Escape From GR0K Tower by paulhocker

[raw]
made by paulhocker for Ludum Dare 57 (JAM)

SUMMARY

This is a simple Tower Escape game where you must avoid traps and find the trigger to open the gate on each floor.

There are 100 floors to escape from and each floor gets harder than the last. There is only ever ONE trigger to open the gate on the floor, there will ALWAYS be multiple traps to slow you down or hurt you.

Good Luck!

Thanks for playing my game!

TRAILER

My youngest son created a trailer for the game.

https://youtu.be/x4eToNxAvJc?si=a0KK8aYnA8FFLuPX

INSTRUCTIONS

  • MOVE LEFT = A or LEFT ARROW
  • MOVE RIGHT = D or RIGHT ARROW
  • INTERACT = E or DOWN ARROW
  • JUMP = SPACE or UP ARROW
  • RUN = HOLD SHIFT

X/Grok Factor

For this game I did a bit of an experiment. To come up with the idea for the game, I used GROK on X to work through the game elements and even had it generate some pseudo code, which I used for initial prototyping. I then continued to work on the game without the help of GROK to completion.

It was an interesting experiment, and I found that it was actually able to come up with several good ideas, but I needed to guide it in order to zero in on what I wanted to make.

PICTURES

2025-04-07<em>08-43-48.png 2025-04-07</em>08-44-40.png 2025-04-07<em>08-46-19.png 2025-04-07</em>08-47-02.png

Original Picture of the Game after I put the GROK pseudo-code and programmer art in.

2025-04-07_08-42-23.png

Ratings

Overall 637th 3.267⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Fun 514th 3.267⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 717th 2.767⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Theme 491th 3.611⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 522th 3.478⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Audio 375th 3.367⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Humor 548th 2.537⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Mood 635th 3.233⭐ 45🧑‍⚖️
Given 47🗳️ 77🗨️

Feedback

cherrybcake
07. Apr 2025 · 14:03 UTC
Very nice! I loved the light effects!
BadPinkChicken
07. Apr 2025 · 14:15 UTC
Nice game! Like the graphics and the sound design!
LDJam user 304226
08. Apr 2025 · 17:01 UTC
Seems like a fun game, but I can't seem to be able to open the wooden gates and go down
LangiT
08. Apr 2025 · 18:54 UTC
Great work! I was a bit confused on some of the interactables that opened up the next area, but it added to the stress of needing to get to the next level. Great work!
Velis69
09. Apr 2025 · 10:45 UTC
A cool lamp platformer with randomized maps. Check out our game too comrade!
Baldurs
10. Apr 2025 · 05:12 UTC
First game I have seen use AI in some way.
LDJam user 234769
10. Apr 2025 · 05:18 UTC
I liked the fact that there were many different interactibles, and that the first time you encounter each of them there's some puzzle mechanic of "what should I do to open this door". The fact that some are not very visible is quite cool too.
The graphics, music and overall feel are quite coherent and pleasant.
However, I think that I would've enjoyed the game more without the randomness. If it wasn't random, you could learn the moves of each floor, and get a sense of progression. In the current state, I would just die randomly on a peak between floors 75 and 85, without getting any feeling that the next run would be better, and that was a bit frustrating (I did not finish the game sorryyyy). This would also leave room for cool level design. The opening mechanism could still be random and randomly positioned, I think this was a really cool aspect of the game.
Anyways that's just my feeling, because for me it would've increased the replayability. But the game is quite fun as it is!
Good job!
Aynu
10. Apr 2025 · 05:59 UTC
Nice
breadstick
10. Apr 2025 · 06:44 UTC
A nice little platformer game where you're racing against the clock!

The particle effects and music give the game a sense of momentum and urgency; the art is nice as well.

Overall, a fun little game!
Quail Weaver
10. Apr 2025 · 07:30 UTC
the pixel art reminded me of old Nitrome games, nice!
Silas Reinagel
10. Apr 2025 · 09:42 UTC
I love the general design!

Nice job experimenting with AI-collaborative design. In my experience AI definitely doesn't have enough vision to easily take one to a finished and fun game, but collaborating with AI to work through ideas is a VERY powerful workflow.

The art style is very neat... I especially like the pixel particle effects!

