Pale Brown Dot by Fritzendugan

[raw]
made by Fritzendugan for LD26 (JAM)
Pale Brown Dot is a short little platformer with a few puzzly elements.

All of the code, music, levels, and art were made in 72 hours for the Jam. The exception is the bunny, which I had made in a previous LD but released publicly. The credits music I made in less than 5 minutes :P

There are only 2 levels, but I'm thinking of doing a post-compo version.

Time-Lapse : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrSV2yjHT58

Controls:
a,w,s,d OR (arrow keys) : move and jump
space : Absorb life material

Hints (spoilers):
Level 1 - hold space near flowers. You can jump while you're in the air if you haven't jumped yet (as in, run off a platform then jump)

Level 2 - pixel perfect jumps! You can squeeze through many tight places. Drain the life from the rose bushes. Get as far to the right as you can and grab the powerup, then dash your way to victory (by pressing and holding space in the air)

Ratings

Coolness 50% 3
Overall(Jam) 3.24 236
Audio(Jam) 3.39 136
Fun(Jam) 2.86 281
Graphics(Jam) 2.97 330
Humor(Jam) 2.00 300
Innovation(Jam) 3.41 132
Mood(Jam) 3.56 95
Theme(Jam) 3.17 307

Feedback

blearn
30. Apr 2013 路 02:41 UTC
I like eating plant's souls.
DaanVanYperen
30. Apr 2013 路 02:44 UTC
Got stuck. Not sure what to do with the spiked thing in the tree. Cute block animations.
馃帳 Fritzendugan
30. Apr 2013 路 03:18 UTC
@DaanVanYperen : check out the "hints" section in the description. Unless you're reporting a bug? Thanks for playing :)
pvwradtke
01. May 2013 路 01:40 UTC
Too bad, I wanted to absorb a rabbit :).
LTyrosine
01. May 2013 路 01:41 UTC
Inspiring music, like a nice day being ruined by an evil cube.
Alexander
01. May 2013 路 01:52 UTC
Love the music and the atmosphere
argo15
01. May 2013 路 04:24 UTC
This game was beautiful, love the theme from Cosmos.
Alphonsus
01. May 2013 路 04:29 UTC
Beat the 2 levels! :D Love the ambient music. Great work!
Switchbreak
02. May 2013 路 03:35 UTC
Level 2 was too hard for me, but I love the graphics and music. I think having pixel perfect jumps on such difficult to see platforms may have been a bad idea.
shawn42
02. May 2013 路 03:56 UTC
I love it. I really enjoyed all the subtle effects; they made the game feel much more polished than a 72 hour game.
My character did seem to move a few pixels up and/or right when I was life-sucking; made me bounce around a lot even though I thought I was safe.
馃帳 Fritzendugan
02. May 2013 路 03:57 UTC
switchbreak: yes I certainly agree. Level 2 was sort of rushed in order that I could try to polish some of the other aspects of the game. There are actually some tricks that make the level easier that I assumed players would realize, but they didn't. It's a failure of level design on my part. In retrospect, it could have been much better. Thanks for playing, though :)
馃帳 Fritzendugan
02. May 2013 路 04:01 UTC
shawn42 : the shifting up is actually intentional. It was meant to try and force the player to only be able to use the life drain at certain points, but, again, this was just a failure in level design. If I wanted the players not to be able to use that ability, then I should've introduced some other mechanic that limited it, not modify the player's hitbox (which, as you noticed, is pretty annoying and not-intuitive). Thanks a lot for playing and for the feedback. I'm glad you enjoyed it :)
Pisti
02. May 2013 路 18:24 UTC
Took me a while to get the concept, great atmosphere!
MuffinTrap
02. May 2013 路 18:30 UTC
The repeating music did not get annoying and the idea and the interaction fit well together.
But why did the bunnies have to die :(
thatwhichis
02. May 2013 路 18:32 UTC
I am the villain?? D-:

I legitimately felt horrible beating both levels, lol! Great atmosphere!
Jorjon
04. May 2013 路 18:02 UTC
Since you are always giving amazing reviews, I will try to do the same.

The concept is very interesting, absorb life of nearby plants. Why not animals too? :P
The music was really cool, and so the animations. I understand the lo-fi graphics are because of the theme.
I found out that the absorbing part was really slow, because if you are going to do that every time, it should be super rewarding or very fast. What about absorbing things while moving?

The first level as tutorial was great.
The second one doesn't feel like the second place, because of the increased difficulty. It should have been the third one in my opinion.

The power up concept was interesting, but it's a shame you didn't continue it; I was expecting a new level to use my newly acquired power up.

What about absorbing powers from nature, ala kirby?

Anyway, really neat concept, but it should be worked on further. I would really like to play a full game based on the absorbing thing.
joe40001
07. May 2013 路 02:36 UTC
Initially: Aww, what a cute little game.
A little later: <Buster Bluth>I'm a monster!!!</Buster Bluth>

lol, great game. Quick note: on level 2 after it happened... an (unmoving) rabbit was blocking my path through.
馃帳 Fritzendugan
07. May 2013 路 05:15 UTC
Jorjon: thank you very much for the awesome feedback. I agree with basically everything you said EXCEPT the comment about the lo-fi graphics. The graphics choice was made not really because of the theme, but because I simply like the lo-fi aesthetic. I kind of stretched the theme here, and won't be pretentious enough to say what I was going for, but admittedly my tie to the theme was pretty week. Thanks a lot for playing. I probably will continue work on this game and hopefully address some of your feedback in future versions.

joe40001: Thanks for playing! Can you be a little more clear about what you mean about the rabbit blocking your path? Was this after you grabbed the power-up? Did you grab enough souls to activate the portal (and have everything die)? Was the rabbit already dead?
Tom 7
12. May 2013 路 16:18 UTC
I love: What happens when you stand on bunnies, and riding birds everywhere. I got stuck in the second level because the bunny clogged up the only way to the powerup, and then died when I sapped enough rose bushes. :(
mrexcessive
13. May 2013 路 04:09 UTC
Like the overall look. Some of the platform jumping is a bit strange - rejumping is possible when caught "side by side" with a platforms edge. Platform physics from scratch ?
馃帳 Fritzendugan
16. May 2013 路 02:18 UTC
Tom 7 : sorry about that! Like others have said, the level design needs some work for sure.

mrexcessive : can you be a little more specific about the "rejumping?" If you mean you can walk off a platform but still jump, that's intentional. If that's not what you're describing, can you give me some steps to reproduce it? Where exactly and on what level were you able to double jump?

Thanks for playing guys :)
Purplescape
20. May 2013 路 21:30 UTC
Interesting mechanics and idea. I like how it looks when absorbing life material.