A  Perilous  Detour

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A simple platforming game about a little man being pulled into a 2D world of pixels, spikes, and bottomless pits. 

Help him escape by running and jumping your way across a variety of levels and obstacles as you race to the exit portal! 

Do you have what it takes to help our little friend get back home safely? 

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Controls

KEYBOARDCONTROLLER
MovementArrowsD-pad/Left Analog
Jump/ConfirmSpaceX (PS controller) / A (XBOX controller)
"R"Reset/Restart  the  game"F5"Display  in-game  Timer

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The game features a death counter ๐Ÿ’€ as well as an in-game timer โณ,  so share your scores in the comments below! 

Can you beat the developer speedrun record? ๐Ÿƒโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿƒโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿƒโ€โ™‚๏ธ  Give it a go! ๐Ÿ™Œ

Dev time: ๐Ÿ’€ 0 deaths   โณ 14:31:57

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โญHigh-res art by: @hiba_squirrelart ๐Ÿ‘ฉโ€๐ŸŽจโญ

StatusReleased
PlatformsHTML5, Windows
Rating
Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars
(2 total ratings)
Authorlamqaddem
GenrePlatformer
Made withGameMaker
Tags2D, GameMaker, Pixel Art, Retro, Speedrun

Download

Download
A_Perilous_Detour_WINDOWS.zip 9.9 MB

Development log

Comments

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(1 edit)

So this was my original time when I first finished the game. HOWEVER, this isn't my actual time. This game took me several hours, on top of the 30 minutes that is seen in the screenshot above. I think you might need to add an extra time slot to account for hours. 

Another issue that I came across was with the spring boards (or red buttons). 

When I jump onto them, for some reason my jump is nullified (like it's a normal jump and not a spring board jump). Regardless of whether I jump or move onto the spring board or jump while on the spring board, I should be able to jump equally. Though, if this is by design, don't worry about it. I learnt to deal with it.

This one for me was massive.

I was stuck on this section for the longest time because I couldn't discern between the fireballs that were shooting downwards and the fireballs that were shooting vertically. It all looked like a jumbled mess. Even though there were only 6. My suggestion is that you make the downwards flames a different colour, like blue. Or, you could make them vertical flames that spray down from top to bottom, instead of shooting out (hopefully this makes sense). 

The screenshot above shows the how the time has elapsed passed 1 hour, though it would suggest that I was actually at this level in 44 seconds. Which doesn't really seem feasible right now. (Maybe it might be if people want to truly speedrun it).

Final Area (Test of all your skills)

Dude! That whole section was difficult, and it was made more so by the fact that you had to restart the section from the beginning completely. Man, I understand that it's a hard game, but that was brutal. I think the thing that obliterated me in my first playthrough was with arrow platforms. I prepare to jump onto another platform when out of nowhere, one of those arrow platforms squashed me. I would be completely okay with this, if it wasn't for the fact that I had to restart the whole level again. I can't give you any suggestion because I don't know if you intentionally wanted that to happen. So, I'll just leave this here as me ranting.


This screenshot above is from my second playthrough. There's no way I beat the game in 7 minutes. Because I didn't. It took me 2 hours and 7 minutes to beat it.


Music

I really liked the music. Especially the second area music. The woodwind section was so good. I quite myself whistling to the tune quite a bit.


I think the game is decent. Just those minor things that I said should be taken into consideration. The platforming is very tight, and that's okay. Thanks for making this game dude and keeping making more. You've got this!!!!!!!!!

(P.S. Please add an option to make the game full screen on the browser, it was kind of annoying not having that there.)

(+1)

First off, Thank you SOO MUCH for your comment. ๐Ÿ™๐Ÿ™๐Ÿ™

This is such helpful feedback. I haven't gotten the chance to test the game. It was just me testing it on my own, so some of these issues you mentioned I would have never been able to uncover. So thank you!!!


Regarding what you discussed:

- The funniest part is, I originally had hours accounted for in the timer, then I removed them because I thought it wouldn't be necessary ๐Ÿ˜… 

I, however, did not forsee the timer resetting as a result of that. My bad. I'll make sure to fix it. 

- The spring boards thing is something I was aware of, but decided to leave it in as it presented some "tech" to the gameplay. I figured it would be something cool for speedrunning. A minor boost if you approach it the right way. I designed around it so that you can clear all the spring jumps without needing that "boost", but players in-the-know would approach them differently and thus benefit from it to gain time.

I'm honestly torn on whether or not to keep or remove it. I hope it didn't cause any issues? If yes, then I guess it's best to remove them just to be safe ://

- For the vertical and horizontal flames in level 30. I'll adjust the layout of that section to be more readable and easier to anticipate. Thank you for your feedback!

- The final level is indeed intended to be difficult. However, the last section with the arrow platforms was not intended to cause cheap deaths. I made it that way with the assumption the player wouldn't stop on each platform, but make a run for it from one to the next and thus not be in danger of being crushed. But in retrospect, I see how that could catch someone off-guard without prior knowledge. I apologize for the frustration! I will adjust the layout to fix this. ๐Ÿ™๐Ÿ™

- I'll be adding fullscreen for sure. Noted! ๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿผ


Aside from that. Thank you so much for playing!

