Orbshard by SuperIzzo

[raw]
made by SuperIzzo for LD35 (COMPO)
Originally it was supposed to be a Kirby style game where you turn into the monster you touch with your orb, but the end result is nowhere near what was originally planed. Halfway trough I realized I won't have the time to draw everything I needed to make it work and the game sort of changed... drastically. A lot of it was a rushed work and this game is not quite for everyone. After the first 2 or 3 checkpoints the game becomes really hard - it takes around 100 deaths (and roughly about 30 minutes) to finish. If you are not a hardcore platformer fan chances are you will find the second part unfair, evil, torturous and frustrating and that's fine you don't have to finish the game, you've seen enough, move on to the next thing.

== CONTROLS ==
WASD or Arrows (or gamepad left stick) - move.
Space or Numpad 0 (or XBOX A) - jump
Shift or Numpad Period (or XBOX B) - orb form

== MECHANICS ==
You will learn how to play by playing (read the tips), but just in case you get stuck here are the mechanics in a nutshell (spoiler alert):
* No health, infinite lives, flower checkpoints
* The orb form cannot be damaged
* The orb form is unaffected by gravity
* The orb form lasts only 2 seconds, you have to land before being able to use it again
* You have to step on the ground to "land", jumping on critters is also considered landing.
* Stepping on critters' heads will bounce you up in the air.
* Jumping immediately after a bounce will give you a boosted jump
* While stomped, mushrooms can be pushed around
* Transforming into orb preserves previous velocity, i.e. jumping and transforming before gravity starts pulling you down will get you higher

Hope you enjoy it and be warned - it's hard.



== ENGINE ==
Unity - http://unity3d.com/

== ART ==
GIMP - https://www.gimp.org/
Krita - https://krita.org/

== AUDIO ==
BFXR - http://www.bfxr.net/
Abundant Music - http://abundant-music.com/
Ofoct (MIDI to MP3) - http://www.ofoct.com/audio-converter/convert-midi-to-mp3-or-wav-ogg-aac-wma.html

== FONTS ==
JWERD - http://www.dafont.com/jwerd.font


== POST JAM RELEASE ==
Addressing a few remarks made in the comments, plus some minor improvements.
* controls are now sensitive and smoothing was removed
* speed and jump were boosted (making the game easier)
* added a few more sections to the level
* fixed a few bugs and improved some UX aspects

Ratings

Coolness 47% 1248
Overall 3.15 523
Audio 2.96 345
Fun 2.93 603
Graphics 3.11 428
Humor 2.28 439
Innovation 2.58 773
Mood 2.81 549
Theme 3.58 320

Feedback

swamppenguins
18. Apr 2016 路 18:12 UTC
The controls could be tightened up a bit, especially with the shapeshifting mechanic. The momentum of the character is a bit off when you shapeshift. The acceleration should reflect the change. But overall it's awesome, play this game!
Hempuli
18. Apr 2016 路 18:13 UTC
The collisions are pretty strict, which felt somewhat frustrating once spikes came into the action. I like how many uses you found for the orb form, though! A nice solid platformer.
馃帳 SuperIzzo
18. Apr 2016 路 19:04 UTC
@swamppenguins that's a very good observation, the acceleration is indeed not carried over, part of the reason is because I'm mostly dealing directly with velocities rather than actual forces in code. I didn't expect to make as much use of physics.

@Hempuli point taken, smaller collision boxes next time
bazkur98
18. Apr 2016 路 20:33 UTC
I see what you were going for but it seems pretty difficult to me. Maybe the collisions is too strict or something but moving around was a bit of a chore. Looked good and sounded good. I liked the orb mechanic!
Arvydas
18. Apr 2016 路 20:43 UTC
Pretty fun! Can be addicting. Music is a bit loud. I enjoyed the sounds, though, very iconic
馃帳 SuperIzzo
18. Apr 2016 路 20:57 UTC
@bazkur98 yeah it was a rushed work, I had no idea what I was doing with it, and by the time I got the mechanics down I realized I have no time left to make levels. So I made it bloody trapland difficult to artificially add more play time.
axoona
18. Apr 2016 路 20:59 UTC
cool little game but quite difficult! Nice idea with the orb. and I like the graphics
Pellanor
18. Apr 2016 路 21:00 UTC
Very nice. Controls felt a bit awkward and I managed to get stuck in the ground a couple times. http://valsarn.com/ludum_dare/ld35/superizzo_stuck.png
馃帳 SuperIzzo
18. Apr 2016 路 22:14 UTC
@Pellanor - that's the orb not using continuous collision detection as well as scaling not playing nicely with physics. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to fix it though.

