LudumData

The Deepest Darkest Trench by trueyomic

[raw]
made by trueyomic for LD29 (COMPO)
Right now the HTML build is running slowly IN FIREFOX so I recommend playing it in Chrome or use the Windows/Mac/Linux version. You can consider playing it in Firefox easymode since everything runs about half speed.

The controls for this game are the arrow keys (UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT).

The object of the game is to get to the very bottom of the map while avoid spikes and urchins. Along the way you can pick up pearls and starfish which act as keys for their respective doors.

Known bugs:

* Urchins can go through doors
* HTML version still has some performance issues in Firefox, but not in Chrome. You can consider playing in Firefox easymode for now since everything runs about half speed.

If I had more time I would have:

* If I knew how to use any music programs I would have created a soundtrack; one for exploring and one for the boss. Possibly also the end of the game.
* Animated more things
* Shaded more things

Addressing common issues people had with the game:
* I can see how the collision is unforgiving. If I was allow more time, I would shrink it a little(maybe 1/4 the current rect); but it's still beatable. I did it with faster urchins than are in the live version!

Let me know in the comments if you found the secret ending ;)(without extracting the files).

Hope you enjoy! Let me know if you have any questions, and I will try to answer them/remedy any issues ASAP!
Web https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/68725819/LD48_29/dist/index.html
Windows https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/68725819/LD48_29/TheDeepestDarkestTrench.jar
OS/X https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/68725819/LD48_29/TheDeepestDarkestTrench.jar
Linux https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/68725819/LD48_29/TheDeepestDarkestTrench.jar
Source https://github.com/Yomic/LD29
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-29/?action=preview&uid=16892

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall 2.98 745
Audio 2.17 843
Fun 2.69 845
Graphics 2.93 706
Humor 2.45 542
Innovation 2.17 1145
Mood 2.60 899
Theme 3.20 618

Feedback

greg-anims
28. Apr 2014 路 01:35 UTC
i like the colors and friendly vibe, it was be cool if it has a story and some characters to talk to or something. i like tapping left+right to swim backwards, its a feature!
SlamBlasta
28. Apr 2014 路 02:11 UTC
The collision was really unforgiving, so I didn't get far before getting frustrated.
Enzo42
28. Apr 2014 路 02:24 UTC
It's so hard!
Kiyaku
28. Apr 2014 路 02:44 UTC
It looks really cute! My frames slowed down a lot (played in Firefox), especially near the first checkpoint it was like a slideshow. The collider needs to be a little bit smaller too to be a bit more forgiving. But besides that it's a neat little game :D
馃帳 trueyomic
28. Apr 2014 路 02:45 UTC
Sorry about the difficulty. I did lower the speed of the urchins after watching my wife play, but I beat it multiple times when they were faster. Don't give up!
Woftles
28. Apr 2014 路 03:39 UTC
Nice oldschool-feeling graphics.
renatopp
28. Apr 2014 路 03:45 UTC
The movement mechanics is pretty weak, you could add some acceleration to it maybe. As it is, there is no real challenge, basically what we do is "walk" and wait. What makes you game hard is the bad collisions and the claustrophobic rooms. Anyway, I think it is a good prototype and I liked the game style.
loggs2
28. Apr 2014 路 03:45 UTC
Thank you for the generous save locations, it helped keep me playing. I had fun playing. :)
Lolninjacatz
28. Apr 2014 路 03:45 UTC
Great job. You used LibGDX too! The movement is great, love the art and the animations. It seems like its a really large map. It seems like a standard puzzle platforming game. However, I really didn't get to try to the lock mechanic because I couldn't get far enough (I'm bad at platformers, but it felt a little tough; glad you put save points). Big issue is the level design; should make accomplishments at the beginning to give player a sense of progress as well as get a feel for the obstacle difficulty. The mood was set with the art, but some audio would've made it better! Sound is actually really important in a game, I'm realizing. Great job though!
deathray
28. Apr 2014 路 03:52 UTC
Graphics are nice and you can tell there was a lot of thought into level design. I don't typically like these types of games, but I still had fun. The death noise is very annoying though! Since you die so often, it would be nice if dying was less jarring.
Jan Peter (jpdev)
28. Apr 2014 路 03:53 UTC
html version was playing fine for me (chrome).
Beat the game. Nice, that there was a boss.
Only thing that saved me from frustration was the nice save-system on S and itempickup :)
spotco
28. Apr 2014 路 05:34 UTC
Ran really slow in firefox (but fine in chrome), is that a libgdx problem?

