This weekend I took part in Ludum Dare 39. The theme was Running Out Of Power, so I decided to make a sidescroller with a draining health bar and some puzzles to complete.
Click the picture to try out the game.
This is the first time I have ever written a side-scroller. Usually I stick with top-down games because I never wanted to try and deal with the fiddly physics stuff necessary to make controls work. However, it turned out much better than I was expecting. I was able to implement a simple physics engine which could determine whether the player was on the ground, use this information to change the character sprites appropriately, and even make a simple level editing tool to speed up the process of applying the scenery mesh to the background image.
The plot is pretty generic. You are a wizard who has been cursed by Wizardy McVillainFace. The curse is slowly draining your power, and you must traverse a bunch of levels in search of a cure for your affliction.
I’m sure that this plot would’ve held a lot more significance if I had time to actually put the cure, or a final encounter with Wizardy McVillainFace into the game.
I really felt like I could have added a lot more to this game. The biggest thing reported in the comments from reviewers was that it needed more levels, and I completely agree. I only had time to make two. If I had been given more time, this would have been the first thing that I would have dealt with. Beyond that, this game has no sound effects. I feel like the sound effects in my previous game were a big part of what made it fun.