Walter's Well by Marcus Otterstrom

[raw]
made by Marcus Otterstrom for LD 41 (COMPO)

Walter's Well (1).jpg

Walter's Well - A point and click side-scroller game for the Ludum Dare 41.

Theme: Compare 2 incompatible genres.

Download:

To download the game, click the itch.io link below. When there, click the white button labeled "DOWNLOAD NOW" and it will take you to the download page.

Controls:

ESCAPE to pause, the rest with the mouse. The game will guide you :)

Notes by developer:

This was my first ever Ludum Dare and I had tons of fun doing it. It was really challenging but I'm pretty happy with what I got as a result.

All assets are done by me, and you can find the whole project on github. Most of it was streamed here: https://www.twitch.tv/lemorrow/

Ratings

Overall 604th 2.881⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Fun 574th 2.786⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 590th 2.833⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Theme 582th 3.024⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 404th 3.119⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Audio 363th 2.762⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Humor 329th 2.684⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Mood 375th 2.975⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Given 32🗳️ 5🗨️

Feedback

🎤 Marcus Otterstrom
23. Apr 2018 · 22:26 UTC
Hello everyone!
If you are here because you can not get past the first level, it's because I was stupid and didn't consider other aspect ratios than 16:9. Changing your aspect ratio to 16:9 when booting up the game will fix the issues. If you don't have that option, I'm afraid you'll have to play in windowed mode and place your cursor outside the window in order to be able to pass some levels.

Sorry again, and thanks for playing <3! - dev
KunoNoOni
26. Apr 2018 · 00:03 UTC
First, congrats on completing and submitting your first LD game! When I got to the point of spawning the platform I had no idea I could double jump. It just happened by accident. Spawning the platforms felt odd, no reason was given as to why I could do it nor that I could spawn two of them. Though I do like the mechanic, and the one with clicking the buttons to move the platforms. It provided some very strategic options for completing the levels. I only made it to level 3, but I plan on returning to this game to complete it once the voting is over as I'm curious about the other levels. Again, congrats on completing your first LD!
ROBOWARRIOR1982
29. Apr 2018 · 22:30 UTC
Curious mix that could work well anyway! The worries come from the maneuverability of the mouse really destabilizing, it feels more like playing with a ball than with an old gentleman, I think it requires some adjustment of the values of the physical engine of UNITY, I stopped at level 2 has the force to take rocks on the head and stay stuck under the platforms created (Moreover a cursor indicating the position of creation of the platform would be nice!). Good idea with a little work, it can really make a good game!
darthone
29. Apr 2018 · 22:35 UTC
I found the game very frustrating as clicking the buttons was coupled to the movement. Also, I feel the I was targeted by RNG too much on the third level (which was the farthest I made it to.)
PhilStrahl
03. May 2018 · 16:24 UTC
Hi Marcus! Congrats on your first LD game and on finishing! I liked how it was a game of managing the position of the mouse cursor while keeping track of the surroundings. Also, the tutorial messages were a nice and welcome touch, teaching the player in the game how to play it is always very much appreciated :)

On the downside, I had a lot of problems with placing the platforms where I wanted them, it seems as if it's very glitchy. Also, the separation between background and foreground could have been better, as on the second screen I didn't realize there was an exit to the right at first. Nevertheless, solid first entry, just a bit too hard for me, I got stuck at the "elevator" part...

Here's a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=md_wmDhaD_w
🎤 Marcus Otterstrom
03. May 2018 · 20:53 UTC
@PhilStrahl Oh man, thank you so much for playing the game :heart:
Yeah, the foreground vs background contrast is actually something I had in the back of my head for a very long time, but I kept pushing making a "dirt with pebbles" tile for so long that I didn't have enough time in the end.

Yeah, I think the biggest problem with this game is the difficulty spike and the lack of tutorial, as you mentioned. This was mostly because I didn't have anyone else test the game that didn't know how the mechanics worked, which meant that I was the main playtester and I adjusted the game to fit me. I knew how the platforms would spawn, and I knew that you could double jump. It would of course be nice of me to let the player know that as well :p And for some reason, in the elevator, some people can fall through the platforms sometimes, which happened to you a few times. I personally never got that glitch on my PC which is super strange, so I should probably try playing it on multiple devices as well when developing levels :smile: (Oh, and the game is totally broken unless you play in 16:9, you can't even pass the first level)

So thank you very very much for playing my game, keep up the great content on your channel. It really is on of the best channels on youtube and I can definitely see you hit ~500k subscribers one day if you keep it up. Much love :heart:

(Oh, and I spawned a platform as a roof in the elevator, so rocks wouldn't kill me ;)
PhilStrahl
03. May 2018 · 21:09 UTC
There's always too little time for what you want to do... I still fall into the same trap (or well haha) and there's hardly time to playtest or for that matter get a hold of anyone to play your game at 1 in the morning ;) And thank you so much for watching and finding my videos entertaining, that's all I can ask for!
12. May 2018 · 15:11 UTC
I loved the graphics, and the sound effects were great. Some of the movement controls got a little tricky (when you want to create a platform to the right but he also moves to the right), so that stopped my progression. Good job though, and congrats on your first jam!
phi
12. May 2018 · 18:51 UTC
Congrats on finishing your first Ludum Dare entry!

What an intricate well system... Unfortunately, I suck at these types of game, and after countless deaths I had to give up on level 2 :see_no_evil: I found it really hard to move the platforms around and not being able to stand still at the same time. Also, the platforms are quite glitchy and hard to control, sometimes they disappeared (partially), sometimes I got stuck or fell through them, sometimes they wouldn't move for unclear reasons.

![asdf.png](///raw/182/z/14cac.png)

I really love the visuals and audio, and the concept in itself isn't bad and can allow for very interesting level designs. I just think it could benefit from some more work, both in terms of physics and game mechanics. I would have loved to play further, but I just couldn't figure out how to control the platforms in a way that would let me go where I wanted to without glitching out. But it's a great start and I hope you'll continue working on it!

Well done (get it? like a _**well**_?) and hopefully till next time! :)
tamara188
12. May 2018 · 21:47 UTC
Congrats on your first entry. Interesting concept. I struggled with getting the platforms where I wanted them, so it was a little frustrating to play.
🎤 Marcus Otterstrom
15. May 2018 · 15:42 UTC
@phi Thanks for your feedback! Yeah, controlling the platforms were a huge problem in the game. It wasn't very obvious where it would spawn or how it would've been moved. Thanks for playing mate <3
🎤 Marcus Otterstrom
15. May 2018 · 15:43 UTC
@tamara188 Thanks! :D I know it was pretty frustrating, the controls aren't very intuitive and I could've done a lot more to make that better. Lesson learned! (Hopefully). Oh, and my only "successful" game ever was a rage game... so perhaps I'm tending towards making games really frustrating without knowing it :sweat_smile: Anyways, thanks for playing <3