Horse with a Human Mask on A Tightrope by jefvel

:exclamation::exclamation: Protip: Play in fullscreen to get a better overview of what's happening :exclamation::exclamation:
You used to work at Joe's Stable as a horse, but got fired.
Looking for job you find an offer, but it's for humans only.
Wear the Human Mask, do the job.
Can you beat the record?
Post your score in the comments if you manage to beat the game, you'll be placed on the leaderboard!
- :first_place: 01:37.833 - @torcado
- :second_place: 02:40.000 - @mhorth
- :third_place: 02:58.566 - @thewustache
- :fourleafclover: 04:37.633 - @annie-owl
Dev best : 01:43
Features
Slash Monsters

The slash attack dashes forward
Shoot Monsters
The gun propels you backwards
Can you use these tools defeat God?
Controls
Hold left and right mouse button to lean left and right.
Hold both left and right at the same time to crouch. Release to jump.
While jumping, aim with the mouse and left click to attack.
Playthrough Video
Here's the whole game if you're curious about how the game ends, but don't want to grind it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByUGwE6V7VA
| Post Jam Version | https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/817197 |
| Github | https://github.com/jefvel/ld49 |
| Compo Version | https://jefvel.itch.io/secret-horse |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/49/horse-with-a-human-mask-on-a-tightrope |
Ratings
| Overall | 87th | 3.887⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 99th | 3.79⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 71th | 3.968⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 67th | 4.177⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 85th | 3.984⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 65th | 3.817⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 5th | 4.468⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 146th | 3.548⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 35🗳️ | 39🗨️ |
I also found out that I am really bad at the game :D
I did run into a funny bug when the rope and the dude (Not a horse) sunk into the depths of oblivion haha

@indigowolf Thanks for liking and playing it!
@guisado Thank you!
@magnusfurcifer Thanks, glad you found it funny! Oh! That happened to me like once during the weekend, but I didn't have time to find and fix it. Let's say it's an easter egg!
@parafactual Thank you! Yeah, the game relies on being able to press both mouse buttons. Touchpad makes it very hard. I didn't have time fixing alternative controls, but might do it in the future
Well done!
Didn't expect him to jump up and John Wick it up when he got the gun though - crazy!
try as i might, i have been unable to beat your time. and my arm says no more haha
i only have two gripes with the game
1. you cant jump near the edges, which removes the ability to stabilize yourself quickly or get out of the way using the knife (i also kept falling near the edges i think because i kept thinking i'm clicking to lean forward/back instead of left/right. something you can get used to though)
2. landing right as an attack triggers happened a lot for me, and dying without any way to react is never fun. over time it got a little better as i learned the timings, but never fully went away especially when, for instance, keeping yourself in the air with the weapon. an on-screen icon of some sort would have worked ok.
nothing to make me quit playing though!
otherwise i found this fantastic. art is charming as always, the sound effects are nice and punchy but not overpowering. lots of gameplay variety. very nice :)
@rolly Glad you found it funny! And thanks!
@roelosaurus Thank you for playing! Yeah he's definitely not playing around
@torcado Thank you! Yeah the weapons both have their strong sides, the pistol does a lot of damage, but the knife makes you quicker. Did you manage to beat the game? If so, congratulations! I don't know if anyone else has done it yet!
And yeah, that edge jumping thing was one thing I forgot to fix. It now has a minimum jump height, but it's not in the compo version. I also wanted the horse to jump up on the ledge, so when he gets there he'll be completely stable until the user clicks again. But hadn't got the time for that either.
It's not really mentioned anywhere, but if you press the full screen button, you'll have a much bigger field of view. That will make it much more fair. I just got so used to the timings and attacks that I didn't even think about it.
Thanks for the thorough post, and glad you liked the game!
@jammygunns, @bassilij, @bloodbane Thanks for playing! Yeah I agree the controls are sort of awkward. I didn't have time to add alternate controls, with space for jump, and lean left right with A and D. Pressing both the left and right mouse buttons can be finicky in browsers, and also not possible for some users. But I hope you found it a bit fun to play :)
ah, fullscreening is a good idea. I never considered that!
Yeah, I should probably have added a "Fullscreen recommended" prompt at the start of the game. I added that to the description though.

I loaded it up determined to take the speedrun record, but boy I was not prepared for the difficulty. An hour and a half later, I finally completed my first run lol. Would've quit much sooner than that, but you made it so damn fun!
Do you remember what time you got, so I can document it?
Also this panel hit me hard haha

The game is well executed and it's easy to understand the mechanics. Maybe it's a bit hard, or maybe I'm just very bad at it.
Overall I enjoyed the mood. This is a fun entry, well done!
I enjoyed this entry, cool stuff
It took me a while to understand how to attack. It also was waay too difficult for me to finish. I still had plenty of fun with it! Great job!
I was streaming my playthrough of some games and made a recording of it. I hope it will be helpful for you to see a first-time player's perspective of your game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88rtTOXawsw
I'm starting to play your game at 1:22:07
@alec The poor horse had to do what he could to survive. Glad you liked it even if it was so unforgiving!
@nick-rafalski I'm glad you liked it, even if it's absolutely too hard!
@annie-owl wow, you got to the last phase? That's pretty hardcore, not far from actually winning the game! And thanks for liking it and playing it so much!
@megamasterx haha naah, you're not really bad at it, you're good if you can balance for a few seconds. You just have to get really into the game, matrix mode, to win it. I'm glad you enjoyed it even though it being crazy!
@jeremyfa Thanks for liking it! I figured it followed the theme, the horse is unstable on the rope, and he got un-stabled in the intro. And I agree on the difficulty. I just played it so much while making it, and even felt it started to become a bit too easy after a while. I'm just glad I didn't make it even harder!
@thewustache yoo! You're the third person who has beaten the game, that's impressive! Do you remember what time you got? Yeah, I want to add resting places on both sides, so once you reach them the horse will sit down until the player presses a button, and also reduce the max rotation speed of the horse. Thanks for playing and mastering the game! Not many people will hear all the different phases of the music, but I'm glad you did :)
@jvolonte Thank you! Yeah, it's super difficult, way too super difficult. The knife is nice though, since you wont have think about balancing while dashing in the air. I'm glad you liked it!
@juanrod707 Thanks for playing!
@caudatecoder Thanks! That video was very helpful, made me realize over-rotation is the primary obstacle, and that the game is unclear about that you can attack midair. I will definitely fix those problems if I do a post-jam version. Thank you for playing it, and recording while doing so! It's a really good way for seeing what works and what doesn't! You get so blind with your own game when you sit with it for such a long time building it from scratch! Big thank you again!

@gus-goucher Thanks, glad you liked it!
@kumber thank you! Yeah, it does require a lot of practice, it's probably a bit too challenging! That horse is really going places.
@lesinvisible Thanks! Yeah, I wanted to make a game with mouse only controls. But the postjam version has mouse+keyboard support. It feels a bit better and easy to play. Glad you liked it!
Thanks for playing and liking it!
@rhoka Aw yeah! Nice job, glad you enjoyed it! And thank you!