Nereus

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Nereus

by rmcco

Cart #nereus-2 | 2024-03-30 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | No License

26

Nereus

A procedurally generated vertical pixel platformer set in the depths of the ocean. Play as a deep sea diver ascending through treacherous environments, collecting as much gold as possible while you climb.

How to Play

Powerups

Collect and use special powerups.

Scoring

The game will keep your highest score even if you close the browser.

Post your best results in the comments below!

Credits

Nereus was written and designed by Ross McCormick.

The music was composed by Ross McCormick.

The game is written entirely in Pico-8.

Changelog

1.0:

• Initial release

1.1:

• Fixed a bug where if you died shortly after collecting gold it would count towards the next game's score.
• Added the option to skip the start game cutscene.
• Harder levels are added to the level pool after surviving for 1 minute, rather than 2 minutes, increasing level variety sooner.
• Player can now push the scroll rate when they encroach the top of the play area.
• Scrolling speed now increases at twice the previous rate, maxing out once the player has survived 8 minutes.

Very cool, reminded me of tower of greed.
Minor bug : if you die just after collecting some gold, the gold will count for your next game.
The "held powerup" square can sometimes hide important map info. Maybe move the hud to the bottom of the screen if the player is near the top of the screen, or maybe the player could push the scrolling when going near the top ?

Great game!! I have a new favourite "vertical climber". Love the look and feel. Beautiful

My best score so far:

Nereus is a good game, and I've had some fun, but I'd like to suggest a few adjustments.

1. For quite a while I was having fun, but thought the tileset was limited. Then I started living past the 2 minute mark and realised that the tile library had increased. Even after I see those, I most of my game time is spent in 2 minutes on the "easy" tiles in order to get a few seconds practice on the "medium" tiles. Usually I die in about 30 seconds there, the screenshot above is a rare time when I got to the "hard" tiles. Suggestion: have difficulty go to the "medium" tiles as soon as 1 minute passes, or have difficulty level selection so we can instantly start on the medium or hard tiles.
2. Also, make it clear when the difficulty has changed by changing the background color.
3. If the player is in the top row of the screen, speed up the scroll rate. We're acting impatient, let us get into trouble sooner
4. If we're hanging off a ledge and press the "down" button, let us fall downwards.
5. If you can spare the tokens, randomly remove a few spikes, monsters and gold bars each time you generate a tile. While this overall makes it easier, it also gets more variety out of your tileset.
6. Have life rings act as a passive item, like keys. Then we can decide if to just get the obvious gold bars, or save them for a random moment of poor control in the harder areas.

It's fun as it is, I'd just like it to be more fun, and make sure that everyone gets to see how much variety you put into the tiles.

Improved score (included double points on a chest):

Longest time lasted (I was actively trying to minimise my score here, for variety):

Does anything different happen at 6 minutes?

Thanks @RealShadowCaster! I didn’t catch that bug during playtesting, I’ll look to get it patched shortly. I like your suggestion of allowing the player to push the scroll rate when near the top of the screen.

I’m currently running dangerously low on tokens, however I am looking into implementing this feature, as well as others.

@phil Thank you so much for your kind words! I’m glad you enjoy the game.

@Cowirrie Congrats on your new highscore! You’ve beaten my previous record of 100,000!

Once you survive past the 4 minute mark, no new levels are added, however the scroll rate will continue to increase slowly up until the 16 minute mark.

Thank you so much for your detailed feedback! I’m currently running dangerously low on tokens, however I am looking into implementing some of your suggestions, as well as the option to skip the intro cutscene.

It’s not currently listed in the controls, but if you’re hanging off of a ledge and press the "jump" button while holding the “down” button then you’ll fall downwards.

I’m really glad to hear you’re enjoying the game so far. Thank you so much for playing!

this is amazing!

The changes to version 1.1 are great. The faster scrolling means there's always something happening. I got very lucky with keys and bonuses and got two double chests on this run.

The medium levels start appearing at a good time, and I hope that beginner players don't find it too overwhelming. I don't think it should be, the medium levels are needed for variety.