I did struggle with the interactions/interactables a bit. There were some floors with a single object, where I couldn't get the gate raised and died. It wasn't clear what wasn't working. Was my interaction button press being registered? Was it working on the object in front of me? Even just a hint of audio or visual feedback would have helped with this process substantially.
Jadener
10. Apr 2025 · 10:38 UTC
Really nice game. I enjoyed the music quite a bit, but I wish there was a healthbar instead of an instant death. Iam clumsy :D
FancyReckless
10. Apr 2025 · 10:46 UTC
I like how it looks and general atmosphere. Only thing is that all triggers seemed different in flavor more than in gameplay. Mostly it felt like it was exact same mechanic, just find trigger and press or hold E. Idea and room design seems interesting if it is expanded in terms of mechanics.
Playrea
10. Apr 2025 · 12:59 UTC
I loke the idea. Good implementation of Depths theme! Graphic and audio are nice as well :)
milq
10. Apr 2025 · 15:08 UTC
Wow! What a fun game! One of the things I’ve been wanting to try is procedural generation, and it’s really well implemented here. I think it would be even better if each floor wasn’t always a straight path, but instead a full room with elevations and drops. That said, I totally understand that there’s not enough time to implement full room generation for every floor in just 72 hours. The graphics are fantastic, and along with the music, they create a truly unique mood. My sincerest congratulations, great game!
TDev
10. Apr 2025 · 19:01 UTC
Nice art and style! I also like the individual generation of each floor, even though there could be more variety
Ricesteam
10. Apr 2025 · 19:14 UTC
I like the art style and how smooth the game felt. You had some nice effects going on, like lighting, particles from the ground, and some slight tilting of the tower.
mgear
10. Apr 2025 · 19:17 UTC
solid platformer!
ScoobySnacks
11. Apr 2025 · 10:11 UTC
character controller felt good, like the pressure mechanic (falling ceiling). I wish i could just start play instantly after death without "are you ready" pause
Defrag
11. Apr 2025 · 13:10 UTC
This was well-above-average on the fun quotient, especially for jam games. It took me a couple deaths to figure out the main loop, but after that, I was in the flow. Sprinting seems overpowered; it might be nerfed by having the player not insta-stop after movement input is ceased, thereby making it more penalizing to sprint into a precision-required area (near an acid pool or arrow trap). Given more time, additional traps might have been a nice touch, or perhaps some kind of enemy that requires a little more thought. As it was, this basically became a platformer for me.

Also, I couldn't figure out what these boxes were. At first I thought they were treasure that I couldn't figure out how to open, and later I wondered if they were meant to be a trap. Either way, they never did anything to interact with me.![snipbo.PNG](///raw/7bd/83/z/6bfbe.png)

Nice entry!
🎤 paulhocker
11. Apr 2025 · 19:58 UTC
@defrag thank you for the kind words, especially after playing your excellent submission https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/gemsweeper -- that "box" is supposed to let out steam which impedes you from moving -- not very effective but it was too late to take it out -- i focused on polish for the elements i had but there was plenty of opportunity for me to do some scope creep but i actually had some self-discipline this time :)

@milq thank you for the feedback -- different style of rooms with more of a pitfall feel was thought of but i ended up ditching the idea in the interest of time

@silas-reinagel the grok experience was actually pretty rewarding and i would definitely use it again because i felt it really helped me refine the gameplay and gave me some instant feedback to see if an element would work -- all in all it helped me -- not sure it gave me an edge tho -- even with the sample code it produced because i ended up rewriting most of it -- that said i was simply amazed as it would basically create the node structure and code to copy/paste -- actually kind of blew my mind
someone
12. Apr 2025 · 20:22 UTC
Decent platformer. The lighting and crumbling tower effects were nice.
I was confused by the chain at first, but eventually figured it out, also there is a frustrating amount of downtime when restarting.
I did gave a chest spawn behind one of the red boxes which took a while to figure out.
The spear traps seem to have a too large hitbox but it was mainly me being careless due to rushing as the gameplay is not very interesting.
100 levels is way to many though with so little variation. I gave up after getting to floor 23.
slay a stone
13. Apr 2025 · 08:01 UTC
A bit more compact of a game would have been nice (100 levels is a bit too much). My friend had quite a few bugs in which did the level did not spawn the required stuff to finish it.
GenericToast
13. Apr 2025 · 09:58 UTC
Fun game with some great looking sprites! Maybe more hazards on each level could help add more of a challenge? Overall, great job!
BinarySpark
13. Apr 2025 · 13:11 UTC
Some more variation would be nice, but otherwise this is a fun little platformer. Thanks for sharing!
LDJam user 383510
13. Apr 2025 · 20:40 UTC
Nice stuff! Could use a bit more challenge, but it's pretty good atm
silkworm_sweatshop
13. Apr 2025 · 20:45 UTC
Was a bit confused the first couple runs of what and how to interact with things (since it also changes on restart) but after getting the hang of it I made it to the 68th floor and had some fun with it. Randomizing is cool and there seems to be some difficulty curve at work as you get lower. 100 levels might be a bit excessive though as it eventually got a bit repetitive. Maybe fewer levels and a steeper difficulty curve could be something to try.
eyedromeda
13. Apr 2025 · 20:45 UTC
Cool concept, though I guess credit for that goes to Grok? Nice work on the graphics, watching the tower get slowly destroyed was quite cool. I think for me the switches and other interactables were a little too small and hard to hit, especially with the shift run being so fast. What I presume were fire traps also didn't seem to damage the player at all. Other than that, good work!
sinclairstrange
17. Apr 2025 · 18:39 UTC
Interesting use of AI to help come up with a gameplay idea, I actually think that's one of the better ways to use AI as a tool. Really nice game, simple yet addicting and I enjoyed how the tower is slowly fading away above you, gives a sense of urgency. Overall a really love little game and the trailer is amazing too! Great stuff!
Agraffs
21. Apr 2025 · 22:05 UTC
Really cool game. Loved the idea of having to get out of the tower. Played for 20m and got down most of the tower but never got to 100%. I'll try again a bit later. Really cool entry GG ! :)
kristinamay
24. Apr 2025 · 19:13 UTC
I love the art in this game! I also liked the concept, though I found for several floors I just could not for the life of me figure out what to do. Please please tell me what I'm supposed to do with the chain? :laughing:
gustavo.christino
26. Apr 2025 · 06:42 UTC
:flag_br:

