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Cart #ascent-0 | 2022-09-03 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | No License
314

Ascent

Crashed on a desolate but mysterious planet you find yourself eye to eye with an ancient civilisation. Explore the planet, find powerful upgrades, and uncover its secrets.

CONTROLS

  • move ⬅️➡️
  • jump ⓩ
  • climb ladders ⬆️⬇️
  • special moves ❎ / ⓩ

CREDITS
Created during LowResJam 2022
Design/Art/Code: Johan Peitz (@johanpeitz)
Music/Sound: Vav ( @vavmusicmagic)

P#116846 2022-09-03 20:36

1

Great game! Good job.

P#116851 2022-09-03 22:05 ( Edited 2022-09-03 22:05)
1

Some of the powerups give more than meets the eye that it almost make me stuck until I discover it.
That being said, it's a nice short metroidvania!

P#116852 2022-09-03 22:32
4

Wow, @johanp ! The music really does make this game as well as tight controls, superb miniature sprites and animation.

Overall excellent and gold star work !

P#116853 2022-09-03 23:05
1

Really great game. i did 100% it and i do not regret it even a little bit!

P#116890 2022-09-04 18:39
1

Great game, and nice to see code-styles from other ppl... your coude is so small compared to what I normally do :) (and so many reclaimable tokens with _env...)

P#116936 2022-09-05 16:28
3

Very smooth game design and a lovely ending.

P#116938 2022-09-05 16:55

I can't figure out where to go after I get the

vine ability
. I've been wandering for maybe 15 minutes.

P#116959 2022-09-06 00:53

5/5 Nicely done :)
@ooooggll drop left

P#116963 2022-09-06 08:16

SPIRITS FOUND: 7/8
TIME: 24:44

BEATIFUL GAME, GOOD JOB

P#116965 2022-09-06 10:05
1

Got the ending where you get 1-7/8, got the ending where you get 8/8. Is it possible to get 0/8 and is there a different ending for that?

P#116999 2022-09-07 00:08

@joealarson : "Is it possible to get 0/8 and is there a different ending for that?"

Interesting question.

I think the minimum is 2 out of 8, unless someone can find a way to avoid collecting orbs close to the ground, like this one and one near the cliff west of the starting point.

Looking at the source code, I don't think there is any special case for zero orbs. So if you find a way to glitch past them all, you will probably see the character say "I hope it will work!" and the rest of the animation play despite no orbs being involved. But that is a guess, since I can't see a way to make it happen.

P#117024 2022-09-07 14:47

@Cowirrie That was kinda my conclusion as well. Couldn't clear them with a jump no matter how hard I tried.

P#117029 2022-09-07 16:36
1

@joealarson @Cowirrie
Well...


There is some commented-out code (in the 'player' tab, line 56) that, when reactivated, will start off the player with all of the power-ups in the game, so in theory this would be enough as you could simply ignore any of the paths that would unavoidably grant you a spirit (or you could use the dash maneuver to avoid them as I tested it and you can absolutely jump over the spirits with that ability). The problem? Well, look at the ending as shown in this gif:

So close! And, to clarify, yes, indeed, you are, in fact, seeing me bring the zero spirits of literally no one to the core to be rescued, and the spirits of no one replying back, just as Cowirrie predicted. What Cowirrie (and probably the rest of us) likely didn't expect however was the fact that the cliff spirit was still there, even during the ending. What's more, you can still interact with it... and you can't control your character at this time, making this one unavoidable as you pick it up due to actions taken by the character that are beyond your control. The only way to avoid this one would be to hack the game to either delete the spirits or disable their collision.

That being said, it seems like the ending doesn't change anyways as you enter the cliff-top scene with zero spirits and it plays out normally (minus me picking up a spirit during said ending), so I don't think it would be worth the effort to hack the game for a true zero spirit run, but that's up to you.

P#117034 2022-09-07 18:34
1

@Kaius : Thank you for putting that to the test. I'm both amused and impressed that the cutscene programming by @johanp is robust enough to play the conversation before continuing with the original ending. This is clearly the "correct" program response to this (probably) unreachable game state...

P#117069 2022-09-08 13:03

I got all 8 spirits! It was defenitly fun. Nice art, however i thing i like the starting area the most. The stone one a bit less.

P#117117 2022-09-09 15:19

What a brilliant adventure. It's amazing how vast the world can feel when you reduce the screen resolution!

P#117219 2022-09-11 21:21

Absolutely adorable, and so poignant.

P#117416 2022-09-14 14:02

wonderful work

P#117418 2022-09-14 15:11
1

I stucked here when I tried to dive down.

P#117452 2022-09-15 02:27

good job :)

P#117477 2022-09-15 18:33

Fun game =)

P#117492 2022-09-16 02:00

awesome game, 8/8 spirits

P#117493 2022-09-16 02:14

Whats wrong with this picture?

P#117646 2022-09-19 05:39

Incredible game!
I especially love the music.
This really captures a mood that isn't seen often on Pico 8. Very well done

P#117889 2022-09-24 05:35

absolutely perfect.
i have a suggestion.
make a save option.
the game is too lenghty to one-shot, it would be nice to be able to save.

