Dash Guy by Defratino

[raw]
made by Defratino for LD 39 (COMPO)

Controls:

use W/D/S or the arrow keys to dash.

About the game:

In Dash Guy (sorry about the bad name) you try to survive as much as you can in an alien ship who breaks as you escape it.

Goal:

Survive as much as you can.

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My Thoughts about the end result:

I'm satisfied with how it came out, but it is still a little bit rough around the edges. It turned out really hard so please try to gain some experience, so that you could enjoy the game as it was intended. I'd love to hear any feedback, I hope you'll have fun.

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Ratings

Overall 349th 3.289⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Fun 275th 3.263⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 425th 2.895⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Theme 493th 3.158⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 195th 3.615⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Audio 211th 3.162⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Humor 332th 2.273⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Mood 385th 2.829⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Given 50🗳️ 10🗨️

Feedback

Adrien Dittrick
31. Jul 2017 · 19:34 UTC
Hey! I liked the music and graphics, but aiming at that tiny hole on the first level is super hard T_T
Hilvon
31. Jul 2017 · 22:23 UTC
Is it just me or the levels (except the first one) are randomized...
Kind of hard to navigate the level without getting to know it's layout. So first level is fun, and then... it's just frustration.
Managed to get to level 3 only once. By accident.
🎤 Defratino
31. Jul 2017 · 22:31 UTC
Yep, the levels are randomized.
The game is supposed to be hard and unpredictable so that after a few runs the game won't become repetitive and annoying.
Aaron McLeod
31. Jul 2017 · 22:38 UTC
Update your description to include controls, took me a bit to figure out what to press :). I think with fixed levels and save spots, the game would have a nice balance. Think about how super meat boy did that.
Maldo19
31. Jul 2017 · 22:39 UTC
It's a fun little game, the characters look good, the music is a little too relaxing. It weird me out that the dying sound effect is pac-man's.

If I had to say something to improve this is that if the levels don't give you enough time to react, and the game doesn't penalize you if you spam the dash, the levels are too short for you to run out of energy so... If you put longer levels with longer dashes with less energy you would encourage the player to think more about when to dash and react to the levels.
hairaz
31. Jul 2017 · 22:44 UTC
I really love it ! Very fun to play, good graphics and sound. Most of all, it's one of the rare game where you really play with your energy level, taking risks to keep some for the end.
I had no problem to understand the levels layout, after a few tries I didn't know them by heart but could guess easily how to go through them :)

(By the way, since you are using the Pac-man death sound, it might be against the rules for competing in the audio category. I liked the audio so I rated it, and I might be wrong about that, but maybe check the exact rules !)
🎤 Defratino
31. Jul 2017 · 22:56 UTC
I didn't know it's against the rules... I'll change it, thanks.
PolyWolf
01. Aug 2017 · 00:24 UTC
Wow, this is a really good game! The alien death sound effect just cracked me up, and the randomized levels reminded me of the replayability of something like Jetpack Joyride. I agree with @hairaz in that this is one of the only games that seems to have a balanced energy meter, so good job!
Kingethaniel
01. Aug 2017 · 00:30 UTC
It crashed on startup for me :p
HuvaaKoodia
01. Aug 2017 · 09:27 UTC
It is enjoyable once you get the hang of the dash timing. I have to repeat some of the criticism already given. The first level should be randomized too, it becomes boring after a while. I only ran out of power once and then it felt like the input had bugged out, that is how rarely I had to look at the power bar.

With a bit more polish, tweaking and design this could be super frantic fun all around all the time.
colozz
02. Aug 2017 · 18:58 UTC
Hey, your game is really cool!

I loved:
- The game mechanics
- The graphics
- The audio (did you make the fart noises yourself?)

I would have loved:
- Some checkpoint mechanics

Keep making innovative games like this one, hope to see you on future LDs!
Kingethaniel
03. Aug 2017 · 02:36 UTC
I liked the game! Nice character animation and sound effects added lots to the feel of the game. Made it feel really tactile and crunchy. It was a little hard tot ell why exactly I was losing, other than that, nice job!
Drachmor
03. Aug 2017 · 19:07 UTC
A little unforgiving, but fun! I liked the graphics, sounds, and music, and the controls were very satisfying. I also liked how you did the "help" menu. I think the lighting comes a little fast, and I didn't quite understand the concept of the lightning being larger when you have more power... but even if you left that challenge intact, it would have at least been nice to restart a specific level rather than restarting the entire game. Despite that, this was a very good entry!
🎤 Defratino
04. Aug 2017 · 11:54 UTC
Thanks for the great feedback! The reason the games start over every time you lose is because the game is score based and not level based. In games which are level based I sometimes feel like I miss part of the game if I don't get to the end. To prevent that from happening in my game, I made it score based.
crass_sandwich
04. Aug 2017 · 18:18 UTC
Really good compo game!

Things I liked:

- Music: lovely, wonky chiptune stuff. Vaguely Undertale

- Graphics: solid, pleasantly-chunky pixel art

- Gameplay: satisfying and fast. Well-executed infinite runner platformer

- Level design: very good procedural generation for a compo game. Impressively done

What doesn't work as well:

- how fast the tentacles move. An endless runner should give you some time to orient yourself before you get sucked up into oblivion. It feels like the tentacles move almost twice as fast as the player, which is too much.

- how some of the jumps are impossibly precise. If you don't get a checkpoint, you can't expect the players to make the jumps in the < 1 second reaction time they're given.

