Your Efforts are in Vain by BarrensZeppelin

[raw]
made by BarrensZeppelin for LD26 (COMPO)
Controls: WASD
** If you're having difficulties seeing the player on the screen, try increasing Brightness/Contrast on your monitor. **

This is the second time I enter the Ludum Dare Compo, and I present you with an Endless Fall game: "Your Efforts are in Vain"!

The game is about a downhearted personality - in the shape of a box -, which in the heat of the moment discovers a bitter realization about life.

I usually don't make 'serious' games, and the game turned out in quite a pretentious fashion, that's why I have added a score-attack mode with less BS and online leaderboards for good measure, so you can compete with strangers online!

I put a lot of effort into making sure the game had a -clean- finish, but as the compo came to an end and I rushed the Score Attack-specific features, I had to throw some perfection out of the window, and thus some text elements remain quite awful.

Alright, that sums up the game, I hope you enjoy playing it!
~BarrensZeppelin

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall 2.85 897
Audio 3.19 264
Fun 2.59 922
Graphics 2.67 840
Humor 2.09 655
Innovation 2.75 844
Mood 2.84 584
Theme 3.00 1022

Feedback

Spierek
29. Apr 2013 路 08:33 UTC
Great soundtrack and fun gameplay. The only gripe I had were the graphics; the background really makes the game less legible.
s0ulcrusher
29. Apr 2013 路 11:09 UTC
After getting a handle on the controls it got pretty fun, but my eyes hurt trying to see a black square on a mostly black background. Really cool and weird idea for a game, I've never played anything like it!
TheFuntastic
29. Apr 2013 路 11:41 UTC
I actually enjoyed the setup, but i'll be honest I had a bit of difficulty figuring out the game. Once there were lots of triangles it all felt a bit random. Not sure what caused me to lose health either...
馃帳 BarrensZeppelin
29. Apr 2013 路 16:51 UTC
Haha, I always seem to forget, that the people that play the game aren't the ones who designed it. (;

The game is meant to be unfair. At first it seems like you are in control of how well you do, you can dodge the first couple of squares quite easily, but as the game progresses and it gets more and more hectic, and no matter how hard you try, you will always lose. Thus, your efforts are in vain.
rainblade studios
29. Apr 2013 路 20:18 UTC
Can't play, don't have windows :(
bernhard
30. Apr 2013 路 00:20 UTC
Really liked the audio-visual presentation. Story, online score tracking and everything, unbelievable for 48 hours, well done!
Also bonus for real game development with C++ :D
Christopher Schulte
30. Apr 2013 路 07:30 UTC
The art is really nice and the setup was pretty cool. I think that the setup might have been a bit stronger if the word count was cut down. It would have kept a bit more with the theme and allowed for the player to have more of a definition of the character.
timtimtimtim
30. Apr 2013 路 08:06 UTC
i like endless fall games and this is a good one. loved the visual effect of the dozens of obstacle trackers and how they sent you flying when you hit them. good job
Andrewves
30. Apr 2013 路 08:44 UTC
Good gameplay and audio, although i found the color scheme alittle hard to see.
Jubjub.
30. Apr 2013 路 09:23 UTC
Really, really difficult. But really fun haha. As soon as the incoming squares started piling up it turned into utter chaos really fast. Which isn't a bad thing!
Szedouu
30. Apr 2013 路 09:34 UTC
great job, but had problems with controls
AndyBumpkin
30. Apr 2013 路 09:40 UTC
It was a bit tricky to see my character. I didn't feel I was being skillful as much as lucky most of the time!

The music could have progressed a bit further but the woosh by sound effects were good!

Otherwise it was all well put together :)
AestheticGamer
30. Apr 2013 路 16:55 UTC
Some nice graphics and audio, though a bit frustrating, it can be fun to see how much you survive and the title isn't misleading. Wasn't too pretentious either, so no need to worry about it too much.
YsenGrimm
30. Apr 2013 路 17:32 UTC
I really love the soundtrack :D
Dark Acre Jack
01. May 2013 路 08:13 UTC
I like the honesty in presentation.
gmaker
01. May 2013 路 09:41 UTC
cute=)
netmute
01. May 2013 路 20:30 UTC
Graphically and acoustically beautiful! One of the best entries I've played so far. My only complaint is that the controls are a bit unresponsive.
netmute
01. May 2013 路 20:32 UTC
Argh, that comment was for another game, sorry :(
The sheer amount of games is a bit overwhelming for me :P
馃帳 BarrensZeppelin
02. May 2013 路 07:05 UTC
No hard feelings (;
Jod
02. May 2013 路 08:56 UTC
Cool idea, awesome music! The black square on the black background kinda doesn't work for me though.
Pixelfan Games
02. May 2013 路 12:30 UTC
I love the game! Good soundtrack, good gameplay, i like it!
AtkinsSJ
02. May 2013 路 15:47 UTC
Hmmm. I liked the presentation, but I think having it be competitive conflicts with the randomness of how well you do. :) Not sure how that could be adjusted though.

Anyway, nicely done!
EdoMiyamoto
02. May 2013 路 16:38 UTC
Pretty fun
lorancou
03. May 2013 路 12:10 UTC
Yey! I ranked #4 :) This is a very nice game, requires a bit too much luck in this state, but maybe a kind of minimap or slow-mo when red squares get close would help in fixing that. And no this story is not *that* pretentious, I've seen worse. Very nice audio!
MinionStudios
06. May 2013 路 16:29 UTC
Ha ha! Great action! it's tough to stay alive falling to your death...
badlydrawnrod
09. May 2013 路 21:07 UTC
Nicely presented, but I would have liked the main character to be a tad more visible.
AlexFili
11. May 2013 路 15:47 UTC
Great soundtrack and great game. The story doesn't really match the game though in my opinion, but very addictive gameplay!
lightnarcissus
15. May 2013 路 13:14 UTC
Excellent concept with a philosophical edge to it and the game is damn fun to play once you figure it out.
gerritg
15. May 2013 路 23:29 UTC
You can almost feel the falling speed. Nice one. Quite addictive!
Pacifist Games
20. May 2013 路 17:53 UTC
I felt that this game would've been much stronger without the story element, as a simple arcade experience.

That being said, I found the game way too difficult. It felt like whether you survived or not was all based on chance really... Nice little background tune though!