Sparkman Adventures by Lamm

Well im so exited because this is my first ludum dare and my first game, and i finish the goal.
The game is a platformer 2D
Controls: W,A,S,D or arrow keys Double Jump: twice W Shoot Spacebar
Enjoy it!
| Windows | https://maple-games.itch.io/sparkman-adventures |
| HTML5 (web) | https://maple-games.itch.io/sparkman-adventures |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/sparkman-adventures |
Ratings
| Overall | 647th | 3.026⭐ | 79🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 572th | 2.909⭐ | 79🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 825th | 2.13⭐ | 79🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 736th | 2.857⭐ | 79🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 522th | 2.074⭐ | 70🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 566th | 2.935⭐ | 79🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 133🗳️ | 83🗨️ |
- the background music is too repetitive and drony, doesn't set a an enjoyable mood
- the mixed artstyle looks confusing, the art should be consistent
- the lack of sound is very unsatisfying
- the theme is unclear
- the physics are wonky. the character sinks into the landscape all the time.
- the 2 blocks at every jump exacerbate the bad physics and make jumping a chore
It's honestly not a fun game but I hope that you'll keep working on games regardless
Here are a few thoughts I had about the platformer itself:
1. I found the movement was a bit finicky... I kept sliding around a lot. I don't know how you set up your character/Unity scene, but in my past experience I've found it can help to play around with the Physics materials. It might be worth looking into that more at some point. There might be other solutions too.
2. The introduction of the different mechanics might have been better spread out a bit more. Right away at the beginning, after the first jump across the gap, I was tested with the monsters. So I used the energy weapon (mechanic 1). Then right away I had to figure out how to double jump (mechanic 2) to get an item to recharge my energy (mechanic 3). Even though there aren't a lot of mechanics here, it did feel like I had to figure out a lot all at once. Then the rest of the level felt... perhaps a bit repetitive because there weren't too many new things after that?
3. I found that I could jump past the monsters, so there was very little point in combating them. Maybe that's okay though.
Disclaimer: I don't play platformer games all that often. If something I said here seems strange (because it should be obvious/conventional), please do let me know.
Thanks for sharing!
The problem with this game is that it don't use a lot the "energy" mechanic, it only serves as ammo.
Also, the game over message didn't trigger when an enemy killed you.
The only bad thing I can say about it is that it doesn't fit the theme of the Jam, so that's a bummer.
I was expecting having to download the game but then it took me to a web version which is great! To encourage people to play and rate your game I would recommend you to add the web-version link to this page. Because right now it only says "Windows" which may deter some people from trying it.
I will suggest to you to keep the enemies from running off the platform is to have a special block type (that looks the same) to put at the edge of a cliff, so the enemies can turn around when they touch that rather than relying on a physical barrier. I also found that it was possible to win without using any power--having jumps take power would have been a fun addition to make power feel very limited.
Overall this is a great game! Keep up the great work!
No es muy innovador como juego de plataformas, pero los niveles están bien hechos y el grado de dificultad aumenta poco a poco, ¡muy bien! Y entiendo que si es tu primer juego, entonces el objetivo no fue lanzarte a algo complicado, sino primero ver cómo es eso de hacer un juego. Ya tienes la experiencia para hacer otros juegos y divertirte haciéndolo, ¡ánimo!
También comencé programando en PHP y luego aprendí unity, también me gustaríaa algún día ganar dinero con los juegos. ¡Así que adelante, colega!
- movement needs to be changed, right now is very floaty and feels as if character is moving on ice,
- slowing down the player is very hard,
- sound effects would add really nice feel to the game,
- some of the UI elements went partially of the screen,
- jumping on enemies heads would definitelly make this game more enjoyable,
- player can partially stuck in walls.
Level design seems to be nice (those tile at ends of platforms are to prevent enemies from falling?).
Unfortunately the "running out power" part, with the shooting, needs a bit of tweaking, since it's possible to complete the game, without shooting a single bullet. This can easily be fixed with level design alone, where the player is forced to shoot or you could set a timer on the power, so that the player has to reach the next pickup, within a given time.
Other than that, great work, had fun :slight_smile:
- If you could just add some death effect of enemy and player then it would be really nice
I love tight controls and yours are floaty, but, for some reason, I didn't mind it. Maybe because it added an acceleration vibe to the movement.
The level design was nice. It didn't repeat too much and, since your system is working, you can easily add more levels, different enemies.
Overall, what I liked the most was the art. The animation was very fluid and the main char was charismatic.
Congratulations!
just your standard fare platform game
but it's an awesome and fun standard fare platform game
The music and art worked quite well together even if the art was a bit inconsistent. I assume from the fact that you're not asking to be rated in __Graphics__ and __Audio__ that you were using assets off the internet, in which case the inconsistency is understandable - I only really started creating my own assets since LD37 so I know finding consistent assets online can be very difficult.
Only issue I had with the running out of power theme is that I was never in any danger of running out of power... most enemies could be avoided instead of fighting them.
Keep making games, you'll only improve this way :D
Yay, I beat the game with one Enemy dead. Soundfeedback would be cool.
Keep going. Was a lot of fun. :)
Also shooting is nothing here, i just dont need energy and shoot, just jump and jump :)
I don't like that enemies kill by simple touching you. Maybe you should take some energy out instead or add hit points.
Great work!
The pixel art character contrasts good with the enviroment.
With more animations and effects would be awesome.
So enjoyable game!
Some things you should work on, i still have issues too with platformers with unity, but,
* The collisions should be consistent, your game still have collisions problems, like you can stuck at the start, on the left side collider, by jumping and holding the left arrow key.
* The player should have some feedback about what is going on, should, animations, particles, every one of this makes the game feels better.
Good job for your first game jam, i hope you keep working on your game and improving your skills. :heart:
Overall, I liked it! Well done! :smile: