WARNING. WARNING.

​You are aboard Exoplanet EQ-48. The place has become infested with Troglodytes, horrible little aliens that will eat your face off. The only way to get rid of them is to lead them into the planet's core to electrocute them.

The planet's core, which currently has only enough energy to last exactly one minute. However, you can extend this time by killing Troglodytes to supply it with energy.

In order to escape, you will have to power on the main 4 systems:

  • Rocket fuel,
  • Rocket leverage,
  • Network connection,
  • and Life support, and then walk into the rocket at the top.​

Due to the complex structure of EQ-48, you will fall back down at the top after falling to the bottom, and you will emerge at the left side after going to the right and vice-versa.

The planet will automatically self-destruct in 10 minutes to prevent Troglodytes from spreading.

Good luck.

Controls:
  • ​A | D or ← | → - walk left/right ​* Walk into a wall to climb it.
  • ​Enter - Start/stop typing
  • Escape - Pause game

Gamepad controls:

  • ​DPad - move in menu
  • DPad Left/Right / Joysticks - walk
  • LShoulder - Start/stop typing
  • Select - Pause game

https://youtu.be/eOo9gkof6mU

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  • Fachewachewa
    Patron

    It's a really cool idea but... the timer felt really random.

    It took me a while to understand how to make it last longer, but even then I'm not sure how to do it. I don't know what is telling me that enough enemies were killed or not, and the whole glitch & screenshake thing don't seem to diminish even after killing a lot of critters. I don't know if the game ever went below the 7 minutes marker.

    The constant screenshake goes to a point where the game is barely playable, and the terminal on the top left is both hard to get to for the player and extremely easy to get to for the AI. Whereas at the bottom, the AI can barely make it on those platforms :D

    Anyways, the sense of urgency is pretty good, but I ended up giving up because I felt like the game could end at any time, and I was just dying constantly making barely any progress on that last terminal :(

    Shrinkoban
    Submitted

    Shrinkoban

    • 89o
      Lv. 18
      89o Coder of Planet Doom

      3yrs ago

      I can understand the confusion. Basically, you have both an energy meter, and a completely final 10-minute timer. Once either is over, it's game over. However, you can restore ENERGY (not the 10-minute timer) by killing Troglodytes. On a side note, the "urgency" or "tension" meter that triggers screenshakes is related to both the timers and the amount of enemies on screen.

      But yeah, I gotta learn how to tone down my screenshake.

      And I gotta improve my AI. The best strategy is to do top-left, top-right, bottom-left, bottom-right.

  • Tero Hannula
    Patron

    Ah, bit too much effects, getting me headache :S Otherwise I liked aspects of it, like Kyon said 'Smash the button' (I hope many won't do it though it's fun to, as I'll break my keyboard sooner or later). I found pretty hard to avoid enemies time to time, because of no jumping :( But it was gameplay decision. This of course made need for somekind regaining elevation, which you made by looping back to up when falling. I don't have much to complain otherwise. Nice pixel graphics. Edit. And game made escaping urgent, had bit "aah I don't make it!" :D

  • Kyon
    Lv. 25

    Visual effects were way too much for me. Took away the fun even though I liked some design ideas like the "smash button" feature.

  • Nyveon
    Patron

    Super cool and fun!

    You've received a lot of feedback already, and I can't come up with something that has not been pointed out already, so I'll just use my comment to say that I really like this game :) Well done.

  • Happysquared
    Lv. 15

    Really enjoyed the concept.

    I liked the visual effects of the glitching out as well as the urgency in mash the buttons! Really felt intense and the visuals really made the game feel tense - I had to win the game in order to prevent everything from falling apart. So the mood was set really well! That being said, the screen shake was too intense for me and I think could have been toned down a little.

    Also liked the limitation of no jumping and how jumping off the planet would bring you to the top. Ended up planning a lot of my routes out.

    Nice game!

  • Megan
    Lv. 12

    The game concept is cool with how the planet works and the lack of jumping, but the screen shake is just... reeaaally annoying.

  • Deathbreth
    Lv. 11

    MASH ALL THE BUTTONS!! Fun little game and I love how the music matched the urgency!

  • Riuku
    Lv. 19

    A very fun, concise game that was very satisfying to beat!

    I like the "gigantic pixels, no outlines" kind of art style a lot. There were a good bunch of crunchy, fitting sound effects for most interactions. The style of music was a welcome surprise in a game with such an art style. The intensity of the music and the ever increasing screen shake created a very pressuring atmosphere that got me pretty hyped up.

    I appreciated the detailed introduction where the player was told exactly what they're going to need to do in order to beat the game. Though there was, admittedly, a lot of text to read for such a simple set of objectives, and the text was a bit hard to read at least in fullscreen because it was very big and all the way at the top of the screen.

    The lack of jumping was a brave design decision and I'm torn by whether I liked it or not. It fought against all intuition of controllability in a platformer, for sure, but a jam game such as this one is a very good target for implementing these kinds of ideas. I enjoyed how I had to rethink movement and route planning based on this restriction, but I can see that this may be frustrating to some.

    I would've liked to see some indicators on which systems I still had to go mash on and where they were. Maybe a minimap or just arrows on the HUD, pointing towards the remaining objectives. I also think that some more contrast between the characters and interactables and the background would've introduced some welcome clarity into the gameplay. Often I died by running into Trodolites (Troglytes? Troll-bytes? That's the one) that seemingly appeared from nowhere because I didn't notice them.

