A downloadable game for Windows

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Two friends, Tuso and Aisling, a human and a fairy, find themselves in a dark situation when they ignore their elders warnings about going near the crystal relic in the woods.  Now they've been transported inside of an ancient lost temple, enveloped in shadows, magic, and monsters.


Tuso can handle the temple's devices and collect the keys necessary for escaping, but he can't see in the dark or fight the monsters.  Aisling provides a source of light and can defend against monsters, but is too small to use the devices or carry keys.  They'll need to work as a team to get out of this plight.




Take control of two characters as they help each other solve puzzles and avoid danger.  Use Aisling to protect Tuso and use Tuso to open the magical gate that'll eventually lead them home.  As long as they have each other, they'll see this misadventure through!




This is a small demo of my first major project!

You'll need a mouse and keyboard to play.  Please feel free to download, play, report errors or bugs, and leave feedback in the comments.  It would be greatly appreciated and helpful.  I hope you enjoy!

StatusIn development
PlatformsWindows
Rating
Rated 4.0 out of 5 stars
(1 total ratings)
AuthorT-Cubed
GenrePlatformer, Adventure
Made withGameMaker
TagsGameMaker, Indie, Pixel Art, Puzzle-Platformer
Average sessionAbout a half-hour
InputsKeyboard, Mouse

Download

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Click download now to get access to the following files:

Luminance Demo.zip 297 MB

Development log

Comments

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I just demoed the game and it was really good for a demo, I'll state some of the things I enjoyed and such:


  1. Uniquity, the concept of 2 players being played by one is a concept not attempted by many or done well, however it is done amazingly in this game
  2. Goal, the goal is obvious but it doesn't lure you into the lore of the world, of course it's a demo game and it doesn't need it yet
  3. The skill level needed is moderately well and it keeps you somewhat engaged with the multitasking theem of things

Gameplay:

Music 7/10: captured the overall eminence of the game, nothing wrong of it however I feel as it doesn't fully live up to the potential of the game

SFX: 6/10 standard, would like to see interactions with the environment more and how its sound

Movement: 7/10 flows well, I didn't feel at moments like I was struggling to make a jump or I had to make the same jump several times

Tuso: I feel as he could've had more involvement, it felt more like a babysitting ordeal where I had to fight off everything using Aisling. I wish I could've seen more use out of him, and also when Aisling gets caught in a spider web I feel as there's no point in trying to recapture him as if you are a distance away it'll be more efficient to just let Tuso fail and retry

Aisling: It feels like you're playing as Aisling for most of the game, her abilities make sense and are fundemental to the game, the following cursor method opposed to just being your cursor has its pros and cons but I personally enjoy it. However I feel as there is some power imbalance between Aisling and Tuso. For example for the last level I had just constantly bubbled Tuso so he wouldn't die and gave myself psuedo immortality, and also you can clear whole levels using Aisling alone.

Graphics, Art, VFX: As someone who specializes in pixel art this art work is stunning to say the least, it is beautifully composed and rendered. The soft lighting against pixel artwork is a nice contrast, the use of GameMaker's rendering system is also done well, very nice.

Overall it was a fun short play of a game, if I had to give some parting words I'd say to make Tuso's role a lot larger, to have more interaction with the environment, to make it harder (remove psuedo immortality, make Aisling a bit weaker, and make an option for difficulty which might just be death = no keys)


also I encountered a runcode error:

___________________________________________

############################################################################################

ERROR in

action number 1

of <Unknown Event>

for object obj_LightPlayer:

ds_list_find_value argument 1 invalid reference to (ds_list)

at gml_Script_light_destroy

############################################################################################

gml_Script_light_destroy (line -1)

gml_Object_obj_LightPlayer_CleanUp_0

gml_Object_obj_player_Collision_obj_shine (line -1)

Greetings!  First of all, I'd like to thank you for not only taking the time to try out my demo, but also taking more time to comment and give it an honest critique.  You've brought up some very interesting points that'll influence my next patch for sure.

Tuso's involvement and Aisling's power are both issues I've found myself wrestling with many times.  Older builds of the game had Aisling not being able to bubble Tuso, both characters being able to fail, and every key returning after respawning.  I've seen many testers tap out after seeing every key come back.  I was told that the game was pretty hard, so I added features to smooth out the experience, but it looks like I've made it TOO smooth.  I believe I will take your advice and make some difficulty options (Level Skipping Enabler, Bubbling Enabler, Keys Respawn Enabler).

My testers absolutely hated Aisling being able to perish... Trying to protect Tuso was taxing enough.  So instead, I decided to make Tuso the smart friend and Aisling the strong friend.  I want to relay this dynamic through future cutscenes and upcoming level designs.  Example: later stages (that wasn't in this demo) will operate more like an obstacle course and you'll have to have Tuso solve the puzzles in the correct order to even get to the last key.  So if testers started to think that failing had no consequences, having the whole stage reset to bar that final key changed their tune.  Also, (mini spoilers) future stage will have obstacles that Aisling cannot hinder at all without Tuso's help.  More iterations and testing ahead, to say the least, yet the last things I want to do is feature creep this hobby project... again.

Your feedback was insightful and helpful!  I appreciate your thoughts and the fact that you even played my game.  Thank you once again!