Paynplayne by OrbitalBlueprint
You have finally sprouted as a being whose body can turn PAIN into GOLD.
Your creator, M, a witch, has a simple task for you: Bring a letter to her sister at the other end of the Paynplayne...
Short experience. Should take a little under 10 minutes to complete.
CONTROLS:
[ARROWS] - Move
[NUMBERS 1-5] - Inventory
[A] - Interact / Confirm
[S] - Use selected item
[D] - Skip dialogue
[LSHIFT] - Sprint
Everything (visuals, sound effects, music) was made within the 48 hour period. The game uses a base that I wrote beforehand for blank gamemaker projects that includes player handling, collisions, dialogue, etc.
A lot of features didn't make the cut, but oh well. I hope it's an enjoyable experience for its size!
SCREENSHOTS:



29/4/2019, 16:00: Published a quick update to remove unnecessary files and to fix two single-character goofups in the dialogue.
Itch.io page contains Windows download and the GameMaker project file.
| Windows | https://orbitalblueprint.itch.io/paynplayne |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/44/paynplayne |
Ratings
| Given | 28🗳️ | 25🗨️ |
Mechanically there is a problem evident early on. Health potions cost 8 and refill 20 health. So its easy to get infinite money by standing on the cactus to take damage, then walk in, buy health, heal, repeat. I'm honestly not sure if there was another intended way. I played all the way through though, it was a fun journey. The ending was a slight disappointment though, maybe you could have used some of the dialogue with the other stuff in the game and signs to build up to a more interesting conclusion?
Overall a great entry, thanks for making it!
The art was cute, and the story was fun. Length was just right, and I think I understood what the ending hinted at.
A nice all-around package, well done!
Thank goodness for friendly cactii, huh? So supportive!
The concept is interesting and your game is really complete.
A creature who flirts with the witch who created it ... why not.
Jokes aside, I LOVED this! The best game I've played today.
The art style was fantastic, and the music was just incredible, especially while talking to M. Got super difficult out of nowhere which was a (pleasant??) surprise. Loved/hated the ending if you know what I mean. I also genuinely laughed at some of the humorous bits in the game. Also was really invested in the story, the opening really drew me in.
I will admit I did find the controls a bit confusing, maybe use of the mouse buttons for using items would've made it easier, but other than that great job!
I managed to beat it on the second try, when I realized that killing the imps recovered some life -- maybe make this a little bit more obvious to the player?
But i feel that you did not need to stretch it towards the end with the long spike ways and the second toll guy. In my opinion it would have been fine if it was shorter and the stretching took away a little from my enjoyment.
Overall a good game.
@killedbyapixel Yeah, that's definitely a way to go about it. Definitely not the most desirable, wish the time limit had given me more space to play with the mechanic, but oh well :P I'm not proud of how the ending came about either, it was written an hour before the submission so I couldn't have built it up more. Would've loved to though! I'm gladyou enjoyed it nonetheless, however!
@drrozza Yeah, the ending is definitely something I want to improve if I finish a post-jam release.
@robotsoulsgames Yep. The game has two endings. If you bring the letter to M's sister, she's nice, resulting in the good ending. If you don't have the letter, she locks you up and tortures you for the gold, something M hints at in one of her lines. This is the bad ending you got :P
@mutt The game has no fullscreen feature, unfortunately. Something to include in the post-jam release!
To everyone else, thank you for the kind words and criticism! I'm definitely going to make an updated post-jam version using your feedback, I hope you'll come back to it later if you enjoyed the compo version. Other than that I'm just glad this was received so well! Ludum Dare is always such an interesting experience...