Speleomorph
Go spelunking, discover new shapes, and return to the surface transformed!
Speleomorph is a nonlinear puzzle game made for Metroidvania Month 16, inspired by the Shapeshifting theme.
Requirements
- Keyboard
- Modern web browser (tested with Firefox 101, Chrome 102, and Safari 15.5)
How to Play
All controls are listed onscreen. If you're stuck, revisit earlier areas and consult the map with M. You can undo unlimited moves with Z, but you only need undo at an obvious impasse.
Tip: When transforming, the new shape will have at least two adjacent blocks in common with the current shape.
There are some alternate controls: Move with arrow keys or WASD; confirm a transformation with Enter, X, or Space; cancel a transformation with the number of your current shape, Z, or Esc.
Tools and Resources Used
- Coded with vim
- Graphics made with paint.net and GIMP
- Uses the monogram font, with some modifications
- Some text rendered with Arial from The Monotype Corporation
- Powered by fukamushicha
Development log
- Origins of the shape discovery mechanicSep 12, 2023
- Transformation mechanic tipMar 16, 2023
- Minor input improvementsJan 18, 2023
Comments
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Fun game, good thing there is an undo or it would be very frustrating. Too bad you never get to make the s tetronimos.
done
SPOILERS ON HOW TO OBTAIN EACH SHAPE!!!!
1.get down the obvious hole and get 3 L shapes.
2.get up again and to the left cliff to get the horizontal line
3. go to the right area across the gap to get another L shape.
4. go the liquid path (right from the big middle hole, small path, ehre you exit previously), where you need horizontal shape, to get vertical shape.
5. final missing shape 5 in next comment
for shape 5:
go down the whole you did in the games beginning.
but DONT just fall down into the liquid on the left side!
Rather climb down along the left side.
See that sideways S block arrangement with a
single block on the top right of it?
Which you can only reach by climbing in from the left side?
yeah, climb in there.
Between the single block and the S, go into the one tile liquid opening there,
do a 180 in the water without falling off,
climb out that same hole.
right in the water, touching the surface,
now do exactly those steps:
1 up, 2 right, 1 up.
you should now be shaped in that left rotated L shape, above the single block, now with shape 5 unlocked :-)
now climb al all the way, and go to the right side (where you where in step 3. in the previous comment) and climb up there, all the long way to the end of the game...
does this mean I win?
Yeah, congrats!
Found a soft lock. I was trying to find a way to create S or Z, and at the place where you get L shape (number 3) I tried using I shape (number 8) and put myself in a bit of a bind :)
Yep, there are a few places where you can get stuck, just press Z to undo! But if you find a place where the game does break such that you can't undo, please let me know.
I had considered having the path you found lead to another shape, 6 might have worked there if the bottom of the channel was wider and further to the right, not sure why I rejected that. I might have just wanted to keep the current 6 maze, which has its own dead-end.
Thanks for putting this together! Viewer be warned that this will give away all the puzzles. (Though I expect a lot more folks are coming here from the video than vice versa!)
Incredible game! I've never played a metroidvania where you can entirely figure out what upgrades you need and how to get them just by looking at the map screen, until now. It's so elegant.
Spoilers:
I accidentally read the rule of how the transformations are allowed before playing, and imo it made the experience much better for me that i knew the 2-overlap rule outright. There were enough other things to figure out in the game already that were fun when knowing that rule.
Thanks! The rule is not meant to be a big secret, I was unsure whether I could explain it clearly (and I was perhaps overconfident that it'd come across mechanically/intuitively). I may need to revisit that.
so much fun!
This is a really clever and fun puzzle game. I enjoyed that a lot.
Bravo! What a great mechanic, well explored. There seems to be some sort of limitation I don't understand regarding transformation (it isn't just "at least one square of new form overlaps at least one square of old form), but I was able to work around that. One careless transformation meant I had to do the final climb a second time, but the serial contorting was enjoyable enough that I didn't mind.
Thanks, glad you liked it! For reference the full rule is: at least two adjacent squares are shared between forms. Hopefully it's possible to get by just cycling through the options to pick up an intuitive sense of it.
Ah, that makes sense. I hadn't paid close enough attention to figure out that rule. The couple times it seemed I couldn't progress I realized I probably needed a different piece to progress, which encouraged me to explore further.
Should've been more highly ranked imo.
WOW this is amazing, at the very start i was thinking that this is gonna be terrible because the movement was a bit clunky and it didn't look that great but oh my god it turned out to be so amazing. Really made me think.
This was a pretty neat experience, with a surprisingly engaging (and clever!) central mechanic! Nicely done! ^_^
Finished with 8 shapes and the feeling that more should be possible (though unnecessary)
This is extremely clever.
can someone please help me?
I have been trying all kinds of things for a while and got almost everything but I jsut cant find the number 5 shape (which should basically be a left mirrored L).
and I dont see any way to continue without having this shape :-(
would be great if someone could give me a hint on where or how to get this final shape :-/
nevermind, found it! :-)
wait where was it I'm having trouble finding it as well
hey, only like 9 months late but here's he answer:
shape 5 can be made if you go down the middle hole but DONT jsut fall down in the liquid on the left side!
See that sideways S block arrangemengt with a single block on the top right of it?
which you can only reach by climbing in from the left side?
yeah between the single block and the S, go into the liquid there, do a 180, climb out that same hole.
when climbingout, do exactly those steps:
1 up, 2 right, 1 up.
you should now sit in that 2 shape above the single bloc with shape 5 unlocked :-)
now only shape 9, if it exists, left to find again and explain...