Cave Escape by Josh @ Dreamland

[raw]
made by Josh @ Dreamland for LD21 (-)
In this somewhat mysterious game, you wake up in a dark cave with nothing but your arms and some rope. You collect one additional item to help you through your escape, of which you know nothing.

Most of the game is spent jumping across platforms or hanging/strafing on ledges (you'll notice the movement is slower).

Controls are WASD, and later, Mouse + Mouse Left and your choice of Mouse Right or Space. Remember the right click and space thing--they're a bit unintuitive, but I was in a hurry and couldn't think of a better way to resolve the dismount vs climb issue you'll run into.

Easy on the eyes controls:
W: Jump / Climb ladders
A/D: Walk/strafe left/right
S: Descend, drop down
Mouse: Aim hook
Mouse L: Launch hook
Mouse R: Climb rope

Made using the ENIGMA Development Environment. Source is in Game Maker GM6 format.

Graphics made in GIMP by whoring the tree bark and walnut textures as well as the Wind distort filter.

I offer binaries for Windows and for Ubuntu x86/x64. If you run neither, and still wish to play, you will have to compile it using ENIGMA, found here: http://enigma-dev.org/
Sorry about that. I just don't have a Mac box.

Ratings

Coolness 2% 246
Overall 3.00 198
Audio 1.00 371
Community 1.75 410
Fun 2.47 292
Graphics 3.26 131
Humor 1.00 466
Innovation 2.79 243
Theme 2.68 324

Feedback

Daz
22. Aug 2011 路 21:23 UTC
Once you get over the game not really liking you attempting to influence your own trajectory, take it slow and you'll beat it. It's all about knowing how the game plays, and it was designed as such. The gems are mostly hidden well, and if you're reading this far you've probably discovered the in-game gem tracker.

HINT: for those looking for purple, when it looks like you've come upon a hilariously cruel dead end, it may not have been so.
馃帳 Josh @ Dreamland
22. Aug 2011 路 22:15 UTC
I should stress that he probably means "Gem tracker" as in "thing that tells you what gems you have" rather than "thing which tells you where gems are located." Most of the game's challenge is wandering around lost in the dark without a purpose. The rest of the challenge is the horrible collisions and rope physics due to not having quite as much time as I hoped to implement them. Sorry.
TaslemGuy
22. Aug 2011 路 22:50 UTC
The game was interesting, but wandering around in the dark with a difficult-to-use grappling hook is less fun than you might think.
Zaron
23. Aug 2011 路 00:46 UTC
Wrist got tired from molesting the movement keys due to the character's slippery handling. The grappling hook is a neat idea, but having to blind shot things constantly and never being sure if I was going the right way or not got old pretty fast. Only found one gem, and the big door-looking thing that shows which you've gotten.

I understand the darkness and lack of direction is part of the point, but with such an open area some sort of distinction to where you are relative to where you're going would be helpful.
matthias_zarzecki
24. Aug 2011 路 12:10 UTC
Neat, although in need of some balancing.
Benjamin
26. Aug 2011 路 18:33 UTC
Your grappling hook render is original. The control are not perfect but I like the feeling. And the cave adventure made me think to Duck Tales ( Amiga ) --> http://free-game-downloads.mosw.com/ss/4891_0.png
pekuja
07. Sep 2011 路 15:01 UTC
This was really cool. I wish it had some hints on where the jewels are though. I was unable to find the last one. The "gem tracker" was a nice touch.