I've Bean Stalking You by Artylo
You are the single defender of The Stalk. You must slay all the beast that fester under the soil, so that your stalk may grow and flourish.
The Stalk grows with the blood of its enemies, as it feeds on their rotting corpses (which are neatly decomposed into organic compost). The Stalk will rise, mighty and firm, allowing you to gain height through soil in randomly generated levels. Use your holy sword to slash and charge into enemies, slicing and pushing them off the side of the screen for cheap arcade combat. After you have slain all of The Stalk's enemies, it shall allow you to gently touch it's surface in order to climb and slay more enemies... then more climbing... then MORE enemies... then secrets... then MORE climbing... ect.
========================================================================
The game features a speedrun timer, which is it's main mode, due to the lack of win or loss condition. Therefore I announce a CONTEST!
The par time for the first 10 levels is exactly 3 minutes and 0 seconds.
For the first 3 people who manage to beat level 10, level 20 and/or level 30 in 3, 6 and/or 9 minutes respectively and post an image in the comments or send it to my e-mail: matglishev[at]gmail[dot]com ; will receive a special limited secret thingy from me. Good Luck and Happy Stalking!
Level 10:
RockhopperGames - 2m 38s
========================================================================
Known bugs:
- Collision System is taint
- Sometimes the vine doesn't allow you to climb
- Some unreachable enemies on high platforms from random level generation
========================================================================
Controls:
WASD or Arrow Keys - Movement
Jump - Up Arrow Key or W
Mouse - Swing Sword
Climb Stalk - Jump at the bottom of the stalk when you see the icon
Charge - Move in a direction and point the sword at the same direction. This will allow you to move faster, reach some more difficult platforms and push enemies off screen, instantly killing them.
Cheats (Don't use them for the contest, I will know ._.):
Holding CTRL and pressing ALT will let you pass your current level, if you are stuck. It's a temporary solution, because I couldn't be bothered to fix stupid RNG...
========================================================================
Post-Jam Version:
I'm planning on releasing a post-jam version after the voting period ends.
It will feature a rewritten collision and movement code to better fit the speedruning functionality.
Enemy AI will also be dynamic, instead of the currently static enemies. Each different enemy should have it's own AI mechanics and will be attacking your stalk as a sort of endgame.
The speedrun timer will be optional, instead of constantly being on.
There will be random boss encounters on some levels.
More weapons and different attacks.
More playable characters.
More tiles and different weather and particle effects.
NOTE: If you want to follow progress on the post-jam build.
Follow my Twitter: @MageArtylo
or my Tumblr: http://artylo.tumblr.com/
Although I will upload the new version here, updates will be posted there more frequently. It will take at least a month to make all of the updates, but I will be posting pre-release builds with the new engines and fixes.
========================================================================
Reviews (by some of my friends):
"What is this?" - Alexandra
"It looks nice..." - Annie
"It really looks fantastic! Are you sure you made this all today?" - Atanas
"ALL I WANT TO DO IS MEET SOME MEN AND PARTY ALL NIGHT!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZg2OLIlcsU" - Boqn
The Stalk grows with the blood of its enemies, as it feeds on their rotting corpses (which are neatly decomposed into organic compost). The Stalk will rise, mighty and firm, allowing you to gain height through soil in randomly generated levels. Use your holy sword to slash and charge into enemies, slicing and pushing them off the side of the screen for cheap arcade combat. After you have slain all of The Stalk's enemies, it shall allow you to gently touch it's surface in order to climb and slay more enemies... then more climbing... then MORE enemies... then secrets... then MORE climbing... ect.
========================================================================
The game features a speedrun timer, which is it's main mode, due to the lack of win or loss condition. Therefore I announce a CONTEST!
The par time for the first 10 levels is exactly 3 minutes and 0 seconds.
For the first 3 people who manage to beat level 10, level 20 and/or level 30 in 3, 6 and/or 9 minutes respectively and post an image in the comments or send it to my e-mail: matglishev[at]gmail[dot]com ; will receive a special limited secret thingy from me. Good Luck and Happy Stalking!
Level 10:
RockhopperGames - 2m 38s
========================================================================
Known bugs:
- Collision System is taint
- Sometimes the vine doesn't allow you to climb
- Some unreachable enemies on high platforms from random level generation
========================================================================
Controls:
WASD or Arrow Keys - Movement
Jump - Up Arrow Key or W
Mouse - Swing Sword
Climb Stalk - Jump at the bottom of the stalk when you see the icon
Charge - Move in a direction and point the sword at the same direction. This will allow you to move faster, reach some more difficult platforms and push enemies off screen, instantly killing them.
Cheats (Don't use them for the contest, I will know ._.):
Holding CTRL and pressing ALT will let you pass your current level, if you are stuck. It's a temporary solution, because I couldn't be bothered to fix stupid RNG...
