Instability by Game_Coder28
Instability is a physics based infinite platformer. Quickly swing on damaged ropes while platforms fall around you during your escape from the Anomaly. Try to travel the farthest distance you can without dying. Post your highscores in the comments!
Gifs
How to play
- Your goal is to travel the farthest distance possible without dying.
- Unstable platforms and ropes randomly snap and fall while you weave throughout them
- An Anomaly chases you throughout, trying to erase you.
Controls
- A and D for movement
- Tap space for jump
- Hold space to hold on to a rope
Notes
- I have not tested this on resolutions other than 4K, if there are issues i will make a patch build
- The game has quite a steep learning curve, but is very fun once you get used to it
- ### The game is quite difficult right now and may be frustrating, please leave feedback in the comments.
Updates/Future
Patch Update (UPLOADED):
- WebGL Build
- Builds now hosted on itch.io
- Main menu now properly displays highscore on launch
What the Post-LD Version will have:
- Mobile port (App store + Google play store)
- Double Jump
- Quicker restart times
- Balanced difficulty
- Option to disable Anomaly (Practice mode)
- Audio settings
- No more rare impossible gaps
- Less-sensitive Player Movements
- No collision between ropes
Thanks for playing! Leave your feedback in the comments!
Ratings
| Given | 36🗳️ | 55🗨️ |
My High score was 20.0
- @spudboy nice highscore! im going to make a post-compo version with fixes for difficulty and stuff like that, but thanks for playing!
- @taximan981 thanks for playing!
- @kassanu i didnt get around to adding extra-movement options but it seems like a cool concept! ill play around with it for the post-compo version. thanks for playing!
My high score was 118.73
Sometimes it felt like it generated platforms which were just outside of jump range, and sometimes the ropes tangled in a way where the second one was inaccessible. Could just be me being bad tho.
Anyway I can tell there was a lot of care and effort put into this game.
- @mogaiskii i agree, i cant add it to the patch build as its considered a new feature, but in the post-compo release im planning to do i will definitely implement it
#### thanks to everyone for playing :)
And like others: shorter respawn time, or at least restart after hitting space on score screen.
Love the simple design and the bloom shader, although the ropes are too difficult to handle since they kill a lot of momentum. Only lost one run in all my attempts to the anomaly, most of the time the jumps were too precise to get or the ropes couldn't swing far enough.
The game feel is also awesome!!
As you pointed out, the game is really difficult at the moment.
Another point, is that as it is supposed that the player die a lot, I would give a more quickly restart. Something almost immediatly
Yeah, I'm not great at this....
This is one *really* polished jam game, and a Compo entry no less! The graphics are spectacular. My only suggestions for a post-jam version would be to make the player less touchy (for a precise speedrunning game, the player is incredibly touchy) and to make ropes easier to swing between. Chains of 3 or more ropes get nearly impossible for me, the ropes get in the way of the player when you try to swing.
I got the unbridgeable gap bug too, there was a screen-wide gap that was both too far and too high to jump across.
Edit-Also yea it's very difficult.
Well done!
- I entered the anomaly in the tutorial and got soft locked :d
- Wish I could use the arrow keys cuz it's more comfortable.
- Restarting is slow cuz you have to wait for the button, ideally, in my opinion, you'd just restart immediately and your score would be shown in the HUD.
I got 40.68 after many attempts. The physics are super fun, and the rope mechanics, while finicky, feel very nice when you get it right!
The music was cool and I like that there is two different instrumental parts for when you are in the game or in the menus.
The retry button should appear a lot quicket in my mind (it can be frustrating to wait 2 or 3 sec when you screwed up).
That being said, I couldn't quite into the groove of things. The platforms were just a little bit too awkwardly placed so I felt like I had to keep starting and stopping to land on them. And the ropes felt a bit weird to climb and often slowed down my momentum in an otherwise fast-paced game.
And @decentsauce : You got 63.51? What a coincidence...
I really like games with "simple" concepts, few controls, but really hard mechanic to master. And this is one.
While the graphics are minimalistic as it gets, the visuals are very nice and the sounds enhance the atmosphere as well.
The only thing i found a bit annoying is the respawn time.
I tried the HTML5 version first and it is way too laggy to play. I recommend downloading for experiencing the game properly. Guess the HTML build can't really handle the post-processing effect, or my computer is a potato!
Excellent job on this game!
