This is my first Love2d project. I've been working on this small game every now and then for the last 9 months and I actually have something I am somewhat happy with
Spikes Are the Enemy is a challenging 2d platformer that will be playable on PC/Mac and iOS/Android.
- At the moment it features around 80 levels of increasing difficulty.
- Every level is split in 5 parts (later levels have 4 parts) and to unlock the next 5 levels one needs to complete the previous 5 levels in one go.
- The player is given 10 lives, collect 10 gems and you receive 5 extra lives.
Feel free to try the .love file on either PC/Mac or Android.
Controls are as follows: Arrow keys to move/jump/dive, on certain levels gravity can be inverted by pressing the spacebar.
Mobile: on screen controls.
Disclaimer: there may still be some bugs or glitches.
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Pretty nice for a first game. Those are some floaty controls! I like the music a lot. Here are some thoughs I had while playing:
The game needs a different jump button, like z.
Since the game is controlled with the keyboard, the menus should also have keyboard controls.
The camera is too far to the left and up, making blind jumps to the right and falls difficult. I'm guessing this is a bug. (See the screenshot)
The level goal could use a clearer indication.
This is just my opinion, but the sounds are very generic and "sfxr"-like. They don't go too well with the nice high-def music.
Pressing f to exit fullscreen messes up the camera until the window is resized.
This is just a nitpick, but the menus are very slow.
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Thoughts, playing the iOS version. (I don't remember downloading this, but I saw it again this month and decided to play it a bit)
Note that I only played 2 levels, and these aren't really my first impressions at this point - that would have been a few days ago.
The first screen with the four menu buttons - start game, settings, about, more games. When I tap settings or any other menu button, I really, really don't like that I have to wait a few seconds for the next menu to tween into place.
Upon starting a game: I end up going to the right and jumping over the level 1 pit, wall jumping up the wall, until I hit a dead end. Then I went back - I didn't realize the pit with 1 meant level 1. Upon showing my brother the game, he made the same mistake.
Controls: The moment my finger slides off of the move left/right button, I no longer move.
As a user, here's my thoughts.
I'm moving towards the right. To do that, I hold the right move button.
Then I decide to move left. I slide my finger off of the right move button and onto the left move button.
Expectation is that I will move left.
Reality is that I stop moving left or right.
I was blaming the controls for being bad until I understood this.
This design is probably good for the jump button but I don't like it for the movement controls.
Eventually I was able to wall jump, but it was hard at first, so I could only hold one direction and jump. Once I realized the above trick, though, it became easy to switch directions. In fact, I'd say it's really easy to wall jump in this game compared to, for example, Downwell (another mobile game I play); either there's an advantage to this control scheme or you just have more forgiving wall jumping - i think its just more forgiving: in downwell I have to hug the wall, then press the opposite direction and jump at near the same time, whereas in your game I just press jump and dont even need to hold a direction.
something i just noticed: you can sorta buffer a jump before you land, i.e. let's say you're on the ground. you press jump. if you let go of jump, and then press jump again midair, and are still holding jump when you land, you have buffered a jump. neat.
I haven't figured out what the down button is for, but I'm only on level 2
Thoughts on colors scheme: it sears my eyes.
Thoughts on the little character guy: he is really, really small. I guess this is necessary to let you see the entire game? But I'm on the iPhone X, which is 5.8". The SE (the smallest phone you may need to support) is 4.7"
