NanoBit by Weeping Rupee

[raw]
made by Weeping Rupee for LD34 (JAM)
- Nanobit is a game about staying small. When you take damage you grow bigger, which could keep you from progressing in the level.

- Gather the five keys and enter the door to finish the level.

- It doesn't say it in game, but it does work with a controller. Honestly this game was made to be played with a D-pad on an Xbox controller. The keyboard controls work but I really suggest plugging in your Xbox controls for this one.

- The yellow pools will shrink you if you are too big.

- This game turned out to be pretty dang difficult in a super meat boy sort of way. There's a pretty steep learning curve but I hope you stick with it :)

- The game probably starts off too difficult. If you're having trouble with the first set of falling spikes, try teasing out the first two by jumping toward them then moving back to the ledge. Then, you can run past the third spike safely.

Update:

I changed some of the damage variables to ease up the difficulty a bit. I also, upon request, made the download a .zip folder instead of an installer.

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall(Jam) 3.33 508
Audio(Jam) 2.98 530
Fun(Jam) 3.16 515
Graphics(Jam) 3.32 580
Humor(Jam) 2.55 579
Innovation(Jam) 3.79 106
Mood(Jam) 3.08 627
Theme(Jam) 4.04 200

Feedback

MrJoshuaMcLean
15. Dec 2015 · 05:46 UTC
I like that you've flipped the cliche idea on its head, so growing is bad. The problem with the Super Meat Boy comparison is having to hit the button to restart makes dying a lot more frustrating than in SMB. But you're certainly onto something here - keep it up!
laxeot
15. Dec 2015 · 05:47 UTC
I really enjoyed this one!
Vertigon
15. Dec 2015 · 05:48 UTC
It was really hard! I liked the theme of growing due to damage, but if I even took one point of Dmg I couldn't squeeze through the opening at the bottom. Tried about 20 times, wish I could play more.
jayitinc
15. Dec 2015 · 06:19 UTC
Many games focused on growing being good, so it's interesting to see this play on growing being bad. Found the beginning to be REALLY hard though.
Charging Llama
15. Dec 2015 · 06:29 UTC
Very fun and frustrating! The character is a little hard to control at times though.
AriaMK
15. Dec 2015 · 06:40 UTC
Wow. This was pretty challenging. It got me cursing a bunch :)
I probably restarted about 30 times and got to the point of the worm creatures.
I'm looking forward to playing your next game too!
stargardengames
15. Dec 2015 · 06:54 UTC
I really liked the premise.

I thought the game was very punishing. Even though there's a whole spectrum of sizes which damage can grow you too if you take any damage at all, it's too much for you to get through the first part. I couldn't get past the first part 90% of the time so I ended up giving up.

The premise was interesting but based on what I played it may as well of been death on hit because being hit once forces you to restart.
stargardengames
15. Dec 2015 · 06:55 UTC
I thought the game was very punishing. Even though there's a whole spectrum of sizes which damage can grow you too if you take any damage at all, it's too much for you to get through the first part. I couldn't get past the first part 90% of the time so I ended up giving up.

The premise was interesting but based on what I played it may as well of been death on hit because being hit once forces you to restart.
SpecialChef
15. Dec 2015 · 06:55 UTC
Growing is bad. Love it! Music was nice. Graphics were great. Innovative. Challenging as hell! Ease up on the beginning and offer a more subtle increase in difficulty and you may have a game worth developing further. I really enjoyed this one. Thanks for submitting.
stargardengames
15. Dec 2015 · 06:58 UTC
Also I think a lot of people (me included) would a appreciate a single executable rather than the installer. The compressed zip version tends to work in game maker.
moltanem2000
15. Dec 2015 · 07:04 UTC
I really enjoyed the graphics and gameplay and well done thinking a bit outside the box re: the theme. My only complaint is that at many points in the level taking a single point of damage forces you to restart, which kind of negates the whole cool mechanic you've got going on.

