Swimming Fool by blackmagic

made by blackmagic for LD26 (JAM)

Here is Swimming Fool.

There is no preloader so please wait until the whit screen become blue :)

It is a game about jumping and introspecting. Our view of minimalism was about, being a human, having lost everything and ultimately being an idiot.

After a difficult start we finally managed to put our game online!
We hope you'll enjoy it

Move: left and right arrow keys
jump: up arrow key/space

Code: @BlackMagic
Game Design: @gandhirules
Music: @HallouinMathieu
Art: @CarduusHimself

SOUNDTRACK AVIABLE !!! OMG OMG !!!

http://snd.sc/ZVMEoZ

Post-Jam:

Built a new version :
-no longer stuck in dialogs, you can leave the crasy people alone now !
-a random phrase is then thrown , more dialog more fun or not... XD
-only elvis sticks you
-changes fonting in intro, font embedding was ugly
-updated css, woooww new centered button
-lessened run speed for more precision & efficiency

- as a side note we have to say we put a lot of love to write meaningful texts that matches the theme and mood. They may seem cryptic but they sure as hell are written to mean something despite our poor froglish capacity.

- as a side note we won't make the game less easy or one button, come on guys, enjoy control and challenge !

XOXO and loud thanks for playing !

Swimming Fool Team

WEB ENHANCED (post Jam)	http://176.31.180.226/ld26/
Web (72h version)	http://176.31.180.226/ld26_2/
Source	https://code.google.com/p/blackmagic-ludumdare/source/browse/#svn%2Ftrunk%2Fld26
Original URL	https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview&uid=16703

Ratings

Coolness	44%	1471
Overall(Jam)	3.53	126

Audio(Jam)	3.90	35
Fun(Jam)	3.10	194
Graphics(Jam)	4.44	21
Humor(Jam)	3.14	79
Innovation(Jam)	3.10	237
Mood(Jam)	3.65	75
Theme(Jam)	2.78	424

Feedback

Tyro

29. Apr 2013 · 21:39 UTC

Would love to try it, but when I click the link I'm just met with a blank white page. Not sure what the problem is.

🎤 blackmagic

29. Apr 2013 · 21:48 UTC

Is there a precise error ? 404, page cannot finalize or anything ?
The game is running on stage 3d, some low end pc can have issues running it. You should ahve latest flash and latest video driver to enjoy ( a non intel gpu is a must too ) ...
thanks anyway, we hope you ll reach the game :)

🎤 blackmagic

29. Apr 2013 · 21:57 UTC

Hi tyro, found this, http://forums.adobe.com/message/4730337 it may indeed involve flash if not a web err. xoxo.

Tavrox

29. Apr 2013 · 22:01 UTC

The game is really slow to start but it comes after a little time :) If there is a white screen it's the preloading taking some time ;)

Waynetron

29. Apr 2013 · 22:12 UTC

Graphics are super pretty but I find for such a fast paced run the speech parts really slow the game down.

LionelJitro

29. Apr 2013 · 22:18 UTC

" Sorry! We could not find www.blackmagic.vg

It may be unavailable or may not exist. Try using the suggestions or related links below, or search again using our web search. "

TheMightyComp

29. Apr 2013 · 22:25 UTC

link doesn't work for me?

naughtyloose

29. Apr 2013 · 22:38 UTC

awesome game. The text dialogs were a bit too much and irrelevant imho. Art style reminded me of the story "the little prince". :)

FlashRocks

30. Apr 2013 · 00:26 UTC

This is very nice game. Looks professional, and had me addicted. I couldn't stop (or even change the browser tab!) until I finished it. :)

🎤 blackmagic

30. Apr 2013 · 06:48 UTC

Apparently the DNS record is not propagated all over the world... We replaced the url by the IP based one. Sorry for the inconvenience !
Enjoy !

Yakka

30. Apr 2013 · 07:50 UTC

Too hard for me, but very polished! I loved to play it.

RealyUniqueName

30. Apr 2013 · 08:43 UTC

Awesome art, awesom music, awesome everethyng except unscippable dialogs :) I carefully avoided all dialogs after the second one.

Thotor

30. Apr 2013 · 10:06 UTC

Very nice game play. Both Music and Arts are awesome.
I also wished we could skip the dialogs.

