DARK WERE THE CLOUDS

DARK WERE THE CLOUDS is a action-packed platformer where you play as V.K. Winkman and his team of doomed scientists trying to escape with plant samples from the last  Sundome on Earth.

Jump, dash, and race to your ship, but be quick: neither you nor the plant samples can last more than a minute exposed to the Earth's atmosphere.  Each attempt leaves behind the spirit of your previous run, which can hold doors open, throw switches, and make way for those that come after.   

Thank you for playing!

• Arrow Keys  to move or navigate menus
• Shift or Z to dash
• X to instantly end the run
• Backspace to fast forward the game

This game was created for the Just Play Jam 2024 and the Big Byte Game Jam, following a theme of "collective action".    

I thought an interesting way to apply a new dimension to collective action is to have the player not just work with those standing beside you, but those ahead and those behind.  By having the "spirit" of the past helping you along, it shows that every step, no matter how small, no matter if it was a success or a failure, was an essential part of the big picture.

There is a Ray Bradbury quote that struck a chord with me in a book I was reading a week before the jam, in which an astronaut is plummeting to Earth and lamenting the fact that his life is over and nothing he has done had mattered.  But as he ignites in the atmosphere, a child looks up at the sky and sees him.  Thinking the astronaut is a shooting star, he makes a wish.    

There is an innate pessimism with climate change -- "If I use paper straws instead of plastic, how is that magically going to fix the planet in one day?".  And the harsh reality is, it won't (probably).   But  your existence will echo on long after you're gone in wonderful ways you probably can't even imagine or foresee.  

That was the point I was trying to make with these little astronaut dudes all working towards getting the plant samples off of the Earth, even if they don't get to see it for themselves.   

Created by Akabaka

Tools Used: 

• Audacity
• Gamemaker Studio 2
• Clip Studio Paint
• Mixcraft 8
• VNgen - XGASoft
• Post-Processing FX - Foxy Of Jungle

Asset Credits: 

• Arcade island - Space Exploration sprites
• Ansimuz - Warped Sci-Fi Lab BG
• Atomic Realm - Industrial tileset https://atomicrealm.itch.io
• Craftpix - Tileset Asset Packs
• MattWalkden - Free Space Runner Pack
• Foozle - SciFi Lab tileset
• Pillowbyte - Diceforce free assets