But other than that really enjoyable, and I found myself getting excited whenever I was able to consistently beat a section
Sosolol261
15. Dec 2015 · 09:51 UTC
Overall a nice game. Got really REALLY frustrated at first though. That 1 part is hell XD.
Also I fixed the updating bug(hopefully). You can try it again if you'd like.
trykondev
15. Dec 2015 · 13:01 UTC
Super tough but I'm into it. As a fellow creator of a frustratingly tough game...I salute you
ObsessiveNerd
16. Dec 2015 · 03:26 UTC
Interesting take on the concept! Good job!
fluidvolt
17. Dec 2015 · 00:54 UTC
Yeah, super unforgiving! To get out of the first area you can't get hit by pretty much anything. Frustrating, but it does seem like what you're going for. I do like the idea of growing being an impediment though. Really unique. Good job.
yuotta
17. Dec 2015 · 04:03 UTC
Overall, this game does have an interesting premise and I like what it's trying to do! The controls felt too tight though. Needed 'W' to be jump and the mouse to move around the screen and shoot!
sonelliot
17. Dec 2015 · 04:07 UTC
It's hard, but fun. It took me a while to figure out that the yellow liquid makes you smaller. Also, I think I'd prefer it if rather than growing by small amounts you just snap to a larger size. This way it is really obvious if you are too big to fit through the door or not. There were a few times where I 'almost' was small enough but not quite :-\

I really liked the art and music as well. Great work!
Lukbebalduke
17. Dec 2015 · 04:22 UTC
Cool gameplay, but it is a little bit too hard.
bitdecaygames
17. Dec 2015 · 05:29 UTC
An excellent use of the theme to play on the platformer genre.
tantumgames
17. Dec 2015 · 20:03 UTC
A cool idea for platforming, nice gameplay, sound and graphics. The topic came perfectly.
Hot Box Games
17. Dec 2015 · 21:07 UTC
Was kind of cool but I couldn't play without taking at least one point of damage, I tried a good dozen times but it's too hard :(
Though I liked that you bothered to make the tile sprites random for the levels, good job!
Andrew Deem
19. Dec 2015 · 04:28 UTC
Cool stuff! Game maker devs unite! Haha. :) I really like this game! Good work. Great fun with nice graphics. Audio was aight, but not annoying or anything. Also, good idea with the theme.

I just want to say that I tried to see how big I could get and I got so large that the game had me "start" again at the spawn point but all my progress was saved. Interesting little bug.
🎤 Weeping Rupee
19. Dec 2015 · 05:12 UTC
"I just want to say that I tried to see how big I could get and I got so large that the game had me "start" again at the spawn point but all my progress was saved. Interesting little bug."

ah ha! see I let my 3 year old son play the game and I looked back and noticed the spikes were gone but he was normal size again at the start of the level-- I was really scratching my head over it. Thank you for that little report haha.
pianoman373
19. Dec 2015 · 06:18 UTC
Ultimate rage game. I love how you flipped growing to become a bad thing.
Jace239
19. Dec 2015 · 06:44 UTC
I included your game in my Let's Play Ludum Dare series as thanks for commenting on my game!

You can check out the details here: http://ludumdare.com/compo/2015/12/19/lets-play-ludum-dare-34-episode-01-is-now-uploaded/
sprawl
19. Dec 2015 · 17:37 UTC
Very good concept. I couldn't figured out of to get past the part with the worm, I always seemed to be too big even without getting damaged.

Great job. It's very interesting !
Nega Drive
19. Dec 2015 · 18:05 UTC
Nice idea. Interesting use of the growing mechanic as almost a 'health meter'. Like people have said it's a bit too difficult though, and the game could use some extra easier sections beforehand to ease you into the it. Cute graphics and music though. Pretty good stuff.
Jace239
19. Dec 2015 · 22:01 UTC
Realized I forgot to rate this, so posting again so I can submit my vote. My opinions are reflected in the Let's Play video as mentioned in my post above ;)
nlbi21
20. Dec 2015 · 19:17 UTC
Wow this game is very fun, i like it. But, it is a little difficult. Anyways, i like difficult in platformer game. Very well done. :D
Ludipe
21. Dec 2015 · 22:25 UTC
The growing when you're hit concept was kind of nice, but the game lacks a lot of visual feedback when the player jumps, gets hit or shoots an enemy.

