LudumData

Tachyon Rupture by Sascha

[raw]
made by Sascha for LD27 (COMPO)
The Tachyon Experiment has ended in a catastrophe. The fabric of time ruptured, the universe will freeze in time within 10 seconds. Somewhat protected by a stasis field generator you set out to fix the rupture, and save the universe!


== Tachyon Rupture features: ==

A rogue-like, randomly generated gameplay.
Crude but lovingly crafted graphics.
No sound. (It's a temporal stasis! Why would there be sound?)



== Development notes: ==
The game was made using Flash Pro CS 5.5.
Graphics were made using PyxelEdit.

== Libraries used: ==
A small Keyboard-Control lib (Input.as) by Matthew Bush (sourceforge.net/projects/box2dflash/).
A seeded random-number generator (http://www.kirupa.com/forum/showthread.php?365564-AS3-Seeded-Pseudo-Random-Number-Generator).
The font used is Visitor (http://www.dafont.com/visitor.font)

== A final note ==
Unfortunately I will be traveling for 1 week just after the contest deadline. Unless I get the chance to get online during that time, I will only be available for answering feedback and playing and rating games after that time.
Web (Flash) http://user.cs.tu-berlin.de/~snarr/games/minigamejam/tachyon.html
Web (backup) https://www.dropbox.com/s/uk6dfk47bukvn8w/tachyon_rupture_final.swf
Source https://www.dropbox.com/s/u8k3k57svytcv35/TachyonRupture-source.zip
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=25135

Ratings

Coolness 91% 2
Overall 2.86 758
Audio 1.32 960
Fun 2.61 820
Graphics 2.77 626
Humor 1.70 874
Innovation 3.38 274
Mood 2.57 680
Theme 3.71 122

Feedback

Calahagus
26. Aug 2013 路 00:01 UTC
I like the idea, but I can't get a key! (also the door mouseover says "Use key top open", I imagine you mean "use key to open") Or am I doing something wrong?
matthias_zarzecki
26. Aug 2013 路 04:31 UTC
Solid little puzzler!
馃帳 Sascha
26. Aug 2013 路 06:17 UTC
@Calahagus The keys are randomly contained in the caches. The procedural generation should make sure that there's always a valid path through to the end, so there shouldn't be any missing keys. Oh and yeah, there's a typo in the tooltip. I have no way of fixing that till next week though :/
TobiasW
27. Aug 2013 路 17:48 UTC
Whew - I won the game on my second attempt in the (nearly) last second of the universe!

The graphics are cool! The concept is interesting, but it seems to be a bit too dependant on luck - finding keys in the right moment. Otherwise it seemed to be wise to just ignore all chests and not waste valuable time. (What is gold used for?)

Congratulations on your first LD entry!

PS: Have a good trip!
Tifu
27. Aug 2013 路 20:38 UTC
Nice use of theme, the level generation is a little imperfect (I won on a level with several locked doors that led absolutely nowhere), but good concept and execution.
DDRKirby(ISQ)
01. Sep 2013 路 21:21 UTC
Neat! Procedural level generation was probably overkill for this; you probably could have gotten away with just building out the level yourself. ;P
dagothig
01. Sep 2013 路 21:33 UTC
This might be an issue with my laptop track pad, but the clicks were waaaay unresponsive whenever I would activate the time flow. Worked fine during stasis. This made the game pretty much unwinnable for me
Ailin
01. Sep 2013 路 22:28 UTC
Great concept. Sound would benefit to the game.
馃帳 Sascha
02. Sep 2013 路 12:49 UTC
@dagothig I've experienced the same problem with the trackpad on a friend's laptop. It seemed to stem from the laptop being set up to ignore trackpad input while typing. Unfortunately with the game controls set up as they are, you'd have to disable this feature or use a mouse to play.
Diptoman
02. Sep 2013 路 13:52 UTC
Great user of the theme! Yeah, trying to find the keys wasted a lot of precious seconds but still, the slowdowns were a nice (even though not equivalent)compensation. And god job with the level generator!
hardycore
02. Sep 2013 路 13:58 UTC
Good idea, would expand well.

Bug found: The controls didn't work after restarting.
KunoNoOni
02. Sep 2013 路 14:05 UTC
I love the use of theme! Great job!
MuciojadPL
02. Sep 2013 路 14:14 UTC
Nice idea, it's a very solid game.
ShiverGaming
02. Sep 2013 路 15:04 UTC
I have (several times) been trapped in the beginning section, a locked door blocking my path without any repositories that contain keys (opened them all).

