A very fun twist. Seems too easy to make it unbeatable. The side to side controls were a bit challenging, but I think the core idea is great.

Wow, the core idea isa plot twist- I like it! Btw the game it's too big for my laptop screen so I miss some things that they're above the character. However it's challenging and looks good!

I like the idea but I'm horrible at it and it's impossible for me :(

Thank you all!

Rather than challenging, I'm afraid that the acceleration-based horizontal motion could be considered broken, since it's causing lots of frustration everywhere (especially with keyboard controls, on a gamepad it's slightly smoother).

I've been making some tests and I'm planning to fallback to constant speed, but I first need to check if this could be considered as a game-breaking bug so it doesn't break the compo rules. If so, I'll upload a new build without inertia asap.

Otherwise, I hope to have this sorted out on a post-compo version -_-U

Cons:
The movement is a bit touchy. There should be some friction or else it just feels like you're always mid-jump even when you're on a platform. Maybe this is intentional to create an "ice" feel?

Pros:
So far this is the most interesting mechanic I've seen, and it fits the theme very well.
It's counter intuitive and plays on our psychology of wanting to "get all the things"
Even after I knew what was going on (it took me a bit) I had to resist grabbing those crystals.

Great work.

Brilliant! (but difficult)

Very cute! Felt like I slid off the platforms too easily, but I enjoyed it.

Very well done. Nothing much besides that :-) great entry

Hard, but simple and nice. I couldn't get very far when jumping up the platforms sadly, but I still like this entry. Good job!

Took me a while to figure out what was going on (AKA I learnt to read the manual :P), but really enjoyed how it worked. Good job!

I wasn't sure how the first jump was possible at first but then I realized I could jump and boost after jumping. And then I realized after re-reading the description that I was being too greedy while picking up crystal when skydiving haha. Good job!

Pretty cool. I liked the theme. I agree with someone that maybe the controls were a bit touchy, but I still kept trying.

Congratulations on making it through the comp, let alone with a charming looking game in so little time! Here's hoping you enjoyed every bit of it.

The use of the theme with the mechanics was marvelous. On one side, my usual behavior on this kind of games was to collect everything, and it took every fiber of my soul to be rational and just take the necessary gems. It's very hard not to be tempted and to try to find the sweet spot between greed and planning.

Like others have said, the controllers are the one sour spot. Specially when playing on chrome, where holding Ctrl and pressing D caused a Bookmark notification to pop up and interrupt the game. This happened many times and was a major bummer. W for jump and S for super jump would have been far more intuitive.

Still, incredible Compo work. Our team wishes you the best of luck on this judging phase. Cheers! :whale:

Difficult but fun. Nice idea!

Clever usage of the theme. I finally figured out a pretty optimal way of descending and going back up again, ended with 56 points/crystals. Simple but nice.

The A-button on my xbox one gamepad didn't jump for me. Good idea for the theme, but a little hard to know how big of a gap to leave until you had played it a few times... something like doing a bit of climbing before the initial dive would convey that. Good clear graphics and sound effects and I really like the premise. Nice job.

Took me a while to understood, but I like the idea :)

Would prefer more safety when going up, i.e. the platforms should maybe disappear later so I could save myself if I fall down just a bit.

I like the graphics and the fact that you fall and then have to come up, but as someone else said I suck at it D:

Overall, very solid entry, congrats!

Nice graphics.
Doesn't seem so difficult for me (after you understand how it's work), just cool.

Interesting mechanic, i like the idea that the diamonds turn immediately to clouds and you understand what is happening. Graphics and sfx where nice too. Good job!

Well the art is nice. The character could use some extra animation though. The concept is solid, but perhaps more focus should be put on making sure the climb to the summit is actually possible. I played the web version and it would crash if I held-down Ctrl for too long (while my character was half-off screen).

Thanks for the feedback! :)

I really appreciate that people get the crystals <-> platforms mechanic, that ended up being the main point of the game, and while I'm aware that it could have been conveyed better, it's great to see that it didn't turn out so obtuse in the end.

@weeping-rupeee Having ice/snow platforms would have been a good excuse but I'm afraid I would be lying :sweat_smile:. I wanted to have some degree of inertia, but I didn't realise until playtesting that it was so annoying (I'd gotten used to it or was using the gamepad most of the time). The jump detection is probably more sensitive than it should, and that doesn't help either.

