Castle of Doom by emveyh

[raw]
made by emveyh for LD27 (COMPO)
This was my 5th Ludum Dare and it was really fun :) The game was made in about 30 hours.

About the game:
You are trapped in the "Castle of Doom". Escape through 20 levels, randomly picked at the start of each game. The only problem is: You only have 10 seconds to reach the end of the level!

Controls:
- Arrows Keys to move / jump
- Space Key to restart

Thanks for playing :)

Game not running?
Try "java -jar *path-to-jar-file*"

Update: I've added a web version (JavaApplet) !

Ratings

Coolness 50% 3
Overall 3.56 147
Audio 3.55 78
Fun 3.73 57
Graphics 3.85 106
Humor 2.57 389
Innovation 2.80 674
Mood 3.32 180
Theme 3.62 175

Feedback

robertcodes
25. Aug 2013 路 20:00 UTC
Beautiful game. Unfortunately, it only seems to work on Mac when run from terminal (java -jar [path])...
馃帳 emveyh
25. Aug 2013 路 20:21 UTC
Thanks for plaing :) I will add a Web / Applet Version tomorrow, so that it's easier to launch
Sketchist
25. Aug 2013 路 20:53 UTC
Awesome game, I love it!
TheJackiMonster
25. Aug 2013 路 23:43 UTC
That's quiet awesome.. The music fits perfectly to the time-limit! :)
daOyster
26. Aug 2013 路 18:38 UTC
Loved it and beautiful. Music was perfect for it too. I glitched one time into a wall but I still liked the game. Great job.
Tifu
26. Aug 2013 路 21:35 UTC
Seems to be a lot of leaps of faith boo-hiss :P
Needs a little delay in between levels, sometimes I'd be running right, and then the next stage would start, and now I just walked off a ledge into some lava before I had a chance :(
Love the graphics and music!
psychomonster
26. Aug 2013 路 21:46 UTC
Nice one. I love it!
ravine
26. Aug 2013 路 22:13 UTC
The movement felt a bit rushed. Still, I found myself playing over and over again.
AdventureIslands
26. Aug 2013 路 23:45 UTC
Well done game! I like how the rooms are randomized. Nice pixel art.

The game is very hard though, because the controls are very wonky, and dying from being unable to see up or underneath you properly is super cheap, especially with rooms with lava pools underneath that except you to blindly jump in and hope not to fall into one.
Jiggawatt
27. Aug 2013 路 16:13 UTC
While this is perhaps the most obvious idea for this theme, it's a solid execution. I get that randomly generating levels is outside of the scope of LD, but one way to cheaply add more variation would be to randomize the player's starting location.
N0_Named_Guy
27. Aug 2013 路 17:34 UTC
Will post live video review later.
Dooleus
27. Aug 2013 路 17:39 UTC
I love the art, and the sound and music are both very well done, although I didn't like the lack of a jump sound. The jump also felt a little bit too fast, especially compared to the movement.

The random level generation is a good idea in theory, but with the levels having to be so short with the 10-second limit, it doesn't really feel fair to me - there are some that are ridiculously difficult, and then some where all you have to do is jump a couple of times and you're done, with no threat of death at all. I also had a level where I was immediately dropped into lava, which was obviously not thrilling.

I think having predesigned levels with a clear difficulty curve would make more sense in this format, or at least having the level generation have some logical progression of difficulty. The randomness does add a replayability factor, but it simultaneously diminishes the feeling of accomplishment you get from progressing.

I also think having a short count down at the beginning of the stage might be a good addition, as it would give the player a little bit of time to assess the level before throwing them into panic mode, scrambling towards to exit door (assuming the level difficulty isn't completely shot by the randomness).

