Minimaloon by StMatn

[raw]
made by StMatn for LD26 (JAM)
Niki & StMatn proudly present: Minimaloon

Join the little stickman on his journey to escape the mysterious cave. Guide his balloon around dangerous flowstones and through tough winds. Use your mouse to blow the ballon and push it safely to he next camp.

We wish you much fun and would appreciate some comments!


P.S.: If a level seems too hard, come back later. The game saves progress automaticly!
P.P.S.:If a level still seems too hard, you may download the savegame and replace the file found in "res/dat/" with it. REMEMBER: WINNERS DON'T USE CHEATS! BE A WINNER! (Game may need to be closed)


+1 potato
[+1 goat - does this count? :P]



If you have problems running the game, please leave a comment with a brief description of the issue. It would help a lot if you would add the output printed in the cmd-prompt/console. Thx in advance :)


Changelog:
Version 1.1:
-Added a mode to play custom levels
-Fixed collisions. No more invisible walls.

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall(Jam) 3.66 82
Audio(Jam) 3.00 239
Fun(Jam) 3.46 91
Graphics(Jam) 3.87 98
Humor(Jam) 2.83 127
Innovation(Jam) 3.27 177
Mood(Jam) 3.65 75
Theme(Jam) 3.69 127

Feedback

Lianne Booton
30. Apr 2013 路 04:27 UTC
The graphics are quite nice :) I like the gameplay too, but I think a cursor graphic for the fan may have helped quite a bit with directing the balloon.
馃帳 StMatn
30. Apr 2013 路 12:42 UTC
The cursor graphic is a very good point. Thank you very much for testing the game ^^
hardycore
30. Apr 2013 路 15:58 UTC
Great game! Loved the graphics! Sound was also good. Set the mood nicely. Controls could've been better, should've maybe had a keyboard option as well.
What was this made with?
馃帳 StMatn
30. Apr 2013 路 18:38 UTC
Thx for playing and those nice words.
I think keyboard controls could break the control-experience of a fan, but on the other side, maybe more crisp controls would be more fun.
The game was written in Java without any gameengine. If you are interested in the source or program-architecture, I can write some lines about it.
tacograveyard
01. May 2013 路 02:28 UTC
I liked this! Good mechanic and addicting.
dsoft20
01. May 2013 路 09:03 UTC
Nice game with nice graphics and a good gameplay
fullmontis
01. May 2013 路 09:25 UTC
Simple concept and very nice mood.
The Consul
01. May 2013 路 09:38 UTC
Good graphics. I am first and foremost impressed that you have created a full game, with 8 levels, escalating difficulty and new obstacle types introduced throughout the game.

The last level is hard!

Good work.
馃帳 StMatn
01. May 2013 路 09:51 UTC
Thank you everyone for playing and commenting!
Level 8 is really hard, yes... I even have problems myself, although I'm pretty accustomed to the controls. Dont give up, every level has been tested and therefor is possible. I hope nobody ragequits after touching the spike right before the last camp :-/
dx0ne
01. May 2013 路 10:00 UTC
Love the art and music.
You've got additional 5 start for the Fan.
馃帳 StMatn
01. May 2013 路 10:24 UTC
Thank you very much :)
hypp
01. May 2013 路 11:47 UTC
Like the graphics and the gameplay
馃帳 StMatn
01. May 2013 路 17:01 UTC
Thx ^^
gameXcore
01. May 2013 路 19:53 UTC
One of the best I have played so far, I agree with the previous comments, I would have liked a fan graphic... oh and I couldn't beat the last level =[
hgouveia
01. May 2013 路 19:54 UTC
Like the graphics, but i didn't like too much that you need to first watch the intro, then the story, i just wanted to open and play, but that's just me , nice touch add the editor
loxo
01. May 2013 路 20:18 UTC
I like the style of the game very much. In the beginning it's quite easy and gets harder with time. I managed to get to the last level, that I find a little frustrating. Unfortunately I have 3 issues with the game, they are probably all Mac OS related. There is no music for me in the game, I noticed this after reading the comments, because others liked the music. All the buttons have a light grey background, so the text is barely readable. It seems that these are default system buttons and they are grey on Mac OS. And finally, the text in the diary doesn't fit correctly. Maybe you used a font that's not available on Mac systems by default. I made screenshots for the graphical issues: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/njd0d4trwy56izw/3Ifv3odpxX
馃帳 StMatn
01. May 2013 路 20:46 UTC
@gameXcore: I'm sorry the last level is too hard. Letting family and friends play the game has also shown, that level 8 my be a bit too hard. If you are interested in the ending, you may want to look into the "res/gfx/mov/" folder ;)

@hgouveia: Thats a good point. I should have made the intro and story sequences skipable. I hope that didn't influence your experience too much.

