Orb by Grouflon

[raw]
made by Grouflon for LD26 (JAM)
Bring life by bringing light

Controls : mouse

Graphics : Jeremy Forveille
Sound design, original music & level design : Maxime Ferrieu
Scripting : Remi Bismuth

Enjoy !

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall(Jam) 4.02 20
Audio(Jam) 4.11 14
Fun(Jam) 3.52 79
Graphics(Jam) 4.36 28
Humor(Jam) 2.00 300
Innovation(Jam) 3.59 77
Mood(Jam) 4.14 12
Theme(Jam) 4.07 40

Feedback

Prelucid
30. Apr 2013 · 00:45 UTC
Nice one. Very surprising (nice graphics) when finishing a level.
TravisChen
30. Apr 2013 · 02:53 UTC
Radial pong is smart and the game is beautifully simple. Nice work.
joe40001
30. Apr 2013 · 08:01 UTC
Graphics/Audio/Mood/Theme All 5 out of 5. Very solid entry, not exactly my kind of game but for some people I've got to imagine this is going to be the best entry of LD26.
FunByJohn
30. Apr 2013 · 12:52 UTC
This is really great; the atmosphere of the entire game is really wholesome and relaxing, and the feeling of brightening up the orb is really sensational! Going from grayscale to these beautiful colour palettes you've created is an awesome feeling.
In the levels where the sky turns yellow it can be a bit difficult to see the ball (this might've been the point? blinding light? hehe)
The gameplay itself was pretty standard, definitely minimalistic, in a good way. The rules were simple, and easy to follow. The actual design of the levels was a bit strange, it seemed like they didn't really take advantage of the circular shape of the game, like they were designed for regular breakout.
Anyway, really awesome game, I've given you 5 stars for Theme, Audio, and Graphics :D

Great job guys :D
fullmontis
30. Apr 2013 · 15:52 UTC
This is amazing, seriously. Very interesting and challenging new take on breakout. Perfect implementation of the theme. Full scores for me.
GreyShock
30. Apr 2013 · 15:57 UTC
BEAUTIFUL. The aesthetics and the music are very rewarding as you progress on a level. A great surprise and a very ellegant approach to the Minimalism.
Gravel
30. Apr 2013 · 16:01 UTC
Nice work. Fine tune and great ambiance. I like the consistency.
Not a fan of the gameplay but this is subjective.
[-BipolarDesign+]
30. Apr 2013 · 20:47 UTC
Fun! The level win animation is very nice, I do feel like the controls could definitely be fine tuned though (different angles based on if the user is moving the paddle when the ball hits it, etc)
Jhelle
30. Apr 2013 · 21:24 UTC
Loved the presentation in this one. Good job
Masadow
30. Apr 2013 · 21:29 UTC
Very hard to play with a laptot without mouse (but that's not your fault anyway) and beautiful graphics on end level ! I really enjoyed this wallbreaker ! Good job
nurabsal
30. Apr 2013 · 22:27 UTC
link leads to a blank page?
🎤 Grouflon
30. Apr 2013 · 22:34 UTC
@nurabsal: We had no time left for implementing a loading screen, but the blank page you see is the loading actually. The loading time can vary a lot from one computer to another as we experienced. Sorry for the desagrement, I hope you'll can play it anyway :)
GetFun
30. Apr 2013 · 22:34 UTC
Surprising good. Really liked it. gratz
FrozenCow
30. Apr 2013 · 22:37 UTC
Damn, that polish on this game. It was indeed a surprise (didn't read the comments) and it was beautiful. The sound/music is also very fitting.
gerritg
30. Apr 2013 · 22:38 UTC
Loved playing this. It's really beautiful and entertaining. 5 out of 5 from here too. Everything fits perfectly together.
JustinMullin
30. Apr 2013 · 22:38 UTC
On the one hand, I didn't really ever want to play a Breakout clone ever again. On the other hand, this is one of the most beautiful entries I've seen in this competition so far.

I'd say that's a fairly net positive. =)
MrShoestore
30. Apr 2013 · 22:40 UTC
I'll be honest, it first started and i was like "pfffh, all they did was made Breakout." Then I played it for more then 5 seconds and was like "pfffft, all they did was made Breakout absolutely amazing."
wine
30. Apr 2013 · 22:43 UTC
It is not easy. But style and sounds and levels
Great job!
Gremlin
30. Apr 2013 · 22:43 UTC
Love the sound and graphics.

This is a hard game--you don't seem to get lives back and it's easy to lose a ball if you try to treat it like Breakout because the circular orbit means that it's much easier for the ball to get away from you.

