Trina of The Depths by Christina Antoinette Neofotistou
* *** TRINA OF THE DEPTHS *** *
An underwater adventure
May contain goats (although it probably doesn't)
GENRE: exploration, octopus simulation (will be metroidvania/RPG, when it's finished)
SOFTWARE USED: Photoshop, Flash, Construct 2, FL studio
::: Story :::
This is Trina.
She's an Octopus. She's also the daughter of the Dark King of the Seas. This is not her home, this is not the Depths.
What is she doing in this place? All she remembers is she woke up in this ridiculously colorful cave..
Why is the water so clear, why the fish so happy?
She just can't stand it! They will pay, and maybe, maybe she will find a way back home.
::: Controls :::
Cursor keys to move. Cephalopod muscles are a mixed blessing. On the one tentacle, they allow for amazing feats of strength. On the other 7, they require some coordination.
On your bottom left is the Octopus Muscle-meter. It gets tired the more you exert your muscles.
But you have to think like an octopus. Hold the cursor key(s) in the direction you want to go, and release. The longer you hold, the farther you go.
You will be rewarded with a feeble jump at first, but watch how gracefully Trina moves at the height of her villainous mollusc power.
Shift to attack fish and things. Casually turning them into blackest ink. You can also try the same attack by quickly pressing left <- and right -> a few times in a row in succession.
The peddler crab is selling ink and agility upgrades. Stand in front of the upgrade and press shift. Provided, of course, you have the necessary gold coins.
The purple octopus pellets give you some muscle power back. Collecting them helps you stay afloat and go higher.
::: CONTROL SHEET :::
Hold down cursor key(s) : charge your thrust
Release cursor key(s) : jump in that direction
Shift or <><> combo : attack
Stay tuned for the timelapse video.
I hope you like it. I'll be happy to receive bug reports! I know it must be full of those. ^-^
Also, I will be finishing this. I've planned as far as a boss fight, some dialogue with NPCs and a dramatic cliffhanger ending. 72 hours just wasn't enough for all this, so I understand complaints of "this game doesn't fit the theme". I wanted the story to unfold inside the game, through narration and dialogue, but I had no time for a pretty implementation, and I made a decision that I should not cheapen the art with plain text. So your concerns are valid!
::: Strategy Guide / Hintsheet :::
Tip: always let the meter replenish as much as you can before making a second jump. After a while, it becomes second nature.
(Spoilers ahead)
1. Swim to the right collecting coins. Kill the fish. Continue right until you find the peddling crab. You should have enough coins to buy the small power-up. Trina will be much more maneuverable. <- From a game design point of view, this is what I thought would be a good tutorial, it's pretty much a straight line, and teaches you the basics.
2. Then, go to the left and up, using the purple octopus pellets to help you, and get a bunch of coins. Take in the sights. Trina can rest on anchors if you position her at the bottom T, use them.
3. You should have 49 coins when you get to the crab again. Get one more from the right, and buy the 50coin powerup. Now you're on turbo power
4. Go to the right and explore the final section of the dungeon. Kill the last thing you find. That's it, you've beat the game. Feel free to explore the previous areas, with your improved control. I think moving around as an octopus is the most enjoyable part of the game. Do you?
::: PS section :::
P.S. I forgot to tell you. See if you can find the easter eggs. I counted 4.
EDIT: after complaints about control, I managed to pinpoint a big bug that made the movement CPU-dependent. I edited, and it should feel more playable now, even on older systems.
An underwater adventure
May contain goats (although it probably doesn't)
GENRE: exploration, octopus simulation (will be metroidvania/RPG, when it's finished)
SOFTWARE USED: Photoshop, Flash, Construct 2, FL studio
::: Story :::
This is Trina.
She's an Octopus. She's also the daughter of the Dark King of the Seas. This is not her home, this is not the Depths.
What is she doing in this place? All she remembers is she woke up in this ridiculously colorful cave..
Why is the water so clear, why the fish so happy?
She just can't stand it! They will pay, and maybe, maybe she will find a way back home.
::: Controls :::
Cursor keys to move. Cephalopod muscles are a mixed blessing. On the one tentacle, they allow for amazing feats of strength. On the other 7, they require some coordination.
On your bottom left is the Octopus Muscle-meter. It gets tired the more you exert your muscles.
But you have to think like an octopus. Hold the cursor key(s) in the direction you want to go, and release. The longer you hold, the farther you go.
You will be rewarded with a feeble jump at first, but watch how gracefully Trina moves at the height of her villainous mollusc power.
