All Systems Grow [LD46: KEEP IT ALIVE] by itsandyjones
RESCUE A LITTLE PLANT FROM THE DEPTHS AND BRING IT, ALIVE, TO SAFETY.
A LITTLE PIXEL + PUZZLE + PLATFORMER GAME..
WASD: Movement
Space: Jump

| Youtube | https://itsandyjones.itch.io/ld46 |
| Youtube | https://itsandyjones.itch.io/ld46 |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/all-systems-grow-ld46-keep-it-alive |
Ratings
| Overall | 635th | 3.744⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 591th | 3.641⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 1209th | 3.295⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 2252th | 2.974⭐ | 40🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 863th | 3.872⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 832th | 3.397⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 664th | 3.689⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 4🗳️ | 7🗨️ |
I found it a bit too challenging - The movement needed to be really tight for certain areas, I think having the player move a little bit slower would allow for more fine tuned controls by the player.
The art was nice, I really liked the smooth animations on the player. The level art was very cohesive as well, which made the game feel very polished.
The sounds were great, the music blended with the mood perfectly and the sounds were mellow but to the point.
Overall, the game was very fun and challenging, I would love to see more! Great work :)
Glad you found bits of it tricky.. maybe it's not for everyone but its what I love most about platformers, failing over and over, getting better and better, closer and closer to success and then when you finally do, it feels good man! Channelled some Celeste magic into this game, hopefully that comes across!

Comments on the controls are valid but I'm glad you found ONE of the secret areas ;)
Hey, I get this deadlock too. It's not about not-getting the blue one, it occyres, when you touch the laser after aquiring 2nd yellow plus. After that you respawn on a previous checkpoint but with positive charge instead of negative. /*firstly I supposed it as an original idea to proceed further, but then it turned out to be a deadlock x)*/
Okay I'll take a look asap at removing that deadlock! Thanks for letting me know where it was!
It's really nice and attractive. Classic platforming elements combines with original and cool charge mechanics. It's really clever but not sophisticated at the same time, the one of "Wow it's so awesome and simple, how could nobody came up with this before?" kind =)
Additional point for the secrets: theyreaaly add interest and soul in the process! (find 2 up to this deadlock point :)
The controls. One of the main point. They feels niceat the beginning, but then, with some hard platforming tasks it turned out to be a bit more harsh. The game left little space for mistakes (but small laser hitboxes a really nice, btw ;), and controls often don't let you to do movements sharp enough. Usually you fall eralrlier than expect or stop movement later than expect. Then you reaaaaly want controls to be more smooth and touchy. Maybe even some cheats like coyote time and corner correction (drawing on the platform when you about to fall) would be relevant here.
About atmosphere. A almost didn't get it, now it feels like fun puzzle-platformer but without some setting or background. The intro shows a mission of saving a plant, but I haven't got a feeling of carrying some delicate and significant. Maybe some cutscenes, phrases or robot actions could emphasize the atmosphere for more immersion.
After all, It's a really nice for a jam try, I really enjoyed it. Keep it up!
I do agree about the controls, things like coyote time are in the code, but maybe aren't being triggered correctly or just isn't as effective due to other control issues.. if I'd had more time it would have been spent on control tweaking, with more playtesting/playtesters.
As for atmosphere.. sigh.. I wanted to do a few extra cutscenes, started writing a dialogue system today, everything was great, perfect, 100% but then.. it didn't work in HTML5.. so I spent a lot of time troubleshooting, rewriting and scaling back so I could offer it in HTML5.. however it left me short on time to squeeze extra story in.. time I rather spent on the ending cutscene(s) and secret areas (of which there are more than 2 & PS: you may have missed one if you got to the deadlock point!)
Overall your feedback is positive and that is all I could ask for!
Well done for making it all the way to the end and with a decent time v death ratio :thumbsup:
I would love to have people speed run the game.. I also enjoy games that promote speed running as it gives another level of gameplay and replay ability!
Shortcuts are a cool idea but I was limited in my level building experience as it is.. I did however get round to adding a few secret areas ;) did you find any of those?
The only thing I can complain is that it's not really fitting the theme.
:upside_down: What do you mean it doesn't fit the theme?! It has a plant in it right? That clearly counts! /s
Haha truth be told I had a lot more planned story wise that would have helped with that criticism but I got messed around coding my dialogue system which set me back almost a whole day.. so absolutely that is a fair point!
Glad you had fun playing it anyway and liked the lasers (who doesn't love lasers really! :stuck_out_tongue:
Seconding the request for coyote time, and also noting that I specifically had a hard time on downward-moving platforms. Often I wouldn't be able to jump off of them the way I expected.
A nice-lookin' game, though, and I did like the interaction of the different laser polarities. Would like to see more of that.
Well done on getting to the very end in that time :thumbsup:
It's interesting as coyote time is in the code but must be getting ignored in certain situations.. certainly something for me to look into! As for the platforms I'm surprised they work at all the code for those is basically held together with thoughts and prayers, but all you feedback is great!
Glad you enjoyed the lasers mechanics, I'm in the price now of thinking about how to take the game a bit further a long :smile:
I'm glad you at least enjoy some of it before stressing out too much. Practice makes perfect!
Glad you enjoyed the retro vibe though in all honesty this style was purely time based, I did not have enough time to do much more art wise as this was a solo project.
However I also picked up some Wall-E vibes and am steering into inspiration wise for the post-jam version :thumbsup:
Glad it worked well on your iPad - thats an unexpected win!
About the game. I finished it in 530s.
Love it, love it, love it. The atmosphere was great, music really fit the mood, and I absolutely adore the mechanic that the platforms that you connect the life you are carrying with become alive as well. That mechanic was very nicely executed and creatively iterated. It is a bit shame that you didn't juice the reverse operation a bit more.
The learning curve was very nice too - not too easy, not too hard. Except perhaps for that bit where there were alternating small vertical pillars and lasers - I was on the verge of rage quitting there.
Big kudos for configurable controls! (although menu navigation was a bit clunky)
###### Also, I got the secret ending. Love it!
The elevator room was so cool on paper but I didn't leave enough room in my level/room sizes to make it work - but did you know if you just jump on the platform/lift it should just take you down unharmed :sweat_smile:
Ended up finishing the game in 528 seconds with 58 deaths, I'd be impressed with what a speedrun of this game would look like.
Decent time! Well done for finishing, and getting through those pillars! There are a lot of parts of the level design I would love to change/perfect but obviously time was never on my side.
Menu was a last hour addition, I know lots of people like to have there own key layouts especially non-QWERTY keyboard layouts so it got added, but yes clunky is a nice way to put it!
Well done on getting a secret ending.. but ermm.. which one did you get :wink:
Glad you liked the mechanics and yes.. the lowering platform room. I've just mentioned above "The elevator room was so cool on paper but I didn’t leave enough room in my level/room sizes to make it work - but did you know if you just jump on the platform/lift it should just take you down unharmed"
Something I absolutely want to rework and get right next time!
Your time is good around 500 sec seems to be the average for the Jam players.. obviously I have the advantage of having played each room more times than I can count during development.. but I can finish it in under 200 secs (and with all the secrets)..
.. did you know there were secrets to find?! :smile:
Also, I brought you a cupcake...
Also check out my [extreme speedrun strats](https://static.jam.vg/raw/e09/z/32985.png)
Fair point about the platforms, I limited myself too much room size wise and that caused a few issues - but I'll take it on board!
and.. errm.. well.. how'd you do that? :confused:
EDIT: so I finally 100%d the game.
or did I?
Yes there are a couple more.. you probably found the 3 during the platforming parts of the game but maybe take a leap of faith near the end? try hugging a wall on the way down? and remember there could be secrets inside of secrets :laughing:
The alt endings all depend on how the plant and how many secrets you find.
Brilliant use of a subtle palette and clean pixel art to convey what the player has to do.
I sadly couldn't make it past this section,so I'll never know how it ends!

