Re-purposed College Thread

[Philote]

Not mine, artist working under me made it.

Philote wrote

      Fissure is a 2D puzzle platform game with 3D assets in which the player gains the power to collapse vertical or horizontal sections of land in order to transverse an area in ways that ordinary characters can not. The player takes on the role of an orc tribesman who has scaled a sacred mountain, obtained the ultimate power at its summit, and who must now escape the awakened mountain spirit as he descends.
        The ultimate power allows the player to temporarily delete vertical or horizontal sections of land, drawing the terrain, on either side of the collapse, inwards to fill the gap. For example, the player may use this power on a chasm to remove a vertical section of space from within it so that the walls on either side of the chasm draw closer to each other and allow the player to cross. This power is drawn from an energy bar visible to the player. The amount of energy used relates to the width of the removed section, which the player can control within a certain range of widths. The sections of terrain remain collapsed until the power is removed by the player. The removal of a collapsed section returns the energy that was used to create it, allowing for the player to place the power onto a new section of the terrain. Multiple sections of space can be removed as well, allowing for the player to manipulate more of the terrain at once.
        Alongside the spatial puzzles that could be created with this power, this ability interacts uniquely with certain features of the levels. Moving objects, such as creatures on the mountain, which are cut by the collapsing ability, become frozen in place until the power is removed by the player. This allows the player to remove certain hazards or create platforms by freezing objects. The player is also able to affect the terrain by joining objects together by collapsing the space between them or completely removing key objects from the terrain by collapsing the space around them. This power is slightly limited though as the player can not use it in the same vertical or horizontal space as their character or shrines located throughout the areas. This prevents the player from solving the puzzles in an area by using their power in a section of space that would end up being too easy and unrewarding.
      The journey takes the player through several areas based on the biomes located on the mountain including the frosty peak, rocky sides, dark caves, volcanic interior, and green base of the mountain. Along this path, the player must overcome the hazards controlled by the spirit of the mountain. These hazards include features of the mountain and the weather around it, as well as both natural and mythical animals that live on the mountain that the spirit may control. The player does not possess any fighting capabilities and therefore must use their power to navigate the area safely.
     The game’s art style combines elements of tribal, natural, and mythical themes in a visual style similar to Telltale’s recent games. The majority of the mountain features elements relating to the geography of the mountain or the wildlife living there, but the player is also able to find traces of the character’s tribe littered around the mountain. These traces can take the form of old rest sites, carvings along the walls of the mountain, and sacred shines. Similar to the art style, the sound style of the game would feature the same main themes in the ambience and music.

[Myself]

Ah, I remember that now.

Seems awesome. I'd play it. I love puzzle games of that style.

[Philote]

Thanks

[Myself]

No problem.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

 You have artists working under you! WAAAAAHHHH!

*sniff* I need some of those!

[Marvelous Miscreant]

I'm taking Game Design II this semester. Y'all want me to post my prototypes here for you?

[Philote]

Yes, I would like that

[WonderDrow]

That would be interesting.

I'll promise not to judge based on my experience with over 1500 flashgames.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

Yes, please. I have high hopes for your efforts.

[Marvelous Miscreant]

Somebody try and break this, please...

Backyard_Daydream.exe

[Philote]

I think I beat the game, but I'm not sure since it sent me to the same screen as the game over screen. I made it all the way through the pink zone and the next area seemed like a dark zone.

I'm worried that the character could become stuck on entering a new area. Did you put something in so that acorns can not spawn too near the start or something similar? I'm thinking that if they have grass or worms near them in the beginning and a set of acorns is coming then they might be unable to avoid losing.

I wasn't able to break the game, but I did find an interesting interaction when both the A and D keys are held at the same time. When doing this, when you attack it seems to make you walk to the left until you hit a wall at which point if you attack again without releasing the A and D keys you will then reverse and go the other way and you can keep doing this loop over and over. Also, you might want to mention A / D is for movement even though it is obvious to some.

I also thought it was odd that you couldn't attack while standing still, but once I adjusted my play style for this, I managed to beat the game on the next play through.

I couldn't test for this, but have you checked to see what happens if they player is hit by an acorn at the same time that they transition to a new room? Or if an Acorn is on path to hit them when they become stuck and transition to the next room?

If you want the difficulty to be harder, you could change the attack to only be able to hit one target at a time. I was able to kill two worms at once or kill worms behind grass at a couple points.

Nice art. I hope this helps.

[Marvelous Miscreant]

Thanks for the thoughts Phi, they helped me tweak a few things.

Though I need a good ending place since right now it just loops to the death screen in place of an actual end.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

When in doubt, boss fight.

[Marvelous Miscreant]

I'd love to, I really would

...but I have half a day and not enough knowledge to complete a boss fight in that time.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

You could have the grandpa whack the kid in the head and tell him to stop daydreaming.

[Marvelous Miscreant]

Oh, I like that!

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Maybe make the whole thing timed once you get to the purpleish parts, with something that tells you how far you got before granpa took you out of it?

[WonderDrow]

It's original how you can restart your bug slaying without using a restart button.

Wish there was more playtime

[Marvelous Miscreant]

Could someone try and break this.

42.exe

Note: I'm aware that the boundaries are not set and the player can leave the screen.

[Philote]

I didn't find any problems with it, but I didn't finish either as I didn't know when the end was.