Hopper by Porcus_Pie

Hopper is an colour based puzzle platformer, where you play as a Space Bunny, whose goal is to collect the yellow rings ~~(Not the best story I admit)~~. Jump on planets, change colour, and get to the finish the continue. Most of the instructions on how to play should be covered in the game, however if you get really stuck I have also included a text file of how the game works, along with some tips.
The game was really fun to create and honestly it has been my favourite of my submissions into Ludum Dare.

LINKS
- * WINDOWS * https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B17OWwLF9LqEZG5CTFJBRVNDaDA/view?usp=sharing
- * SOURCE * https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B17OWwLF9LqETFdJMW8wSHNxRms/view?usp=sharing
(Small minor note about the source code, as this is a gamemaker game, I've included the .gmx file. This means that you do need gamemaker in order to view the source code. Sorry)
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/hopper |
Ratings
| Overall | 38th | 4⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 33th | 3.974⭐ | 40🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 120th | 3.59⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 154th | 3.718⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 105th | 3.923⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 51th | 3.784⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 282th | 2.462⭐ | 15🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 77th | 3.711⭐ | 40🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 53🗳️ | 84🗨️ |
The controls were snappy and responsive, and the puzzles were an interesting exploration of the core mechanics. They skirted an edge, risking being simple enough to mentally solve that it might leave the execution a rote chore, but they never quite crossed over. I thought the pace was perfect, and right when I was approaching done the game beat me to the punch just a little, perfect timing to end on a high note.
There's little not to like in this, it's all a real nicely made package. But in the name of feedback here were a few very minor items that I did notice:
The sound effects, while beautiful, were a little bit long. The jump/landing was absolutely perfect, but the harp-based sounds dragged a little. Notable offender here was the C zoom/unzoom sound. Actually by late in the game I was simply holding C the entire time, when this problem was removed. Maybe a toggle instead of a hold? I definitely appreciated being able to play in big-looker mode.
I liked the controls/mechanic enough that I experimented a lot, and I was able to get semi-stuck at the cusp between two planets a few times, where the entity I was fluttered violently this way and that without advancing. I eventually resolved and fell on way or the other. Granted, I was TRYING to do this, and it didn't cause any real harm. Certainly did not interfere with earnest play.
I also created the following situation, which I am supposing you may not have intended: http://imgur.com/3dFS61n
I accomplished that by abusing your somewhat generous ground-check. If you're casting a ray, you correctly give it a bit of leeway which lets me be sloppy with my input. But in this case it creates a possibility of a very slightly higher than intended jump, which I used to (I think) circumvent your intended solution. No problem, I get to feel clever, so intended or not it was okay!
Very nice entry.
I did find that the black gravity orbs break the game. I to get the orb as was intended but then i would just jump shift the gravity and float to the yellow circle. Before that it was a nice challenge.
The only criticism I can think of is that the transition between levels are too slow.
Well done!
The grey color feature was really refreshing! I think you could have other interesting challenges to improve the LD, like "killing ropes" that switch of color, or that turn around the planets...
Also, when I've seen I could watch the full map while holding C, I keeped this button pressed until I finished the game. So perhaps it would be better to switch view when you simply press C (and not hold).
Okay, on to the critique:
**The good**
over all, the game worked really well
The mechanics seemed to fit the atmosphere
the audio and visuals painted a great relaxing mood within the game
the puzzles were a good difficulty
**The bad**
the floaty gravity was really annoying to me
also the non-bordered window was kind of ugly
it was a little too short imo, but you can only do so much in two days
God job. Hope you had fun and learned a lot [:
It would be nice if the game could be started in a larger resolution or even fullscreen. Also the controls "Z" and "X" are a bit out of place for QWERTZ keyboard layouts.
Overall: **Great job on the game, we've had a lot of fun playing it.**
You can check out our playthough of the game over here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU2O59nTe_s&t=4s
Level design really takes learning curve into account, introducing new elements very well, game is fun overall, and I haven't had any issues with the playthrough (everything behaved as expected, controls were tight and responded as they were supposed to).
Can't really seem to find anything I could suggest to do better. The only thing you could do IMO is add more levels or even more mechanics and expand the game. It's great as it is :)
well, maybe one thing - the gray planet/blackhole art concept doesn't really seem fitting somehow... But that's not an issue, that's just a matter of taste ;) And everything else is consistent both design- and programming-wise.
And that little bastards face when it's falling from the jump, damn it's funny. Probably more funny than you anticipated ;)
Leaving my rating, cheers!
Couple of points I would add, the game was in a really odd window for me, windowed but without any way of moving or resizing it - fullscreen would have been nice.
Also having C toggle instead of holding it down would have been nice, since I completed most levels just holding it down all the time.
But these are really minor issues that don't really retract from such a polished game.
Great job! :D
This... was... amazing. We were totally sucked in for a very long time. Great job on your design work, very impressed!
I like the simple but flexible core game mechanic, as well as the simplistic but cute visuals.
It is a coherence experience and the audio fits too, but after a time it becomes a little bit annoying. Too much ringing and tingling.
There is a little (more visually?) glitch if you are exactly between two planets, but I didn't got stuck.
I also really like the built in tuturial, which introduces gradually the player the game mechanics. It let the player explore the game instead of much reading up-front. A nice progressive approach.
I wonder why the player shouldn't use the overview mode all the time? It's much easier to solve the level this way (from the puzzle aspect). The only two reasons I found not to use it all the time is not having to press a button constantly and its aesthetics. It just looks nicer if you move along the character.
Oh, it could add a little bit of a memory challenge. If you want enforcing the overview to be just for orientation, the character shouldn't be able to move while using it.
Don't get me wrong, the game is really nice and very well executed. I like it a lot. :-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNW6-tGfc3E