Babel by johnbjuice

[raw]
made by johnbjuice for LD36 (COMPO)
Controls - Keyboard!
Fullscreen - Recommended!

STEAL THE SPELLBOOK OF DARK MAJIK!
CLIMB THE TOWER OF BABEL!
DON'T FALL OFF THE TOWER!
CAST WICKED INCANTATIONS!
AVOID THE WRATH OF GOD!
SERIOUSLY, DON'T FALL OFF!

Made with Construct 2, Photoshop, Bosca Ceoil, BFXR, and Audacity.

Press S on the title to disable screenshake (if it makes you nauseous)

www.johnbujalski.com
www.twitter.com/johnbujalski

Feedback

jakatpemadi
29. Aug 2016 · 18:47 UTC
It's crazy!! The beat of music is intense! I like it! Thanks!! :D
Jonpul
29. Aug 2016 · 19:36 UTC
Very cool. Cute graphics. Charmingly over-responsive controls.:-)Well done.
Ghen
29. Aug 2016 · 20:46 UTC
awesome game, the art style is good, but i love the music and sfx especially, very fit the game theme, intense and overall awesome

the control very responsive, but the character movement a bit too fast for my liking

very solid entry :D
Ilseroth
29. Aug 2016 · 21:29 UTC
Alright so I'm going to be 100% honest, the sound immediately started grating me since it was such a short loop, I was annoyed that WASD didn't move and pixel art is all over ludum... then suddenly it was typing of the tower and all is forgiven, just that easy. Though the font you used occasionally was hard to tell which keys they were.
MrBrenan
29. Aug 2016 · 22:52 UTC
Just super funny, make me lauch :)
God is laughing at us behind our computer !

Great job :)
🎤 johnbjuice
29. Aug 2016 · 22:52 UTC
@Ilseroth - Yeah, can't have WASD controls when one of the mechanics is typing! Oh, and I definitely would have added more variation on the music if I'd had more time!

Thanks for the helpful feedback - gonna go take a look at your entry!
DragonZBW (SparkLight Games)
29. Aug 2016 · 22:55 UTC
10/10 hilarious. I love that you can press the letters in "babel" on the start screen and they light up.
samu
29. Aug 2016 · 23:01 UTC
Great fun. Nice way to break up the action.

I did find waiting for the start animation each time pretty frustrating when I kept on dying. I nearly gave up because of it.
thatsBamboo
29. Aug 2016 · 23:07 UTC
Great game! Easy to pickup and understand, lots of challenge and complexity. I also have a weak spot for typing games :D . The Cthuluh-ish gibberish was great with the SFX, I'm unsure if I would have preferred real words. Only suggestion is that the physics on the character felt especially slippery and difficult to control, it lead to some deaths that felt unfair.
danielsann7
30. Aug 2016 · 00:00 UTC
simple and fun, i really enjoy and very polish i worked on a few construct 2 projects and i know how hard can be to polish nice work!
Quicklyer
30. Aug 2016 · 00:06 UTC
Really great game! Charming presentation, great music, and actually quite fun to play.
6bangs
30. Aug 2016 · 00:12 UTC
Haha, wtf. I lost at 780m. I kept jumping and more text wouldn't appear; bug? Still, fun. Nervewracking fun.
kermed
30. Aug 2016 · 00:21 UTC
Ha, thought this was awesome. Nicely done.
joemag
30. Aug 2016 · 00:31 UTC
Super fun! Typing of the Endless Jumper!

I was really surprised when I saw that mechanic, really blew me away. Very tense, had a lot of close calls.

Best score 492
AWOL
30. Aug 2016 · 00:31 UTC
Wow the mechanics were great. I didn't get were Ancient Technology came in.. Maybe I didn't get far enough.
Rico The Jammer
30. Aug 2016 · 00:31 UTC
Not a good game for the people who look at the keyboard when they type... this could be fixed by having - like in the beginning, spells that are sentences (bythepowerofthepurplebook), bunched up words (oatmealcatapult) or at least be read (nomarimanagat not ztrrgfdetzz).
AWOL
30. Aug 2016 · 00:38 UTC
Also

I

Did

Play

Every game I left a comment on at best your comment was rude.
🎤 johnbjuice
30. Aug 2016 · 01:10 UTC
OKAY I REPLIED TO A BUNCH OF PEOPLE BELOW SO LOOK FOR YR HANDLE IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN WHAT I HAVE TO SAY K THX AGAIN FOR PLAYING MY GAME!

