LudumData

Step into the Void (Web) by Bilzc10

[raw]
made by Bilzc10 for LD 42 (JAM)

title.png

Welcome to Step into the Void!

The goal is to get to the trophy in the quickest time and fewest steps possible to level up and boost your score. But be careful of falling tiles so you don't fall into the v̿̈́͆ơ̐̆i͊͛̓d̉̓̕.

game.png

You play a lost Joey Hernandez struggling to make it in the saturated food reviewing industry. To set himself apart from others, Joey has put himself through several tests. The latest of Joeys adventures has him racing the clock to get a highly sought after '#1 Food Reviewer' mug, which happens to resemble a trophy.

Be fast! The slower you are the faster the tiles will vanish, leaving you trapped in an endless void. Each level is larger and fast than the last. You have 3 lives to get as far as possible in an increasingly fast paced game.

Controls

WASD (recommended)/Arrow keys - Move Thats it!

Help Joey accomplish his dreams of becoming the worlds best food reviewer! How high of a score can you get?

Version 1.1 (8/16/18)

The game was tweaked a bit according to some feedback we received. The following changes were made: - Added a local All time high score tracker, saved between sessions using cookies. (High score found in the top right corner) - Enabled the global leaderboard for sharing and comparing scores with other players. - Added a simple mechanic which prevented bricks from decaying around and walling off the trophy. - Other miscellaneous tweaks under the hood.

Version 1.2 (8/23/18)

Leaderboard reset!

  • Score submission system revamped
  • Made score spoofing and illegitimate POST requests harder
  • fixed files that were supposed to be inaccessible being accessible
  • Other security tweaks and updates Another update addressing some gameplay issues will be out soon, I just wanted this update to be live as soon as possible.
HTML5 (web) https://void.paulieb.ga/
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/sticky-fingers

Ratings

Overall 844th 3.153⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Fun 516th 3.306⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 1082th 2.6⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Theme 403th 3.722⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1125th 2.361⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Humor 377th 3⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Mood 873th 2.773⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Given 31🗳️ 32🗨️

Feedback

overatedfool
14. Aug 2018 · 01:16 UTC
The game is actually really good. I had a fun time trying to beat every level. Well done!
sylvie
14. Aug 2018 · 02:39 UTC
Interesting game. I was expecting it to be very luck-based at first, but I got up to level 9 and there was only one time where my path to the exit was completely blocked off by falling tiles.
Diego Escalante
14. Aug 2018 · 03:01 UTC
I got to level 5. Anything past that was too much for my fingers. Good job making this game!
Veilastrum
14. Aug 2018 · 03:06 UTC
The game's pretty fun! Really fast-paced as well. There was a couple of times where the level became impossible to finish right off the bat because all the tiles around the trophy immediately disappeared right at the beginning of the level, but apart from that, it's a great game.
josehzz
14. Aug 2018 · 03:46 UTC
Got level 6 with 19517 score. Really fast paced game, you should put a little animation before a tile is removed.
Nam Nguyen
14. Aug 2018 · 04:01 UTC
I was curious if you delete the tiles totally randomly or not. Yes you do. But it was a fast paced game anyway. If you want to add more to it, I think you could have portal going from one place to another to add more dynamic to it :D.
![2.png](///raw/31a/91/z/18db6.png)
Simple game, enjoyable, dont even need instruction, and people make progress easily. All the elements for a good game! You even fall to the outter space underneath to double play the theme haha. Great job!
erebus
14. Aug 2018 · 04:16 UTC
Great job! Thanks for bringing it by the stream!
le_american
15. Aug 2018 · 00:42 UTC
fun game :D i died so much.....
Sebastian-M
15. Aug 2018 · 02:22 UTC
I love it. Is so simple, yet I had a lot of fun playing it. Not sure if you did the music but it was pretty cool and it fit perfectly.

I did found some... unfair situations.
![Capture.PNG](///raw/a70/8/z/199fc.png)

It's an awesome entry overall. Great job!

