Under Our Feet by NicoM | LudumData

Under Our Feet by NicoM

made by NicoM for LD29 (COMPO)

A simple one-level platformer set underground. I know it's a pretty lame use of the theme, but it's my first ludum dare, and I just really wanted to finish something. I'm sorry there's no sound, but I have other work that needs to be done, and music isn't my forte...

Made in Haxe + HaxeFlixel, and my own gameobject + component management system: https://github.com/NicoM1/IceEntity

Let me know what you think, I'm new to gamedev and I'd love to hear your thoughts:)

You can also follow me on twitter: https://twitter.com/nico_m__

Edit: Forgot to mention that XBox Controllers are supported:), Left Stick to move, A to jump

Edit: It may not be clear, you can perform double-jumps while in midair

Edit: Currently, the windows version will not work on 32 bit windows, I'm working to fix this, currently just play the flash one (I'd try it first anyway, runs just as well on my PC)

Web(flash)	http://nicom1.github.io/ld48/
Windows(likely better performance)	http://nicom1.github.io/ld48/windows/Under_Our_Feet.zip
Timelapse	http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2014/04/27/under-our-feet-timelapse/
Source	http://nicom1.github.io/ld48/source/UoF_Source.zip
Original URL	https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-29/?action=preview&uid=32562

Ratings

Coolness	73%	3
Overall	2.77	945

Audio	1.20	1068
Fun	2.56	942
Graphics	3.04	630
Humor	1.90	924
Innovation	1.96	1214
Mood	2.45	997
Theme	2.55	1023

Feedback

28. Apr 2014 · 01:31 UTC

Not bad, Seems to kind of lag a bit when I jump but other than that its pretty fun.

28. Apr 2014 · 01:46 UTC

Thanks, I'm uploading a windows build as we speak, should have better performance:)

28. Apr 2014 · 02:22 UTC

Nice animations, I enjoyed your game. Didn't know about the double jump until a while though.

28. Apr 2014 · 02:35 UTC

I was worried about that, that was the point of the floating spacebar sign, but I thought it might not be clear. Thanks:) I'm actually pretty happy with the animation for once, glad to see other people agree

28. Apr 2014 · 02:44 UTC

Controls were definitely too slow, I couldn't react in time to the first enemy. Good level layout though!

28. Apr 2014 · 02:52 UTC

Yeah, I found that as well, I'm unsure if its the controls, or the fact the enemy is hidden, maybe I should've made in air turns faster

28. Apr 2014 · 03:07 UTC

Very nice platformer.

28. Apr 2014 · 03:09 UTC

Thanks:)

28. Apr 2014 · 04:04 UTC

Very floaty, which is not necessarily bad! Solid platformer, although the first popup enemy seems VERY unfair compared to you carefully curated tutorial signs etc!

28. Apr 2014 · 09:05 UTC

It felt a bit floaty on the left/right controls. Difficult to dodge an enemy or spike if I got the wrong momentum. But I like the feel of the jump and the overall game. And goddammit I got to that door, haha! I think a compass or something that pointed the player at the door could help.

28. Apr 2014 · 10:33 UTC

The graphics are awesome! I also liked exploring the level and trying to shortcut it - was that intentional? Nice stuff. I think maybe some kinder restarts/checkpoints would've been good.

28. Apr 2014 · 13:35 UTC

Thanks everyone:), I know the jump was floaty, I kind of like the feeling, but I definitely understand why others might not, and checkpoints were intended, just never put in:) shortcutting wasnt really intentional, but maybe it should of been, I'm actually not sure if theres many places you can, although theres lots were you actually go backwards;)

29. Apr 2014 · 02:35 UTC

I like the art for this game.

29. Apr 2014 · 02:35 UTC

Cool but is very hard =p, good animation!

29. Apr 2014 · 02:39 UTC

Thanks:), some checkpoints probably would have been a good idea;)

29. Apr 2014 · 15:58 UTC

Double jumping wasn't obvious, which you know, but aside from that there was a good use of signposting (literally!) to introduce elements, hazards, etc. The movement was a bit rough, but I did really like that you could arrest your momentum by reversing direction.

29. Apr 2014 · 17:15 UTC

Thanks:), when you say rough, do you mean the in air turning? I feel like I should of at least added a little bit of drag when quickly turning in air...

GiveMeAllYourCats

29. Apr 2014 · 17:40 UTC

Nice game man, wish it had some SFX or BGM though. I enjoyed exploring around.

29. Apr 2014 · 18:37 UTC

Thanks:), I'm not very good with sound:(

30. Apr 2014 · 03:13 UTC

Not a bad little platformer. Liked the tutorial you built in to the level.

30. Apr 2014 · 03:21 UTC

Whew. Some of those jumps were kinda tricky at first. Got it, eventually. I like the look of this.

30. Apr 2014 · 17:20 UTC

The gameplay is correct, the graphics a bit low, but the overall is without doubt, very positive. I don't stop to die.. but I can't stop to play, nice entry!! I will keep playing more ;-)

30. Apr 2014 · 19:44 UTC

Thanks:) what would you change about the graphics?

