GLORPLAX III by Pacifist Games

[raw]
made by Pacifist Games for LD25 (COMPO)
DESCRIPTION:
GLORPLAX III is a destructor, a professional destroyer of worlds. Help him guide his Doomsday Drone deep enough into the planet's crust, so he can explode it and cause massive damage.

Unfortunately for GLORPLAX, there's a 1 second delay between when he presses a button, and when his drone reacts... Will you be able to help him reach his goal?

CONTROLS:
Space = Jump
Left Arrow Key = Go Left
Right Arrow Key = Go Right
Esc = Quit
F4 = Toggle Fullscreen
F9 = Take Screenshot

DESIGNER'S NOTE:
I would love to know how far you get!
There's a really nice ending scene for those who make it!
Please leave a comment if you've played/rated.
I'll try to play the games of everyone who comments.

Ratings

Coolness 71% 3
Overall 3.66 63
Audio 2.75 256
Fun 3.45 96
Graphics 3.54 160
Humor 3.62 61
Innovation 3.71 66
Mood 3.33 105
Theme 3.26 346

Feedback

Blooperly
17. Dec 2012 路 05:06 UTC
Best game I have played so far! Great job!
Datw
17. Dec 2012 路 13:32 UTC
Loved when the drone died. Unfortunately there was a place where I simply couldn't progress, because the spikes would always kill me.
馃帳 Pacifist Games
17. Dec 2012 路 19:00 UTC
Might have uploaded the wrong build initially, one of the last fixes I made was removing a few spikes that could cause an infinite death loop. The game is definitely completable now. Take a screenshot if you have any issues!
bitbof
17. Dec 2012 路 19:32 UTC
Nice :)
I made it through, though on of the spike holes was pretty thin.
Also you are quite the daredevil for intentionally introducing input delay.
gameXcore
18. Dec 2012 路 00:09 UTC
Fantastic, and going against the #1 rule of platformers, input needs to be sharp is risky... but works so well, you have to adjust to using the clicks of the buttons to time things.

Unfortunately I got stuck at -356 at what I'm guessing is the same too-thin gap other people mentioned, which was a little rubbish =[
馃帳 Pacifist Games
18. Dec 2012 路 03:39 UTC
I ran my debugger to make sure that room was working correctly, and it is. You need to slide along the wall to line yourself up with the hole. If you hold right for too long before you make the jump, you'll slide into the hole, but then slide right into the spikes. It takes a few tries to get the timing right.
arch.jslin
18. Dec 2012 路 12:34 UTC
A great game to deliver very believable situation of what happens when alien want to blow earth up! They have to compensate for the lag!!! Hahaha

Nice voice acting and animation when the drone dies too :p
suve
18. Dec 2012 路 12:45 UTC
After losing for a few times it starts to be annoying, but I kept playing mainly for the moans of Glorplax. Input delay is one hell of both annoyance and challenge. The game isn't much, but I can't say I wasn't satisfied with beating it.
Faust
18. Dec 2012 路 13:27 UTC
Excellent job, I can totally understand how people in NASA treat curiosity on Mars. BTW, I think most of the time, my face is like the alien in the game...lol
calzoneman
19. Dec 2012 路 19:41 UTC
Good game. I must admit, the input delay was interesting idea but it was pretty frustrating. Graphics were great.
Falkreon
19. Dec 2012 路 20:23 UTC
Sometimes the movement was unreliable; this was masked by the latency. For instance, the first long drop onto spikes, sometimes I would hold left the entire time and hit the spikes, sometimes I would hold left the entire time and make it. I'd recommend as a developer, playing in a 1-msec latency mode to iron out any bugs related to (or masked by) the latency calculations.

Other than that, I really appreciate the innovation of the drone latency - I just felt that it wasn't very *fun*. Maybe if the latency started out small (since you're close to point of origin) and increased with depth, that would have improved things.
csanyk
20. Dec 2012 路 01:56 UTC
Mood == FRUSTRATION ;)

I liked the graphical style. I think you found JUST the right amount of controller lag to inspire fury. Really difficult and shouldn't have been, but if that's what you were going for, you nailed it! I got to -356m before I gave up.
馃帳 Pacifist Games
20. Dec 2012 路 12:18 UTC
@Falkreon I developed the controls without the input delay and added it afterward. I buffer all of the input into an array then feed it to the player character 60 frames later. While I was able to recreate the situation you mentioned, I can't seem to figure out why it's happening!