@moski Thank you, glad you like it! While I was aware of most of the issues with the controls, I hadn't realised about the problems of using the boost key together with A/D (totally my fault, I always used the arrows :flushed:), I'll have to fix that :S

@mike-cullingham That's a good idea! I wanted to have a smaller tutorial level (or at least communicate the objectives and actions better) so players could become used to the core mechanics, but had to stick with that in the end.

@shinyogre Yeah, I know. I would have liked to have at least different animations for gliding and jumping, but time hit hard. As for the climb back, I would have liked to show a full preview of the level at the beginning and additionally, detecting if the resulting level for the climbing stage was doable (so the game could either adapt it to make it so, or just trigger a defeat condition). To reduce frustration I added the boost functionality and the smaller crystals as a way to allow the player for a second chance, but it's not accounting for every possibility. I'll take a look at that crash, it sounds related to the issue with the bookmark dialog.

Why so freaking hard man ? ><
XD it is difficult but a real good game in accordance with the theme !! GG !
The graphics are quite good and the game feels good, tough a bit harsh ! Hope you will adjust the difficulty a little bit :-p (for instance you could have a first level a lot easier)
See you !
Our game : https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/the-darkest-light

Choosing between crystals and platforms is a unique take on this, I like it.

Fun game, my only complaint was what @moski mentioned with trying to use ctrl+D in the HTML build ends with a new bookmark. All part of your plot to get us on your page more, of course, right??

I liked the theme tie in though, and the ctrl to boost wasn't an issue when I realized I could just press the POW button!

I commend you for the great effort you put into this game. What I liked best was the graphics and theme. I also find the idea of choosing between crystals and platforms is very clever.

The game was too difficult for me though and kinda made me lose hope fast so if there was a weak point that would be it. May be I am just not used to play this kind of games a lot and that is why I lost hope fast. Still you could add two difficulties, easy and hard, to fit all personalities. All in all great job :)

This is one of those game entries that just surprises you in the best way. The unique twist you include between the crystals and the platforms is an added difficulty I wasn't expecting! Makes gameplay surprisingly challenging, but so much fun. Loved this one, great job on the game :)

Fun game! It took me a few failed attempts before I read the description of what you were actually supposed to do, but then I got it. I would have liked the camera to be a bit smoother when ascending back to the summit, I found it a bit jarring. Great job with the theme!

Very difficult to get up again. I liked that you have to go both ways unlike other vertical platformer.. I liked the graphics :)

Nice entry! feels very polished and controls are responsible. sound effects made the game really feel alive. Great use of the theme! Good job!

Very good game that met the theme well. Didn't read through the first time I played through so ended up scuppered once I got to the bottom. An interesting take on the theme that sees you making a lot of strategic decisions on the way down.

I love your graphics. Good idea that works well with the theme. The platformer mechanics are fine, but not the most forgiving. Some jumps are super hard because you can't go through the platforms. But that could just as well be a deliberate thing. The only thing that I feel should be fixed is the jumpy camera. It would be better if it moved smoothly. Sounds are nice. I like the wind, it's not annoying and fits the game. Anyways, good job. The game looks great :)

I like the concept here! It makes for a nice trade-off, balancing grabbing gems for profit and saving them for platforms.
It's an enjoyable little game!

Nice artwork! And one of the clever-er takes on the theme so far.. It was tough learning how to not grab all the things, but once I did, everything made sense. Kind of a charming atmosphere, and fun game! My one complaint is the platforming, as I got the "oh no!" message more than once when landing on a just-out-of-view platform. Anyways, generally a great game, pleasant experience! Nice work!

Really beautiful graphics, the concept is simple, but works very well. Good job !

Wow, really great idea and execution of the theme. You really have to think fast on the way down to get a successful level built. Even once the level's built, I actually felt pretty tense making my way back up since you'll occasionally have difficult jumps like when you stack 2 platforms on top of each other. This looks like a great mechanic to expand on for future versions if you add different mobility options. One of the more unique games I've seen this LD, great work!

My score when I finally beat it - 76/50.

Really unique mechanic, it is a wonderful tradeoff on how many crystals to grab on the way down!

Cool little game, love the way the gameplay changes.

Took me a second to figure out how to use the booster, a sound while charging it might help tell the player that something is actually happening.

Very good game! The approach to the theme is great, I'm not sure I've seen any game like this.

I love the artwork. I thought that the best way to win the game was to catch no crystal at all while going down. Still, the climb was a bit difficult and I died a lot.

Good job, congratulations!

Really nice graphics, great concept! I included it in my Ludum Dare 40 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qheLSmToOo