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[Ant]

Straima is an action platformer where the goal of each level is to pound all the pinkys goomba-style in the fastest time humanly possible. However, as to be expected there are an assortment of nasty nasties attempting to nasty you up.

Screenshots: 1, 2, 3, 4

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Left/Right Arrow - Move left and right.
S - Jump.
Double Jump - Press S key when in the air.
Wall Jump - Press S key when against the wall with the arrow key pressed towards the wall.
Wall Hang - Press Up arrow together with the arrow key in the direction of the wall. Keep hold of those keys while then pressing the S key allows you to jump up on to the ledge or press down to let go.
Stomp - Press Down Arrow when in the air. Only useful for avoiding trouble.
D - Use special power. Only once per level. Beating all levels of a colour with both zero deads and a fast time will unlock a new power. Press D on the level selection screen to choose power.
Menus - S to accept, A to go back.

There's just the six levels so far, but I've just finished all of the inner-gubbins so I can concentrate solely on the task of creating new levels now. Feedback, suggestions on improving the game, level ideas, bug reports, etc are all welcome.

[tesselode]

The gameplay feels a little sluggish. Could you speed it up a bit?

[RotateMe]

Liked it very much, I would leave the objective to kill the Jellies in every stage. Keep the simple mechanics, I would maybe think about a double jump, and generally something that sets you away from N.


Also: I had a jelly crawling through the air... bug?

[Ant]

Some updates! I've added two new levels (Araka Maze and Big Island) and attempted to spruce up the enemies so they aren't quite such a faceless blob on the screen. I'll be working on all of the main menu stuff next, intro, level selection, settings, etc. The story will be bit a bit... odd, and features this kind blue soul.

Also: I had a jelly crawling through the air... bug?

Thanks, bug squashed!

[Ant]

I think you need to make it a one-hit game over because dieing infinitely didn't get the blood pumping the same way as trying to get a score without dieing did.

I've been having a jolly good think about the level selection and created the mock-up below to somewhat show it. The idea is that the levels will be split into colours representing boundaries. Completing a level will open up an adjacent level of the same colour, but another colour area will only open once you have completed all levels of the previous colour and in most of those either completed it without dieing or getting a good time.

The gameplay feels a little sluggish. Could you speed it up a bit?

Hmm... the pace seems okay to me, but I'll be very interested to hear what other people think of it. I'm planning on making the game hard already but still possible to complete a level without dieing with a bit of practice. Upping the speed could make those pixel perfect jumps very hard and I'd also have to notch up the speed of all nasties.

[iffi]

The first time I played this, I got myself stuck in the area circled in the screenshot. I was caught against the right wall, and only the head and maybe a bit of the body was sticking above the lower border of the level. After getting stuck there, I couldn't move until I decided to skip to the next level. I forgot to get a screenshot of that, though, and I haven't been able to replicate it.

[Ant]

I think the pacing is spot on. Very hectic and exciting in those tricky areas but you actually have to plan your moves otherwise you die quick. I agree with the other guy that said it could do with something to set it apart otherwise you'll get idiots saying omg it's a rip off which would be bad cause this is actually so much fun to play.

Well I don't really want to go down the road of just adding in a bunch of shallow gimmicks solely for the sake of difference, but I'm completely open to suggestions.

One idea that I was toying with is that once per level you can use a single very limited special power that has to be chosen before entering a level. As long as the powers were fairly unique and balanced it could add a bit of strategy when trying to get a beastly time. These would also have to be unlocked by getting both a no-death level completion and very good time (though both can be done in separate runs) in all levels of a colour area. So here's a couple of ideas.

Floor Warp: (starting power) Move up or down through a floor/ceiling.
Shock Wave: Destroys projectiles and bounces back seekers within a small area.
Invisibility: Usual shenanigans, note walking into an existing projectile will still harm you.
Dragon Leap: Launches you high into the air and during the rise you are invincible.
Super Speed: Usual shenanigans.

The first time I played this, I got myself stuck in the area circled in the screenshot.

Ah thanks iffi. My own poor level design was at fault there as opposed to a coding bug.

[Ant]

Update! That's all of the gubbins sorted now. Menus, settings, intro, level selection, sounds, saved data, powers and two extra levels. I can concentrate on adding new levels now...

[Average Software]

A freely resizable window and the ability to change the keys would be nice, I can't stand the keybindings.

You should also accept enter as a selector on the menu screen.  S isn't exactly obvious.

[RCIX]

This is really impressive visuals wise. Gameplay wise, it reminds me of N (in a good way ) If i could pick something to have though, it would be a level editor.

[Eraser]

I guess you purposefully made the 6th level impossible then? I got stuck in a wall trying anyway.

Really, I suppose I'm waiting for some more innovation. I hope you'll put in some interesting mechanics in the future with those future abilities.

Graphics and sounds are quite nice already though.

[Ant]

Thanks for the feedback guys. 

A freely resizable window and the ability to change the keys would be nice, I can't stand the keybindings.

You should also accept enter as a selector on the menu screen.  S isn't exactly obvious.

GM's blur doesn't play nice with resizable windows, but I'm looking into adding custom keys. As for the enter key I'll probably either just make it always the case that enter is an accept button or just add a friendly reminder on the title screen that enter isn't the action key if pressed.

Btw, is there some sort of universally liked control scheme? I plumped for A,S,D due to whole wasd keys I heard a lot of people use. Would Z,X,C be better?

This is really impressive visuals wise. Gameplay wise, it reminds me of N (in a good way ) If i could pick something to have though, it would be a level editor.

Thanks! I did originally plan on adding a level editor but I don't know though, it depends how enthused I am about it once I've finished the main game. I suspect I'll just want to get cracking on making a new game once I've finished this so maybe it could be a pet project for the future.

I guess you purposefully made the 6th level impossible then? I got stuck in a wall trying anyway.

Really, I suppose I'm waiting for some more innovation. I hope you'll put in some interesting mechanics in the future with those future abilities.

Graphics and sounds are quite nice already though.

Well no the 6th level should be beatable, what wall exactly did you get stuck in?

I know exactly what you mean about innovation, but since this is my first proper game I basically just wanted to concentrate on making a solid fun game. Every level in the game will feature something new to play with so I'm hoping the simple core gameplay won't get stale.

[Eraser]

Personally I find ASD more comfortable as it makes my hand less cramped on the desk. You could just make it configurable via a text file somewhere though.

Anyway. I got stuck here: http://imgur.com/FrK0K.png I used the ability to get into that air pocket in the ceiling and jumped back up.

By the way, I am/was playing the first build in which this seemed impossible. I just couldn't find it possible to wall jump or get a combo of wall jumps that in combination for the double jump would let me reach that guy in the top left corner, and to get into that air pocket you had to use the ability, so there was no way to use it again to get the little guy.

[Ant]

Ah thanks. You can get up there by doubling jumping to the left wall then wall jumping at the peak to grab the ledge, though I'll get rid of that air pocket so it's easy to warp down if needed. I'll also tone down the difficulty of levels 1 and 3 as well, especially 1 so people can safely get to grips with the controls.