Cordyception by Rakthalekk

Description:
Play as the parasitic fungal witch Cordy in this puzzle-platformer! Possess the bodies of helpless bugs to gain new abilities and complete puzzles.
As a fungus, Cordy can only survive on dirt and grass blocks. Touching stone will kill her as there is nowhere for the mycelium to spread.
Each bug has a primary and secondary ability-- the secondary ability may be used multiple times, but the primary ability will kill the bug as it exerts the last of its energy.
Play in Broswer: https://rakthalekk.itch.io/cordyception


Controls:
| Action | Input | | --- | --- | | Movement | Arrow Keys / WASD | | Jump | Up / W / SPACE | | Possess/Unpossess | Z / Shift | | Primary Ability (single use) | X / J | | Secondary Ability (multi use) | C / K | | Reset | R |
Bug Abilities:
| Bug Type | Primary Ability (Single Use) | Secondary Ability (Multi use) | Notes | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Hopper | High Jump | Push Block | | | Roller | Wall Climb | Ball Up / Un-Ball Up | - Ball form makes immune to poison, but cannot jump | | Worm | Excavate Dirt | Dig | - Excavate dirt destroys a continuous row of dirt, stopping at air or rock - Dig allows the worm to swim through dirt |
Notes and Tips:
- When un-posessing a bug, you have a slight upward boost like a "double jump"
- Similarly, when un-possessing bugs also retain a bit of their original momentum
- Abilities like Wall Climb and Excavate Dirt require being against a wall
- The player cannot survive on stone unless they are either possessing a bug or also touching dirt
Gameplay Demo (Contains Spoilers!):
https://youtu.be/gJasvmTob5k
OST Upload:
https://youtu.be/mLObcWddRQ8
| Itch io | https://rakthalekk.itch.io/cordyception |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/cordyception |
Ratings
| Overall | 296th | 3.798⭐ | 54🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 515th | 3.444⭐ | 56🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 320th | 3.566⭐ | 55🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 236th | 4.028⭐ | 55🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 187th | 4.255⭐ | 57🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 84th | 4⭐ | 57🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 643th | 2.848⭐ | 48🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 397th | 3.686⭐ | 53🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 58🗳️ | 85🗨️ |
The controls were decent - just a tad floaty. They could be a bit tighter. Dying when stepping on stones seemed like an unnecessary (or maybe underused?) mechanic that kinda served no purpose but to frustrate the player. Maybe there could've been some puzzles where the mechanic is utilized more? Also, some of the puzzles were very tricky and I think I solved some of them (eg. the second to last) in unintended ways.
These are very minor gripes, though, and overall you have a very _very_ good and polished jam entry here.
Overall, you did a great job!
@alexascher Glad you had fun!
@andriana-mantidfly Glad to hear you enjoyed!
@senso Thanks for the review! I'm really happy with the way the visuals turned out too! And glad you like the music :D
That said, I also really like this interesting and different take on puzzle platforming. It presents a unique and fun challenge
@damien-black Thanks for the review! Glad you like the audio :D. Sorry you had trouble with the platforming though, I imagine you're talking about the stone here. That's a mechanic I wish we handled a little better personally. Appreciate the feedback!
@silas-reinagel Thanks for the nice feedback! Glad you enjoy the music :DD
The aesthetic is super charming!
Great work overall!! <3
As others mentioned, maybe the hitboxes were a tiiiinyyy bit too unforgiving, but, again, it didn't hinder the gameplay too much.
Great work!
@calcopod Thanks for the feedback! The stone was meant to kill you if you were only standing on stone, so if you are partially standing on dirt you're safe, but if you're on the edge of stone hanging off a ledge it kills you, which definitely could have been used and communicated better overall. Glad you still had fun!
Beautiful art, amazing music great puzzles. Really solid entry!
Some stages were difficult, but overall it was an easy game.
I am surprised that such a well-made game was ready in just 3 days.
Congratulations for a great work!
I did get slightly nauseous from the parallax, not sure why.
But that worm is just so hard to control.