Delayed Gratification by jessekaz

[raw]
made by jessekaz for Ludum Dare 50 (JAM)

Welcome to Delayed Gratification! Navigate the level, solve puzzles, collect coins, and do your best to delay the inevitable.

WASD or arrow keys to walk. Space to interact.

Screenshot 2022-04-04 185327.jpg

Created from scratch in C++ with our own custom game engine.

Ratings

Overall 1032th 3.25⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1032th 3.05⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 337th 3.65⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Theme 525th 3.8⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1209th 2.675⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Humor 525th 3.184⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1311th 2.5⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Given 24🗳️ 15🗨️

Feedback

Karmelyth
05. Apr 2022 · 19:37 UTC
Interesting game. The mechanic of the goal moving towards the Player fits pretty well with the team and leads to some clever puzzle mechanics. The diffculty progression is adequate for the most part, with the exception for the 4th level wich i find a bit tricky. Something id love to see is the inclusion for position indicators for the Goal and the major goals offscreen, as some of the later levels tend to be very large.
🎤 jessekaz
07. Apr 2022 · 02:05 UTC
Thanks for the feedback, @karmelyth :) Direction indicators for offscreen goals is a great idea.
SlurpeeThief
07. Apr 2022 · 05:41 UTC
I like the concept though I felt a little lost at the parts where your player has to go off screen. I assume that may have been a bug? I did appreciate that even if I failed the levels I still got to see more of the game! Definitely a unique idea. Also very impressive to have written this in your own engine!

EDIT: the offscreen issue was due to me being in full screen (cutting off top and bottom). works fine in windowed
rojo
07. Apr 2022 · 05:43 UTC
Interesting idea. Being chased by a dispassionate next level portal is an amusing concept. It's also cool that you wrote your own engine.
const_arch
07. Apr 2022 · 05:45 UTC
I'm going to come back to this one, just hoping for a patch for one issue. There are black bars along the top and bottom of the game that appear to block parts of levels, so some important parts of the levels my character would go off camera for.
🎤 jessekaz
07. Apr 2022 · 09:49 UTC
Can confirm the black bars are supposed to only appear during the tutorial. Likely a bug related to triggering a tutorial prompt when one is already active. Thanks for bringing it up, we'll try to get a fix out for that soon.
dot_dev
07. Apr 2022 · 10:02 UTC
It's a really interesting concept, although it took me a while to understand it and it definitely is impressive that you made the engine yourself. Especially the theme was integrated really well. Good job man!
Ratstail91
07. Apr 2022 · 15:20 UTC
Barely ran on my machine, sorry.
ExeVirus
08. Apr 2022 · 02:23 UTC
Ha, that was an effort in frustration, I can't finish half of these in completion-ist mode. Still enjoyed it, absolutely fluid game-play on a decent PC, I enjoyed that part of it. Thanks for some fun!
benskca
08. Apr 2022 · 09:17 UTC
Really cool take on the theme and it's a fun mechanic that I've never seen before to have the player try to avoid moving onto the next level. The game ran totally smoothly on my PC, and I liked the puzzle mechanics a lot. I think the game would really benefit from some sound effects if you guys ever wanted to revisit it!
FulminDerek
09. Apr 2022 · 01:11 UTC
I had a bit of a rough start with this one, as I was just pushing keys and boxes around instead of picking them up and was still opening doors and switches that way, but after a bit I got used to the controls. I also ran into the black bar issue as well.
I just have to say though, the level-ending void is such a fun charming thing. Its messages of affirmation as it comes to snatch you up gave me a chuckle lol
Taximan981
10. Apr 2022 · 09:07 UTC
Was I not supposed to get hit by the guy to beat the level? I got to the win page so I assume I won. Very cool
🎤 jessekaz
10. Apr 2022 · 22:57 UTC
@taximan981 winning is inevitable - all you can do is get as many coins as you can before the portal catches you :)
RubixNoob13
11. Apr 2022 · 20:16 UTC
I agree that the game could have used some sound effects or music. Otherwise, fun little game!
fatPenguin
14. Apr 2022 · 11:40 UTC
Amazing that you wrote this from scratch in your own engine! The idea of the "goalBlob" (I know awful name ^^) approaching you is really funny and the speechbubbles make it even better!

There were a lot of occasions were I thought, "meh I wanted to see more of that level" so it makes a lot of sense that you added a "previous level" button. Very considerate!

Overall a very good entry!
ludovic-moge
16. Apr 2022 · 13:49 UTC
The concept is interesting, the difficulty is well managed. I liked the humorous tone of your game as well! Overall a pretty decent proposition!
commanderstitch
16. Apr 2022 · 18:45 UTC
i like the complexity of carrying things, the doors, switches, boxes, and neat mechanics of the game. The constantly dodgying the blue thing was tedious at times, especially on the very large waiting maze to get to the middle. By the middle of it i just wanted to do what the large blue ball god said.
LDJam user 237623
17. Apr 2022 · 22:52 UTC
The game felt like it had good pacing. I thought it was pretty creative that the end of the level is chasing you. As the player, that was fun. Often the game would stutter though which would take me out of the game a bit. Any kind of sound effects or audio would really make the game more interesting, although I understand you probably just didn't have time for that.