Surprising amount of content (really liked the boss at the end, did not expect), wished there was a bit more variety (sea urchins got a little repetitive by the end.
rincewind_cz
28. Apr 2014 路 07:48 UTC
Yup, html version is slow. I liked the feeling of this, pity that it lacks music. Good job anyway :)
AestheticGamer
28. Apr 2014 路 09:21 UTC
Was a fun little romp I did worse at than I'd like to admit. Still, some fun maneuvering, and I did quite like the ending.
Figglewatts
28. Apr 2014 路 19:43 UTC
I'm playing in firefox, and right when I get to the first save point I get a gradual decrease in framerate. Other than that it seems like a pretty solid game, nice job!
Caridorc
28. Apr 2014 路 20:06 UTC
This game is pretty good in my opinon, the art is nice, but a big drawback is that there is no music.
Khopa
28. Apr 2014 路 20:24 UTC
Awesome, this is getting really hardcore in the end.
This sleepy fish is a badass !
mariscal
28. Apr 2014 路 21:00 UTC
I tried the html version an it run smooth :) just some sounds out of sync sometimes. A little bit difficult for me, but overall I liked it! Good work!
Nnoel
29. Apr 2014 路 02:45 UTC
I tried it out. It was ok. Maneuvering through urchins get pretty annoying really quickly, and that made up the whole gameplay.
XrXr
29. Apr 2014 路 04:30 UTC
I finished it :D very nice level design! Simple concept expanded to its fullest, and doesn't overstay its welcome.
Great!
cageinabird
29. Apr 2014 路 08:32 UTC
As others have said, the collision made things frustrating (on the boss especially), but there was enough variety in the challenges to keep it interesting. Good job!
馃帳 trueyomic
29. Apr 2014 路 13:59 UTC
Thanks for all the awesome reviews guys/gals! If I had the chance, I'd go ahead and change the collision box a bit (for the urchins at least); and if I knew any music tools well, that'd be the #1 thing I'd have added as music is really important in games to me. Thanks for the constructive criticism too; I won't be able to learn from my mistakes without it!
littleball
29. Apr 2014 路 19:22 UTC
The collision made it quite difficult. Would have liked to have got further before it got too tricky
ElStevo
30. Apr 2014 路 01:45 UTC
Good game ! but you are right, the collision is really unforgiving
hbocao
01. May 2014 路 02:15 UTC
Damn that was hard to beat. The boss battle was the difficult part. The art and sound matches very neatly. I have to agree that it's some pixel perfect collision right there, but you know... you have to try it harder.

Oh! Also, thanks for commenting on my entry ;)
XenosNS
01. May 2014 路 02:23 UTC
Very cute game! Loved the little twist at the end. The collision area with the starfish was a bit fustrating, especially at the boss battle, thank goodness for infinite tries. Excellent job!
elliottd
02. May 2014 路 00:52 UTC
Movement is kind of stiff, requires a fast twitch reflexes. hit boxes are pretty cruel. you could make them half the size they are and things would feel a lot more natural I think. Felt like a complete experience, though I had to brute force the boss and felt really drained by the end. Good job!
ninjascript
02. May 2014 路 14:29 UTC
That's a challenging game! I would have appreciated some UI telling me how many pearls or starfish I had.
Random Abductions
02. May 2014 路 18:18 UTC
It is a cool concept and it looks good! However, I don't particularly like this kind of game so I am probably not the best reference. The precision needed to pass some of the enemies is to harsh. But it looks very broad!
alect
02. May 2014 路 18:27 UTC
The level design was pretty engaging considering the small number of elements.
gmaker
02. May 2014 路 18:52 UTC
great job! tooo hard for me =) but it so cute fish) i liked palette you used!
mjau
02. May 2014 路 19:11 UTC
The collision detection is pretty unforgiving.. it'd help a lot if you made the bounds of the fish smaller, i think.

