LudumData

The ESCape by mattperrin

[raw]
made by mattperrin for LD21 (-)
The theme of the game is that you are an "Idea", a white block navigating a "thought" maze. The player can use the arrow keys to navigate the maze and by pressing the Escape key, "change their mind" (aka, randomize the entire maze). The Idea is searching for various "Goals" though out the maze so that it can travel deeper and deeper.

As the Idea travels into the thought maze, new obstacles such as grey permanent walls (was going to call them "Beliefs", a la "beliefs set in stone") and red "Doubts" (monsters) that randomly toss the Idea into another part of the maze. Once the player gets through 20 levels, they get the ending message that I was, in my own heavy handed way, trying to convey.

Web http://www.pxlgames.com/index.html
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-21/?action=preview&uid=4263

Ratings

Coolness 1% 311
Overall 2.61 341
Audio 1.00 371
Community 1.67 432
Fun 2.28 349
Graphics 1.56 466
Humor 1.33 389
Innovation 3.78 41
Theme 2.61 340

Feedback

JohanAR
22. Aug 2011 · 16:12 UTC
First time I tried playing I thought it was broken, then I went back and read that you should use the escape key to change the map :D Pretty cool idea I think, maybe you could turn it into a full game if you keep developing it
tgijsola
22. Aug 2011 · 19:22 UTC
Very innovative idea! Interesting tension in choosing when to ESCape when there are doubts around.
Hempuli
22. Aug 2011 · 21:10 UTC
The idea is actually quite neat! The graphics are understandably very rough and such, and I had trouble getting back to the main menu after looking at the help screen. I hope you'd work on this more!
Gaeel
22. Aug 2011 · 22:49 UTC
Nice concept, plays well.

But if you don't want to bother looking for a path, you can "cheat", just alternate "esc" and the direction you want to go really fast, and you'll get there really quick.
pdyxs
23. Aug 2011 · 08:33 UTC
Cool idea, would've been better if the game was actually on the surface of a cube rather than the paths being randomly generated.

Had to look at the comments to realise that the 'escape' key was important though.
khahem
26. Aug 2011 · 18:49 UTC
Really liked the idea, I expected another ending message but liked yours too :)
Deraj
27. Aug 2011 · 04:37 UTC
Interesting and pretty fun concept. The map-changing mechanic was new to me.
Codexus
27. Aug 2011 · 07:02 UTC
The idea is original, but it would need more tweaking and experimentation to get a gameplay that really works.
Mjiig
28. Aug 2011 · 18:35 UTC
It's quite a fun idea, but the biggest problem was that there was no real challenge aspect, each time all I did was most to the closest square to the goal I could reach, pressed escape and repeated until i got to the goal. I realised after a couple of levels that the doubts were so slow I could avoid them by running if I had to, so I didn't worry about letting them into my section of the maze. But it's a clever idea, with some tweaking I think you could make a really fun game out of this.
Shigor
29. Aug 2011 · 22:58 UTC
It's a nice idea (and I really liked the theme for the maze), but the biggest problem is gameplay. I don't mind rough visuals, but as it is the game is completely unchallenging and boring, it just requires a bit of patience and pressing escape. Totally random levels often creates situation when the exit is just to player and I think in one level I either spawned directly on the exit or on the doubt. That's a pity, because with some more work it could be good game, not just nice idea.
vitae
04. Sep 2011 · 03:57 UTC
Interesting, fun, though progressing through the twenty levels took less skill or luck than determination.