Heaven Can Wait by paulhocker

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

Heaven Can Wait

This was the first game where I have tried to tie your ability to win against every other player. In order to win the game and make it to Heaven you must collect more faith than the last person who got the most faith. I hope you enjoy playing and Good Luck!

And just to answer the obvious question. Yes! I have been watching too much Sword Art Online!

:)

Instructions

  • left/right arrow to move and up arrow to jump
  • collect fluctlight to delay darkness
  • find faith symbols to reach heaven
  • look out for the seven deadly sins as they will remove your faith and get in your way
  • you must collect more faith than the last winner in order to reach heaven and leave your name
  • the amount of faith needed to win will continue to rise as more people play and beat the highest faith score

SNAG-2022-Apr-04-001.png

Ratings

Overall 870th 3.404⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Fun 944th 3.154⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 777th 3.22⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Theme 970th 3.4⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 758th 3.56⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Audio 645th 3.24⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Humor 1080th 2.136⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Mood 999th 3.18⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Given 29🗳️ 31🗨️

Feedback

NBumgardner
05. Apr 2022 · 01:04 UTC
The web link gives me a 404 error, looking forward to trying the game once its ready!
LDJam user 258516
05. Apr 2022 · 12:57 UTC
Incredible! Man, the arts were awesome, and the whole concept behind it matched the theme a lot!

The music and sound effects also created a great ambiance.

The source of the tutorial was a little unreadable, I had to make an effort to read it.

I don't know if you've been playing the other games, but your game has the potential to earn a lot of points, but you need to play the other games for it to appear (I went to the game session with zero points)

Congratulations!
🎤 paulhocker
05. Apr 2022 · 13:13 UTC
@very-bad-bunny-studio thank for playing. i will fix the font on the page and i wonder if you were able to save your score screen?
LDJam user 258516
05. Apr 2022 · 13:33 UTC
@paulhocker I don't remember seeing the screen, but having seen the screen, but having seen the score of 2 faith is mine, I will try again.
🎤 paulhocker
05. Apr 2022 · 14:01 UTC
The way it "should" work is that if you reach the number of Faith Needed it will take you to a Win screen where you can Enter you name and then submit it. Of course, for that to work you must be "online" which I assume is true because people are playing through the browser. Thanks for getting back to me, and I plan on trying your game out later today.
🎤 paulhocker
05. Apr 2022 · 15:22 UTC
@nbumgardner Thanks for letting me know. I had not published the link on itch so I think that was causing the 404. It should be working now. Thanks.
Zelenoe_aloe
05. Apr 2022 · 15:36 UTC
Cool game!
Eli Delventhal
06. Apr 2022 · 04:35 UTC
Really solid game! I made it to heaven with a score of 30 faith. That's much higher than the previous but super beatable, I picked up like 8 deadly sins without realizing they were reducing my faith. I wasn't clear on the reason for the different "levels" - seems like each level is very short until the last one, which seems endless. I kind of would rather just have had the whole thing endless. Loved the art for the crawling enemies, super creepy.
Tsugumi
06. Apr 2022 · 04:45 UTC
The Game is cool and matches the theme well.
Mooptychunk
06. Apr 2022 · 05:14 UTC
I like the competitive aspect. Cool stuff!
🎤 paulhocker
06. Apr 2022 · 12:19 UTC
@eli-delventhal thanks for playing, and it was nice to confirm that my scoring system was working with another player -- appreciate the feedback too. the different level represent to ascent to heaven. the more faith you need the longer it will take to complete each level. it also give you a bit of a break in the gameplay which was frantic. :)
piscythe
07. Apr 2022 · 06:52 UTC
![sin.png](///raw/168/z/4d4e3.png)

Actual footage of me trying to ascend to heaven. Yeah I got stuck like this and just had to wait for the darkness thing to tick down. After a few attempts I managed to set the bar at 78. It seems possible to go indefinitely so I expect to see that beaten several times over. This is super cool and I wonder if some bored person is gonna show up and set the bar at like 1000.
FireSlash
07. Apr 2022 · 07:02 UTC
Love the concept.

