TIGSource Forums

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Description Had no intention of doing anything for this, then I saw this: "LOVELETTER" KIMA / artist figure, or Official Site And feelings to him 込Me. A character string, you can write a love letter in the form of a password. Save finished writing, shoe rack 忍Baseyou to her. You dare not care about them by hand. What good end or bad end, it's up to you everyday. (The piece of software can save is a one-time) (added emphasis is important-ish) ...and a fully formed and distinctly achievable game design lept into my mind.  So I might have to do something after all. Sincere apologies to Bood_War who spotted it first http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=13430.0 (http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=13430.0).  I hope this cover is big enough for the both of us. :)		Inspired by (http://famicase.com/09/softs/20.jpg) (http://famicase.com/09/softs/20.jpg)

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Play
[Play Online] (http://jonathanwhiting.com/coding/loveletter/)

How to play
Use the arrow keys or wsad, or numpad.  Jump around.  Collect hearts.  Collect them all without dying even once and you'll get the chance to dedicate the game however you wish!

I made a start on this last night:

(http://jonathanwhiting.com/temp/loveletter.png)

There's a first build up at http://jonathanwhiting.com/temp/loveletter.html (http://jonathanwhiting.com/temp/loveletter.html).  There's nothing desperately exciting in it though, just some basic platformer physics.  If anyone has any comments on how it feels/how I could improve it let me know, I think nailing the feel here is going to be important.

This is a game about commitment.  It is a collection based platformer, with no save points, and no extra lives.  It will be brutal, yet fair.  The first person to actually beat it will dedicate the game for eternity to whomever they like.

The game doesn't load for some reason . Anyway , The graphics look awesome , very simple and fresh , good luck :)

Glad someone is doing this love letter cart...

The demo feels a little sluggish to me--like the air is thick and heavy. Maybe it's a steamy love letter though and this is a-ok?

Like the visuals.

Hmm, curious..  Could you share your platform/browser/flash player version so I can try and figure out why not?


Hmm, no, that's not really my intention, and playing about with it a bit more I think I see what you mean.  I'll have a play later, see if I can make it feel a bit snappier.

Thanks for the comments re: graphics both of you :)

It is probably due to my shitty internet connection , Anyway , I use Chrome 5

"Loveletter"
KIMA / figurine artist, among others
Put in your feelings for her.
Character by character, try writing a love-letter with the password form.
When you're finished writing, save; you can hide it in her shoe rack.
A boy with courage would hand it to her personally, but it doesn't matter.
A good ending or bad ending always depends on the boy.
(For each game you can save just once.)

I managed to crash it just now and it killed Firefox.
I was filling up the screen with blocks until the little guy was at the top.
I think it crashed either because it tried to push the guy off of the top of the screen, or because i tried to draw over the guy.

I like how this is coming along, the graphics are really cool!

IngisKahn:  Wow, huge thanks for the better translation.  I'm not sure if it changes the direction I'm going to take or not yet, but at least I'm now fully informed :)

Nugsy:  Ah, sorry about that, my platform physics appears to like to go into infinite loops when the player gets stuck.  Serves me right for leaving development features (the block drawing) in 'release' builds.  It shouldn't happen again, I hope.

Had a productive couple of pre day job hours this morning.  I expanded the game world support from a single screen to many screens, and tweaked the physics a bit (mostly I just sped them up). I've updated the build at http://jonathanwhiting.com/temp/loveletter.html

I like the way jumping feels. And how your little block guy flails his little legs :D

Hah, yes. The flailing was something I'd meant to fix at some point, but it's been growing on me :)

Glad you like the jump feel, I'm a lot happier with this revised version, but it's so hard to judge these things without feedback.

HybridMind: Thanks for the point about sluggishness, you were definitely right.

Nice the feel has been much improved. Fun to explore the larger space as well. Yeah I dig the minimal visual style on this one a lot.

I find myself falling off platforms a lot when I mean to jump.  Maybe that's just me.

I don't mind, i enjoy crashing things! :biglaff:

The only problem i seem to have with the new multiscreen setup is that on open-topped screens, it's hard to tell where the edge of the game is. I guess this could be solved by putting a border around the game, or just changing the background colour of the page.

