Delver's Sunset by Jimbly | LudumData

Delver's Sunset by Jimbly

made by Jimbly for LD 40 (COMPO)

cover

A simple platformer gets less simple as you are plagued with afflictions and disabilities.

Links * HTML5(WebGL): http://www.dashingstrike.com/LudumDare/LD40/?compo=1 * Source Code: https://github.com/Jimbly/LD40-delvers-sunset

If you get stuck but you're determined to get your name on the Hall of Fame, and you want to remind yourself of the earlier levels, you can open another copy in another tab at any time. The final sequence of levels is very, very difficult, though it is beatable!

Screenshots:

Post-compo changes: * Fixed bug calculating your percentile when more than 20 people were on the high score list * Added a simple "skip level" button with hints - If you can't beat a level but want to see what the rest of the afflictions are, you can skip through the remaining levels (but it disables high scores).

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Tools Used * Custom Engine: GLOV.js * Mtn Dew * Some tiles in Piskel * Some tiles in Tilemancer * Image postprocessing in Photoshop * Music in Bosca Ceoil * Sound Effects in Bosca Ceoil and Bfxr

I started with a much, much simpler concept for this Ludum Dare than any I've done before (I can see why so many people make platformers - even with writing my own collision code I had something up and running really quickly), and this left me a lot of time for playtesting and polishing. I even managed to have enough time to compose two pieces of music, and make a handful of variations on them for each of the 9 Sequences in the game, which I really enjoyed doing, and I think they turned out pretty good! Most of my previous Ludum Dare entries have not had time for music, so this was a nice change =).

Also, if you're read this far, check out my other game on Steam!

HTML5 (web)	http://www.dashingstrike.com/LudumDare/LD40/?compo=1
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/delvers-sunset

Ratings

Overall	192^th	3.641⭐	48🧑‍⚖️
Fun	253^th	3.457⭐	48🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	62^th	3.844⭐	47🧑‍⚖️
Theme	130^th	3.902⭐	48🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	356^th	3.239⭐	48🧑‍⚖️
Audio	293^th	3.065⭐	48🧑‍⚖️
Humor	286^th	2.872⭐	45🧑‍⚖️
Mood	321^th	3.1⭐	47🧑‍⚖️
Given		46🗳️	51🗨️

Feedback

04. Dec 2017 · 07:07 UTC

That went much differently than I had expected! I'm normally not a big platformer, but that was a lot of fun. The final two levels were mostly just muscle memory, but once you got it down, it wasn't as difficult as I expected. Cool game and an interesting take!

04. Dec 2017 · 10:52 UTC

FFFFFuuuuuuaaa...irrelevant.

I see potential winner here.

(i haven't use any hints, just brute force, single run, 133 deaths)

It would be actually very hard to walk through with inverted controls.

04. Dec 2017 · 14:13 UTC

Thanks for playing, and glad you enjoyed it! After most of my playtesters giving up before finishing, I'm excited to see some people actually getting all the way through =). I did consider inverted controls/inverted level, but decided the final level was going to be difficult enough I wanted to just be training muscle memory, so that it was possible.

04. Dec 2017 · 14:16 UTC

A game where muscle memory is your best friend. Game was a cake walk till unipedalism where I just couldn't get the timing right in my first 20 tries! I like to hate it :D! Great job!

04. Dec 2017 · 18:04 UTC

Who could have thought jumping with a peg-leg would be so difficult? :D

04. Dec 2017 · 19:01 UTC

really cool, clever from a design point of view as you only had to make four levels :smile:. Very clever use of the theme.

Petr Belohlavek

04. Dec 2017 · 19:02 UTC

This is really innovative! I like it. The sounds could be less annoying, but whatever.

04. Dec 2017 · 19:07 UTC

Nice entry. I see how this would have fitted the "One level, but constantly changing" as well. :smile:

Couldn't figure out how unipedalism worked, so just did it by "feeling", which surprisingly went well..

Couldn't finish vertigo one as my head started to hurt, though... :smile:

Good job!

04. Dec 2017 · 19:09 UTC

@petr-belohlavek, the sounds were tricky, as they had to be very distinct for the later sequence where you go blind, but it's quite possible you didn't get that far, perhaps you'd appreciate them more when they're your only way to know what's happening in a level =). They definitely could be better though, probably should have done another pass on them.

04. Dec 2017 · 19:12 UTC

@lawrence, if you stick with it, Vertigo is the one ailment which is "cured" immediately after playing a level with it... it can cause headaches, so didn't want to force it on people for more than a set.

With Unipedalism, you jump high if you're on your good leg (peg leg is up in the animation, right around when the softer footstep plays, which is easier than watching the animation), jump poorly off the peg leg (the louder/hollower footstep). Alternatively, since you start on your good foot, and jumping doesn't change the walk cycle, you can just jump everywhere and never walk, and you'll be jumping pretty high ;).

04. Dec 2017 · 19:20 UTC

Great game and original idea! My favorite moment was dementia, this was easy but fun, in a puzzle way. Least fav was myopia since it was too hard to see where's what.

04. Dec 2017 · 20:18 UTC

I got frustrated after the vertigo affliction :D Nice idea! It plays well with the theme, and I like how it starts innocently, and then progressively gets hellishly difficult.

04. Dec 2017 · 23:52 UTC

@killnaprimer I assume You didn't finish the game? Since last 2 levels makes myopia "irrelevant"...

05. Dec 2017 · 00:12 UTC

Very cool idea - I'll admit I found the blindness levels impossible and quit early. (I even opened the game in a tab and tried to get it down, but couldn't get past the first level, so I had to give in. Well done.

primitive-concept

05. Dec 2017 · 03:17 UTC

Damn my peg leg.
Good innovation, great take on the theme!

05. Dec 2017 · 11:44 UTC

Really like the different problems your character gets, makes it really difficult later on. Didn't manage the final part, being deaf and blind was just a bit too much. The base music is nice, although the other sounds where a bit too load in comparison. Really nice take on the theme, well done.

05. Dec 2017 · 14:41 UTC

@wevel just getting to the final sequence is quite an accomplishment! It seems the very first two people to play this through Ludum Dare managed to beat the game, and then absolutely no one else since -_-. I honestly didn't expect anyone to beat it, or even the blind level, though =).

OmnipotentIndie

06. Dec 2017 · 04:24 UTC

It's very creative, one of the best uses of the theme yet.

06. Dec 2017 · 04:40 UTC

@omnipotentindie thanks!

06. Dec 2017 · 06:11 UTC

Nice game. It's very hard once you get various diseases, but still beateable. Good job!

06. Dec 2017 · 12:20 UTC

I actually thought about doing just this when the theme was announced. I'm now glad I didn't because I would have clearly just made an inferior version of your game.

Really enjoyed this. Loved how simple the base game was and how hard it became. Loved the music, working on it was obviously time well spent. And I loved the little death animation when you hit the spikes. It really made what could have been the most frustrating part of the game enjoyable. Well done!

06. Dec 2017 · 14:10 UTC

@raziyya Glad you liked the idea =). You never know how good it'll be until you make it though - this turned into something better than what I originally envisioned, I think. I'm glad someone appreciated the death animations, they were one of my last stretch goals, and they definitely add to the feel. When you die a lot, it's good to feel at least some good about your death =).

06. Dec 2017 · 14:35 UTC

Nice game. I got to myopia and it got to hard... It followed the theme very well, and nothing I really can criticize so Well done!

06. Dec 2017 · 16:05 UTC

@svarttand You did pretty well! It only gets harder from there, going deaf and blind, which only two Ludum Dare people have managed to beat so far =).

07. Dec 2017 · 01:06 UTC

Nice game, and very polished at that.

I must admit I stopped as soon as I got blind, since I had played without sound from the beginning, but I will definitely come back to it later. I was pleasantly surprised at how manageable the game remained even when superimposing seemingly unfair afflictions. Clearly, a lot of thought and testing went into balancing it.

Also, your take on the theme is definitely the closest I have found so far to my own, so I would love to hear your thoughts about my game, although it's much further than yours from a finished product.

07. Dec 2017 · 01:17 UTC

@exnihilo Yeah, without sound, blind would perhaps be too much of a challenge... however the final level is both blind and deaf, so it is possible =). However, playing it through once while blind and getting audio cues as to which level you're on, if your jump lands, etc, is pretty important practice. I'll definitely check out your game!

07. Dec 2017 · 01:22 UTC

This could be just be me, but jumping was way to inconsistent. If this was what unipedalism does I would make some change to it as it felt completely random which isn't adding a challenge that you have to work around, it's just forcing you to get lucky. Other than that though I thought the game was very nice. It was a unique take on the theme.

07. Dec 2017 · 02:04 UTC

@gnarly-narwhal Thanks for playing! Jumping (and walking) with Unipedalism is completely consistent, it's based on where you are in the run cycle - you should see your speed change, and hear a soft and wooden footstep to indicate that, so it's about getting in the rhythm of walking and jumping off of the good leg (right after the soft footstep or when the peg leg is up in the sprite animation). Definitely agree that getting lucky would be annoying, but I guess the unipedalism was not quite obvious enough how it worked, a couple people have been confused by it.

07. Dec 2017 · 02:06 UTC

This game was absolutely delightful and clever. I literally laughed out loud when I realized how dementia afflicted me. I was a bit skeptical at first when I realized there were a small number of "puzzles" that all had the same shape, but when it hit me what you were doing I couldn't help but be surprised and delighted. I played up to the last phase and I just couldn't do it, as you said it is almost impossible! I went as far as to open another tab during blindness to try and retrain myself on the sequences. Well done! High marks all around :)

07. Dec 2017 · 16:21 UTC

this was good
i went all the way til the end
loved the one leg handicap
really annoying sounds tho, especially the respawn/start sound
gj

07. Dec 2017 · 17:19 UTC

A compact game that's packed with small details and features, nice! For a platformer, the controls were perhaps a little bit floaty to my tastes but I really enjoyed the concept. :thumbsup:

07. Dec 2017 · 21:06 UTC

A really clever concept. Deceptively simple at first, it is just a treat to see what new twist is going to be thrown at you next. I made it to myopia.

07. Dec 2017 · 22:05 UTC

Solid entry here my friend, love the animations and the color concept. Looks really polished, specially with the unexpected "skip level" feature :P.

Congrats on the entry!

08. Dec 2017 · 17:53 UTC

Fuck... that's all i have to say, what an amazing game

08. Dec 2017 · 20:18 UTC

probably the best use of the theme i have seen - which made for an extremely fun game - vertigo was awesome - fantastic game

08. Dec 2017 · 20:30 UTC

@paulhocker I'm glad someone appreciated vertigo! I thought it was the most successful at simulating the actual ailment, in that it made me feel nauseated, however I still had to tone it down a couple times (to what it is now) after my testers refused to play any farther... =)

08. Dec 2017 · 23:34 UTC

Got unipedalism straight off the bat -- not sure if it was always first up but I'd have either 1) put it a bit later on in the game or 2) found a way to telegraph that state to the player. I couldn't get a feel for it and found it a bit frustrating, sorry! I liked vertigo, dementia, and deuteranopia effects however. Audio effect on hard of hearing was cool too. Blindness - ouch! Neat game. :)

09. Dec 2017 · 00:53 UTC

@gwinnell It is the first one, as it's the only one that actually affects your movement - all of the rest are visual or audible, and I wanted people's muscle memory to be trained on that as well as I could. I did have both an audible (softer footstep sound when on good leg) and visual cue (where you are in the run cycle, but that's subtle, and how fast you're moving, but you don't run large enough distances to notice), but I agree that it needs more, it caused a lot of trouble for people. Glad you liked the soundtrack change on deafness! Thanks for playing =)

09. Dec 2017 · 05:59 UTC

Cool game, I loved that Vertigo effect. Very challenging though!

09. Dec 2017 · 17:15 UTC

Thoughts before discovering the game doesn't end after the first set of levels were something along the lines of "well this is very simple and easy". Thoughts nearing the end of my third set of levels were more like "I am frustrated and I don't want to play any more". I am not a huge fan of what I consider frustratingly challenging platformers, but regardless I appreciate how clever this game is. Well done.

10. Dec 2017 · 20:33 UTC

Would have been better with a more-varied level design, but I think I got the idea of what you're going for here. I couldn't get very far into it, unipedalism is a pretty unfair handicap. Randomly having a fail jump that you can't control just doesn't feel like good game design. I like that you have a level skip so players can see the whole game if they want to.

11. Dec 2017 · 01:05 UTC

@csanyk Unipedalism doesn't randomly fail jump, but makes you time your jumps (based on the walk cycle sounds or visuals), but sadly a lot of people miss that, and it feels random instead. More varied levels might be fun at the beginning, but would, I think, make the final afflictions of blind + deaf be impossible though =).

13. Dec 2017 · 01:31 UTC

Super fun, and I hold second place on the list.

13. Dec 2017 · 05:22 UTC

Wow, way to go! The other very high scores are mostly Reditters, not Ludum Dare peeps =).

13. Dec 2017 · 22:38 UTC

The lasers are a cool mechanic. Nice charging sound effect. I really like how it's a short game that you replay in different ways. Well done adapting the feeling of vertigo to the game. Trippy. It's also really cool how you show stats of how other players fared. Nice networking! Man I'm typing as I'm playing and I keep liking this game more and more. Love the music.

14. Dec 2017 · 03:03 UTC

@tvance Thanks, glad you liked it so much!

15. Dec 2017 · 00:42 UTC

The green and red killing thingies make a sound that is too loud. I've read here in the comments that with unipedalism you are supposed to either look at the animation or listen to the steps; well, listening to the steps is out of the question since I had to turn the volume waaaaay down.
I think the idea is good, and the game is very polished with the number of players who got farther, etc. but I got too frustrated with the disabilities. I had to skip vertigo, and unipedalism got me to stop playing after a few levels with it.

15. Dec 2017 · 03:38 UTC

Really nice game and interpretation of the theme. I really liked the vertigo affect.

16. Dec 2017 · 01:05 UTC

I felt that the jump was very unsatisfying and unfair making me not finish the game.

18. Dec 2017 · 11:48 UTC

Fun game! Interesting take on the theme. Overall really enjoyed it, but the sound got a little bit annoying after a while

18. Dec 2017 · 19:19 UTC

Nice use of the theme, making a game about dicease was one of the first ideas I had for this LD :) Myopa is a good idea, but I think it would have been much fun used as the vertigo illness, I mean with some kind of dynamic camera. The "cured" twist gave me hope and reward for a shot time (Yeah ! I've made it i'm not ill!) ...I had to die many times but once I've reached the blindness level, it was really frustrating :) I wonder how many people reached the end ! The statistics coming along each level are really a neat thing, but the black screen really makes it impossible :D
Good job, nice take on the theme and great mood !

18. Dec 2017 · 21:32 UTC

Stats so far:
* 822 Unique players
* * 48 of those are Ludum Dare people who gave ratings, I suspect most of the others came from Reddit/WebGames
* 35 (4.2%) Players have won the game (without skipping)
* * Only two confirmed are Ludum Dare people (the very first two to play it, weirdly, but that matches the global percentage of winners ^_^)