Mood Swings by Aaron Smith

[raw]
made by Aaron Smith for Ludum Dare 49 (COMPO)

Mood Swings

An Emotional Platformer

moodswinggif01.gif

So I took the LD49 theme of "Unstable" in an emotional sense and built a platformer centered around emotion and literal mood swings. This one was a struggle and I barely finished on time.

WAD to control, should be very self explanatory.Screen Shot 2021-10-03 at 6.06.36 PM.pngScreen Shot 2021-10-03 at 6.07.20 PM.png

A quick example of using the fear mechanic to get through level 2!

level2Small.gif

Ratings

Given 3🗳️ 1🗨️

Feedback

JCMonkey
04. Oct 2021 · 04:15 UTC
got stuck in the second level. so i have no idea what to do in the blue mode, it keeps making my character stick, but i cant wall jump, or do anything. i managed to get to the rope at the end but i couldnt get up to the next platform. im aparently missing something here.
Jakub Arnold
04. Oct 2021 · 11:09 UTC
also got stuck in the second level :\
🎤 Aaron Smith
04. Oct 2021 · 12:27 UTC
The fearful mode makes your character move away if the enemy sees them. You just sprint in a line away as fast as you can. This change of emotion, like others, can be used to complete the level.

I've added a small Gif to give folks the idea.

I think, in the end, this is a fairly wonky mechanic that requires a true tutorial and a full length game to get folks the idea. The Jam version of this was just too short for me to pack all that in in the time allotted.

I hope you give it another shot, the mechanic is a blast when used.
LDJam user 237588
06. Oct 2021 · 13:11 UTC
Nice game, small note: the sound of when I jump on someone's head seems like its coming from the right audio speaker/right side of my headphone, that was a little confusing.
jeremyfa
06. Oct 2021 · 13:12 UTC
I liked the idea of playing with mood/emotions to change the gameplay mechanics.

The game could deserve some small tutorial session where at least we are shown once that fear of another character makes you move horizontally very fast etc... But you mentioned that you barely finished on time so there's that!

Nice entry overall!
almightyzentaco
06. Oct 2021 · 13:14 UTC
Interesting little platformer. Took me a bit to realize I had to bounce on the heads of the white guys. The unstable rocks were a nice touch, and something I was planning on adding to my own game. Fun entry, nice work!
Stroe Andrew
06. Oct 2021 · 13:14 UTC
Weird feature, but i like it. Congrats on your entry...
Graphics is cool, but I would've like for the player to have an idle animation, but it's good good.
Frogman
21. Oct 2021 · 11:59 UTC
Great game! I loved your take on the theme, and the implementation with literal mood swings is incredible. The puzzles were also pretty nice, and have a ton of potential for more levels. The way that the whole level changed alongside your mood was a very nice touch. I felt like adding checkpoints would greatly reduce frustration, and there was a bug where Anger didn't change the background, but other than that, amazing entry!