Other than that minor niggle, this is coming along really nicely. Can't wait to see more!

Oh, please don't "fix" the flailing! I assumed it was intentional. It's very charming.

I don't understand what Nugsy means by filling the screen with blocks, can you create blocks? I only managed to explore for a few screens before having to stop because I couldn't jump high enough.

Hmm, that's a little concerning.  Presumably you mean that it feels like you pressed jump before reaching the edge, but fell instead?  I can think of one or two things that might be able to tweak to improve the feel here, but it may not help.  Will have a look anyway, thanks for the pointer.


Hah, okay, it stays (unless I come up with something better later).


My original build had my development tilemap prodding 'tool' in.  I like to make levels in-engine wherever possible, because of the instant feedback.  It's disabled now.


Yep, there's only a handful of screens in this build, and they're just placeholder tests.  There'll be a *lot* more before I'm done (I really enjoy level design).

Thanks for all the feedback all!

Making pretty good progress I think.  My (rather simple) core mechanics are now in (though perhaps shy a little tweaking), and I've made a start on the proper level design.

I've updated the build (http://jonathanwhiting.com/temp/loveletter.html).  If you hit a "NO" screen it just means I've not developed that bit yet, there's only 6 or so of the 34 planned screens.  Oh, and try pressing 'm', it's kinda cool.

Increpare: I think I found the reason that you were falling off platforms too easily:

There was a bit of a bug in my platforming logic that meant that it could be up to 3 (randomly) logic frames after pressing jump before the jump begins.  Which meant you could travel nearly half a square before the jump kicks in, not great!

I've fixed it now.  Thanks again for mentioning it, I'd have been unlikely to look otherwise.

Yeah didn't run into any control issues (I had some issues with the jump like increpare but it is working fine now!)

I'll have to go back and try the 'M' key to see what it does. I like the jump power up (and what I assume will be puzzle solving aspect on later levels) on how to traverse with your power intact etc. Very cool.

Really glad I found it then!


Yep, that's definitely something I've been working in, I'm trying not to go overboard on the puzzles though, the intention is it'll be mostly about consistent precise platforming.

I've done about 2/3rds of the level design now, and I've been working out some of the odd glitches and performance worries I was having.  Feels a lot more solid to me now.

I've updated the build (http://jonathanwhiting.com/temp/loveletter.html) again, there's a lot more to explore in this version, but a lot more loose ends too.  Now to start tying them off..

Shaping up nicely -

I wonder what the chance is of someone dedicating this to an obscene word : P

This is brilliant. BUT: considering the second highlighted point, I think you should remove the first point, so that it takes effort to beat it that one first time. Otherwise, pretty much the first person to play it will get to dedicate it.

Fairly high I'm sure.  I think I'm okay with that though.


When I say fair I simply mean that I won't be playing masocore tricks on players.  To dedicate the game a player will have to complete the entire thing without dying once.  This *should* be very hard, but we'll see.

I finally finished the level design (exercise and tiredness got in the way last night).  The build (http://jonathanwhiting/temp/loveletter.html/) is updated.

This build also has what will become practice mode enabled, meaning when you die you only get bumped back to the last heart.  I figured not every one would be interested in commiting to trying for a true one life completion.  So the practice mode should fill that void a bit.

It should now be possible to get a pretty good feel for what the final game will be like.

Still quite a bit to do: sound, music, polish, front-end, dedication.. but I'm pretty happy with how it's progressed so far.

Wow, this is amazing! I love the bite-size feel it has.

This last section at the bottom is cruel. Got to the final room once but haven't managed it again since. Got all the other hearts though.

Really liking it.  :handthumbsupR:

Excellent, cruelness there is certainly the intention >:D.  I have managed to make it all the way too the bottom and then back out again (the return will incidently be mandatory), but only the once.  If anyone does manage to dedicate it I want them to have earnt it.

Really glad you've been enjoying it guys.  I'd been worried (as usual) that I was making the sort of game that'd only appeal to myself.  So thanks!

I think that this is plenty punishing. :)

had another wander around there.  niceeee

This is still progressing pretty well.  I've mostly been working on the necessary but slightly tedious FE/interfacey bits though, so there's no new builds as of yet.  I'm hoping I'll have something near finalized by the weekend.

