Abigail's Descent by Cosmologicon

[raw]
made by Cosmologicon for LD21 (-)
Source version requires python + pygame.

This is a platforming game about a self-reliant princess who decides to rescue *herself* from a tower. Here's the video I watched when the "Escape" theme was announced, for inspiration:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ1VbUrRVZI

Controls are left, right, and up. The game auto-saves when you quit, so you should start at the next checkpoint when you restart it.

There are 3 levels in the game (the dialogue should make this clear, but sometimes it doesn't show up). Level 3 is pretty hard, though, so feel free to rate the game after finishing Level 2.

The game should be pretty playable as low as 10fps. If it drops below that for you, check out the README for tips on boosting performance, options, and cheating!

Ratings

Coolness 10% 47
Overall 3.62 48
Audio 3.35 66
Community 3.13 104
Fun 3.62 28
Graphics 3.48 88
Humor 3.83 13
Innovation 3.41 108
Theme 3.62 71

Feedback

Hempuli
22. Aug 2011 · 21:49 UTC
Really great dialogue! Better than what I see in LDs usually, for sure. The idea is nice but quite simple. Timing became a bit aggravating at places, especially with the double jump, due to the awkward way double-jumping early gives you the biggest boost. I quite liked this one!
thonk
23. Aug 2011 · 06:03 UTC
The dialogue is pretty hilarious.
The game suddenly slowed down and crashed at the last level (every thing was fine before that). Amazingly, when I opened the game again I started at my last checkpoint :)
ratking
23. Aug 2011 · 22:24 UTC
Splendid game, good job! Reminds me of an old C64 game ... don't remember the name. :(
The only thing I don't like is that the gray characters don't fit with the 3D background, but the overall presentation is superb!
N0_Named_Guy
24. Aug 2011 · 18:21 UTC
Good dialog, albeit too fast to read sometimes. Jumping is hard, because of a lot of misjudgments. The ledge thingy took some time (and dirty tricks) to understand... Couldn't beat it, (can't judge distances correctly). But apart from that: great music, good graphics... =) Try adding some dumb birds, and ease on the platforming, and you got an insta seller =)
Rudy
24. Aug 2011 · 18:29 UTC
Very nice, well implemented. One thing is ledge jumping could trigger for longer, I kept jumping too late.
RedWater\wzl
24. Aug 2011 · 18:46 UTC
Sweet, Funny dialogues, interesting twist on the climbing genre. although i only got to the second level so far. nice game :D
DrPetter
24. Aug 2011 · 18:49 UTC
Ok. I completed it. Was going to comment that level 2 was way too hard and unpredictable for me with all the doors. I got lost a number of times going around in loops. Finally beat it, and level 3 was a piece of cake by comparison. Strange.

The characters are really charming and expressive despite their simple appearance, and the premise is fun too. Implementation could have used some polish, but it does work reasonably well. As has been pointed out, the jumping mechanic isn't perfectly intuitive, and I also had trouble landing on tiny platforms more often than not. Would have been more enjoyable if the difficulty didn't ride so much on pixel-precise jumps where the actual collision boundaries are hard to judge. Makes it feel a bit soft and chancy. Tweaking the movement and/or changing the character graphics into something more solid and indicative of collision shapes should make this a great(er) game, for sure.
Andrew
24. Aug 2011 · 19:33 UTC
I like the mix of 2D and 3D, and the way the knight jumps enthusiastically while being completely useless. You have to make sure you're on the edge of platforms when jumping sometimes, and that requires a bit of precision, but it's doable.
Dark Acre Jack
24. Aug 2011 · 22:52 UTC
Cool, punishing, nice graphics.
foobaz
24. Aug 2011 · 23:56 UTC
Very well done. I wish I read the readme earlier (it was running a bit slow which made it difficult and the warning about level 3 would have helped).

I was going to put a comment that I now withdraw after finding the second power-up. Although for some reason my cliffhanger disappeared and I had to get it twice. It also crashed for me at the end of level 3 (which I promptly reloaded without problem).

The text was a bit fast for me (but I think this also relates to the framerate problem I had since it was much better after I restarted with --fast).

All in all, I'm glad the spirit of teetering towers lives on, although in a very different form.
d_m
25. Aug 2011 · 05:53 UTC
Great game! I really like the story and dialog, the music is fun, and the scrolling tower jumping is something I haven't seen a lot of. Great job! Biggest gripe is that the cliff-hanger is pretty annoying to use... it's very difficult to predict how far you can go, especially given how precisely you have to use the double-jump. It might have been fun to reverse the mechanic... rather than let you jump from past edge, the cliff-hanger saves you right at the end of your jump. Anyway, good game.

P.S. There are some bugs... you can get power-ups while dying for instance. Nothing major :)
tcstyle
26. Aug 2011 · 11:42 UTC
Impressive. I played some similar game back in the old dos days ('Nebulus').
I had some trouble with the double jump for soft landing so I got stuck in level 2. Liked the story.
James Paige
27. Aug 2011 · 00:46 UTC
Thank you for --cheat I really got stuck near the end.

I wish the dialog on level 3 had been as funny as on level 2, but that is a small complaint.

The rotating tower, and the way Abigail drifts as she falls are both really pleasing.
Make A Game
28. Aug 2011 · 15:44 UTC
The game is fun, a platform game with a twist, but I confess if it were not for the checkpoints I would have lost my interest pretty soon, sometimes the running and jump felt a bit awkward.
Loved the idea of self-rescuing princess while the knight in shiny armor stood useless at the base of the tower :).
Anyways, great job for 48h, the implementation of the tower in python must have been tricky :P!
erko
28. Aug 2011 · 16:00 UTC
Very nice job. I appreciate the theme -- my daughters liked the princess hero.
marudziik
02. Sep 2011 · 00:36 UTC
This is a very nice entry! I got to level 3, liked the story very much. Rotating tower looks impressive.
Deraj
02. Sep 2011 · 04:50 UTC
Not the most original gameplay, but well executed and presented. I found running and then jumping to be a little frustrating (it seemed like I'd fall instead of jump frequently). Great graphics, dialog, and music!