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[j-jorge]

Hello,

I would like to present a prototype of a game I am working on in order to receive critical feedback from players.

The game is about a character who has the ability to open a tunnel between two alternate versions of the same environment. I use to tell that he jumps between parallel universes. The goal is to find the crystals scattered in the universes in order to trigger a machine that will lead you to the next part of the game. See the project's page for more details.

Here is a screenshot of the main character opening a tunnel between two environments:


Most of the prototype is made of placeholders, especially the gray environment which uses only the placeholders. The theme of the forest can be considered as having the final style. Nevertheless, feel free to critic any part of the prototype.

The music has been made in half a day, so it is certainly not perfect. Again, feel free to tell me what you like or dislike.

The prototype contains 3 levels. Direct download of the Windows installer.

What do you think about this project?

Update August 2nd, 2013

I've made

[Udderdude]

Played around with it for a bit.  It has some nice art ..

The world switching mechanic is cool and has some promise .. I think my biggest issue with it is that it can feel like you're blindly fumbling around to see where to go in the other world because you can't see it except for a small window around your character.

Also, if you're in mid-jump when you switch from abstract to realistic world, your jump is reset and you go flying up much higher.  This doesn't make much sense, shouldn't your momentum be preserved?

It didn't make sense to me that in the realisic world you can jump really high, while in the abstract world your jump is normal.  Wouldn't it make more sense if this were reversed?

There's also little to no unique landmarks in each level, and the level layout tends to be rather same-y, so it's hard to tell exactly where you are.

I wasn't able to clear level 2 because I missed one of the yellow thingies and couldn't find it .. D:

Also, the music started to get really repetitive after awhile.

[j-jorge]

Thanks for the feedback Udderdude.

The world switching mechanic is cool and has some promise .. I think my biggest issue with it is that it can feel like you're blindly fumbling around to see where to go in the other world because you can't see it except for a small window around your character.

I totally see the problem. We try to keep the paths of each world near to each other, and to limit the changes to cases where the player is clearly stuck. Still, it is not obvious during the game.

Also, if you're in mid-jump when you switch from abstract to realistic world, your jump is reset and you go flying up much higher.  This doesn't make much sense, shouldn't your momentum be preserved?

The acceleration, the speed and the direction of the player at the opening of the tunnel are preserved. Thus you can go really high if you open a tunnel from the abstract world to the realistic/low-gravity world while being pushed by a spring, for example. For a simple jump, you should not go higher than if you started your jump in the realistic world, otherwise it is a bug.

It didn't make sense to me that in the realisic world you can jump really high, while in the abstract world your jump is normal.  Wouldn't it make more sense if this were reversed?

I totally agree. The visuals do not reflect the physics in the current situation and should have been switched with each other.

There's also little to no unique landmarks in each level, and the level layout tends to be rather same-y, so it's hard to tell exactly where you are.

I wasn't able to clear level 2 because I missed one of the yellow thingies and couldn't find it .. D:

Also, the music started to get really repetitive after awhile.

Well, I thought level 2 was still an easy one Every crystal is on the path, but the path may not be clear enough!

I keep your comments in mind for the next release.

[eblomquist]

Whoa! This looks very cool! I want to see these things in motion. 

[Hitrison]

Pretty fun game.  I like the world-changing mechanic.  Should make for some interesting puzzles.  It would be good if the switching was a lot quicker, though.  Having to wait for the bubble animation to finish was annoying, especially in the platform section of the second level.  Maybe even use two keys: one to survey the alternate world and the other to actually switch over.  I also missed the last crystal in level two.

[j-jorge]

Thanks for the comments everybody. I have finally seen the bug of the jump action reset when going through a tunnel, it will be easily fixed.

I have also made

.

For the last crystal, try to go under the ground when you see a large empty place below