ghost story by ooku
* Have you ever wondered what happens after death? *
This could be the beginning of a supersuper * metroidvania * with a lot of * story * . Or maybe it is just a buggy prototype to say thank you to the ludum dare community for the past 15 years! (well I know ludum dare just for 3 years now but anyway :p)
Links
- web: http://ooku.org/ld38/
source: http://ooku.org/ld38.zip
post compo: https://ooku.itch.io/ghost-story
- updates:
- fullscreen support
- webgl support (if the game is blurry disable webgl in your browser)
- too big physics body bug
* best experience with chrome *
* controls: * - move - arrow keys left/right or A/D - jump - space - change character - arrow key up or W
created by https://twitter.com/ookuorg



| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/ghost-story |
Ratings
| Overall | 178th | 3.545⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 151th | 3.5⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 139th | 3.5⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 281th | 3.364⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 300th | 3.136⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 177th | 3.182⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 104th | 3.3⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 205th | 3.273⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 22🗳️ | 30🗨️ |
I got some sort of bug while playing the web version: every now and then when i respawned the purple blocks where offset a bit vertically, getting partially submerged in the ground. This happened less than 1/10 times but I got it a few times (yes, I died a lot).
Some parts were harder than they looked, like landing on the platforms right after the gif above, you had to be at the precisely right hight to get through, otherwise my little ghost would just bang against the wall, frustrated.
Overall a nice game with good simple graphics!
Sadly, the game gave me a bit of nausea, probably because of the general floatiness of the camera. So I had to stop after a while. What I have seen up to that point was pretty cool though. I like the music and the concept. The art fits the minimalist theme of the rest of the game.
I am not sure what the point of quoting the old LD themes was, but I assume it was explained later in the game.
I found a cool exploit: if you jump in the air, touch the wall near the ledge, and quickly turn around so that your back is facing it, you will clip onto the ledge. *This trick can be used to cross the first large gap using just cat form.* It's actually useful for getting on the second ledge much quicker than normal.
GIF of exploit: http://puu.sh/vIXVQ/7a79e9c45f.gif
---
You're level design speaks to me. It tells me something I didn't know before. It gently guides me to discover how to use the cat and the ghost in conjunction. I love playing older games because they don't hold your hand, they throw you in the deep end so you can learn how to swim. Your game threw me in the deep end. Once I got the cat body, I tried jumping over that big gap more times than I'm willing to say. It took me a while to figure out how to do it, but once I did, I felt a wave a satisfaction. Good stuff.
This is an awesome game that deserves to be fleshed out. I'm rooting for you!
Some random thoughts:
* As easy as it is to make pixel art and scale it in-game, it looks very amateur to mix resolutions in pixel art. I'm talking about the candles (which were actually still awesome and charming)
* Cool music! Together with the background, it created a very fitting mood.
* I'm glad you have a real ending. I felt rewarded when I reached the end and it did something new.
Really impressive for a compo!
I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Other than some funky physics everything was beautifully polished!
The hitbox for the ghost form is ridiculously big compared to the sprite size. I sometimes died to blocks miles away :)
The cat movement is very draggy, for most jumps I just switched to the ghost form.
And lastly: That gap on the right just before the end. I mean, you can't really fall down there by mistake, so I thought there might be a secret there. And I jumped in. And nothing happened. And I had to restart the whole game due to the lack of a reset button. I mean rushing through all of it again was fun, don't get me wrong, but I was sooo hoping for a reward for being a fool :)
Despite all the critique: This was one of the finest games I played this LD, great job overall!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNjIIPVrvYI