Inferno Collapse by Zerbu
Avoid the rising lava in 17 levels and escape the inferno. The playable area is continuously shrinking, so get out before it's too late! And don't forget to watch out for those pesky slimes!
Made in Unreal Engine 5 Music from Incompetech - https://incompetech.com/ (I have opted out of the Audio category, as I didn't make the music)
Features: * 17 levels * Use your claws to mash through the slimes. * Slimes may occasionally drop potions, which you can use to restore your health. * If you fall in the lava or run out of health, you die... but you can just respawn on the previous level. * The timer in the top right of the screen keep track of how long you've been playing - try to escape as fast as you can! * Supports "Coyote Time" - when you walk up a ledge, there's a small amount of time where you can still jump.
This is my second Ludum Dare. While the game is far from perfect, I consider it much better than my first attempt.
Controls: * WASD - Move * Space - Jump * Mouse Click - Use current item * 1, 2, 3, 4 - Switch items
| Link | https://zerbu.itch.io/inferno-collapse |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/54/inferno-collapse |
Ratings
| Overall | 906th | 3.167⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 812th | 3.121⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 1077th | 2.47⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 1035th | 2.803⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 871th | 2.985⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 607th | 2.797⭐ | 34🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 759th | 3.288⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 32🗳️ | 47🗨️ |
There are a few things that could be improved in my opinion:
- Make the character lower on the screen and smaller, so we can see what's ahead;
- Add a shadow under the character so that we know where we'll be landing;
- Orient the camera toward where we need to go when we start a level (some times the camera was facing the wrong direction);
- Leave enough space so that the camera doesn't go closer to the character in thigh areas;
- What was the point of going to the previous level when we die (maybe it's a left over of some idea, but currently it is mostly annoying) ?
- The use of items could be made easier: Have the claw always on left click. And just use an item by pressing 1, 2 or 3.
- Move the exit button somewhere else than next to the retry button, and with a confirm message (see the next paragraph).
The jumps on the tiny blocks were frustrating in my opinion, especially because if you miss one, you're likely to die and go back one level. I got to the second set of tiny block (after the level where you need to use the jump higher item) and I tried it several times until I clicked on Exit by accident. I didn't feel like redoing all the levels so I didn't finish the game.
Figuring out how to use the claw took me some time, and I think the game would have been better without combat, health or item. Health seemed pretty irrelevant and "combats" were not interesting. If the enemy would kill us in 1 hit, the game could have been only about movements and speed. The only combat (that I saw) that had a purpose was to get the jump potion, and that could have been a pick up on the floor instead (the first time I killed the enemy, I didn't saw I got a potion), or a special jumping block on the floor (removing the need for items).
All that seems easy in hindsight, but I know it's not obvious while doing the jam (or just not what you wanted to do).
Keep it up !
- The character was in the way a lot making it hard to see where you are going, especially on the closed in levels where the camera could go wild.
- I think showing the claw animation even when there are no smiles would be good, because I tried several things and seemed like they didn't work.
- I think re-spawning on the previous level is not necessary, just re-spawn at the beginning of current level (which the game sometimes did anyway)
A lot of levels were not that interesting, just moving forward (or, vile sinner you are, a leap of faith !!) with no challenge. I think you should have focused more on the core experience of a platformer game than quantity of feature (combat / items / health) which are not theme related and not really relevant imo. Do less, do better, as.. i don't know who said.
Also, i have 3 screens, and the mouse is going away of the game window, making it sometimes hard to hit enemies :/
Pretty grim comment, focused on negatives, i'm sorry, but GG anyway ! Some levels were really great !
Controls were smooth, but the way the character controlled felt a bit hard especially on the smaller blocks. This is not a big issue, and could be a skill issue instead (something I'd get used to) but I wasn't exactly motivated to keep grinding to get better at it cause it put me back a level everytime.
I loved the aesthetics of the game, nicely done! The general gameplay concept was also very enjoyable.
Thanks for your submission!
Here's the VOD with Timestamps so you can click to your gameplay!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NVsG7UOyfw
Neat entry!