Sun Chaser (Survival Platformer) by Tom Kun

Game Description:
Race against the sunset as a Sun Chaser! John woke up in the morning to find that his mother has been turned into a flower by the local magician.... and cursed to wither once the sunsets! - Follow the last remaining ray of the sun to make sure the flower gets enough sunlight! - Vault over trees! - Jump over platform gaps! - How long can you delay the inevitable setting of the sun?
Tips: The light that shines on platforms will show the sun's relative position
Control:
W - Jump
A - Move Left
D - Move Right
Team: CTG GameCreators
Design: Alex, Max
Programming: Colin, David, Tom
3D Art: Alex
Art Direction and Concept Art: Molly
Coach: Tom Kun
| Link | https://ctggamecreaters.itch.io/sunchaser |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/sun-chaser-survival-platformer |
Ratings
| Overall | 1095th | 3.188⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 956th | 3.146⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 990th | 2.979⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 828th | 3.542⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 909th | 3.375⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 891th | 2.6⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 1011th | 3.167⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 25🗳️ | 6🗨️ |


those trees are not giving me a good time tho lol


I love the music, and the art is well made too! The gameplay is a little rough, and hitting a single tree is almost an instant death sentence. Overall, it's a good time.
But the "Platforming" controls felt a bit off. They were heavy and unpercise.
The lighting of the world was on point.
Good work on the visuals!
Over time, I figured out how it's possible to do some strategising in that I could jump not just off the ledge, but sometimes a little earlier so that I could react to subsequent trees without losing too much momentum. I just wish that trees themselves weren't followed by pits between platforms that often, because then I either slow down or I fall into the pit. And the sun is really challenging to keep up with.
Speaking of the sun, maybe instead of "ahead of sun/behind sun" messages there would be some bar in the bottom middle, with the center corresponding to the current player position and the sun shown relative to it - it would be easier to see how far ahead/behind is *too* far. And if the loss condition is based not only on the distance to sun, but the time the flower was outisde of the sun, it would be nice to have an indicator of the flower's health.
Anyway, got 50s on my best run. Really pretty game overall. ^^