FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD29 → Beneath the surface

Beneath the surface

By devince

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CategoryRankScoreCount
Coolness365
Graphics2373.71
Humor2712.94
Audio2973.17
Mood3323.25
Overall4123.32
Innovation5943.01
Theme7073.09
Fun7802.76

Comments

pierrec 2014-04-28 00:33

I like the idea of measuring time with clicks, but I didn't manage to win yet. I'll come back to this game tomorrow when I'll have slept, and be allowed to rate.

Just a thing : maybe you should make the game smaller. It doesn't display entirely in my browser, and I had to unzoom thrice to see the whole windows.

telaviv 2014-04-28 01:11

game is a little big for me too. beautiful game though, great sound.

2014-04-28 02:12

very nice story based game.. loved it! I did managed to land alive after all (took some time tho :)

bug: the doctor if you arrest him will not be on the ship next time after you die and restart...

minism 2014-04-28 02:13

I like the visual aesthetic a lot and the way you handled the story-driven mechanic. It feels a bit too slow for my liking though, but maybe thats just because there are so many games to get through! Nice work.

conormn 2014-04-28 02:15

Very nice music and vibe. Would agree on the size comments.

ix 2014-04-28 02:34

The text could use some proof-reading, but you have done some nice story telling and the art is attractive.

matthias_zarzecki 2014-04-28 02:36

Nice idea! Love the graphics

afrosatan 2014-04-28 02:42

I was confused and never landed on the planet...
I think I sent the pilot to jail and then he never came back on a restart.
Even though I never quite understood it was fun to read the text and the game looked good and sounded nice.

careforceone 2014-04-28 03:10

The audio is great, and the art style is beautiful. Not to mention I enjoy space games. The concept of how time passes every time you click is fun as well.

cr2crstudios 2014-04-28 03:46

Very FTL like in some ways. :)

primaerfunktion 2014-04-28 07:59

I really diddn't expect too see something placed in space for the theme. I really liked your game!

devince 2014-04-28 08:04

Thank you for all your comments!
- I won't change the size for now, it could change too many things ^^ You can unzoom in your browser the game supports it well.
- Bug fixed: A dead / arrested crew member wasn't reappearing after a retry
- The english is poor I know, did my best. I shouldn't have write the dialogs at end of jam too

monaarc 2014-04-28 10:19

Very nick point n click game with cooooool pixel graphics, but it is a bit slow and confusing... need more feed back

tifu 2014-04-28 13:09

Love the idea, trying to figure out the different agendas, time limit going by with every question you ask causing nice panic feel. I can't figure out how to land though something always seems to go wrong. Will hopefully come back when there might be some more hints in the comments :)

whitewolf93 2014-04-28 15:10

I figured out how it works before I died trying to click a lot to get to the earth, I was wrong XD! I love the graphics, and the concept is interesting, remembers me to old times with point ant click!

hyoga-3d 2014-04-28 15:39

nice pixel art! simple and beautiful

darkmeatgames 2014-04-28 16:30

Not my cup o' tea in terms of gameplay, but it was really beautiful!

zer0xol 2014-04-28 16:37

I like the attempt to make the game athmospheric.
The language is manageble even thought its a bit wrong sometimes.

ludonaut 2014-04-28 17:55

Nice pixel art and sound. Well done.

bogdan-tana 2014-04-28 21:45

I really like the mood of the game - that panic factor. Also, interesting take on the theme! Graphics style and audio go well together. Needs a bit of proofing here and there.

zathalos 2014-04-29 00:40

Hmm, after playing like 10 times I finally got the proper ending. It's a cool little point and click. I think the way you applied the theme to human's hidden nature is really innovative. Awesome work.

seraphicmedia 2014-04-29 00:53

I found myself engrossed in the story. What an imagination! Very impressive. Could you actually land the spaceship though and continue the story because I couldn't find out how to do that.

devince 2014-04-29 08:24

Yes you can find a way to land the spaceship and survive ^^

There is a little bit of randomness though. If you know exactly what to do to "win" (the real win is to play the game ^^), you have 75% chance to have the win ending.
Life is unfair (You can sing it if you want).

devince 2014-04-29 08:27

More precision about this win 75% chance. It is not resolved at the end but this is one character which MUST be confronted and which may kill you...

solkar 2014-04-29 08:57

I like the story and the mood created by music+pixel art. And I liked the lines of dialogue, they sound pretty good for me.

Did you though about making the captain and the ship/computer another character? Maybe a hidden stowaway? I think introspection monologue with the captain would be interesting.

devince 2014-04-29 09:32

Your ideas are good, didn't thought about making the ship a character or the captain's introspection. Planned a kind of text inventory on the captain but no time and no need. By the way the ship/computer character could be a great way to introduce the stowaway but it adds a complete new scenario line ^^ For my next game maybe, I keep that in mind.

zyper 2014-04-29 16:52

There's no place where I can be, since I found Serenity.

2014-04-29 17:17

I quite enjoyed playing this game, it had nice music. :)

dustoutgames 2014-04-30 04:37

Very strong use of theme, having to figure out everyone's loyalties/intentions beneath the surface. You really get a sense of time and urgency from seeing the planet get closer with each click, and it made me really stop to think about what to say.

grooveman 2014-04-30 18:23

It was really interesting getting to know each of the crew members as you approach the mission. It took me a few tries to make significant progress though, and it sometimes felt a little like trial and error to make the correct decisions. Having some kind of counter to tell you how close you are to landing (at least before you play the game enough times and can tell by the size of the planet) would be helpful.

aaronjbaptiste 2014-04-30 19:05

Nice pixely graphics, yum. A little too much reading perhaps, but the humour helps alot. Great job

devince 2014-04-30 19:16

You can click on the planet to get the number of remaining clicks. This if not really clear you can do that. You can too click on spaceship to have some background elements.
This clicks are free and does not move the game forward.

You are right the game fells in a die and retry gameplay after some plays, it's a bit wanted and assumed but I don't know what to think about that. To go further in it I would have assigned one color per dialog line, it would have make easier to fast play the same dialogs.

The important part for me is the adventure, the dialogs, the background, the strategy, the urgency emotion and the story telling, not the mini die and retry game... Have to think about that to progress I believe.

mintarcade 2014-04-30 19:42

Nice art style. Very attractive game idea.

christinaneofotistou 2014-05-05 00:19

Fantastic mood and branching storytelling. Loved this!

mechabit 2014-05-05 02:18

Could do with proof reading, difficult in a jam but would have made a text heavy game easier to play though. Nice artwork.

camlang 2014-05-05 18:34

Nice game and cool story. Great work

mortus 2014-05-13 15:51

Nice mood! Took me some time to finally complete the game and I'm still not sure why sometimes doctor was able to defend himself and sometimes not. Same for a pilot. But it was fun!

myyyvothrr 2014-05-14 10:11

I really like this game, the atmosphere is great! Graphics and music are nice too.

devince 2014-05-14 13:48

Thank you all for your positive feedback.
@mortus: You are right, doctor may win the fight if you decide to start a fight ^^ But it is not mandatory to do so. It's not the same for the pilot but I won't say more.