FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD26 → Essense

Essense

By jorjon

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CategoryRankScoreCount
Coolness1100
Mood573.81
Audio1433.44
Graphics3003.42
Overall4913.23
Theme5333.56
Innovation7392.90
Humor7481.97
Fun7862.73

Comments

nuprahtor 2013-04-29 20:01

First stage is rather confusing, you can't say - do you falling or just flying.
Then begins puzzle, it was really interesting to reveal game mechanics.
And music greatly fits "cloudy" mood

andrewves 2013-04-30 09:09

The music in this game is extremely fitting, though some aspects seem a little unpolished. Good job adding the ability to adjust mouse sensitivity, it's a feature i would like to see in more LD games.

evilseanbot 2013-05-01 01:04

That's some pretty extreme difficulty.

Very impressed with the atmosphere.

andrewshouldice 2013-05-01 01:10

Super serene.

eatenalive3 2013-05-01 01:10

Amazing. Great puzzle aspects, great texts.

crazi456 2013-05-01 06:07

I couldn't load the webpage

maple 2013-05-01 06:30

I finished with 12 mins something. It was an interesting experience, but I wasn't really able to follow the text. I liked the audio and the reflective surfaces you stood on (I would rather have not been able to see a blue ball floating in mid-air when I looked down though.) Good job.

ilovepixel 2013-05-01 07:06

Really hard game, but great concept. I got suck on the 3 level, I didn't know what to do.

argo15 2013-05-01 08:01

It's got a nice aesthetic to it. A little hard to figure out at the start but fine after a while.

jellycakes 2013-05-01 08:36

Cool relaxing game. Found some bugs where I Can avoid walls and not progress but other than that it's a nice game. good job!

somenetworkguy 2013-05-02 03:03

I don't know if I'm just bad at video games, but the first level is really hard.

Beautiful and relaxing scenery and music!

zatyka 2013-05-03 02:18

I beat it. It was quite enjoyable. My favorite board was the one with all the spike coming at you. I hope you keep working on it.

prelucid 2013-05-03 02:50

Tricky platforms! The moving ones got on my nerves. Great work!

strd6 2013-05-03 02:53

I stated to figure it out, but the jump was unforgiving if you were a little too early.

bowlercaptain 2013-05-03 07:17

Really good. Video games have their blockbuster movies, their novels, their short story, the rare bit of poetry, so this was... what, a conversation with my therapist and/or motivational speaker? I don't know. Anyway, you definitely hit the feeling you were going for. It fits the minimalism theme to a T, and nonetheless manages to be pretty anyway. Good Job.

lotusgame 2013-05-03 07:46

Beautiful and peaceful. There is a true atmosphere here. Interesting puzzles. Congratulations !!

aceria 2013-05-03 07:53

Lovely mood, but first-person platforming has always been tricky to get right. Some of those jumps are brutal!

fritzendugan 2013-05-03 07:54

Hit mood right on the head. First level took a bit, I think mostly just because the jumping mechanic felt almost too tight. The level that introduces the smashing blocks and talks about stress had me SO FREAKING STRESSED OUT. It was perfect. The level where you ask "why don't you look around you?" I was such a hurry to escape the crusher chasing me, that I did notice there were other path ways, but I was too worried about escaping that I didn't think they were worth my time to examine. Turns out they were the only way to escape. Very effective, and heavily symbollic.

A few criticisms: like I said, the jumping mechanic felt just a little too tight, especially for being in first-person where it's not always easy to time your jumps quite right. The visual effect on the platforms, while really cool, was a little too distracting and made it tough to tell where the platform boundaries were. Perhaps instead of the surface being 100% reflective, it should have some slight discolartion/lighting of its own so that you can clearly see the platform boundary. Other than that, the game is basically extremely well done. More levels maybe? :D

patacorow 2013-05-03 08:12

Confusing game, but very solid nonetheless. I loved the levels where you had to avoid the spikes, they were great fun. Really good game!

meta87 2013-05-03 08:18

Nice looking enviroment and some cool ideas! :)

diningphilosopher 2013-05-03 08:43

Personally I also have trouble with the first-person jumping, but I like the cloud reflections and the font, the level design is also really good (especially the spike mayhem and the chasing level). One thing I noticed is that there's always some blue pixelated dot underneath the player, which I think shouldn't be there.

cakencode 2013-05-03 08:53

Wow, that was a pretty cool experience if a bit on the challenging side but only because the experience isn't quite guided enough. On the first level I tried a few times to jump diagonally because standing on the front facing tile made the platform I needed to stop on go away. It wasn't until 3 deaths later I decided to look at the light beams and follow them.

