A Windy Climb by sockfolder

[raw]
made by sockfolder for LD32 (COMPO)
A Windy Climb

Storyline:
Poor Miss. Cloudia is bored and decides to explore a sinister part of the cloud bank, seeped in danger and hopefully treasure. What could be at the top?

Gameplay:
The "unconventional weapon" is wind. Namely, you blow at people and push them or affect them in some way. You eventually can add water and electricity to your gusts for other effects. These abilities are also used for mobility, e.g. as a "jet pack" and for wall jumps. The goal is to get the final treasure at the end to win. There are also 12 hearts hidden in each of the 12 areas you can get if you are a completionist (one is insanely hard fyi =p). Note however that the hearts do respawn, so you can heal up with them.

Controls:
Arrow Keys - Move
Z - Jump
X - Attack
1, 2, 3 or Space - Change your weapon

Weapons can only be used for a limited time. See the bottom right to see how charged they are. Your default gust attack charges anywhere, and the others charge only in particular spots.

Good luck!

Ratings

Coolness 58% 3
Overall 2.70 943
Fun 2.70 839
Graphics 2.43 908
Humor 2.76 522
Innovation 2.62 874
Mood 2.46 889
Theme 3.24 634

Feedback

x1212
20. Apr 2015 路 19:19 UTC
Nice platformer, but I encountered a few bugs like getting stuck between a wall and the floor when there is a gap ...
I like the way the different levels are connected.
馃帳 sockfolder
21. Apr 2015 路 05:29 UTC
Thanks for the comment. I fixed the softlocks and crashes (I hope), so now you can play without issue.
dydx
21. Apr 2015 路 06:17 UTC
Pretty fun platformer. Wish there was some kind of checkpoint system.
dvdfu
22. Apr 2015 路 00:18 UTC
I couldn't get very far, but I like the wind mechanic.
OnlySlightly
22. Apr 2015 路 00:19 UTC
:) really cute platformer. I loved the bright colors and animation
pkenney
22. Apr 2015 路 00:51 UTC
Wow, really cool main character with original-feeling controls and some nice animations. You skated the edge of floaty jumps and inertia that was just enough to feel good without making it unresponsive. Nice job!

I want to describe a little quirk to the controls that was my #1 execution mistake.

When I wanted to do the critical down+x jump to hover, the order I pressed the keys mattered and I kept doing it wrong.

I would press the keys in this order: run (D) then jump (Z) then (X) followed immediately by (DOWN). But this won't get me the combo, it only triggers if I hit down before hitting X.

If I hit X first I go into the forward-gust state, and pressing down from there does not transition to downward-gust. If that state transition existed I think the controls would smooth out a rough edge that kept scraping me.

I enjoyed playing and I definitely would have played more if there were a checkpoint system. I eventually got discouraged at repeating the old parts again to maybe see more.
馃帳 sockfolder
22. Apr 2015 路 09:15 UTC
Yes I agree button order can be annoying. It helps that you can hold down early with no ill effect, but I still mess up myself. I still want you to have to hold a direction once you start (a spinning tornado would be weird), but there should be like a 0.1 sec window where you are allowed to pick the direction.

As far as checkpoints, one tip is you can farm hearts at the places you get the upgrades.
petitpois
22. Apr 2015 路 10:50 UTC
Fun graphics and gameplay :D
Jezzamon
22. Apr 2015 路 10:55 UTC
Really feeling the lack of sound here. Sound effects make a big difference, and it's pretty easy to make some decent ones using SFXR.

I got the water power up and then was killed by a fire spitting thing. I didn't really want to have to restart again, so I stopped there. Maybe instead if there was some way to restart from somewhere else rather then the start it'd be better.

The art was pretty rough, but I kinda liked it anyway! And the controls were smooth, good job there.
NuvlearGames
22. Apr 2015 路 11:00 UTC
Couldn't play it as when it launches from the console it stops working.
pkenney
22. Apr 2015 路 13:45 UTC
Thought about the button order thing a bit more. Your 0.1s window idea sounds reasonable.

But it's such a fundamental action in the game. Any execution trouble is a big deal. What if it wasn't a multi-button combination at all?

You could just have x be forward-gust, and down (only down, no x at all) be downward-gust. Or spacebar or c.
bentglasstube
22. Apr 2015 路 23:24 UTC
I enjoyed the jumping mechanic with blowing downward, and the physics seemed pretty smooth. I could not really figure out where to go.
reiknight
23. Apr 2015 路 12:53 UTC
Pretty good entry, good job! I liked the idea of using the wind for different purposes. Next time, try to add some background music or sound effect. It will improve the game a lot! :) Keep going!
dallonf
25. Apr 2015 路 00:07 UTC
Not a bad little platformer!
Franklin's Ghost
26. Apr 2015 路 13:40 UTC
Liked that you started with just the basics and then as you played you gained more moves. Kept me playing just to see what the next thing would do.
Jokerbomb
27. Apr 2015 路 02:23 UTC
Nice little game =). I enjoyed using the powers to overcome certain challenges. Sound would have definitely been a really nice bit of polish.
waveformmodulations
05. May 2015 路 02:26 UTC
I laughed pretty hard at the death screen.
Alex Rose
05. May 2015 路 17:13 UTC
Fun entry. I found it hard to use the lightning though, and I wasn't completely sure how to recharge it. The black c- oh right yeah obviously the black clouds. Either way, too late because I ended up dying :( .

Bad times.

But yeah, otherwise, a fun game, good amount of depth to it, cool weapons etc. . Nice one.
mar3k
10. May 2015 路 16:18 UTC
Really nice platformer, cool graphics and I like the concept as well. Good job.