Another Ludum Dare Entry: Stickman's Escape

[Stoney]

This weekend Ludum Dare #14 took place. The theme was Advancing Wall of Doom.

The second competion game after my MiniLD #8 entry that I finished in time. But I still got some time management issues and I had to cut a lot of gameplay features which I originally intended to include.

So anyway, what’s this game all about? This time the hero in this game Stickman is trapped in a cave where the wall of doom is coming down from above. To rescue himself he has to get to the door at the buttom of the level. But there is one major problem: Stickman cannot jump or fall. But he can use portals.



Download here (2,6 MB; Win32 and Linux 32 bit binary included plus source code; Readme with instructions and a PDF with some drawings, first screenshot and stuff with like that which could be classified as a very short post mortem.)

(Right now it's about 1:20 A.M. in my time zone and I have school tomorrow starting at 8:15 AM so please excuse my bad english and/or simple sentences. )

[Traveler]

Hey that's cool! I didn't know LD was this weekend.
Your entry is nice, although a bit short and easy. One bug I noticed is that the 'you mastered the game'- message appears, even if you get killed in the last level.

[Stoney]

Thanks you very much Traveler for making it a news item.
I guess I'm the only Object Pascal entry since I haven't seen any other Object Pascal entries.

I ran into some problems while developing
- My self-made framework didn't work at first. A window would appear for about 30 seconds then I get an access violation. So I had to stick with an earlier version of my framework where a lot of features where missing
- Loading levels from files didn't work which costed a lot of time

The fact why the levels are so easy espacially the first two ones is because those were intended to be the tutorial for the game but unfortunately I didn't have the time to implement the text which should appear on the display and tell what this game is all about and how to control the hero, etc.

And also: The mac port is ready, well only for Intel Macs only at the moment. It can be downloaded from my blog. I never distributed a mac release before, so if some of you could download and run it to see if it works, that would be great.

If I find the time I will release an improved version with more levels and some of the gameplay elements I would have included if I had more time.

[Wizard]

Hi Stoney, your game looks good. Keep Pascal flying high

[chronozphere]

That's a funny game. Too bad it's so short.

I'm curious about what gameplay features you had planned for this game. And how long it took to develop it.

Would like to see more.

[arthurprs]

interesting, but need's more polishing

nice work

[virtual]

indeed , nice entry

[Stoney]

Thank you guys for the for kind words.

That's a funny game. Too bad it's so short.

I'm curious about what gameplay features you had planned for this game. And how long it took to develop it.

Would like to see more.

It took me about 16 to 18 hours to develop the game. I didn't time exactly, I invested about 5 hours on Saturday and about 13 hours on Sunday. I will update the postmortem-like PDF with the next release with more text and a bit self-reflection like "What did I do wrong?" and "What did I do right?" etc.

Some gameplay features I planned:
- A snowflake which when collected would freeze the wall for five seconds
- Other stickmen who need saving
- Ladders in the level which could be used by stickmen
- Highscore list (that's why points are displayed on the top right)

I'm planning a release someday next week with more levels and slightly better graphics.

[Wizard]

One of the things I noticed when playing your game is that the movement of the wall coming down is very jerky