[Game] Cell Driller

I made a video game!



You can download it here!


Cell Driller is a puzzly-actiony game that I made in two weeks for a game jam themed around the use of one button.  It's got a simple art style, a variety of mechanics, and a fair amount of ambiance.  It's the first standalone game I've ever finished, so I'm extremely excited to show it off to people, since I'm fairly proud of it.  There's a subtle touch of Nifflas' work in this one, too, since his super-simple-yet-super-satisfying menus and presentation are incredibly appealing to me.  It's a bit on the tough side since I was rushing to get the game done near the end and didn't have time to get checkpoints in by the time I got feedback concerning the lack thereof, but the level design doesn't require to high a level of precision, so it's still very beatable.

I hope you guys like it!

I'm afraid I really suck at this game. It's a one button game, but it'll take some practice to learn the controls. lol. It would be nice to be able to close the program and later start from where I left off, but more than that, I'd like to know how far I've progressed through the game.

It's beautiful though, and the sound effects are well chosen. How'd you make it?

The audio in this is so fantastic. I felt I got used to the controls really quickly, but I still lost my cool in the level that introduced the red dots.

@Ego: I was initially planning to put together some sort of level select, and may have done so later if I had time.  By the time I realized how long it took to beat for a first-time playthrough, though, I felt uncomfortable with trying saving, which I hadn't really done before.  The game was made in Game Maker!  Code has been kinda' scary to me for a while, but I found some good tutorials for Game Maker's coding language, and the syntax is generally very easy to read.

@sergiocornaga:  Hah!  Sorryyy.  I can't help but feel that at least some of the complaints I got about that level could be resolved if I'd just put in checkpoints.  I only had about 24 hours left by the time I started receiving complaints, and I still had to put in a menu and credits, which proved... surprisingly challenging, so checkpoints had to fall to the wayside.  

I'm glad you guys like the audio!  I'm not good at making visuals beyond the very simplistic, so I felt that some good sounds would be the best way to really sell the presentation and give it some life.

Great idea for a game, but the controls make it far more complicated than it has to be. I keep messing up because I press spacebar just too short so I turn rather than boost.

I totally understand, that's a gripe that I've been getting here and there about the game, and I've struggled to think of ways to resolve it within the restriction of being a "one button" game.

^^^^: Spacebars aren't always the most precise keys on a board. You might've been able to fix that by adding key options like Canabalt, the different keys do exactly the same thing. Also, what's to stop you from making a version of the game that breaks the rules now that the contest deadline has passed?

Yeah, I initially had the game mapped to "any button you like" but this felt a little strange for some players, especially those who /really/ wanted to use directional inputs like the arrow keys or WASD.  A small selection of buttons may have helped, too.

Also, what's to stop you from making a version of the game that breaks the rules now that the contest deadline has passed?

At the moment, a promise to myself to finish Deep Freeze, which is probably not even a month away from being done if I can just buckle down and finish what little remains (a small ambient music track, beginning and end cutscenes, and a small handful of COs, here and there).  I have other things I'd like to do with Cell Driller, but not enough ideas at the moment to merit digging back into it (since redoing the controls the way I'd like to would mean adjusting how a few other things work, too).