Shift to attack fish and things. Casually turning them into blackest ink. You can also try the same attack by quickly pressing left <- and right -> a few times in a row in succession.
The peddler crab is selling ink and agility upgrades. Stand in front of the upgrade and press shift. Provided, of course, you have the necessary gold coins.
The purple octopus pellets give you some muscle power back. Collecting them helps you stay afloat and go higher.
::: CONTROL SHEET :::
Hold down cursor key(s) : charge your thrust
Release cursor key(s) : jump in that direction
Shift or <><> combo : attack
Stay tuned for the timelapse video.
I hope you like it. I'll be happy to receive bug reports! I know it must be full of those. ^-^
Also, I will be finishing this. I've planned as far as a boss fight, some dialogue with NPCs and a dramatic cliffhanger ending. 72 hours just wasn't enough for all this, so I understand complaints of "this game doesn't fit the theme". I wanted the story to unfold inside the game, through narration and dialogue, but I had no time for a pretty implementation, and I made a decision that I should not cheapen the art with plain text. So your concerns are valid!
::: Strategy Guide / Hintsheet :::
Tip: always let the meter replenish as much as you can before making a second jump. After a while, it becomes second nature.
(Spoilers ahead)
1. Swim to the right collecting coins. Kill the fish. Continue right until you find the peddling crab. You should have enough coins to buy the small power-up. Trina will be much more maneuverable. <- From a game design point of view, this is what I thought would be a good tutorial, it's pretty much a straight line, and teaches you the basics.
2. Then, go to the left and up, using the purple octopus pellets to help you, and get a bunch of coins. Take in the sights. Trina can rest on anchors if you position her at the bottom T, use them.
3. You should have 49 coins when you get to the crab again. Get one more from the right, and buy the 50coin powerup. Now you're on turbo power
4. Go to the right and explore the final section of the dungeon. Kill the last thing you find. That's it, you've beat the game. Feel free to explore the previous areas, with your improved control. I think moving around as an octopus is the most enjoyable part of the game. Do you?
::: PS section :::
P.S. I forgot to tell you. See if you can find the easter eggs. I counted 4.
EDIT: after complaints about control, I managed to pinpoint a big bug that made the movement CPU-dependent. I edited, and it should feel more playable now, even on older systems.
Ratings
| Coolness | 100% | 1 |
| Overall(Jam) | 3.12 | 139 |
| Audio(Jam) | 3.47 | 54 |
| Fun(Jam) | 2.58 | 215 |
| Graphics(Jam) | 4.14 | 37 |
| Humor(Jam) | 2.22 | 213 |
| Innovation(Jam) | 3.17 | 101 |
| Mood(Jam) | 3.15 | 101 |
| Theme(Jam) | 1.95 | 314 |
pretty fun, i liked it.
Also, you can also kill a pot, and the secret you find at the bottom left. Not that it does anything significant
good mechanics,
but first minute i cant move because i dont undestand what is happening...
buggy camers scrolling...
Great music, too! It would have been nice if I'd been able to find more than just the one fish enemy, however.
The control scheme was an ideal choice for the setting, but not quite forgiving enough at the outset for new players. It also didn't seem fair how much more muscle energy it costs to propel upwards. Even so, tackling a non-standard control scheme as well as you did is impressive. Hope you do keep going with it and get some of that narrative into the future versions.
You're going for a more laid-back control style which is good but the extreme gravity being applied to Trina it actually defeats the calm control style and makes it stressful. If you loosen up the downward pull on Trina and let the player get used to the unique control style in a more relaxed manner it will be much better. Consider: if you need the speed power up for the game to become more like the game you want it to be then it should not be power-up, it should be the default.
But again, very nice game with fresh ideas. Excellent!
The controls are very unique, but they get kind of annoying sometimes (especially when you still don't have any upgrades and want to go up) also I was wondering, did you consider using the mouse instead of keyboard?
Will Edwards: thank you ^-^ Aww :) Well cute doesn't mean not evil. I'll flesh out her character and maybe I can get you to see it :)
chambers: thank you. I did consider using the mouse yes. The best I could do with a mouse, however, is a game like Aquaria. I enjoy aquaria very much, but it's not the game I want to make. I want to get the player to experience the octopus movement. This way you can control the x,y vectors with extreme precision, and can even change direction in mid-jump if you release the cursor keys sequentially.
Too bad that the game had such an abrupt ending. I would have enjoyed playing a more complete level.
Some sounds for coin collecting would have been great.
Also what is the last enemy?
The last enemy wasn't really an enemy, just an ANSI drawing of trina with the words "but Trina will be back". You have to sit still near it, in order to read it. It's cool that you destroyed it!