I need the last heart :(

(http://slashie.net/share/lastHeart.png)

It is definitely possible to get it, but it's also the biggest puzzle in the game.  Think laterally.  (If anyone has the solution, please don't spoil it!)

Really like how this is coming along. I played it a bunch last night but was too damn exhausted to do very well. I did manage to reach some brutal bottom area that is probably what the others are talking about. Wish I hadn't lost what feels like 80% of my platforming chops...

I continue to really like the look and feel of this game though!

I got all the hearts, but there is no way in hell I am going to try and get them all without dying. Good game, I love the heart-jump thing of it, its really a great idea.

I really like the heart-jump, like love pushes you higher. :-*

The game has a really charming look and feel. All you need now is a soft song and some cute jump noises to go with it.

I managed to use a few bits and pieces of my evenings whilst on holiday to finish this off, so it's finally done, yay!

Play the finished thing here (http://jonathanwhiting.com/coding/loveletter/)!

Love,
  Jonathan

What's the difference between practice mode and the proper game? Because I just beat practice mode and feel a little empty inside :(

In the proper game you have to restart the entire game every time you die, and if you manage to win you can dedicate the game to whoever forever.

Practice is all well and good, but sometimes you need to be devoted.

It looks like a cool game, but I can't actually get to your website. "Firefox can't find the server at jonathanwhiting.com." fairly consistently. Any idea why that might be, apart from my ISP? I'll try again tomorrow or something anyway since it's probably a DNS issue, just a heads up.

Great game, I concur with melly that the heart jumping is a great mechanic.

I'm afraid not.  jonathanwhiting.com is a 'new' alias for jwhiting.nfshost.com but it's been that way for about a month now, and I've had no problems here, so it seems unlikely to be related.  If you're still having difficulties do try http://jwhiting.nfshost.com/coding/loveletter/


Thanks :)  I'd actually wondered if the mechanic was a bit simplistic, but I'm pretty happy with the way it all melded together in the end.

If you have the heart-jump and you jump into a heart, when you hit the ground you lose the heart-jump. It happens every time for this heart:
(http://www.draknek.org/misc/lovelettergame.png)

It feels very much like a bug, even though I realise that it is required for some puzzles. Could you make it so that this only happens for the last heart you touched? I.e. for all other hearts jumping into it with the heart-jump will let you keep the heart-jump when you touch the floor.

Also I don't like the pixel-handwriting font; it's very hard to read.

Other than that though, I love this!

Ah, I tried the proper game after finishing the practice, but they seemed identical to me. In retrospect I may have just clicked on the wrong button. This was a charming little game. I'll be interested to see if anyone manages to complete it without dying! It seems like the easiest way to accomplish this would be to write/use a program to simulate the precise sequence of keystrokes needed to complete the game. You might call that "cheating" but that amount of effort would still show dedication, no? ;)

I do see what you mean, and I'm not convinced I do use this in a significant way for any of my puzzles.  When I get the chance I'll have a look into whether changing this is feasible/desirable.


I'm pretty set on achieving a hand-written look of some kind here, but again I do see what you mean.  I'll have a look and see if there's anything I can do to improve legibility without disrupting the aesthetics.


Glad to hear it :)


Yeah, they *are* identical until you die and/or finish, so you equally might just have not died yet.  I'm certainly interested on seeing if anyone takes on the challenge/manages it.  I tried hard to balance things so that such a completion isn't unfeasible, but will be pretty taxing.

If it helps to spur anyone on I've managed to get all the way down to the very bottom and back out without dying (though I then messed up one of the easier screens).  A true completion is definitely possible!


That would require some devotion certainly. :)

Honestly though I think it'd be easier to complete it tool-free than to write the tool.  In particular syncing up the input precisely enough would be a little challenging.  I'm more than happy to be proved wrong though.

Fun game with a simple and cool jumping mechanic. Good to see it come together with the final sounds, music, and polish.

I played pretty far on practice mode.  I too wished there was a bit of explanation on what the differences between practice and normal mode were.

Alas I am crushed in that final passage area by my lack of platforming skills.