@loxo: Its very sad to read about those issues. I'm sorry, the game doesnt work correctly on your machine. Unfortunately I don't have easy access to a mac, so shooting down those bugs will be hard for me. I'll try to figure out how to solve those issues. Hopefully they don't break the whole experience. Its a very shitty fix, but if you are interested in [playing with] the music, you can find it under "res/snd/msc/music1.wav" and play it with your standard audio player :|
馃帳 StMatn
01. May 2013 路 20:48 UTC
@loxo: I nearly forgot it: Thank you very much, for reporting the issue! If you have a second left for me, does it give you any output, if you start it through the console?
loxo
02. May 2013 路 06:10 UTC
Sorry, I could have checked that before. I get the following error message:

Error initializing SoundController: Failed to allocate clip data: Requested buffer too large.
qdowngames
02. May 2013 路 21:07 UTC
Well I have to say, props on the mood. And adding a story. It takes a while to do those things - even in 72 hours.
MinionStudios
02. May 2013 路 21:31 UTC
Damn that potato! Had a blast, but could not get past last level.
Robrock55
03. May 2013 路 12:02 UTC
It's a really good game with a funny gameplay and a good music. Just as the others players, the moving is quite difficult sometimes
patrikspengler
03. May 2013 路 19:37 UTC
This game is simply amazing. Graphics are great, gameplay was cool. Music was a bit sad but fitting, there could have been some sound effects, though. There was an amazing mood in this game.
馃帳 StMatn
03. May 2013 路 20:04 UTC
Thank you all so much... We really appreciate those comments.
GarethIW
03. May 2013 路 21:45 UTC
Loved the drawn art style! Two things I would change: Make the cursor an actual fan, and give the balloon a little more inertia. Other than that, good stuff!
馃帳 StMatn
03. May 2013 路 22:21 UTC
Very good suggestions. Thank you :)
SnoringFrog
04. May 2013 路 05:17 UTC
Level 8 took me about 3x as long as level 1-7 combined, and after 20-30 tries I almost ragequit. Besides being horrendously difficult, it seemed like there were a few places I would collide with the walls when it didn't appear I was touching them, and then other places where I could slide partly into the wall and be fine. Not sure if that was an issue in all the levels, since I usually wasn't close enough to the walls to find out, but it soon became obnoxious in 8.
馃帳 StMatn
04. May 2013 路 10:07 UTC
Thx for playing. I think level 8 really is way too hard... The collision-issues happen, because I've writen pixelperfect collision versus a circle, so if there is a pixel, that isn't pitch black, it is considered a wall. Besides that, collision isnt checkt versus the balloon image, but versus a perfect circle, so everything, that sticks over (especially the car of the balloon) is able to slide into the walls. Sorry for that :( We'll try to fix this soon...
HuvaaKoodia
04. May 2013 路 19:18 UTC
The control method and difficulty level were to my liking.
I breezed through the game on one sitting (and life).

Luckily there is an editor so I can create some devilish caves to test my skill.

Nicely done.
Fnkee
06. May 2013 路 00:03 UTC
Haha, what a wonderful story. Top score on humor for the ending. I found it pretty hilarious. I really like the way you included "stories" along the way. Also, very fitting music!
馃帳 StMatn
06. May 2013 路 11:41 UTC
Thank you very much! I'm happy, the nerdieness makes some people laugh ^^

@HuavaaKoodia and alle those poeple, who want to make their own levels: If you want, I can add a "Play custom level"-option, so you don't need to replace the original levels. If you are interested, just leave a comment, mentioning it.
HuvaaKoodia
07. May 2013 路 19:10 UTC
@StMatn
Well that would be quite splendid.
It's not that big of an inconvenience at the moment, but please do.
killerstarbunny
07. May 2013 路 21:31 UTC
Really good the music is awesome the controls are really cool and different.
kddekadenz
13. May 2013 路 13:23 UTC
Ehrm, when trying to run a very minimalistic window appears..
Few pixels big, gray and shiny. I don't think this is expected. It may have happened because I still have Java 6.
馃帳 StMatn
13. May 2013 路 16:44 UTC
@kddekadenz: That may be caused by Java 6, but it's strange, the jar did start, because usually it doesn't do anything, but just prints out an error message to the cmd...
Mago
13. May 2013 路 20:23 UTC
Great game. I love comic cutscens. Very fun gameplay and rally nice art and music. Great job!
michail
13. May 2013 路 23:55 UTC
Good music and graphics - minimalistic and nice. Maybe controls could be quite more forgiving, but overall very cool game, I have passed all eight levels.
Maple
19. May 2013 路 04:14 UTC
I felt like the space around the balloon to control it could have been bigger so that it wasn't such precise mouse-work I had to pull off, and the character hitbox could have been more obvious (I mean, I didn't expect the basket that the man was in to not be solid).

Otherwise this was really nicely pulled off. And yes, yes I did think the potato was real. ;_;
Hellequin
20. May 2013 路 19:44 UTC
Neat idea, nice game well done!