Aether Crypt by Tselmek

[raw]
made by Tselmek for LD35 (JAM)
Update: Music made during the Jam added. If you believe it is a little dodgy, I understand so feel free to not rate the Audio in order to leave a fair score to the musician.

That was one tight of a jam this time around, due to a lot of organisation issues mainly. Hope you have some fun with this little game, I did quit the usual arcade habit and tried making something a bit more calm and metroidvania-ish apparently.

### Description ###

The creature you control is made out of Aether, a newly discovered atom that can, with enough negative charges collected through electrons, transform itself into an already existing atom or molecule. Find your way out by using your different abilities.

### Controls (Gamepad recommended) ###

--- Keyboard ---
ZQSD/WASD or Arrow keys to move
E to switch transformations
Space to transform

--- Gamepad ---
D-pad to move and A to jump
Right and Left shoulder buttons to switch transformations
X to transform

### Credits ###

Art and Code by Tselmek

Music by Cynicus

### Changelog ###

[25/04/2016] Fixed most of the big collision detection bugs
[30/04/2016] Fixed surface bug that would make the game crash when going fullscreen

Ratings

Coolness 84% 2
Overall(Jam) 4.06 33
Audio(Jam) 3.96 57
Fun(Jam) 3.96 47
Graphics(Jam) 4.04 168
Innovation(Jam) 3.57 198
Mood(Jam) 4.31 15
Theme(Jam) 4.15 48

Feedback

wg_phancock
19. Apr 2016 路 06:26 UTC
Fun! Nice platforming physics, well designed level, and great art. It's a shame you weren't able to get any music; it would have helped complete the package.

Several times, I found myself wishing the transform animation didn't take so long, standing in front of a switch or something. When I had figured out the puzzle, having to wait for the transform to complete could get annoying. It didn't take too much away from the enjoyment of the game, but it was a concern.
Jukepoks1
19. Apr 2016 路 07:02 UTC
Really nice idea of using atoms and molecules :D got to the end! Really balanced and working game for me.
Falak
19. Apr 2016 路 07:37 UTC
Cool Game but
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Draw Event
for object obj_transition:

Unable to find any instance for object index '0'
at gml_Object_obj_transition_Draw_0
############################################################################################
馃帳 Tselmek
19. Apr 2016 路 15:28 UTC
Thanks for the bug report Falak, fixed version will be uploaded soon. At least you didn't miss much because of it :P
bigbatardyt
20. Apr 2016 路 12:59 UTC
An ambient game !! that's freaking cool !
pixelpotions
20. Apr 2016 路 18:37 UTC
Played 'til the end, got all the electrons, and I can say it's a really cool platformer!
It was nice to discover the different abbilities of each form, also the level design is really well executed!
Good work.
Mango Malarkey
20. Apr 2016 路 20:36 UTC
The darkness was made it a bit difficult, but other than that it was great! Really clever level design! Loved it!
EvanEGibbs
21. Apr 2016 路 07:21 UTC
The game was fun! It had a good mood to it. I loved that the door was there at the beginning and it made it really exciting to find the keys. I love that you'd have to explore and figure things out to level up, which gave you access to more areas. That was creative! Well done. :)
Tater_hater
22. Apr 2016 路 06:36 UTC
love it!
Franklin's Ghost
23. Apr 2016 路 07:07 UTC
Fun game with nice level design. Liked that as you progressed you obtained new abilities which would further help you proceed. Was able to finish it and get all the keys but wasn't able to get one of the electrons which I could see was between the two crates.
datadazer
23. Apr 2016 路 14:37 UTC
I had SO much fun playing this. I love the open level while still being limited on entry based on which forms you've unlocked. Fun mechanics, awesome art style. Love the ambient soothing music that makes you feel good while exploring the dark. It was fun discovering how different forms could help you get through different challenges.

Only thing is it was really really dark to the point of it being hard to see walls or even hints of where a small opening might be. But also I see how making it brighter would make those parts maybe too trivial to solve.

Perfect amount of challenge to it. Overall awesome game!
PaulJs
23. Apr 2016 路 22:58 UTC
Vraiment sympathique, ambiance tr猫s cool ;)
DAT.NOT.MY.GAME!
24. Apr 2016 路 12:18 UTC
I really enjoyed this game. Too bad it has only this one level, I'd love to play more!
Pietro Ferrantelli
24. Apr 2016 路 12:30 UTC
Great entry !

