To take root Among the Stars

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To take root Among the Stars

by somin

Cart #to_take_root_among_the_stars_1-7 | 2023-02-07 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | No License

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Introduction

To take root Among the Stars is a short narrative platformer.

Play as Mei Hashimoto, one of the colonists send to an exoplanet to prepare it for the arrival of the rest of humanity.

Explore the colony and its surrounding flora and fauna. Talk to your fellow colonists and send a message to earth via the relay station at the top of the nearby mountain.

Controls

Movement

Interactions

Credits

To take root Among the Stars was developed by Simon Klein.

While they made a variety of different games in the past, this is their first foray into a narrative focused game.

It was developed in the span of about one and a half months using Pico-8, a virtual Fantasy Console by Lexaloffle.

Thanks to the folks on the Pico-8 discord for help fitting the whole game into the limited space, and @Gruber_Music for their excellent introductory music tutorials.

Well, this is absolutely lovely. Love the characters, the art, everything about it. I do have one question about the end though! Hiding my question to avoid spoilers:

Glad you liked it <3

thanks for the feedback @2bitchuck
I added a sign to point the player in the right direction. <3

@somin Yes, that definitely helped, thanks! Is there a definitive ending? I'm just running around exploring now & I think I've helped everyone.

yeah, once your over the mountain you've seen everything there is to see. thats the intended way to see the "thanks for playing" message.

I was debating where to put an end screen, but it didn't fit anywhere x) so I opted for that message

Also just ran into a crash:

This happened while getting into the hot spring with Robby for (I think) the third time

Thanks for confirming! Wonderful game, it looks terrific and I love the story and characters. It feels very alive. Nicely done!

Thank you! ^-^
I haven't been able to reproduce your crash yet, but I'll keep an eye out x)
the minified version also makes it quite hard to see where it happens, but i think I think I found where it is at least.

This is very impressive!

I just don't really understand what to do...

This is incredibly lovely. The level design guided me gently through the whole thing. The dialogue was personal and conversational and funny. I felt really drawn in and, by the end, was really moved. Thanks so much for making and sharing this.

Also had so much fun moving around! The movement physics, wall-jump and jetpack are implemented really well. Was easy to get the hang of things. Also the clouds in the background look gorgeous. Love the dithering effects on them.

thank you <3 warms my heart ^-^

@bilodau you basically explore the world and talk to people. There is no strict goal or end to the game, but you should try to collect fuel canisters for your jetpack and make it over the mountain on the right.

Really interesting game, but the dialogue noises hurt my ears. Perhaps make them all notes in a certain key?

Very nice game, got all jet packs and talked to everyone!

making them all in key sounds like a good idea x) didn't think of that.
I have the feeling the the web version is extra noisy compared to the editor version. but maybe I'm just imagining it...

@Shadow_Blaster6 glad you liked it! You must have missed Jazz though, they would sit next to the easel otherwise!

This is amazing. So much character and story in such a small package. The style is beautiful and rich, and the tiny bit of progression is satisfying. I'd love to see this as a fully developed adventure game.

Very atmospheric. I always like games that make sure parallax backgrounds line up somewhere interesting. Jetpacks can be hard to play balance in platform games, but this one - and the fuel canisters - felt well tuned.

Because play kept going after reaching the "ending," I found my way to the source of a waterfall:

Just uploaded a new version. This one has new voice sfx, hopefully a little easier on the ears. A little quieter, less noise and all in one scale.

Its still a bit weird when mixed with the music I think. Maybe I'll need to reduce the music much more in the dialogs. I tried to find a way to duck the volume while talking, but now its just different music tracks during dialogs.