Flicker by sunday_driver
(Fullscreen recommended)
Flicker is a single-player platformer where your goal is to kindle your flame and avoid getting snuffed out by the constant downfall of water. All you need to do is maneuver through the environment, healing on campfire checkpoints along the way. This is intended to be a fairly difficult platformer. Feel free to post screenshots of your best times (record is 2:39).
This is our first game jam as a team and we had a lot of fun. Please enjoy!
Playthrough
https://youtu.be/5q-VoaihX6s
Speedrun with skips
https://youtu.be/fmyFZkQUxjc
Screenshots
| Youtube | https://ajm1996.github.io/Flicker/flicker.html |
| Youtube | https://drive.google.com/open?id=1JV4VwAPMp8ihwDfh5WZ7cYDYHO0G3L-G |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/flicker |
Ratings
| Overall | 469th | 3.828⭐ | 34🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 490th | 3.697⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 203th | 3.906⭐ | 34🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 313th | 4.113⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 708th | 3.97⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 591th | 3.597⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 341th | 3.903⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 36🗳️ | 38🗨️ |
I think the game would beneit of having a nice chill soundtrack
Since your health is always decreasing, it really helps to solidify the idea of the theme through gameplay. You are always struggling to keep the flame alive in the rain, which is a nice touch. However, because of this survival-style gameplay, it is very important that you are able to find and collect the checkpoints. But between the darkly-colored fireplaces, and your limited field of vision, sometimes I can't even see far enough to where I'm going to land, let alone to see the next checkpoint.
The movement also feels a little bit sluggish. You should indicate to the player that they can jump after hitting a wall, I only realized that accidentally. Also, this type of game almost always feels better with higher gravity. If you did implement that as a change, though, you would have to increase the jump strength as well. The music is nice, but by default it's just a little bit too quiet for me to comfortably hear. The art is also nice, but again, hard to see because of the strict and small light circle.
For a first jam game, very nice job on the release. And good luck on any future games!
edit: I BEAT IT! Was challenging, thanks.
However, I will say that I wish the level design itself let me have more fun with the game. :( The checkpoints are waaaaaaayyyyy to spread out, and the margin of error you have to reach each one is razor thin. A good rule of thumb when designing a game is that if you as the designer feel like the difficulty curve is juuuust right, it's probably *way* to hard for the average player.
The fact of the matter is that aiming your way through tight vertical shafts where the slightest bump on a nearby platform can kill all of your momentum is very frustrating. I have way more fun when I'm bouncing between walls and shooting off at long distances without stopping too much to line up my next shot.
This all sounds pretty negative, but I'm trying to explain myself as best I can because I see a lot of potential in this one, and I would love to see it succeed in the future! You have a lot of the really important pieces down pat here, and I'll bet if you weren't under such strict time constraints like you were for this jam, you'd have no problem playtesting and polishing up the level design to really play to your game's strengths. :thumbsup: