Abyssal Dream by esayitch
You have seen a strange light. Your wife begs you to stay, but you feel like it's not up to you.
Explore a strange world while mastering your shapeshifting capabilities. Unlock a multitude of shapes and discover their strengths and weaknesses. If you are determined, master your size. Become as small as a mouse to be able to crawl through narrow passageways, or grow titanic to become invulnerable. As you encounter challenging puzzles, various foes waylay your path.
Will you learn the truth about this place? Will you become the master of your form?
---
CONTROLS:
MOVEMENT:
Arrows to move.
X to JUMP (or fly, depends on shape).
C to ATTACK (depends on shape).
SIZE:
V + UP - Grow.
V + DOWN - Shrink.
SHAPESHIFTING:
There are a lot of combos. You can see them in game. Press the three specified keys in quick succession to morph into the desired shape. To morph to any shape aside from the defaults, you have to be in the default shapes first.
---
This game was made for Ludum Dare 35 - Shapeshifting by myself with help from a friend by the name of Amir Hayek (no LD account).
I drew inspiration from the X-Men villain Apocalypse. Game inspirations include Gameboy games and Don't Look Back by Terry Cavanagh.
Tools used:
HaxeFlixel, paint.net, sfxr, OGMO editor, Yal's Chiptune Pack 2, and CREDAN font by Jupiter Hadley.
Explore a strange world while mastering your shapeshifting capabilities. Unlock a multitude of shapes and discover their strengths and weaknesses. If you are determined, master your size. Become as small as a mouse to be able to crawl through narrow passageways, or grow titanic to become invulnerable. As you encounter challenging puzzles, various foes waylay your path.
Will you learn the truth about this place? Will you become the master of your form?
---
CONTROLS:
MOVEMENT:
Arrows to move.
X to JUMP (or fly, depends on shape).
C to ATTACK (depends on shape).
SIZE:
V + UP - Grow.
V + DOWN - Shrink.
SHAPESHIFTING:
There are a lot of combos. You can see them in game. Press the three specified keys in quick succession to morph into the desired shape. To morph to any shape aside from the defaults, you have to be in the default shapes first.
---
This game was made for Ludum Dare 35 - Shapeshifting by myself with help from a friend by the name of Amir Hayek (no LD account).
I drew inspiration from the X-Men villain Apocalypse. Game inspirations include Gameboy games and Don't Look Back by Terry Cavanagh.
Tools used:
HaxeFlixel, paint.net, sfxr, OGMO editor, Yal's Chiptune Pack 2, and CREDAN font by Jupiter Hadley.
| Web (Flash) | https://87.itch.io/abyssal-dream |
| Playthrough (Youtube) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1LECg9m6nM&feature=youtu.be |
| Original URL | https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-35/?action=preview&uid=16000 |
Ratings
| Coolness | 84% | 2 |
| Overall(Jam) | 3.70 | 156 |
| Fun(Jam) | 3.55 | 189 |
| Graphics(Jam) | 3.96 | 208 |
| Humor(Jam) | 2.67 | 418 |
| Innovation(Jam) | 3.48 | 235 |
| Theme(Jam) | 4.04 | 77 |
The graphics look really neat and I really enjoyed the combos mechanic. I don't know why but I always like combos in games. :P
The graphical style was really nice. Reminding me of Gameboy Classic graphics. I like that you gain more powers over time and use them to progress.
I like the graphic more than audio
I like the idea to make the transforming in some keys patterns, it become smooth once you have all the patterns in mind.
Levels design is also full of challenge, but I have an issue of sometimes the keys acting like stuck or something, I'm not quite sure, I died several times because of this issue.
Overall, it's well done, good job :D
I found this game really difficult, personally, but I'm crap at retro platformers in general.
I have to ask though, why did you choose to go with combo inputs for the shapechanges, when that whole hand is free for pressing shapechange buttons?
@ginger9: It is challenging, I can't deny it, but I hope not in an unfair way!
@Prudiiarca: I actually think the transformation instructions are not clear enough, but I didn't have time to improve them :/
@kestrelgames: 100% agree on onscreen prompts, just couldn't get around to it on time :(
@Husky: Pretty weird issue! Can you tell me what browser/OS you are using? Maybe I can check it out and try to reproduce it :)
@nextreality: I agree that the controls could have been more streamlined... and I am sorry I couldn't add another area to the game to use the final 2 forms :(
@jdmazz: What is juiciness O.o?
@Aurel Bílý: I pretty much agree with all of your points xD I hate the anti-aliasing because I was going for a GB look and that alpha is anything but... I tried to find out how to remove it but didn't manage to find out how to do it on time :/ Regarding story, we wanted to put it a few cutscenes to show stuff that happened in the past, which would play after every memory was unlocked... but my partner was swamped with work and didn't manage to complete that on time xD
@rjhelms: It's not just you, the second area in particular is a spike in difficulty, I agree!
@ekkiiiii: Agreed about SFX, after playing it so many times myself they grate on me too xD Maybe in the future I will make the volume of the effects dynamic (the closer they are to the player, the higher, and if they are farther than a certain distance you can't hear them at all)
@RockhopperGames: I agree about the anti-aliasing :( couldn't figure out how to remove it on time. Reason for the combos is because I was going for gameboy aesthetic/limitations... the resolution and colors are similar to a Gameboy (except the text + the character sprite AA), and the two buttons (Jump and Attack) are similar to the two buttons of the gameboy... in that way all other functions had to make use of the D-Pad + those two buttons! Hence the combos. Not to say I hadn't considered adding 2 more buttons to transform each bodypart, but the only difference that would have made is to make transforming easier and requiring more challenging obstacles xD ++ there is a degree of satisfaction when you master the combos, so I went with that option :)
Can't rate the audio, is this intentionally? I liked both music and effects.
Glad you liked it! About the audio, yes it's intentional because I didn't create the music, it was bought from another developer... the sfx I made with sfxr, but they are minor compared to the music, so I thought it only fair to opt out of the audio category altogether.
That being said I like the artstyle and audio. The gameplay felt solid, even with the difficulty problem. I will try it again later and then hopefully get through it.
@neontropics: Glad you enjoyed it!
@csanyk: Then try going/exploring elsewhere first?
I really liked the graphics - the little movements of the main character (breathing, the legs swinging during jump) made a black blob feel very much alive!
Behatzlaha to you too! :)