The Lunatic by Samuel Fine

10 levels of platformer goodness based on the premise of a moon with irregular orbit causing unstable gravity.
TODO / RAN OUT OF TIME LIST: - Tune the platformer code or write my own (precision matters in a game like this) - More orbital complexity (vary the speed/frequency of the orbit, multiple bodies interacting?) - Objects/platforms that are affected by gravity changes - Clock for speedrunning - More obstacles besides your bog-standard spike!
| Link | https://samuelfine.itch.io/the-lunatic |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/49/the-lunatic |
Ratings
| Overall | 801th | 3.483⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 866th | 3.317⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 460th | 3.583⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 758th | 3.533⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 1017th | 3.3⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 952th | 3.224⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 28🗳️ | 32🗨️ |
Timing for high or low jumps is pretty fun. Good Job!

I'd say it's an interesting concept but it lends itself to timing, and from that waiting.
Which is not something most ppl are interested in, when playing platformers.
@electric @orangutanrider You both hit the nail on the head. I didn't start off planning on the "waiting" to be part of the gameplay, it just sorta happened. I don't know if it's...good? :laughing:
When I think about platformers like Celeste or Super Meat Boy or Spelunky, they definitely require more along the lines of speed and precision timing. I'm not aware of another platformer that requires patience as a key mechanic (beyond the go-stop-go pattern you'll find in Mario 1 or Mega Man games, for example) so maybe this is something to pursue further! Definitely a lot of room for tuning and tweaking.
If I worked on this, I firstly would polish platforming a bit, for example, by adding a few extra ms of time to jump right after the character falls off the platform (many platformers from all ages do this to have a less annoying experience overall)
@fat-cat Ha, thanks! Lots of “programmer art” going on so I’m glad you enjoyed it.
@cooltomten Thank you! Definitely hoping to tune the orbit UI in the future. :)
@aboykiy Thanks, and agreed on the artwork. Very much a rush job. :grimacing:
@vladimir40a Whoops! Sorry about that, must have messed up a collider. Will check it out!
@giulychu Ahh thanks for the heads up! Will check on that menu bug.
@knexator Appreciated! The waiting is kinda the opposite of most frame-perfect platformers, glad to hear you enjoyed it.
@stefan-b Thank you for playing! Totally right, the controls are a bit janky. Used built-in functionality, would love to roll my own jump/gravity handler for better precision and more forgiving input handling.
Thanks for a fun entry

@AGsilverAG Fast-forward is _interesting_. Didn't consider time as part of the mechanic, but I'll think on that. As far as gravity affecting the world beyond jump height, I very much wanted to get some gravity-affected objects in there but didn't have the time. Thanks for the kind words!
@tomatolamp omg I had no idea that was even possible :sweat:
Props for finishing the game, honestly this concept is unique I haven’t seen it before, and the execution is solid too, the levels utilize the concept great, especially the last level! [though as the commenter above me points out, perhaps there were other possible level design ideas to further flesh out the concept]
It fits with the theme, and really my only complaint would be how in some levels you have to wait a lot in order to time your jump, sometimes I’d die, then I have to wait until the orbit completes, then die again, and I’d end up waiting for most of the time.
Not sure how one could fix this though, since the timing is part of the game.
Anyway either way a cool game with a cool concept executed cool-y!