j'ai vraiment bien aim茅 ton jeu ! j'ai particulierement aim茅 le LD, le pixel art dst tr猫s propre et l'ambiance qui s'en d茅gage est vraiment cool. (莽a fait plaiz de croiser d'autres 茅tudiants fran莽ais par ici. haha)
Studiosaurus
24. Apr 2016 路 12:50 UTC
Great presentation. Could have been a little more challenging, but I had fun :) transforming into a wide character while touching a wall gets you stuck. I'm not sure but do you ever actually need to be water? you can just jump out of the water with helium, right? Great entry despite these points.
Ibzy
24. Apr 2016 路 13:20 UTC
Nice and fun little game. Couldnt find the 59th electron but was great fun regardless.
Agreed that the transformation took a little longer than desired but not a game breaker.
lumscum
25. Apr 2016 路 16:11 UTC
Beautiful mood to the game!
Aaranos
25. Apr 2016 路 16:49 UTC
Nice little platformer / puzzle game. I think the background was just a tad too dark but it was well done.
bogdan.tana
25. Apr 2016 路 18:14 UTC
Wow. The mood, the graphics, the sound, the idea... Brilliant execution, guys :)
Gord10
25. Apr 2016 路 18:48 UTC
I gave 5 stars to all categories. It's a perfect game! I loved its innovation and mood.
Roland M
25. Apr 2016 路 19:55 UTC
Love the mood mad. =]
BloodJohn
25. Apr 2016 路 21:45 UTC
Warm lamp game. Music and fear of the dark balance each other. I just figured out how to switch between forms. Nice art.
apalade
26. Apr 2016 路 06:54 UTC
One the most solid games I tried in this Ludum Dare! Please keep developing that game!
ijona
26. Apr 2016 路 20:03 UTC
just awesome!!! there are many games with the same idea, but not many that are fun to play
ijona
26. Apr 2016 路 20:05 UTC
imho shapeshifting could be a bit faster, but that's not too important
deadbodyoutline
28. Apr 2016 路 04:42 UTC
Loved this game! The level design was pretty smart, and the dusky aesthetics give an extra sensation when playing :D

While trying to play in fullscreen got the same error Falak had, but not a problem at all.

See ya!
Pickens Inc.
30. Apr 2016 路 18:35 UTC
Really great atmosphere, extremely tight and precise controls. It would've been nice if the different elements were a bit more cleverly unique rather than simply to open doors for the most part.

However, it was still a thoroughly relaxing entertaining game dripping with atmosphere. Nice!
pirate_shell
30. Apr 2016 路 20:21 UTC
So I finally got along to trying this one and it was very well made. I really liked the art, which was minimalistic, but got the job done quite well. I enjoyed the atmospheric music a lot and the whole mood of it was great. I do have some issues with it, as I do with all entries. Firstly, having a lot of forms was fun and inventive (considering they were all named after different elements and things) but I wished there were maybe fewer forms, but more time spent to make them distinct. Secondly, while I understand it was done for atmospheric purposes, but the level was extremely hard to see, making me often feel lost. Then again that might have been the point lol. Other than those points of constructive criticism, this was still one of the better entries I've tried so far and was quite a bit of fun.
BSODDevTeam
01. May 2016 路 18:15 UTC
Cool concept and game atmosphere.
yuigoto
04. May 2016 路 18:22 UTC
You've nailed it! :D That's a great take on the theme and really clever too!

The graphics are simple, but really charming and the way you've set up everything creates a great moon in-game. The soundtrack also helps set up the mood in a great way too! :D

Controls work perfectly, and the shapeshifting mechanic is pretty well made!

Brilliant! :D
PixlWalkr
07. May 2016 路 12:55 UTC
Great solid entry, I really like the mechanics and atmosphere. audio is also nice. I enjoyed playing it!
Sabina Lis
07. May 2016 路 16:03 UTC
I enjoyed this game very much, loved the different characters, specially carbon on fire :). Beautiful entry, thanks!
abuzreq
07. May 2016 路 17:16 UTC
Other than it was very dark to an annoying level sometimes,the game is really cool.
It was hard to get to the keys in the dark even after having all the shapes in my arsenal.
The game was short so that didn't allow the utilization of all the shapes (many were used to open the gate only and didn't and any particular trait)
hopefully in a longer game ,an interesting game play can emerge out of their different abilities.
Good Work!
puppetmaster
07. May 2016 路 20:14 UTC
Wow! What a great game. Really love the theme implementation. Background music make the mood!
Keep up the good work!
StaNov
07. May 2016 路 20:32 UTC
Had fun while playing, but you know it because you were watching my stream! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqDS9CXji3A
RyanNielson
07. May 2016 路 23:31 UTC
Great little game, the art and sound were fantastic. The concept of transforming into characters with different abilities was great as well. The transformation animation was a bit slow though, and some forms seemed more useful than others. Well done overall though.
cabezotta
08. May 2016 路 15:25 UTC
Great entry! Very well designed! :)
Marius
10. May 2016 路 11:00 UTC
Hi, nice game and congratulations ! We're realizing a video with several winners of the Ludum Dare #35.
Can you add your game on indiexpo.net ? (it's free)
So we can include also your game in the video ;)
p.s. write #LDJAM in the game's description