ghostlet by PaperAeroplane555

[raw]
made by PaperAeroplane555 for Ludum Dare 50 (COMPO)

revive yourself during your death animation to delay your eventual and inevitable death (which is probably of old age and not spikes or bullets)

use ​WASD​ / ​Arrow Keys ​to move

use ​K ​to jump

hold down ​K​ while in your death animation to turn into a ​GHOST!​

use ​WASD/ ​Arrow Keys​​ as a ghost to float around and phase through walls!

​press ​R ​to restart ​press ​,​ and ​.​ to go to the next/previous level

(okay technically it isn't delaying anything that is inevitable, but maybe "the inevitable" could just be referring to death? haha)

this is probably my least polished game jam submission because all of the levels were made on sleep deprivation and i only spent 4 hours working on the game on the first day

what a "coincidence" that the day after submission day is 清明节 (aka qingming jie which is the yearly tradition to visit ancestral tombs ._.)

enjoy!

Ratings

Given 5🗳️ 11🗨️

Feedback

atomicptr
04. Apr 2022 · 11:55 UTC
The mechanic of turning into a ghost on death is genius, the game has quite a few levels, I really loved it.
Daniel Foutz
04. Apr 2022 · 12:06 UTC
This is really fun! My favorite jam game so far, well done. I think the death ghost mechanic has real potential. It isn't obvious immediately that you don't switch out of ghost mode while inside walls which meant I almost quit on the third level because I was confused but after that clicked I really got into it. The hyper minimal style works great for this idea. The theme use is a little weak here but who cares, right? Great job, honestly.
Balgorode
04. Apr 2022 · 12:06 UTC
I rather enjoyed this one, sometimes the way to beat levels could be a bit finicky but overall it was really fun. One thing I will say though, jump/ghost button should have been SPACEBAR.
Frib
04. Apr 2022 · 12:08 UTC
The ghost mechanic combined with all the various obstacles is really nice! It adds an interesting twist to platformers
Lighty_the_Light
04. Apr 2022 · 12:08 UTC
WTF this game is just awesome!
Smooth control, good idea.
I'm soooo impressed.
Nice job pal!
Lighty_the_Light
04. Apr 2022 · 12:13 UTC
兄弟你这游戏碉堡了,可否加个联系方式
Arcobaleno
04. Apr 2022 · 12:25 UTC
+ Perfect handle
+ Fluent visual expression
+ Excellent level design
非常出色的跳跳乐。机制,手感,关卡都打磨得非常好。牛!
Nick Saulnier
05. Apr 2022 · 15:28 UTC
Super fun, refreshing to see a cool take on platforming.
Dandala88
06. Apr 2022 · 07:52 UTC
The ghost mechanic was really hard to get used to at first but once you got it, and it kind of clicked, it had a really good feel to it. The mechanic did start to feel a little dry after a few levels. And I could feel that in the quick ramp up of difficulty. I think the graphics fit well and the sounds matched good enough.

This seems like a game that, if fleshed out a bit more, could be a classic. Learning that ghost mechanic, again, eventually sort of clicked and felt really good. Thanks for your contribution!
ClaytonRumley
07. Apr 2022 · 03:30 UTC
I considered a similar "you die then ghost you completes the level" game for this jam but went in a totally different direction. Love your take on it! An impressive number of levels for a 48 hour jam and once I understood how ghost mode worked it really clicked.

I like how your first few levels are also tutorials on the mechanics...well thought out!

The minimalist graphics were reminiscent of GameBoy games. Would have been nice if the cannons had similar "ba-doom" sound effect when firing (like in Super Mario Bros.).

Would love to play a fully fleshed out version of this game. Well done!
LDJam user 234567
08. Apr 2022 · 19:50 UTC
Once the game mechanics understood this game is perfect. I felt like I was playing on Nintendo Gameboy.

Simple, only black and white but great game!
The Great Gallus
21. Apr 2022 · 03:20 UTC
What a fantastic little game this was!

Gameplay was a lot of fun. I thought that it was going to be pretty simple when I first saw the core mechanic of the game, but you really took the basic concept and ran with it to create some fantastic levels. Slowly adding new elements like the anti-ghost fields and the bullets to ramp up the difficulty was great too. Got a lot of mileage out of the concepts. I do wish that the floating death apples(?) respawned so that you didn't just have to restart if you messed up those sequences, but the levels were short enough that a restart didn't take long at all, so it's not really too much of a problem in the end.

Good job on the level design, particularly when introducing the bullet mechanic. I kept trying to find a way to zip through the anti-ghost barrier in that level (having pressed Jump almost immediately after being hit, as I was getting into the rhythm of doing) but couldn't figure it out, so one time I just didn't press it out of curiosity and, voila, I could immediately see the way it worked. The limited options in the stage make sure you really know how that works before moving on.

The graphics are charming. You made great use of the limited monochromatic palette you were working with. The main character (especially in ghost form) is cute and everything in the stage is clear and unique. I was never confused about what anything was once I interacted with it once, and even on the complex stages, things were still readable and never got jumbled.

Choice on the sounds were good too. The ghost sound effect felt like it matched the phasing concept, and the death (and complete, actual death) sounds were very fitting.

On the theme, you mentioned that the inevitable isn't technically delayed despite the death reversal (with the inevitable being death). I think that you could have hammered it home by having the level goals play the "death" animation to send you to the next stage, which would really give you that delay. Either way, I think your play on death reversal works pretty well for it.

Thanks for this game, it was a great experience. If you plan to do anything more with this concept in the future, I'd love to see what else you can come up with playing off of this design idea!

PS: Really cool of you to include a level skip feature! Even cooler including the ability to go back (which I don't think I've seen in any other game I've played for this event)