🎤 blackmagic

30. Apr 2013 · 11:39 UTC

Thx dudes, it's moving to have some feedbacks, we will do something to skip the dials :)

Tiago Ling Alexandre

30. Apr 2013 · 12:23 UTC

Awesome animation and idea! The main character's trajectory was kind of erratic and not space-like though. Overall, very nice and polished, congrats!

Demurgos

30. Apr 2013 · 12:52 UTC

That's strange because I felt that the game was rather slow (but people say it was fast).
It's sad that dialogs are not really linked together and the map is so small.
One last problem : why is it easier to go down instead of up... when there's no up or down in space ? It was really confusing.

About the good points, the graphics and music are good but I'm not sure if the music fit the content :/

Masadow

30. Apr 2013 · 13:57 UTC

I'm stuck on a white screen :( Screenshots look good, I want to try :D

🎤 blackmagic

30. Apr 2013 · 14:29 UTC

@masadow have you tried to update flash and update video drivers ?

wonderwhy-er

30. Apr 2013 · 14:58 UTC

GRrr, not the dialogues... Too much retries too... No time to play it grr :D

Very nice graphics but damn, the waiting and retries kill the fun for me ;(

Roffe

30. Apr 2013 · 15:19 UTC

Really nice graphics!
Controllers felt a litle off though
Overall nice game !

ayamflow

30. Apr 2013 · 18:40 UTC

Sick graphics, music, humor...But the gameplay is a bit hard/confusing, got stuck forever on a small jump.

multitude

01. May 2013 · 00:44 UTC

Fun game with awesome graphics and sound.

robotality

01. May 2013 · 14:12 UTC

Nice visual and sound. The screen was a little bit to big for my laptop resolution. ;)
I needed some time to get the hang of the controls but then it was fun.

🎤 blackmagic

01. May 2013 · 15:49 UTC

Aha yeah its an HD ready resolution 720p

Tipyx

01. May 2013 · 16:41 UTC

Very nice, beautiful and fun to play ! Maybe a little repetitive and long when the people are speaking :)

Verazael

01. May 2013 · 21:22 UTC

I can't see where the hell I can download the source. Is there some hidden button or something?

ArkadyDracul

01. May 2013 · 23:21 UTC

Nice :D

🎤 blackmagic

02. May 2013 · 07:59 UTC

@Verazael : maybe the third link on the top of this page? :D

Verazael

02. May 2013 · 09:51 UTC

Haha, no shit! No, I meant, from there, I can see how to browse your project but the downloads section seems empty. Do I have to get all the files one by one or something?

🎤 blackmagic

02. May 2013 · 09:59 UTC

@Verazael
You have just to check out the project with SVN, u have a checkout button with all the information you need to proceed de checkout :)
https://code.google.com/p/blackmagic-ludumdare/source/checkout

whitetigle

02. May 2013 · 10:16 UTC

Well done! Easy to grasp yet sometimes frustrating... And I would agree with the slow dialogs. But I am speaking about the 'official release' here.
Anyway that's a good Job team! bravo les gars :)

🎤 blackmagic

02. May 2013 · 10:18 UTC

Merci Mec ! On t attends pour la post Ludum Beer

TurboDindon

02. May 2013 · 12:36 UTC

Excellent entry! It's fun, coloured, animations are hilarious. Loved the intro, loved the art. Good to see so polished games in that competition.
5 stars of course.
Super bon taf, bravo !

🎤 blackmagic

02. May 2013 · 14:13 UTC

Thanks dudes :) and GG for Mustache Army ! Hilarious !

imagnity

02. May 2013 · 19:31 UTC

I don't know which portion wouldn't get 5 stars. It's just PERFECT!

_Rilem

02. May 2013 · 21:15 UTC

Great visuals and audio, minimalist gameplay. I'd say a very nice entry for this theme! :) I found it a bit hard though, or I just suck, lol. So the checkpoints were much welcome. :D

matthias_zarzecki

03. May 2013 · 23:12 UTC

Lovely game! nice music and graphics. Too much talking, detracts from "game"-part

BrothersT

04. May 2013 · 12:55 UTC

The game mechanic is really fun! Unfortunately there was a lot wrong with the dialogue which really slowed the game down, which you've already addressed :) but I've got to mark based on the compo version! Everything else was nice. Graphics, music etc. congrats!

