Within a Deep Forest

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Within a Deep Forest is a freeware game, developed by Nifflas.

[edit] Story

A devastating war takes place in the year 2500, leaving the Earth a desolate wasteland. One of the survivors of the war is the scientist Dr. Cliche. He has constructed a time machine, enabling him to travel centuries into the past to prevent the war from ever happening. His plan is to build an underwater laboratory, housing a bomb that could freeze the entire planet, eliminating all life on Earth. The first attempt at constructing the bomb failed, resulting in a living ball. However, the second attempt was successful, and the bomb is active.

[edit] Gameplay

The player controls a bouncing ball, using the left and right arrow keys to move, and the S and A keys to increase or decrease the ball's elasticity (thus making it bounce more or less). The ball is constantly bouncing on the ground, so getting over obstacles is accomplished by keeping the ball in its higher elasticity until it bounces high enough to climb over the obstacle.

The game begins in Pinewood Heights, the overworld, with entrances leading to a large number of secondary areas. However, most of these entrances are initially unreachable. There are nine materials to be found in certain areas, each one transforming the ball into a different substance, and imparting various abilities to it. For instance, the purple ball is able to bounce higher than the normal ball, but it is slightly more difficult to control. The metal ball is heavy and cumbersome, but it can move against wind currents, and break through logs that block passage to certain areas.

Except for the purple ball, the extra ball materials are found at the end of certain secondary areas. Other secondary areas house a creature that will give the player a hint to get through another area, and are not necessary towards completing the game. All secondary areas can be exited by pressing the Escape key twice.

There are many hazards that can kill the ball, including spikes, water, lava, and certain creatures that will attack it. Save points are distributed around Pinewood Heights and all of the secondary areas, to prevent the loss of a great amount of progress. If the ball is killed, it will respawn from the last save point it touched. These save points must also be used to switch between ball materials. The game can be saved by returning to the main menu, via one of the entrances at either end of Pinewood Heights.

When the game is completed, Hard Mode and Speedrun Mode are unlocked. In Hard Mode, the ball is harder to control than normal. Speedrun Mode is identical to Hard Mode, except that the game cannot be saved, and after reaching the end, the completion time can be submitted to a high score table on the game's website.

[edit] External Links

[The Unofficial Nifflas Gamepage]

[Official webpage for Within a Deep Forest]

[Nifflas' homepage]