My new game (apple and worm)

[Diego]

Hi all

 

I realized something from my previous game dev projects, they are either dead or still in its infancy despite the amount of work I put in. So I decided to start a new one with a simpler premise, it's a 2d puzzle platformer called Apple and Worm: Patching Holes In Spacetime. (BTW, that stealth project is still going, it's just being reorganized ) And this plan is working nicely. I no longer spend weeks on a single model, asset creation is much faster.

 

In a nutshell, you play as a small apple that exists in a space with curved regions and you have to navigate each level to a wormhole. Hard to explain but easy to understand once you play. There is a story too but I'm still working on it. Also, some levels contain a bonus secret, a "natural philosopher" that you have to jump on his head. It's kind of a bonus thing, each philosopher you bonk on the head will unlock a small lecture on a subject of physics and math that are loosely related to the game mechanics.

 

This big animated gif is a good illustration of the game I think: (I'm not going to put img tags on it because it's rather large)

http://i.minus.com/i3XZLzDY8EuMg.gif

 

If anyone wants to take a look and tell me what you think, I have a webplayer and a standalone alpha demo ready here are the links:

 

Web player version

Standalone version

[Xarg]

It reminds me of And Yet It Moves, which was a pretty neat game. Any plans for moving/breaking objects?

[Diego]

Thanks

Moving, yes. The third level of the alpha demo has a couple of boxes to push.

[SeriousToni]

Great stuff! I always liked the Diego Games

[Airship Ballet]

That was pretty fun, and I don't usually enjoy this kind of platformer. I think the thing we can all take away from this is that apples pull weird 'o' faces when falling.

 

[RJFerret]

I'm glad there are limited levels, so I didn't spend all morning playing it. (Admittedly, from other games like this, I kept reaching for the run boost and jump further buttons, heh. Also, probably in the future works, but might want a different animation for when the player sticks themselves to a wall, rather than bopping up and down then.)

 

It was also rather weird/counter-intuitive on the third level when the gravity kept the apple down, but the box you nudged "dropped" up. From a player perspective, it just felt weird and I wondered why, after the fact I saw it provided a safe stepping point, but that seemed designed by the designer, rather than intended by the player (it required foreknowledge the player is ignorant of). There was no interaction/anticipating a challenge and surmounting it, just passively along for the ride with that one.

 

I wonder if it might get tedious over time with the player having limited control, but rather the environment playing the user?

 

However it reminds me of Sola Rola, which was a huge time sink for me, but sadly now isn't coming up...but was a rotating maze you navigated a ball through by spinning the maze, and gravity doing the work with various gates and doors and stuff.

[Diego]

The problem with the demo is that I need to cram in very few levels both a challenge and an introduction to the game. The last level is the only puzzle on the demo. The level with the falling boxes is linear, but I needed to tell the player that dynamic objects have their own gravity and it is unaffected by curves (which is something I haven't made my mind up yet). Ideally, after that the player would get to solve some puzzles in the next level involving dynamic objects, which is what you're missing, but everyone that tested was having so much trouble beating what was supposed to be a linear level that making an actual puzzle after that seemed harsh.

 

It was supposed to have more puzzles there but the fact that almost every tester failed to beat these levels was driving me insane, so I decided to go easy there. The final game will have more room for learning curve without compromising the puzzles

 

Thanks for the compliments, guys! I'm glad you're enjoying the game. (also, finally some people that can finish the demo!)