Nova Jump : A Space Adventure by savethejets1

[raw]
made by savethejets1 for LD26 (JAM)
Nova Jump : A Space Adventure

By : Kyle Reczek

Theme : Minimalism

I wanted to take what it meant to be a "platformer" and strip it down to the basic minimum of controls that could be possible, while still being a "platformer".

The indiana jones mechanic sort of evolved out of just playing around with the character and a little test level I had on day one.

Stuff I used:
node.js
cocos2d-html5
heroku
pixen
Tiled




PLEASE NOTE MY PUNY SERVER MAY TAKE A WHILE TO SERVE UP THE ENGINE FILES SO IT MAY LOOK LIKE A BLANK SCREEN AT FIRST, BUT MY MACHINE IS CHUGGING AWAY. Please be patient. :D

Ratings

Coolness 57% 3
Overall(Jam) 3.35 184
Audio(Jam) 3.08 213
Fun(Jam) 3.32 119
Graphics(Jam) 3.81 114
Humor(Jam) 1.98 314
Innovation(Jam) 3.07 242
Mood(Jam) 3.22 186
Theme(Jam) 3.11 337

Feedback

sfernald
29. Apr 2013 · 19:40 UTC
Cool game. Really enjoyed game mechanism. Made it seem different and it was challenging. Great job for javascript game.
tonic
29. Apr 2013 · 19:42 UTC
Nice! Perhaps a single level could be a bit longer in the start. :) The "panic button" is a bit annoying, but I guess that's the point?
Martze
29. Apr 2013 · 19:42 UTC
Pretty good! It's a little frustrating that touching the collapsing ceiling kills you instantly, though. I might not mind if it was a laser or something, but I feel like a falling ceiling shouldn't kill you unless it crushes you against the floor.
Filth and Money
29. Apr 2013 · 19:50 UTC
Holy crap, there are a lot of levels! I feel like I've played at least 8! And that one level where you had to fall precisely into end teleporter was freakin HARD! lol! But seriously, very charming game. I still haven't finished it, as I have things to do in the real world, but the music and graphics were fun. And escaping those ceiling things is scary!!! =D
Filth and Money
29. Apr 2013 · 19:51 UTC
Oh yeah, and I agree 100% with Martze. The ceiling should either wait to smoosh you on the ground or be electrified or something.
Jools64
29. Apr 2013 · 20:01 UTC
This is a really neat little game. The graphics are really nice and the gameplay feels nice and smooth. I like the momentum, it gives the game some proper depth in the absence of manipulable jumping.

I did have a few problems though:
Some times the camera wouldn't follow fast enough when I was moving at a high speed. I also found that the camera shaking effect was a little too much and made it very difficult to see. I understand that you did that on purpose to make it challenging but the fake platforms are extremely difficult to avoid because of it.

I also ran into a bug where if I died many times on a level, especially if I got fairly far in, the camera would begin to miss align. After many deaths the player would completely disappear off one side of the screen which made the game almost impossible to play.

Other than those issues though, this was an awesome game with nice level and I really enjoyed it. I'm quite impressed with how many levels you managed to make within the time.

Good job!
🎤 savethejets1
30. Apr 2013 · 01:15 UTC
This was a jam entry so it wasn't quite done when you guys rated :D

Anyways, I fixed the camera bug and added a few more levels before the cut off, hope you enjoy!
kidevil
30. Apr 2013 · 19:38 UTC
Nice game! The graphics were great and always jumping mechanic really added to the gameplay. Would have liked the screen to move with the character smoothly, instead of just repositioning when he lands though.
Jezzamon
01. May 2013 · 05:36 UTC
I think the screen shaking was a bit much... it kinda hurt my eyes. :P I know that that was kinda the intention, but I think maybe you should be a bit nicer to your players...

It was an interesting interpretation of the theme, but I didn't really think this game reflected "minimalism". The removal of the jump button seemed to complicate the game more than simplify it. I also liked the music but it made is seem more game-y rathern than minimalistic.

It was a good game-jam game though! Good job.
ddionisio
01. May 2013 · 05:45 UTC
I like the color palette in this game, has that rusty and ancient feel to it which fit nicely with the game.

It's an interesting take on platformer with the jump button being stuck. It got a little frustrating with the falling ceiling though. The camera shake is too strong...
junt74
01. May 2013 · 05:49 UTC
Great gameplay!
I like this tense.
qgi
01. May 2013 · 06:06 UTC
Nice game with a tense atmosphere. The shaking effect and music changes on the wall coming down works great!
BrainSlugs83
01. May 2013 · 08:13 UTC
Actually I got the black screen and it was because some chrome extension I had was blocking one of your javascript files saying it was untrusted. So I had to manually go in and trust your site.
Blizzil
01. May 2013 · 10:10 UTC
Love the idea of the permanent jumping platformer and it works really good. Although i found the level design a bit "rough", it is already fun to play!
BrainSlugs83
01. May 2013 · 11:02 UTC
Giving you a 5 on "mood" 'cause this game scared the crap out of me. 5 on audio for the same reason -- this was pretty well done, yo'!

