Working Title by NoahRo

[raw]
made by NoahRo for Ludum Dare 45 (JAM)

Requires Vulkan support to run!
See below for more details...


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Description

Experience a work in progress.

Play through the development process of a 2D platformer game,
and watch your environment transform as you progress...

The further you get, the more features are added, including
menacing enemies, destructive spikes, and adaptive music.

Controls

| Action | Keyboard | | :----- | :-------------- | | Move | W,S,A,D | | Jump | Space / K |

Downloads

Download the build for your platform from itch.io.
Supported platforms: Windows and Linux.

Requires Vulkan support to run!

If the game doesn't run, it's likely that you're missing Vulkan API support.
Unless you're using a very old graphics card,
updating your graphics drivers should fix the issue.

If you're on Linux, you may need to install an appropriate
Vulkan driver package for your graphics card.
For Intel graphics on Arch Linux (or arch-based distros),
the package [vulkan-intel] did the trick for me.

Sorry about this inconvenience, I'm not sure how to circumvent this.

Change-Log

| Version | Download | Notes | | :-----: | :------: | :---- | | 1.0.0 | Windows Linux | Initial Ludum Dare jam release. Has some major bugs, which prevent the game from being completed: When dying and respawning at a checkpoint, after getting the high-jump feature you lose your high-jump, which prevents the game from being completed (unless you beat it without dying). The order in which the music tracks are played are messed-up; you won't experience the intended flow of the music in this build. | | 1.0.1 | Windows Linux | Partially fixes the music playing-order bug from v1.0.0 (still has some bugs). Was released about 20 minutes after the deadline. | | 1.0.2 | Windows Linux | Properly fixes the music playing-order bug. Fixes the bug where player's high-jump is taken away after respawning, making the game beatable. Adds frame rate counter system, which prints FPS to the console. Adds the WorkingTitle.desktop file for Linux file manager GUIs. Some minor, meta stuff. Was released about 5 hours after the deadline. |

Tools Used

  • [Rust], programming language
  • [Amethyst], engine
  • [Deathframe], framework
  • [Vim], code editor
  • [GitHub], git repository hosting
  • [Gimp], tile/background graphics
  • [Aseprite], sprite graphics
  • FL Studio, music
  • [Tiled], level design
  • [Travis-CI], Windows/Linux executable building

Ratings

Overall 572th 3.438⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Fun 691th 3.113⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 483th 3.274⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Theme 270th 3.726⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 667th 3.344⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Audio 187th 3.707⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Humor 710th 2.393⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Mood 610th 3.283⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Given 36🗳️ 20🗨️

Feedback

NachtWitch
08. Oct 2019 · 17:19 UTC
Great game you made
Celdur
09. Oct 2019 · 00:52 UTC
Game won't run for me sadly.
bassguitarbill
09. Oct 2019 · 01:03 UTC
Very good! I got very frustrated on the last section and I almost gave up. I'm glad that I didn't give up. I like what you did with the theme, and the music is wonderful.
🎤 NoahRo
09. Oct 2019 · 01:16 UTC
@celdur May I ask what OS you're running and what graphics card you have? The game requires Vulkan support to run, so you might need to update your graphics drivers. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Also, were there any error messages?
🎤 NoahRo
09. Oct 2019 · 01:20 UTC
@bassguitarbill Thanks for playing and beating our game! :)
We didn't play-test the game enough, the later sections of the level are a bit janky and don't quite work as designed.
We're planning on releasing a small post-jam version with a more polished level, etc. soon.
Celdur
09. Oct 2019 · 01:21 UTC
I'm on windows and I have an rx580.
when I try to boot the game I just get a cmd screen for a split second and then nothing.
🎤 NoahRo
09. Oct 2019 · 01:27 UTC
@celdur I see, one of our team members also has an AMD card, it worked for them after they updated the drivers.
This is very annoying, I'm not sure what I can do about this.
Pedro Rosa
09. Oct 2019 · 10:53 UTC
I like to play the game and it is a smart way to work with the jam's theme.
Xotsu
14. Oct 2019 · 06:47 UTC
Cool game
Josh Aaron Miller
15. Oct 2019 · 00:47 UTC
\+ Neat concept

\+ Great music

\- Incredibly frustrating:
- wall jumps are very tricky
- enemy and player spawn locations mean you can spawn into death quickly
- very precise platforming

Overall decent game!
Sebastian-M
15. Oct 2019 · 03:17 UTC
I love the creative idea. That transition from just a dot to a full on 2d game is just amazing. The music is great as well, I love how it builds as you go.

However, you're hurt by your controls, is very frustrating to move the character, the jumps are very weird and the wall jumps are just too hard. So it becomes quite difficult very fast.

However, it was a great entry for the jam. Good job!!!
jamioflan
15. Oct 2019 · 13:03 UTC
This is a brilliant idea! And super well implemented too. One thing I would have liked to see would be checkpoint gates to show me where my last checkpoint is.

