SOS Snake by Pyrofoux

[raw]
made by Pyrofoux for LD36 (JAM)
You are trapped in a cave conveniently shaped like videogame levels. Don't worry, an old and familiar entity is here to help you.

SOS Snake is a dynamic platformer mixed with a good old Snake to create a new hardcore action-puzzle game ! You can play it locally with a friend, or all by yourself if you want a good challenge.

Controls :
* Arrow keys to move
* WASD/ZQSD to move Snake
* R for Restart
* M for Mute

by Gdcvdqpl & Pyrofoux
Musics by RoccoW

Feedback

Pierrec
30. Aug 2016 · 09:58 UTC
At first I was like "Snake+Platformer, this idea seems so good, I wonder why It hasn't already been made before."

Now I get it: THIS IS SO FRIGGIN HARD
(I should try with another player, that could make a good co op challenge)
TerraCottaFrog
30. Aug 2016 · 21:48 UTC
Interesting idea, but way to fast and difficult for one player. The game should move much slower to allow time to think about both things, maybe having a hard mode intended for 2 players. I think you fell into the trap of finding your own game really easy after testing it a bunch.

So much potential here though.

It would be cool to see you work on it.
joemag
30. Aug 2016 · 21:56 UTC
This is haaaaaard, but awesome, love the aesthetic and the challenge. Great work, good blending of elements.
squirrelbot
30. Aug 2016 · 22:17 UTC
Game is terribly difficult. It would probably play well with two players, one for each control. The music fits really well.
Anudin
30. Aug 2016 · 22:18 UTC
The feel is great through the nice flashy graphics and the background music but honestly it's a bit too hard. Jump hight should be increased because you often end up standing somewhere and only being able to jump into your doom either to the left or right because you can't jump high enough to get to a safe position.
conrad123
30. Aug 2016 · 22:28 UTC
This was really hard! I nearly rage quit on the second level. But the graphics really complement the idea, and I like how it used the theme. Great job!
jscottmiller
30. Aug 2016 · 22:36 UTC
Man, this is a difficult game. I had to pause after each level. Biggest source of difficulty was the speed of the snake, especially on the level where you have to eat a path to the top. I kept getting sooooo close to clearing a path, only to accidentally make a jump too high.

Looks and sounds fantastic. I'm going to be hamming away at this for a while.
Bendev
30. Aug 2016 · 22:39 UTC
Excelent visuals, sound and level design. But is indeed too hard. Maybe if the snake was slower and the player had more friction when landing.
ninja00283
30. Aug 2016 · 22:40 UTC
2 words: rage quit...
...
but the art is nice and flashy...
Elit3dGaming
30. Aug 2016 · 22:42 UTC
Challenging but fun game. Graphics are very simple but effective and the music is very funky.
Avalanche Games
30. Aug 2016 · 22:58 UTC
Damn that was tough, would be great to play with another person.
xesenix
30. Aug 2016 · 23:49 UTC
Controls are to lose one key press moves you to far so you end up ceil further then you expected. Music is a little bit annoying. But beside that really nice game.
Decentsauce
30. Aug 2016 · 23:59 UTC
Very cool idea! Controls could use some tweaking though. The player felt a bit slippery and the snake moves so fast that it is quite difficult. Maybe it's and idea to let the player stick to the snake? Or change the balancing based on if you're playing alone or with someone else. Either way, well done on this entry!
Xlip
31. Aug 2016 · 00:07 UTC
OMG i cant stop playing! :D sound is making atmosphere more challenger. Controls are amazing. i said wtf i can not stay anywhere but after playing a few times i got this. But like everyone say it is really hard for one player or maybe we are too lazy :D
acotis
31. Aug 2016 · 00:44 UTC
Great concept! The controls are a little unresponsive, especially on the first left, but the music kept me patient while I worked through that one. Also, on the first level with food, it's possible to kill the snek without giving yourself a way to die, so you can get stuck and need to restart, which was kind of discouraging. Still, I'd love to see more of this if you decide to work on it further!
Steven Miller
31. Aug 2016 · 00:50 UTC
Very challenging game, but fun. I got stuck on level 2 (that's right, the one before the snake even shows up) for around 15 minutes. Luckily, the first few levels with the snake were a bit easier for me, but I ended up quitting a few levels after the green blocks were introduced. Very good audio and mechanics, but definitely too hard for me.
Steven Miller
31. Aug 2016 · 00:56 UTC
Also, I just played Super Detective, that was pretty awesome.
mooncalf
31. Aug 2016 · 02:56 UTC
Great aesthetic. I liked the levels.

The controls are a little slippery for the precision being asked for.
Bobsleigh
31. Aug 2016 · 03:32 UTC
I don't get it: got stuck at the third screen, can't jump high enough. I guess the ''snake'' should help me there, but WASD doesn't work. Loved the music thought and the colors.
vicious_br
31. Aug 2016 · 03:34 UTC
Great Job!!! Music and graphic is amazing.
A reload bottom is good and level design must be improved.
vicious_br
31. Aug 2016 · 03:36 UTC
oh! play my game here:http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-36/?action=preview&uid=36629
BMacIntosh
31. Aug 2016 · 06:11 UTC
Excellent music, and a great idea! Insanely hard, though (even, I think, with two players). Slowing down the snake would make the difficulty a lot more manageable, I think. Could also be interesting to allow the snake to buffer more inputs at once, for when you need to carve those precise 1-block stairs.
caryoscelus
31. Aug 2016 · 06:30 UTC
Wow, this is hardcore. And really cool. I got stuck on second food level. Will try to clear it later, i guess. Btw, would be nice to have level selection/saving.

