Alone in the clouds by Cowbox

[raw]
made by Cowbox for LD22 (COMPO)
This game was made using Java and Slick2D in Netbeans.
I used a custom palette of colours when drawing which can be accessed freely at: http://www.soharix.homestead.com/tools/pallet.bmp
I used SFXR to make the sound effects.
And finally I used a maths source file I wrote for extra functionality I required on top of java.math.* available here: http://www.soharix.homestead.com/tools/maths.zip

Everything else was still made and programmed in the 48 hours though. :)

Timelapse recording (approx 18hrs in 5mins) of me making Alone in the clouds:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lV8j-rP9bc

Ratings

Coolness 0% 685
Overall 2.83 286
Audio 1.92 423
Community 2.00 519
Fun 2.62 240
Graphics 3.00 213
Humor 1.57 438
Innovation 2.00 506
Mood 2.22 391
Theme 2.67 334

Feedback

zapaman
19. Dec 2011 路 08:38 UTC
Hi Cowbox, great to see a TCG member on LD! Trying out your game, now!
馃帳 Cowbox
19. Dec 2011 路 11:17 UTC
:D Thanks man, GLaD you remembered me. :D
zapaman
19. Dec 2011 路 12:47 UTC
Would you believe what gave you out was the Window Border? While downloading the game, I took a look at the screenshots and went like: "I've seen a TGC member always using that Windows Theme". Then I saw soharix name and instantly said TGC!
KhaoTom
19. Dec 2011 路 13:38 UTC
I feel like I'm missing something. What are the controls? All i can do is move and jump. what is the cursor attached to WASD for? All I've managed to do so far is go three screens to the left and find another robot. Help?
馃帳 Cowbox
19. Dec 2011 路 23:27 UTC
Wow, how did I fail that much... I left in the debug settings so it was left at where I was last map editing. - I was concentrating on releasing on time and getting the timelapse out I forgot that. xD - I've fixed it so try again now. :)
SonnyBone
21. Dec 2011 路 01:58 UTC
EGAD! Backtracking for the batteries is kind of a pain. I dig the clouds at the beginning. The jumping sound also started to grate on my nerves after a bit. lol I suck at this and couldn't finish it. :(
馃帳 Cowbox
22. Dec 2011 路 14:51 UTC
:D Yeah I didn't really think through the mechanics for too long so I realised I had to basically allow users to go off and find batteries again if they screwed up a jump. So hardcore mode is basically impossible unless you know exactly where you're going.

Oh well, thanks for playing. :D
Benjamin
22. Dec 2011 路 21:18 UTC
I could not finish it, but I could find the code and open the door.Looking to your timelapse I guess I missed a lot of the content of the game :( Very fast and effective leveldesigner skills !
馃帳 Cowbox
26. Dec 2011 路 11:29 UTC
Yeah there's a quite difficult jump half way through that if you can't make it, you can't really get to the rest of the game. - Level design probably only looked fast because I wasn't thinking about it too heavily and just going with my instincts. - I basically got into game making by designing complicated levels to rather simple games in The Games Factory. (by Europress) :D

Thanks for playing though. :D
caranha
28. Dec 2011 路 15:15 UTC
"This story does not permit your freedom". Uuh what?

Very nice and well finished game. The controls were very responsive, and there was some challenge. The graphics and transitions worked well together, I like the effect on the border of the screen.

Two suggestions:
1- Get rid of the invisible walls: put some fences there, or make the robot fall to their death, something, but the invisible walls break the mood, and make the player feel railroaded

2- In the button puzzle, the fact that a room resets every time you re-enter makes it confusing to the player. I would go back and forth, and think that my buttons were "unpressed", when they were not.

Thanks for the very nice looking game!
Tifu
28. Dec 2011 路 15:25 UTC
I got completely stuck and watched the timelapse in the hopes of figuring it out, no luck :) Got as far as collecting the note, clearly a lot more after that... pretty enjoyable, I ended up 'wasting' a lot of time trying to figure it out :D
馃帳 Cowbox
29. Dec 2011 路 17:42 UTC
@ caranha
That message was purely meant to suggest the area was secret and the player could advance no further in that direction. :P

I originally wanted it to be that there were no boundaries and you could just jump off the edge of anything but that would require me to carefully designate which jumps would kill you and which wouldn't and due to the screen style there was no way for the player to know which jumps would kill them or not without putting some kind of invisible tile there.

Yeah the button puzzle I wasn't as satisfied with when I made it, due to how I made the engine it was very difficult to have the buttons remain down when pressed so I kinda just had to leave that as it was. :(

@ Tifu
:D I'm GLaD you enjoyed it nonetheless. If it's any consolation, the note was written in SGA (Standard Galactic Alphabet) which is used in Commander Keen and Minecraft. :D
Jigxor
08. Jan 2012 路 06:48 UTC
Great graphics, though the walking animation could use some work. The sounds were a little harsh but better than nothing.

Overall it was pretty fun to play. Great job!