[SA Game Jam 2019] DeSolve

A [SA Game Jam 2019] entry
Solo Developer
Hobbyist, Overall
48hr
Cape Town

image

DeSolve is a 2D platformer where you will play as a Slime who lives deep inside of a sewer system, who really wants to know what the outside word tastes like, literally. Collect items inside of you slime body and use them to destroy or dissolve your obstacles. Absorb other slimes to grow larger and stronger, allowing you to carry more items within you.

All the art and animations in the game is made with play dough.

Submission build (Windows):
https://drive.google.com/open?id=19pqE6Z0J5qGKfxkDjSLBk7Kp_k5ubwT2

Post submission build: Controls:
A: Left
D: Right
S: Crouch
Space: Jump
K: Attack (Don't ask me why I chose K)


Clarifications:
  • Green slimes have 1HP
  • Red slimes have 5HP
  • After defeating the red slime, you need to drop down the hole.
  • Walk/Jump into the black pipes to progress to the next levels.

Bugs:
  • The W key is not being used. I need to remove it from the Controls Instructions.
  • Completing the game twice without exiting, causes the game to get stuck on the Loading screen. [alt + F4 to exit]
  • Game Over, doesn't restart the game. Only resumes from last checkpoint.

Comments

  • Very cool idea, haha it almost makes my sympathies with the slime, poor guy wants to break free! :-D
    Thanked by 1Enthused_Dragon
  • Love the art style on this, so cool
    Thanked by 1Enthused_Dragon
  • I love the way your dialogue box pops in and out! It's really clever to have the character's eye on the left hand side. If you add more characters later on who speak, it'll make it a lot easier for the player to know who's talking :)
    Thanked by 1Enthused_Dragon
  • A Really solid looking game so far. The way the speech bubbles pop up at key points of the game to guide the player is a nice addition. Music is also fitting, I like it
    Thanked by 1Enthused_Dragon
  • Thanks guys, hopefully it plays alright.
    Link was added to the main body if anyone wants to give it a go.
  • Haha what a crazy art style! I take it you made the clay images? A creative approach. It's been ages since I played a platformer and I had fun in yours. I liked the protagonist, what crap place to be stuck!
    Thanked by 1Enthused_Dragon
  • this will be thee first 1 i try out very visually appealing!!
    Thanked by 1Enthused_Dragon
  • Haha what a crazy art style! I take it you made the clay images? A creative approach. It's been ages since I played a platformer and I had fun in yours. I liked the protagonist, what crap place to be stuck!
    Yea, I physically made everything with play dough, took pictures and processed from there on. :P
    Glad you liked it.
  • i liked it as "a" game but i have a bit of citisism...id like to say first off i like the art the animation all of it even the music i think it would serve as a fantastic introduction to a game ,...but i dont think think i could find the crafting aspect in it? i found some triangles i was hoping to use at some point. also i wouldve liked to see a health bar or some sort of indication to the red slimes health. ....overall well done its quirky and fun.

    here is a video review:
    Thanked by 1Enthused_Dragon
  • juanathin said:
    i liked it as "a" game but i have a bit of citisism...id like to say first off i like the art the animation all of it even the music i think it would serve as a fantastic introduction to a game ,...but i dont think think i could find the crafting aspect in it? i found some triangles i was hoping to use at some point. also i wouldve liked to see a health bar or some sort of indication to the red slimes health. ....overall well done its quirky and fun.

    here is a video review:
    Thanks for the review, I appreciate it a lot.
    There was a small crafting mechanism in the game, which was collecting the two chemicals(triangles) and using them to make the shit bridge rise.
    But I see you picked those up before reaching the instructions. ;)

    The game was also built around crafting, i.e. everything made from play dough.

    I will continue working on this in the near future and try to make a full game of it.
    I will definitely add a health bar to the boss fights, like the red slime.
  • So cute, really cool aesthetic. You definitely took a very lateral interpretation to the theme by physically crafting the pieces! Good job.
    Thanked by 1Enthused_Dragon
  • I really like the crafted aesthetic. The game itself was complete, fun experience.

    On the platforming side of things I felt that the jumping could be tightened up a bit, and I feel that the spikes didn't well communicate the extent of their collision geometry.

