Whisper of the Flame by Zachary Rodrigue

[raw]
made by Zachary Rodrigue for Ludum Dare 46 (JAM)

You are venturing in a dark cave and are trying to keep your soul alive by dodging the watery slime who want to extinguish you and collecting some small flames to warm you up.Beware the pools of water, they will extinguish you instantly. It does not have a lot of levels (2 for the moment but I plan to add more and I hope that you will enjoy your experience)

Capture.PNG

-wasd or arrows to move and jump

This is my first game jam experience and I hope that you will have a lot of fun playing it. :)

Capture_1.PNG

Ratings

Overall 726th 3.698⭐ 45🧑‍⚖️
Fun 592th 3.64⭐ 45🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 1988th 2.872⭐ 45🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1217th 3.667⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 645th 4.012⭐ 45🧑‍⚖️
Humor 1644th 2.457⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1032th 3.488⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Given 68🗳️ 57🗨️

Feedback

ReDDarKwh
21. Apr 2020 · 02:09 UTC
Cool game! looks great too. That being say, the insta death in the pool of water is a bit too punishing. Or maybe i just need to improve my platforming skills x)
Euix
21. Apr 2020 · 02:36 UTC
Needs some variety, and maybe a touch too bland on the theme, but the controls are comfortable and the level design was clever in places (especially when you need to use up some of your flame to progress)
Fermak
21. Apr 2020 · 02:40 UTC
Nice simple platformer
inact1v1ty
21. Apr 2020 · 02:47 UTC
Great game with a good and theme-fitting idea. And I loved the graphics!
Progs
21. Apr 2020 · 02:48 UTC
really fun, great music and graphics. would love to have full version on my switch
Emir Berke Özkan
21. Apr 2020 · 02:51 UTC
This is lit.
kimkillaqueen
21. Apr 2020 · 02:53 UTC
I really liked it! The art is pretty top notch, and the music was nice and old school feeling (if a bit short of loop)

If I could recommend an improvement, level checkpointing would be a great feature to add!

Anyways, awesome game! :fire:
Elio
21. Apr 2020 · 02:57 UTC
I love the controls, pretty looking game, it was very fun to play :D
🎤 Zachary Rodrigue
21. Apr 2020 · 03:35 UTC
I lacked time to do more levels and balance them (I posted 7 minutes before the dead line) but I will probably put a bit more time on this project. I loved to make it and I will certainly make another game jam because I loved the experience. Thx for the feedback
Wet_Band-Aid
21. Apr 2020 · 05:22 UTC
Fun. Keeps the player moving.
tarfield
21. Apr 2020 · 10:40 UTC
I'm looking forward to playing this when it has checkpoints! I managed the second level, but having to start over is frustrating :P

