matthias_zarzecki 2012-12-17 04:18
Ha, Nice take on point+clicks! Took me a while though figure out how to control it.
Like the intro and the atmosphere. Good work also on the 3d-modelling!
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD25 → THE CONDEMNED
By the-jack
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mood | 13 | 4.00 | ||
| Coolness | 1 | 100 | ||
| Audio | 28 | 3.68 | ||
| Graphics | 91 | 3.83 | ||
| Overall | 99 | 3.54 | ||
| Innovation | 265 | 3.08 | ||
| Fun | 324 | 2.91 | ||
| Theme | 338 | 3.27 | ||
| Humor | 572 | 1.95 |
Ha, Nice take on point+clicks! Took me a while though figure out how to control it.
Like the intro and the atmosphere. Good work also on the 3d-modelling!
that was scarry, I am never very good at these so I really didn't get that far at all though, good job anyways
Really very nice. The combined keyboard and mouse controls were a little awkward, but didn't detract much.
Awesome mood, I love the aesthetic, it reminds me of 2001. Love that point&click fps style. I love the sound. But the controls are a bit harsh and the light didn't light anything ;) Anyway I think that's a game and concept I'd love to see developed into something more complex.
The movement was rather unintuitive at first, but once I got the hang of it, it turned out to be a pretty neat idea. Reminds me of Myst in a sense. Pretty short game. The ending left me a little confused. Really cool atmosphere! I love the tape recordings. They're pleasantly creepy.
Love the mood and graphics. The controls are a little spotty, would have preferred a more traditional FPS or point click scheme.
nice 3D with ambient occlusion I think? The controls took a little getting used to. Very nice sound and environment. Maybe if there was more indication of why the player couldn't go back to earth (I guess I wanted more visual cues, like if the player coughed up blood or we could see mutations or something... what i guess is good about the lack of though is it leaves much to the imagination).
Really great atmosphere in this game! It was easy to feel like I was part of the story. The only thing I'd change is to remove the double-tap movement and switch idle camera control to the mouse.
The controls are very bad... when you press a key a bit, it moves a bit somehow reasonably, but then it jumps way too much and you end up looking at a completely different direction than you wanted, and then it doesn't let you immediately turn back.
Excellent entry, once I figured out the controls it was great.
The flashlight didn't really help much in the dark parts.
Great use of the theme, I couldn't decide whether to go to the sun or earth. I eventually picked earth, but only because I'm the villain >:D
@the author,
Sorry, but it says it's unable to load mono. I am trying to play on Windows7, but there's only libmono.so in the directory, and BUILDS/DALD25_Data/Mono/mono.dll is missing.
I'm a bit reluctant to install the Web Player that is...
Dark. Very Dark. I like the ending. No problems with the controls, but I did have a bug that wouldn't let me use the flashlight.
Although I'm not a P&C fan, this is awesome for a 48hrs project. BTW, the flashlight didn't work in the sewer.
I chose survival. At what cost? I don't get it.
But I really like the mood. The graphics were awesome, the whole thing was awesome. Maybe I had to understand the whole thing in order to know how the theme applies here.
But you did a very great job. The game looks really polished, also the intro into the game. Really nice work. Great job as expected from you =)
Great job on the story, and the voice acting. I wish the controls were a bit more forgiving and that you had time to make it longer. I finished it and found myself wishing there was more. I really enjoyed it.
Really great. I'd suggest telling people how to actually turn completely since I was stuck in one direction before I realized I could double tap arrows to turn.
This was really well done I found it had a vibe similar to that of the Penumbra and Amnesia series ^.^
Nice. The controls and constantly re-orienting camera were a bit cumbersome. This took me back to the adventure games of yesteryear. Nice!
You've done it again, this is a great entry. I love the mood here, and was contemplating making a game that included this choice myself.
I did feel that the controls were a bit hard to wrestle with though. The hybrid between being fixed to the cardinal directions while only being allowed a small amount of rotation made it difficult to really know where I was oriented as I turned around. This was more a problem in the sewage drain than elsewhere since it was so dark
The controls were awful. I cannot imagine why you didn't just use std fps controls. I spent the bulk of my time fighting the controls. That out of the way, it was decent mood and atmosphere and finding the audio logs, etc. I was just getting into it when it ended.
Pretty good atmosphere. I had to get used to the controls, but after a while it felt ok. Finally a point and click adventure with 'smell' as an action!
