Speed Journey by Kyle Pham
Note: You can now press R to replay the game (both in the game and in the game over scene). This is a new feature only in the web version of itch.io, NOT in newgrounds.
Note: the problem with the jump was fixed, thanks everyone for reporting this issue (there was something wrong with my unity GetKeyDown, so I changed it to either that or GetKey)
Follow Tinky the butterfly in a dreamlike world! In her world, rainbows are not what they seem to be, as they destroy good creatures, including butterflies. Help Tinky collect the magical lights to bring back the goodness in rainbows. Only in the mythical lava lamps can the magical lights be found!
Tinky can run, jump, and fly upwards. She can gain boosts that help her fly further or higher. But beware, not everything is good as it seems to be. The more boosts Tinky has, the worse it is for her to control herself.
There are 4 boosts in the game:
Green Orb: increase run speed
Blue Orb: increase jump height
Yellow Orb: increase fly speed and the height that Tinky can reach when flying
Pink Orb: increase Tinky's size, make her bigger
Try to stay away from the boosts in your path!
There are currently 4 levels in this game. It will get more difficult in the 3rd and 4th levels, even though level 1 is not that easy at all.
Movements (if you are too lazy to read the instructions in the game):
Left Arrow, Right Arrow: move horizontally (can move while falling from the sky)
X: jump upwards (only vertically). Can hold Left Arrow or Right Arrow while jumping to move horizontally.
Z: fly upwards and also moves horizontally at the same time. Cannot jump or use Left Arrow nor Right Arrow to move while flying, but can use Left Arrow and Right Arrow while falling after flying.
Special button: R - replay (or restart) the level (can be used both in a level scene and in the game over scene).
Words from the developer: This is the first time I participated in Ludum Dare, also the first time I've ever completed a game in such a short amount of time. I did all of the work, but couldn't submit it in time for compo, so I submitted it to the Jam instead. I would really love to see your comments. I used Unity, GIMP 2, Audacity to make this game. For the audio, I had to pitch my voice up really high, from a man's voice to a fairy-ish creature. If you notice any bugs, feel free to comment, so I could improve my codes next time. Ludum Dare 40 is on the weekend before my final week of class as a freshman at college, so I was busy and could have bettered a lot of aspects of my game (i.e. make it easier).
Thank you for playing my game! Good luck on playing my game (it's really hard). Tell me if you get to the first lava lamp (finish the first level).
| HTML5 (web) | https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/703041?updated=1512537686 |
| Windows | https://kpham.itch.io/speed-journey |
| HTML5 (web) | https://kpham.itch.io/speed-journey |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/speed-journey |
Ratings
| Overall | 1062th | 2.788⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 1019th | 2.652⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 987th | 2.652⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 801th | 3.121⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 950th | 2.712⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 613th | 2.734⭐ | 34🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 774th | 2.5⭐ | 34🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 34🗳️ | 33🗨️ |
It would be nice to have some sort of indication of what the orbs do on the menu screen as I was consistently looking back at the description to get a sense of objective, solid game :D
Stuff I liked:
- Graphics are pretty cute
- Music is nice
- Powerups increase the difficulty in a tough but manageable way
- Creative subversion of typical platforming mechanics
Stuff I didn't like:
- Left/Right controls are weird (tapping left while you have rightwards momentum stops you instantly, for instance)
- Jumping doesn't work half the time, creating unnecessary deaths
If you're making a high-difficulty platformer (or really any platformer), the controls should be spot on. My advice for Unity is to make sure the player's velocity is not affected by the turning animation (perhaps by putting the Rigidbody on an otherwise empty parent of the Sprite), and having a cooldown which allows the player to jump a few frames after leaving the ground.
love the sound
The art is sickly sweet in palette here and there, but that seems suitable for a rainbow world. The music felt a little creepy in contrast though. I'd have expected something more cheerful.
Good job on delivering your first LD game!
The game is lovely and the concept is clear (though very punishing).
I think the jump and fly up should use the same or at least similar sound. Right now they're quite different, as if belong to 2 different characters.
There's a bug with the red orb (increase size) that bumps me up when collected, not a big issue but I missed my jump timing some times because of it.
For the design of the game, I think the instruction screen is too cluttered and not necessary:
- You can put the control part (arrows, x, z) at the beginning of the game - for example as clouds resembling those shape or even simply as it is right now. Player can enjoy figuring out what they do by themselves.
- Touch rainbow & die: they can find out by themselves (it's more fun that way teehee)
- Effect of the orbs: you can display them as floating text when the player collect them. That way the information is available to the player immediately when they actually need it. In the current state I always have to re-check the instruction screen to lookup what they do.
- Collect lava lamp to win: also not necessary - they're already begging to be collected :smile:
As for level design, I think the game could be more fun if there's more than 1 path. Maybe if you collect too many orbs you can only go through the upper paths - which is harder. If you avoided collecting too many more options are available to you and you can choose whichever is comfortable to you. It encourage exploration and experiment - 1 less level in the game is no problem if each level is satisfying!
I liked the background music but I think it doesn't fit with the whole funny visuals and funny sound effects, so it made me feel conflicted: dark game + funny game.
The jump and the fly didn't really make a difference to me, I used whichever key I pressed first. So maybe try and really differentiate them.
Like the other comments, it was hard to remember what each orb did and having to go back and forth was not ideal.
But overall it was a success for a first game and jam, and all alone! Be proud and don't feel unmotivated, with some improvements your first game jam game can be a cool thing that you will look back to in a few years ;)
Just a little proposition : make player restart when he is in the menu by pressing enter, because your game is a die & retry, and each time I die, I have take my mouse to click on "restart"...
But anyway, thats a nice game dude ! Gj
I feel like if the movement was a bit more responsive, I would enjoy the game significantly more. That said, it's a wonderful, cute little game. Well done :clap::innocent:
I never saw a single lava lamp.
There's a unique look and feel to this game. Why are you opted out of "mood"? - I think you'd get a good rating in the mood category.
I initially associated the "mood" category with something that makes you think deeply about. I can change it, but I don't know if I should, because I still feel like humor kind of fits more. And I don't really know if something will happen if I change it days after the submission date.