Take a breath! by SHAME

[raw]
made by SHAME for LD29 (JAM)
There are no specific victory conditions: it's all about surviving in order to collect as many red diamonds as you can.

You can only breathe underwater. When over the surface you lose oxygen (first bar). To refill it, just jump again into water.

The game is divided in sections. Each section consists of collecting 4 red diamonds in 5 seconds (second bar). If you fail the level of the water will decrease, making the next sections harder to play as you probably will have to spend more time out of water.

Sometimes a green diamond spawns: when you collect it the level of the water increases.

Enjoy!

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POST-COMPO VERSION (website: http://ebruni.net/take-a-breath) with:
- Play Again button;
- Three levels. Each level is somehow more difficult than the previous one.
- Best scores at http://ebruni.net/take-a-breath/ranking.php
- Please suggest more improvements!

Learning how to move in the post-compo version is very important. For instance, pressing UP when falling from a platform without having jumped from it will result in a small jump. This can speed up the transition from a platform to another, especially when they are relatively close to each other and more or less at the same height.

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Authors: Emanuele Bruni and Shamila Boffo
Programmed by Emanuele Bruni (Processing + Hermes)
Graphics and Music by Shamila Boffo (Photoshop, Aria Maestosa)

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall(Jam) 2.90 548
Audio(Jam) 2.94 422
Fun(Jam) 2.88 441
Graphics(Jam) 2.84 568
Humor(Jam) 2.41 436
Innovation(Jam) 2.67 529
Mood(Jam) 2.84 497
Theme(Jam) 3.29 303

Feedback

LandoSystems
29. Apr 2014 · 03:25 UTC
Fun little game, Nice use of the theme. Audio was fun and fit your game. Good work!
valgriz
29. Apr 2014 · 03:26 UTC
Pretty good game! I like the color scheme and the background music.
A "replay" button would have been nice though. Besides that I really like it.
micdoodle8
29. Apr 2014 · 03:31 UTC
Nice job. The purple theme was quite unique, and the controls are nice and responsive. I'd like to see a level or two more though. Solid entry :)
Cake&Code
29. Apr 2014 · 03:34 UTC
The game has really interesting mechanics though I felt like making it harder when you fail just makes it a reinforcing cycle of doing badly and then doing worse because it became harder.

Had a lot of fun trying to beat the clock though!
Crazi456
29. Apr 2014 · 04:04 UTC
Nice music, didn't find a way to restart. Was entertaining good job!
hyouko
29. Apr 2014 · 04:42 UTC
Simple but fun risk-reward mechanic.
stenol
29. Apr 2014 · 14:12 UTC
Good little game.
kbm
29. Apr 2014 · 14:32 UTC
Interesting concept and visual style, I had fun. Great job! :)
chipcaramel
29. Apr 2014 · 16:23 UTC
Cute game! Could sort of feel the theme while playing. Slowly less and less water.
mimic
29. Apr 2014 · 23:52 UTC
Not bad. It was pretty fun. Needs a restart button though.
KevinWorkman
30. Apr 2014 · 01:00 UTC
Cute little game, and nice job working in Processing! How did you end up creating the runnable jar with Processing, since the latest version only exports for the current system?
🎤 SHAME
30. Apr 2014 · 10:08 UTC
Thanks everyone! Ok, I'm going to work on the play again button, to introduce some level-based mechanism and to try to give more chances to survive when the level of the water becomes too low. Maybe I'll also introduce a victory condition.

@KevinWorkman: I'm using SvgExe. Since I'm not using OS-specific libraries I guess my game works on every system for which a JVM is provided, but I think (though not sure) you could use SvgExe to import them in the jar. :)
meszka
30. Apr 2014 · 18:07 UTC
Good job on the music and graphics :)
Mman
30. Apr 2014 · 18:10 UTC
A fun yet simple game, I liked the idea of staying in the water as opposed to staying out of it, which is usually a cliche in games, and it does fit the theme.
note: the music doesn't loop.
ArcturusDeluxe
01. May 2014 · 13:10 UTC
Nice game, surprisingly clever with being able to take risks and grab the gems above the surface. Cute graphics and sound. Like it!
mutilator
02. May 2014 · 12:04 UTC
It is a fun game. The character art is really neat. The audio fit the game, but I felt that there could be better music to it. Good use of the theme!
tuxxilla
03. May 2014 · 12:35 UTC
Funny game :)
FGM
03. May 2014 · 12:54 UTC
That was actually really hard. I like the idea.

This is just a suggestion, since it will change the gameplay, but since accuracy and timing are pretty key here, maybe you can try to have the fish jump as long as the jump button is held so you don't jump to maximum height all the time.
Muciojad
04. May 2014 · 09:16 UTC
Isn't working for me on Win7 Enterprise - after double click nothing happens. :) I want so much to play it ;]
pvwradtke
04. May 2014 · 16:32 UTC
Congratulations, well polished game for a short development time. Were there levels and goals, this would be an even better entry, but I guess there's so much we can do in a jam :). Maybe a post-compo version? ;)
garygreen
07. May 2014 · 18:24 UTC
Really nice graphics & I liked the twist of the falling water level. Nice one.