The explorer by Stepan Shabalin

[raw]
made by Stepan Shabalin for LD 40 (COMPO)

It's a small roguelike game; you play as a ball who got into a whole new world of cubes. It's controlled only with a mouse; it's pretty tough!! I made it by cutting features; "the more you have, the worse it is", a wise man said. Please leave comments! screen_gif.gif P.S Don't play the HTML5 version; it got damaged.

Ratings

Overall 580th 2.894⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Fun 497th 2.941⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 352th 3.147⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Theme 671th 2.074⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 567th 2.632⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Audio 483th 2.147⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Humor 515th 1.963⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Mood 558th 2.516⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Given 50🗳️ 5🗨️

Feedback

SirPumpy
04. Dec 2017 · 02:53 UTC
OK, this game is really tough! But I'm enjoying it a lot :) Thanks!
eerongal
04. Dec 2017 · 03:04 UTC
Interesting game. It's pretty tough! Took a bit to figure it out.
cpcrabs
04. Dec 2017 · 03:10 UTC
I enjoyed the unusual control scheme and the randomly generated levels. The sounds were fitting but the music got a little repetitive after a while. The game is very hard but in a good way.
nate_wec
04. Dec 2017 · 03:13 UTC
Very fun game, interesting controls that can be frustrating at times, Graphics simple and bold good for a reflex game like this. The controls would have been easier to use with a guidance line or something, Anyway very good
Sholf
04. Dec 2017 · 03:26 UTC
Interesting. I like how the only control is clicking and it determines your jumps.
Sholf
04. Dec 2017 · 03:26 UTC
Interesting. I like how the only control is clicking and it determines your jumps.
minimurgle
04. Dec 2017 · 03:33 UTC
I feel like the strongest part of your game was just after the game starts. You see the little ghosty guy coming after you, the music is urging you on, and there's big black text telling you to click. It felt really tense right there, but then you lose the ghost. At that point it was less of a tense game about running from the ghost, but instead it was a game about carefully aiming your jumps and some occasional quick movement. The music got annoying after that too, probably because it no longer fit the game.

The level generation was nice. The first time I ran into a circle I was wondering how I was supposed to get over that without rolling off. That's also where it clicked that the player sticks to surfaces.

If you ever decide to iterate on this I highly recommend you do something to keep the player moving fast.
🎤 Stepan Shabalin
04. Dec 2017 · 04:42 UTC
Thanks for your feedback!!!
I will release a Jam entry with fixed music.
lot9s
05. Dec 2017 · 01:50 UTC
For some reason, the game doesn't load in my browser when I click on the HTML5 link. (I'm using Google Chrome v62.) I would love to give this game a go!
maybe
06. Dec 2017 · 16:16 UTC
really fun game, i enjoyed playing it =)
jebouin
09. Dec 2017 · 04:55 UTC
The clicking gameplay is not a bad idea but there is no way to know where you're going to land and no way to correct your trajectory, so it gets really frustrating. The generated levels are a nice touch (though this doesn't make your game a roguelike, see [this](https://bp.io/howroguelike/) :)
Zinkler
09. Dec 2017 · 05:13 UTC
Sorry, I just can't get myself into it. The click doesn't work properly or I can't understand when I'm allowed to click and when I'm not. I can't measure my jump even approximately and a lot of times I'm trapped in situation when I can't help but lose - for example, landing too far from the edge to be able to correct your future jump, or getting stuck under a step. The idea is nice, but please fix the controls.
jynspielt
09. Dec 2017 · 10:08 UTC
Its cool how just pushing one button in the right length and moment can become so difficult. Nice puzzle game concept. Maybe also for Phone? Of course the polish wasn't that good because its a compo game but i like the concept.
Yvanor
09. Dec 2017 · 10:15 UTC
Fun little game ! Very hard, but I was able to make nice evades and some parts of the levels become easy to pass when we get used to it ! However, the click mecanics is quite glitchy, has it's very hard to measure the strength of the jump, so some times we only pass because we are at the perfect spot, and otherwise it won't work.
I like the minimalist graphics, but having a small animation or something else would have make the game more living. I liked the music, simple and a little bit short but well-fitting the game.
Good job !
IcyLava
09. Dec 2017 · 10:16 UTC
~~I couldn't seem to hear any music or sounds on Windows.~~ Never mind, I forgot that I need to plug in my headphones into my computer for them to actually work...

One improvement you could make - the further the mouse is from the player when you click, the more powerful the jump (and vice versa). That's something that most of these sort of games do.