I had originally planned on having variable input delay, but found that when I implemented it, it was nearly impossible to properly time jumps! I figured the game was already frustrating enough, so I scrapped that idea. As it turns out, a 1 second latency is exactly long enough to frustrate without making the game impossible.

Glad it's causing everyone a bit of frustration, fury and annoyance! I set out to explore the effects of latency in video games and found that generating fury is what it's best at. So I built the game around that idea! I think it's hilarious how hard it is to jump over a single spike or pit with input lag!
ceronman
22. Dec 2012 路 16:19 UTC
Very nice game. Very challenging. It took me a while to get down the 500m. Nice ending. The lag of the controls is a bit frustrating, but it adds an interesting mix to the gameplay. I wanted to see more of the theme in the game mechanics. But the story is simple and nice. Nice graphics and sounds too.
NiceAlexanderAS
22. Dec 2012 路 16:38 UTC
Hahahaha nice work on the game :D the Alien is funny xD
caranha
22. Dec 2012 路 17:18 UTC
It is a very novel idea. And very frustrating, perhaps a bit too much.

I got stuck at the 356m room, the one with three spikes in a row. After spending almost 4 minutes there, it started to get repetitive and I gave up.

Cheers,
Dining Philosopher
22. Dec 2012 路 18:19 UTC
Haha, I loved see Glorplax pushing the buttons. The 1 second delay was interesting and challenging, sometimes frustrating. Some parts took many retries, but I managed to get to the end. Nice grin. :)
pl0xz0rz
26. Dec 2012 路 22:15 UTC
Great idea, and exxecution. Best game I'veplayed there so far.
farmergnome
27. Dec 2012 路 02:52 UTC
Quite liked this one, I thought the input lag was a nice touch, I got stumped but it definitely has promise.
Tom 7
27. Dec 2012 路 21:52 UTC
This is great!! It was quite frustrating but the difficulty was right and I liked playing a new kind of game. The on-screen character made all the difference for me. Reminded me of some lagfests playing DOOM over IP in high school, so maybe that's why I was able to make it through. :) One of my favorites so far!
DST
28. Dec 2012 路 00:26 UTC
Using lag as a game mechanic is very interesting! I made it through the first 5 screens, then I lost my cool and went into a fit from fustration, nice game! :)
Zelen3d
28. Dec 2012 路 01:06 UTC
OMG The way the alien yelled when the device was destroyed was hilarious. This was a really nice and complete game, congratulations. And the idea of a lag was good and went well with the concept.
moomoo112
28. Dec 2012 路 07:21 UTC
very interesting mechanic, managed to make it to the end after a Lot of retries
Patrick64
29. Dec 2012 路 02:17 UTC
Loved it! The graphics and level design are nicely done, it feels like a well polished game. I got to the end when the earth explodes and the alien has a cheeky grin on his face. It's a good touch having the alien guy at the bottom to emphasise the lag is intentional. The lag can be frustrating until you get the hang of it, maybe you could have some kind of indicator to show the progress of each movement to make timing easier and then you could take the indicator away for harder levels.
fishbrain
01. Jan 2013 路 12:19 UTC
Looks great, awesome style, found it a bit tricky to control.
Ed Okonik
04. Jan 2013 路 23:42 UTC
Fantastic game. I kept playing right through to the end. Nice level of frustration thanks to the 'latency' and cool ending.
zenmumbler
05. Jan 2013 路 00:12 UTC
Bwuuhhhaaaaglgl. Made the full stretch. *Obligatory joke about laggy controls* Dare I say the antagonist is sort of cute? Loved the little controller sounds and the faux-terminal graphics. Game had just the right length and difficulty. Nicely done.
Msquirrel
05. Jan 2013 路 00:39 UTC
I quite liked this... I'm tired so, not much more to say right now, but I liked it.
zompi
06. Jan 2013 路 13:40 UTC
Wow. Very hard but very addictive! The ending is rewarding, the villain is cute... Just.. wow :D
Jezzamon
07. Jan 2013 路 06:09 UTC
it's funny, having difficult and awkward controls is typically a rookie mistake lots of people make on ludum dare, especially so when people say "They're not bad, that's the challenge of the game". But you managed to actually pull it off! Good job!

I played this game with a friend and we both had fun playing it. :D