the Evolution from zx81 by zx81

[raw]
made by zx81 for LD24 (COMPO)
The point of the game is to race on the ladder of the evolution... You against the chameleon.
Jump with Spacebar
Run fast with arrows- right or left.
Do not fall down, fight!
... or would you prefer to live in the terrarium on the planet ruled by the Chameleonus Sapiens, and to wash their shoes?!!!


//edit
1. You can only die on the lowest level, as a bacteria, when you reborn, you'll hear the Bach "music".
2. The shark doesn't kill but paralyses for a moment.
3. Every new hole is made by yourself at the momeent of getting your character on the higher level of evolution. Evolve in such moments that it will be easier for you to play.

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall 3.00 357
Audio 2.51 339
Fun 2.85 336
Graphics 3.19 265
Humor 2.78 164
Innovation 2.77 406
Mood 2.68 346
Theme 3.65 106

Feedback

Afrodynamics
27. Aug 2012 · 19:50 UTC
I got a little frustrated. I like the graphics a lot, especially the little sign posts at the side with the time period labelled in million years ago. It was a nice touch. I also liked Toccata and Fugue for the death sound. Overall, good work!
jprogman
27. Aug 2012 · 20:06 UTC
I like the game play in a retro way. (Dating to the Atari ages.) Challenging, but it is a good challenge.
raoz
28. Aug 2012 · 12:51 UTC
Very good game. Liked it a lot. It was a bit hard, once fell from top to bottom, but I was able to complete.
Wan
28. Aug 2012 · 14:00 UTC
AAAAAAaaaaaaargh!!! I hate this game I hate it!!! But I finished it, yes sir! After not-sure-how-many attempts, I eventually won, all sweaty from frustration. 'Cause y'now, things got personal between me and these ****ing holes!

I'd say this annoying thing is somewhere between a platformer and... a gambling mashine. Frustrating, but hooking enough for you to want beat it.

(PS: Don't get me wrong, I gave good ratings to this game ;P)
fhoenig
29. Aug 2012 · 05:15 UTC
No windows here :-/
Accidental Rebel
29. Aug 2012 · 05:22 UTC
Wahahaha. It was a fun little game. Frustrating, yes. But fun. The most frustrating part is when u miss a jump and your player becomes disoriented and was not able to move. Then a gap comes over and makes you fall to the floor below. Then this happens again, again andagain and you are back from the start. Haha.
eyehawk
29. Aug 2012 · 05:25 UTC
Here's my evaluation:
PROS:
1 Lively, fun cartoony graphics
2 Responsive controls
3 Great concept and creative/clever application of the theme
CONS:
1 Frustrating gameplay - too many punishing factors e.g.:
1a falling through the gaps to easily
1b getting stunned from bonking your head (I'd remove this)
2 The gaps for the first level seem to take quite a while to cycle around
sfernald
29. Aug 2012 · 05:38 UTC
This game just goes to show you that you don't need great graphics or tons of polish to make a fun game. This game is just fun, no other way to describe it, in a hit my head in the forehead kind of way. So many times I got close to the top, but then my luck would change and I would end up rapidly falling near the bottom. Arrrgh. Still fun though, good job.
dr_soda
29. Aug 2012 · 06:25 UTC
I... Won?! That was surprisingly hard, yet achievable.

It sometimes feels like you get caught in no-win situations where you're stuck between two oncoming pits and you have no way to jump to avoid them. I would like to have had some way to avoid imminent doom.

