The Golden Sphere by smbe19
A lone wanderer in the alps sees a big golden sphere and touches it. A voice then appears and gives him transformation capabilities: The wanderer can turn into a wolf or a turtle at will. He is given just one task: To reach the top of the nearby mountain.
This is a jump and run puzzle game that requires the player to use his available transformations to get ahead. It can be quite frustrating at times, so beware.
The most remarkable feature of this game is the implementation of voice acting. This was a new experience for all people involved in the development.
This game should provide you with more than 15 minutes of game play divided into eight interesting levels. Have fun!
Controls
--------
Click the Golden Sphere in the menu to start the game :)
A / D - Walk left / right
W - Jump / Climb
W / S - Swim Up / Down
E - Interact
1 - Human Form
2 - Turtle Form
3 - Wolf Form
Enter - Skip Narration
P - Reset Level
Post Jam Fixes
--------------
- If narration sound is disabled no subtitles were displayed
- First Level was way too hard
This is a jump and run puzzle game that requires the player to use his available transformations to get ahead. It can be quite frustrating at times, so beware.
The most remarkable feature of this game is the implementation of voice acting. This was a new experience for all people involved in the development.
This game should provide you with more than 15 minutes of game play divided into eight interesting levels. Have fun!
Controls
--------
Click the Golden Sphere in the menu to start the game :)
A / D - Walk left / right
W - Jump / Climb
W / S - Swim Up / Down
E - Interact
1 - Human Form
2 - Turtle Form
3 - Wolf Form
Enter - Skip Narration
P - Reset Level
Post Jam Fixes
--------------
- If narration sound is disabled no subtitles were displayed
- First Level was way too hard
Ratings
| Coolness | 89% | 2 |
| Overall(Jam) | 3.54 | 269 |
| Audio(Jam) | 3.70 | 139 |
| Fun(Jam) | 3.53 | 208 |
| Graphics(Jam) | 3.38 | 519 |
| Humor(Jam) | 4.11 | 25 |
| Innovation(Jam) | 3.02 | 572 |
| Mood(Jam) | 3.31 | 377 |
| Theme(Jam) | 3.95 | 121 |
The first game I'll be rating with almost all 5s!
Minor glitches -
In the third scene ("stones can be helpful") my turtle fell into the water and couldn't jump out.
The human keeps jumping for a while after ascending the rope.
Loved the narration!
Tight gameplay although that sometimes the controls felt a little "weird".
The controls were annoying for me though, I had to do right hand wasd but maybe thats just me. Good job!
died a lot.. also that 'double jump' was annoying
otherwise nice ideas
The idea and the narration were interesting. The graphics were nice too, and handled the concept well.
There are some things, in my opinion, that should be adjusted, especially the difficulty. I mean, those falling rocks were evil.
Also, the controls felt weird (I think there was too much momentum), but that's comprehensible due to how hard it is to implement good platformer mechanics.
The controls however could've been done a bit better, especially since this is a run/puzzle game. I found it particularly odd how my character would react on ropes, where it wouldn't be able to stay still or just strafe to the left/right side when on top. I also think that the three form buttons could've been positioned at some different place (maybe j/k/l), allowing you to move and change form a bit easier, as it's currently required to do most things with one hand. At the same time though, the slightly quirky controls adds a bit to the game's difficulty which isn't necessarily bad either.
On some levels (especially the one with disappearing jump spots), it can get a bit frustrating when you die, having to repeat the whole thing from scratch when it has easy parts that just take time (like walking with the turtle in the water). Checkpoints would help maybe.
To summarize, I think it's a good entry and I think it was a great decision to add voice narration.
Can you add your game on indiexpo.net ? (it's free)
So we can include also your game in the video ;)
p.s. write #LDJAM in the game's description
I love the voice acting. Am I hearing a slight Swiss accent there? :P
But that lvl 8, it's too hard and it's very punitive when you fail a jump :/
And the humour, pretty fun thought.
A very good game, short but it'll be a game that i won't forget in some days.