Also, can you indicate which version is post-compo better on itch? The post-compo is listed first and doesn't specify what it is.
🎤 NoahRo
15. Oct 2019 · 22:40 UTC
@josh-aaron-miller
The movement hasn't been tweaked enough, it definitely doesn't feel right.
Yeah, the checkpoint system is pretty stupid simple; where you touch the checkpoint's hitbox is where you'll respawn, which can leave the player in a tough respawn location.

@sebastian-m
I didn't put enough time into properly tweaking the movement, so it doesn't quite feel right. For the next jam, I'll try to make the controls feel right as soon as I implement them!
The difficulty-spike was also not that intentional, we didn't play-test the game enough during development.

@jamioflan
A visual indicator to where a checkpoint is and where you get certain features (like the jump) would have been great! We planned to do something like that, but just ran out of time in the end.
I don't really consider the version 1.0.2 a post-jam version, because it only fixes two major bugs. It didn't feel right to add "post-jam" to the filename (also because we will likely be releasing a proper post-jam version soon-ish).
The 1.0.2 version is intentionally listed first, because we do want people to play that version so they can listen to the full soundtrack and also beat the game :P
I understand where you're coming from though. I added the change-log to the itch.io page, hope that's good enough of a fix :)

Thanks for all the great feedback! We're taking it into account for the post-jam version! :)
bdelehoy
16. Oct 2019 · 05:26 UTC
I like the procedural music a lot! The intro of the game was really neat as well!

I was a little confused as to which mechanics were added and when. Movement in general is very slippery and doesn't give the player much information - or at least, *consistent* information. For me, the rules of the game changed so often that it was hard for me to reliably or confidently make some of those tough jumps in the later sections because I wasn't used to that part of the game with, say, reduced gravity.
Asimov
16. Oct 2019 · 05:47 UTC
wasnt able to get past the second walljump passage :/
Jam373
16. Oct 2019 · 14:30 UTC
Really liked this, but a couple of bugs prevented me from beating the ufo jump after that 3 ufo cluster. Firstly the ufo you need to jump on top of gets stuck on the spikes when the spikes spawn (makes it much much harder).

Secondly after dying about 50 times at that section, I spawned inside of the right wall, couldn't move, had to quit the game :(

Like I said tho, really liked it. Very precise platforming, though difficult and a bit floaty. Loved your use of the theme, and the art gets really good!

Almost didn't mind how diffiucult later parts get once I realised the music slaps!
LoneWolfDev
16. Oct 2019 · 19:26 UTC
Wow interesting idea! I love how the process of adding features to the game is merged so well with the gameplay. Congrats!
ToxicComputer
16. Oct 2019 · 19:28 UTC
Graphics are absolutely great. Good job :)
kaeveris
18. Oct 2019 · 18:54 UTC
I really like the graphics, I love how the game changes itselt from super simple game to beautiful! Jumping wall quite frustrating tho, especially wall jumping
🎤 NoahRo
19. Oct 2019 · 02:30 UTC
@bdelehoy
I also like the music system :)
Yeah, we wanted to add some indicators for when certain features were added (jump, gravity changes), but couldn't do it in time.

@asimov
The controls and especially the wall jump weren't properly tweaked, it's kinda janky.
Sorry you couldn't play it, if we release a post-jam version, the controls will be improved.

@jam373
We didn't playtest the level enough, the later sections don't really work as intended.
Oh wow, you can totally get stuck in the wall there! Thanks for mentioning that! The checkpoint system definitely has some problems.

Thanks for the comments!
BrokenMirrorMedia
19. Oct 2019 · 06:50 UTC
This is a really cool idea, I never would have come up with the concept of a game being "created" and changing as you play it. I had some issues with the graphics flashing as I moved, which started to give me a headache, so I didn't get very far, but the idea is really neat!
🎤 NoahRo
20. Oct 2019 · 00:44 UTC
@brokenmirrormedia
Oh, sorry about the graphics issues causing you a headache :(
May I ask what OS and graphics card you are using? Maybe updating your graphics drivers would fix this, otherwise I'm not sure why you had this issue.
BrokenMirrorMedia
20. Oct 2019 · 05:56 UTC
@noahro I'm on Windows 10 and I've got an GeForce MX150 as my graphics card. I had similar problems with a couple other games so I wouldn't be surprised if it was an issue on my end. No worries!
BoneVolt
21. Oct 2019 · 18:10 UTC
Couldn't get it to work on my PC :(
🎤 NoahRo
21. Oct 2019 · 18:56 UTC
@bonevolt The game requires Vulkan API support, which is probably why it's not running for you. Doing a graphics driver update should fix the issue.
BoneVolt
21. Oct 2019 · 19:52 UTC
Yeah, I saw the instructions, but my PC is pretty old. I might try to play at a friends PC if I have a chance