Battery Boy by cihy

[raw]
made by cihy for LD 39 (JAM)

My first jam game. Not my proudest work, but hey, I did it!

The game is about a boy who is stuck in one of 20 arenas for no particular reason. Your goal is to survive as long as possible. You can pick up batteries, that are dropped every now and then. Pick them up quickly, because your energy is running out. The lower the energy is, the slower you go and the lower you jump.

You use arrows to move around, 'SPACE' to enter things and 'ESC' leaving.

If you leave the game clicking ESC enough times, the scores will be saved(in "%localappdata%\ld39").

There is a special hidden ending that involves the game freezing. Congratulations! Pat yourself on a shoulder and congratulate yourself experiencing that moment.

Ratings

Overall 793th 2.7⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Fun 646th 2.8⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 698th 2.55⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Theme 316th 3.65⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 757th 2.35⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Audio 520th 2.5⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Mood 770th 2.333⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Given 26🗳️ 13🗨️

Feedback

Rapter
01. Aug 2017 · 13:10 UTC
Nice Game !!!
pcmaster
01. Aug 2017 · 13:53 UTC
Your game is playable, sir :) Just not very challenging. It seems that the batteries fall down no matter what. The controls are OK. As for graphics, the character is very tiny but I have good eyes :) Good job putting it together, with all the maps to choose from!
madalaski
01. Aug 2017 · 14:03 UTC
Wow! Lots of content for your first jam! You be very proud of getting a good solid game out in such a short amount of time, many don't even make it that far.

We all have to start somewhere though, so here's what you can do to improve. First of your level design isn't very well thought out on most levels. Some levels you can fall from the top to the bottom with one misstep, others you can only stay on the ground floor for the entire thing. The platformer controls are pretty good, but lack some flow. Depending on what you're looking for, you might want to add some variable height with how long you hold the jump button for, or check to see if the player is about to hit the ground before they jump as those things can definitely improve the feel of the platformer. You're player character was small, perhaps too small, but it was worth it to keep the entire arena on one screen, otherwise it would've been much too hard.

Ofc, this is still a fine entry. Certainly better than my first ever jam entry! But that should never stop you from trying to improve from that so make sure to take all the feedback you get into account. Good luck!
Steing
01. Aug 2017 · 16:08 UTC
Nice game for a first entry ! The main mechanic is very interresting, and i personnally think you should exploit it and upgrade your game ! I think the game lacks a bit of balancing, since getting all batteries finally didn't let me outpass the score of 80, and more maps, sprites, heroes with different powers could totally make this game a little indie i would play ! :)
Konio Softworks
02. Aug 2017 · 14:26 UTC
Hey, good job. Interesting to play
MatKubik
02. Aug 2017 · 14:29 UTC
That was my first LD too and your games looks like mine. Pretty simple principle but working ! Great job for a first entry !
gamesplusjames
02. Aug 2017 · 15:00 UTC
That was fun! Having so many levels in a jam game is awesome! I liked the way your speed and jumping got lessened as your power ran out :) Great job!
Mordokay
02. Aug 2017 · 16:04 UTC
Game was fun. And even though some arenas were a bit unbalanced when I died I knew the fault was mine. My best score was 99 Points on the very first arena!

Its only when you start losing strength and cant jump high enough to reach power that you start to understand that there is more to this game than collecting power. You also have to manage where you are in the map and save the easier to get power in case of emergency.

I also noticed a small bug that crashed the game when your power runned out.

With the ammout of arenas you managed to make this game becomes very replayable and you can always return to your favourite arena to try and beat your highscore :P

Great job! Specially for your first Jam!
luckyy
02. Aug 2017 · 17:12 UTC
Quite the neat game you got there :)
I was really surprised when I saw that there were so many arenas to choose from. They really help by raising the game's replayability.
Anthony Moran
02. Aug 2017 · 17:28 UTC
Liked the concept, and the fact that there is lots of different arenas. It adds a lot to the game to be able to try it in different places! Just a quick note though, even when collecting every single battery that fell, I still manage to lose because the batteries were not in sufficient supply, however that could probably be an easy tweak.
CobaltRisen
02. Aug 2017 · 17:33 UTC
The game was fun, but the music got annoying pretty quick since it didn't have variation. Apart from that, a great game with an impressive amount of levels to choose from.
stefvanschie
03. Aug 2017 · 09:59 UTC
I liked the concept of the game. I felt like there was a shortage of batteries, where the batteries didn't fall fast enough to keep my battery full (even if the spawned directly above me, I would still lose more than I gained) which partially defeated the strategy part. Also some levels could have been a bit more interesting, for example the circle one.
The character sprite is quite tiny and hard to see form time to time, perhaps make it a little bigger. Overall nice entry.
wwwhizz
03. Aug 2017 · 09:59 UTC
It's not that bad, wel done finishing it, there are quite a few levels, but could do with more game elements.
MCjammydodger
03. Aug 2017 · 09:59 UTC
A fun game, with plenty of content. The controls felt good and I liked how the characters speed dropped as the power ran out.

However, in some levels I would collect every battery as soon as they fell but the power would drop at a faster rate than what the batteries would fill up so it was impossible to stay alive. Also the music got quite annoying, I ended up muting the game.

Good job!
nanolotl
06. Aug 2017 · 08:38 UTC
Nice how the jump height and movement was tied to your power level. Good job. For future reference though, I would recommend exporting Game Maker games as a zip or stand-alone executable rather than an installer.
Rixud
11. Aug 2017 · 22:48 UTC
Actually i had a lot of fun playing your game! Its simple but fun!i love the low battery/slow move mechanic... nice music... :thumbsup: ... I found the secret end of the game!jajajaja task manager/end task was necessary (you should look on that).. hope you keep making games! and i can see you in the next Ludum Dare!
TheCodeFactory
15. Aug 2017 · 22:24 UTC
I thought the character was tiny but had fun anyways! Cool entry.