    As some other people apparently also noted, the screenshake was way too heavy, especially because it was non-stopping.

    A great game with an admirably tight scope and level of finish for a jam game!

    • 89o
      Lv. 18
      89o Coder of Planet Doom

      3yrs ago

      Thanks a lot for the immense wall of feedback! It's rare to see someone so dedicated to helping ohers. I made sure to explain everything in the game because people often say there was a missing feature or bug while in reality they just didn't know the game well enough (in fact, that already happened, someone thought you can't walk away from terminals by pressing enter...) but next time, I'll place it on the bottom instead, I agree with that. Other people also suggested the outlines and not noticing important things. And as for the screenshake, I guess I'll spread it out over a period of time next time. I agree that it feels exhausting.

  • Veralos
    Lv. 38

    It's a certainly a cool game but there are a few elements that end up making it kind of frustrating. The lack of a jump in combination with no way to fight enemies means you're often very limited in where you can go. After a certain point it's impossible to go left from the spawn because there's just a wall of enemies. The screen shake is also excessive and can make it hard to see what's going on.

    Aside from that stuff, the concept is really cool and the presentation is top notch. The audio does a great job of creating an intense atmosphere that really makes you feel like you're under pressure. The pixel art looks nice and is complemented well by the visual effects. I also really liked the idea of typing to activate the objectives. It's pretty immersive having to desperately hammer away at keys to get something active before monsters can reach you.

  • Chris
    Patron

    This was intense! cool game!

  • Atomic
    Lv. 19

    Excellent! Had a blast playing it. I think it was neat that you didn't add manual jumping, and the shader work was just really cool. I didn't mind the screenshake either, as it wasn't that long of a play, but man, it was just way too hard. I think it would have been nice, if you had the option to stop mashing, and ironically the troglodytes were dumber. I also liked the asympetrical level design. It worked well with the falling mechanic. But one thing stood out as just absolutely incredible, and that was the music. Good job!

    cat game
    Submitted

    cat game

  • Grunlock
    Lv. 5

    Absolutely breathtaking game. I love every aspect of it! The difficulty for me was excellent, it took quite a few attempts to beat it. The visual effects were stunning (I love the intense amount of screen shake) and the music was perfect. While at first I felt a bit helpless against the enemies I got the hang of it and found the gameplay super fun. As someone else already pointed out, the enemy avoidance feels similar to pac-man. Everything made for an enjoyable experience neatly packaged.

    Superb work, thank you for this experience!

    Antsy
    Submitted

    Antsy

  • Sindre Hauge Larsen
    Patron

    Very very well polished game! Consistent artstyle, fitting music. I like the idea of moving up when touching walls instead of jumping. Stressful gameplay, couldn't figure out how to protect myself from the fast enemies. Got two computers up and running. All in all a very well made game!

  • illdie
    Lv. 12

    This was such a cool idea, the decision to not allow jumping was a really interesting one, and I LOVE how you just mash buttons to type on the computers. After my first (failed) run-through though, it was really easy to just rush all the computers, which was a little disappointing. All in all it's still great, and I the effects (while probably a little much) were very cool.

    • 89o
      Lv. 18
      89o Coder of Planet Doom

      3yrs ago

      I agree, if you get the two top computers first then the bottom two are dead simple to do because of how the AI works... that's something I have to improve on. Thanks!

  • Luke No Further
    Lv. 14

    Really intense! Great work - I felf mostly powerless against the troglodytes - a lot of the times I got myself trapped - can't just over them to evade them, can't get back to the core to zap them, can't retreat because there's one behind me, and they just drop down from offscreen and splat me. Didn't manage to get the ship launched, I'm not good enough! But I loved the atmosphere you created with the sound and visual effects - I loved the creativity in the restrictions you placed on the platformer design, i.e. no jumping, no way of defeating the enemies directly yourself, the pac-man-esque updownleftright approach to moving around the level - brilliant!

  • The Great Gatsby
    Lv. 9

    I beat it! It was very hard, and the buggos were everywhere. I was also hard to see because of the screen effects, but it was fun and I enjoyed it

  • C0DERP1GLET
    Lv. 36

    That was a blast! I almost forgot to breathe because it was so intense. It's all thanks to the music and screen effects, I think. I mean the gameplay wasn't actually that intense.

    I have heard the thought of making a platformer without jumping many times before, but I have never seen it made in this way before. I think it's an inventive way to be unique without having to introduce any new concepts.

    The difficulty is spot on. I might have restart three or four times before I finished, which is a perfect amount. It never felt too easy or overwhelming, which is impressive considering the low amount of content.

    I honestly have a hard time critiquing this. I did not find any bugs. Nothing felt confusing. It just feels finished.

    Just Junk!
    Submitted

    Just Junk!

  • Yosi
    Lv. 46

    Hmm, I couldn't figure out how to power on the top 2 systems without enemies killing me first. Maybe I'm just slow at mashing ahaha. I liked the visual effects at first, but by the end I felt they were too much. Having a slider to reduce screen shake or an option to turn off the flashing would have been nice.

    • 89o
      Lv. 18
      89o Coder of Planet Doom

      3yrs ago

      Yeah, in hindsight the enemies' AI made the bottom computers much easier to crack than the top ones. Someone else also said that the screenshake and glitches were distracting, it seems like in every one of my games I overuse screenshake.. xD guess I just like making my games feel powerful!