The Bluebird
While you are visiting Asteria for spacecraft repairs, the planet comes under siege. Does your vintage ship, the Bluebird, hold the key to freeing Asteria from aggression?
Controls are taught during gameplay. Recommended keying options:
1. Movement with right hand: arrows to move, C to jump, X to "scream" (when available), Z to exit/enter ship.
2. Movement with left hand: WASD to move, J to jump, K to "scream" (when available), L to exit/enter ship.
The game sounds much nicer with headphones.
Created in about one month for the GamesNow! Online Jam #8. All art, animations, programming, music and fonts by me; helpful programming tutorials credited in-line.
Comments
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didn't see the "difficult" tag at first but felt it soon after. I have been randomly coming back to this game since i found it shortly after its release, and think i got addicted! I finally finished the game (FYI I'm very new to platformers and am not too good yet). I loved the pastel sci-fi art nouveau-esque aesthetics, which were very unique. really nice game overall!
I'm so glad to read this -- thank you for playing and for coming back to power through to the end! It's nice to hear you describe the look of the game as I hoped it would come out. Thanks!
I'm in awe. The atmosphere, music, style, game play, animations, narrative.. It's been long since I last time had this kind of full emotional experience with a short game. You have created something very unique and mesmerizing.
Everything worked smoothly for me, playing on Opera.
Only thing I'd perhaps add would be the 'press to continue' mention after dialogues so the player knows it's time to move forward.
Great job!! I hope to see more of this.
This is very motivating and helpful -- thank you, I really appreciate it!
Hey buddy, I’m mildly obsessed with your game - plus you gave me such good debugging advice I have to at least try to return the favor. I found a soft lock situation: after the player finishes the diner sequence and they have to go through a slalom of falls:
The player progresses to a hall with 2 falling ceiling blocks. There is no real reason for the person to be out of the ship, but I ended up outside of it and got stuck in this little area because the ceiling blocks wouldn’t fall, there’s no other way to die, and I can’t jump high enough to get out. I’m playing on the itch page via Chrome by the way.
Just an FYI and thanks again for spending so much time testing my messy entry.
Great feedback, thank you, I missed that!
Intimidating! This game seriously works on every level.
I’m going to try to say some original things - your game really makes its statements clearly so I might be saying the same things as everyone else. There really isn’t anything to fix…I will share the emotional experience I had playing the game.
The conversation at the beginning is wonderful. So many little details are being discussed in this alternate universe: the guy asking what your heat shields are made of. Sometimes the best way to put someone into an alternate world is just to put them into a normal conversation in that world.
Obviously: The moment where you step out of your vehicle and leave it on the pressure plate so you can hit the switch was where I realized I was dealing with a serious game designer (well, that and the feedback you gave me on my game). You are using previously introduced features in a new way.
I’m left wondering if you watched the show Twin Peaks? The diner, the coffee seeking, being a skilled person who is from out of town talking about how things “work around here” felt very Agent Cooper. Anyway, these story elements were beautiful. The sudden introduction of the war ships that your mechanic friend is watching on the news - excellent way to introduce a sense of unexpected urgency.
The second sequence where you are infiltrating the enemy ship was so well executed. You really made me rethink even bothering with a system with lives and continues - this kind of challenge really makes the player grit their teeth and try again and again.
Also the dangers of AI if it’s brought into warfare………thank you for bringing this up.
There really isn’t ANYTHING to fix, this really was so well done. My only suggestion would be to have a “press _ to continue” button for the dialogue instead of auto timing just because the dialogue is so important I wouldn’t want anyone to miss it. I’m left with more questions than suggestions because you are clearly the better game developer.
Thank you so much for this very thoughtful and kind feedback! And wow -- I *am* a fan of Twin Peaks, so I'm sure you're right about the influence! I'm glad that you experienced the game in ways I was hoping players would, and your feedback on the dialogue system is also very helpful -- I use Unity timelines right now, but building a simple custom system that allows the button-pressed dialogue is probably a better idea, if I can get it working. As it is, I have to make a best guess at the pacing of it. I should also say that after I played your game, I was so impressed with how much gameplay there was, how many well-tuned puzzles, mechanisms and enemies you had designed for the player, that I felt like that's also an area I want to improve in my games in the future. Thanks again!
other than the obvious, "The End" part. is it over? or there is more to this game?
You played it all -- at least for now! Thank you for playing!