that intro, i was laying portal 2 music and it fitted so well the song name is 999999
Reviews for "Ascent"
Wonderful game you have here. I'm not sure if it deserves a full 5, but I'll give it to you for the sake of balancing with the low scores from people who misunderstood the message. I give it a 4.5 in my head.
However, a few things that could help improve the game/ the reason I wouldn't normally give it a 5:
-Make the "how to play" feature pop up automatically. I used it, but only after i spent a bit of time sort of floating around at the bottom, trying to lift off. I'm sure people could make it farther if so much time wasn't wasted.
-Explain how the speech bubbles work. It also took a while before i figured out (accidentally) that you continue moving upward indefinitely within them. Some areas are much more difficult without this knowledge, and others are downright impossible to get past because you use up your boosts trying to get past the bubble before you fall. This would also help people get farther and be able to see more of the message.
-The ending was... lacking. I understand why you put the timer there (although I feel like it doesn't add as much to the game as it could [more on that later]), but that isn't the ending I'm talking about. I ran out of time on my first play through, but decided to go again as the game was worth it. I had plenty of time left when I reached the end and was treated to the EXACT SAME end as when you run out of time. The Sagan quote fits well, but only if there's a different result for running out of time, like a quote about mortality, maybe.
I know it must seem like I'm nitpicking, but i don't mean to. It's just that this type of game is difficult to do justice when making, and you're really close to it being phenomenal. You did a great job presenting the quotes. I'm aware that Poe's law applies in situations like these, but i don't get how someone woulds still think you're serious after the lines like "If science and the bible disagree, science is wrong. The earth is 6000 years old. etc". The game really is great all around. It's just a few fuzzy edges that could use some help.
Excellent game! People are complaining about the message put forth and how it's closed minded or too supportive of religion, but I don't think that's what it's trying to get across. Notice how most of the stars have you avoiding the bubbles, and how going into them slows you down. I think it's trying to say that having a closed mind and rejecting proven scientific knowledge will slow down humanity's ascent.
Aside from that, it's very fun and addictive, even without the messages it would be a great game.
I like how people are commenting claiming there's no music, or audio... Which means they probably didn't get very far. Things to change though. Skippable introduction in case someone loads this up again, and wants another go at it. I guess add music to the beginning area just so the children don't decide to complain although they'll complain about it not having a mute button, or the music choice not suiting their tastes so honestly there's no winning with that one. I thought it was a really deep game. I'm definitely going to try this game again since I wasted a lot of time getting used to the movement in just the first screen.
Kolba responds:
Thanks for your feedback. The intro can be skipped with either Up or Space.
It could definitely use some work but once you get the hang of it it is really a fairly unique way of telling a narrative. . . stuff like this is why I love NG. . . clever to say the least