0beah

05. May 2013 · 20:02 UTC

Takes a while to load. Really love the graphics. Controls are little odd, I had difficulty changing directions once I jumped.

axcho

05. May 2013 · 21:34 UTC

Looks great, but runs at about 2 fps for me. :/ There's no reason that a Flash game should have to depend on GPU-acceleration for this kind of art style...

KilledByAPixel

06. May 2013 · 00:38 UTC

Great graphics and sound. It was hard to control, I couldn't predict which way I would go and got by mainly on trial and error. Maybe you can actually show the gravity wells somehow to better inform the player.

Milo

06. May 2013 · 01:20 UTC

This is a beautiful game - it's so well-polished. Every bit of the exterior of the game - its graphics, its audio, its dialog, has a nice character. It was a satisfying story, although I wish there was more substantial gameplay outside the dialog.

shawn42

06. May 2013 · 03:02 UTC

Wow. Good work. I just had to finish this game. The mechanic was a lot of fun.. just a little off.. will try to time it up better.. jump / miss .. SOO close.. Fun.

MinionStudios

06. May 2013 · 03:17 UTC

It's a great experience. Challenging.

🎤 blackmagic

06. May 2013 · 08:08 UTC

@axcho indeed we are pretty used to flash games ( see motion twin on google... ) but we can assure you it could not run without gpu accel being coded in 3 days (optimising for flash requires lot of work...). See ya :)

Martin Vilcans

06. May 2013 · 19:11 UTC

Looks nice, even with the notice that I have to upgrade video. But as aiming is hard and the game is slow it gets a bit frustrating.

LionelJitro

07. May 2013 · 06:38 UTC

Glad I came back to play this.

Really nice work. Great graphics and sounds.

acro

07. May 2013 · 22:40 UTC

Played the 72h version to rate, haven't looked at enhanced. It's really cool, and a really impressive amount of animation, content and style for 72 hours - it's very polished in appearance. The gameplay feels nice and fluid, with some challenging parts but seems to have less finesse than the graphics. My only slight moment of frustration was the trial-and-error aspect of when moving planets disappear.
Only things I'd have wanted improved for enhanced version were: I had really no idea what the captions were supposed to be saying, they didn't make much sense. And the loading time for that amount of graphics/sound was just ridiculous.

lasergans

10. May 2013 · 12:20 UTC

Nice graphics and music. :)

ataxkt

10. May 2013 · 12:23 UTC

Looks and sounds amazing! The text took forever to scroll though, which was annoying, and I expected planetary gravity rather than the floaty jump as is. Nice fun.

mungoman1

10. May 2013 · 15:50 UTC

All around great game, well done! The art is fantastic, love the animations and music, could see this being very popular on the app store & google play. One recommendation is to use less dialogue to tell your story.

Martin_Monosys

10. May 2013 · 18:26 UTC

Great stuff, I guess you're all professionals in the games/web industries, ain't you ? :)

ZombieRockParty

10. May 2013 · 23:06 UTC

Brilliant, loved it!

GaTechGrad

11. May 2013 · 00:36 UTC

Nice graphics. The difficulty curve seems to be a little steep, as I could not get past the first checkpoint with the three suns. Leaves very little room for error.

stqn

11. May 2013 · 22:01 UTC

Very nice, great graphics and music/sound. Unfortunately with firefox / intel hd graphics the game also has very low FPS and it was sometimes hard to choose the correct direction for a jump.
I would have liked to restart from the latest asteroid after a death instead of restarting from some checkpoint far away.

ethankennerly

12. May 2013 · 21:10 UTC

Jumping between asteroids interested me. If you continue to develop this, it was hard for me to predict what the arc would be. I wasn't sure what the influence was from asteroids if any on the trajectory.

TheSheep

13. May 2013 · 17:31 UTC

The unskippable, cheezy dialogues ruin the mood. Not sure what affects the path. Otherwise a nice "planet jumping" game.

Taro Omiya

14. May 2013 · 03:40 UTC

I'm experiencing some really bad lag playing this game. It was difficult play.

Codexus

20. May 2013 · 21:09 UTC

Very pretty, nice character animation. I gave up quickly though as I couldn't figure out how to make a jump.