    I also retrieved the two chemicals before I reached the prompt, so it took me a moment to realize I'd already collected the necessary elements.
    Thanked by 1Enthused_Dragon
  • edited
    I really like the crafted aesthetic. The game itself was complete, fun experience.

    On the platforming side of things I felt that the jumping could be tightened up a bit, and I feel that the spikes didn't well communicate the extent of their collision geometry.

    I also retrieved the two chemicals before I reached the prompt, so it took me a moment to realize I'd already collected the necessary elements.
    Thank you for the kind words. I really appreciate it.

    I can definitely tighten the jumping a bit, it's quite easy to jump over the crystals. The crystals themselves have quite an accurate collision box, but I think the player collision box needs to change according to the body shape during jumping.

    I can work a bit on the level design so that prompt comes up first before going out in search of the chemicals. :P
    Thanked by 1NickCuthbert
  • Liked the game, was a bit confused as to how it fits the theme, don't really care though, great aesthetic, loved the levels and character design. It is very intuitive, fun gameplay, I just felt that on the whole the level to level experience could have been condensed into 1 bigger level.
    Thanked by 1Enthused_Dragon
  • Thank you for the feedback, I appreciate it a lot.
    Definitely going to make larger levels in the near future, polish this game up nicely and improve on the puzzle crafting aspect.

    On another note, I see some have requested a MAC Build.
    So here we go, built and uploaded.
    https://drive.google.com/open?id=1HxU886Nhpf_XxkEt9feRc-AASjmMFtLj

    It's untested since I don't have a MAC.
    Please let me know if it works.
  • First off i really really enjoyed the artwork and the overall style of the game and found it a joy to play.

    The players controls also felt really sharp and responsive and combined with the simple combat mechanics made for an overall great experience.

    I also do agree with some of the above comments, the levels could've probably all been merged into one giant continuous level.

    Other than that i really enjoyed your game.
    Congrats!
    Thanked by 1Enthused_Dragon
  • This game was gross... but in a good way. I feel like making a slime in a sewer seem cute is a huge achievement xD

    The movement and controls are great. The visuals all fit together nicely (despite being poop) and I like the slime a lot :)
    Easy to get started, but still engaging. The sounds were great and really immersed me, I could almost smell the sewer (lovely).

    Only con: would have liked to see a few more puzzles (I know the triangles were an attempt and time was short though).

    Would love to explore more sewers in future!
    Thanked by 1Enthused_Dragon
  • I had fun with this! I played right to end without a dull moment. My favourite moment was when I tried to grab a health poo (which did nothing because my health was already maxed) and a friend watching behind me said "nah, you're already full of shit". :P

    I found my character kinda endearing and enjoyed watching him grow, literally. Also like the water / sewer visual effect.

    I'd agree with NickCuthbert on tightening jumping. During jumps I felt disconnected from the slime.

    Mostly I'm impressed with the level design in this game. Having tried to craft levels for my own games, I've learnt how hard good level design is and I'm impressed with how fluid the levels in this jam were, given the short time limit.

    Kinda sad this ended so soon, I'd be keen to spend more time with slime and their adventures.
    Thanked by 1Enthused_Dragon
  • Hmmm so not sure why but the mac build doesn't work, as in:
    I use UnRAR to try decompress it, it tells me it's not an RAR file.
    /Users/steventu/Downloads/SA Game Jam 2019 - Desolve (MAC).rar is not RAR archive
    No files to extract
    So I renamed it to a zip and tried to unzip it, and it became a .cpgz file. Which can unzip to a zip file, which unzips to a .cpgz file, ad infinitum...
  • Tuism said:
    Hmmm so not sure why but the mac build doesn't work, as in:
    I use UnRAR to try decompress it, it tells me it's not an RAR file.
    /Users/steventu/Downloads/SA Game Jam 2019 - Desolve (MAC).rar is not RAR archive
    No files to extract
    So I renamed it to a zip and tried to unzip it, and it became a .cpgz file. Which can unzip to a zip file, which unzips to a .cpgz file, ad infinitum...
    So weird.
    I downloaded, extracted and rezipped as 7zip.
    https://drive.google.com/open?id=1FyoaaQYHwuC1cEAEYR2s00e2Nw_NeoZb

    Let me know if this one works.
  • Hmmm, dunno how this build works, the 7zip works but then it has a folder Contents, with these under:
    Frameworks
    Info.plist
    MacOS
    Resources

    Went into MacOS > opened "SA Game Jam 2019 - Slime"

    A terminal came up with some gibberish:
    image
    Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 11.40.40.png
    716 x 447 - 112K
  • I really enjoyed your game a lot. The aesthetics were quite fun and very interesting. It really felt like a nice platformer game where you slowly get introduced to new and interesting things. I also liked the way you were holding the player's hand in the beginning but very quickly without me even realising, the game stops spoon-feeding. This was very nice since I didn't feel lost in the beginning, but also felt like the game didn't assume I was 3 years old.