Edit: Is the title a Legend Of Korra reference?
Sam Estep
15. Aug 2018 · 03:45 UTC
Fairly decent game; felt pretty simplistic though. I was a bit confused to read the description about the food industry and then play a game about disappearing tiles, heh. One thing I noticed is that the music seems to keep cutting out repeatedly; it was playing like half the time, and it would say my tab was muted, but when I tried to unmute it, it would just play the victory sound and then mute again.
Astericon
15. Aug 2018 · 07:54 UTC
Got a quick laugh out of this game . Fun game!
Albin
15. Aug 2018 · 12:57 UTC
Really fun and fast paced game. The use of Joey from JoeysWorldTour made me feel less bad about falling into the dark, endless void. Good job!
🎤 Bilzc10
15. Aug 2018 · 16:56 UTC
@nam-nguyen and @josehzz, thanks for your ideas on how to improve the game! If we continue working on this game post-ludum dare, we'll definitely consider adding those, as well as making the tile decay a little less random.

@sam-estep The music is a 20 second track which loops poorly thanks to the html5 audio tag. The cutting out is a browser-based issue that we're aware of, although i dont think we've encountered the tab muting itself. We'll look into that.

Thanks to everyone else who played, too. Im glad everyone's enjoying the game
Paulie B
15. Aug 2018 · 17:20 UTC
@albin I'm glad someone finally knew who JoeyWorldTour was. For more Joey themed content you can visit https://paulieb.ga/ and play games such as Joey Jump (https://paulieb.ga/jump/) and CS-Joe (https://cs.paulieb.ga/). Thanks for playing our game!
DenBaum
15. Aug 2018 · 19:29 UTC
It was fun! Thank you for the great game :)
Colletto Gregory
15. Aug 2018 · 19:44 UTC
Interesting game.
The subject is really simple, but the game feels is enjoyable.

^^ If you want upgrade your game in a strategic way and reduce the lucky needed for win.
You can erase tile only when the player move, it's a first step.
I don't know if is possible with your code but, preset some patern (perhaps the paten can be the level with a sage road) for each level, and randomly erase unecesary tile (not the tile from the path).
You game suite very well with a comic rankings.

I drop some idea, but I like your game, good job guys
Ps: In one try, the rigth button was desactivated and my character fly over the void.
GhostGoatsGames
15. Aug 2018 · 22:00 UTC
Simple but fun. Puts you into unfair spots sometimes, but I had a good time with it.
🎤 Bilzc10
15. Aug 2018 · 23:44 UTC
@colletto-gregory Thanks for your suggestions, ive definitely been thinking of some ways to prevent the game from occasionally placing the player in impossible situations, but its pretty challenging to make it random (and different, if it was always the same, then the game would favor memory over fast decision making) yet still make it always possible. Also, as far as making it step based only, the game originally had most of the tiles removed by walking and very few being removed over time, which meant that the game was more luck based than skill based. if most tiles are removed by time, then you can improve your chances of making it by being faster. We'll definitely keep your feedback in mind if we continue working on the game, though.
As far as the glitch, would you mind providing more details, such as whether this occurred on the first stage or on a later stage, whether it occurred at the beginning of the stage or in the middle, etc.
Thanks for playing!
Ice Maker
16. Aug 2018 · 00:54 UTC
Simple, yet fun
16. Aug 2018 · 00:58 UTC
Simple, clean, fun but RNG can be unfairly punishing
schizoid2k
16. Aug 2018 · 01:10 UTC
Simple and fun... nice job. I got to Level 5... I also noticed an impossible situation... maybe the randomness should avoid that area around the trophy for a bit? Or maybe place the trophy in a random position each level. Either way, it's a nice start.
Sidnoea
16. Aug 2018 · 01:16 UTC
I couldn't get very far because I kept getting walled off from the trophy, which is no fun.
mccarlp
16. Aug 2018 · 01:59 UTC
It is an interesting take on the theme with an old school flavor. I had fun playing a few rounds, but without a high score to show whether you are getting any better, it seemed pointless to keep trying. It seemed like the holes increased frequency way too fast as the levels increased. Nice job though, good effort!
BeveL
16. Aug 2018 · 03:16 UTC
This game was very funny and simple! Althogh, the gameplay was not very fun, because it was random. The graphics and textures were well made though! Good Job!
🎤 Bilzc10
16. Aug 2018 · 03:36 UTC
@schizoid2k, @bevel, @sebastian-m, @veilastrum, @sylvie, @ghostgoatsgames and @sidnoea we know about the issue where you get walled off from the trophy occasionally, and I've been trying to come up with some solutions to the problem. As far as the suggestion to randomize trophy location (schizoid2k) and/or prevent the tiles around the trophy from degenerating, that's something we can definitely look into. Thanks for your feedback.

