Lumen Sphera by BrandonDev
Note: Game was designed for gamepads so use the thumbstick or keyboard arrow keys to navigate.
Description: Use power spheres to progress through levels. Shoot, launch into the air, or fall to your demise through 6 levels. Assets made before jam: All assets made during jam except audio assets.
Changelog: October 4th 2021 5:23pm Added updated version to fix mouse bug.
Changelog: October 8th 2021 10:24pm Fixed menu navigation bug.
Changelog: October 9th 2021 10:21am Developers Note: Not sure if I'm allowed to add level geometry after jam ends so I'll leave the previous version available for reviewing.
Lessened jump velocity. Added walls on sixth level to prevent skipping puzzle elements.
| Link | https://trickbag-games.itch.io/lumen-sphera |
| Link | https://trickbag-games.itch.io/lumen-sphera |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/49/lumen-sphera |
Ratings
| Overall | 488th | 3.708⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 456th | 3.667⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 460th | 3.583⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 1442th | 2.458⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 679th | 3.688⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 1123th | 2.275⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 836th | 3.341⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 18🗳️ | 24🗨️ |
Great job!
Would love to see a recording of you making the yell noise that you recorded for this lol.
If you plan to add any more content to this I'd suggest rebuilding the levels while keeping this in mind: almost all of these puzzles can be halved by just jumping over holes in the floor.
Also the bind for recalling a sphere really ought to be the same bind for picking up a sphere. Picking up and placing are intuitively opposite you see.
The metal textures you made on the 3d models were impressive! I look forward to seeing more of your work in future jams.
I really have fun to play this game) thank you)
Excellent audio - the pickup and putdown sounds were super satisfying. The puzzles were cool, and you can see the potential for more down the line with some more polish. Good job!
Unfortunately the UI text on the screen tells me to press left and right triggers (while on the keyboard and mouse), I figured out that Right Trigger "is" mouse buttons, but what corresponds to Left Trigger I still do not know)
Anyway, nice game!
- keyboard and mouse support is essential and very easy to add
- when falling of the map you can see it from the bottom (probably you would want to make a portal 2 style pit that has black unlit textures)
- Sliding platforms apply speed to the character, but it's not indicated in any way and it doesn't make much sense (why is a platform going up launching me forward?)
- Game physics are quite janky, I had troubles solving the last 2 levels as when I was being launched to the side, I was still flying forward and I was barely able to stop at the edge of the platform
- in many levels there are those openable holes in the ground, which in some levels are used creatively and in other they are always open, so why can't you just put a big un openable hole there?
- the openable floors have a border around them, but you just clip through it by no reason (even flying platforms that rise from the pit would be better)
- some ambient sounds and more sound effects would be appreciated
Except those things I enjoyed the experience. Good job
Keyboard and mouse are supported and work the controls just aren't displayed due to lack of time.
Yeah If I had more time I definitely would have done that.
The moving platforms definitely could communicate what the do better for sure and definitely would have given more work. How they launch for sure doesn't make sense but needed to try to get there player to the right position. These are things that unfortunately can only be discovered with more play testing and fixed with tuning.
Parts of the trap doors are static geometry which need lightmaps to be baked for lighting. Removing them would require rebaking the lighting which takes up development time so I opted to leave them.
The trap doors having no collision was a deliberate choice I made to prevent the player from just walking across them to the other side. I had worked on a different solution to this problem but it didn't work consistently so I choose to make them have no collision instead. There where issues anyway with people just platforming across but this way made it a little less obvious.
Thanks for the feedback!