Road to joy by arya-s
Road to Joy is a mouse only platformer about Ludwig van Beethoven and his struggles.
Controls: * Move mouse sideways to make Ludwig follow * Left mouse to jump * R to reset the level
This game is best played in full screen mode, otherwise make sure your mouse cursor stays within the game window.
| Link | https://arya-s.itch.io/ld49 |
| Link | https://arya-s.itch.io/ld49 |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/49/road-to-joy |
Ratings
| Overall | 771th | 3.5⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 690th | 3.47⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 329th | 3.691⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 1125th | 3.103⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 1070th | 3.235⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 570th | 3.409⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 975th | 2.574⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 958th | 3.219⭐ | 34🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 20🗳️ | 31🗨️ |
@pitisek Yeah I think it can be quite hard to play depending on mouse settings. I play with 4000 dpi and it feels pretty good with small movement flicks left/right but when I tried on 800 dpi it was awful. You have to move the mouse too far and it makes making the jumps really hard. Thank you!
@naymsayk Yep that's the theme. Very loosely, it's also about him overcoming his unstable hearing ability. Thank you!
@kubulambula thanks. Inspired by an old flash game called Winterbells which did it much better. My movement is highly dependent on your mouse settings. I suggest trying 4000 dpi and making small adjustments left/right as you move along. Thank you!
Yea the controls are whacky. Here's how I move my mouse for hitting the notes: https://streamable.com/gz2sgo
I personally feel that you would benefit from either removing the mouse controls entirely, restricting them much more than they are, or moving away from a musical game and polishing the mouse controls.
The music note platforms are incredibly tight and require very precise movement, which by itself is fine. But with the extreme velocity and jump length you can get Ludwig up to with mouse controls, I very often would accidentally skip one or two notes and lose the effect of hearing a song play. Not to mention how unforgiving platforming challenges completely kill the pacing of hearing the music play out.
I think as a developer you would benefit by choosing exactly which of these two mechanics speak to you more and choosing one to polish and perfect. As it stands now, developing levels would be incredibly difficult for you because of the wide variety of movement you've given the player. Especially if the intention is for the player to create their own music. Consider the kind of pacing players expect from rhythm games and platformers and compare them. If you want to combine the genres, it will take some balancing to keep the game from frustrating your players who may want more of one experience than the other.
I hope this helps!
I really like the interpretation of the theme here, too. I'm a little concerned that the game being as difficult as it is, and the core theme being introduced so late may make players miss this connection. I hope they don't, but I suspect they might. You've totally managed to make a competent platformer out of MIDI, which is insane to me. I definitely found it challenging enough (though I finished it of course huehuehue), but I think for a jam game, again, you might miss a few players.
Overall, a great entry. With a little more attention to accessibility of the theme and a lower difficulty curve you'll definitely maximise the amount of reach for later entries. Best of luck, and thanks again!
Lots of fun.
Look at my mouse movement here: https://streamable.com/gz2sgo
Thanks everyone for playing though!
This was one of my favorite entries, the deaf was a nice touch too.
(sorry about my english)
Very well done!