@DragonZBW - Glad someone discovered that! Did you ever fall off the tower? :)

@samu - Yeah, I reduced the intro when you replay from the death menu, but you still have to grab the spellbook.

@thatsBamboo @Rico The Jammer - Actually, the game has a mix of random characters and premade bunched-up "words" (incantations). No spaces though, since space was the jump key!

@joemag - I was definitely most proud of how tense the game felt as you're typing with the lava coming up underneath you, glad to see that came through, thanks!

@danielsann - Construct 2 has its pros and cons. It's definitely good for LD though because you can prototype so quickly!

@6bangs - Were you at the very top level of the tower? The text only appears when you reach the very top. If so, please let me know if you reproduce the bug, what platform/browser yr on, screenshot, etc. if you can!

@AWOL - It doesn't make a difference if you played someone's game or not if your feedback is only two words. I'm not trying to start an argument, just trying to be direct and helpful. As for the theme, the game is set in the Tower of Babel! That's ancient technology! Yeah!

If there's one thing I learned in this jam, it's that I can't rely on my intuition to determine the speed of my platformers - I apparently like them really fast! :O

Thanks everybody for the nice words and helpful feedback! I'll get to playing everyone's games eventually!

CURRENT HIGHEST SCORE - 780M by 6bangs
Anudin
30. Aug 2016 · 01:47 UTC
The typing mechanic is really cool... Makes me wonder if you could turn this into some kind of typing learning game for children :D
tweetzzzzz
30. Aug 2016 · 02:19 UTC
Awesome game. Get super intense. Really like the music!
Corinator
30. Aug 2016 · 02:30 UTC
Really fun gameplay and music. However, the controls are a little slidey and the audio is really loud. Overall, however, great project!
TheTeaGuns
30. Aug 2016 · 02:54 UTC
The fast paced nature of this really took me by surprise! The typing mechanic was fun, though some letters looked a little like two letters (K and X for example) which was slightly frustrating at times. Overall I found myself playing multiple times to beat my high score and had a lot of fun :)
edgeofcode
30. Aug 2016 · 02:56 UTC
Haha, excellent. Drowning/burning in lava was the best and also most terrifying part. I thought the audio went well with the style of the game too.
kraiom
30. Aug 2016 · 03:03 UTC
This is great!! Really fun, and the music combined with the lava coming up set a... nervous/worried mood to it haha. Falling off the tower was especially funny :) Loved playing this.

~ kraiom/guiocm
dkdwrek
30. Aug 2016 · 03:04 UTC
Very nice game! Intense and goes well with the music.
Bogden
30. Aug 2016 · 03:05 UTC
This game caught me super off guard, but in a good way. Definitely one of my top few Compo games so far. Music was a short loop, but fit the game extremely well. Had a big grin on my face as soon as the lava started rising and the frantic race upwards kicked in.

The platforming mechanics feel a little slidey, and those 1 block gaps were pretty annoying to jump through, but it was a fun and unique mix of typing game and platformer that I've never seen before.

Really liked the easter-eggy letters that came in from time to time. Was actually really close to losing when I got INFERNALFLAMESGUIDEME, and it felt super cool to recognize and type the words just in the nick of time.

Really good job on this. Excellent concept and good execution!

Managed to get to 812.
Mine10blox
30. Aug 2016 · 03:23 UTC
Wow, that caught me off guard. Very nice! Love the art
DaleP
30. Aug 2016 · 03:23 UTC
The music, screenshake, twitchy controls, and sudden switches between a typing game and a platformer made this just the right amount of hectic to be exciting. Well done.

