Mountain above the clouds by trialbyfun

[raw]
made by trialbyfun for LD21 (-)
LD21 - Escape : Mountain above the clouds

*** Story ***

The legends say that each year, and for 3 minutes only, the great mountain above the clouds opens it's mouth to breath new life onto the world.

Today is that day.

You play the role of a magical seed that is buried inside the giant mountain. Your task is to escape from the mountain's belly and into the sky, before it closes its mouth again.


*** Controls ***

This game uses the mouse only. Click on the screen to cause the seed to fly.
When the mouse button is pressed, the seed will fly towards the cursor.


*** Other ***

- Flying near to the walls and ground will often cause new plants to grow,which in turn release more spores.
- For additional challenge, collect as many of the spores as you can before leaving the mountain.
-Then try collecting them all in as short a time as possible.
-this submission has no sound. Sorry :(


I hope you enjoy playing.
Any comments and criticisms welcome!




[source link fixed]

Ratings

Coolness 3% 183
Overall 3.76 27
Audio 1.00 371
Community 3.42 47
Fun 3.38 60
Graphics 4.49 4
Humor 2.52 115
Innovation 3.33 122
Theme 3.26 165

Feedback

adamatomic
22. Aug 2011 路 05:12 UTC
this is fantastic, great job!!
cr
22. Aug 2011 路 07:24 UTC
Beautiful game. The controls feel very elasticy - but to be honest that kind of adds to the experience, keeping you on edge at all times.
rik
22. Aug 2011 路 18:52 UTC
Really beautiful graphics! Smooth controls and animation too. Great entry!
Danik
22. Aug 2011 路 22:10 UTC
The graphics are beautiful!
The controls are a little sluggish but I got used to them quickly and then it felt natural and fun.
It was annoying to have to start all over when you were caught though, the game punishes you for being curious and exploring. Some indication of what is dangerous would help, or starting from the beginning of the screen instead of from the beginning.
馃帳 trialbyfun
23. Aug 2011 路 09:19 UTC
Thanks for the feedback guys. I wanted it to feel quite soft in how you moved the character across the screen, but i agree that things could be tightened up a bit (especially what happens when he gets too close to the cursor). I also had a more gestural control scheme in mind but i didn't have time to try it out. Maybe next time!

Totally agree on the restarting in the same room. Restarting at the beginning was a product of time more than anything. I was tempted at one point to remove all dying from the game, but kept it in to maintain the sense of challenge. sorry about that.
aukyr
23. Aug 2011 路 15:54 UTC
Great! Finish it and release it for mobile touch-devices. I WILL buy it.
HybridMind
23. Aug 2011 路 17:03 UTC
Fun game. I really like the visual style too. Were their various air currents? It felt like there were and that was kind of tricky but cool. I tried collecting a lot of the orange things the first few times but died and became frustrated. I ended up just speed-flying out and escaping but it still rated me an 'F' haha.
dramble
23. Aug 2011 路 18:09 UTC
Great artwork.
RichMakeGame
23. Aug 2011 路 19:06 UTC
really really charming experience. I struggled with the controls a little, but overall I loved it particularly the character design
Winterblood
23. Aug 2011 路 22:31 UTC
Glorious and original art style! I kept dying for no obvious reason - presumably I crashed, but other times I got away with worse bumps. Delightfully surprising new mechanics every few rooms. Love it!
tequibo
24. Aug 2011 路 00:00 UTC
Nice graphics and atmosphere, neat game!
馃帳 trialbyfun
24. Aug 2011 路 15:21 UTC
Thanks for the latest feedback guys! Yep there are air currents in some rooms, indicated by the flowing particles. At the moment your rank is determined by the amount you collect before leaving, not the time you take. That would probably make sense with a context to it. As for what kills you, its if you bump the very top of your head on the spinning leafs, bumping any other part of your body is fine. A health bar or (reducing leafs with each hit) might have been a better idea than one hit kill.
jonbro
25. Aug 2011 路 12:03 UTC
super beautiful. I bet you could make this into a winning iphone game without too much work. It might be cool to make it a endless arcade style thing, rather than a bunch of level.
johanp
25. Aug 2011 路 12:18 UTC
Very pretty! Would love to see some more squishy walls (loco roco style). Slightly static as it is now. As previous user said, go iPhone!
skelethulu
25. Aug 2011 路 12:29 UTC
Simply wonderful.
jrrt
25. Aug 2011 路 15:46 UTC
I keep waiting to hear "la la la la" in children voices, very very nice looks! :)
matthias_zarzecki
25. Aug 2011 路 15:51 UTC
Nice Game!

I especially like the coloful lo-fi approach and the intuitive one-click control.
Shigor
26. Aug 2011 路 11:41 UTC
It seems and looks nice, but what confused me was that I failed almost randomly, some kind of feedback if you're doing the right thing would be nice. I got to escape in the end after getting stuck in one one place for several tries (one of that "random" death in the room with two air currents) - it's too short, but if you made longer levels, add some sound, it would charming little game.
angrygeometry
29. Aug 2011 路 01:20 UTC
cute, very enjoyable game. feels very polished, and although it took some getting used to the controls, it all came together. great work!
8bitmuse
30. Aug 2011 路 09:25 UTC
Haha great! It totally has that nintendo feel without coming off as trying too hard/immature. It instantly reminded me of loco roco - very colourful, friendly and just fun to explore and play.

My only real critique was that the game rules were never explained - I still don't know what made me fall to the ground and die every once in a while. Beyond that excellent art, the transitions could've been tightened a bit (the main character doesn't animate during scene changes and sometimes you can see seems in the levels but that's just me being nitpicky because there's nothing else really for me to critique). This game desperately needs some music, it would round it off really well, good job!
8bitmuse
30. Aug 2011 路 09:27 UTC
Haha great! It totally has that nintendo feel without coming off as trying too hard/immature. It instantly reminded me of loco roco - very colourful, friendly and just fun to explore and play.

My only real critique was that the game rules were never explained - I still don't know what made me fall to the ground and die every once in a while. Beyond that, excellent art, the transitions could've been tightened a bit (the main character doesn't animate during scene changes and sometimes you can see seams in the levels but that's just me being nitpicky because there's nothing else for me to critique, except..). This game desperately needs some music, it would round it off really well, beyond that great job!
Make A Game
31. Aug 2011 路 10:46 UTC
Looks great. Simple gameplay and non-existent learning curve. Sound would add a lot more personality to the art style.
Make A Game
31. Aug 2011 路 10:48 UTC
Also, I loved finding the controls by myself. Looked around the first area, clicked and saw the seed's leaves move, then I kept the mouse button pressed and voil谩, it jumps out of the ground.
Mikhail Rudoy
31. Aug 2011 路 17:17 UTC
Very nice!

81/82 What did I miss?
marudziik
05. Sep 2011 路 02:47 UTC
Everything looks polished. Sound would make this something nearly perfect. There should be some indication when hitting a wall is fatal. Other than that, awesome.
馃帳 trialbyfun
08. Sep 2011 路 10:31 UTC
Thanks for all the feedback, i'll be sure to include as much as I can in a future version. I've done a test on iPhone and it works great except for "big thumbs syndrome", so i'll be changing the controls around for that but keep the basic mechanics in tact, along with new rooms, better visuals :)

Like has been mentioned, sound will make this game come alive. I'm gutted i didn't have time make any before the compo deadline, but i'm experimenting with different audio styles now, will keep you updated.

As for 81 / 82, i've found its pretty easy to not fly on the right hand of the hill in the last room, try there.

Thanks again