Game becomes somewhat slow when snake eats too much. Also snake can eat itself by unlucky double-turning, which is frustrating.
caryoscelus
31. Aug 2016 · 06:53 UTC
Also cool music, but for some reason i had to manually turn it on after each track played.
Robin 'sod off' Field
31. Aug 2016 · 09:12 UTC
Some insanely incredible music. A cute simple artstyle with some lovely colour choice and very interesting gameplay. Possibly the hardest game ever to be crafted by man, but a cool game nevertheless.
Mathiouza
31. Aug 2016 · 10:12 UTC
Very good game ! Hard, but good. I d'ont manage to pas over the level with the grid of green squares x) This concept is very cool and I love the music x) It is pretty fun and reflects the quickness of the gameplay.
RockhopperGames
31. Aug 2016 · 10:36 UTC
Yeah, like many of the others, I couldn't handle very much of this game, despite the wonderful aesthetic and music. To me, the jump felt a bit shallow, and the horizontal movement too fast and slippy. Perhaps I could have stuck with it, but I definitely wasn't in the mood for this. It's a shame, because this looks like a really good idea, and I was really digging the visuals!
kostik1337
31. Aug 2016 · 14:05 UTC
I love mechanics of this game, but for me it's completely unbeatable. Art and music fit the mood perfectly.
Cawrtz
31. Aug 2016 · 14:23 UTC
The gameplay idea is well found and implemented perfectly, the graphics suits the music well. REALLY hard but fair mechanics (although the snake could just disappear when it dies instead of becoming lethal)
Unfortunately I had to gave up at the level when you have to clear a way to the top, there are too many things to manage in parallel for me (size of the snake, which blocks to clear, how not to get killed after snake dies, ...) but as some said, it would do a great 2-player game.

Nicely done.
adsilcott
31. Aug 2016 · 22:44 UTC
Brilliant game! Original and stylish. As others have said it's very hard, but hey lots of great games are hard. Some people are gluttons for punishment! I left the window open for like an hour just to listen to the music...
local minimum
01. Sep 2016 · 14:19 UTC
I agree with @Pierrec, this is so insanely hard! But really nice. It'd be nice if there were level numbers or something so that one could show off to friends like 'I got to lvl 3' bet you'll never get past second. I got to the level that is your last screenshot and I'm quite proud, but I gave up there. I think you should make this into a post-jam version and mainly tweak the controls some (and support controllers).

For the not-snake it would be really great if the character didn't have as much momentum when one lets go of a button. It would be nice if there also was a small grace period after leaving a platform when jumping was still possible.

For the snake, it felt quite non-responsive, like it would be impossible to to sharp turns. The game is hard enough as it is and it's important that the player feels like the mistakes are entirely theirs.
sftrabbit
01. Sep 2016 · 20:18 UTC
Great idea! Really tough! Just doing two completely different kinds of movement simultaneously is a real pain. It would have been a bit kinder for the snake to remain safe after crashing and probably still fun (because then the puzzle is to get the snake in the right position). Anyway, really nice work. Graphics are simple but fit well, and the music is great!
MiniBobbo
02. Sep 2016 · 03:38 UTC
I agree with the comments about the difficulty on the one player and that it might be better served if the snake just remained a snake when it crashes instead of becoming kill-you blocks.

This game taught me that I can't multitask.
GFM
05. Sep 2016 · 03:13 UTC
I'm a fan of both 2-players/1-controller and 2-controllers/1-player, so of course I liked the idea! In one of the few games I've done outside game jams you have to either control 2 characters at once or coordinate with another player in a precision platformer...
With all that said, this game feels too familiar. I'm used (but not necessarily good!) with this kind of multitasking.

(I apologize in advance if you feel that I was too harsh on the following points, but I really liked the game idea and wish to point out all my problems with the game's controls so I may help you, the developer, to enhance it :D)

However, this game has some controls problems...

- Platformer controls feels unresponsive: Too low acceleration/too high max speed. This makes the second level way harder than it was supposed to be.
- Player doesn't get moved horizontally by the snake. This is visible from the first moment that the snake appears, but I must admit that it wasn't exactly a problem (though it would make the "staircase" level easier for single player)...
- Fixed height jump: This makes the third level from the left (on the pictures) pretty much impossible. The player has to time the fall of the character so it may safely pass beneath a dangerous tile... Sorry, but no, thank you... I'm done after a few tries.

I couldn't figure out way, but I also felt like the snake is too slow/unresponsive... Perhaps I'm too used with playing Nokia's snake on older cellphones, where the snake's head would move a whole tile a time... But I could get used to this.

The music is great and combines nicely with the game! And except for the level I mentioned earlier (the one on the third screenshot), I really liked the level design.

If the controls were fixed, this could be a great game! :)

Also, if you get to add controller support, be sure to map the left stick to the player (with the left shoulder button for jumping) and the right stick for the snake. ;)

P.S.: Reading through the comments, I may have been the only one to think the snake was slow... Oh, well... XD
Jupiter_Hadley
09. Sep 2016 · 22:02 UTC
Super challenging game. I included it in my compilation video series of Ludum Dare 36, if you’d like to take a look :) https://youtu.be/MTi5CJCBr-w
Deive_Ex
11. Sep 2016 · 16:04 UTC
Really cool idea! Too bad I have no one else to play with me right now...
Yumeito
13. Sep 2016 · 12:43 UTC
This!! Dashie has got to play this game XD
kraiom
19. Sep 2016 · 23:17 UTC
It's so hard I gave up in a stage where the screen is somewhat diagonally divided. Really hard, but the concept is great, and the stages were really fun!

- Sohakes