That being said, I couldn't beat it without cheating. Only tested this in chrome but if you guys get tired of getting smashed and want to be able to teleport, paste this into your debugger console (all on one line):
var __mouse = { x: 0, y: 0 }; $("#gameCanvas").mousemove(function(e){ __mouse.x = e.offsetX; __mouse.y = 400 - e.offsetY;}); $("#gameCanvas").click(function() { var scene = cc.sharedDirector._runningScene._children[0]; var plr = scene.player; var tileMap = scene.tileMap; plr.desiredPosition.x = plr.position.x = (__mouse.x - tileMap._position.x); plr.desiredPosition.y = plr.position.y = (__mouse.y - tileMap._position.y); });
ZombieRockParty
01. May 2013 · 11:30 UTC
Fun game, really hard points.
Luxorix
01. May 2013 · 12:36 UTC
Hard, very hard. Meat boy))
SonnyBone
01. May 2013 · 13:23 UTC
Great mechanic and nice use of theme! I liked the sprites, too. That falling ceiling is terrifying, actually!
8BitPimp
01. May 2013 · 13:50 UTC
Nice game. Lots to keep me interested. I also thought it was interesting that you only adjust the camera location when the char touches the floor. Its really a hard game I found. Good work however.
saguaro
01. May 2013 · 14:31 UTC
Some of those jumps are challenging. I like the eerie, spacy mood. The shaking effect works well, but I'll agree with those above about the ceiling instakill.
cacciatc
01. May 2013 · 15:53 UTC
Great entry. The transitions within the a level are a little too jerky and nauseating over time. Something smoother would make me mind less every time I die! Of course, I could just stop dying too.... :)
Casino Jack
01. May 2013 · 16:18 UTC
Really nice looking graphics. I think it would be a little better if the camera was a bit smoother - as it is it makes a few areas a little more difficult than they should be.
LTyrosine
01. May 2013 · 16:35 UTC
Insane hard but really liked it. Music is amazing also.
MinionStudios
01. May 2013 · 17:22 UTC
Such a good game, I love how you have to go down in a jump up type game. The main character is super sweet.
dalbinblue
01. May 2013 · 22:07 UTC
Good level of difficulty, dodging the advancing blocks from the top of the level really helped, though in a few cases I didn't know where the exit was before the descent started and it got a bit frantic.
PPLo
01. May 2013 · 23:57 UTC
Very cool plateformer game. It feels a little bit meat boyish!
The challenge is well balanced and I liked the atmosphere of your game. However, the shaking screen is very disturbing! Made me miss many jumps, but I guess that its purpose ^^
EdoMiyamoto
02. May 2013 · 10:11 UTC
Very nice
MetroidMan347
03. May 2013 · 05:33 UTC
Solid Game. I got stuck and couldn't continue pretty early but really cool all the same.
robcozzens
03. May 2013 · 07:55 UTC
That was a really cool idea.
Nanolotl
03. May 2013 · 08:08 UTC
Nice use of theme with the simplification of platformer controls. I found the screen shake to be a bit too much though.
ArkadyDracul
03. May 2013 · 08:37 UTC
Nice
evilseanbot
03. May 2013 · 09:25 UTC
One of my favorites out of the 80 so far I've rated.

I appreciated that the game had as many levels as it did. However, I felt after the first difficult grab-the-(candle?) level, things didn't get more difficult or introduce anything really novel so I lost interest... I think my sense of pacing is heavily effected by it being part of a contest where I'm rating 80 games in a couple of days, so you may want to take that with a grain of salt that if you're developing for an environment outside of Ludum Dare.
kyyninen
03. May 2013 · 10:19 UTC
I liked the idea but the second rock fall level was too hardcore for me! Camera was pretty annoying in the original version, glad to see you fixed it.
naufr4g0
03. May 2013 · 10:49 UTC
Cool game, but camera shake gives me a headache after a few minutes!
blackmagic
03. May 2013 · 11:40 UTC
Perma jump is a nice idea :)
DkCub23
03. May 2013 · 11:52 UTC
Have you no mercy? I played for ten minutes, and level 3 is simply evil! But, it is very addicting. And I like the drastic tempo change in the music once you hit the switch.
mrx
03. May 2013 · 14:11 UTC
Awesome game, gets heart heart rate up!
loxo
05. May 2013 · 20:20 UTC
The game is great! Nice graphics, sound effects and game mechanic.
euwaku
05. May 2013 · 20:48 UTC
Here we have a very good concept implemented with good retro graphics and music. However the game was overall too hard and therefore too frustrating. Very good job!
rujo
06. May 2013 · 09:08 UTC
cool idea and stylish realization.
shiprib
07. May 2013 · 08:49 UTC
Really great concept, I like the way you adapted the theme of minimalist in the style of platformer. I'm no platform guru but I got about six or seven levels deep before it finally wore me down. :)

Music, art and animation is great! I also found the camera to be a bit slow when I was attempting crazy screen-wide jumps. Some of the jumps had to be highly accurate, I guess that's par for the course with a platform game though, but I found some levels quite frustrating (the one in which you have to fall down onto the teleporter that's sandwiched between two spikes for example).
Beldarak
09. May 2013 · 21:12 UTC
Nice game. Very challenging (freaking hard ><) and I love your take on the theme.
Knighty
12. May 2013 · 08:41 UTC
I like the graphics and I really want to like this game, but the way the screen scrolls and the shaking makes it incredibly difficult to see where I'm going.