BTW, since you aren't using the mouse to aim maybe shooting could be binded to a key.
g12345
23. Dec 2015 · 10:43 UTC
I love the idea of using growing to make a very unforgiving platformer. Love the idea, and lots of room for improvement (note I'm testing the Jam version.)

Unforgiving platformers are good if you get the controls right, though. The Space key is not a good jump key for such games. In fact I've remapped it when I play this game. Still having to switch to the mouse for shooting when it gets hectic feels like a design error than an unforgiving platformer.

Also, I wouldn't call a game with randomly disappearing floor blocks that are hard to jump onto, "super meat boy sort of way" game, but rather just "unfair because of randomness". Super meat boy might be hard, but theres not much randomness there. Also that game has more checkpoints.

Great usage of theme, but if you've claimed that this is hard but in a hard but _absolutely_not_ super meat boy kinda way then I'd have believed you a lot more. Still, there are lots of ways you can improve upon, so that's fine.
🎤 Weeping Rupee
23. Dec 2015 · 16:46 UTC
@g12345 just wanted to say, since a couple people seem to be missing it, that you can also use the enter key to shoot. You don't have to use the mouse at all. It shows that in the controls at the beginning of the game, but maybe that needs to be made more clear.
🎤 Weeping Rupee
23. Dec 2015 · 17:26 UTC
Also, honestly this game was made to be played with a D-pad on an Xbox controller. The keyboard controls work but I really suggest plugging in your Xbox controllers to experience it right. The keyboard keys were kinda a compromise to begin with...
mekewi
24. Dec 2015 · 12:55 UTC
i enjoyed this one nice idea
crucknuk
24. Dec 2015 · 15:57 UTC
Nice entry! It is innovative and challenging! Just to let you know, I let myself growing two times and it had two different effect: the first time, it restarted; the second time, I became so big that I ended up over the playing area (I could run freely like in the old super mario xD). Anyway, good job ;)
scorched
24. Dec 2015 · 20:38 UTC
Growing by taking damage was one of my ideas for this LD! Cute, that somebody implemented that :-)
napoleon
25. Dec 2015 · 13:19 UTC
The controls are not that good, sorry. :/
🎤 Weeping Rupee
25. Dec 2015 · 18:58 UTC
@ napoleon

Just wondering-- did you use xbox controller? Not sure how to message your personally through here.
radmars
26. Dec 2015 · 01:44 UTC
Really cool concept but yeah, brutally hard. In terms of design, more ways to get smaller would be helpful, since as it stands getting too big is game over except you don't find out until later which feels a bit weird. Regardless this could be really awesome with some tweaking. Nice graphics & music btw. Great work!
Starspell
28. Dec 2015 · 16:19 UTC
The like the idea of this game. I feel like what is letting it down the most is its level design. It's way too easy to get stuck and be unable to continue. I feel like the pools should not be finite usage items.

Also it was very hard to run and jump at the same time. I feel like the input logic is incorrect there.

I'd love to see what you could have done with the level design with more time.
MercuryXGames
29. Dec 2015 · 16:28 UTC
This game was amazing, but also very difficult. The player sometimes get stuck when under water
zenmumbler
31. Dec 2015 · 15:54 UTC
Quite long game (for LD) with some balancing issues but with a good idea and usage of theme. I see you added a checkpoint post-LD version which is indeed what I missed after I got pretty far but then got too big and then it's over. Super Meat Boy e.g. is hard but failure only means redoing 5 to 15 seconds of gameplay, here you have to get through everything again.

Nonetheless, a quality entry!