I had my mom play it, she didn't do very well, the first enemy is too quick for her :P
Kolbjorn
09. Dec 2017 · 13:37 UTC
Wow! pretty hard game, I didn't manage to get to the end, but I like alle the different obstacles you came up with, and the wall jumping is neat. Good job!
phi
09. Dec 2017 · 13:48 UTC
Those mouse-controlled physics are awesome! Makes it challenging but not too frustrating. What's more frustrating is the level design. :P I would have liked to play the same level a couple of times to become better and see some progress. But I ended up just dying over and over again after the part in the beginning that stays the same. The repetitive music supports the frustrating mood, and I don't know whether that's good or not... :sweat_smile:

Also, the behavior was sometimes quite unpredictable. I never managed to get over those circles with the red spikes on top, because I couldn't adjust my brain to the weird sticky-gravity-effect. I also sometimes managed to jump while in the air (don't know if that's intended...), and I was trapped under the platforms a couple of times, still being able to jump, but unable to get back on the platforms:
![temp.png](///raw/182/z/e5c5.png)

Visually the game is appealing, just the right level of detail for it not to be boring to look at, and not too cluttered. I think your minimalistic interpretation of the theme is valid and well implemented. Nicely done!
🎤 Stepan Shabalin
09. Dec 2017 · 13:52 UTC
Thanks!
You've spotted the only bug I can find. I just couldn't fix it before the deadline!
AMastryukov
09. Dec 2017 · 15:11 UTC
**Pros:** Controls are intuitive; graphics are simple and clean.

**Cons:** Sometimes controls are weird - feels like too much friction. Music fits the beginning when you have to escape but gets repetitive quickly.

Overall a neat game, not too much to complain about. The controls are easy to pick up and hard to master, but are not that fun to play with. Game is too difficult right away, and there are no checkpoints, which made me quit after about 10 tries.
Joror
09. Dec 2017 · 15:18 UTC
Cool jumpy game! got into it a bit and good play smoothly when you are in the 'zone'.
Save points would have been cool, since I am not that good at these kind of games :D

The minimalistic graphics also worked well. Red=bad, Grey=ok
Kaszkiet3
09. Dec 2017 · 15:22 UTC
Fun game. Pretty hard but I like it.

Once I got stuck
![dd.png](///raw/c13/c/z/e5db.png)
mess110
09. Dec 2017 · 16:17 UTC
Cool game, felt like spider-ball
CreativeWhisper
09. Dec 2017 · 16:22 UTC
Great start for the game, but i fear that i get frustrated pretty fast with the aiming mechanic. It's an interesting mechanic but the procedurally generated levels don't give the player time to learn.
Zirrrus
09. Dec 2017 · 17:03 UTC
Cool, little game! Very difficult but the instant restart makes that bearable :) Good job on putting in audio, I never get to that...but I have to say, the song got really annoying real quick :P

Also love that the level is sometimes different beyond a certain point, that helps ease the pain of failing and having to start from the beginning over and over.
falak
09. Dec 2017 · 21:02 UTC
Quite good! :)
🎤 Stepan Shabalin
11. Dec 2017 · 14:34 UTC
Thanks for your feedback.

Planning to make it fully 3D and make a stickman the main character.

This LD was totally awesome!!!!!!
lautregars
11. Dec 2017 · 16:58 UTC
Interesting, maybe even more as a true die and retry mobile phone game. Needs maybe slightly more polish, but that's a jam, so it's ok. Noice overall :P

Edit : Oh, my bad, just saw you were a fellow Compo-er. Well it's a even much nicer game if it was made in 48 h ! Good job, really ! Will boost the score even more then
IllaBom
12. Dec 2017 · 01:35 UTC
Nice game you have here. SUPER WELL DONE!

Come check out my game if you like!
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/virus-detected
🎤 Stepan Shabalin
12. Dec 2017 · 13:38 UTC
Checked out. Pretty cool!
tvance
12. Dec 2017 · 22:35 UTC
Very cool off-white minimalist atmosphere. The music is good for compo but a little repetitive. It's a hard, unforgiving game. I thought I was doing pretty well but when I finally died I didn't get a checkpoint or anything. That'd make this game a lot more fun. I enjoyed it overall.
blubberquark
13. Dec 2017 · 09:19 UTC
What do you mean by damaged? Can't you repair it? That's well within the rules. Why link to something damaged at all?
🎤 Stepan Shabalin
13. Dec 2017 · 12:54 UTC
Not the link; the link is OK. The HTML5 build is damaged.
King Kujito
13. Dec 2017 · 15:19 UTC
The music got to me before I could master the controls. I also got stuck on the round platform :-(

(if you used unity to make this game, you could recompile the web version till it works. That worked for my broken web build at least)