Apart from that, amazing game! Your sprites are beautiful! I also really liked the music and the slime sounds :)
I thought the level design was quite elegant as well.
Bakaraf
21. Apr 2020 · 16:29 UTC
Really fun and dynamic, loved playing this one ! The level design is clever, and sounds and music really fits the atmosphere :)
Tomyomy
21. Apr 2020 · 16:35 UTC
Honestly a very quality and polished platformer! The music was quite nice, but after a bit got slightly repetitive. I like the idea of you being on a time limit, without an explicit time limit being there. The art was also very cutesy and nice, and this game controlled well - great work!
Welliton
21. Apr 2020 · 19:15 UTC
I liked a lot the animation when hittig the ground. I couldn't pass level 2, and I tried 3 times. Maybe it would be better to give an option to restart the level (at least one time, maybe?), like an extra life (IMO). Good art and solid gameplay. Good job!
🎤 Zachary Rodrigue
21. Apr 2020 · 19:29 UTC
@welliton, @tarfield, @kimkillaqueen, @reddarkwh. I added a check point at the begening of each levels so you don't restart at the begening each time. I hope that this version might be more enjoyable =)
Dane Tesla
21. Apr 2020 · 19:59 UTC
A well-made arcade platformer! <3 had a lot of fun with this one. keep it up!
mathemagician
22. Apr 2020 · 00:01 UTC
The jump animation is absolutely giving me life. Level design is always tough in such a short time frame, but you've done a pretty decent job here! I'd love to see the movement juiced up even a little bit more, but it's hard to complain haha
celvin
22. Apr 2020 · 08:31 UTC
The control is great. Restart from the current level would be more friendly.
🎤 Zachary Rodrigue
22. Apr 2020 · 11:50 UTC
@celvin sorry for that i have uploaded a new version with exactly this right now
Khud0
22. Apr 2020 · 14:49 UTC
Using player's vision as a way to represent player's health works incredibly good in this game! You don't need to use any UI and thanks to well defined creatures in the game it is easily understandable
John Snyder
22. Apr 2020 · 16:21 UTC
This was really fun and challenging platformer. I love the art style and that you gather fire to keep up the light and your life going which I feel was great game design. I do think if you are going to have long platformer levels it would probably benefit to having a few checkpoints so if a player dies near the end they wouldn't have to start all the way back from the beginning which can be very frustrating. Also I think there should've been a way to hit enemies, like jumping on top of them, and not take damage because there were a few times where I was put in a situation where I had no choice but to get hit by the enemy. Overall excellent job!
🎤 Zachary Rodrigue
22. Apr 2020 · 16:32 UTC
@john-snyder I will try to add checkpoints at the middle (like in Mario levels) and maybe a little spark or something to kill enemy, idk but if I do so I will make sure tokeep you updated
Fractal Flower Girl
22. Apr 2020 · 18:24 UTC
I really liked the graphics! I think it could be even better if you could stay on level 2 once you got there, instead of having to play the first level again. I liked how you had to keep the fire alive. This was one of my favorite games so far; great job!
🎤 Zachary Rodrigue
22. Apr 2020 · 19:19 UTC
@fractal-flower-girl do you mean after dying of after a reboot of the game? because I had made an update to let the player respawn on the same level that he died.
Lesslwo
22. Apr 2020 · 20:48 UTC
Nice game, platforming was not easy, but controls were tight enough for it to feel good, which is not an easy thing to get right. Looks nice too :slight_smile:
🎤 Zachary Rodrigue
22. Apr 2020 · 20:52 UTC
@lesslwo thx I passed way more time on the game feel and doing somme tweeking here and there than i spent in level design
Max Louis
22. Apr 2020 · 21:42 UTC
Wow one of the most polished I've played yet! Really like the animations and sound, very nice job there! Really like the concept of it getting darker as time passes and you have to collect a light source, that's innovative! We tried to do something similar to that.
purenickery
23. Apr 2020 · 00:22 UTC
Very good little game, I enjoyed the theme and the feel quite a lot. A few of the level passages seemed to be traps as they were long without many flames to keep me alive, and some of the enemies seemed almost entirely unavoidable. But overall I enjoyed it a lot!
Edvard Sandquist
23. Apr 2020 · 00:32 UTC
Wow! I really admire the level of detail in your game! Really impressive. Love the animation when you land after a fall and love the graphics in general. I think I would have liked a checkpoint on each level though cause some where a little bit difficult. But in general really great game!
kkrac
23. Apr 2020 · 20:17 UTC
Nice concept and a good way to urge the player to move fast without a real timer.
The controls were good although sometimes they felt a bit off, or maybe some platforms above water were too small which made it difficult to jump exactly on top of them and not fall.
Very nice graphics and level design. Keep it up!
Fractal Flower Girl
24. Apr 2020 · 13:43 UTC
@zachary-rodrigue I meant after dying; thanks for the update, that makes it better!
ultrarat
27. Apr 2020 · 03:28 UTC
Great first jam game, wise choice to keep it simple so you can finish.

I like the art choice where the brightness = life.
ArtemFTW
27. Apr 2020 · 23:18 UTC
Great entry! The soundtrack and graphics are very well done, but I don't really like how the game fits with the theme since you pretty much have to keep the player alive, which is what you do in most games anyway.
Ironpower
28. Apr 2020 · 09:16 UTC
Very creative. I love the art style. The Gameplay is just perfect. I love this game
Blue Pin Studio
29. Apr 2020 · 07:39 UTC
Not bad at all! Wish there was more to it, i think i beat the game in 3 minutes give or take. Didn't die once. I guess what i'm saying is there wasn't much of a challenge. Perhaps add some moving platforms and puzzles or just make more levels! :) Also maybe make it clear somewheere that you can't attack because i thought i was supposed to fight those water slimes, it didn't look like there was a way around them for some of them :P
NiHuShu
29. Apr 2020 · 23:32 UTC
I've seen this type of theme interpretation a couple of times but this one is really polished. I absolutely love the graphics :D
🎤 Zachary Rodrigue
29. Apr 2020 · 23:52 UTC
@blue-pin-studio sorry I lacked time to do more levels because I spent too much time on polishing... I will try to manage best my time on my next game jam :smile:
Philip Sawyer
01. May 2020 · 15:16 UTC
Great lighting, art (especially the backgrounds), music, and sounds. The slimes don't telegraph when they are about to change direction, so avoiding them was difficult at times. As you mentioned the level difficulty isn't super balanced due to not having enough time, which is understandable. If you make a full version I'd love to play it!
MicroChasm
01. May 2020 · 15:23 UTC
Very competent platformer with pleasant art. I like games with a HUD, where things like life are displayed on the character.
kaeveris
02. May 2020 · 11:20 UTC
Cool game, with nice sound effects! I loved the art, cute characters and really nice tiles and background! I like how the camera shake when you catch the fire
Jupiter_Hadley
04. May 2020 · 16:53 UTC
Cute platformer. I included it in my Ludum Dare 46 compilation video series, if you want to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/NFvpzo131Hc