I'm so glad you'd play more, because this is going to be metroidvania, so expect more :) Thank you for the kind comment
I would have put the simple directions on the website/within the game at the start (directions to move/shift to interact). Also not certain how I'm a villain, but maybe I didn't reach that part.
Also I'm not sure if it's a conscious design decision, but I think movement might work better if the meter keeps charging while you hold the arrow key? As in the length of the keypress determines the maximum amount of charge taken, and then when released whatever's in the meter is taken. As it is doing a maximum power thrust is kind of clunky, but like I said that might be by design.
The graphics aud audio are excellent on the other hand!
The actual "game" is a bit difficult to figure out though. Movement = great. Is that a checkpoint? Did I activate it? What are those orbs under the crustacaen? Can I buy them? Why would a cephalopod have a system of monetary value? THIS IS ALL SO CONFUSING :P
Still, nice work :)
Anyway, nice work!
(Like your post mortem too!)
I spend a good time playing it, I was lucky and played the level without finding any obstacle that required buying any upgrade that I didn't bought before :)
Great animations and audio! keep on figthing ;)
I like the graphics and the smooth of the movements, the game invites you to explore and go out but you cant, it is a good go anyway ,congrats
Was a great game, I was eager to see the source.
great to see how well you deal alone!
Dark Acre Jack: you're absolutely right. I'll get on it! Also, I know, she isn't very villainous without the extra animated expressions. Those are coming soon :)
Eniko: thanks for noticing! Yes, I have an upper threshold to how much power Trina can expend in one jump. This way, when you have a lot of power, you can still jump a standard way off, and have lots more power to make a second jump. I don't know if it will work in the post-compo updated controls. Also, I'll definitely fix the camera.
Pierrec: noted, and will try to balance it more! Thank you!
GeorgeBroussard: Thank you, I will keep it in mind when I update the controls. However, an 8-year old niece got used to them at once, and loves it. It's hard to keep everyone happy..
matthias_zarzecki: Hahaha :) Yes, it's a checkpoint, it starts off activated, so its only use is that you respawn if you die (from the fish). The crab is indeed selling powerups. The octopus needs the powerups, therefore it needs to collect money. See? It's all very simple, capitalism in its purest form...
Xavier: Thank you! I promise to improve. Do you have any suggestions? What would you like?
pereubu: thank you! What kind of controls would you like?
Pitoum: thank you very much. I will try my best
Jeremias: you're absolutely right, and I intend to. Obviously I want her to do more than move, but both owlboy and cave story, two of my all-time favorites, do build the whole game around the movement.
Mesene: viva la libertad! Ah Kumiho! It's our favorite game, Fedor and mine. Fedor made this ( http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-25/?action=preview&uid=19592 ) in this LD, so you may want to leave him a comment. I remember he wanted us to make our assets open-source, so he will certainly tell you about the code. If I remember correctly, he found the scrolling code somewhere, but he coded the enemy patterns himself!
Valeroth: you're so sweet. I will definitely try to polish the controls more, and certainly add more juice to her.
Juaxix: I wrote the code to crossfade audio (with a lerp function) and then stupidly tied it to a "when enemy is on screen" which produces an instant fade in of the battle music, because time was running out. The original condition was tied to distance between enemy and player, but I had to disable it for debugging purposes... Thank you very much!
ethankennerly: thank you so much. I will try to make it a relatively open-world action-rpg
Post-jam this baby.
The art / animation and main music with the choir are awesome.
Once you get the power up it's really quite easy to move around. If you make this the default I dont think you ll get nearly as much complaints. Good luck !
Still, the graphics are awesome, the sound is good and the controls work quite well. The upgrades are certainly interesting. Great work!
The octopus animation is really nice.
yeah, with story and refinement it'll be better for sure. i don't think the control scheme is terrible; trina's "falling" rate, however, could really use adjustment. if she were to "float" rather than sink like a rock, controlling her might actually be kinda fun.
I must admit I had to persevere with the controls though - I almost had a revelatory moment where I was not dragging along the bottom of the ocean or slowly sinking but actually moving gracefully through the water, and it felt really good! But then... down I went again. :)
If in doubt, you may want to underestimate the skill of your audience at the beginning of games. The faster learners might not be challenged as much and will breeze through the early stages quickly, but the alternative is that players who struggle might stop playing.
Wow, I love the art style and animations! Great job.
Cons:
I did find that the gravity felt a little bit strong at times.
(Apologies if i'm repeating points already made, I haven't read all the previous comments.)