Was the shark ever actually dangerous? The only times it touched me were when I was stunned, but nothing bad seemed to happen as a result.
K1NET1K
29. Aug 2012 · 07:33 UTC
Nice controls, and the graphics are clean and nice :0
madpew
29. Aug 2012 · 10:13 UTC
The time it takes to recover from a "drop" is a bit too long, resulting in mass drops. I actually dropped from the topmost era all down to the bottom without being able to interfere. Besides to that a nice little game. Feeling very retro, but sadly missing some music. Well done!
Mach60KAS
29. Aug 2012 · 13:22 UTC
It was okay. Gameplay reminded me of Ice Climbers.
RARoadkill
29. Aug 2012 · 20:01 UTC
Fun and frustrating, well done. Took me a few tries but I beat it.
Gidaio
29. Aug 2012 · 20:24 UTC
Frustratingly fun, which is the way I like it. :)
marudziik
29. Aug 2012 · 23:57 UTC
Fun and frustrating, as many others have stated before. I liked it, though I've experienced some of the problems also noticed by others (the frustrating part, I suppose).
I might actually add something in terms of sounds. I know Bach is public domain, but I'd rather hear something "out of created classical music", even sfxr/bfxr generated blips&beeps. This is in my opinion an edit/mix so it's not against the rules or anything, but I'm just stating my point of view.
Overall, it's a pretty good entry and I had fun playing it. And the source code is full of polish. ;)
Miltage
30. Aug 2012 · 11:20 UTC
One of the better ones I've played. Great work!
Kayelgee
30. Aug 2012 · 17:36 UTC
this took me forever to finish wow, it's so damn hard.
Whenever I fall, because I can't dodge it when 2 holes come from each side, I fall like 3 or 4 times because I am stunned for so long. I didn't understand why the shark was there. He swam past me multiple times while I was stunned and nothing happened.
I like the graphics and the audio. I guess that the difficulty is ok because it is a real simple concept. I don't see how this could be taken further but I would love to be proved wrong :D
zazery
31. Aug 2012 · 23:11 UTC
It's a bit frustrating when you fall down. Thought it was really cool how you evolve when you move up a level.
Kmad
01. Sep 2012 · 12:33 UTC
It is a little difficult at times, I managed to fall from the top almost all the way to the bottom when the gaps aligned but it's a good effort, fits the theme nicely and has interesting but simple game mechanics.
cakemonitor
01. Sep 2012 · 14:40 UTC
I got to the top on my 2nd or 3rd attempt but nothing happened and I fell back down - I later realised (well, I guess) I should have gone to the right-hand side of the top platform... but then I couldn't get back up - very frustrating! Fun though, well done :)
rustybroomhandle
01. Sep 2012 · 14:49 UTC
Yeaaaargh, this game kicked my butt. Was fun to try though!
🎤 zx81
01. Sep 2012 · 14:51 UTC
@cakemonitor:
At the top, there is a part of a picture "Creation of man"
http://www.tgeorgiev.net/CreationOfMan.gif
God's hand,
nobody knew what it was :(
The Hand showing direction of evolutions!
Tyler
02. Sep 2012 · 22:52 UTC
I think having the player get stunned after falling seems a little too difficult, but other than that, interesting game!
Skypeians
03. Sep 2012 · 23:41 UTC
Took a second to realize how to 'evolve' but overall it is good! nice work!
sev_inf
04. Sep 2012 · 06:08 UTC
This tends to be much harder than it seemed to be. But I like it.
harusame
04. Sep 2012 · 14:40 UTC
Simplist game and little frustrated but it's a good challenge and your game is nice. I like it, good job !
demonpants
05. Sep 2012 · 06:07 UTC
Looks cool. Any chance on a Mac port?
quill18
05. Sep 2012 · 15:18 UTC
Fun, simple, and feels like a great educational game for kids. VERY high votes from me.

However, it was pretty hard!
Pierrec
06. Sep 2012 · 10:19 UTC
Getting on the top is very challenging! Cool!
Graphics, sounds, etc could be improved, but the gameplay is good, it's a solid base for an hypothetical future game.
🎤 zx81
06. Sep 2012 · 10:56 UTC
Unfortunately I can't make the game work on the Mac since I don't have it :(
Thank you very much for all the feedback, (mostly the positive one since they gave me a good kick to do more games.
Cheers!
goerp
06. Sep 2012 · 20:57 UTC
if it wasn't ludum dare I would have been put off by the spammy download page. Maybe you could use Dropbox next time? Its free.
I was pleasantly surprised when moving up. Its an original take on evolution. Liked the graphics.
For me it could be more obvious when/how you lose your life. I found it hard as well, but thats not a bad thing.
infernet89
07. Sep 2012 · 21:56 UTC
The bad thing is that if you hit the ceiling for evolving, you probably fall 3-4 floors, dizzed. Overall it was a nice Frogger twist, nice idea!
Walt
08. Sep 2012 · 13:53 UTC
nice one, although i have a hard time enjoying the possibility of beeing thrown back all the way. the jump cooldown i find far too long, condemning me to fall back one level after another all passively.
rest is pretty well executed though!
SecondDimension
17. Sep 2012 · 19:20 UTC
Good idea, way too hard for me but still cool. It made me smile, I liked the idea of racing the chameleon