DIORTEM by blubberquark

made by blubberquark for LD 43 (JAM)

* Exploration, Discovery, Enlightenment. Power corrupts. Worldly possessions will only weigh you down. *

Controls: arrow keys, X, return, (esc to quit the program) Post-Compo feature: Press R to restart from the checkpoint.

The post-compo version has a slightly expanded beginning section, some code refactorings, and two checkpoints, to make rating and finishing the game a bit easier. If you are a purist, play the

Made in 8 hours with Python, Pygame, and pyscroll. All gameplay code and graphics are my own.

Tools used: Tiled, Aseprite, and GNU Emacs.

Tested on Windows Vista and Ubuntu Linux 18.04.

SPOILERS: Gur znva tbny vf gb ybfr nyy bs lbhe cbjref ol tvivat gurz gb gur fgvpx svtherf jub arrq gurz zber. Lbh jva ol tvivat hc gur novyvgl gb whzc gb gur urezvg va gur pnir NSGRE lbh unir urycrq nyy gur bguref. Gb qb guvf, lbh arrq gb hfr lbhe cbjref va gur evtug beqre, naq tvir gurz hc va gur evtug beqre, be lbh trg fghpx. Ng gur gbc yriry, vg'f n chmmyr tnzr, naq na vairegrq Zrgebvq - qvbegrZ

Linux	https://blubberquark.itch.io/diortem
Windows	https://blubberquark.itch.io/diortem
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/diortem

Ratings

Overall	867^th	2.969⭐	18🧑‍⚖️
Fun	739^th	2.969⭐	18🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	698^th	2.938⭐	18🧑‍⚖️
Theme	604^th	3.333⭐	17🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	915^th	2.438⭐	18🧑‍⚖️
Mood	937^th	2.5⭐	17🧑‍⚖️
Given		31🗳️	13🗨️

Feedback

Local Minimum

09. Dec 2018 · 10:03 UTC

First couple of tries I didn't make it to the people needing rescue so I was really wondering about the theme and the idea of the game. It could be a bit dangerous in LD to hide the true idea of the game that far into it.

Then it was a bit confusing since the spikes and such were not really an issue once you had the shoes, so I didn't really understand why there even were spikes. I think the issue there was that for all the problems facing the character, I got the solution before rather than after facing their matching challenge. You could have to jump sets of spikes before getting shoes. You could have to jump red blocks before getting to shoot them. You could have to fall down a hole before learning to jump over it. The second issue was that the hit-boxes for spikes and boxes felt a bit too large.

So when I died when I felt like I hadn't hit anything yet. That it was so easy to die kind made me want to have a checkpoint in the large room where the giving away of abilities started. Or the giving away and gaining could have been mixed up with each other from start. The receiving new abilities and giving them away was an interesting concept.

Good work.

🎤 blubberquark

09. Dec 2018 · 10:18 UTC

@local-minimum I totally agree with all that. I wish I had my game idea sooner...

But I don't think this idea scales to a bigger game, so there probably won't be a big post-jam version beyond some bug fixes.

Local Minimum

09. Dec 2018 · 11:34 UTC

@blubberquark game ideas are hard! And yours is a really tricky one to implement and get right, I think. We were also discussing things like this but decided it was too ambitious for LD for us.

GoogleFrog

20. Dec 2018 · 12:19 UTC

I like it. The sequencing is not strict and there are some red herrings so it is a well done reverse metroid. The puzzle at the end was surprisingly fun given its simplicity. Giving up your powers is really on-theme.

I know it is hard in a LD, but a little more polish would help, especially for informative feedback. The worst offender is rocket as it appears to do nothing for the first few seconds. This could be fixed by shaking the player sprite during the charge-up.

sorlok

24. Dec 2018 · 00:11 UTC

Cool game, and I enjoyed the mechanics! The puzzle solving aspect (of what to give away when) was good, and overall the game controlled fine. Good job!

AlexHoratio

31. Dec 2018 · 19:30 UTC

Nice entry, I enjoyed my time with it. :D Creative level design!

Psst... if you wanted to vote on my game, I'm one rating away from 20! >.<