Abelian (was Vector Man)

A b e l i a n

You are trapped in a one-room maze, with the exit only a short hop away. This should be a quick escape, right? But the room is shifting!

Navigate back and forth through increasingly difficult challenges in the one-room maze. Is there an escape, or are you doomed to retrace your steps for all eternity?

LD Entry Page    @ Stencyl Arcade

[Original Post]

This is the first time I've participated in LD, so I'm not sure how to best pace myself. I do have some free time this weekend, so I thought I'd give it a shot 

I got most of the core mechanics of my game working. It's a basic platformer; the goal is to get to the other end of the screen. Once you make it to the other side, the tiles fall out the bottom and a new level falls into place.

Each room will be generated on the fly. I only have one basic type of room working (flat, with a single pit). I'll have to see how many different types of rooms I can get working before the deadline.

Just to add a bit more challenge, each level has a time limit. If you run out of time, the level falls away and takes you with it.

Prototype is playable! http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/29029
Jump: z   Left/right arrows to run

I think it is a really neat concept and very well executed. However, I got the sense of a scene switch every time I entered the door. Could you instead have a graphic that looks like the blocks being jumbled and rolled around, but staying on the screen? And/or maybe having the door tossed over to the new location instead of vanishing and reappearing?

That sounds like a good idea. I don't think it would be too tricky to do, since the tiles are just dummies--the real tiles are set once the images lock into place. I could just "flush" extra blocks and drop new ones into place when needed.

Updated the level change mechanics so that the tiles move around, rather than dropping out (thanks, ceosol!) I'm pretty pleased with the result. If there aren't enough tiles, new ones drop into place. If there are too many, the extras are "flushed". Also, I now have two different types levels.

That definitely has a better feel to it.

The transitions look nice, but I think they should be shorter.  I spend more time waiting than moving.

Character feels way too floaty and out of control for my tastes. Maybe that's just me.

Also, VectorMan is the hero of an old Sega Genesis game.

Character feels way too floaty and out of control for my tastes. Maybe that's just me.

Also, VectorMan is the hero of an old Sega Genesis game.

The current controls are just something I threw together so that I could move around and test the level entrance/exit. Since that step is now done, I can tighten them up.

Quick to-do list ~
Add sounds, add some background graphics, add some more types of rooms and obstacles, and maybe think of a better title.

44 1/2 hours later, I've finished! (More or less)

You are trapped in a one-room maze, with the exit only a short hop away. This should be a quick escape, right? But the room is shifting!

Navigate back and forth through increasingly difficult challenges in the one-room maze. Is there an escape, or are you doomed to retrace your steps for all eternity?



Official entry: http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=46508

Game: http://anorthogonaluniverse.com/abelian.html
On Stencyl Arcade: http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/29049

Controls have been adjusted, and transition time shortened. I'm pretty happy with the result; I just wish I had the time to use all my ideas. Each level is generated at random, from a selection of 9 basic types and 9 special (unique hazards).

cool stuff, dude. Movement could be tightened up a little bit, but still enjoyed it! Well done!

Just played your game and I like how you move the boxes around to create the levels. Simple yet satisfying to watch.

Character feels way too floaty and out of control for my tastes. Maybe that's just me.

I feel the same here. I think it is too still difficult to control the character, even though you tweaked its movement a bit. It feels too light

I think the movement is one of those things that I could've gotten down better if I had more time. I'm pretty happy with the result for such a short time frame, but this being my first LD, it was more of a learning experience than anything else.

I'm thinking about polishing it up and adding the rest of the features for a version 2. There was one issue I figured out a solution for, but never got to implement -- optimizing the tile collisions. I did a rough optimization by removing unnecessary tiles (those surrounded by four tiles), but there's a lot of room for improvement. My incomplete code is in the source file, actually. I just had to disable it and hope the current version ran fine as-is.