Persist - A Tale of Redemption

Play improved version on Newgrounds: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/616741
Play improved version on Kongregate: http://www.kongregate.com/games/AdventureIslands/persist
Play original entry on Stencyl: http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/18695


Check the Ludum Dare page: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview&uid=11391

Use arrow keys or WASD to move. Enter to advance text.

Created for Ludum Dare 26 in under 48 hours. Theme: Minimalism.

Persist is a tale of small spirit trying to reach a mysterious goddess to seek for forgiveness for his past sins, so he can move on to higher plane of existence. Unfortunately, the goddess isn't feeling very helpful, and the further you travel in her sanctuary, the more sacrifices she demands from you in form of your limbs. Lose your arms, and you can no longer swim. Lose your legs, and you can no longer jump. As you trek deeper into the dungeon, you lose your skills one by one, making your quest more and more dangerous.

Can you reach salvation? Or are you doomed to lose all hope, and your whole existence, in the deep and dark sanctuary?

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Thoughts:

Besides the simple graphics, I wanted to use the Minimalism theme in the gameplay too. The further you get, more minimal your movement set gets, and the way you travel the sanctuary keeps changing. The game also has much more story than my previous games, I'm glad how it turned out.

Liked it!

I just wanted to say that the third stage was the easiest of them all, despite having less "movement". I had troubles with the second stage, but it could be my keyboard messing with me. But very interesting concept!

I love it. The art was minimalist, the platforming was tight and everything was well done.
Once again a great piece work from you.

I've released improved post-compo version of the game with stuff like that annoying collision bug fixed, check them out on Newgrounds and Kongregate:

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/616741
http://www.kongregate.com/games/AdventureIslands/persist

Nice, the game made it to the Newgrounds frontpage!

Go check it out if you still haven't:
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/616741

Tom's in the process of organizing things on his end, and yeah, that was one of the results of that.

Enjoyed the game!
Reminds me a lot of Tower of Heaven. 

Played the new grounds version , nice solid feeling and good story telling mechanics

Enjoyed the game!
Reminds me a lot of Tower of Heaven. 

Tower of Heaven was a huge inspiration. I wanted to make something similar with a mere mortal challenging an angry deity, but with my own characters, setting and plot.

Turned out pretty well in my opinion, considering the 48 hour time limit.

Ludum Dare finished and the game got following rankings:

#34   Mood
#39   Graphics
#45   Overall
#96   Audio
#144   Fun
#452   Humor
#680   Theme
#728   Innovation

Made it to the top 50. While not quite as amazing score as last time, that's highest Mood ranking I've gotten yet and graphics are at the top again.

Top 50's still very solid considering that the pool is entrants has grown from before. It was something 2k entries, right? That's still placing in the top 2.5% which is not shabby at all.

There appears to be:
1610 Competition entries
736 Jam entries
for 2346 total entries.

Persist's ratings would be exclusively out of the 1610 competition entries.