Also.. DAMN that font is hard to read for me! :o

Love the title screen dedication idea! You should require a playthrough video as proof though as anyone could just use Cheat Engine to hack it otherwise--perhaps you've already thought of some other proof scheme though.

Nice game, I managed to play it at the alternate address though the original still doesn't work. Maybe it's to do with being in Australia? Seems unlikely. Anyway, I like the game, managed to get to 28 before dying I think.

Very useful feedback  :beer:, will have to see if there's anything decent I could do about these.


Thanks!

Yeah, I have my own proof scheme, for obvious reasons I don't intend to share the mechanics of it just now.


Hmm, that is odd, not sure there's anything I can suggest though  :shrug2:


Ace, that's pretty good going, I think that's about as much as I've managed in a single life too.

umm... so i got all 50 hearts in one life, am i the first? :)

however, the game didn't end. i'm kind of nervous about closing it without some kind of confirmation. in order to win, do i need to go back to the beginning? honestly i don't know if i can handle that kind of stress :/

please advise

Yes, if you have all 50 you need to return to the center, you should have an arrow to point you in the right direction.  Good luck!

oh my god, returning to the center is going to be extremely difficult :/

blood pressure rising

thank you for the quick reply though

edit: i died ;_;

I just got to the place where I think porath must be trapped in practice mode. At least, I really hope that's the worse place. :epileptic: The place with 6 hearts that is ridiculous to get to, anyway...

if you could please let us know right away when someone beats the game first, i would appreciate it. if i'm not going to be first, i would much rather stop marathoning this and enjoy it at a later time. :)

thanks

Yep, that's the worst of it.  It *is* hard, but also possible :)


Yep, I'll certainly make sure word gets out the moment I know that someone has finished.  This of course may not be as immediate as is ideal, as I might be asleep or away, or whatever else, but I wont hold back if/when it happens.

Hello everyone, I joined to say that I beat the game. Regular play mode, no death, back to center and everything, but the victory screen was borked in a way that I couldn't follow the proof directions. I emailed Jonathan a few hours ago, but wanted to post here so no one is tearing their hair out potentially all night still trying (under false pretenses that is, I highly recommend tearing your hair out beating it for your own gratification). But who knows, maybe a messed up screen disqualifies me, in which case the race is still on!

Bah, thanks for posting here, was tearing out my hair after repeatedly making it to 47 hearts twice in a row, then getting 50 and being super confused at what the hell was going on. I thought you were just supposed to press up to activate the end of the game or something, but then I just kept jumping so I thought that maybe you had to screenshot the arrow thing? Came here to post "yaay" and then saw the posts and nearly cried at the idea of making it back to the center. Also kind of disappointed I'm not first, but oh well :'(

I just beat it on one life as well, and my final screen was "borked" just like BattleAxe. Too bad I didn't find out about this earlier. It only took me a little over an hour to finish it. Oh well.

I've replied individually to those that have managed the game, but yes, the general thrust of things is:

• A few talented individuals have managed to complete it, barely 24 hours after it was released.
• I'd managed to put one whopping hell of a big bug into the win screen (I'd thought I'd tested enough, but sadly not :facepalm:)

I'll be updating the game to fix the bug and make it clear that it's already been completed as soon as possible (probably next 20-30 mins).

[edit]build updated, and the real dedication is now in[/edit]

Great little game here.
I attempt to make the game easier for myself, I created a map of the whole game in two formats.

HTML: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6381651/love%20letter%20v1.0%20map.html (resize window to resize map, or press 'Ctrl'&'-' to shrink in most browsers)
Excel: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6381651/LoveletterMap.xls (I promise there are no scary macros doing anything nasty)

I'm really kicking myself, because I didn't realise you could press M to zoom out, although it still doesn't show the whole thing like my maps do.


As for the game itself, there appears to be one little bug. In square (2,2) from the top left of my map, I've run into a bug where the character will not stay pink if you gather the heart then fall down the right side.
This could be considered part of the puzzle to get the heart in the initial square, but I wouldn't call this fair. (small text hidden for potential puzzle spoiler)

D'ooooh, I made a map too. But I like anytime when I'm reminded of Legend of Zelda and graph paper.

And the issue you talk about happens anytime you catch a heart while already pink. Bug or not? We'll let you, the player, decide.