I tried 'giffing' an answer to you issue:
https://twitter.com/itsandyjones/status/1253504936823963648?s=20
Hope it helps :shrug:
Glad you enjoyed the art and the mood!
However.. there is no team.. it is only me.. this was a solo project!
I think you are right about the controls and movement, they are in need of some tweaking! I will be addressed in any post-jam builds of the game if I get around to it..
I love the art style and the music, it sets up such a nice mood
I'm not very good at platformers so this was challenging but i really wanted to get the plant out
The lasers mechanic works very well, it'easy to understand and makes gameplay interesting
Glad you liked the mechanic, its something I'm trying to develop further. Again, thanks for the positive feedback :smile:
There is sometimes a bug with the HTML5 version of the game and it not playing background music or sfx, if you refresh the page a couple of times it usually fixes this..
or Do you mean you would have liked better background music?
I got stuck the same area where joelloki got stuck in. I think he got stuck there the same way I did. I got the + power after that area then died from the lazer. I was brought back to the last checkpoint with the + power so no way of going forward. I think an easy fix is to revert back to the power-up present at checkpoint (don't forget to put back the power-up taken before dying). Another way is to make the power-up a checkpoint itself then make sure that its place at an area that you cannot just die from spawn.
Also, as many have said, there needs to be more checkpoints. Personally, I think a good place to put checkpoint is after any hard or annoying part. Players don't like doing something they have accomplished again. I think a contributing factor to this is the jumping. There are times when I felt like I was supposed to jump but I didn't. Try looking up on cayote time if you haven't yet. I think you have added some form of cayote time but it wasnt well implemented if ever you did. If you fix the jumping, I could say the checkpoint locations are fine. Most of my deaths are due to missed jumps.
But seriously, I applaud to how amazing this game is! I normally won't write this long for a game but I really liked it and you deserve a long feedback. Hope you don't take my criticism the wrong way. I really see the potential in this game and would love to give you support if you need any!
One other thing: When you transition via plattform to another screen/room, I would make the plattform move one or two tiles higher, so players have more time to react to a new room.
Yup that checkpoint softlock was something I missed in all my testing and I should really patch out for the entry.. but I'm having too much fun working on the post jam version of the game! :smile:
All criticism of yours is valid and I am absolutely taking it on board for the post jam version.. I'm thinking of changing to a Celeste style death/checkpoint system..
.. and yes the more I replay this, with longer breaks in between, I can see/feel how janky the controls are, especially the jumps, I don't know what it is that's conflicting in the code but the coyote time rarely gets triggered.. but that is all fixed in the new state machine!
Thanks for the offer of support! I really appreciate it, I've already given you a follow on itch (ever hopeful for you lighting devlog).. I have something implemented in the new version already but always looking for different ways at achieving these effects)
Thanks again - for such detailed feedback :heart:
Yup checkpoints seem to be a stand out criticism, and a fair one at that! Its something I plan on changing in the Post Jam version :smile:
Also I agree with you about transitions, I think I limited myself too much making the rooms as small as I did, that combined with limited time for proper level design and planning meant I had to jam platforms in awkward positions ~~sometimes~~ basically everytime!
I'm glad you enjoyed it despite these issues, thanks again for playing :thumbsup: