Starlighter by HoldMeImScared
The Dark is consuming the stars. Use your wand on stars to provide them extra starlight to vanquish the Dark. Don't let too many stars fall, don't run into buildings, and don't be consumed yourself.
W and S or Up and Down arrows to move. Space or F to use your wand. R to return to the title screen. Escape to quit.
Gamemaker/Gamemaker Language
Paint.net and GM's sprite editor for art, because I apparently enjoy a bit of suffering
Bosca Ceoil for music
BFXR for sounds
The plan was to do this as HTML5 but oh wow am I not getting that to work, so made a quick swapout to Windows during submission hour, sorry.


Ratings
| Given | 7🗳️ | 3🗨️ |
Good job overall!
@Bad-B4DGuy Thank you! Yeah, I agree with you! I considered making these changes at the last minute (they became *much* more apparent as I filled out the level with buildings) but just didn't get to it before needing to prepare for submission, and ended up having some issues with that process so was glad to have started just a little early on it. But yes, you're quite right about the controls.
@kierogi I feel that on the clumsiness and the loose controls, ha ha. Sorry about that. Thank you!
@Nazorus Ohhh, thank you for mentioning a place where the game's communication could be a bit clearer. That's super valuable feedback.
At first I did not understand I should lit up the stars though.
Many times it seems to turn to bright, but then I die after a very shortly after....
+ I liked the darkness effect, although the smoke was confusing. I didn't know if I had to avoid it or not, and I think I died to the darkness several times while touching the cloud. It didn't seem like the darkness touched me when that happened tho.
@teadrinker Oh, yeah, there's a graphics bug in the web version which can be a little confusing that way. Basically too many stars are converted (so it gets darker) and then that's supposed to trigger the character to stop and fade and switch to one of the game-overs. But on the web version, that specific one sometimes lights things right up to full before moving to the game-over, which **really** confuses that communication in a game where I chose a visual representation rather than clear scoring. Sorry about that.
@ellaris Yep, you avoid the smoke. And if it gets ahead of you, it blocks off avenues for movement and also kills a lot of extra stars. There are 3 fail conditions, hitting buildings, hitting the smoke, and having the smoke darken too many of the stars without enough smoke being killed by lit stars. That last one isn't **nearly** as intuitive or well-communicated as I had hoped for - especially with the aforementioned visual bug on the web version. Thanks!