After a long period of development, I am pleased to present the first public release of Eric the Anteater and the Interplanetary Rescue, a side-scrolling action platformer in the vein of 8- and 16-bit classics. It's challenging yet brisk, and attempts to simultaneously present the best of classic games of its sort without failing to include modern conveniences such as save/load. Eighteen levels, lots of enemies, and unique level gimmicks await.
Keyboards and gamepads are supported. A widescreen 16:9 monitor is recommended, however the game will attempt to scale and letterbox as needed.
The Windows release is an executable, while the Linux release is a .love file that requires Love 2D 0.9.2.
I didn't get very far yet but I would highly suggest changing the control scheme. Using shift, control and alt is kind of bad form. Things like sticky keys make using shift for repetitive actions like shooting a bad idea. It's also very awkward to try to jump and shoot using ctrl and shift, as the buttons are right on top of each other. Even using space is awkward, as the button isn't close to any other buttons.
In my opinion if you're going to lock players to control schemes, you should use z and x, or a and s. Two buttons that are right next to each other will feel the most comfortable to people. Some people also prefer to use WASD, which mirrors how a normal gamepad would work with the dpad on the right. For those instances I think the standard buttons are JKL but I'm not 100% sure.
It's hard work, but fun work. I'm hoping to get as much community feedback as possible to continually refine the game to meet audience expectations.
Edit: I have just released version 1.0.2.0 of the game, which adds more control options as well as fixes a few minor issues.
Edit#2: I have just pushed up version 1.0.2.1, which does some minor cleanup.
