Mission on Gestein 9 | <48 hour, almost LD28 platformer

[scutheotaku]

Hi everyone!

Here is my little game, "Mission on Gestein 9". It's a platformer of sorts, all based around the idea of taking an energy capsule with you through various stages while dodging enemies and making tricky "jumps."

I started this game for this most recent Ludum Dare, but unfortunately life got in the way and I wasn't able to finish it in time, despite its simplicity...so I took a few hours and finished it tonight (I think: we'll see how many bugs are found! haha). Anyway, the theme of Ludum Dare (as you probably know) was "You Only Get One," which inspired both the idea of there being one energy capsule you have to retrieve and keep with you, and also that you only get one life to complete the 10 levels, greatly increasing the tension.

Ok, here are the download links:
Windows EXE:
https://app.box.com/s/2zlmh45yxpqtu4ku7ik9 (59.5mb)

MacOSX App (NOT TESTED):
https://app.box.com/s/3nstu2ihu47ltnpoi0cr (59mb)

LOVE file (this is for LOVE 0.8, and will definitely not work with 0.9!):
https://app.box.com/s/k3z8hoi3bqb9yl5awicm (3.4mb)

Here are some instructions:
Move your ship with the Left and Right Arrow keys.
"Jump" with the Up Arrow key, or the "C" key
Press "X" or the Down Arrow key to pick up and drop the Energy Capsule when you are on top of or below it.
To fire your blasters, press either the Left control key or the "Z" key -- but you can only fire your blasters when you are NOT carrying the capsule!
Press "Escape" at any time to quit.
To clear a level, bring the Energy Capsule to a goal marker.
And don't die: you only have one shot!

And here are some screenshots:





All graphics, music, and sound were made by me. All of the coding was my own as well, with the exception of the excellent MiddleClass, Bump.lua, Anim8, and TESound libraries (along with LOVE, of course!).

I hope you enjoy my little game!

Cheers,
Ben

[BozoDel]

Gave up after automatically losing because of two different level transitions.

Also, I can stick to walls and rest there. =/

[Mermersk]

Nice music and I like games in this vein, where you are a spaceship. Quite hard game as well, how the ship controls is a bit tricky. Nice effort for such a small time

[scutheotaku]

Thanks for the comments!

Gave up after automatically losing because of two different level transitions.

Can you please explain what you mean by this? How are you "automatically" losing because of the level transitions? Are the level transitions somehow killing the player, or do you mean that you're dying because of where you "spawn" (not sure why that would be, since only two of the later levels put you in any danger at start, and both of those give you 20+ seconds to react)? If there is an issue with the game not switching levels properly, then please let me know which of the versions linked to above you're using (Windows EXE, MacOSX app, or LOVE file). Thanks!

Nice music and I like games in this vein, where you are a spaceship. Quite hard game as well, how the ship controls is a bit tricky. Nice effort for such a small time

Thanks. Yes, it is hard, and though that's by design (not an excuse, I promise!). The ship controls are a little difficult at first, but I think they are fairly smooth and intuitive...then again I've spent some time playing it Also, yes, this is not close to the polish of what I would normally want to release, but I figured that 1. what's the point of doing these jams if you don't release the game when you're done, and 2. I haven't released or finished anything in quite a while. Thanks again!

[BozoDel]

About the level transitions: I push buttons to move the ship and go to the end of the level. When the level transition occurs, I might still be pushing those buttons, which may lead me to lose somehow. The first time, I couldn't see what happened, cause it was too fast... I think it was from the second to the third level. The second time was on a later level, the power thingie fell, and I got a message that it broke... I think it went through one of those red lightning thingies... not sure again, as the screen blacked out to show me the message.

Using the .love file on Linux, btw.

[scutheotaku]

About the level transitions: I push buttons to move the ship and go to the end of the level. When the level transition occurs, I might still be pushing those buttons, which may lead me to lose somehow. The first time, I couldn't see what happened, cause it was too fast... I think it was from the second to the third level. The second time was on a later level, the power thingie fell, and I got a message that it broke... I think it went through one of those red lightning thingies... not sure again, as the screen blacked out to show me the message.

Using the .love file on Linux, btw.

Thanks for the response.

Sounds like it must be some sort of a framerate / delta-time issue (though I'm limiting delta time, so I don't understand why that would be). You shouldn't be anywhere near to danger at the start of any of the levels, so you'd have to hold down one of the move keys for several seconds under normal circumstances. Also, the capsule is supposed to fall on that one level (the point of the level is that the exit is right by where you spawn, but you have to go get the capsule first), but it can not be destroyed by falling, the monsters, or the "forcefields". The only way you can get that "capsule was destroyed" message is if the capsule falls outside of the level, which shouldn't be able to happen on that level...making me think that it fell "through" the wall. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to recreate that. Hmm...

[BozoDel]

I tried to record a video, but the controls got very unresponsive while it was recording