Happy 8th anniversary to Celeste Classic, here is my celeste-inspired ball physics game:
Momo's Momentum is a ball-physics platformer, where you help Momo the Mouse rescue her Mom from the mischevious Mr. Mobius. Use grapple hooks to build up speed and transfer your momentum to get around over a dozen platforming challenges inside a giant clock!
This is the culmination of working on-and-off for about 20 months, and leaving it be twice in that time frame. (Probably one-third of that has been active development). It's been scope creeped to heck, but I have a clear vision for it finally: I'm working to make six levels of this size (20-30 minutes for a first playthrough), with cutscenes, and bonus minigames. I'm in over my head and right now only have this one level to show for it -- but I'd like to share this level as a preview, because it took so much work to get here and I'm proud of it!!
Featuring:
- Grapple hooks!
- Squash n stretch!
- TUBES!!!
- Rolling around at the speed of sound
- "Celeste crossed with Marble Run"
- WHEEE TUBES!!
- A secret exit.....?
- Sub-pixel collisions
- 60FPS gameplay
Changelog:
-7/22: Version 2 changes the input method: Now you only need to use left/right, and it will accelerate you based on the surface you are rolling on. Now, up/down don't do anything. Hopefully this is a more intuitive control method.
-8/11: Version 3 reverts the input, buffs your movement speed, and adds a new tutorial. I'm still considering a more drastic input change, but leaving this here for now to gather feedback while I work on it.
-8/14: After consideration I have made sweeping changes to momo! She now is able to jump with the press of up, and will hopefully control better! The changes are all based around treating momo more in the direction of a character you control, instead of a ball you have influence over. Please leave your feedback!
I also fixed the secret exit not appearing
Love it ❤️ Momo is adorable, her tail looks great.
Really nails the feeling of momentum!
It took me a little while to get that all of the arrow keys gave momentum (I thought it was just left and right), so I struggled a bit initially. I think the second stage was supposed to teach me that, but I brute-forced through it and had a hard time because of it. I'd appreciate a bit more tutorialisation, or just a smoother on-ramp.
The tube levels feel great! Great to have a palette cleanser after the more challenging platforming.
Love the feel, love the art, great sound 💯
ThaCuber and cheesemug -
It's meant to be floaty, as you need to build up momentum to get past obstacles. But not so slow that it feels sluggish. Thank you both for feedback.
amillz -
Thank you! I've heard that feedback about up/down input already, so I may have to figure out a better way to implement it. I've only had it played in person before.
I loved making tubes! I may make a separate version based on just getting through tubes quickly.
Thank you for the kind words!
@amillz
@Doriencey
I published a new version, with an updated control scheme! Now, using left/right will always accelerate you according to the surface you're on, or cw/ccw on grapples. I had built out this system but scrapped it because I found it unintuitive, let me know if you find it an improvement!
EDIT: This solution isn't perfect, it has many cases like hooking from the top half that feel unintuive, because the controls appear reversed. So I'll have to adjust this system to behave adaptively, but intuitively.
I don't know if this was the "secret exit" or the path to get to it, but I found a way to get out of bounds from the levels and found a key way up in the top right corner of the map. I don't know if this was intentional but I can't find anywhere to really go from there or if that's even the secret exit at all.
This game had some great moments, and I gave it a gold star. But I didn't figure out how to use left and right until halfway through. I should have read the comments. Maybe half an early screen say something like "Hold ⬅️ or ➡️ to circle"?
Getting the three keys in this level gave me a lot of trouble. I'd get one or two of them and then die.
This level was where I finally realised I could hold down a key to loop in circles, as you intended. But the middle jump gave me a lot of trouble. When I finally cleared it and saw I still had the third jump... I'd probably have given up if I hadn't cleared the third jump the first time I tried it. I died moments after I entered the next screen, but because it was the next screen, that's where I respawned.
I'm very impressed by the level design, how you had occasional "breather" levels. Also how the levels are connected so you occasionally loop past an existing area, or get a peek at the hazards of the next one. The final level felt appropriately epic. Here is the time and deaths count from my first playthrough.
@CatastrophicCal -- Yeah, that would be the secret exit. If you had to backtrack after picking up keys to get out of bounds, it was intentional. If you just clipped through, than something is wrong somewhere.
@Cowirrie -- Great job! Thanks for the feedback. I definitely need to do more testing and tuning with controls. Those two levels you pointed out were made more difficulty, because before you could tweak your vertical momentum by holding up or down.
Thanks for your comment on the design too! I took a lot of care with that and it turned out to be a lot harder than I thought, but I'm glad that it was all good! :D
Searching for the secret given your hints...
When I did search forwards from that point, I found myself dying and respawning here. I could move to the left and right; moving to the right enough to reach middle column was lethal.
I was able to get out of this by moving to room to the left. I died, but then respawned in bounds.
@Cowirrie - You're on the right track with the tube, and it's possible to go back that way. It sounds like you did manage to find and out of bounds clip, which I'll have to try and replicate to fix.
@OWD5238
Great job! It's.... not supposed to be so hard. I've got a lot of good feedback and I'll definitely be making adjustments to make it easier. Thanks for playing!
@beanborg I found the intended way to get out of bounds, but I still don't know where I'm supposed to go from there.
Also, the out of bounds method I found that I don't think was intended involved completing a stage, and then going to the next one while very close to the ceiling. When you die, you get respawned higher than where you entered and get pushed out of bounds for some reason.
@CatastrophicCal
Just tested it, there's supposed to be special effects when you go through the intended way but it's not showing up. I'll have to take a look.
Thanks for the explanation! I have an inkling of what the cause could be.
@Heracleum
Yup, I may have overtuned it and with trying out a different control scheme it became even harder. I'll definitely be adjusting it, somehow
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