- I'm not entirely sure what mood you were going for in the whole. The music, art and gameplay are fantastic individually, but they don't agree with each other. The music has a nostalgic feel, but the art is sci-fi; the gameplay is frantic, but the music is aloof. Really, the music, while very enjoyable, is the biggest culprit here.

- this is a minor thing, but because the tentacles move so fast, they almost always get you before your power has a chance to run out. Kind of makes the theme connection tenuous, but doesn't negatively impact gameplay, imo

Overall, however, this is a really well-made compo game. Hope to see more from you
MarkWolf
05. Aug 2017 · 06:25 UTC
A fun and hard game. Really nice try. If it could a little easier at the beginning, it would be better. I appreciate you took the time to offer the player the opportunity to turn on/off music and sfx.
Linky439
05. Aug 2017 · 07:22 UTC
That's a fun game you have here! It is a bit hard to get used to it in the first place, but then it works really well. I would just have made a "tutorial" or a least an easier mode to get used to it, but it is really good nonetheless.

Great job, the graphics are nice, the audio is nice (what the hell is that sound when you kill aliens though ^^), and the game works well. Congrats!
TheFlyingKeyboard
05. Aug 2017 · 08:58 UTC
Really fun idea of runner game type. Controlls are ok, but I think that game is little bit too hard.
davideperozzi
05. Aug 2017 · 17:46 UTC
Good gameplay and amazing graphics. It's a little bit hard but you get used to it after a couple of trys. Enjoyed it. Great entry! :)
FunkyHippo
05. Aug 2017 · 21:07 UTC
A really good entry for this years Ludum Dare that's for sure! It has some nice and fast gameplay
superpokeunicorn
05. Aug 2017 · 21:35 UTC
This game has some pretty neat ideas going on. I like the very fast pace gameplay; I felt like my skills were constantly being tested. Having the levels be in a random order is really smart. I was repeatedly dying at first as it took a while to get a handle on the mechanics and the game was throwing obstacles at me faster than I could react to them. That could have been frustrating, but having the levels be in a random order allowed me to constantly get to see new content and practice my skills on new levels. Eventually I improved enough to be able to handle the game's fast pace and really enjoy it. The randomness really helps the variety and replayability of the game. The visuals are pretty nice, if a pit noisy. I particularly like the look of the main character. Overall, this is a really enjoyable game, even if it is a bit rough around the edges.
silkworm_sweatshop
05. Aug 2017 · 23:01 UTC
That was fun! Dashing is really satisfying and art felt polished. Took me a while to figure out I could dash down as well as up more than once. The randomized levels confused me a bit but I understand your reasoning behind it.
MagicSpore
08. Aug 2017 · 16:51 UTC
Good dynamics, good idea!
Vivoubos
08. Aug 2017 · 20:14 UTC
Nice experience on this game! Congratz!

So bad that sometimes you want to dash faster than light and you have to waiYYt!

Anyway good job! Your audio is lovely
Simone
11. Aug 2017 · 12:02 UTC
Can you also release a html5 version?
ristoretto
11. Aug 2017 · 13:59 UTC
* Feels nice to be able to dash in all four directions.
* Nice with short levels.
* I like the art for the barriars, cables and dirt combined.
* I think the game gets a lot harder because the killing lightning starts very close to the player in the beginning of the level. It happend a couple of times that I died right away when I got the level where you have to dash two times up, because the lighting was so close form the start.
* Would be nice to be able to restart the game other then the mouse ex on enter.
* Would be interesting if you made something with the goal, ex made it glow and spawn a lot of particles when the player reach it.

I got 10103m, over all a nice game :)
oakus
11. Aug 2017 · 15:31 UTC
This is quite fun and quite hard and quite good :) Some levels are really hard so I would like to train them more but because of the randomness I get them only once in a while and they are the doom of my run every time, so thats quite frustrating.
gonutz
12. Aug 2017 · 17:10 UTC
Unfortunately I cannot play your Windows 64 bit game on my 32 bit machine, could you add another build?
Dragojt
13. Aug 2017 · 11:40 UTC
Hey!

Cool animations and effects so congrats :)
Music is simple but works well, as all other sounds.
All sprites are cool. I know it's a compo entry, but a different background than a simple color would be awesome.

This game is so enjoyable, nice job!
Irishbruse
13. Aug 2017 · 13:33 UTC
Nice game i liked the music and the art was really cool.
hav24
13. Aug 2017 · 18:39 UTC
It is a little bit too hard or am I missing something? XD
BTW great animations and good sound part. I think the game is suitable for a mobile port in the future, so keep improving it! :)
NNNIKKI
13. Aug 2017 · 19:35 UTC
I have a few questions...
1. Why is there a fart sound when you touch the floating blue thingy?
2. Why is the game called "Made in GameMaker: Studio"?
3. Why does it have the GameMaker: Studio icon?
4. Why aren't there any instructions?
5. Why did you use GameMaker: Studio and not GameMaker: Studio 2? XD
🎤 Defratino
13. Aug 2017 · 23:03 UTC
@nnnikki
1) .... Because it's fuuny?
2, 3) Because I'm using trial version.
4) There is a "HELP" button in the menu.
5) Because I'm old school...

Anyway I hope you enjoyed the game.
RNGSilvercraft
14. Aug 2017 · 16:37 UTC
that sound effect XD
Well done!It's simple but fun.
tomdeal
15. Aug 2017 · 16:28 UTC
Cool game! Very hard and unforgiving, but fun nonetheless. Liked playing around with the Dash mechanics. Maybe the levels should not be randomized, that would make it easier to learn their patterns.