This was quite good! I liked the art. The controls were easy to get used to, and it felt like the challenge was coming from the level design, not the controls, which is good. It would be cool if there was a way to make items appear on the minimap, since I got 18 out of 20 tablets but have no earthly idea where the other two could be. Also, it's very hard to see the white "you are here" dot on the white-outlined minimap. There was also some significant lab on the screens that had a lot of sprites, but maybe that was just my browser.
Author Comments
Explore 38 rooms spanning 135 screens of platforming challenges as you search for the lost Deeplight stone to restore the light of the sun to the land.
Find and collect the 10 keys and 4 runes to open the path to the Deeplight stone, activate the 4 warp gates to quickly move around the labyrinth, and uncover all 20 hidden tablets to learn the story of the Deeplight stones and the tyrannical mage, Syal.
You'll need to avoid devious traps, spikes, lava, and acid along the way, as well as traverse moving platforms, rush across crumbling bridges, and master the skill of wall-jumping if you expect to succeed.
Go beyond just reaching the Deeplight stone and collect every key, find every tablet, and explore every inch of the labyrinth to unlock all 5 of the game's achievements.
How to play:
Use the arrow keys to move.
Press up to jump.
Press Z or B to toggle the minimap on and off.
Press X or N to review your progress and read any tablets you've collected.
Hold C or M (for a few seconds) to warp back to the entrance of the labyrinth.
After discovering other warp gates, hold C to warp to each gate (and the labyrinth entrance) in turn.
-- Wall Jumping Tip --
When wall jumping, you do not need to hold down or repeatedly press the jump button - you just need to press in the direction away from the wall.
-- Warp-escape Tip --
If you've just collected a difficult to reach key, tablet, or rune, you can always warp out of the room (by holding C or M) if you don't want to risk walking back; warping saves your game as well.
-- A map! --
Jez79, a fan of The Deeplight Expedition over on Kongregate, made a map of the game! If you're stuck you might find it handy: http://jez79.deviantart.c om/art/Deeplight-Expediti on-Map-178385475
Update 3:
Some small fixes to the text of the tablets in the game -- thanks to everyone who caught typos in the text!
Update 2:
You can now use WASD to move and jump; the spacebar is also now an additional jump button.
The B, N, and M keys can be used to toggle the minimap, display the status screen, and warp around the labyrinth (if you're using WASD to move, BNM will probably be easier than trying to use ZXC for these commands).
Minor update:
I've made the timing for the wall jumping a bit more forgiving -- it should be a little easier to get the hang of it now.
Does anyone else hear the song "sensual seduction" after listening to the main level music for a while?
Pretty good and challenging game. A couple of notes though, having the music restart whenever you die is really annoying since you spend a lot of time dying and listening to the first couple of notes before a bouncy ball crushes your skull in, then listening to those same notes again makes you want to play the game without any music at all... And that's not the way games should be played. Also what's with all the tutorial popups? once the wall-jump is explained I don't think it's necessary to repeat it
A solid little game with appealingly retro graphics, but if there's one thing this game is not, it's a Metroidvania. No character/power progression, no new abilities to be had, just platforming.
Also, I felt like the game was holding my hand too much during the first 10 minutes or so with all those help popups, before suddenly hitting a difficult right-angle in the first warp gate room.
two hours. I'm satisfied and have a headache.
I'm going to play only metroidvania type games from now on.
Woof. that was a challenge.
Credits & Info
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Frontpaged September 1, 2010