    Some recommendations for if you would ever want to add some more to it. I think it would have been nice if there was a bit more crafting, you could also incorporate a bunch of stuff that might get flushed down the toilet, a friendly goldfish or even someone's wedding ring. Also, I think It would have been very epic for the game to end with a mighty boss fight, where you would fight something big strong strong.

    It's really crazy that this was done by a solo dev in 48 hours, props to you!

    All around it was a very cool game and I played it to the end a few times (wish it was longer because it was fun haha)!
    Thanked by 1Enthused_Dragon
  • Please let me know if you're based in CT, JHB or where?
  • Tuism said:
    Hmmm, dunno how this build works, the 7zip works but then it has a folder Contents, with these under:
    Frameworks
    Info.plist
    MacOS
    Resources

    Went into MacOS > opened "SA Game Jam 2019 - Slime"

    A terminal came up with some gibberish:
    image
    Damn, wish I knew what the issue was.
    I'll try building a new version tonight and see if it looks different, maybe something went wrong.
    Thanked by 1Tuism
  • I really enjoyed your game a lot. The aesthetics were quite fun and very interesting. It really felt like a nice platformer game where you slowly get introduced to new and interesting things. I also liked the way you were holding the player's hand in the beginning but very quickly without me even realising, the game stops spoon-feeding. This was very nice since I didn't feel lost in the beginning, but also felt like the game didn't assume I was 3 years old.

    Some recommendations for if you would ever want to add some more to it. I think it would have been nice if there was a bit more crafting, you could also incorporate a bunch of stuff that might get flushed down the toilet, a friendly goldfish or even someone's wedding ring. Also, I think It would have been very epic for the game to end with a mighty boss fight, where you would fight something big strong strong.

    It's really crazy that this was done by a solo dev in 48 hours, props to you!

    All around it was a very cool game and I played it to the end a few times (wish it was longer because it was fun haha)!
    Thank you for the good review and kind words.

    I will definitively be making larger levels for this game with more intricate puzzles and crafting.
    I've got a few "shitty" ideas I can use to make this game even more fun. :P
    The red slime was supposed to be a big boss fight but I ran out of time and couldn't make it epic enough.
    Thanked by 1vetkaashaas
  • Fengol said:
    Please let me know if you're based in CT, JHB or where?
    Hey,
    I'm based in CPT. :)
  • Tuism said:
    Hmmm, dunno how this build works, the 7zip works but then it has a folder Contents, with these under:
    Frameworks
    Info.plist
    MacOS
    Resources

    Went into MacOS > opened "SA Game Jam 2019 - Slime"

    A terminal came up with some gibberish:
    image
    I found the issue.
    Windows shows the .app file as a folder, and I renamed it without the .app.
    Here's a new link with a copy that should work: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1nUQpLzthxotB2qhqshMSiuNxsXGDwoza
  • Bad news, the new one unzipped fine, but when I try to run it, this error comes up:
    The application “SA Game Jam 2019 - DeSolve” can’t be opened.
    Not much to go on, I know :/
  • Tuism said:
    Bad news, the new one unzipped fine, but when I try to run it, this error comes up:
    The application “SA Game Jam 2019 - DeSolve” can’t be opened.
    Not much to go on, I know :/
    Awww, I'll play around a bit over the weekend and see if I can find anything that looks like it could be an issue.
  • Tuism said:
    Bad news, the new one unzipped fine, but when I try to run it, this error comes up:
    The application “SA Game Jam 2019 - DeSolve” can’t be opened.
    Not much to go on, I know :/
    Please try again when you have a moment and let me know if this version works.
    https://drive.google.com/open?id=1nUQpLzthxotB2qhqshMSiuNxsXGDwoza
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