I didn't really expect a platformer and to be honest, I think the game would be more fun if it sticked to giving the player tasks to complete and left out the platforming. All in all an interesting approach to the theme and very solid graphics, especially the face of the leader.

Also please think of the Linux and Mac folks and add versions for them too if allowed by the engine.

I love the artstyle, and the repetition of the same level with different ruses.

Maybe it doesn't perfectly fit the theme, but a great game mechanic indeed. Great job!

The graphics is nice and sets the mood well. I only wish the controls were smoother. My biggest problem is with controls. It's hard to jump while walking, which is detrimental to a platformer. Still good job!

I really didn't expect to have this much fun with this game. I really loved the mood and the ambience of the game, despite not having having any sounds or music (though the silence almost seems to contribute to the theme of obedience and the eerie atmoshpere). I enjoyed it so much in fact that I did the five bars times at least three times despite being exceedingly frustrated by the game at that point (admittedly in the hope of some sort secret guidance appearing). The challenge curve felt just right in my opinion and the satisfaction from beating the game is simply immense, despite the only reward you get being more work.

The jumping felt surprisingly nice despite not being able to control the height, with one exception:


When you try jumping at the end of a platform, it feels like you just go right through it. This is one of the most frustrating things that can happen in a platformer and makes it feel as though you're not in control of the character. The fact that I managed to look past this flaw and play through the whole game says a lot about how compelling the rest of the game is.

Overall I really enjoyed the challenge, the iterative gameplay and the mood of the game, and if you fix the jumping I'd definitely love to play more of the same.

Thank you deeply for the encouraging comments. It's heartwarming to know the game did click with some people despite being so rough on the edges.

That collision detection issue is awfully embarrassing. I used a single raycast right down the middle of the character as a temporary measure for my first playtests, and never got around to fixing it, although it would have taken literally 2 minutes (I just did it in my current, not-uploaded build). Now I realize those would have been the most well-spent 2 minutes in my whole weekend.

I will definitely tweak quite a few things and add more content in the future. I did intend to include music (which, obviously, would have been soon muted by I a "Do not listen to music" rule) and sound effects, but this whole game jam was clearly a harsh but invaluable lesson in time management for me.

Love the idea. Pretty smooth controls, although collision detection isn't perfect sometimes. Good job!

I like how it kept getting harder everytime you succeeded while the level was still the same. Graphics, gameplay and the execution of the idea are great. I would love to see this game to receive a post-ludum update :)

I played the WebGL port on Firefox 57 and stopped at the "bring 3 steel bars" rule.

In no particular order:

- "The more rules you have, the worse it is" is a really good answer to the theme.
- Reusing the same level with different rules to force different paths through it is a good thing, but I used the same path (the higher platforms) after the 2nd rule and it killed nearly every rules. Preventing a "one solution for all problems" case would be more interesting.
- I found the controls a bit rough, this is a very personal opinion: I have hard times with platformers using pixel perfect jumps / movements and not physics-based.
- Graphics fit the theme of the game.

Globally I'm impressed by how much you accomplished in 48H and most of my complaints are based on the fact that you didn't had time to polish.

Ahh.. the floor burns! it burns!

Ok, I couldn't make it through the lava, but this was very impressive! It starts very weird and I didn't completely understand what was going on until the fourth promotion. But lava made it pretty clear :P

Congrats!

Thank you all for the feedback.

To clarify, new rules are added in a (mostly) random order, which can make some early runs much easier than others. I'm fine with it since it blends well with the theme of arbitrary decisions, however it will indeed require some level design adjustments to make the difficulty curve smoother and keep the progression interesting under all circumstances.

It was a pleasure to to serve my beloved supreme leader but my beloved supreme leader has to understand that contrary to him, it is very difficult for un simple human being to bring 5 pieces to the workstation in less than 30s without disturbing my coworkers. I beg my beloved supreme leader to be merciful with my family as they have nothing to do with my shameful failure.

@edmond00
Your plea has not fallen into deaf ears, although the Benevolent Leader once brought all the steel bars in the factory to his own workstation in less than 10 seconds, without jumping and with inverted controls.

Having regard to your being mildly amusing, and being a stern but merciful father even to his most undeserving children, the Benevolent Leader has gracefully agreed to send your family to a work camp where they can alleviate the guilt and shame they feel for the shortcomings of their deceased family member by carrying steel bars around until they, in turn, become unworthy of contributing to the greater good.

I really liked the 1984-esque aesthetic. The mechanic was pretty clever too. My only complaint is the collision detection on the edges. Otherwise, great game!

This was pretty solid. I gave in after the whole get 5 bars thing. Big Brother is just going to have to take me away. I like the idea of the more objectives you complete in a level the more restrictions or requirements are placed on you.

I loved the whole Orwellian aesthetic that was going on. The game tied in well with the theme ( the more rules imposed upon you the harder it gets). As others have mentioned the platforming is a bit harsh for my liking and it could have done with some subtle background music (not even necessarily sound effects as that could potentially add to aesthetic you're going for (people are too scared to even make a sound)).

amazing, great idea, well executed.

