Baltic by picttarge

Game Summary
Antarctic Romp in the harsh cold and wind.
Single-player platformer where gloves and a scarf are definitely not optional.
Social
Controls
- A/D / Arrows L/R - Movement
- Spacebar - Jump
Objective
- Survive the harsh weather by making it to the next research station or warming up by a fire.
- Make your way to the seventh and last weather station.
Credits
License stuff
Blizzard recording 573290 (External) by kevp888 or Kevin Luce, and www.freesound.org https://freesound.org/people/kevp888/sounds/573290/ No changes made https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Whistling Antarctic Blizzard 173096 (Internal) by Stormpetrel https://freesound.org/people/stormpetrel/sounds/173096/ No changes made https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Banging Screen Door sound MAJ061785 and www.freesound.org https://freesound.org/people/MAJ061785/sounds/85541/ Changes: file split into two portions https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Lightbulb Smash Sound sandyrb https://freesound.org/people/sandyrb/sounds/148074/ No changes made https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
| Link | https://hungrysquirrelmedia.itch.io/baltic |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/baltic |
Ratings
| Overall | 979th | 3.1⭐ | 37🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 760th | 3.186⭐ | 37🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 1055th | 2.714⭐ | 37🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 1138th | 2.735⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 800th | 3.286⭐ | 37🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 937th | 2.063⭐ | 34🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 700th | 3.324⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 27🗳️ | 49🗨️ |
- Feels good to play
- Input/jumps are really great
- Level design - especially the last 2-3 (with the punishment if you try to jump straight to the end without thinking)
- Variations of wind noise (with/without cover)
- Intuitive controls
- Getting cold really feels heavy, which is awesome
- Restarting at the current level when you lose is great
Cons / Feedback :
- An display of the current level would be great (maybe on the stations instead of "70" ?)
- More clarity about the current freeze level would be great (especially when the fires do not bring you back to the minimum, so sometimes I just stayed on them with high hopes)
- The left and right arrows are used for the gameplay, but the up/down arrows scroll the web page, which can be confusing
- I did not notice the theme during my playthrough (in hindsight I realised it was the timing of enemy spawns), and the timer sound was really loud (I honestly thought it was just a weird and annoying drum ambiance noise). Maybe some variations (with a crescendo) would have made it easier to understand.
Bugs (?) :
- There is definitely a bug with the freeze mecanic. I had to restart the game to finish the last level because my starting jump height was too short and would not reset to the default/starting one no matter how many times I failed the level (it was like the starting freeze level was no longer zero anymore). Restarting the game fixed it (but I had to play all the other levels first again). I have no idea when this happened, thought :/
- Sometimes I had a line of white pixels (looking like some kind of blizzard effect) runing throught my screen, sometimes not - but it was very random
The only thing that I have to complain is the stomping sound in the beginning, feels like mu phone is broken.
But other than that, is a great game, feels like a good game to do speed runs.
- Movement doesn't feel great for me. Jumping is very frustrating sometimes. It's very important for a platformer to feel good to just move around and this game is not there yet.
- Level design isn't too bad, but it requires some polishing for sure.
That said, graphics is really cool and the overall mood is great. I'd like to play a version with improved movement.
I had some troubles playing, game was not retrieving all keyboard presses and pressing spacebar kept scrolling the page down. It might be goo to give the player more hints when he's freezing, and where it's safe (warmer colors around fire?).
Also I like how the levels start really simple to help you understand the mechanics.
Some things:
- I'm not sure how the campfire works. I thought it would heal my cold state but I see it only pauses it?
- In level 4 or 5, the one that starts with a drop down then a jump over underground water:
There's a point in the level where you can continue on the surface but then hit a wall, or go down to an enemy there is no way to avoid.
I tried a few times but couldn't get past that. Not sure where to go?
- I was also a bit confused at first with the enemies because since they look like me. I thought they were friendly :)
Gameplay feels right, and levels are cool. The sound of the enemies trying to enter is a bit loud and becomes annoying, and sadly I think I had some bug with my character being still slow after restarting, so I wasn't able to go further without restarting the game. And a more different sprite for enemies would have been great as they look don't look like danger at first.
Anyway it's overall a pretty good entry quite well polished.