Forums » Games » The Dreamsong

This is a beta version of a game I have been working on for a few years in Impact. I'm aware of several minor bugs with sound and elapsed time not always being right (when changing levels or loading a saved game).

Save game uses local storage in the browser. It also uses several plugins from this forum, including impact-node which I used to bake the minified version.

It is somewhat playable, but not optimized for touch screens. It was designed to be played with a keyboard and looks good on big screens.

I would like to package it for the Mac App Store or to distribute on Steam, maybe using node-webkit.

The tileset comes from the 1984 game Below The Root, which I wrote about on my blog. The story and level design come from a story I have developed over the years.

Wow, reminds me of some C64 games. I loved how you made tutorial, ability to play directly during instructions. I will buy it if you can release on steam and please notify if you need Greenlight votes.

I noticed some things:
Camera responds very sharply when you reverse walking direction.
The texts Mute Music and Load Game somehow flickers when I move around.
The text "Your spirit is weak" displaying constantly over my head is alil bit annoying
I would prefer up button for jump (it's use far more frequent) and J for climb. But personal chocice ofcourse.
I think I died sometimes, because I returned to the tree of life, but couldn't understand why I died? => First time, I stepped on the bucket and started going up. Second: In the underground I was jumping from a ladder to the ground.

Thanks for the feedback. All valid points, some I realized already.

Up doesn't jump because it's used for climbing. I want to be able to jump off ladders and while standing on one but not climbing, so it needs different keys commands. I removed the ability to crawl because it became so complicated with ladders. Like crawling past a ladder but don't go down, just crawl by.

I didn't want the player to die, just become unconscious and return to the tree, but the low-spirit thing is not explained well enough. Everybody comments that "I died and I don't know why". It is not explained how to get more spirit to avoid that unexpected "death".

Hey! This is really awesome! It reminded me of playing games like this on the Apple ][e... in other words, exactly the reason I wanted to be a game programmer in the first place. And the background story is pretty neat, too. Love affairs with old games are awesome.

The jumps were a little floaty for my taste. I felt like I was fighting the character to get to certain platforms.

I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do. I don't think that's a bad thing (I'm technically at work so I can't spend a lot of time exploring). But it's not obvious, if you meant it to be that way.

@drhayes, thanks, I'm using lots of plugins from the Impact forum, your event chain too.

I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do.

The game is an open world, but the tasks are pretty linear. So to fix the problem of "I don't know what to do", I think I'll put an objectives button that tells you all the things the characters encountered have said. They give clues about where to go next. I might put an arrow pointing in the general direction, but that's kind of too arcade-like, and I want this to be an adventure game.

The jumps were a little floaty for my taste. I felt like I was fighting the character to get to certain platforms.

I'm not sure how to fix that, but I am going to make climbing ladders faster. Several people have said it's too slow.

It reminded me of playing games like this on the Apple ][e...

I tried really hard to make this a real pixel game with the same colour limitations of the C64. That means you won't see any blocks that rotate partially and reveal that it's just a big square with nice, crisp edges.