Depth Jump

A platformer where you jump from the foreground to the background and vice versa.

Summery: DEPTH JUMP is a platformer created for Alakajam 8. The theme is depth so i designed the game around jumping from the foreground to the background and visa-versa. Touch flag poles to set your checkpoint. Collect all coins in the level. Jump on the blue platforms to change depth jump.

Controls:

f4 = toggle fullscreen

w,a,s,d, = move

k or space= jump

hold j or rshift = dash

hold s to pan camera

Update v1.1: Fixed a bug that caused the game to softlock.

Voting results

Overall
6th
31%
6.333
Graphics
8th
44%
6.278
Audio
4th
19%
6.944
Gameplay
6th
31%
5.667
Originality
9th
50%
5.833
Theme
5th
25%
7.111

This game entered in the Team competition (16 entries).

Comments (17)

dorkulon
 • 4 years ago • 

Neat take on the theme!

Kirby
 • 4 years ago • 

Fun to play! Clever use of depth i.e. foreground and background and looks beautiful with music that fits perfectly

TomBuston
 • 4 years ago • 

Clever interpretation of the theme, the game feel was really good and you really captured the platformer vibes, with some reminiscence of Celeste ;)
I felt like maybe the main mechanic was introduced a bit late maybe could have been there as soon as level1?
Still I had a great time playing this game, well done!

alyphen
 • 4 years ago • 

A neat mechanic, and some smooth animations for something created in such a short time period.
Level design was really well done, with every mechanic introduced in a way that allowed the player to fail before testing them in a case where it actually mattered.
The setting was really nice, with the mechanics tying in well. Hopping from rock to rock and using the passing cable cars felt good.

Some of the jumps were difficult because you couldn't see where the cable cars would stop - having a visible cable and/or some kind of indication as to where it was approaching would have helped in that.
Many of the cycles felt a little long, so if you failed a jump, you'd have to wait for a long time for the cycle to come round again.
Some platforms were a little rough around the edges - there were cases where it was possible to see the bottom of a platform when you fell off, or it looked downright blocky, while the tile for the grass looked like it was intended to be seamless - I think if you intend to make blocky jumping puzzles, make the tile feel like a tile so it's less jarring to see them alone as a single block.

pikachurian
  • 4 years ago • 

@alyphen The cable cars move between two small white squares which act as a subtle visual indicator of where the cable cars stop. For the long cycles, making the cable cars move faster would make some of the platforming trickier. Thank you for your comment.

pikachurian
  • 4 years ago • 

@TomBuston Yeah, Celeste was one of the inspirations for the game, along with Wario Land for the Virtual Boy. Thank you for your comment.

pikachurian
  • 4 years ago • 

@Kirby Thank you. The music is timed so it syncs with the cutscenes at the beginning of some levels.

pikachurian
  • 4 years ago • 

@dorkulon Thank you.

Mr. Chocolate Salmon
(@mr_chocolatesalmon) • 4 years ago • 

Hey good job! As others have said, the cable cars (or helicopter things) do move a little slow at times, which can ruin the pace of the game. Maybe have a fastforward button or more blue ones that only move once you land on them.

Graphics wise, its got a nice style, and I love how the scarf blows in the wind when facing one way, but not when facing the other. The music was also nice, but I noticed the second level sounded a little repetitive at times.

Great job though! The mechanics were clean and fit the theme, and I liked it :)

pikachurian
  • 4 years ago • 

@mr_chocolatesalmon They are cable cars. We didn't have much left for polishing the game. Thank you for noticing the way the scarf blows in the wind, we didn't think anyone would notice that detail. Thanks for your comment.

Cuddl3s
 • 4 years ago • 

I really liked the character pixel art as well as the main mechanic and its execution. The map tiles unfortunately look a bit less polished but are fine for the time abailable.
As others have mentioned before, waiting for the cable cars can get boring at times.

Great Job!

pikachurian
  • 4 years ago • 

@Cuddl3s We used games such as the original Mario Bros. as inspiration for the level design. Thanks for the comment.

TimTips
 • 4 years ago • 

I'm really bad and impatient with platformers but I liked the mood! The music added a lot for me.

ratrogue
 • 4 years ago • 

Thankfully I kept this page open, otherwise I would have stopped after the second jump - maybe add at least some tutorial text explaining how the dashing works? :) In any case, this is a great use of depth and makes it a platformer that really stands out. Unfortunately the moving platforms were a bit slow sometimes, and after dying for a third time the wait time were a tad too long. Other than that, good job!

pikachurian
  • 4 years ago • 

@TimTips Thank you very much for your comment

@ratrogue Sorry about the confusion around the dash mechanic, there wasn't enough time for a tutorial in the game. I would definitly add some sort of tutorials in a full release or future updates. Thank you for your comment.

Wan
 • 4 years ago • 

An effective take on the theme! I liked the use of the depth jump mechanic, as well as the very good music tracks that contribute a lot to the atmosphere. The graphics are slightly uneven but overall they still have a charm, the character design and animation in particular being pretty good.

A couple more things gameplay-wise:

  • The white dots are welcome to figure out the limits of the moving platforms. I suspect there wasn't enough time to integrate theme better into the game (eg. drawing the full cables of the cars)
  • The level progression involves a lot of waiting unfortunately. Slow pace can be an interesting choice given your "abandoned mountain" setting, but when you fall and accidentally have to restart a whole section involving cable cars it can be tedious.

Nice job overall!

pikachurian
  • 4 years ago • 

@Wan The white dots were originally only used for testing purposes. They were then intigrated into the final release to help visualise the cars' movement patterns. The cable cars were the gameplay gimmick for this set of levels. In a post-jam version, newer levels will have different mechanics. I am thinking of adding a fast forward button, which was suggested by another commentor, Mr. Chocolate Salmon, to make the wait for cable cars a bit shorter. Adding more visual interest might also help ease the wait for cable cars. Thank you very much for your comment.

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