Cloaked by deammer

[raw]
made by deammer for LD26 (JAM)
Hello! We've made Cloaked for the jam! Cloaked is an atmospheric exploration game set in the ruins of an ancient temple.

Hint: you'll probably want to stay in the light.

Controls: WASD/Arrow Keys and Space to jump.

Credits:

Zach Lowrance - Light Programming
Anthony Coffey - Animation and tilesets
Amy Saunders - Tilesets and level art
Brian Thompson - Art and level art
Jason Sobotka - Music and SFX
Max Osta - Level Design
John Pechacek - Level Design
Wes Boddie - Backgrounds and Title Art
Sterling Handrick - Concept Art
Maxime Preaux - Programming

Thanks to Chevy Ray for FlashPunk and Matt Thorson for OGMO!

Ratings

Coolness 0% 2059
Overall(Jam) 3.16 261
Audio(Jam) 3.42 126
Fun(Jam) 2.74 332
Graphics(Jam) 4.26 39
Innovation(Jam) 2.22 478
Mood(Jam) 3.58 89
Theme(Jam) 2.26 531

Feedback

Julian Ceipek
30. Apr 2013 路 17:34 UTC
A frustrating experience with great graphics, Cloaked ultimately suffers from poor level design; the exits are hard to spot and a failed jump spells almost certain failure, which wouldn't be a big problem except that the game implements permadeath. The behavior of the gems and glowing light orbs seemed inconsistent. I played Cloaked 10 times and got midway through the third room before giving up.
Casino Jack
30. Apr 2013 路 18:42 UTC
A really great looking game. I've messed with dynamic tile based lighting before, so I'm impressed you've manage to implement it so smoothly in a Flash game.
GertJohnny
30. Apr 2013 路 21:51 UTC
It felt good, and the graphics are nice to look at, but in a web browser it ran terribly (on my machine at least).

This is an excellent time for some optimization tips! I ran it through TheMiner (an excellent profiler you should use), and ShadowMask.update is the culprit. A few key reasons:

- You're generating tons of new BitmapData per frame (via flashpunk Image::createBuffer), which could be solved by just re-using objects instead of making new ones.

- A big issue is the use of getter functions - you're spending about 10% of your time calling a function to get something you already have access to. Instead of using 'baseAlpha', just use '_baseAlpha' directly. Using the property introduces 4 million function calls you don't need.

- Inlining RGBHEXtoARGBHEX would be a fantastic idea too, you're spending 5% of your time doing some simple bit twiddling, because you have the overhead of 2.5 million function calls to deal with.

I hope that helps!
馃帳 deammer
01. May 2013 路 16:10 UTC
@GertJohnny wow, that profiler is amazing. We're improving the performance quite a bit thanks to your advice. Thanks! By the way, your game is quite amazing as well. Nice use of Box2D :)

@Julian we're thinking of improving our levels, they do feel cramped and are sometimes frustrating to go through. Thanks for the feedback!
GertJohnny
01. May 2013 路 19:32 UTC
Awesome - huge improvement! There's one other big thing i'd recommend - the way you're updating the mask now requires you to do a really expensive copyPixels inside updateBuffer. If you just draw to the Image's buffer directly, you could skip that expensive copyPixels and save another 15%. I can run the game at maybe 55ish fps, but with that last tweak I could hit 60fps no problem.
syawqy
04. May 2013 路 22:53 UTC
a great graphic, but there's a let down on level design, because it feel to cramped
Hayawi
07. May 2013 路 00:57 UTC
Abrupt as fuck...
Jellycakes
07. May 2013 路 00:58 UTC
Was a pretty nice platformer. Really atmospheric until I realised I was timed, and if I died I went to the start. Other than that, that was a cool game.
joe40001
08. May 2013 路 23:46 UTC
It felt like a lot of good artists/programmers didn't really have a creative idea and didn't like the theme. You guys are talented but I don't know why you focused your efforts on making this game and not one more fitting with the theme.
marnaouf
11. May 2013 路 17:54 UTC
Beautiful and absorbing game. Keep up the great work.
kidevil
16. May 2013 路 00:15 UTC
Beautiful design work and love the main character. Gameplay hurt it though...I found myself getting stuck in places, and even started one level off the screen. May be more playable if you expand the light a bit to compensate.
Squared Muffin
19. May 2013 路 16:52 UTC
Loved the mood and look but controls were awkward felt like the character was a car since he kept going after i stopped moving him. Also frustrating to have a high jump but always hitting things