Also, the controls felt a bit imprecise for some of the things you're asked to do. The collision detection doesn't help, but i think it's also due to the speed of the fish. If it had some slight inertia (not too much!), so it didn't jump straight from zero to full speed, it'd be easier to position the fish more accurately.

Bug: Horizontally moving spikes has a bright line flashing on the left hand side (web version in chromium)

Anyway, it was still enjoyable =). Thanks for the generous save spots =)
jsspiegel
02. May 2014 路 19:27 UTC
Nice little platformer!
matt_j
03. May 2014 路 01:46 UTC
Cute, but tricky due to large hitboxes.
anvoz
03. May 2014 路 11:45 UTC
Nice graphics. The idea is good but it's quite hard for me to beat the game.
x1212
04. May 2014 路 08:37 UTC
One of the games where I permanently ask myself: "It's not that hard, why do I keep failing?"

But well done! (also for supporting all those platforms)
Zerkruemler
04. May 2014 路 09:26 UTC
Remembers me of old C=64 Games which where quite hard to master. Also the sound effects remind me of the 'good old times'. Maybe you should go also for a 'retro' style graphics... Just an idea.
Since I am not so young anymore I have not played very far because I like more forgiving games now.
Chronoberry
04. May 2014 路 20:57 UTC
Love the fish animation. I think the collision boxes are a little bigger than the sprite, so it's hard to avoid obstacles.
ZeppelinCaptain
08. May 2014 路 19:41 UTC
Yay, I like my little new peaceful trench.

It was quite a frustrating journey, as many have pointed out, because of the collisions. Also, the gameplay mechanics have been done over and over (except for the boss battle!)

Some comments about the level design:
-Designing levels with keys generally feels like lazy design, since it basically just makes you go through the same thing twice. Which brings me to the next point:
-Some places had the same challenges a couple of times in a row, (like several urchins in the same amount of space) which is also not very good level design. More variation, thank you!
-More kinds of enemies = more variation! I know it might be challenging to program more enemies, but it does a lot for making the game feel more alive.

But with that said, let me just say one more thing: BOSS BATTLE! That was awesome! I was so surprised at seeing that.
JaJ
10. May 2014 路 10:30 UTC
It's possible to get stuck when you use a key on the wrong door, there also wasn't a lot of variaty. Other than that, a solid entry.
Jupiter_Hadley
11. May 2014 路 20:27 UTC
Cute little fishy game :) I included it in part 24 of my Ludum Dare Compilation video series :) http://youtu.be/a1xd0I3_xtY
KevinWorkman
13. May 2014 路 00:05 UTC
This is an impressive start. Like others have said the movement and hit boxes need some polishing to make them more fun, but this is great work for 2 days!
馃帳 trueyomic
16. May 2014 路 13:55 UTC
Thanks again for all the constructive criticism! Again, most of the design and lack of variety came from lack of time (and I had a headcold the whole time) so I was only able to make one enemy (and the boss wasn't too hard to build from that).

I am aware of the possibility to get stuck if you use keys outside of the area that you are in; I tried to minimize that; had I more time I would have made at least one more key to solve that or implemented metroidvania-like abilities like I'd have liked to in the original plans.

I'm also aware that you can carry one of the keys to the near end for use in a hidden area... ;)
Marcos Rodrigues
17. May 2014 路 14:11 UTC
The hitboxes could be really improved. The "platformer" would work better if there was gravity and thrust.