In short: fun concept, but a bit too abstract for my tastes.
Dooleus
27. Aug 2013 路 17:45 UTC
After playing a little more I see that the level generation isn't random, but the order of the levels seems to be. I still feel like having a clear progression of easy to difficult would make more sense, and I still dislike that level that has a gap to the right of the start which is directly over a lava pit.
Typedeaf
27. Aug 2013 路 18:15 UTC
Really great game! It was nice :3
rincewind_cz
27. Aug 2013 路 22:48 UTC
I'm glad that I'm not alone who somehow managed to have ridiculously hard game! :D I really like the graphics. If you want to continue on this, some statistics would be really great (like how many times I've died in this level and so on...). Good job!
naufr4g0
27. Aug 2013 路 23:41 UTC
I really graphics and the game is fun. I think movement are too fast and player is hard to move.
Did you know that my game have 20 levels to beat in 10 seconds each, too?
N0_Named_Guy
28. Aug 2013 路 09:03 UTC
Live review available at: http://www.twitch.tv/n0_named_guy/c/2831116
Antidote
28. Aug 2013 路 16:44 UTC
Quite nice and fast paced ^^ Loved the music.
nddrylliog
28. Aug 2013 路 16:49 UTC
Very very enjoyable, smooth, as discussed in the stream the random order of levels is unexpected sometimes. Replayability is awesome because you just keep playing because you want to win. Some levels were really frustrating (but in a good way!) in the end I gave up after finishing 12 levels in a row.
antonijn
28. Aug 2013 路 17:50 UTC
Really really really really really really really tough! Kudos if you even managed to get to the end without cheating yourself! Very unforgiving game.
PixelRebirth
29. Aug 2013 路 07:59 UTC
Total rage-inducing gameplay. Cool game!
Zuige
29. Aug 2013 路 19:23 UTC
NIce little platformer! Although, the variance in level difficulty is a bit too much for me. I just don't have it in me to fail the same level 20 times on 20 different runs at different stages. :s
almightyzentaco
29. Aug 2013 路 23:51 UTC
Very nice. The style and graphics were excellent. Theme was solid too.
HD408
30. Aug 2013 路 12:12 UTC
Not a big replay value, but: smooth gameplay, stylish retro pixels and very accompanying music.
AlexFili
05. Sep 2013 路 20:07 UTC
Pretty fun little game. With a bit of polish I could see this being on Steam or Android devices.
superfoonly
06. Sep 2013 路 04:27 UTC
Nicely done!
theholychicken
06. Sep 2013 路 21:51 UTC
Love the pixel art!
The fast jump speed makes the controls feel a little unnaturally fast, but that fits well with the pace of the game anyway.
Awesome work!
01010111
06. Sep 2013 路 22:35 UTC
I forgot to rate, but I played for a bit last night after seeing it played on Indie Impressions - I really love what you're doing with the game, I hope you expand on it, polish it up, and put it out there as a full game :) Great work!
urth
07. Sep 2013 路 01:04 UTC
Loved it.
All you need is more levels.
Infin8
07. Sep 2013 路 12:47 UTC
Talk about an abrupt death! I like how the randomizing of levels make for a very interesting experience, where one could master all the levels, yet its still fresh along the way. Love the cute sprite art!
bitowl
07. Sep 2013 路 13:36 UTC
controls feel good, but I would rather like to see the levels sorted by difficulty rather than having them randomly
LTyrosine
07. Sep 2013 路 14:40 UTC
Would be nice to have a way to look up/downwards to see near traps. Amazing work. Congrats.
BrothersT
07. Sep 2013 路 17:08 UTC
It's basically a memory game. Learn the layout of the puzzles and you win. It's not a bad idea it's just not an interesting challenge. Certain levels will spawn you while you are still moving too, meaning you fall into the lava before you've even realized what's happening. You might want to tweak the controls to be a bit more forgiving to the player when running and jumping at the edge of a platform. We can't help having a limited reaction time so it's good practice to allow a split second for jumping otherwise it will seem like the game is not keeping up with your movements (ironically). It's a very well polished game though. Nothing about it seemed unfinished. Well done, and good luck! :)
Dir3kt
07. Sep 2013 路 20:12 UTC
Very interesting game, especially enjoyed the fast paced control. Although the levels are not randomly created, it still feel very rogue-like-ish. Very good job sir!
Levynski
07. Sep 2013 路 20:55 UTC
which engine used?
馃帳 emveyh
07. Sep 2013 路 21:11 UTC
@Levynski

The "engine" was developed during the 30 hours. I've only used the libgdx framework and a few helper classes for texture stuff, playing music etc. I've linked the source if you want to have an in-depth look on how i did this :)
gmaker
08. Sep 2013 路 09:04 UTC
awesome art! cool game! ) but very hard jumping for me, very strong gravity imho.. =) great job!
Antidote
09. Sep 2013 路 20:13 UTC
My first impressions on your game :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g8nCGIa2ok
mollymus
16. Sep 2013 路 22:50 UTC
Smooth gameplay! Were the levels randomly generated? I felt like sometimes I didn't have enough time to complete the levels even though I felt like I played it "perfect" (didn't get hit by anything etc). Maybe I just wasn't fast enough though, hard to say when I didn't get to play the same level many times in a row:p

As a reply to your comment on our game, I'll talk to my team about sharing the source code to our game! If we decide to, we will be notifying people via our website and our twitter account!:) Thanks, and good luck in the future!:)