Under Construction

Under Construction is the first game I seriously published. It's a short and minimal little platformer set in the Flora universe.

I wrote the code; my partner Glip provided the concept, art, music, and map. (So, all the real work.) We put it together over the course of a few weeks in the spring of 2016 using the PICO-8 fantasy console.

Arrow keys move. Up jumps. (Sorry.) X restarts from the beginning.

If you own "a" PICO-8, you can also find it in the game browser.

See also:

Canonical home on my own website
Original release on the Flora website, including cover art
Release on the PICO-8 BBS
Downloadable cartridge
Original source code (the release copy had comments stripped for size reasons)
My writeup of my experience writing the game
Online version of the instruction manual
Buy a physical copy of the instruction manual
Soundtrack on Bandcamp

More information

Status	Released
Platforms	HTML5
Release date	May 25, 2016
Rating	Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars (26 total ratings)
Authors	eevee, Floraverse
Genre	Platformer
Made with	PICO-8
Tags	2D, 8-Bit, floraverse, Minimalist, PICO-8, Surreal
Code license	MIT License
Asset license	Creative Commons Attribution_ShareAlike v4.0 International
Average session	A few minutes
Languages	English
Inputs	Keyboard
Links	Original Floraverse release, Eevee's writeup, Soundtrack, Instruction manual
Content	No generative AI was used

Comments

mikebracais6 days ago (1 edit) (+1)

I remember this was my first interaction with the Flora series. Heck, it's how I found out there even was a series. I wanted to find out more... it was a little rough to find a starting spot. I read a few comics but work stuff made me unable to continue... but it never really left my mind.

Now I'm here again, by pure chance, pondering about going back to it once more. And in the meantime, I'm playing this obscure little gem.

TerraformTrent6 years ago(+2)

Fun little game! I found the conveyance/knowing-what-to-do-i-ness of the game a little frustrating in bits, so here's a little hint-based objective guide for any players coming across this:

All	Go to your friend to finish a level.
Start	Don't look at your friend.
Loop 1	Destroy all Radios. (Jump on top of them.)
Loop 2	Don't hurt any Pain Towers. (Touching the black eye towers is forbidden!)
Loop 3	Put out all Fires. (You can push the rocks.) (Rocks put out fires.)
End	That's all, folks!

bonus:	In the ending: - Press X - Hold Up during the death text - Go left - Explore! For the "teeth" incarnation of the friend, this is the only way to see the otherwise unused level. Pretty cool!

advice:	If you can't find something, just go everywhere you can. The map isn't too big.
	Standing on the top of horizontal spikes is painless. Use this to get the top-right-most Radio without having a stroke.
	Check the instruction manual. It is worthless for actual instructions, but provides some additional story.
	Your friend is in the bottom-right corner of the map, if you really can't find her.
	If Mole dies, your radio/fire progress is saved between lives. Don't stress about it.
	To get onto the roof of the building, try dropping in from above.

Far Away Times7 years ago(+1)

I enjoyed this a lot! Got stuck on what I think was the third song, the mood and the careful tiling are super-smart and expressive.

Ofihombre9 years ago(+3)

The game is sinister and interesting, but the perspective of the backgrounds is somewhat misleading. Makes it seem like an obstacle, really can be crossed without problems (it's an advantage at the same time), And what looks like a set, is the truth a trap.