I wish there was a bit more intent to the level design, right now it feels like a lot of random and unrewarding jumping. Maybe if enemies were a bit more varied it could make it more interesting?

The game has a nice ambiance. Between the lighting effects and music, it really sells the concept.

Nice work!
TheBlitz
07. Apr 2022 · 12:57 UTC
Interesting concept to include a multiplayer aspect into the game! Can be a little faster paced and more intense to be really fun tho :)
🎤 paulhocker
07. Apr 2022 · 13:03 UTC
@fireslash agree! i ran out of time to build some really interesting sections to the game. as a matter of fact i had to add double jump to get around the flaw with my platform generation model. i learned from it though and will do better if i try to make a game like this again. thanks for playing.
Alexascher
07. Apr 2022 · 20:15 UTC
Very good platformer feel and speed, but the first level was too long in my opinion. Finished it, and then died on the second level.
Did not understand what all the pickups did. At first run collected crosses and that black thins, but then noticed that they cancel each other in the UI. So why to collect black thingy? =)
Stefan Funke
08. Apr 2022 · 10:41 UTC
The game was quite fun. Interesting concept.

The first level felt a bit repetitive. The second level though felt quite challenging. I liked that. I just wished that I didn't have to restart from the very beginning. :D

Also encountered the bug where I was stuck inside the deadly sin.
And when you are quite high up and walk over the edge you are stuck on a black screen.

Good game. Had fun. Thanks :)
GardenJungle
08. Apr 2022 · 10:50 UTC
This is the most fun game I've played so far in LD50.
Noiyy
08. Apr 2022 · 11:08 UTC
Nice & simple idea, I've reached level 2, but I think that some sin placements are kinda unfair, since to progess I had to jump into them. Maybe that was your plan? :thinking: Also, the black small sin could be a little bigger maybe. I thought that light was running out slowly, but then I felt it at the second level when it was below 50% :smile:
KuKuRammus
08. Apr 2022 · 18:14 UTC
Like the animation. Would make levels a little shorter, but more challenging. But nice entry overall
epeachyband
09. Apr 2022 · 06:51 UTC
Cool idea, but it can become boring if the last player's record is too high. Thank you for making the game
RonanRorry
14. Apr 2022 · 03:30 UTC
Really neat idea for a game! Unlike you, I've never watched Sword Art Online, so I'm not sure about any references or similarities this entry exhibits. The way this entry integrates the theme is quite unique, so that'll earn a good Innovation score, I bet.

All the aspects of the game are VERY simple, but they are pretty good when combined together. Best part of this game is the sound effect for collecting faith, very gratifying.

Despite all that, however, I absolutely LOATHE how enemies knock you back upon touching them. And upon getting hit, you just lose control as your character runs back like a sissy! I lost 2-3 times because of a tiny little mistake I made, causing my character to run off a platform, plunging down into MORE ENEMIES, and the cycle goes on and on and I cannot do a single thing about it!

The player needs to have invincibility during this time! I think the camera should pivot above or below you to get a sense of what could be in your way; along with that, make the player fall slower, so they can react better with what's below them.

Maybe you can spend faith to place a checkpoint to pick up where you left off. The catch is, when you respawn, the checkpoint vanishes, no longer existing. Adding to this, you should only be able to place 1 checkpoint at a time, perhaps encouraging some sort of risk/reward sort of system.

I was absolutely *terrified* of falling down when I reached the clouds, and I actually kind of enjoyed the tension it produced. But the reason WHY I was terrified was because I probably could've failed again and lost SO MUCH TIME! I really don't know how you'd reproduce this tension with the updates I suggested, though.

To end this comment, I was actually able to extend the amount of faith required from 270 to 298! Really cool idea you had, and the execution is alright, even though it leaves much to be desired. Have a great night!
Necdilzor
15. Apr 2022 · 15:28 UTC
Had a bit of fun but thought the end goal was too high and gave up after a while.
Maybe it's just me.

I loved the graphics though, very cool designs for player and monsters and the sound effects reminded me of dark souls.
lilkrit
18. Apr 2022 · 13:19 UTC
Cool game but I have to complain about one thing...
don't make jump with up arrow / w! Please make it space.