The Mining of Life by StaNov
TLDR: Everything you need to know is explained in the game. Just play it :)
In our game you become a dead coal miner's ghost who can shapeshift into items he finds. Your goal is to get to the surface and tell everybody about the meaning of life.
Controls: Arrow keys or WASD for movement, Space for jumping and Enter for shapeshifting.
Credits:
David Broček - story, dialogs, graphics
Pája Grochal - level-design, music, graphics
Standa Novák - team-lead, programming, sound effects
Maka Grochalová, Anita Jadrná - catering, playtesting
Koton the Cat - mood supervisor, focus-losing element
You can watch a part of our initial brainstorming (in Czech) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_DezOozDTw
My webpage: http://www.StaNov.cz
David's webpage: http://www.thanyxstudio.jdem.cz
My Ludum profile with my previous Ludum games: http://ludumdare.com/compo/author/stanov/
In our game you become a dead coal miner's ghost who can shapeshift into items he finds. Your goal is to get to the surface and tell everybody about the meaning of life.
Controls: Arrow keys or WASD for movement, Space for jumping and Enter for shapeshifting.
Credits:
David Broček - story, dialogs, graphics
Pája Grochal - level-design, music, graphics
Standa Novák - team-lead, programming, sound effects
Maka Grochalová, Anita Jadrná - catering, playtesting
Koton the Cat - mood supervisor, focus-losing element
You can watch a part of our initial brainstorming (in Czech) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_DezOozDTw
My webpage: http://www.StaNov.cz
David's webpage: http://www.thanyxstudio.jdem.cz
My Ludum profile with my previous Ludum games: http://ludumdare.com/compo/author/stanov/
Ratings
| Coolness | 49% | 1160 |
| Overall(Jam) | 3.81 | 108 |
| Audio(Jam) | 3.03 | 456 |
| Fun(Jam) | 3.79 | 87 |
| Graphics(Jam) | 3.37 | 525 |
| Humor(Jam) | 3.50 | 122 |
| Innovation(Jam) | 3.27 | 356 |
| Mood(Jam) | 3.60 | 204 |
| Theme(Jam) | 4.07 | 67 |
Great title!
Awesome mechanic. Could have had a little harder levels though, my only complaint =)
However this was more possession than shapeshifting.
Played very briefly @ 2:35:07 : http://www.hitbox.tv/video/991443
Main complaint is with the audio design. The sound effect of shapeshifting is screechy, loud, and very unpleasant. My personal rule of thumb is not to use timbres with few overtones where I can avoid it, but if you have to aim for the old speaker vibe at least don't use such a high pitch.
The writing's passable, not particularly engaging and got in the way of the puzzles more often than not. I think a lot of the jokes didn't have the proper setup, or the proper timing. The punchline is just delivered far too early.
The physics doesn't feel very polished, on many occasions I was able to jump off vertical walls or pixel-width ledges, the mass of the objects is a bit unpredictable (I wasn't expecting not to be able to move as a box with another box on me), but the system works well enough to finish the game.
The graphics could've used a hell of a lot more contrast. I could see what was going on well enough, but the game really didn't catch my eye. Flat squares with no normal mapping and a greyscale noise filter thrown on them don't make for particularly tasty eye-candy. I'd have liked to see some stalactites, some gemstones, anything. And the light attached to the player doesn't have the effect you're going for if you don't provide a background to light up or normal maps to make the lighting realistic. Crazybump's free and takes a couple seconds to operate. Use it people.
I think the puzzles were a little simple. I think it could have used a little more complexity and different item stacking combinations for more potential. I also think some text could be shortened, such as the "Hey, there's a block over there!" *whole block of text explaining how to possess a block* At this point, I already have a clue to possess the block, so the latter text felt really unnecessary.
Graphics are ok. Sound is a bit annoying after some time, softer sounds while shifting would be appreciated.
The ending is hilarious xD
Overall a very fun experience 4/5