[SA Game Jam 2018] Alter
Jam: SA Game Jam 2018
Name: Alter
Level of Experience: Hobbyist
Members: @FlyinGerbiL @ivanbadenh @masterofpuppets7771 and @emileChantler
48hr Entry
FIRST BUILD: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FWy3CqpBcNF0uVRuNE6fhyFx08EGKgJh/view?usp=sharing
UPDATE 1: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1jio-8Qk20EWLADudeTEovkT_HfY7HF1U
LATEST VERSION: https://drive.google.com/open?id=12I6l-3GWSpyXOVz9n6WrBD8p6M3JAq72
UPDATE 1: Fixed some of the volume issues, as well as a bug with the grapple mechanic. Some slight terrain changes have been made as well to just add some polish.
UPDATE 2: Added some quality of life improvements and polished the level design a bit. It's no longer ridiculously hard to advance past certain points.
Alter takes place on a dystopian Earth where a small robot - the last of its kind - is reactivated to find itself without working parts. We incorporated the theme by use of upgrades that allow the player to traverse different parts of the map, as well as through simpler things like having colour, the ability to move left, or even just hear audio properly.
We have small forms of narrative scattered around the world, and the ending is determined by whether a player explores enough or not.
We hope you enjoy our game!
Name: Alter
Level of Experience: Hobbyist
Members: @FlyinGerbiL @ivanbadenh @masterofpuppets7771 and @emileChantler
48hr Entry
FIRST BUILD: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FWy3CqpBcNF0uVRuNE6fhyFx08EGKgJh/view?usp=sharing
UPDATE 1: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1jio-8Qk20EWLADudeTEovkT_HfY7HF1U
LATEST VERSION: https://drive.google.com/open?id=12I6l-3GWSpyXOVz9n6WrBD8p6M3JAq72
UPDATE 1: Fixed some of the volume issues, as well as a bug with the grapple mechanic. Some slight terrain changes have been made as well to just add some polish.
UPDATE 2: Added some quality of life improvements and polished the level design a bit. It's no longer ridiculously hard to advance past certain points.
Alter takes place on a dystopian Earth where a small robot - the last of its kind - is reactivated to find itself without working parts. We incorporated the theme by use of upgrades that allow the player to traverse different parts of the map, as well as through simpler things like having colour, the ability to move left, or even just hear audio properly.
We have small forms of narrative scattered around the world, and the ending is determined by whether a player explores enough or not.
We hope you enjoy our game!
Comments
I like the gradual progression of your abilities as you go through the space. The moment I got the color upgrade was an especially cool moment. The atmosphere you've created with both the art and the music was really interesting and made me want to explore the world more. I wasn't able to figure out the other upgrades other than moving though. I hear whispers of a grappling hook?
Moving forward, it could be great to have a way to replay some of the records you pick up in case people want to organise events. All in all it was pretty interesting time!
Aside from that, I was working on the level design so long, I forgot that I needed to ramp up the difficulty of what players encounter in terms of the upgrades, so the learning curve is a bit steep - especially when you get the Blink upgrade since the immediate section after that requires some precise timings on behalf of the player.
In terms of a way to revisit the records, we wanted to do that, but didn't really have time to fiddle with a system for that. Definitely something we'd like to do though!
All in all we had a lot of fun making this - and it being our first game jam we were happy with the result. We're already keen for the next one!
This reminded me of DLC Quest.
The controls worked great for me. The music was a tad soft. I hope you take this further! Excellent work.
As for the music, was it too soft prior to, or after picking up the audio upgrade? Just after the colour one - rather soon-ish after - you'll run into the one that removes the distortion from the sound and adds a little antenna to the character so you can properly hear the music and voice-overs.
I'm tweaking some of the level-design elements, because we realised a lot of it is much harder than we intended, so people tend to get rather frustrated with it. I'll have the new update uploaded in a few minutes!
Thanks again for the review!
Hope this helps!
Liked the upgrade to the colours. I got another upgrade which made a sound when I jumped (and I think the music became louder). Is that the audio upgrade (it looked like a spring with a red ball). I was hoping that upgrade was an improved jump as there appeared to be a lot of places I couldn't reach yet.
I really liked the first part of the game with getting upgrades to move backwards and then to jump. I feel like that part of it could have been a bit longer (with a little more story in between) with the spacing between the later upgrades a bit more condensed.
I guess I'm saying, I felt like the jumping platforming problems might have repeated a bit too much, when all I could do was jump and move (with no wall climb or double jump or other movement options to strategize around). But the growth of abilities at the beginning felt really good and fresh.
The game has great mood as well. It creates a mysterious and somewhat tragic ambiance and made me feel curious about where it was going.
The red coil is indeed the audio upgrade - and granted given more time we could've solidified the mechanic a bit more. The reason we didn't space the starting movements out too much was because we were afraid that would become tedious, but it makes complete sense to try and find a balance between the two - being that it either happens too quick or takes too long.
The double jump is actually acquired a bit later, and we had quite a few brainstorms around when the player should unlock it, but we have had quite a few of our friends tell us that the respawns become rather frustrating as it makes the game's progress really slow in certain areas.
Thanks again for taking the time, we appreciate it a lot!