Watch Your Tone

"Keep The City Pretty!" This is the objective given to officer Melanie Blanche, the night before a representative of the State Festival is due to scout the city as a possible hosting ground for this year's event. Business would boom again, and the city's reputation would be saved! But while she's on patrol, she comes across a band of hoodlums, defacing city property with their graffiti. Now, she's on a mission to apprehend them before their spray-paint does any more damage. Will she be able to get rid of the graffiti, and Keep the City Pretty? Or will the Committee witness the city when it's... well, you know.

Blanche is armed with only a standard-issue Paint Pistol, which can fire two different colors. Platforms covered with paint can blend right into the scenery, allowing her to navigate the concrete jungle with ease. If any innocent bystanders are within the splash zone, she can use the Neutralize feature to clean them off immediately. Good thing, too -- some people go into a frenzy when coated with the stuff, and others vanish completely!

Controls:

A and D to move

Move mouse to aim

Left mouse button shoots blue

Right mouse button shoots orange

Hold and release both buttons to neutralize

You must be logged in to leave feedback
Log in Register an account
  • Jupiter Hadley
    Lv. 13

    Lovely concept! I included it in my GM48: Colors are Important compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/qBo44ANf_gg

  • Redbeard
    Lv. 1

    Thanks for submitting a game!

    I liked that you had an actual character designed. Gave the entry a lot of personality. I thought the music fit very well with the character as well.

    The platforming and the left / right click started off well but I think ramped up a bit quickly with the switches. It wasnt always clear the strategy with the switches.

    I fell in one spot and couldnt figure out how to progress any farther and thats where my gameplay ended.

    I think a little more time on the level design and this could be even better.

    All in all a cool entry, nice job!

  • Edgamer63
    Lv. 1

    Good Graphics, and music... New Mechanics...

    I liked it so much :D

  • trolog
    Lv. 6

    There was quite a lot here! I thought the level design was really clever and well thought out! Where did you get the time!? haha

    The audio/art was fitting of a comic book detective trying to stop those pesky graffiti artists!

    There was some nice tricky mechanics, I felt the jump could have been a little higher to let you more fluidly move through the levels.

    There was a little trick at the end of level 2, you can jump and shoot over the wall towards the graffiti, thus cutting out the end part haha, I'm a gamer, I will exploit!

    What I'd change: I was unsure what made a monster angry, and what made it something I could step on, I didn't understand if it was blue or yellow, so sometimes I found myself guessing.

    Higher jump so you have more time to change platform colors, this could have made the game more fluid for me.

    Well done, a lot here like I said, I'm impressed.

  • FrogWax
    Lv. 5

    The audio and artwork were steller. I liked the mechanics, but it would have been good to have a bit more difficulty in the puzzles. The platforming was great. I managed to get through the levels without really paying much attention to the switches. I hit them randomly a few times to invert, but I don't know how much impact that actually had in the game? A really nice atmosphere as well, so I was quite immersed. Great game!

    • GhostlyFeline
      Lv. 5
      GhostlyFeline Designer of Watch Your Tone

      5yrs ago

      Thanks for playing. I definitely agree that more could've been done with the puzzles, although it was difficult to think things through fully while under the strict time limit. I'm rather lacking in experience when it comes to puzzle design, so my focus was on making puzzles that didn't completely break, at least not easily.

      The purpose of the switches is to change which enemy behaviors are possible. Since enemies blend with the background if they're the same color, they have a specific behavior if they're the opposite color. (Orange dashes forward and ignores ledges, blue acts as a platform.) There's a few puzzles that are built on that idea.

  • 89o
    Lv. 18

    Really nice! I loved the 20's-or-80's-or-whatever aesthetic. Ya could've gone a bit further with the music though, seems a bit... dry, lonely. Add a bit of texture. The gameplay was also innovative. All I can point out is the lack of beef, or juice, or game feel. What I mean is the landscapes just consist of repeating and boring blocks. I know this is very hard to get right in such a short time, but. Good job!

    C M Y K
    Submitted

    C M Y K

    • GhostlyFeline
      Lv. 5
      GhostlyFeline Designer of Watch Your Tone

      5yrs ago

      Yeah, the game definitely could be juicier, but the main priority for us was having the game playable from start to finish. Unfortunately, due to factors outside of the jam, that meant that there wasn't enough time in the 48 hours for much polish.

  • Fachewachewa
    Patron

    Pretty cool game. +1 on level 2: If you go down without the fish thing, you can't go back up. Getting locked isn't necessarily an issue, but there you're punished for exploring things you can't see. Thankfully the level isn't that long, but the game could have used a checkpoint system.

    Also, I think the character is a little low on the screen, if you're not in fullscreen, it's too easy to click outside the window while aiming down.

    • GhostlyFeline
      Lv. 5
      GhostlyFeline Designer of Watch Your Tone

      5yrs ago

      Yeah, that section of level 2 was a bit of an oversight. I didn't think of that scenario as a possibility at the time. Funny enough, I thought of implementing a checkpoint system, but decided I didn't need it. Heh.

      As for the camera, I don't have much experience with cameras that move with the mouse. If I'd had more time, I would've come up with a better way to handle the camera. I'll keep that in mind for next time though.

  • The Smol
    Lv. 5

    The game was nice looking, definitely chose a good colour scheme. I'm not a fan of puzzles where you can lock yourself out of completion, namely level two, without resetting. The music was also very mellow! Definitely well done!

  • Virtu
    Lv. 8

    This one has SO much personality, I loved it! The character design and animations were simply top notch. The treadmill gator guy (or was he a dino?) reminded me of Lethal League in a great way. The levels and the puzzles within are well designed (wish there were more!) and the song contributes to the atmosphere, especially the little touch in the ending. Splendid work, guys!

    Edit: Oh, I never realized Neutralize was a thing. Was it explained in game?