Really nice game! Nice with some point and clicks.. Controls were a bit weird, and hard to know where you can go..
Very good take on the genre. Would be cool if smelling or listening had a direct impact in puzzle solving. Nice little story too !
Impressively atmospheric, looks/sounds great.
I really liked the sight/sound/smell prompts, it would have been interesting to see those incorporated into the gameplay more. The movement was also a bit clunky and hard to get used to.
Awesome atmosphere, but the controls were a hinderance. I'd like to see something like that with a bigger scope, but with free rotation. I didn't really see a reason to limit the viewport, especially in an adventure game.
Hey everyone, thanks for checking it out.
I knew the controls were going to be an issue, and the version that everyone's played is the result of a lot of iterations specifically on the control scheme.
Originally it was free look/free move. However that would then have entailed a lot more collision handling and added more time to asset building. By restricting movement to a grid-like form, I was able to direct the player exactly where I wanted him/her to go & look.
When you've got 48 hours to execute on a vision, it's best to make constraints wherever possible.
Once I locked down the grid movement I also deliberated about full unlock on the camera rotation. This also caused issues as I use directional raycast for detecting movement. Because I didn't want to spend potential hours plugging every hole in every scene so that the player didn't actually jump to a movement volume in another room, I made each movement volume cover a very specific area of the view frustrum. This ensured that the player would never mis-click out into other zones and again be directed where I wanted.
I detuned the centering time right at the last minute and I think that may have contributed a bit to some of the feelings of frustration. Ideally I wanted the player to be able to move the camera to a "hotspot", interact as necessary, then have the camera jump back to zero. It felt (to me & other playtesters) more natural, like "ok, I'm done looking at that thing, what's next?" However finding just the right amount of time to give players to look before springing back was outside of the scope of the allotted time.
All in all I think I made the right design choices in order to complete the narrative run (however linear) and submit on time. I was working right up to the deadline, use all my available energy, and I think I still managed to pull it off.
Thanks all who've played so far and all yet to play, I do appreciate and hope I haven't wasted your time with this entry.
-
DAJ
This is great! I really liked the styling and the idea. It's pretty short, and the look navigation is a bit awkward (it only seemed to do what I pressed about 70% of the time), but overall it's a thumbs up from me :)
... and re your comment: you haven't wasted our time at all - it's nice work! This is one of the better entries I've seen.
Nice!
An "escape room", a kind of game I really like. And, except it's too short (but with more time I guess you'll do better ;)), I liked this one. Well done, a very good entry. :)
The controls took a while to get used to but the concept was great! Very ambitious game and you executed it well! Good job! :D
A lovely game set over a very moody undertone. I like it :)
Controls really got in the way for me... I think something like the control scheme in Trauma is similar but works a lot better, a lot simpler. I like the sensory abilities and concept though.
Aside from control scheme I think this game is really great for a 48 hrs project! The linear narrative didn't compromise the mood. Feels very immersive. :)
Nice entry here, the control was really difficult at first, but give some kind of claustrophibic vibe to the game. cool idea , well done!
The first time I played, I got the keycard before the flashlight, and the flashlight didn't appear in my inventory; so I figured I was stuck and reloaded the page. At that point the direction keys didn't work for some reason, so I couldn't get into the sewer.
I found the controls difficult and frustrating, but nice graphics and awesome mood!
Wow, nicely done! It was kinda hard to control but when i got the hang to it the flow was really nice. The story and the mood were really cool and the intro was awesome. Great work!
The controls were rather awkward to use for a point and click. Though the mood in the game overall was fantastic, this, coupled with the choice in the end gave a rather unique twist on the "You are the Villain" theme. Since you could choose redemption or become a full-fledged villain. The graphics were fine for me, nothing to complain about on that end. Only complaint was that I wish the game was longer or had a couple of extraneous passages, such as that circular room with the doors after you come back up from the sewer-ish area. Though for 48 hours the game was great. Very nice job!
The look around controls are my only complaint, and it is a minor one, absolutely amazing for a 48 hour game, well done. Would love to see a post comp build.
I really dug it. Graphics looked nice and worked, audio was good. I got a sense for the story pretty well from the get-go. Yeah, the controls were a little finicky, but they worked.
I really could not get along with the controls :(
Awesome. Played it twice to completion, and have quite a few remarks.
- When you restart, you already have the flashlight in your inventory. Nothing serious, but still.
