The Gems
A point-and-click / action adventure made for GitHub Game Off 2019. Solve puzzles, fight enemies, overcome leaps and bounds to help solve a very important mission.
Currently only the Chrome browser has been fully tested. Please use the executable downloads otherwise. Enjoy!
All art, music, and software by @sharpfives. Listen to the soundtrack here
Some sound effects from freesound.org
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Comments
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too many game-breaking bug, can't even finished the game :(
was stuck on first level, because i clicked the "going right arrow" when i was on the swing, door demon never showed up
after i retry, still stuck after i entered cave and meet the demon
The timer challenge for the bow tutorial was too hard. Not sure if thatβs just me, though.
Not sure if it's just me but most images seems to be black squares? And the game view is cut off about 20% of screen at the right side. I can't see the bag icon and the texts overlap out of bounds. Played on browser.
Where do you find the headlight? Or is it just a bug? I'm playing this game on Mac.
The first boss is impossible to beat. :(
Great game! The particles are well done too! But, the camera is so janky, I couldn't get through the first level. (OHHH I made my window bigger and that fixed it. :D)
Game got stuck at the bow tutorial. Probably because I opened the inventory.
WOW! This is ridiculously good! Sounds and music on point ... the sprites OMG! so simple yet so polished!
Diving into github NOW! Really nicely done! This was a lot of work!
thank you thank you :)
:3 I just recently started getting into indie games, and I'm adding you as my first favorite indie developer. My first games were on c64, and the memories are coming back.
Aw, thanks! So glad you enjoyed them!
I somehow ended up softlocking the game in the fight with all the birds and demons where nothing spawned in, I couldn't pick up the gem, and I couldn't leave.
Also, WHAT ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO DO WITH THE DEER?
Same thing happened to me, I got all the gems from the other doors just to get stuck in this last one
Cool game
Wow, this was elegantly made. Amazing job!
I had trouble figuring out what to do with the animals though, until I checked the comments here.
Maybe the deer could give you more of a hint. I tried clicking on the notes appearing over its head which immediately ended the singing-action and after I knew what to do it was still kind of tricky choosing the right spots at first xD
I had a small error in the beginning (using Chrome) where I went into the screen with the mushroom lover the second time, double clicked somewhere in the scene and suddenly there were two of me - and then the game froze in confusion :D
nice game ! I love it <3
Bug Report:
Not sure how much support you plan, but thought I should report this.
On the screen before going to the jumping demon, if you head to the left instead, there is a bird on the top wire of two telephone poles.
If you shoot through the bottom wire, and hit it without breaking the second (top) wire, you can then repeatedly shoot the same spot where the bird was and farm gems from it. You can beat the game with just this bird.
From my testing it won't always work, as sometimes the first shot breaks both wires, but if the bird dies and the wire remains you can farm piles of gems.
thanks for the bug report. if you wouldn't mind please report it on the github page so that it can be properly tracked: https://github.com/sharpfives/the-gems-game
this is fixed! good catch finding this.
Another classic from sharpfives! π Alas, I can't rate as I didn't enter - so all I can do is give praise. π€·ββοΈ
This is such a great game. Amazing music (again) - so atmospheric. I really am so envious that you can do it all: code, art, music & story. So talented!
Love the simplistic, almost "LCD game" pixel graphics style. The animations are so lovely - as always. You seem to have improved your engine recently? It's SO smooth now. There were a couple of minor collision quirks, but was fine for the most-part.
Great tension & high stakes (e.g. having to shoot under time pressure without killing good guys) The creature aesthetics were wonderful. That ROAR?! Scared the crap outta me! π±
Love the humour - the death/ghost character particularly. Are you a "Scrubs" fan by any chance? (Hey Dorothy, Nancy) π #DrCoxFTW Had a mini-LOL at the rather specific amount of mushrooms for a "dude" to need! π
Finally, THANK YOU for making the ability to resume/continue the game. I wasn't sure you could (so did it in one sitting on this occasion), but that's definitely a welcome addition. Great usability feature! π
β SPOILERS BELOW - YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!
Loved many of the mechanics (shooting, ropes) The cave of sleeping demons was a neat touch. Also, thought the "cage" mechanic one particularly clever (and also reminded me of Another World) π
I nearly lost my mind trying to catch the squirrel (I see it's a common issue) - and would've probably kept trying (as it almost seemed like you could). Thankfully, I saw another reviewed mention about a "Speed Boost" and realised I needed to look elsewhere.
BUGS If you're interested - I did spy a few potential bugs along the way...
Again, such a lovely little game. π₯° You really are one of my favourite indie developers right now - coz of how great your story-telling adventures games are. π€π
Thanks for the very kind review Paul! Great catch - I am indeed a Scrubs fan, tried my best to channel my inner Dr. Cox :) i originally had the ghost guy's "dickish-ness" ramped up WAY higher, but wound up dialing it back because it was just a touch harsh lol.
