Msitu by SaRNEh

About
You are the shaman of a wild tribe, crawling through haunted forest. You will have to sacrifice your body few times to reach the totem - your final destination.
How to play?
It's a classic platformer, but whenever you find an obstacle which you can not get rid of - you can sacrifice your body. You will start over, but in the spot where the offering was made, there will be new platform you can climb on. Be careful! Each time you pierce your own heart you will lose your vital forces!
Controls
| Button | Action | | ------------- | ------------- | | A | Move left | | D | Move right | | Spacebar | Jump | | X | Sacrifice |
Credits
| User | Credits | | ------------- | ------------- | | @sarneh | Programming | | @aart | Programming | | @foka | Graphics |
Music
- Artist: Kai Engel
- Title: Our Darkness In The Sky
- License
| Windows | https://machinode.itch.io/msitu |
| macOS | https://machinode.itch.io/msitu |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/msitu |
Ratings
| Overall | 740th | 3.152⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 785th | 2.891⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 699th | 2.935⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 400th | 3.63⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 456th | 3.609⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 320th | 3.565⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 35🗳️ | 0🗨️ |
- Using W doesn't jump as said as in the description, not really a problem as you can jump with space, just thought I'd signal it
- I can't finish the game, I end up not having enough lives after having to sacrifice myself.
The art is nice, it's missing a bit of something to make it alive. It would have been nice to have some sound on top of the music.
I couldn't see the end, but it's not a bad game
if(health <= 0) for finding death in your c# scripts. Other than that, this was really fun to play!
:thumbsup: The audio and graphics fit well together to create an atmosphere of ritualistic sacrifice, which really invoked the theme. The idea is really cool, and reminds me a bit of We The Giants:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSG2iYU8vIc
:bug: I noticed you could cancel the sacrifice animation by jumping during it (or jumping and triggering the sacrifice while in the air). I also ran into the invincibility bug, I triggered it by jumping on spikes and sacrificing myself in the air, when I hit them the character died with the spike death animation, and spawned a platform (and all my hearts were gone).
:point_right: I thought it was strange that death triggered the platform, but thing could also hurt you... maybe it would have made more sense if every time you died to had to start over (now with a new platform), and every death would trigger it (not just a sacrifice).
:star: Overall good job, and thank you for making this.
The idea is a bit too "safe", it fits the theme tho.
I feel like the jumps are too fast for the slow move speed. I think the character could have been a little bit more floaty.
The game kind of freeze a little bit when the character kills himself, I don't know if it's intended or if you are reloading the scene or something, but imo it should be smoother. I think it's important that the main mechanic feels good.
About level design, it looks like you made it so that the second jump is impossible to make, and you have to sacrifice a life to make it. That's great to teach how to use the new mechanic, but if it's indeed the intent, you should make it obvious that you can't simply make the jump and you should find another way.
Also I tried jumping on the enemy ghost thingy, maybe it's me being dumb, or it could also be more obvious that you shouldn't jump on it.