- While the controls were a bit unusual but usable, I think they could have been improved a lot with only a couple of tweaks. First, when rotating and/or moving to a new node, the view should reset directly to looking right in front of the character, like it does when you don't press anything for a few seconds. Then, you could have used the arrow keys for rotation, but look around with the mouse. Not in a FPS way, but rather by making the character turn when the pointer came close to the edge of the screen.
- The sewer area was REALLY dark, even with the flashlight on.
- Great atmosphere, the descriptions were well written, and I loved being able to use more than one sense to get a better idea of the room I was in. The audio is also spot-on.
- The intro did its job *really* well. One of the high points of the game.
All in all, congratulations on making an awesome (if short) adventure game!
Very well polished and really love how story progresses. I should finish listening to the last audio record before making a next course. Nice work!
Very nice atmosphere and story. I specially liked the sound effects. The little easter egg comments on the shift menu were welcome! (In fact, Windows asked me if I wanted to engage accessibility mode for pressing shift so many times in a row)
A few bugs and issues I noticed:
- Flashlight not working on sewers: I know you said it is a feature, not a bug, but it confused the hell out of me that it worked in the lit areas but not the dark ones. Just remove the batteries altogether?
- Flashlight remained in my inventory when I went for a second play through of the game.
- Since the game focuses so much on the story, it would have been nice to have the options for subtitles. Some ESL players might not get all the details from the captain's husky voice.
- The first time I did the ending sequence, choosing to save myself, at first I thought I was being ejected from the ship, and that it was a trap. That was a cool thought, but obviously not what you intended.
Cheers, and thanks for the game!
Well, it was such a pleasure being in the game world, that I didn't mind the controls. Absolutely fantastic effort! I felt like in half-life 1 again. Are you expanding this?
very good ambient. sadly I'm not good at puzzle game...
I love the innovative controls! It just feels good!
Wow, so much work done in 48 hours. Definitely with its own chills, too.
I liked the feel of the game. I definitely had some emotions stirring and I liked the voice-work, it definitely added to the experience!
I just forgot about controls when started playing, I enjoyed it a lot. nice camera transitions!
nice!
Pretty good entry. Controls are not perfect, but I think it can be improved to make the experience even better.
Wow ! I didn't expect an adventure game in Ludum Dare. Even if it's short, it's pretty incredible ! 3D, sounds, music, story... a huge work ! Bravo :)
Took me awhile to find the trap doors, and was stuck in the dark for awhile (the flashlight didn't seem to work down there). I didn't mind the controls, though, and I liked the look/sound of it all. I didn't feel particularly villainous, though. =]
Congrats on this one, Chris. Really good ambience. The whole thing reminded me of "Stranger" by Camus.
Love love love the atmosphere, sound fx are spot on :) Also love the sensorial tips, it's a great idea and now I really want to see it a lot more developed :D
Cool graphics, they go very well with the overall mood and atmosphere.
It just took me a bit of time to get used to the controls, sometimes I felt quite stuck specially because I couldn't do a 360º turn, but once i got used it was ok.
I really would like to see this more developed because i would pay and play this game :)
Also good intro and nice choice of font
Very atmospheric even with the bare necessities 3D models Nice interactions too. Are there ending beyond self-sacrifice and survival?
Once you can get the tech in place to not have to limit the controls it can be very nice. Especially for 48 hours, this is very impressive!
Agh! the controls are driving me mad! Good ambience: reminds me a bit the 2001 a Space Odyssey movie
Good: Excellent! Good audio, good graphics and an interesting story. I'd very much like to see a post-compo version with more everything. =)
Improve: The controls could use a bit of work.
The web version of the game won't load (or would do so really slowly) on chrome, windows 7, 64-bit.
Loved the atmosphere, the text and the general feel of the game.
About the controls, I actually quite like them. I mean, you said yourself you didn't have enough time and this is a creative solution to dealing with the collision detection. I actually think these controls, given enough polish, could work really well. Free movement can be boring and uninteresting, but this kind of restriction can lead to a lot of very interesting design ideas.
All in all, great effort, cool game!
Strange controls, but very good mood and I loved the adventure elements!
NOW I was able to load! It has a really good mood and can even feel scary. The Audio Diaries remembered me from Bioshock, which is good. I have some criticism though: The game is short, the controls are terrible (I know you made it to save time, but still...), the flashlight is really buggy (not only it doesn't work in the sewer, but as I saw my spaceship go to the sun, the light was still there!) and I don't really get the storyline too well (partly because English is not my first language). Anyway, props to you, very good entry!