[PC] Pendulum (1 Viewer)

[cheshireCat]

I couldn't find any rule against shameless self-promotion, so here goes.

BLOG, DEMO DOWNLOAD​

Pendulum is a casual retro tower platformer--you get the idea if you ever played something like Icy Tower. The game's hentai content consists of just sprite sex (monster girls, human, other), because I don't like still images. It also involves subtle comedy, and an obnoxious narrator that is constantly trying to distract you. The game is not what you typically see in the eroge industry, so make sure you first try out the demo before you consider purchasing the full game. That's as far as I can break the game down into words, so try it out and I hope you like it!

Criticism, praise, pointless babbling--let me hear it.

 

[Someone92]

It pretty stupid that the lava continues to rise when you've been caught by an enemy, so two or three of all animations you can only actually look at in the gallery.
The third level is pretty much luck-based; if an enemy spawns on a small platform you have to pray she will not move when you're midair or you'll die for sure.
I know it's just pixel sex but for some animations you can only guess what you're supposed to see; e.g. Kurovadis or Eroico did much better here.
The length of gameplay is half an hour, may a full hour.

If you consider the quality and quantity and compare it to other games that cost 10-20$ 3.50 for this game could be considered a rip-off.

 

[cheshireCat]

The enemies are supposed to be the main threat in the game, so this is intentional! After a rape you can easily outrun the lava on pretty much every stage, as long as you don't have a streak of falling into every possible enemy. Gallery entries are unlocked after you complete a stage, not when you get fully raped.

As for the comparison to other h games--I don't get it, considering the fact that I made it clear that it's not like other h games. Sorry you didn't like it :(!

 

[Thundragon]

In my opinion, I really liked the demo. It's fairly difficult and the controls are tight enough to dodge the enemies without struggling. I have the same complaint about the Nature stage, as you are doomed in the moment you are trapped by a bee. The concept is great and it keeps you going up, however my main complaint (and in an h-game a mortal sin) is that the rape animations were mostly bland. I'm sure I got spoiled by Kyrieru's games and LAB Still alive, but it's still a serious matter.

I would easily buy this game for that $3.50, however I would buy it because of the gameplay, not because of the eroge. Anyways keep it up with it! There are mountains of horrible h-games for $20 that can't offer neither gameplay nor adult content. I'm sure a lot of people will enjoy this game.

 

[Someone92]

The enemies are supposed to be the main threat in the game, so this is intentional! After a rape you can easily outrun the lava on pretty much every stage
(...)
Sorry you didn't like it :(!

Then you have uploaded the wrong version of the game; in the version you can download the lava rises so quickly that it reaches you after one or two seconds after an enemy caught you, making it an one-hit-kill.

Oh, the game is fun, it's just so short.

edit:
Ok, I think I've found the error; in stage 2 and 4 the camera will stay focused on the lava while in the other stages you can outrun it, making getting caught not an one-hit-kill.

 

[cheshireCat]

Oh, stage two and four are designed that way on purpose. I balanced it out by having their respective enemies being easily predictable. And there are also the facts that s2 is really short, and in s4 you already have the double-jump ability. It's good to hear that you like it, after all :)!

As for its length--you need at least two hours to have everything unlocked, and that's only if you manage to play without a single death! In comparison, I had a 100% save file for Eroico only after approx. fifty minutes, and that was my first playthrough.

@Thundragon: Thanks for the criticism! Problem is I chose the wrong art style for this game, since it's my first hentai game, and back when I started, in my head I could imagine that the sex scenes will work in this style. That and the fact that I put almost all of my attention towards the game's mechanics, and to some extent disregarded the hentai. You live, you learn--going back to high-res sprites with my next game.

 

[Thundragon]

Oh, stage two and four are designed that way on purpose. I balanced it out by having their respective enemies being easily predictable. And there are also the facts that s2 is really short, and in s4 you already have the double-jump ability. It's good to hear that you like it, after all :)!

As for its length--you need at least two hours to have everything unlocked, and that's only if you manage to play without a single death! In comparison, I had a 100% save file for Eroico only after approx. fifty minutes, and that was my first playthrough.

@Thundragon: Thanks for the criticism! Problem is I chose the wrong art style for this game, since it's my first hentai game, and back when I started, in my head I could imagine that the sex scenes will work in this style. That and the fact that I put almost all of my attention towards the game's mechanics, and to some extent disregarded the hentai. You live, you learn--going back to high-res sprites with my next game.

It's great to know that you already have the energy to start making a new game, however I should recommend you not to follow Kyrieru's path by making high res sprites on the go or else you will also get stuck in an art block as he did for the second time new. I guess it's a matter of learning your limits.

 

[cheshireCat]

I'll keep that in mind, thanks for the advice!

 

[jrdhntr]

The game doesn't work for me. When I run it I just get a window with a blank screen. I do hear sound though, what I assume is a pendulum. I'm using Windows XP inside a VM, so that might be the issue. What library did you use for graphics? SDL?

 

[cheshireCat]

That's probably a problem on your end--I didn't use anything beyond what's the default display lib in GM (iirc it's ddraw).

 

[cheshireCat]

For anyone interested, I'll be working on a remix patch for Pendulum. With the patch, I'd mostly like to address the issues previously raised by players. The two major things on my current list being a general sprite overhaul (high(er)-res everything, hopefully full scale; no weird style limitations; +10 fapability) and a lower difficulty level (toned down stages in all modes; ability to break out of grabs). I'd also really like to put CGs into the game (I know, I'm a hypocrite) but that's under a big question mark for now. The remixed version will be made available to people who bought the game before the patch goes public, free of charge, and it'll take the current game's place on dlsite and my blog.

So anyway--if there's something you'd like changed in the current version, or you'd like to see a particular feature implemented, now's the time to let me know!

 

[cheshireCat]

I've just starter a pay-what-you-want promotion for the game, so if you want to get the full game for nearly nothing at all, go ahead and visit my blog (signature). The promotion should last till the end of the year (original price is 3.50$).

On another note, the art rehaul won't happen, I'm better off putting my resources into a new project. Having that said, I already announced my next project on my blog, and it's coming along nicely--we should have a demo ready by the end of the year.