The Golden Sphere
by smbe19 - Jam Entry
A lone wanderer in the alps sees a big golden sphere and touches it. A voice then appears and gives him transformation capabilities: The wanderer can turn into a wolf or a turtle at will. He is given just one task: To reach the top of the nearby mountain.
This is a jump and run puzzle game that requires the player to use his available transformations to get ahead. It can be quite frustrating at times, so beware.
The most remarkable feature of this game is the implementation of voice acting. This was a new experience for all people involved in the development.
This game should provide you with more than 15 minutes of game play divided into eight interesting levels. Have fun!
Controls
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Click the Golden Sphere in the menu to start the game :)
A / D - Walk left / right
W - Jump / Climb
W / S - Swim Up / Down
E - Interact
1 - Human Form
2 - Turtle Form
3 - Wolf Form
Enter - Skip Narration
P - Reset Level
Post Jam Fixes
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- If narration sound is disabled no subtitles were displayed
- First Level was way too hard
Downloads and Links
Ratings
| Silver | Coolness | 89% |
| #25 | Humor(Jam) | 4.11 |
| #121 | Theme(Jam) | 3.95 |
| #139 | Audio(Jam) | 3.70 |
| #208 | Fun(Jam) | 3.53 |
| #269 | Overall(Jam) | 3.54 |
| #377 | Mood(Jam) | 3.31 |
| #519 | Graphics(Jam) | 3.38 |
| #572 | Innovation(Jam) | 3.02 |
Comments
Very nice if very hard. The narration was really neat, especially in the very beginning! Also I liked how versatile the various forms were. The levels get pretty long in the end and having to restart the whole level felt a bit frustrating.
Pretty hard but fun game. Absolutely loved the hilarious narration.
Awesome entry!
Loved the narration!
Tight gameplay although that sometimes the controls felt a little "weird".
Very fun, great use of vocals. Tough, discrete little sequences. One of my favorites, will be coming back later to complete. Fantastic job!
Amazing game! The music and art where perfect and it is a really fun game to play.
wow, i really loved this entry!! music, sound, speech, really awesome! The commentary system works really well, 73% people will know that.
The controls were annoying for me though, I had to do right hand wasd but maybe thats just me. Good job!
I like the concept, and your naration was cool, but I had a bit too much trouble with controls. The first level with the moving platforms frustrated me to no-end. Still a good game overall.
I think this was one of the best games I've seen on this ludum so far. Everything is great except graphics. 5 stars, my man.
frustrating indeed :)
died a lot.. also that 'double jump' was annoying
otherwise nice ideas
Great idea, but the controlling is quiet annoying, i think should be better using arrow keys instead of wsad
Great entry. I enjoyed the humor,(although 73% of people may not), and the art and mechanics were good. I got to a difficult part and stopped playing so I could rate some other entries but I'll be coming back to it. I'm determined to finish! Great job!
Very enjoyable game, and the voice narration was a great touch! I found the controls a bit finnicky, but then again it was only a 72-hour development period, so there's only so much one can do.
Lol this is one of the best games I've played in this Ludum Dare, I really love everything to me you have 5 star at all. The pixel art, sounds, humor, is fun and the music are the best I have this Ludum Dare. Really congratulations I would like to play this game in the future.
Played your game on stream. Really enjoyed it. Platforming collision is a tad buggy, but everything is made 100 times better with the humorous narration!
Great narration, good concept, well executed. I laughed a lot on the "34" jumpers joke.
That was fun. Other than the start. I wanted to kill you guys with the falling rocks. But once I got past the first jump it was great!
Hello!
The idea and the narration were interesting. The graphics were nice too, and handled the concept well.
There are some things, in my opinion, that should be adjusted, especially the difficulty. I mean, those falling rocks were evil.
Also, the controls felt weird (I think there was too much momentum), but that's comprehensible due to how hard it is to implement good platformer mechanics.
The narration was hilarious!!! I died a million times and the rocks at the beginning took me forever to get though but I loved that!! hahah.. that was a funny game and a great experience! Nicely done!
Pretty hard for a butterfingers... I would prefer to use arrow keys instead of WASD. Great idea with the narration, it really added to the whole experience!
Funny and a bit too hard, an enjoyable game but I wasn't a huge fan. Smaller puzzles that took less time to redo would have been nice.
The voice narration and humour involved in it is what sets this game apart from the rest. I think it worked very well and I enjoyed how it seemed to respond to player's actions (most notably death). It does help make what would otherwise be frustratingly difficult levels fun.
The controls however could've been done a bit better, especially since this is a run/puzzle game. I found it particularly odd how my character would react on ropes, where it wouldn't be able to stay still or just strafe to the left/right side when on top. I also think that the three form buttons could've been positioned at some different place (maybe j/k/l), allowing you to move and change form a bit easier, as it's currently required to do most things with one hand. At the same time though, the slightly quirky controls adds a bit to the game's difficulty which isn't necessarily bad either.
On some levels (especially the one with disappearing jump spots), it can get a bit frustrating when you die, having to repeat the whole thing from scratch when it has easy parts that just take time (like walking with the turtle in the water). Checkpoints would help maybe.
To summarize, I think it's a good entry and I think it was a great decision to add voice narration.
Hi, nice game ! We're realizing a video with several games of the Ludum Dare #35.
Can you add your game on indiexpo.net ? (it's free)
So we can include also your game in the video ;)
p.s. write #LDJAM in the game's description
Those are some frustrating levels! But awesome take on the theme and great mechanic.
I love the voice acting. Am I hearing a slight Swiss accent there? :P
interesting game. good concept, and i liked the story and humor, but the game wasnt very polished. good job though!
I gave up in the level in which the boulders are falling on you -- wait, that describes every level -- the one where you push a button to make them fall. I turned into a turtle and survived the rocks, but then I couldn't move nor transform, and getting there was hard enough that I didn't want to try again.
A pretty fun game with very good graphic. I really like these, it look like mc pixel.
But that lvl 8, it's too hard and it's very punitive when you fail a jump :/
And the humour, pretty fun thought.
A very good game, short but it'll be a game that i won't forget in some days.
Nice audio! I included it in my video compilation series of Ludum Dare games, if you’d like to check them out :) https://youtu.be/tTBSC0cP_38
Ahah, the game itself is functional, but the voiceover and the writing takes the crown; awesome work on that it was super funny to play ahah
I really like the storyteller. He is such a little troll. Well done.
The narration and music was so GOOD! You should really make it longer, I would gladly pay for this. Wow :D
The first game I'll be rating with almost all 5s!
Minor glitches -
In the third scene ("stones can be helpful") my turtle fell into the water and couldn't jump out.
The human keeps jumping for a while after ascending the rope.