It was interesting and I feel like I really got good at the game. The aesthetics were nice, I liked the dystopian theme. Creative use of the theme :). I used the same route every time, going as up as possible.

Nice style! Love the lights and the sprite of the leader. Controls are really responsive too! I got confused because it said "no consecutive jumps", but when I made it to the workstation I failed because I had to bring 1 steel bar. When I did that it told me I failed because I had to bring 3 steel bars (?!).

But the mood and graphics in this game is really great, so well done overall!

Thank you again for the feedback. I'm really glad people are enjoying this game, and I will take comments into account for an upcoming update to the best of my abilities.

@drtizzle The Benevolent Leader is infinitely generous, yet he is also very hard to please.
Seriously though, was it actually a failure message or just a new rule (the message starts with "You have been promoted") ? I guess the extremely simple text layout could allow for some confusion.

This is a very good game, i like the mood (similar to the one of my game as you said when you commented it)
well balanced too,
++

The increasing challenge on the same level is really cool. I love how it forces us to keep revising our vision of the level. As some other I have stopped with the 3 bars. I wonder if it leads to any kind of ending...
Of course, some oppressive sound in a postcompo version would be really great !

Hi! Really good mood here, though some sound would really add to that. The core idea is really neat, and is a pretty innovative interpretation of the theme which I like! I must admit that I found it a tad too repetitive and stopped at "get 3 steel bars", but I still like the overall experience :)

All hail the benevolent leader! Really fun game. Unfortunately the tasks rather annoying and I stopped at "no consecutive jumps" because there was no indication of when I was allowed to jump. The style of the graphics was extremely cool but sound would have improved the game tremendously. Really nice idea for the theme too. All hail the benevolent leader!

That's pretty great, it definitely is similar to mine, thanks for recommending it =).

I really like that the restrictions are phrased in terms of social advice, each one was amusing.

I tried for quite a while to bring 5 steel bars (the final level?), but just couldn't do it. Exactly once I had 5 bars, was one hop from the end, with 1 second left, and failed at consecutive jumping -_-. My hand is sore, I'm going to stop playing now =).

I was often cited for consecutive jumping when I had not "jumped" in quite a while, which annoyed me until I realized that falling from a platform counted as jumping, then it was okay, but still slightly bothersome. A little sound, especially a landing sound to time when the next jump is legal, would have gone a long way.

@jimbly I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it. Sorry about the sore hand.

You are correct about how consecutive jumping detection works. It only covers a 0.2 second time window, but that's still enough to deserve a visual or auditory cue. I'm currently working on that kind of improvements, among another things, for a first big update.

Bringing 5 steel bars is not necessarily the very last guidance you get, but it's still pretty likely because steel bars are the only incremental rule. Here's an extremely compressed gif of a run under all currently implemented rules :

Maybe you should also upload a gif of the blind levels in Delver's Sunset. Wait, maybe not.

Ah, you were taking a slightly different route than mine (apparently a couple seconds quicker). It does appear I had all of the rules added, glad I was able to experience them all.

I considered doing an animated GIF... but the levels quickly get very visually uninteresting in Delver's Sunset =).

Nice game, for a noob like me it was naturally very hard making me ragequit. I enjoyed the controls and rules, and the mood was nicely creepy and orwellian, fit great with the theme :)

Quite fun game, pretty good idea, and your art is really good, kinda old school maybe 60's I dont know how to label your art, but I liked lol, good job !

I made it to floor is lava. Really nice game. Well made. I wish there were sounds. Especially for the leader. But also machine sounds and sounds of the workers. Music would have been a plus, but not as necessary. The controls were OK, but a bit annoying. In particular with when it recognized that you were on platforms and when not.

This is a really cool idea, but dang is it difficult! The platform collision for both the solid platforms and the machines is a little too unforgiving, and the time limit is brutal for when you have to get 5 steel bars. If I didn't see your GIF up there, I would have doubted it possible; that first bar alone eats up a good 10 seconds.

But it's a very good game, nonetheless. I liked the setting and presentation you've got. I'm afraid I'm just going to have to let the Benevolent Leader down.

I really like the idea, but it gets particularly difficult once it goes to the floor is lava. As an above poster stated, the platforming is really unforgiving. The idea is solid, however.

nice entry! Graphics fit in well and despite having any sounds I really enjoyed it! good job

Good job ramping up the difficulty. I had trouble with getting 3 bars in the timeframe, but I enjoyed the game. 5 stars for mood!

Pretty neat implementation of the progressive rules mechanic. I'll jump in with others in that no consecutive jumps isn't great--honestly I think as a rule you should remove it altogether. It's relatively easy to avoid, but whenever I get hit with it it doesn't feel like it's my fault (like the rest of the rules) which ultimately leads to frustration.

Besides that I thought the platforming felt pretty good, but I'm not the best platformer ;)

Collisions fail me a LOT but.. yeah, this is the first game that i find really fun in ludum dare.

theme +5 stars