I'm so glad to hear you enjoyed and liked the game enough to finish it, as well as to take the time to comment all this! I'm also very happy to hear you liked the music. I appreciate the kind words! Truly. Thank you! ๐Ÿ™๐Ÿ™

One final time, thank you SOOO SOO MUCH for playing and for this comment. And I apologize for any frustration those unintended issues may have caused you. I will make sure to fix and address all of em in a future update.๐Ÿ™๐Ÿ™๐Ÿ™

Awesome dude! I'm looking forward to it. Also, I'm heavily impressed by what you have in store for the future. Keep making games dude. You've got a knack for it.

Thank you so much for the words of encouragement. I really appreciate it! ๐Ÿฅน๐Ÿ™

I definitely plan on making more games in the future! Hopefully they can live up to your expectations. ๐Ÿ˜


(P.S. I updated the game to fix the issues you mentioned. You can check out the devlog for a short summary if you don't feel like replaying the game again haha.)

If you have any additional feedback, please feel free to share it. I will try my best to address and fix as much as I can in future updates.

(1 edit)

*The game is in full screen, but it doesn't fully adjust as seen above*

Okay. Here's my time now. I like the checkpoint at level 30. Though, I'm not too sure about the checkpoint at level 24. Not that it wasn't appreciated, I was just concerned that enemy that used to traverse the bottom of the level is no longer taken into account. Though, it's not a bad thing.

Also, now I've done it under 1 hour for real this time.

The springs were really beneficially. It's very consistent. Though, the level with the flames isn't nearly as entertaining anymore. I know I was complaining about it beforehand, but now it feels like a cake walk.

I have a massive suggestion. The level design that you had before the patch, make that a challenge mode. Without the checkpoint flags and the confusing flames. And maybe you can add a few more extra mixes to the stuff (if you still want to work on this game further).

Anyways, well done again. It's looking very spiffy.
(1 edit)

Regarding the fullscreen thing, I apologize. I'll look into it and apply a fix asap. Thanks for letting me know! ๐Ÿ™


For level 24, I was hesitant to include a checkpoint at first. Because, as you mentioned, it does render the enemy irrelevant.

I considered making the checkpoint save the enemy's position when you activate it, thus not breaking the original design. But I thought that could prove frustrating if a player reaches it somewhat late and then gets stuck with an overly punishing enemy placement. Causing more unintended pressure for the second section.

Ultimately, I decided to reset the enemy for extra breathing room just in case. It's better than the alternative.

I think even if it breaks the level's original intent, it's okay. Since it would help alleviate some potential frustration for players. So It's alright ๐Ÿ˜„


Your suggestion for a "challenge mode" is something I might attempt at some point.

Although, I feel to justify an entire different mode, there would need to be a substantial change in difficulty overall across the whole game.

For now, the fire section and only 2 checkpoints don't change the overall difficulty that much. And so, are not enough to make the mode worth it imo.

I'm not opposed to the idea though!

I would just need a TON more feedback from even more players to decide. It would depend on how many more sections players find to be "troublesome". If there are enough, then I'd revert the changes and segment them into a separate challenge mode. 

dude, I really like this game but some levels take a small gap to cross obstacles and my hand becomes cramped from dying in those gaps, can you put something like a checkpoint in the levels please.

(1 edit)

Thank you so much for playing! I'm glad to hear you liked the game ๐Ÿค—

Also, I apologize if any parts caused you some unintended frustration ๐Ÿ™ 

Are there any specific levels that gave you a lot of trouble with obstacles/small gaps? 

I'm definitely considering adding a checkpoint and/or save system. But I'm also still open to improving the level layout in case any specific parts are too frustrating or cause a lot of trouble. So please let me know! ^_^ 

Thanks for your feedback! ๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿผ

Very cool game! As a huge fan of Celeste and precision platformers in general, this is a clear thumbs up from me. Would be cool if the game would save the progress.

Thank you so much for playing! ๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿผ

Regarding the save system: Given how short the game is, I figured it didn't need one and could get away with not having it without many issues popping up. 

But thanks for the suggestion. I'm definitely considering adding one in a patch. (Might take me some time to implement it however haha ๐Ÿ˜…).

Thanks again for playing. And for your kind words ๐Ÿค—

I figured the game was short because there was no save feature. The problem I had was that the game crashed a few times and I kept having to start over. I don't think a save feature is necessary for a short game as long as it runs smoothly, although I think the crashes are due to my PC and not the game itself.

(+1)

I see. I'm sorry that happened :(( 

It's definitely not supposed to crash. I tested it very thoroughly on my PC to make sure it runs smoothly (or at least I thought I did).

If there is any information you can give me about how and where the crashes happened, I'll look into it and see if I can fix it. 

Otherwise, I apologize again for the crashes. And thank you for checking out the game. ๐Ÿ™ 

I think it crashed because of my PC. I minimized the game and then it crashed. When I stay in the game, it runs perfectly.