GigaHurtz by johnnysix

[raw]
made by johnnysix for Ludum Dare 59 (JAM)

Get your satellite thing and upload. Mostly very easy puzzle things.

Press Down arrow or 'S' to pick up the Satellite dish and move it about.

So - level 2 - just drop the satellite dish on the conveyor belt and run left, you'll drop signal, corpse out, fly along the conveyor as you're now flat, then regain signal at the end. :smile:

Skip to 14 minutes in on the video for a play-through if you're stuck

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zlgM2-NRAw

Ratings

Overall 298th 3.762⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Fun 139th 3.833⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 246th 3.667⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Theme 53th 4.405⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 231th 4.119⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Audio 285th 3.619⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Humor 379th 2.868⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Mood 660th 3.19⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Given 10🗳️ 13🗨️

Feedback

debugman18
Apr 21st · 00:56 UTC
The movement is fun and the concept is interesting. The controls were unclear, I didn't see an indication that down would pick up the satellite.
msipp27
Apr 21st · 08:02 UTC
level 2 is impossible, but i do like it!
PastMoments
Apr 21st · 08:20 UTC
Good job with creating some interesting puzzles from the basic mechanic. The solutions were satisfying to reach.
Trexxak
Apr 24th · 22:46 UTC
Signal - Wifi! I'm surprised I haven't seen more games making use of that symbol that can ruin our day xD

Plays great, is fun!
TheSmellofOxygen
Apr 25th · 15:48 UTC
Great soundtrack and "signal" VFX. The second level requires an incredibly frustrating level of precision though. Make the last block half the height and it'd be more approachable.
🎤 johnnysix
Apr 26th · 00:53 UTC
@debugman18 - whoops- yeah, life has been hectic this week, I meant to put a arrow above it to show S / Down Arrow was how you grabbed it.

@msipp27 - there's an easy way and a hard way. It can be done with timing, or fail successfully by dropping the dish on the conveyor belt and running right. It'll travel along, the robot will lose signal, then when he drops to the floor, the hitbox change allows him to fly through the gap and travel along. :smile:

@pastmoments - thanks for playing! Glad you found it fun.

@trexxak - Yeah, I thought a million people would do a similar theme.

@thesmellofoxygen - Yeah, see the answer to @msipp27 - there's a 'Failed successfully' method. I demo it in the video ~ 14mins in. I could've probably made the difficulty curve a little less steep! :scream:
Archaeognathus
Apr 26th · 08:21 UTC
Really fun game! The Artwork and music are sooo good, and puzzles are a nice challenge. I have to admit I needed to cheat and watch your video for the last part of level 4, because I did not get that you can walk over the gaps. While watching your video, I found it very funny that my game is actually the second one you see when you open the LD webpage!
My only complaints are that the hitboxes of the player and the spikes do not match up very well (it feels like hitting them too soon), and that the acceleration of the platforms in the last level is a bit annoying, because it makes you wait at a section that you will probably have to do a lot. Sometimes the death animation would also not play, but that did not affect gameplay. Other than that, it already feels very polished

Really enjoyed playing it. Well done :)
Phlip45
Apr 26th · 09:30 UTC
Definitely a bit punitive in the difficulty department, and the music also ended at one point and stopped looping. Other than that I could see all of the intention behind the mechanics and they are good ideas. I thought the graphics were charming and worked well, and I especially like the little twirly jump animation. Great submission, have fun out there!
OadT
Apr 26th · 14:20 UTC
Very cool concept! The movement felt a bit too slippery for me and the final level you do have to do some blind leaps of faith, but the other levels had some nice ideas in them. Also liked the graphics and the music (that also ended at some point in my playthrough :smile:)
clymm
May 01st · 22:17 UTC
Graphics are great, sounds are pretty good too. I found level 2 really difficult somehow the the slidey movement and the signal dying almost instantly with no room for small error. Despite that I think it was enjoyable and the graphics gave a great atmosphere.
Marcus Otterstrom
May 02nd · 01:42 UTC
Wow, great mechanics and very interesting puzzles! The only thing I can think of with the puzzle design is that it would be nice if they were a bit more "learnable", for example in the second to last level we don't know that the first button triggers a platform since it's off-screen, and in the last level you can't know which holes are dangerous at the end before trying them. Other than that I really like the design of the puzzles, I always try to avoid puzzle games because I know how hard it is to make interesting and fun levels, and I think you nailed it! And with great graphics & an original soundtrack too.

Oh, and I did level 2 the difficult way and I have to agree with previous commenters that it would be nice if the spike hitboxes were just a little bit more lenient. :)

Great entry.
neowhoru
May 02nd · 09:01 UTC
very nice game. Had first some problems with level 2 until i read your hints haha :D
F1Krazy
May 04th · 13:06 UTC
The game doesn't seem to be working for me. The loading bar fills up and then I just get a black screen. Could you upload a version of this elsewhere? This wouldn't be the first game I've encountered that doesn't work properly on the LD site but works perfectly fine elsewhere.
🎤 johnnysix
May 06th · 20:13 UTC
@f1krazy - thanks for trying does this link work?

https://johnnysix.net/games/GigaHurtz/

I know it sometimes gets blocked on certain VPNS.
Wizard
May 06th · 21:15 UTC
After 20 minutes of banging my head against a wall I finally beat the game. I love the art style and sound of the game and the feel of it being like one of those retro style precision platformers, eg: super meat boy. I didn't have too much difficulty with levels 1-4 but level 5 was evil. You almost owe me a new keyboard :laughing:. I feel like the hit detection on the spikes is a little off, so many times I didn't touch them and I died, and the momentum movement was causing real problems when I was trying to be precise with my movement. Other than those two pain points though, this was a thoroughly fantastic game that I could easily sink hours into and not notice. Very well done.
Lenny Rudeberg
May 07th · 04:26 UTC
Really cool little platformer game. I also struggled to understand what I needed to do at first but once I realised I need to move the satalite with me I found it both challenging and fun. GG!
VenomousMouse
May 07th · 07:44 UTC
Very cool visuals, sound and mechanic. The lvl 2 was the end for me until i read your hint. Very cool.
digital bacon
May 07th · 10:58 UTC
Nice little game. Love the retro graphics and sound. Interesting mechanics.

