It's Ludum Dare time again! Another competition, another healthy round of entertainment and creativity. Over 200 games were submitted this time around, each involving the theme of "islands". Below you'll find a few of our choices out of the lot. Be sure to check out all the games and, if you're cool, vote on them, too!
Paradise Fort (Windows, <1MB, free) - Created by Arvi Teikari (a.k.a. hempuli, creator of Floating Islands Game, among others), this unique little game is all about building a fort! Dig in the sand, build ladders, walls and cannons, smack dangerous birds, go fishing and more in this cute 2D sandbox game. The controls are a little awkward at first, but once you get the hang of it, you'll have a great time playing around on your own private island.
Brave Island Diver (Windows, 2.36MB, free) - A platformer by jwaap that makes creative use of physics to collect stars scattered about the landscape. The little protagonist can barely jump higher than a bedbug's knee, but if you leap off a cliff, you'll get some extra momentum that can slingshot you to greater heights. Use this ability to work your way deeper below the water as well as up above the ground to find all of the stars. Some graphical flicker issues can be a problem, but otherwise it's quite an enjoyable experience.
Jump Pirate (Windows, 2.5MB, free) - An exploration-centric platform game by snowyowl, Jump Pirate will probably remind you of Knytt in more ways than one. The dark island world is filled with traps and tall ledges, perfect for a pirate with your double-jumping ability. Use floating flowers to replenish your jumps in mid-air and work your way across dangerous areas to greater and greater heights. Challenging, but the rewards of exploration are great!
Needles (Windows, 1.54MB, free) - A short game by bento that's too cute to ignore. You play a little guy whose only goal in life is to hop from island to island. Don't fall in the water, and keep moving so the scrolling screen doesn't destroy you. That's pretty much it, but what else do you need? Charming visual set-up? Check. Non-existent price tag? Check!
Note: All games have been confirmed to run under Windows Vista and are virus-free. Mac users should try Boot Camp, Parallels, or CrossOver Games to play Windows titles, Linux users can use Wine. If you know of a great game we should feature, use the Submit link above to send it in!
It's like a 2D minecraft! :D
tried to download jump pirate... but it wouldn't start... kept giving me error messages :(
As expected, Paradise Fort was a delight to play. Of course, I ended up demolishing everything and sealing off the bottom with wells, but an absolute delight and total time-waster.
Sadly, none of these are Mac, but there are several other games (that are also for Mac) on the Ludum Dare page.
Can't manage to download Needles.. and Jump Pirate also gave me the error.. so no go on that one either.
I don't get Paradise Forts. It says I've made a "designation", but how do I make that an actual thing?
2D minecraft = clonk rage, except more like the other way around...
about Paradise Fort:
chop down trees with the tool to get wood (3 hits maybe)
build with A
to build a cannon select cannon in the A menu then drop the necessary resources with D+down on the building place
I think this game needs a dirt adding element, some dirt bomb or a volcano, I'm getting out of dirt quickly
I can't get past one point on jump pirate where you have to use all those flowers to get over the pillar, keep from falling in the water and then somehow get plant to grab you to get to another flower that you can then jump again with in order to get to a ledge. It's in the level where the screen gets bigger. I can't hit the keys at the right time to get there.
juxta: I'm at exactly that point, too. I actually got the plant to grab me at the right time and then I slid while on the plant and died - so I am thinking now that we're actually supposed to avoid the plant and get through that narrow spot on our own...? *shudder*
Part of me really hates this game, because I'm not good at it but I want to see the end. So I keep subjecting myself to dying, over and over and over and over and over again, and it's really frustrating.
(I'm sure it's a great game in its genre, but I'm not usually a reflex game sort of person).
Oh! That screen is easier than either of us thought.
See the five "pillar" flowers? See the ledge up and to the right of them, along the top of the screen? Go directly to that ledge instead of down into the death traps.
Does anybody else get an error at the end of Jump Pirates? Is there more to see after
he jumps on the ship and it begins to sail away
?
Developer, if you're reading this, I went and clicked "abort" because I'm stupid, but the error was something about "wrong type of arguments to +". Sorry I didn't grab the line number for you. I think it's an animation trouble though.
PPS for those who want to skip most of the hardest levels:
Are you sure?
I didn't actually do this for the really hardest part because I assumed I would just have to come back, but it looks like you can just run along the top for most of the last part of this game.
How come 95% of all the levels I try to generate in Paradise Fort have neither trees nor a player?
I'm having a problem making cannons on paradise fort.
Paradise fort = 2D minecraft
Minecraft is great, because of the giant expanse you have to do whatever you like!
Paradise fort has you cramped on a tiny island, and has twitchy controls.
Paradise Fort won't download. Is anyone else having this problem?
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