The squirrel-chase does seem to be a common sticking point. It's kind of a throw-away puzzle, but i liked having another use for the feather in addition to beating the jumpy boss (and just making it quicker to get around the levels). Maybe the dialog with the squirrel should change after your third unsuccessful try, and have him hint at needing an item to go faster? ::shrug:: maybe that would prevent some rage-quitting
And, as always, thanks for the helpful feedback:
thank u my guy I was about to quit the game cause I couldn't talk to the animals
Great, I really enjoy the story turns and art, kind of Another World vibe!
I lost in the arena stage where there are birds and then beasts, and the second time I entered there were birds, but no beasts, so the game broke. :( Only had 9 gems.
Also, at each bow shoot the game froze for me for a second, but only on the arena level and only when there are baddies coming.
Oh, and I used Firefox, didn't read the description before playing... :/
Just tried this on Firefox and it seems to be working fine! Very interesting concept
Actually, I entered the lower left door and the game froze after I got hit by the red laser beam
what am i supposed to do with the animals? i don't have anything to make music with???? also how do i catch the squirrel? maybe if i give the squirrel my nuts? but idk how please help
I don't know what I'm doing wrong with the animals.
The style and music is pretty awesome though, but sometimes the backgrounds (ie trees or people) cover the character if they get too close then the dimensions looks wonky. Other than that, 10/10
Hey, love the style! Love the music! Love the Point! Love the Click!
I came to reports some of the bugs I have encountere: (I am using Chrome)
- When I encountered the ghost, he has the "HEHEHE" text above him, froze for 5 seconds, and the text box was frozen above while the other text was played over it.
- After talking to the ghost (Text box still there btw) I don't know if anything is supposed to happen (I think the ghost mentioned doors popping up?) but nothing happened, so I talked to the ghost again and he brought me to an empty space to train with a bow I never acquired. I coundn't talk to the ghost again, so I assumed I was softlocked.
Don't know if this helps, but I'll keep playing and post updates.
*Update*
Just tried resuming my game, now I'm frozen while the ghost is saying "alright, Nancy." (Edit: All I can do is check inventory)
Gonna try starting over
Just played a little more, ghost actually did some different text boxes and animations, got the bow, doors appeared... looks good so far
*Update*
Resumed and finished the top left room with no problems, then I went in the top right, went back, then into the bottom right, finished the area to the right with the archery challenge, got +2 gems, then move two areas to the left, checked the stone wall, and then the bird, then the wall again, then moved to the right and exited through the door, now I am softlocked (Specifically: Can't move, interact with anything, open inventory, return through the door I came through)
*Glitch encountered*: If you keep you mouse in the same place and spam left click, cursor will move down and wont return to its position unless you move the mouse.
Gonna try exiting and resuming game, but I'll probably have to restart
thanks for the great feedback, much appreciated! i uploaded a new version that fixes a bunch of spam clicking issues and other general bug fixes. probably still not perfect, but hopefully this version will work better for you!
ah! sorry to hear that. i believe it's a WebGL issue of not being able to render textures of certain sizes. i'm going to look and see if there's a workaround to not use WebGL and fallback to canvas only. in the meantime, could you check to make sure chrome is up to date?
Hey! I know why this happens. check this: https://www.browserleaks.com/webgl (search for "vertex shader" ), and I surely that your browser has this warning: "texImage2D: width or height out of range".
It's simple: in your browser WEBGL has a max value to generate texture and this game is above that.
Sorry if i didn't say clearly ( i'm not native speaker english)
Guys pls help i can't use the "bow". is this because i didn't collect a bow yet or something? or is it bc i'm in firefox?
Chrome only supported for now. If you wouldnβt mind, please try out the executable downloads as those should all work.
Gave you a follow, my guy. Good game!
thanks for checking it out :)
Played this one again after 2 years. Good work. Hope you're surviving the new decade.
my character just shows up as a large black box, is this because im on firefox?
Yep. Chrome only for now, unfortunately I havenβt had the time to troubleshoot on any other browsers. If you wouldnβt mind, try out the executable downloads as those should all work.
Awesome entry. Love the witty writing and simple mechanics. I got stuck after I got the conch though, didn't really get what to do next. Also there were some bugs and I ended up getting softlocked at some points but thats to be expected I guess.
thanks for playing! could you provide more context around what happened with the bugs? would love to get those resolved.
So in the horde defence stage I shot the first few birds and then nothing else spawned and I couldn't exit the scene. Another one was when I tried quickly clicking through the dialogue in the hub area. That ended up opening like 6 or more dialogues and I couldn't close them all and could no longer click on the doors. In general you could fix a lot of stuff with more input checking. I was able to spam click on the deer for example, making him sing like 500 times and freezing his anim. Oh and I didn't really get how to use the conch so I didn't finish the game. Was there an explanation that I missed or sth?
thanks for the feedback! i posted an update that should hopefully address some of those spam clicking issues with doors and dialog boxes.
Great game. Mechanics were pretty great. Love what you did with the pixel ropes too.
thank you! i tried to use them in as many was as i could :)