========================================================================
Post-Jam Version:
I'm planning on releasing a post-jam version after the voting period ends.
It will feature a rewritten collision and movement code to better fit the speedruning functionality.
Enemy AI will also be dynamic, instead of the currently static enemies. Each different enemy should have it's own AI mechanics and will be attacking your stalk as a sort of endgame.
The speedrun timer will be optional, instead of constantly being on.
There will be random boss encounters on some levels.
More weapons and different attacks.
More playable characters.
More tiles and different weather and particle effects.
NOTE: If you want to follow progress on the post-jam build.
Follow my Twitter: @MageArtylo
or my Tumblr: http://artylo.tumblr.com/
Although I will upload the new version here, updates will be posted there more frequently. It will take at least a month to make all of the updates, but I will be posting pre-release builds with the new engines and fixes.
========================================================================
Reviews (by some of my friends):
"What is this?" - Alexandra
"It looks nice..." - Annie
"It really looks fantastic! Are you sure you made this all today?" - Atanas
"ALL I WANT TO DO IS MEET SOME MEN AND PARTY ALL NIGHT!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZg2OLIlcsU" - Boqn
Ratings
| Coolness | 100% | 1 |
| Overall | 3.06 | 632 |
| Audio | 3.20 | 228 |
| Fun | 2.63 | 799 |
| Graphics | 4.02 | 106 |
| Innovation | 2.51 | 817 |
| Mood | 3.27 | 284 |
| Theme | 3.37 | 735 |
Overall it runs fine (apart from a couple collision bugs), though I do wish there was more depth to combat than hacking at passive enemies.
All should run fine now.
fun game, i played 16 levels and never needed the cheat.
I understand that you move faster towards the direction you are pointing at, but since your character doesn't need to move a long distance to do it only feels unnecessary.
Also I think the sword should just do damage based on the direction of the mouse from the player simple do damage upon contact, not based on mouse cordinates.
Wished some enemies moved.
If you keep developing it I would add a double jump in there to help reach some higher platforms but I didn't have any massive difficulties with those, just a couple of frustrating falls.
Also the jumping and running seems to be completely random (rather than based on which direction your sword is in as I think you intended)
The mood was good, the graphics were innovative but the enemies were unchallenging and platform jumping puzzles get really old, really fast.
I like the style and the sound design is cool.
I have to ask, though, was the speedrunning idea a compromise for not having time to make the enemies fight back? If so, fair enough, we all do what we have to. Otherwise, you might want to refine some of the mechanics.
Speedrunning games need tighter controls, for one. I don't see why the sword had to be controlled my mouse aim, rather than using buttons to attack in front of you. Run/charging could be mapped to a button, allowing for faster turns, and making it safer to use on the edge of the map.
Also, speedrunning requires lots of reseting to get the best times, and having to close and reopen the game every time you screw up doesn't really cut it there. The random generations of each screen creates a problem too, encouraging even more resetting. I dunno if game maker can handle this, but setting a fixed seed for the generator could resolve that.
Despite that, I did give it a few times, and managed to get under the 10 level par ( http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/vv245/banthesun/punnyShot_zpsodex2d7l.png ) I don't need a reward, if I made the first goal, the challenge was nice on its own (and I wouldn't want someone who really cares about what that is to have to aim for the higher tiers). For a 48 hour game, I think you made a fine showing!
I didn't have any problems with level design so plus for RLG. :)
@RockhopperGames: The enemies originally moved and fought back. The Code for the AI is still in their scripts, but it is disabled. I was thinking of making them attack the stalk and not you, but that would mean that you wouldn't be able to go to the higher levels, because your stalk would probably be dead by then.
But I do acknowledge that speedrun-worthy games require tighter controls. The thing is that I was constantly altering the collision code to try and remove the clipping through platforms. It all came down to GameMaker's strange collision functions. If I had more time I'd write collision from scratch. The post-jam version will probably feature the new collision code and will fix most of the clunkiness in the movement.
A reset button is easy to implement and will surely be in the post-jam version.
I'll write up some of the post-jam features I'm planning to fix in the game's description above. Thanks for the great feedback! Your time has also been added to the leaderboard.
Anyway, gameplay is good, but controls should be improved a little.
I would've liked some in game instructions/tutorial levels, and left/right movement seems a bit sluggish compared to jumping.
Well Done!
Pros:
- Love the aesthetic, very Downwell, black and white games aren't too common
- Good music
- One-screen stages are a personal favorite
- Very dynamic
Cons:
I think you already have a lot of them covered yourself, it's VERY buggy at the moment with jump being inconsistent and the controls being iffy. The collisions didn't bother me much, but the jumping is very irregular and it was hard to reach the same platform twice by doing the same thing :)
I am not ever going to make it on the leaderboard. ;)