Parasite, a non-linear retro platformer

UPDATE : PARASITE *GREENLIT*

Parasite has been Greenlit and be will available on the Steam Store in the near future (release date to be confirmed). If you like the game, please continue to show your support !

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... =562239858

OVERVIEW

Parasite is a non-linear retro platformer with a mix of action and puzzles. The player controls an alien worm wanting to get rid of a human space colony on his planet. There are multiple shapes to unlock and to switch between to facilitate the navigation and sabotage the complex.

PLAYABLE DEMO

Contains ~15% of the full game (tutorial area + 1 out of 8 modules)

Browser demo

Recommendations : up-to-date Chrome + Xbox360 compatible gamepad

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/526 ... index.html

Desktop demo

Recommendations : Windows 7/8/10 + Xbox360 compatible gamepad

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/526 ... emo0.9.zip

KEY FEATURES

• 4 unique environments with their own specificities
• 4 shapes to unlock, each providing an exclusive ability
• Non-linear level design allowing for routing choices
• Use health as a resource to change shape and work around obstacles
• Integrated timer, for the speedrun enthusiasts
• Deactivate all 8 station modules before too many humans can escape !
• Controller support (360 gamepad compatible recommended) and keyboard customisation

Looks pretty nice. Good job!

I'll vote for it.

Thank you very much for the kind comment

Thank you very much for the kind comment

Voted yes, of course . Looks very very sweet indeed.

PS - Good luck with greenlight; this should be quick for you, I would have thought...

First time I'm putting something out there for real, so... we'll see I can only hope it will go as smoothly as you say !

Wow, very good. I love it

Great style and execution! Good luck with Steam also.

Would personally challenge a few of the design decisions, such the (keyboard) button mapping or the health-for-morphing concept (is the limit on morphing really necessary? Especially in tutorial it feels odd to morph wrongly and have to return to the checkpoint for health)

Only played some of the tutorial I have to admit, perhaps those things are justified later.

Either way, looks good, controls feel good (when used correctly), level design seems to make sense.

Congrats, cool project,

Thank you very much for your feedback and for taking the time to try the demo !

Keyboard controls are always tricky, no default settings suit everybody :/ Hopefully the possibility to remap all the keys solves the problem easily

As for using health as a resource to morph shape, it is a core mechanics of the game ; very places require a specific morph, so most of the time changing shape is a risk management choice for the player : sacrifice health, and possibly avoid traps / make certain areas easier. It's also to make the routing a bit less trivial, for speedrun-oriented players. Therefore I believe it's quite important to teach that mechanic very early in the game, otherwise it would feel inconsistent.

Not a big news to C2 users, but just a little update to announce the game will be available on Linux and OSX as well.

Further validation is still required to guarantee everything behaves as expected on Linux and OSX, but preliminary tests are very encouraging. Therefore, I am adding these two release platforms, so that non-Windows users can enjoy being Parasites too !

Voted! Enjoyed the demo and love the style. Looking forward to this one.

Looks very good!

I loved pretty much everything about it... except the music. It's grating and repetitive, repeating the same melody over and over is a big no-no. It sounds fine (though I'd lower the main melody by an octave), nothing wrong with the chiptune style but it gets old so fast. I wasn't finished playing yet but I turned it off because I couldn't figure out how to turn off the music from inside the game, I found it in the menus though.

If you can't do or afford a soundtrack, for the main gameplay music it's sometimes a good idea to go with downtemp atonal ambient music. It's not hard to make and can be stretched out and looped without becoming obnoxious.

Also, the controller doesn't work on the menu.

Thanks for taking the time to try the demo !

Sorry you didn't like the music ; the full games features multiple sound tracks and switches between them every time the players completes one of the station modules, so every ~5-10mn depending on progress speed. You may like some of the other tracks better, though they're all in the same "theme".

As for the controller, some browsers require a button to be pressed before gamepad support & focus is fully enabled for the page ; menu navigation is supported with a gamepad.

Parasite articles !

Short articles about Parasite have started to appear on various websites :

Indie Game Magazine

http://indiegamemag.com/parasite-seekin ... bit-genre/

Indie Retro News

http://www.indieretronews.com/2015/11/p ... tyled.html

Alpha Beta Gamer

http://www.alphabetagamer.com/parasite-alpha-demo/