Dream Chamber [Ludum Dare 25]

[headchant]

Once more I did the unhealthy adventure weekend called Ludum Dare. Now that the hangover is almost gone I'd like to know what the love community thinks of this little thing I made.



Ludum Dare Entry
Download Post-Compo version

It's a tboi/zelda-styled action dungeon crawler. I also made a post-compo version, in which some small issues are fixed but is mostly true to the ld version. Let me know what you think!

[coffee]

Could be a great fun game... but one of the greatest mysteries of the gameplay (in yours and other similar games) is why the character "turns" to fire but not to move. I never understood the need of extra set of keys just to fire.

Please give a look to Atic Atac! I think they did it right 30 years ago (with just 5 keys)!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLf0M6ChtJo

[headchant]

Hey, coffee thanks for the feedback. The advantage(which you of course know) of an extra set of keys for directional firing is that you can move in one direction and fire in another. My experience of the last few days have also shown that it also seems to be very intuitive for new players.

But you are right with the character turning for firing "animation". The graphics on the whole would be the first thing that I would like to update for the next ('deluxe') version.

[coffee]

Hey, coffee thanks for the feedback. The advantage(which you of course know) of an extra set of keys for directional firing is that you can move in one direction and fire in another. My experience of the last few days have also shown that it also seems to be very intuitive for new players.

But you are right with the character turning for firing "animation". The graphics on the whole would be the first thing that I would like to update for the next ('deluxe') version.

Yeah, I understand your need of multiple direction fire independent of move but actually as you see Ultimate did almost the same in a very simple way. Use only 5 keys will always beat the need of 8 keys (and so more tiring fingers). A problem of modern gaming is try to complicate controls when not always needed. It started with overuse of keys in PC games and extended to the duplication of direction axis in gamepads. I bet that could be intuitive for young players that played popular "Binding of Isaac" but nevertheless IMHO it's not a simple, desirable intuitive or practical control layout.

BTW You should check this awesome good-looking remake. Could be a nice inspiration for you
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srthyZjrMxw

Good luck with the game if you still think develop it more. Great potential on that.