One technical suggestion though: see if you can override/block the backspace key. It defaults to Back in firefox and I found myself instinctively pressing it whenever I pressed the wrong key in the typing portions. I don't know if you can do this within Construct but you should be able to catch the keypress event in javascript and call preventDefault() on it.
Fib
30. Aug 2016 · 03:28 UTC
I liked the mixture of platformer/typing game. It also had a lot of good polish and simple details that made it cool.
Avalanche Games
30. Aug 2016 · 03:40 UTC
Haha nice game! Had lots of fun playing it. The music and lava had me panicking quite a bit.
appleskin
30. Aug 2016 · 03:56 UTC
Great job! Art, music and sound were hilarious. I personally prefer WASD controls but the platforming was satisfying.
NinjaNic
30. Aug 2016 · 04:11 UTC
Fun game but very challenging! I liked the theme. There was more to this game than I thought, when the words started coming up to type.

Good work on your game submission, and good luck!
Amine Tcherak
30. Aug 2016 · 11:28 UTC
Very Nice i love your Game Good Works )=
Vaiaphraim
30. Aug 2016 · 12:21 UTC
Oh wow, it really IS a fast game. I anticipated that from the previous comments, but it still took me by surprise :D

Cool typing mechanic, but I agree with those, who say they prefer actual words - so do I. I always got a motivational boost, whenever I read something I understood as words. It doesn't have to be too often, but a bit more often than now (for my taste).

The controls are super hard for an extra challenge, especially, when you need to switch between arrows and the keyboard. If I understand it correctly, there's problems when you map the same key to two things... But I'd greatly prefer WASD to arrows here.

Still, it's a cool frantic game, with charming graphics, and a nice music loop. My best go was 408 (after almost 3km of total jumps) - then I failed the same jump 2 times. Suicided into the spikes - the lava will not get me (alive)!
blinry
30. Aug 2016 · 12:40 UTC
Kind of a unique concept, mixing a typing trainer with a platformer! :) We encountered some levels which could not be climbed at all - are they randomly generated? The difficulty didn't seem to go up very quickly, which is why we just quit after reaching 780 meters. Cute intro screen, everything feels well-rounded, good job!

Thanks for giving so detailed feedback on "20000 Pixels Into The Sea"! <3
mockthebear
30. Aug 2016 · 13:27 UTC
My only complain is about the long introduction after you die and have to get the book again XP
MarekkPie
30. Aug 2016 · 17:37 UTC
Fantastic work! Would have been nice to have real words to type rather than gibberish. I'm pretty much just a step above hunt-and-peck, so I can see a word and move my fingers accordingly, but knowing where individual letters are is a bit tougher.
justinooncx
30. Aug 2016 · 17:48 UTC
A really nice game! A combination of hectic platforming and typing... The speed was a LITTLE too fast, but not unmanagable; it allowed me to zoom over one block gaps. It made jumping THROUGH the one block gaps from the bottom a nightmare, though. K and X look really similar, and I keep mixing them up, although I guess it's simply the fault of the font.

Also, thank you for the detailed feedback on Retro Player, there will be a post-jam version that should fix some of your concerns.

Good luck on your future games!
🎤 johnbjuice
30. Aug 2016 · 19:30 UTC
A BUNCH OF REPLIES FOR THOSE INTERESTED IN THEM!

@tweetzzzzz & edgeofcode & dkdwrek & Mine10blox & Fib & Avalanche Games & NinjaNic & Amine Tcherak - Thanks for the praise!

@Anudin Considering the religious themes, as well as violence, I'm not sure I could make this kid-friendly enough!

@Corinator - When you don't have time to include volume controls, go loud? Sorry! Will put up a warning.

@TheTeaGuns - Thanks! What was your high score?

@kraiom/guiocm - I'm glad at least one person discovered falling off the top of the tower! Was a last-minute addition that turned out surprisingly well.

@Bogden - NEW HIGHSCORE OMG YR A WINNER

@DaleP - Oh wow, didn't think of the backspace issue - I'll add that feature to my upcoming post-compo release.

@appleskin - Would have included WASD controls, but needed those keys for the typing of course! Clearly people like WASD a lot...honestly I'm always annoyed when a game uses WASD and doesn't use the mouse!

@Vaiaphraim - Balancing the scale - I've had a 50/50 split of people liking words vs randomly generated gibberish! Might figure out a way to include WASD controls in a future release, since people like them so much!

@blinry - Oh no! I was so sure I tweaked all the bugs out of the level generator! The levels are built based on templates which change...are you sure you just didn't find the route? Cause I can't find the bug :( Anyway, your game was so great! Thanks for playing mine - you're one of the few people who found the game easy, so you probably could have gotten the high score!

