Control the Body
A game in which one is tasked to control a body.
This game will autosave your progress.
Also playable on https://gate.itch.io/control-the-body. You can check out my other games there.
Controls
Arrow keys -- move and rotate body
X -- hold breath
Z -- jump (only with shoes); hold to jump higher
Down -- interact/talk (context sensitive)
Enter -- pause menu
Pause Menu Options
Continue -- continue playing
SFX -- turn sound effects on or off
Music -- turn music on or off
Timer -- turn game timer on or off (useful for speedrunning)
Game Speed -- speed up or slow down the game; can be used as an accessibility option, but certain challenges can still be very difficult even at the lowest speed
(X) Delete save -- delete your save file and restart the game
Inspiration
The following creators were my primary inspirations for this game. If you like my game, please check them out!
- @sylviefluff - http://love-game.net/
- Stephen Lavelle - https://www.increpare.com/
- @bfod - http://www.foddy.net/
This is an amazing hard platformer game, and the inspirations are pretty clear. I'm not familiar with sylvie so I'll have to check her stuff out, but increpare and bfod are great!
I managed to collect all the green orbs and all but one yellow orb (in the upper left map, even with extra checkpoints on the crazy path to it, it seemed impossible...). Eventually I cheated, and tweaked the code to see what those red shoes did. Fair warning to everyone else: they do nothing! It's not an upgraded jump or anything. :P
I'll probably revisit collecting the red orbs later, but this is easily one of my favorite pico-8 games already. I've put 3+ hours into this so far, and even though some parts were frustrating, the way you've explored these very simple mechanics and pushed them to the absolute limit is fantastic. The skill ceiling keeps breaking wide open as I discover new abilities and strategies, and most maps have great checkpoint placement as well.
Maybe test that one yellow orb in the upper left map though? I think your air drains too quickly outside of the map, because I wasn't able to make it even once after 20+ (cheated) attempts there.
A semi-spoiler for the craziness of that last yellow orb. This map was excellently designed to explain that new mechanic for a little extra jump height, too.
Never mind... thanks to a clue in the discord, I figured it out. Here's how you actually get that last yellow orb (big spoiler):
This game makes me want to pull my hair out and I absolutely love it
What a weird game! But so strangely creative. The first few screens had me thinking this was just some physics test gone awry, but after a few more I could see that this is a whole fleshed out concept.
The wall jumps are really hard but satisfying to pull off.
Thanks for all the kind words so far folks! I had a ton of fun making this game.
I love this game so much and I especially love the theme that plays in the water area, would you mind if I uploaded it to youtube so I can add it to my playlists? fantastic work on everything btw this is seriously one of my favorite pico-8 games and I could talk for hours about how well it's designed
@Cyner -- yeah, you can upload it. I have it in this video, but it's with the rest of the songs too https://youtu.be/xZ4457wU2mY?t=258. If you want to upload an isolated version, that's fine with me.
That song was originally going to be more of a joke and a straight transcription of the Donkey Kong Country water music, but I got bored transcribing it and then gave it a different cadence. It still has mostly the same melody and some of the same features (e.g. the slowly rising tone), but I added a counter melody and it goes off a bit in the second half, lol.
And thanks for the kind words! Glad you enjoyed the game.
almost there...
(i have no idea how to get some of these though)
(EDIT: Down to two! And I think I know how, though it's definitely earning the pain rating if I'm right)
@gate88 Yeah, they are.
I haven't gotten the last one yet, but let me say this now:
This game is really fun (as long as you don't get frustrated by failure), and the controls were a delight to learn. Doing my first flip gave me a dopamine hit.
But more than that, it is incredibly impressive that you've managed to make a game with 20 hours of gameplay out of 32 screens and 8000 tokens. It feels like you've made a game that's exactly the right size for the Pico-8, fully explored all of its mechanics (including hidden ones!) without ever being repetitive.
I do have one complaint, which is that some of the red balls require tech that you're never taught, but even then getting to learn it was fun.
I also have a question.
Can you get the last orb with precise jumping, or is there some super secret tech like a clipping glitch or a SUPERBAD DOOR that's only required here?
@Fnorfensuld i can confirm it's "just" precise jumping for the orb you haven't gotten.
for the game itself, yeah, it feels like i made it in a stream of consciousness, and the density is just a result of me trying to squeeze the most out of my limited mechanics (which is also what i enjoy most when playing games).
you are right that the reds are not taught -- i do think they're discoverable if you're particularly clever, but only barely. i don't think i created any NEW mechanics for the reds; they were all tricks i learned while designing levels, so in a sense i had to "discover" them too. i think that's the only axis they're "fair" on.
but also, yeah, they were designed to be unreasonable, which is why i'm so explicit about it in the game. many people just got the greens and found that satisfying. a few people got the yellows and found that extremely challenging. the reds are clearly marked (and significantly harder than the yellows) so only sickos like me attempt them. there is no reward for them because the journey IS the reward. like the game says: "can think about what you value".
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