@mccarlp The score is located at the top of the screen, you can record your highest score and try to beat that. I was working on a scoreboard for the game, which I could publish in the next couple days. As far as the speed ramping up too much, that's something we'll have to play around with. When did you feel it started to get too fast? Anyway, thanks for trying our game!

Thanks to everyone else who tried the game, as well!
Sidnoea
16. Aug 2018 · 04:37 UTC
@bilzc10 If you'd like a recommendation, you could implement a simple pathing algorithm that checks whether or not there is a path from the player (or maybe from the starting position) to the goal, and if there isn't, don't remove that block.
novodantis
16. Aug 2018 · 07:55 UTC
I quite like @Sidnoea's idea. Routing from the start point would leave some element of random failure, but routing from the player's position would mean if you went slow enough, it would always be possible. That might still work well, as you score better by speeding up.

An interesting eventuality to this approach would be if you came to remove a tile and there was no tile that could be removed without blocking out the player. In that eventuality, you could remove the one the player is standing on instead: "took too long!"

In all, it's a simple concept that is actually pretty engaging and addictive.
🎤 Bilzc10
16. Aug 2018 · 13:11 UTC
@sidnoea and @novodantis, those are really good ideas, I just need to figure out how to implement that on top of the current code. I'm going to try to figure that out today.
OadT
16. Aug 2018 · 19:23 UTC
Finally a game with a good story :smile: Simple but good game mechanics!
🎤 Bilzc10
17. Aug 2018 · 00:31 UTC
@schizoid2k, @bevel, @sebastian-m, @veilastrum, @sylvie, @ghostgoatsgames, @novodantis and @sidnoea We're still working on a solution to make it completely impossible for a level to be unbeatable up until a certain time, but we have released an update that should make the issue happen far less often. (The issue may still pop up occasionally, but its very unlikely. Remember, the faster you are the less likely the issue is to ever occur.)

@mccarlp In the update i added a little high score counter that will keep track of your all time high score (on that computer). I also enabled the global leaderboard so you can submit and compare your score against anyone else whos played. I also tweaked the decay multipliers a bit. The amount the decay ramps up varies slightly from playthrough to playthrough (this is intentional), but hopefully its a bit better.
Sidnoea
17. Aug 2018 · 00:34 UTC
@bilzc10 And with that simple fix, the game is suddenly playable! I've re-rated.
Annie Owl
17. Aug 2018 · 21:42 UTC
Simple little game. I don't really know who Joey Hernandez, so I think I can't understand what the joke is, but that's okay.
Paulie B
18. Aug 2018 · 02:07 UTC
@annie-owl Joey is a food reviewer. Here is his channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC9uqoIkY8Nd7J9Gnk98W1w and he is my website dedicated to him https://paulieb.ga/
Shakedimus
20. Aug 2018 · 06:37 UTC
For me this game was not very fun. I didn't like that the gameplay felt kind of random. I think it would be more fun if there was a small indication like a split second before a block will fall. That way reflexes get rewarded more. It did look kind of funny and I think the music was fitting, the leaderboard was a nice touch.
Balance686
21. Aug 2018 · 15:21 UTC
Nice simple concept that makes good use of the theme. I like the challenge/pace and the difficulty ramp up. The music is bumping too (a longer loop would have been great). Having the tiles vanish randomly can put you in unwinnable situations so there is definitely a bit of luck to it. It might be nice to have a title briefly flash or glow before it falls so you can strategize better.
Nice submission!
🎤 Bilzc10
23. Aug 2018 · 14:01 UTC
@shakedimus and @balance686 thanks for your suggestions. The tile-falling warning idea is a suggestion we've gotten a couple times. I've been working on a big update to revamp the leaderboard system and tweak some other things, so @paulie-b or I may add that feature. Thanks for playing our game
🎤 Bilzc10
02. Sep 2018 · 23:29 UTC
@shakedimus, @balance686, @josehzz I forgot to mention, I released an update that added a simple texture change before tiles are removed, which should give you some warning before you make a decision. The time-based tile decay animations speed up as time goes on, though, so you'll still need to be fast.
ursagames
04. Sep 2018 · 06:40 UTC
Very snappy controls that felt good! Thanks for sharing your game with my stream awhile back. Your game was played around 1:21 into this vod: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/298692367