Don't try to pick up stuff before you deliver...

This seems very polished for a compo game. The style/atmosphere was neat and I feel like the basic concept could support some interesting depth of strategy. I really like your three-scripts method of doing crossplatform distribution (most java games only ever seem to wind up getting packaged in a double-clickable way for Windows…)

I did find it a bit hard to play. The instructions were cute but didn't communicate the really important thing (you need to fill up the left bar before the right bar depletes). A number of things felt sort of nonobvious while playing, like whether I was supposed to interpret the girl as running away from me or not or whether there's a way to get the right bar to ever replenish (or even just deplete slower). It took me awhile to figure out the thing where you can't pick up hearts while holding a "present". I could not tell if there was meant to be sound or not (I heard a low pitched noise periodically, possibly at random). Also the whole thing felt unnecessarily difficult-- right click to jump seems like an odd choice and makes it hard to jump with mac trackpads, also having to go all the way back to the beginning after losing on level 2 is very harsh :O

Actually the instructions *here* were a side effect of me thinking that i have to finish the submission before the deadline and being totally oblivious to the "submission hour". I used them elsewhere though :-P.

Normally i wanted to make a proper manual (in HTML), but since i thought i had to upload+package+whatever everything before the deadline, i ran out of time :-P.

You can replenish the right bar - as the "instructions" mention, just be near her. It won't be easy since she'll avoid you and if you keep running after her, she'll start crying (which will reverse the effect). So you need to balance it a bit. The rate of increasing/decreasing the right bar is something i experimented a lot with, but unfortunately i couldn't find a perfect solution. Beyond that, its ok.

The right click to jump is something i didn't thought much about - it was part of my base code. Jumping with right clicking is how i set up most of my FP(S/?) games since more than a decade now. It is a bit common, but not as common as space. I would normally add space too, but i just forgot it :-P.

There was supposed to be sound, but being an OpenAL game, probably the sound didn't work correctly. On the other hand, the effects *do* sound like weird noises (see the wav files in the data folder) so it might work ok :-P. I don't have a Windows machine right now available to test it unfortunately :-/.

I get an error on windows: Failed to load data file: java.lang.NullpointerException at com.runtimelegend.jwalker.SoundClip.java:68

What is this? Why am I attacking the girl I love with floating eyeballs? Perhaps it all makes sense after the second level, but this game is rather odd.

Which makes it all the more intriguing.

Hey Bad Sector,

I agree with mcc with regard to the right mouse button being jump. I didn't realise you could jump until the 3rd level. You don't need to use more popular controls necessarily. Your level design showed me that there must be a jump button, and then I quickly found it. Possibly have a jump puzzle earlier on if you want to stick with the right mouse button.

In principle I like the game mechanic that you need to stay around her, but also not annoy her. But it isn't communicated visually. If this game was a statement on miscommunication in relationships then that would be fine, and it works in that sense. But I don't think that is what you were going for...maybe I'm wrong?

The game was confusing, and I don't think it portrayed the theme of alone all that well. At the same time something about this game sticks with me, maybe its just how abstract it is, I'm hurting her with these eyes, then she gives me a heart.

If the LudumDare theme was tension I'd give it a 5/5


This game is interesting to me, I feel it stands out from the crowd in the sense that most games in ld48 are going to be 2d, but game design wise it needs work.

The graphics were fantastic on this game. It's an interesting interpretation of the theme, but I'm a bit skeptical of the game design; it seemed that the idea of being near her too long just translated to a time limit on each level. It might be interesting if the time slowly restored if she was out of eyesight.

What amused me was that my misunderstanding of the right-bar rules (i.e. I didn't realize you could replenish and it was like a "time limit" as Milo says), combined with the bug (or feature?) where you can't pick up hearts while holding an eyeball, wound up creating an interesting emergent puzzle: I discovered I could only beat the first level if I carefully delivered all the eyeballs, THEN started picking up hearts, because if I walked back to grab a heart after each present then that would take up too much time but I could easily grab the whole level's worth of hearts in one circuit.

I really like the idea, that you need to be close to that person but not too much. It feels very innovative. Only it is very hard to figure out when you are in the proper radius. Some indication (maybe with ambient light would have been great).

The sounds also fit very well and the graphics is very impressive for a two day project.

Some checkpoints would be much appreciated. Nice graphics and concept, but more audio would have helped. I can't catch the theme really well too.

Yeah the audio is lacking. It was made near the end of the compo and was made by me going to #ludumdare in IRC, asking what people use, being told mic and audacity and going off to make sounds like that for the first time :-P.

What an inventive concept! I don't think I ever managed to fill up the left bar, though I came insanely close a couple of times. Still, I played this far longer than I would have expected.

I tried everything and still can't get this to work. :(

Wow, that was a rather unique trip, thanks! :-)

First the mood - that is what will remain from the game... such a creepy mood. Good thing that you decided to go with a first person view, my mind was going places trying to imagine what was the thing that was following that girl, making her cry, then going away and throwing her eyes...

What where those eyes DOING to her? Man, this game is creepy. And the level design/sounds/image helps a lot.

Well, suggestions - you need an ending screen, but you probably know that. That really stands out, even though I have no idea how this game should end.

The jump animation was a bit tiny. The player can actually jump much higher than the animation suggests, and that was a bit misleading.

Levels were a bit too easy once you knew what you had to do. The first level ended up being the most fun in terms of gameplay, because in the other ones the girl would often get trapped in some corner and not move much anymore.

Thanks for the game!

@SonnyBone:
Did you try the Java JRE from java.com? If you have multiple JREs installed, you may need to modify the launching script (f.e. She Loves You for Windows.bat) to use the full path to the java/javaw.exe file. That solved the problem with people having many JREs for Windows.

@caranha:
Thanks :-). Yes, i ran a bit out of time with the ending, although one can interpret the repeat as you (the character) being hopelessly stuck :-P

I can't get this to run either, I get the same exception as gmfreaky. I have tried specifying the full path in the batch file to no avail. Win7 and JRE7 by the way.

JRE7 probably won't work. You need Java6 update 30 (or around there) from java.com