30. Apr 2014 · 20:38 UTC

Congrats on your first Ludum Dare, great work!

30. Apr 2014 · 23:43 UTC

Thank you, you as well! (well not the first time, but you get it):)

01. May 2014 · 12:46 UTC

Really nice art and tight controls!

02. May 2014 · 00:45 UTC

Thanks!

03. May 2014 · 15:57 UTC

The hitxbox of the spikes is a bit too large, in my opinion the character shouldn't die when he is just on the side. Here is an example http://i.imgur.com/G4FFBwj.png I'm jumping up in contact with the wall, but as soon as I reach the spikes I will die, even without an obvious collision. Otherwise it was fun to play!

04. May 2014 · 01:40 UTC

Thanks, as for the hitboxes, I'm very new to haxeflixel, and was only using default tilemap collisions, so I also was annoyed by that, but I guess I couldve just allowed horizontal collision

04. May 2014 · 07:20 UTC

So I think you might have been better off giving yourself a little more time and just entering this into the jam. I played the game a few times and the biggest suggestion I have is for you to look into camera placement and larping. For a game where you're falling a lot, your camera is a little too high. You just can't tell where many of the platforms are going to be.

The other issue is the jump - jumping is really difficult to get right, but it's crucial since it's your game's singular mechanic. As it was, I couldn't get through the game though I tried 4-5 times.

I'm glad you were able to get it to a place you were happy with (that's the true test of the competition, I think), but I really wish you had given yourself extra time because I think with some more refining, this would've been really great.

Keep working at it and thank you for sharing. :)

04. May 2014 · 10:08 UTC

Cool graphics style! Took me a while to get used to the player movement, but it was fun to play.

04. May 2014 · 16:22 UTC

Thanks to both of you:) @shadow64: yeah it couldve used a lot of tweaking, but I was tired, and kinda stressed, so I figured I would be better off to just submit rather than spend hours getting frustrated trying to tweak everything....

06. May 2014 · 07:41 UTC

I really want to like this (the art style for one is fantastic), but the lack of checkpoints and inability to use arrow keys makes this a rather unforgiving game for me.

06. May 2014 · 16:01 UTC

Well thanks for the art comments anyway:), I understand its unforgiving, maybe I should do a post compo?

06. May 2014 · 18:47 UTC

Delay in control killed the fun for me (Win version didn't run XP)

Check my video in which I tried it if you want.

07. May 2014 · 02:46 UTC

Hmm, maybe its only 64 bit, I'll look into that, also wow...I'd not seen nearly that bad performance, in fact, on mine I don't see a difference at all, thanks for rating it though, even though I understand you were not overly impressed:/

07. May 2014 · 16:00 UTC

@NicoM I totally understand about being stressed out tired. The last 24 hours of my game were done straight through. I actually messed up one of my eyes and I think I got a little sick from it. In short, you did the right thing. Hahaha. I definitely think you should do a post compo. Take your time and make the game the way you wanted it. :D

08. May 2014 · 01:41 UTC

I think I might, just to tweak some stuff and maybe make some more levels, because even though I initially hated level design, it actually got pretty fun by the end, especially once I decided to write a quick and dirty parser for tiled, allowing me to move the player and enemies without hard-coding it, and yet still use standard flixel map handling:)

08. May 2014 · 05:06 UTC

Not bad for a compo game! :) Controls are just... slick and clunky, mostly

08. May 2014 · 08:03 UTC

very nice anim, the character slides too much on the ground but it's just a detail. I wasn't bored to start again and again from the beginning :P

08. May 2014 · 21:43 UTC

The only real challenge were the controls and the views.. Would like to have completed the first level xD

09. May 2014 · 00:20 UTC

Thanks, seems to be the general consensus on the controls;),
@Zccc there only is one level:O

10. May 2014 · 18:00 UTC

Super nice graphics, quite the fun game. I included it in part 19 of my Ludum Dare Compilation video series, if you'd like to take a look :) http://youtu.be/KGS8tZwHKag

10. May 2014 · 20:58 UTC

Thanks!, checked out your video, looks good:), I see now that everyone dies on the initial enemy, so that was poor design, but glad you liked it:)

13. May 2014 · 04:18 UTC

The level seemed pretty well designed and since there was a double jump leaps of faith weren't too bad. I like the art style.

17. May 2014 · 10:41 UTC

If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. The only nice thing about this game is the fluid animation. Well done on that.

17. May 2014 · 20:59 UTC

Well thanks for that at least:)

18. May 2014 · 20:57 UTC

The first enemy wasn't that hard for me actually, because of the tutorial signs, when I saw one with a big red X on it, I assumed I should go slowly as to not die lol, so I thought the level design wasn't bad. Liked the double jump mechanic, and the animations were nice. Overall, really good job :)

19. May 2014 · 00:41 UTC

Thanks! Glad you liked it:)