Wow, that's an impressive effort :)

Also 'Taylor' on JayIsGames made a great little screen-cap map (http://jonathanwhiting.com/coding/loveletter/love_letter_map.gif).  Obviously spoilerific, so only check it out if you don't mind that.


Sounds like the issue Draknek described.  It's not a bug per-say, but I do understand how it might feel like one.  I'm a bit torn on whether to fix it or not, especially now that the game's been completed.

I can't believe ANYONE has managed to beat this without dying.
Clearly I suck more than I thought.

I say don't "fix" it. I enjoyed figuring out the "rules".

--this message brought to you in part by quotation marks

Played this for about an hour yesterday before someone had finished the game, and a little bit today after looking at the map and finding out that the 'm' key did something. Very fun, and great to see both precision jumping and puzzles built out of a small, but substantial "gimmick" for a platformer. One life is just too tough for me, as I keep messing up on the path to the bottom like everyone else. I got to the end of the passage a few times, but I could not get back without dying. I tried persisting for a bit, but I gave up in frustration of my keyboard somehow causing me to move right without any input. Not enough dedication for a dedication, I guess.

Congrats to nobody! ;)

Simple and fun, a bit on the tough side, I get frustrated easily so I couldn't get too far with just one life. :'(   ((Then I found out the "practice mode" will let you continue, the title is a bit missleading though, wouldn't "easy mode" suit it better??))

I also have a hard time reading the text, script + low-res font not a good combo.

Dig the background song, it's original.

Oh, the game even got a small cult following, how cool is that? :eyebrows:

Congrats on finishing this!  :gentleman:

First thoughts: That font is unreadable!

Second, more coherent thoughts: I like what you did here. While the game mechanics are simple, you get a lot of mileage out of them. Nothing unnecessary has been added, and everything that is needed is accounted for. That is the mark of good game design.

The art style is attractive and appropriate. It is a very nice interpretation of the cartridge art.

The game is also incredibly difficult and frustrating. So, in that way, it is a perfect metaphor for love.  :)

I actually liked the beginning section of the game best, before there was any real danger of dying. It gave me a very Wario-esque feel, where messing up wouldn't kill you, but it would require you to jump through some hoops to get back to where you were.

Haha, I really like what you made here. I like the idea of having a really hard game and if you beat it, not only feeling the satisfaction but also dedication your victory to a loved one. :) That's some nice stuff.

Agree with Soulliard on pretty much everything, and it was a very good call to add that Practice mode there.

Though I don't think I'll ever be able to beat it on one life. :(

Also, most of the audio is pretty nice, but the screen switching beep can be a little annoying in some sections.

Thanks very much for the feedback guys :)

The font was, with hindsight, a bit of a mistake.  Legibility always trumps aesthetic consistency.  Lesson learnt.


Hah, yes.  It did seem metaphorically relevant :)

It was a really tough game to judge the difficulty for.  I had to try and make it easy enough (especially at the start) not to put people off, but difficult enough that the one life challenge was a true challenge.  Given that it was completed less than 24 hours after release it seems I actually made it too easy!

Was great to see it spread though, gimmicks certainly get you noticed :)  I'm also completely in love with flash for reaching an audience quickly.  I don't think this idea could have worked as a downloadable game.

I was also pleased with the dedication that it was given.  I liked the way it subtly changed a finished game into something slightly different.  I really was willing to put up *whatever* the winning player wanted (though I might have had to put some sort of "this might offend you" warning up), so to get something so in the spirit of the game was marvelous.

When I reached the bottom of the pit of despair and got the last 6 hearts, I though yeah, I won. Then I realized I had to go back up. I felt like screaming. And people manage to beat the game without dying, wow. Lovely game thought.

+1 to what Souliard said.

I absolutely adored your level design, it's succinct and well-constructed.  :handthumbsupL: :handthumbsupR:

Great entry. The controls are very simple and responsive, which I feel is important for a game like this. A lot of the level design is extremely clever. I especially like the solution to the heart on the start screen. The game can be brutal though. The punishment for a single mistake is soul sapping. I'm so glad I wasn't fighting to be the first to complete it. Good work. :handthumbsupL: :)