Ludam Dare 48

  • 9th Place in Audio (Top 1%) 
  • 18th Place Overall (Top 1.6%) 

Thank you!!

The Colorsmith

Descend through a world of abstract color as shades get deeper and deeper in this puzzle platformer (Ludum Dare 48 - Compo).

Rank here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/the-colorsmit

Controls

Left A or Left Arrow or Left D-Pad
Right or Right Arrow or Right D-Pad
Jump or Up Arrow or Spacebar or Gamepad B/A  Button

Ludam Dare 48 Jam Notes

As a solo dev, I figured I'd go for the Compo (hard mode jam) where I make everything myself in 48 hours. I stayed true to that as I only used assets I created during the Jam. That not only includes the coding, but the sound effects, music, ideation, everything. I started with literally nothing and now have a game. Which I like :) 

The theme was "deeper and deeper." I figured there would be a lot of games about digging or deep sea diving, and I wanted to be original. So I started thinking of other meanings of the word "deep." Initially, I was thinking of making some sort of philosophy game about Plato or something. Like, "wow man, that's deep." But I struggled thinking of a fun mechanic with game about ancient greek philosophers..

So I decided to go with deep colors. The deeper the colors get in the game, the farther you progress. Mostly. I figured it would be fun to have each level be one color, then the player strives to make the level as a whole a deeper and deeper shade of that color. To further drive home the theme, I made every level progress downwards.

I honestly wasn't sure if I'd have time for this Jam. We just got our 2nd does of the covid vaccine, and while I feel just fine, my wife is down for the count. So I got to full-time dad this weekend. After the kids went to bed, I worked on this game. So I only get two nights to work on this, starting at 8:00p. So I've probably cumulatively put in less than 10 hours on this game. Probably the most efficient I've ever been with any game jam game...

Source Code

Per Ludum Dare tradition, I'm hosting all of my code and assets for this game here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15E44cYbCblUUyWQPGcNr6wErXrP1Lbrx?usp=sha...

Jam Highlights

I had a lot of fun over the past couple nights making this game. I figured I'd show some of the highlights.

Me making the player noises with literally just my knuckles and a glass jar:


Writing and recording the music on my ever faithful ROLI keyboard:


My medal of honor received a few hours before the Jam started:

s
StatusReleased
PlatformsHTML5
Rating
Rated 4.8 out of 5 stars
(4 total ratings)
AuthorO. & Co. Games
GenrePlatformer
Made withGameMaker
TagsLudum Dare, Ludum Dare 48
LinksLudum Dare

Development log

Comments

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Is there even a port of The Colorsmith on the PlayStation and PlayStation 2? 

Because I have seen the game that was on both platforms on the Ludum Dare website.

There's not... I wouldn't even know the first thing about porting to Playstation. This is the original and it only runs on HTML5. If there are ports it was someone else using my shared code.

Great game! Clever, streamlined, and colourful.

game won't let me start it

nvm, good game, no link so can't rate it

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/the-colorsmith

Downside: the levels felt a little linear.  I had to restart a few times, but mostly it was "go to the only block you can reach; repeat".

Upside: literally everything else!  I've seen "change the background color" before, but usually in the red-to-green-to-blue spectrum (to the point that I nearly skipped over this, for fear it was just another one of those), and almost never as shades of the same color.  So it's a new and exciting use of that mechanic, and a really neat interpretation of "deeper".  Also, the level design is really good; I loved the trees and pyramids and general feel of it.  Good sprite; good music; good sound effects; good for you for getting the vaccine.  Just good all around. :-)

Thank you for the thoughtful and kind feedback! I completely agree with your insights that the levels are linear. I tried to design a couple path options in later levels, but even so, not too tough. With more time I'd like to design more thought-provoking puzzles.

Thank you for playing!!

Really fun little game, catchy music, adorable pixel art, nice puzzle mechanics. Can't go wrong with checking this out

(+1)

Thank you so much for the kind words!

(+1)

The Puzzle Game is insane amount of fun and controls are quite smooth, but i got stuck on the city of gold... was a bit hard for me :> Other wise the game has great potential of even wining 👀 

Wow thank you so much for the kind feedback! City of Gold is the final stage you almost had it!