Ephemeral by Delca
WARNING - here is the original entry, which contained two game-breaking bug now fixed :
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nkzkwnv5etklpdc/LD27_Ephemeral_vF2.jar
In Ephemeral, you control little toys trying to get to a colorful panel labeled "GOAL". Each of them has a very short lifespan, and lives only for 10 seconds ; once the limit is reached, it dies. But it is up to you to make it so that its death was not in vain ! Each toy has its own properties, and each one dies in a different way, providing you with a new platform to walk on, destroying some walls around it, and so on.
But be careful not to fall in lava, as that will destroy the toy without activating its ability !
Controls :
LEFT/RIGHT - Move around, select a toy
UP : jump
ENTER : confirm your choice
N + L : skip to the next level
Currently, the game is composed of 8 levels.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nkzkwnv5etklpdc/LD27_Ephemeral_vF2.jar
In Ephemeral, you control little toys trying to get to a colorful panel labeled "GOAL". Each of them has a very short lifespan, and lives only for 10 seconds ; once the limit is reached, it dies. But it is up to you to make it so that its death was not in vain ! Each toy has its own properties, and each one dies in a different way, providing you with a new platform to walk on, destroying some walls around it, and so on.
But be careful not to fall in lava, as that will destroy the toy without activating its ability !
Controls :
LEFT/RIGHT - Move around, select a toy
UP : jump
ENTER : confirm your choice
N + L : skip to the next level
Currently, the game is composed of 8 levels.
Ratings
| Coolness | 85% | 2 |
| Overall | 3.17 | 435 |
| Audio | 3.27 | 161 |
| Fun | 3.22 | 326 |
| Graphics | 3.28 | 336 |
| Humor | 2.53 | 402 |
| Innovation | 3.30 | 325 |
| Mood | 2.85 | 458 |
| Theme | 3.28 | 459 |
@munchor : I originally removed the skip-level cheat because I felt bad about leaving it in, but I restored it in the bugfixed version. You "just" have to restart the game, and after selecting a toy, press N and L together.
Good audio
The overall gameplay concept and realization of said concept is superbly done though. Graphics are pretty cute as well.
Good job.
I also would like a suicide button, and block creation on impact with lava. Yes this would make it easier, but you could limit the number block guys available (i.e. lemmings). This would also then require some way to reset the level.
Sound and music fit great.
@Sheep : I would call that an "intro" rather than an intro. I always tend to invent some kind of background for those
colored-rectangles placeholders I used, hence the toy and "world full of wonders" thing.
Concerning the Tiler : I considered the "suicide button", but in my mind, it was taking the game away from the theme (yes, that is a twisted way of thinking). The only way I resisted implementing it was promising myself to add it in a post-LD version.
@Tifu : yeah, lava used to trigger the death action until I saw how much easier the game got as a result. I will definitely put it back later.
@Lars Faust : you actually played through all levels ? I am glad to hear that! As I did not receive any kind of input during the creation (by choice), I was scared that people would be easily put off by this whole waiting-thing when I let some people I know play it this morning.
@Kep : Yeah, reseting the level would be nice, but I am not sure I should do a whole new version just for that. I fixed the block-on-spawn bug though, and put up a new jar available here :
https://www.dropbox.com/s/u6rese8qia2tw5y/LD27_Ephemeral_vF2Debugged.jar
Tell me if you still experience it, and I will see what I can do.
Limiting the number of available toys was on my todo-list as a bonus (as were animated tiles). I think I will add it later at some point.
Thanks to you all for your reviews!
"Nothing Here - The file you're looking for has been deleted or moved."
A suicide key should be implemented to make this game a bit easier, sometime timing perfectly your death above the "lava" can be frustrating.
Or maybe just leaving a tile ON the lava could be great gameplay improvment.
One sure thing, I gave you a nice rating :)
Remember that the non-bugged version allows you to skip a level by pressing N and L together.
It's really polished and I like your choice of palette - feels airy!
The only thing I would add is a death button so it would make things go a little faster plus allow you to be more precise with some characters. Overall good job!
This is a nice quirky platforumer that has some good potential with some wrinkles needed to iron.
Liked the graphics though!
But the tile mechanic takes 10 seconds to place each tile, so if there are a lot of tiles to be places, it become very time consuming. Maybe you should add a button to skip the 10 seconds prematurely.
Anyways, good job on the game. Its pretty fun!
And as I said to some other people, I will (and already have ; I mean, it was literally a two-line edit) implement a suicide button. When replaying through the whole thing, it made a lot more sense than when coding. Maybe I should have centered my playtesting on the game's feel, and not just on collisions with the world...
I liked the novel idea and the execution was good with a good learning curve.
But i'm such a bad player here, i can't stand the waiting time.
Not really fond of the "jump" feeling with the controls too.
Perhaps, a little lack of inertia?
So i think i would keep the game in my games file, if only there were a suicide button. :D
Moreover using a lot of Tilers to complete a level is a bit boring. :/ I think game needs a suicide button. :)
@laaph : Pressing N and L together skips to the next level. Do not be ashamed to use it, I did not put it back just because I wanted to. Besides, I agree that controls are still imperfect ; I will try to fix it as much as I can after the end of voting.
Lovely graphics! =D