Also if you happen to reply what about the controls felt awkward - the mapping or character movement? Unity adds some gravity by default and I didn't tweak it, so I'll assume it's the latter.
edgeofcode
19. Apr 2016 路 03:08 UTC
Good game. I got blown up a lot!
fafastudio
19. Apr 2016 路 11:35 UTC
Really confortable to play, the interactions and the gameplay are nice, and the main caracter is very cool , nice job :)
EdoMiyamoto
19. Apr 2016 路 12:50 UTC
Challenging but I keep trying ! This game is really addictive, quite fun !
aberdeenphoenix
19. Apr 2016 路 12:59 UTC
yeah...............it got to me. it would take less time to get to me if (a) the bloody music didn't start over every time you died (b) there was any sort of margin for error (IF precision required for puzzle > precision of controls THEN frustration) and (c) there was more of an indicator of when the orb is about to switch back. Maybe have it flash?
Verz
19. Apr 2016 路 13:05 UTC
Nice! A little bit hard to control but very fun to play :)
MrNyarlathotep
19. Apr 2016 路 13:15 UTC
Would have been nice to have some sort of indicator as to how long you have left to 'orb' - like an energy bar or something, but thats a pretty minor gripe
CzarSilvestrini
19. Apr 2016 路 13:51 UTC
Turning into a orb is fun indeed hehe. The tutorials were a bit late since i already had to do what they were teaching before they showed up.

I do enjoy SMB a lot and i see how you wanted to implement the same level design into it, the only problem is that the controls were not "natural", because of the new mechanic which is a totally different (unlike jumping, running and wall jumps which feel like an natural extension of our reflex). The new mechanic has a cool touch but it is a little bit difficult to control, maybe zooming out would greatly increase the control since i could then see where i would land. Also a meter to know when i would run out of "orb magic" to prepare myself, i never knew when it was going to be over and ended up panicking and dying when it did. The sound queue is nice, but not everyone can associate.

Difficulty is what gives an extra challenge to the game making us wanting to play it more, but because of the controls and camera the difficulty became frustration, and that's a really bad thing to happen.

Overall, i would love to see you implement more this game after the jam and see where it goes. Well done!
ocarson
19. Apr 2016 路 14:19 UTC
I liked what you did with the orb mechanic, I died a whole lot! Glad you added checkpoints! I like using inertia as a thing, also feels very complete, especially for a compo game.
馃帳 SuperIzzo
19. Apr 2016 路 14:35 UTC
@MrNyarlathotep, @CzarSilvestrini @aberdeenphoenix
Thanks. Yeah, I see the faults, but it is what it is :)
I would make a lot better game if I had more time. I won't be able to develop it further after the jam, but I'll take it as an exercise to improve the gameplay in the next couple of days.
jk5000
27. Apr 2016 路 10:57 UTC
Great idea, but i find it very difficult.
forestgamer007
29. Apr 2016 路 04:21 UTC
80 is maximum points to get
Innovation: 2/10
Fun: 5/10
Theme: 5/10
Graphics: 4/10
Audio: 3/10
Humor: 0/10
Mood: 3/10
Coolness: 4/10
Overall: 26/80
Good Game
Afendar
29. Apr 2016 路 11:43 UTC
Interesting game. Fun mechanic and graphics. Nice work !
Rock Eaters
29. Apr 2016 路 19:05 UTC
Funny Game ! I love to be a flying poo !
馃帳 SuperIzzo
30. Apr 2016 路 20:24 UTC
@Rock Eaters always happy to grant wishes :)