Yourselves by Kloki
Yourselves is a puzzle platformer in which your past actions and selves will hinder or further your goals. You control different color-coded characters, who have to reach their matching colored portals. Navigate from platform to platform with precise jumps or by using previous selves as stepping stones. The more goals you reach, the more selves you’ll meet and if you fail, you are doomed to repeat the past. You can only rely on yourself by exploiting yourself.
Links:
• Download(Windows): https://goo.gl/A1LzYK
• Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Khu6sw7hQMc&t=7s
Key features:
• Be a perfectionist: One misstep will send you back into the past; be quick, be precise or repeat yourself.
• Strength in numbers: Sooner or later you’ll need more and more help from yourself, so make sure you know where you are going and where were you going.
• Seemingly easy, yet demanding: Not only you have to time your jumps and stick your landings, you also have to track your previous endeavours.
• Smooth aesthetics: A simple art style and light design to please the eye and help you perceive your surroundings more easily.
Design - Zoltan Elias
Code - David Keri
Art - Adam Homoki


| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/yourselves |
Ratings
| Overall | 332th | 3.45⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 255th | 3.4⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 176th | 3.55⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 655th | 2.7⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 190th | 4⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 443th | 2.429⭐ | 16🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 394th | 3.222⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 12🗳️ | 5🗨️ |
Is this a custom shader applied to that default character from Unity? (this silhouette is somewhat familiar to me)
Anyway, it worked pretty well! Almost messed it up at the last level, because I got confused with the spawning and target point. I know there is a visual clue, but I get distracted since its not strong enough. :smiley:
It would be nice if there were some sort of "speed up time" button, so that you don't have to spend so much time waiting around.
It would also have been nice if there were some music. :P
@cmlsc We had a hard time to get the controls right with the time manipulating element. It could have been polished no doubt but we ran out of time :s The speed up button is a great idea thanks :)

I appreciate the careful design of the levels -- the difficulty ramp was good and each level required new approaches and ideas to solve, with each element being deliberately placed. As such, each of the harder levels was very satisfying to complete and never felt like busywork. A common failure mode in puzzle games (that this game thankfully did not fall into) is to construct "filler" levels that do not present any additional difficulty or require additional insights over previous levels -- these are obviously not nearly as fun to play through :)
The graphics are outstanding as well. If you did the character modelling, rigging, animation, and shader development all during the weekend I'm very impressed -- even if not, the game's visuals also seemed very carefully designed. I liked that the platforms and every game object significant to the gameplay had high contrast against the background. The background was detailed and added a lot of flavor but was never distracting. It's also a neat touch to have the background reinforce the grid used for positioning all the other objects, which actually helps one figure out which platforms one can jump on, which require another object to step on, etc.
I'm not sure I have anything too constructive to tell you, beyond what you probably already know:
- I turned off my sound after a few levels because the footstep clinking got on my nerves
- The platformer collision detection and behavior was occasionally frustrating. I occasionally felt I should have successfully made a jump but instead fell just short.
- Why was there a crouch action? I didn't find any use for it since it prevents you from walking.
> one way to possibly get around this would be to add a restart that only restarts to the most recently spawned color.
I sort of felt the same way for a while during the middle of my playthrough. I kept bonking my head on a ceiling trying to cross a gap in the second-to-last level as the green character and kept getting stuck in the pit, wishing I could undo just that layer without having to replay the blue and orange layers. But I think by the end of the game I changed my mind. The trick is to not waste too much time on the earlier layers, and retry immediately if there's a mistake. That is, go fast and iterate in short cycles.
@xxdoombox Hi! thanks for your feedback! We know the controls are a bit clunky but we ran out of time :( We definietly want to add more levels and continue working on this game, we already made a Greenlight page for it! Check it out if you want : http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=913154168
We tried the most recent guy respawn system but it felt too easy.
@lennart-jansson Hi! Thanks for your feedback! All of your concerns was answered exept the crouch mechanic. So if you jump someone's head and crouch you can travel trought obsticles.
Good game, good idea, good prog, Great job mate !
Unfortunately the user interface commits the oldest sin in the book of UI design: It wastes my time at every opportunity. Let's have a *sin list* shall we:
- When a character reaches its goal I still need to wait for the rest of the characters to finished their movements. This downtime should be automatically fast forwarded so that I can start moving the next character right away.
- When a mistake is made, the only thing to do is to restart the whole level. An option for restarting the current character would be much more efficient in cases where the previous characters are already doing the right things.
- Traps! Why are there areas that a character cannot get away from? Falling into these is an instant restart.
- Jumping! The window for making a successful jump is somethings very strict. In fact, you have to jump when the character is already hovering in air over the edge. Took me a while to get used to that.
Note that the second two issues are problematic namely due to the first two. Basically, once I've already figured out the logic of the puzzle, completing the level should be a breeze not a slog.
That might sound like a lot of negativity there, but no worries. They are relatively small things in comparison to the rest of the project which is just fine. Good entry overall.