Isso

![death1.png](///raw/bc7/6/z/6c7da.png)

foi

![death2.png](///raw/bc7/6/z/6c7db.png)

difícil.

![death3.png](///raw/bc7/6/z/6c7dc.png)

No geral o jogo me deixou bastante contente e entretido, só achei cem estágios muita coisa para tentar novamente (quem sabe não precise de tantos assim, hahahahahahah).

Foi divertido, especialmente quando notei que havia geração por procedimento de código e os desafios foram se acumulando. Senti falta de poder coçar meu braço enquanto jogava. @.@

Não que seja uma imensa inovação, mas achei bem diferente e interessante jogar com diferentes mecanismos de abertura de passagem. Quem sabe algumas mecânicas poderiam ser inseridas de tempos em tempos, tanto para acelerar a descida, quanto para dificultar (creio que o número de poças e o tamanho das plataformas ser menor entre poças ácidas pareceu diminuir um pouco após certa profundidade, mas não tenho certeza).

O uso do tema foi bacana.

Os gráficos estão bem bonitos, especialmente considerando o tempo que teve. Creio que as lanças que saem do chão tenham algum tipo de falha visual (não sei se é só no meu navegador de Internet).

O som não me cansou, mas gostaria que fosse um pouco menos temático da ansiedade para que eu pudesse usar ele para me acalmar um pouco. Hahahahahahahah. Muito tenso e morrer para uma lança é bem assustador. ^^'

Não creio que a ênfase seja no humor, mas eu ri da minha própria tragédia.

A ambientação foi bacana. Com um pouco mais de narrativa dentro do jogo, justificando a descida, talvez eu teria me ambientado ainda mais.

Creio que o jogo com desafio finito mais um modo arcade teria um bom potencial para mobile e/ou outras formas (se o ranking for online, quem sabe semanal com novas skins para os vencedores e coisas do tipo).
gustavo.christino
26. Apr 2025 · 06:44 UTC
:flag_us:

It

![death1.png](///raw/bc7/6/z/6c7dd.png)

was

![death2.png](///raw/bc7/6/z/6c7de.png)

hard!

![death3.png](///raw/bc7/6/z/6c7df.png)


Overall, the game made me really happy and entertained — I just thought a hundred stages was a bit too much to try again (maybe it doesn’t need that many, hahahahahahah).

It was fun, especially when I noticed there was procedural generation in the code and the challenges started piling up. I did miss being able to scratch my arm while playing. @.@

It’s not exactly a huge innovation, but I found it quite different and interesting to play with various mechanisms for opening paths. Maybe some mechanics could be introduced from time to time — either to speed up the descent or to make it harder (I think the number of acid pools and the size of the platforms between them seemed to decrease a bit after a certain depth, but I’m not sure).

The use of the theme was nice.

The graphics are really pretty, especially considering the time you had. I think the spears that come out of the ground might have some kind of visual glitch (not sure if it’s just my web browser).

The sound didn’t wear me out, but I wish it was a bit less anxiety-inducing so I could use it to calm down a little. Hahahahahahahah. Very tense — and dying to a spear is quite a scare. ^^'

I don’t think humor is the focus, but I did laugh at my own tragedy.

The atmosphere was nice. With a bit more in-game narrative explaining the descent, maybe I would’ve felt even more immersed.

I think the game — with a finite challenge plus an arcade mode — could have great potential for mobile and/or other platforms (if the ranking is online, maybe have weekly challenges with new skins for the winners and things like that).