Liked the game, though.
TobiasW
02. Sep 2013 路 15:50 UTC
Thanks for the comment on my game! And yeah, it's less about touching the light - more about NOT touching the darkness once your shield is gone. If the darkness has found a way to touch you, it doesn't matter how little it is, it'll flow inside you.
wally2069
02. Sep 2013 路 18:39 UTC
The controls are rather awkward and kind of broke the flow for me
馃帳 Sascha
02. Sep 2013 路 19:03 UTC
@DDRKirby yes, in hindsight that would have been better in every aspect. I spent I think 6 hours just on the proc gen code and ended up with something that still isn't very good or bug free. But at no point during programming could I bring myself to just throw the code away and design a fixed level :/
馃帳 Sascha
02. Sep 2013 路 22:05 UTC
@wally2069 how exactly? Can you give any more details or hints on what bothered you?
alts
04. Sep 2013 路 06:38 UTC
To expand upon what wally said, I feel like the "space to pass time" is sort of unnecessary. Time is only allowed to flow in order to interact with things. I feel like it could have been streamlines by deducting only as much time as is necessary to complete an action. Perhaps you did want to explore the challenge of timing the space-click-space gesture, but I feel like it doesn't illuminate anything within the game.

Outside of that, really nice work. Far more puzzle game than roguelike. I don't think I'd ever seen "10% slower passage of time" as a bonus before.
dkilford
04. Sep 2013 路 13:44 UTC
Overall really good job. It took me a few attempts to understand how it works, but it's definitely a really use of the theme mixed with a roguelike formula. I think it would be really interesting to see what you can do to extend the theme given more time.
馃帳 Sascha
04. Sep 2013 路 13:51 UTC
@alts Yeah, it's a bit of both. The spacebar mechanic to let time flow is there to add the skill element of timing your moves to navigate the dungeon efficiently. However, what I had also planned was the addition of enemies that are able to home in on you and attack you when time flows, so that you'd have to lure them away from objects you wish to open with short flows of time. Unfortunately, I didn't have time for that, though.
KhaoTom
04. Sep 2013 路 14:03 UTC
Really like that time flow system.
manuq
04. Sep 2013 路 16:15 UTC
I like the game mechanic. Using a trackpad feels very odd, so a mouse might be better.
anotheryeti
04. Sep 2013 路 16:45 UTC
One of the better implementations of the "slowing down time" theme I've seen. Quick bug: after losing a level and it getting automatically restarted, I can't move without stepping time.
gravyhands
05. Sep 2013 路 02:40 UTC
Cool puzzler idea! Part reflex, part path choice, part not having keys, haha.
But really, I thought it was cool though.
radmars
05. Sep 2013 路 03:37 UTC
Cool idea! BTW I think the control issues people are having are due to the fact that the clicks don't register until mouse up. If it were on mouse down that would feel way better.
radmars
05. Sep 2013 路 03:41 UTC
Also, having space be a toggle instead of hold would fix the trackpad issue.
ratalaika
05. Sep 2013 路 09:00 UTC
Nicely done ;). Gret work.
theholychicken
06. Sep 2013 路 04:28 UTC
Really cool! The use of time for action is very interesting!
I kept running out of time after opening loads of boxes and traveling a few rooms. Then I realized I just need to get forward.
Great job!
Zap
10. Sep 2013 路 15:33 UTC
Neat idea and nice art style.
As others have said, the controls are a bit odd. Using the mouse made no sense to me as you can only interact with things the character is standing right next too - perhaps assigning this to a key could feel better.
I'm quite fond of the art style, and the concept is interesting idea and could be explored more.
Almax27
10. Sep 2013 路 16:18 UTC
This is really nice. I didn't feel pressured too much by the time limit but was enough to make haste. The art really suits the style and front end/HUD fits in really well.

Very cool :D

- Zub
nicotr014
11. Sep 2013 路 14:55 UTC
Cool. I like the time-crunch style. Having to choose an option while depleting your time makes for some interesting choices
Tanser
11. Sep 2013 路 21:42 UTC
Nice game :)
GFM
13. Sep 2013 路 11:37 UTC
Nice take on the rogue-like genre. It was possible to look around and think about the next action (instead of using only what little info you know about your surroundings)!

The only problem I've found is within the stage generator. There was a locked door but, after breaking all the tachyions, no key was found.
tripleVisionGames
14. Sep 2013 路 17:10 UTC
Damn that's hard! Really love the idea behind this, works really well and really puts the pressure on. Annoying when you can't find a key though!
jay griffin
16. Sep 2013 路 23:59 UTC
Really cool use of the theme, the whole stasis mechanic feels really fresh and works well to create tension while at the same time giving the player room to think tactically about their next move. Clever stuff! Looks great, controls take a little getting used to but don't take long to start making sense. This is a quality piece of work.