game. I would've preferred if S-key just dismissed the rope instead of descending, I don't like using spacebar as a control key :P. The audio was pretty annoying, especially when you just had to wait for the beam to drill you a nice hole.
Damn. That's a long comment.
Anssi@MooseflyGames
Thanks for trying to fix my bug, though the way you did is still not a perfect solution, as you mentioned. I still appreciate your attempts and that you even checked the source code. I'll definitely find out something in the future, when I remake the game - if there's gonna be a demand for that.
Also, I know that there are silly things, but I'm rather a kind of "closeted-into-my-room-and-make-game-without-knowledge-about-gamers" type of guy, so I suck at making user experience things, such as proper control... :D
Fortunately, both controls and audio can be changed easily, so I'm gonna give the player an option in the future for that.
Also, without S, how would you be able to descend on the rope? :P
Thanks for your comment anyway.
@HybridMind: I suck at making logic puzzles.
I like the weird story. (Why am I anubis?)
Overall, good job!
A little bug: The light beam doesn't update sometimes when braking through blocks horizontally.