Umbra - GGJ14 game

Hello, we participated in GGJ this year, I don�t remember the theme, it was something with seeing other and stuff.

Use arrows to control:

<img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6813637/ss.png" border="0">PLAY UMBRA

My main criticism is that the camera really slows the game down. The camera has this tendency to zoom in whenever the player is performing an action such as moving or jumping, but the way it appears to be programmed is that the action doesn't begin until the camera itself zooms. This gives a very laggy effect to the game play. Why not just leave the camera zoomed out? I personally like the amount you can see when it's zoomed out the whole time.

The other thing I was unsure of was the main mechanic of the game where the darkness comes on screen. Is there a time limit on how long you can be in that darkness? I seemed to die for no reason when I was trying to go from platform to platform. I wasn't sure if that was the mechanic, or a glitch.

Thanks for the feedback, dude!

Well, maybe the game is really lagging in your computer ^^ We did not optmize it for perfomance and god knows it uses a bunch of webgl, canvas effects and whatnot;D

You must end the level before Darkness takes over the entire screen. You can also die falling from great heights or touching spikes. ;]

Sheepy

I really like the concept of darkness as it uncovers the pathway for our heroine. Amazing idea, it adds suspense and really creates the theme for your game. <img src="smileys/smiley20.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

The downside however is the lag I'm experiencing when playing. It might just be my laptop or it could be due to all the effects you have running. You mentioned using webgl effects? This could be why its causing the slowdown. But I'm definitely positive this game can be optimized. It's a great concept after all.

retrodude Thanks, I?m excited to try new possibilites with this concept, like platforms that disappear in the dark, darkness coming from other sides, some new platform types ;D And we want to add a little backstory too ^^

There are lots of canvas effects, so I?ll be sure to have a way to turn them off in the final version ^^

It's an original idea in my opinion, a great game mechanics!

I absolutely adore the art work in this game. I get so inspired just looking at that picture. I'm a sucker for fairy tales and good atmosphere, so this was perfect. I love how this type of graphics keeps a serious tone because it avoids looking too cartoonish.

The game itself was very stressful (for obvious reasons :), which took a bit focus from the atmosphere. I liked the idea of hidden platforms appearing only in certain circumstances, although I would have preferred to see the game more as an adventure game rather than a platformer. But that might just be because I want to walk around in this beautiful world in my own pace :)

The link was down but I found the game here: http://sleepysheepy.com/Umbra/

Thanks for sharing! Keep up the good work.

Thank you SirSpunky, I was a bit away from the forums but your comment meant a lot to us. ;] Even more because we're in another jam.

This time we will be exploring an adventure theme, so by monday we'll probably have a game more to your tastes(and ours too ;3).