Hyper Battery Girl by Deke
You'll find the bugfixed Version LD2 via the itch.io link below. The changelog is at the bottom of this post.
My entry for the Ludum Dare 39 Game Jam (the very first Game Jam I ever participated in, yay!)
Presenting: Hyper Battery Girl - a twitch platformer about managing your energy meter for special moves, attacks and general movement! :D
Controls:
Keyboard: WASD/Arrows - Move | Space - Jump | Shift - Run | Q/K - Attack | E/P - Super Jump
Gamepad: D-Pad - Move | A - Jump | X - Run | LB - Attack | RB - Super Jump
Watch your energy meter! If it's empty, you will be incredibly slow. If it's full, you overcharge and die! Attacks take one bar of your energy, Super Jumps take two.
Changelog (08-01-2017):
- attack move fixed. Should now work every time as intended
- collisions and shadows fixed for levels 2, 4 and 6
- position of some sparkies were changed a few pixels so they can actually be properly collected
- hitbox for Sparkies fixed
- pause screen fixed. You're no longer able to pause while spawning
- Blobby (the slime enemy) now working as intended
- energy usage for the super moves fixed (minimum threshold was too big)
- keyboard layout changed (see above). Hopefully this will avoid problems with key ghosting on certain keyboards
- game now compiled with YYC to fix performance on certain machine
You will find more info about the really fun development of the game on my profile! :D
I hope you'll enjoy my little game! :)
| Windows | https://dekedev.itch.io/ld39-hyper-battery-girl |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/hyper-battery-girl-its-done-mostly |
Ratings
| Overall | 25th | 4.244⭐ | 43🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 11th | 4.19⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 452th | 3⭐ | 43🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 187th | 3.854⭐ | 43🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 151th | 4.186⭐ | 45🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 43th | 4.071⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 363th | 2.543⭐ | 37🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 383th | 3.297⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 26🗳️ | 20🗨️ |
PLEASE work towards a Steam release. This game deserves it.
It took some time to discover and get the hang of the mechanics (and I was still mixing up regular run-jump and super jump to the very end), but the assisting graphics in the levels definitely helped and I probably would have worked it out if it were not for my twitch chat instructing me :) I didn't manage to make it to the end, but I came close to beating the second to last level.
I'm a huge fan of the circuit / electronics theme, fantastic sound, and my only complaints are the extreme difficulty and the inconsistency/glitches with the attack (and also apparently with walljump sometimes, or maybe I'm just bad :P). I guess another major factor is the levels don't currently exhibit much predictability, so the game absolutely doesn't flow until you've run a level many many times.
One suggestion is a quick reset button is useful for those cases where you run out of power and have to drag yourself back to a pit to die in. (if there is one I didn't find it on the gamepad)
Looking back over my stream, I also suggest a more explanatory puzzle to teach how to use the attack to gain height - Maybe have an enemy stuck in a lower region, and require attacking the enemy to get the height to get to a higher platform beyond the enemy.
I played this on stream at: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/163569305 - Timestamp 0:39:39
@raogs : Thanks! :D
@sgstair : First of all, thanks for the great feedback! It's really appreciated! :)
A reset button sounds like a great idea, I might just add that after I worked out a few of the bugs. And yeah, the attacking bug and the wallslide bug are still very annoying. Don't know what causes those bugs to happen yet, but I'm working on it :D
Also the idea of a better puzzle for the attack sounds great. It's pretty much my own biggest gripe with the game right now. Unfortunately when the deadline came close I didn't really have that much time any more to put more polish into the level design (if I had more time, there would also be more comprehensive tutorials for the rest of the special moves). Maybe I'll do a bigger post-LD patch where I add some more levels so I can have a nicer diggiculty curve at the end.
Glad you liked it! I'll have a look at your VoD when I get home :)
Game play is insanely smooth, maybe I had a few instances where it might have dropped my input, but its so fast it's hard to say.
I love the artstyle which is also very well executed.
To me the energy mechanic feels a bit thrown in though, not really part of the game, and just there to make things even harder.
It's super fun! Will play this again.
** Sound **: Really fitting for the Theme, great choice :)
** Graphics **: Those are really well done, especially considering with how many different levels you made :)
** Gameplay **: You managed to include so many different mechanics which fit well together, great job there your game is fun :) two things tho, i initially had trouble to grasp the controls in the game (e.q. at first because the graphics hinted for the controller and i was at the keyboard took some time to find the right buttons and i had the issue when i switched to my xbox controller that the buttons weren't working :(), secondly it took me some time to grasp the attack zap move, but after i understood it i have to say i really enjoyed what you made :)
** Overall **: Altough a bit hard at times :D That was really the best game i have played so far especially considering that you did this alone in 3 days :O
But DAMN if this is difficult - at times frustratingly so. It's good when deaths are justified, and many times they are - but sometimes I felt I wasn't in control, sometimes there could have been a few more safe zones here and there. I just gave up in level... was it 5? Anyway, these are things that are easily improved on for a post-jam version!
Also: I think the energy meter cooldown should be faster when almost full (or there could be for example some always-usable attack move that would consume power) - it's annoying to just stand there and wait for the meter to drop to safe levels.
It was fun just to move around - the after-image/dust effects really do a lot to help with the game feel, and give a great sense of speed. The super-jump felt so awesome to use, too, especially when I managed to position it perfectly - and bouncing on enemies was a lot of fun. The game in general felt very Meat Boy-esque, with its precise platforming and fast pace... and it wouldn't have worked without the tight controls, so you should pat yourself on the back for that!
If I was to make a suggestion to improve your game... Hmm. Maybe you could make the death animation just a little faster, considering how often it happens, and maybe the difficulty curve could be a little less steep... but that's all I can really think of! Congratulations on putting together such a well-made product in only 72 hours.
My only gripe is that playing this with a keyboard was nearly impossible, and was a much smoother experience when i switched over to a xbox controller. I also Loved the music and sound effects, all in all a great game dude!
**Positive stuff :**
- The pixel art was pretty good
- The music was catchy and cool
- The gameplay was varied with many different actions
- Controler support
**Negative stuff :**
- A bit hard, some checkpoints on the longer levels would be nice without changing the challenge of reaching them
- A bit more air control would help for the segments where you have to bounce off enemies
Nothing much else to say really, it was a neat game and an overall nice take on the theme
Good job :)
I got stuck in the level which starts with a super jump leading into a wall jumping section.
On the top there are energy draining platforms and right in the end a chasm, seemingly requiring a super jump to pass. Trouble is the small charger in the end of the platform does not charge at all. I have no idea how to make that jump, is it a bug? (this was in the BugFix version btw.)
Good work apart from the aforementioned.
Only one point: I personally would prefer more savepoints, so I can train the difficult parts without having to redo the previous difficult parts over and over.
Positives? Literally anything else. Graphics are great, fitting perfectly in the technology/battery setting. Audio is cool too, especially the dynamic soundtrack. The difficulty may be a negative, but it's also a positive! It keeps me playing the game until i have done it! Also a pretty unique charging mechanic that makes completing the jumd and run even harder!
Overall very unique and fun platformer! Happy to see the completion of Hyper Battery Girl 2 on your stream! ;)