@mockthebear - Noted. Post-compo release will do away with that!

@MarekkPie - HI ON TWITTER! @johnbujalski

@justinooncx - Yeah, I'll probably tweak the font in the post-compo release. Made the font myself, and had already been tweaking it, but the K/X problem is definitely fixable. Shoot me a link to the post-compo version of Retro Player!

OKAY THAT'S ALL!
John Bujalski
30. Aug 2016 · 19:52 UTC
CURRENT HIGH SCORE - 812M by Bogden
Headmade
31. Aug 2016 · 00:11 UTC
The Web link seems broken, I got "There was an error with your request". The game ran fine here on the LD site though.

It's a nice little game. The music really drives things forward, though the loop is a bid short. The laugh is great though.

The platforming was a bit easy for my taste and I would have preferred to type out words instead of random char sequences. Also the X and K look to similar as others already noted. Still a fun game. Good job!
Jupiter_Hadley
31. Aug 2016 · 16:27 UTC
Really fun, well made game! I included it in my compilation video series of Ludum Dare 36 games, if you’d like to take a look :) https://youtu.be/6fURV7WMVCQ
AODQ
31. Aug 2016 · 20:28 UTC
Controls are fluid. When you jump the camera doesn't scroll with you which I think is a mistake. I also wish the stuff i had to type either popped up instantly or didn't realign itself as it was being updated, makes it so i pretty much have to wait before I can type. The sloped blocks' physics behaved just like a AABB and would sometimes just flip randomly, not sure if intentional or a bug. I really did enjoy the game though, I got to about 850 meters, reminds me of Tower of Greed which is a game I hold near and dear to me. Some of the blocks are confusing (they look as if they do something special yet don't seem to do anything?)

Also very rarely the input message will not pop up for a few seconds. I wish that the input used words instead of gibberish, even though I type at 150+ WPM it's much easier to type a string of comprehensible letters rather a combination of letters I've never typed before.
qzqxq
01. Sep 2016 · 06:38 UTC
This was an extremely fun and engaging game, and you did a great job of conveying the urgency of climbing. To be honest, I didn't care for the platforming too much because it sorta stayed at the same difficulty throughout and it felt really slippery (also, like the above commenter, I actively avoided the black blocks at first only to realize later that they weren't anything special). I also had the issue where I had to wait a bit before the letters appeared.

Despite all that, I want to reiterate that this was a genuinely exciting and fun experience, so great job!
tphx
04. Sep 2016 · 03:58 UTC
Seriously fun. Move / jump speed was a little fast for me but it was still good. The typing was a nice mechanic.
gonutz
04. Sep 2016 · 09:11 UTC
This is a cool game, nice mix of jumping and typing (why are there so few typing games?).

One problem: K looks like X and I died twice after about ten "words" when finally a K would show up and I would type X and it would only bring up the spider net (which I don't know what it is for). I had to come here to the comments, search for 'x' and then I found a comment suggesting the letter was actually K!

I would also have liked it better if the "words" were not random. There are some funny little things like "typefaster", it would have been nice if all words comprised real words.

This graphics and sound are nice, especially the music gives you that kind of urgency that is appropriate :)
qikcik
04. Sep 2016 · 11:42 UTC
very cool idea, inspired by icy tower :P, cool climatic music, and a good pixel art graphics, come to me a little too hard :P Cool Game :D
Eggplant
04. Sep 2016 · 20:59 UTC
Great graphics! I wasn't expecting a typing game! It's very fun, awesome job!
petitpois
17. Sep 2016 · 22:53 UTC
Great fun, typing and doodle jump mechanics awesome!
charlesbaby
19. Sep 2016 · 13:58 UTC
Amazing! Second game on my Best of LD36 list :)

Can you actually beat it? I type really fast and I think I got pretty high, but after dying and there having been no checkpoint I find the prospect of playing through from the beginning a bit offputting :/
Jupiter_Hadley
28. Oct 2016 · 16:31 UTC
I also included your game in an article of my favorites as well as awarded a trophy to your profile! :) http://fireside.gamejolt.com/post/jam-favorites-ludum-dare-36-eyjmnpkp