P#118005 2022-09-26 22:11

i did it

P#118715 2022-10-07 10:27

Thanks for this great game. I especially enjoyed the music
and story elements, which made it all feel more meaningful.

P#118718 2022-10-07 14:00

good game! 7/10

P#118952 2022-10-12 14:18

fun game!

P#119419 2022-10-21 06:33

Amazing. Top-tier work here. Favorited.

P#119466 2022-10-23 04:14

fantastic work happy wheels game

P#119982 2022-11-02 08:56

Great experience. I loved the mood, the music and the story.

Do you know Ayerdhal, it's a french Sci-fi author, and he wrotes a short novel entitled "Scintillements" ("Flickers" in english) which evokes the story of a human being who sacrifices himself to save extraterrestrials.

P#120155 2022-11-05 17:22

I got a "happy" ending!
Very poignant, I loved the backstory.

P#120245 2022-11-07 02:56

Gg! 6/8 spirits. Nice game!!

P#121702 2022-12-02 04:33

I am a sucker for Metroidvania games. This is really well done!

P#121833 2022-12-05 00:32

8/8 Saved; ~28m to complete.

It appears my manual dexterity isn't quite what it used to be, so I found the last challenge the most difficult because:

I kept accidentally diving instead of jumping

Regardless, this was simply marvelous Johan and Vav, and to be quite frank, the perfect length. I hope you are able to collaborate together on more things like this in the future!

P#122912 2022-12-24 00:13 ( Edited 2022-12-24 00:14)

This is outstanding! Did I do something wrong? I'm at this cliff where I need to jump onto an ice cube (crystal?). I have the strong arms ability, the down-jump, the vines, and the dash, which you need to make it to this point. I'm super stumped as to what I'm supposed to do from here?

P#123470 2023-01-02 02:08

Really fun exploratory game! I don't normally play Metroidvanias due to my frustration when getting lost, so I'm happy to say the map was very well-designed and helped me organically remember the areas I have not yet explored. The fork-in-the-road-type areas (especially the jungle one and the desert area) were arranged in a way that I could easily keep track of them (+ potential abilities needed) and return later. I also enjoyed how each section after earning a new ability had a demonstration for the new ability before connecting to an earlier fork-in-the-road area. For me this made exploration more of a curious discovery rather than a frustration getting-lost scenario.

I found 8/8 Spirits in 22 minutes and 30 seconds!

P#124336 2023-01-15 08:11 ( Edited 2023-01-15 08:13)

I played this today and really enjoyed it. Environments are varied, platforming fun, there is a nice progression system with different abilities and even a little bit of story on top of all that. Good job!

P#125325 2023-02-04 19:25

Wow what a fun game! Min played 63, spirits saved 7/8. Will definitely try fro 8/8 another time.

Funny glitch, idk if intended:

Thanks for making this game :)

P#125469 2023-02-07 12:16

spirits: 8/8
time: 14:23
a very good game overall

P#126313 2023-02-26 08:37

This was great! I only got 4/8 my first play through yesterday... but I've been thinking about the game, I want to return to it and get more. I like the abilities. Movement abilities are very satisfyingly kinetic. Vine power seemed a bit underwhelming vs the others I got, but obviously necessary, and perhaps relevant to explain the ending...?

P#126463 2023-03-01 09:16

i really enjoyed this game and started speedrunning it, but i noticed the timer is very inaccurate? i beat the game with a 3:16 in-game time, and in real time it was 3:57. but on another run i beat the game slower in real time, but got a 3:10 in-game time. i highly doubt you'd want to come back to this game and update it again, but i really like the game and think the speedrun is very fun. but right now the in-game timer is just not very useful for determining the run's time unfortunately

P#126831 2023-03-09 05:53

This is the first Pico-8 game I've actually taken the time to finish. Got 7/8. Ending made me sad. Will have to try again to get the last spirit, see if there's a good ending.

P#127589 2023-03-25 05:27

This has to be my favorite PICO-8 game so far! Fantastic work, as always! I enjoyed the puzzles, built-in mini tutorials after each power-up, and the smoothness of the game mechanics. Fun story combined with beautiful low-res sprites made this a delight to play!

P#128835 2023-04-21 11:24

I’ve got 7/8 3 times, I thought to get the eighth one you had to beat it without dying but that’s not the case. I have no idea where the 8th one is and I’d love to find but I can’t. But cool game
My best is 5:30

P#129619 2023-05-10 22:34

SPIRITS FOUND: 8/8
TIME: 65:14

Very nice game, well balanced, a "must play" for every Metroid fan.
(and I love the secret passages by the way a la Mario).

P#132106 2023-07-18 16:33 ( Edited 2023-07-18 16:36)

Exploration Adventures are my favourite genre, and this is one of the
best of its kind. The dense atmosphere, the story, and the amazing
design within all it's limitations (lo-res) are just brilliant.
Thank you so much for this masterpiece!

P#134064 2023-09-08 17:13

Had a lot of fun playing this one. Nice work. Kept me wondering what was next as far as abilities and each complimented the other. Great game design.

P#135190 2023-10-01 03:50
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