Wow, this game was pretty hard, and sometimes it felt like that shouldn't have been the fault of the player. Sometimes the ropes got in the way, and made it impossible to chain between the ropes. Also, at a certain point, the wall just moves too fast to go any further.
With that out of the way, I think this game was fantastic. The controls were super responsive, which I love, and the gameplay was super understandable. I didn't even need the tutorial. The visuals were nice, but at times I think you overdid the post processing just a tad much, nothing game breaking though.
Great job on your game! I enjoyed it
You could consider adding improving menu navigation by pressing WASD/arrows and enter for confirmation, so using mouse would be optional. There could even be a separate restart button to cut corners.
This could totally be released as a great mobile game.
Only thing i would change is when you loose, make it so you can respawn faster/instantly, having to wait that much gets a bit annoying especially with how often you die (especially in your very first moments of playing). Maybe make it so the spacebar can respawn instantly even if the menu hasnt finished animating in.
Maybe make the player automatically cross a rope you hold on to its right side
I feel like the ropes were a little hard/clunky to use, maybe if their start position was always leaning towards the player you would be able to swing smoother. But that's just an idea, idk.
:purple_heart: :dart: :frog:
One last note: I always write down honest review, because everybody need that, not just nice craps with some bullshit, but sometime I will aperceite very good games. So if this review insult you, but use it well :) Anyway every game is counting so :)
A little advice, for this highly muscle memory games where you replay several times it's better to have an easier way to restart the level without having to reach for the mouse as you're already concentrated and focused on the keyboard.
Loved the mechanics and transitions. The game end transition could have been sped up 3-4x times to make things snappier since it's a game where you die a lotttt. Great work!
Would be nice to have a quick restart button instead of keep seeing it within the score counter or something along those lines.
You also achieved a great level of game "juice" :) cool audio and music too!
One little thing, I like to use the arrow keys in a game like this, and it also would have been nice to press a button on the keyboard to retry but thats small stuff!
good job and great effort! 👏
My best result is to fall after the second platform ( it's better than after the first one, right?)
Well done!
Oh right the gameplay. Yah had a blast here! Would have loved a double jump but it looks like you are aware and are going to add it post jam.
Great work looking forward to seeing more.
The ropes are frustrating. Depending on the distance they spawn away from the nearest platform or the angle of their swing, it becomes close to impossible to get past or even latch onto some of them. Also, restarts should be faster.
-In a game where you may be restarting every 20-40 seconds, don't set the restart button so far back. It is very elegant and smooth, but it breaks the flow of the game. I want to get right back in there and it's holding me back.
-I don't like playing platformers with a keyboard. It's made in unity, and it looks like you're using the default controls, so I am not sure why it is not recognizing controller input.
Also, the ropes were a little finicky. Unless you land at the exact end of the rope, you're pretty much screwed, which is generally where most of my runs ended. Also, I had a few ropes that were swinging in unison, so I had no way of reaching from one rope to the next.
I really like the visuals and the audio. The whole game has a really nice consistent visual style, despite just being black and white. The character feels good to move and jump around. I was just put off by the few things mentioned above.
1- pausing on lost focus, a good quality-of-life improvemtn that often gets overlooks.
2- music sounds great
3- upon starting the tutorial i not that A and D allow you to move but arrow keys do nothing. I think this would've been nice, especially during the roping sections.
4- When the anamoly showed up in the tutorial, I ran into it to see what would happen and got stuck, had to restart the page. maybe a pause menu with restart option would be good.
5- gameplay is entirely keyboard input, so it'd be good to have menu input with keyboard also. Pressing any key to retry rather than having to use mouse, etc.
6- gameplay is very nice. i like it. I could see myself coming back to this game every now and then, and few jam games really grab my attention like that
7- difficulty curve is very high. the procedurally generated levels could use some tweaking, like to breaking playforms for a given amount of time at the beginning, then even further for the breaking ropes. Allow new players to get some distance before they're beaten down.
8- Being a precision platformer, I think the game could benefit from jump buffering any coyote time. Maybe tweaking gravity with a slower decent and more hangtime.
9- Many ropes are hanging and you have to swing first. Getting three of those in a row pretty much makes it impossible to progress.
10- Was just thinking that in addition to adding arrow keys for movement, adding mouse click to jump would be good too. This also means their hands will already be on the mouse to click restart.
Final thoughts: Definitely a fun game, looks and sounds great (simplistic in a good way). But with unforgiving controls and randomly difficult, sometimes seemingly impossible, setups, it gets a bit frustrating.
