The Darkness You Wander Alone by eelfroth

[raw]
made by eelfroth for LD22 (COMPO)
This is a short retro-acion-platformer. You are wielding the sword of swords to shoot your way though darkness and hordes of mysterious hostile creatures. Enjoy!
I spent most of the available time on that darkness/vignetting effect and on playing around with sine wave interference (which you can see in the title screen), but I think that was worth it. I'd love to add more content, a story and an actual ending - we'll see...
Also, this was not only my first Ludum Dare but this is the first game I ever released.

Controls: Arrow keys + Z + X

The tools I used:
- Game Maker 6.1
- Musagi and Audacity (sound)
- Gimp (some graphics)

This is Eelfroth, signing off. I was in!

EDIT: The problem with the cut-off edges should be fixed now. Go to the options menu or press F5 to adjust the scale.
If you have experienced low framerates, you can now press F10 to deactivate the dynamic vignetting effect and replace it with a single sprite. This damages the look and mood very badly - use it only if the game runs really slow! (press F11 to see the fps)

Ratings

Coolness 40% 319
Overall 3.21 129
Audio 3.21 76
Community 2.50 326
Fun 2.86 154
Graphics 3.60 85
Humor 1.30 571
Innovation 2.43 345
Mood 3.86 16
Theme 3.64 58

Feedback

Wompus
19. Dec 2011 · 03:53 UTC
It was cool and hurt my head at the same time :')
RobotCaleb
19. Dec 2011 · 17:27 UTC
I liked the audio and the graphics. The mood felt nice.
FrankieSmileShow
19. Dec 2011 · 23:29 UTC
What an adventure! Very moody and cool. Kind of harsh on the difficulty though.
caranha
20. Dec 2011 · 20:36 UTC
Whoa! I liked it! A nice exemplar of retro gaming. I gave it a better graphics rating than many games with 16 bit sprites around here, because everything fits together so nicely. Also, transitions!

Fullscreen only makes me sad, though.
Eelfroth
20. Dec 2011 · 21:12 UTC
Thanks to everyone! I'm glad you like it.

@caranha:
That fullscreen thing is caused by Game Maker 6.1 being buggy, I guess. I was actually making a 320x240 windowed mode, but the image wasn't scaled correctly and I didn't want to waste too much time fixing it (which would require some workaround).
Its still not true that the game is fullscreen-only, though. You can toggle windowed mode with F4 and then resize the window by hand.
SonnyBone
22. Dec 2011 · 03:40 UTC
The game window seems to be cut off on all 4 sides. I can't get through the first part of the game because I can't tell with the pits are. I really dig the art style, though. I'd love to break this open and see exactly how you accomplished that look.
SonnyBone
22. Dec 2011 · 03:47 UTC
OK I grabbed the source and was able to play it without the sides being cut off. WEIRD. OMG THE RAPTORS!!!
Shigor
25. Dec 2011 · 00:26 UTC
Ultra low res and waving walls were great, but I couldnt get out of the first map - it seems that screen is cut on all sides?
binarycoder
26. Dec 2011 · 17:41 UTC
Great feel and theme! I wasn't able to see the edges of the screen, however.
Eelfroth
26. Dec 2011 · 20:15 UTC
Sorry about that! Fixing immediately.
Eelfroth
27. Dec 2011 · 08:40 UTC
The problem with the cut-off edges should be fixed now. Go to the options menu or press F5 to adjust the scale.
zairon
31. Dec 2011 · 04:36 UTC
The ultra-low-fi-ness of it was interesting, but I didn't really get it. Just a little too hard to use the sword of swords, and the music was really grating.
shuanDang
31. Dec 2011 · 04:39 UTC
I always find crouching to be very cute.
someone
04. Jan 2012 · 18:50 UTC
Runs way too slow in Wine
Claw
06. Jan 2012 · 22:50 UTC
I really loved this, the graphics and music are so strange and charming; they produce a very lonely and surreal atmosphere.
marudziik
09. Jan 2012 · 20:25 UTC
Music is really, really good, and I liked the graphics. Pacing is a little slow, and I've seen similar retro effects in many GM games, but it's a nice touch anyway.