A Lighthearted Game

Original description:

"Pete may be at death's door, but he hasn't rung the doorbell yet. Struck by a car and cast (prematurely) into the afterlife, every remaining heartbeat brings him one step closer to salvation... or the grave!  From award-winning indie game developer David J. Sushil (Vanessa Saint-Pierre Delacroix & Her Nightmare, Not Without You) comes a novel platformer with a wicked sense of humor. Guide Pete through 27 levels of white-knuckled arcade insanity. Dodge dimwitted Ghosts, soul-sucking Spectres, and ravenous Grabby Hands. Collect secret items, unlock trophies, and earn a spot on the global high score list." 

In 2013, a group of game developers in Orlando organized a meetup for the Global Game Jam.  Over the course of a weekend, several great games were developed, all based around the theme: heartbeat.  The friendships made then planted the seeds of what would later become Indienomicon, Orlando's monthly showcase of local independent video games, which I hosted for the first four years.  

Anyhow, at this particular meetup, I brought several members of the Terncraft team - Sam, Paul, Pascal, and Joe.  We built most of A Lighthearted Game that weekend, and then spent another few weeks polishing it up.  

I love this game.  It landed with a thud and nobody played it, but there's something great about it that I wish more people could see.  Maybe it will find an audience here on itch.io?

A Lighthearted Game was originally coded in C# using the XNA framework, but has been pretty faithfully rebuilt in JavaScript.  It is lacking only access to a global high score list.  Maybe if there's enough interest...

Design
David J. Sushil
Joe Rowles

Programming
David J. Sushil
Nathan Youngpeter

Artwork
Samantha Poslinski
Paul S. Vanterpool II
Pascal Duverger

Music
Kevin MacLeod