Спасибо за игру!
I'd say the death screen could go a bit faster, being able to jump back in asap would make it better imo.
Also more movement mechanics like double jumping and dashing could go a long way.
Controls are pleasant, expect the fact that it's the same button to jump and hold the rope, I would prefer an alternative button.
Audio is great, post process are nice. The tutorial is simple but works well !
Amazing !
Overall this ticks many of the boxes of a great platformer, however it really needs some jump height control: the longer you press spacebar, the higher you go. Other than that I think everything else has been said before, congratulations for this great entry!
After spending some time I managed to get around 65 highscore. One idea, which I'm not sure would work, is disabling the player collision with the rope after releasing. That way you might be able to freely swing from rope to rope which at the current moment is awkward if you get trapped higher up the robe. Overall, great work. And great work marketing this game. I saw those epic gifs everywhere.
FYI your Mac version has corrupted permission that I had to fix via terminal, a common problem when .apps are put directly into a .zip to be distributed. [I outlined a fix for this in a previous post](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/the-looper-encounter/an-important-notice-for-mac-players-repost-for-48)
One other note is I think it'd be nice to be able to quit from the death screen, rather than having to go back to the menu.
So... Perfectly polished graphics and feel! Great submission!
I agree with the others, it was quite annoying how long you needed to wait to restart. But that's of course nothing big to change. But because of this, I couldn't experience much of the game because I was too bad (21.87 highscore, well well!).
I really liked the tutorial, maybe it would've been cool if the game were in hand-built levels instead of this random generation. Or better: both!
The only thing I'd ask for is that the rope swing a bit easier when you touch it so it feels smoother and less like a wall, but that is a personal opinion!
Overall I really liked it :)
I said when a touch 50. "one run and I stop", 20 runs later didn't beat 50 :p
very clean and great game! Little issues with the physics of the ropes but maybe I'm just bad ^^
Other than that, really great job! The post processing is right on the border of being too much but I think it's still good where you have it.
ldj.am/$259844
my high score was a meager 24.88.
i think the platforms were cool, but i didn't like the ropes very much. it took me a while to figure out i had to hold down space to stick to them, and even then, i didn't feel like i had any control. i died plenty of times when the rope didn't have enough momentum to swing me to the next platform. when this game is all about twitch reflexes, not having (or feeling like i had) control for random obstacles that come up, which cost me the run, was frustrating.
for this kind of game, i think an unstable environment is great, but not unstable player control.
or, maybe there's a secret to dealing with the ropes that i just didn't figure out?
minor UX note: it would have been really great to have the menu buttons controllable with arrows and space bar, or at least have a short cut to press space to retry on the score scene. i really wanted to have a seamless experience of trying runs over and over, but needing to switch to the mouse to click retry was annoying.
Everything this game has is great. You even fixed the slow restart issue. This has style, pace, nice visuals and sound, it's challenging but fair, *and* it's infinite, it even has a tutorial, nothing to complain about!
I think that what would improve this game and take it to the next level would be some sense of diversity and progression: perhaps, the further you get, the more mechanics you unlock along the way — ropes might start at 30m, falling ropes at 50m, then ropes made of distinct chain links, glass walls you have to smash through with momentum, cannons that shoot you forward, more and more stuff. Maybe visual cosmetic differences, too: starting from different accent color each run all the way to simple geometric backdrops, ”zones“ of structures and scenery being devoured by the anomaly in the background...
That's all just random ideas for potential future improvements, of course. As an LD entry, this is already phenomenal, great job!
Congratulations!
Great entry!
Fun game otherwise.
Ropes felt frustrating to interact with... so I tried the tutorial, since I'd just jumped straight in. Ropes then made a little more sense, went back in the main game, still struggled. Even if you can swing them, it doesn't really help if you're stuck on one side of it because you landed too high... maybe make the player slide to the bottom of the rope to avoid getting tangled in it?
Other than that, seems like a fun high score platformer. I'd have kept playing if the ropes didn't feel so sticky. Almost every run I had was ended by a rope...
Scored a little 61.5 points, but it was fun!
Awesome entry!
Nice work! :)
I've had issues with jumps not aligning properly to the next platforms and so, I wish there was finer mid air controls (like variable height jumping, i feel like it would fit really well for this game)
My only struggle was on maintain and release space for ropes.
Really well done, GG !