Great work --well done!
F1Krazy
May 07th · 18:29 UTC
@johnnysix The external one works, thanks.

I love the retro graphics, but I have to admit that I found the music a little grating. My biggest complaint, however, is the difficulty. This game is definitely not "very easy" as the description claims. I too was stumped by Level 2 until I read your description, and then I got completely stumped by Level 3 (how are you supposed to get yourself *and* the satellite dish up onto the second conveyor belt?). I *could* just watch your walkthrough, but at that point I'm not really playing the game.

This is a good idea, I think you just sorely underestimated the difficulty and/or ramped it up way too soon. The game needs more antepieces to ease you into the puzzle mechanics, so you know what you're actually doing by the time it starts throwing the trickier things at you.
🎤 johnnysix
May 07th · 21:10 UTC
@f1krazy - yeah, I could have added way more levels before #3 to introduce the mechanics , I was hoping people would try running as far as possible and hit the button by accident when trying it, but it's not as reliable as I thought it would be ( consistent speed coming of the ramp, sliding of floor as corpse friction etc :smile: )

If I did it again, would've gone straight to making a platformer and not wasting the first day messing around with signal repeaters and complex mechanics, affording more time for finesse like more/better levels and polish on music / sounds fx etc

Thanks for coming back and playing! :joy:
LDJam user 259103
May 08th · 00:39 UTC
Had a good time with this! It started off simple, but ramped up quickly enough that I didn't lose interest (though the last couple levels were more reflex-based and less puzzle-focused, while I was admittedly hoping for the opposite). The pixel art was charming, and the music was nice; though, the music stopped playing entirely around the third level and never started up again, leaving me in silence until the end of the game. The game also sorely needs sound effects, though lacking them is perfectly understandable for a jam game.

Gameplay-wise, I think the game's biggest weakness is its controls. Horizontal momentum is extremely slow, and the speed cap is overly high, which resulted in me flying into spikes frequently when trying to move through levels quickly. This became an issue in the last couple levels - especially level 5, which had a decently precise jump at the end (if I gained too much speed, I would jump too high and hit the spikes above me, but if I was moving too _slowly_, I wouldn't make it over the first gap). A puzzle-platformer like this, I think, should optimally have controls that get out of the way as much as possible, so the puzzles can stay at the forefront.

In terms of level design: the difficulty ramp is reasonable, but the game doesn't introduce its mechanics very well, which given your last comment here you're already aware of. To give some specific feedback regarding that, I think level 2 stands to be improved the most. The level's goal is to introduce the mechanic of using the blue platforms to regain signal after previously losing it, but while everything needed to teach that concept is present, the tutorial is obfuscated by seemingly navigable platforms above the floor, serving as essentially a red herring. You can get _just_ close enough to making it to the goal using those platforms that it led me astray for a couple minutes (until I accidentally lost signal on the ground and learned that I could slide on the floor myself). Replacing those with an obviously impassable obstacle would make the intended solution easier to see.

Overall, though, I quite enjoyed this! With some polishing it could be a pretty fun puzzle-platformer, and there's definitely potential to introduce new mechanics into the mix (throwing the satellite, etc). Nice work :)
Dis0rder
May 11th · 21:39 UTC
I had fun with this one! I find your games interesting especially in the technical side.

Don't have much to add to the criticism @python-b5 voiced earlier regarding the controls. I shared a similar experience of frustration and nearly gave up in the last level.

But after countless repeats my brain somehow calibrated to the floatiness/jankiness and I ended up playing the game through a second time with relative ease! I find that there's something **very 90's DOS -like spirit** in the feel of the controls. It might make players with _modern expectations and standards_ lose their sh... ...hoes!

![wifi1.png](///raw/e4c/2/z/7345c.png)

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I was happy to find out the same **DEBUG-key (+)** worked as in your last game (apart from invincibility!). I noted that the hidden indicators of the "signal-tether" sometimes changed to a minus-symbol. Was intrigued and checked your dev-video which explained the inner workings of the mechanic.

![wifi2.png](///raw/e4c/2/z/7345d.png)

The signal deterioration is a neat concept and not actually much unlike something I had pondered myself once. Although not very well utilized in this particular iteration, there's surely some potential there. For example it would be interesting if different types of tiles would have varied material and/or density-values which in turn would affect the signal's reach or behavior.

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If you'll ever add sound effects to the project, I think it would be a fun addition if the signal's strength would be indicated by an (toggleable?) audio-feedback. :speaker: :signal_strength:

The BGM was a good composition and I liked the lengthy progression. One relatively easy trick to improve the track would be to add slight decay and perhaps a very minimal reverb here and there. It might benefit some of the "busier" parts that feel a little too overwhelming. But that might also be just a matter of personal taste! :musical_note:

Unfortunately the music doesn't loop, so I had to put something completely different to the background when it stopped. Of all the music in the world, this time I ended up going with this [obscurity.](https://www.revengeofthesunfish.com/Foranimal.html)

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Keep on jamming!