Did I mention how much I love the music and graphics? The ending of the levels is awesome.
porglezomp
30. Apr 2013 · 22:45 UTC
Really nice, I was amazed when the planet started changing. It was beautiful.
ilovepixel
01. May 2013 · 00:38 UTC
Amazing game! great twist on a pong mechanic. I really enjoyed the art, music and game overall. Congrats.
Julian Ceipek
01. May 2013 · 01:32 UTC
Truly brilliant graphics and audio with a generally serene atmosphere that I very much enjoyed. Unfortunately, I was frustrated by the mouse-based control scheme, both with a trackpad and with a gaming mouse, which may or may not be an artifact of the size of the web player. The paddle seemed a bit jerky and would sometimes jump to the other side of the world because the radial mouse movement introduced multiple sensitivity zones. Furthermore, the changing background made the ball progressively harder to see, which might have been intentional but reduced my sense of connection to the controls even further.
GranaDa
01. May 2013 · 14:56 UTC
GREAT! GREAT! AHHHHHH
MinionStudios
02. May 2013 · 00:32 UTC
Wow what a game! Very sweet idea, a rotating breakout! very sweet animations, too
Ariake81
02. May 2013 · 00:33 UTC
loved it, when the colour changes and the orb becomes a planet it was awesome. thanks.
thatwhichis
02. May 2013 · 00:38 UTC
I don't want to brag, but I might be the worst player ever at this. ;-)

Still, is beautiful, is beautiful when I win, is beautiful concept. Bravo!
larb
02. May 2013 · 00:43 UTC
Beautiful. Brilliant.
lambomang
02. May 2013 · 00:52 UTC
Nice one! Although the paddle becomes jumpy for me after I lose the first ball, like it has a low frame rate or something. The ball moves fine though.
🎤 Grouflon
02. May 2013 · 01:02 UTC
@lamboyang: Thank you for your feedback! As we experienced, the framerate can vary a lot depending on your connection speed, your computer... In optimal conditions, the game is very fluid... Really sorry for the inconvenience ;)
NicoSaraintaris
02. May 2013 · 01:16 UTC
Very polished entry. Congrats on this. I had a good time playing it.
SaintHeiser
02. May 2013 · 06:49 UTC
Pretty well =)
Nice gameplay, man!
Dark Acre Jack
02. May 2013 · 07:25 UTC
This deserves to be in an arcade cabinet with a roll switch like Capcom's Forgotten Worlds had. Amazing work.
matthias_zarzecki
02. May 2013 · 17:09 UTC
Lovely puzzler! The sound-effects are great, as is the orb getting brighter :)
TaleLore
03. May 2013 · 00:52 UTC
Amazing graphics!
rukbotto
03. May 2013 · 00:54 UTC
Really nice game! I had a good time playing it!
CaseyHardman
03. May 2013 · 01:21 UTC
Great audio and graphics.

The concept is interesting, but I found it rather difficult to use the mouse to control the paddle. It was frustrating to try and quickly move the paddle to catch the ball from going off into oblivion, due to the lack of precision with the paddle and the strange angle the paddle takes making it hard to actually bounce the ball in the direction you would want it to go. I often accidentally bumped the ball with the side of my paddle when I tried to prevent it from falling off the stage.

The starting shot, where you click to release the ball, seems to go in rather imprecise places rather than directly forward from the paddle.

To sum it up, the gameplay, though intuitive, seemed rather frustrating and not very fun for me, though everything else was impressive.
Alucard J
03. May 2013 · 06:19 UTC
I had alot of fun playing this, adding music and colour kept me motivated. Sometimes struggled with the rebounded angles not being what I expected. A save game / load level feature would be nice and give it a higher replay value. Overall a good idea, executed extremely well, with some very nice audio and effects. Well Done =]
CosmicAdventureSquad
03. May 2013 · 17:39 UTC
Loved the aesthetics and feedback in the game. It is a cool take on breakout. Completing a level is extremely satisfying. The sound design is great. I had difficulty predicting where the ball would bounce and rebound to. Overall, great!

- Strega
The Consul
03. May 2013 · 17:43 UTC
Great take on breakout. I love the concept.

I feel the controls are a bit annoying though. I kept moving the mouse pointer outside of the game area and losing control over it. Perhaps you could use the pointer lock to take control over the mouse.
KEFIR
04. May 2013 · 15:35 UTC
It was really beautiful and calm! Thank you for making this game!
Jellycakes
04. May 2013 · 15:42 UTC
Suddenly EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL. Really nice job. Wasn't expecting the sudden change in colours. The music really went well with it too. Good job!
loxo
04. May 2013 · 15:42 UTC
Really nice idea. Great graphics, sound effects and music.
PabloAlexandre31
05. May 2013 · 03:06 UTC
The Atmosphere is very very nice. I like it!
tikilittle
05. May 2013 · 17:53 UTC
Fantastic game! The game felt very complete. The dub-step sound effect I thought was a little bit much and called attention that it sounded like a dub-step. It felt like it was not part of the game and more like a Skrillex song.
Pixelulsar
05. May 2013 · 21:51 UTC
Music was great, but it was hard to see the ball sometimes when the screen got brighter.
kill0u
10. May 2013 · 20:53 UTC
Wow. Amazing game :) Love the mood & the winning animation.
CherryNukaCola
11. May 2013 · 18:09 UTC
Wow. Very fresh take on the 'breakout' genre. Lovely, thank you!
ethankennerly
12. May 2013 · 22:08 UTC
Seeing and hearing the planet saturate with color and grow trees lured me. If you continue to develop this, sometimes the ball would not bounce off the paddle in the direction I was expecting; compared to other Arkanoid games, I did not understand how the moving paddle would influence the bounce.