Oh, the title screen did have me wondering. The title had the last 'e' in a different color, is there a meaning to that? Essen[s]e

intripoon 2013-05-03 09:05

This is hard - there is always missing a tiny bit.

lanz 2013-05-03 09:20

Cool reflections and cloud-y atmosphere. Music really fits it.

lorancou 2013-05-03 09:39

I love how you achieved minimalist graphisms without relying on big pixels or magenta squares. This is way too hard for me though, I couldn't pass level 2, which is a shame considering the rather zenish mood. Seeing at your walkthrough it seems that it doesn't get any easier afterwards ;) But very nice entry overall, this is a very impressive work for 48 hours!

rafaelsales 2013-05-03 20:47

It's poetry. Beautiful game! Congratz!!

areskye 2013-05-04 09:20

6 minutes of cloudy adventure.

madball 2013-05-04 13:23

I loved it, though jumping sometimes was a challenge. IMO, level when you have to dodge spikes has a big potential.

zkenshin 2013-05-04 15:15

Very good mood. :)

xaychru04 2013-05-04 17:28

I enjoyed this plateformer, I thought the platforms were pretty strange, but I think that's part of the game. The music is very relaxing and the levels are not too difficult. Great game ;)

pabloalexandre31 2013-05-04 20:06

I like of atmosphere of game!

taro 2013-05-06 04:33

Aack! I genuinely love the graphics, presentation, and concept of it (jump on the platforms in the right order), but the difficulty to jump of to the next platform makes it difficult to enjoy.

minionstudios 2013-05-06 13:47

The spikes were too tough for me, I will keep trying to not avoid my problems... Atmosphere and simplicity with great art and music!

smilingcat 2013-05-06 16:36

The light beams were a good hint for when landing on a platform changed the layout.

Good job!

wademcgillis 2013-05-06 20:14

The platforms are very polished ;)

And the first level is a pain until you figure out what's going on.

gatechgrad 2013-05-06 23:09

Really liked the atmosphere in this game. Sort of like being an angel jumping through heaven. I'm just not a fan of the first person platforming.

kyyninen 2013-05-07 12:52

Liked it! At first I was kinda frustrated at first, then I got the feel for jumping and it went smoothly onwards. Nice, serene mood. 06:02 was my time.

tiago-ling 2013-05-07 12:54

Cool take on the theme, good job! Also, very good music and mood. Congrats!

lightnarcissus 2013-05-07 18:10

Little confusing but the music is extremely well-done and I'd say it does a good job staying true to the theme. Good job! :)

ovenchips 2013-05-07 18:31

Really good entry - I completed it. Frustration level set just right. Difficulty curve dropped right off on the last level but perhaps that was intentional to give more weight to the on-screen messaging. Well done indeed!

sylvain-p 2013-05-07 21:32

Well, i have try 10 minutes...but impossible to finish the first level. Too bad because your game looks great.

colapsydo 2013-05-08 09:08

Those mirror platform are excellent.
The overall atmosphere is great even if I found the textureless objects a bit out of the world.

miharbi 2013-05-08 16:48

Very beautiful game.

arakhnor 2013-05-10 03:06

It was hard, but what an amazing experience!
Simple graphics and lovely music.
Great, great game!
Thanks

ataxkt 2013-05-10 14:09

Copy pasting the definition for minimalism doesn't make your game minimalist, especially when adding it makes the game less minimal!
Very pretty atmosphere and mood though! Very difficult.

mrshoestore 2013-05-12 19:02

nice. I liked that the platforms you could walk on were mirrors. gave it a nice vibe. seems like a small thing, but totally huge when it comes to design aesthetics.

jesse111 2013-05-13 07:52

This is great! I love the music and visuals, and the adherence to the theme!
The "problems" are scary! It's very menacing hearing them approach.

kirby_freak 2013-05-13 15:16

I didn't find the game too difficult, but I loved how the mechanics worked in tandem with the words to convey your thoughts. The music was nice too, and I liked how the floor was a reflective surface, made it look nice. I also liked how you're just a ball :P Great job!

kitch 2013-05-15 03:41

very beautiful game. sound and graphics work well together. nice work.

wisegamer 2013-05-16 12:45

A very nice game that must be top 10!
I think you will like out game too. It speaks about minimalism in a different way. Try it :)

martin_monosys 2013-05-17 21:39

Hey cool, your game has the same objective as mine (go to the red cube), but the rest of the games couldn't be more different, completely other mood here... but I like it ! :)

phocker 2013-05-18 02:48

very cool idea -- but it was sooo frustrating to play -- could not figure out the pattern of the floor moving

make-a-game 2013-05-19 10:27

The jumps were tricky it took me some effort and I couldn't finish, but I watched the walkthrough afterwards (I didn't score any less because of my inaptitude =P). Overall the ethereal aesthetics created a very poetic mood. It also hit the spot with the theme.

adventureislands 2013-05-20 20:21

Loved the mood, really peaceful and serene, I liked jumping around the clouds, and didn't think the game was too difficult. Just curious why there is 2 exits in the final level when they both take you to the same outcome?