evergreen-games-ludum-dare 2014-12-08 07:04
Interesting. couldn't get past the engineering bay. not sure what the weird camera effect is supposed to be nor why you teleport to the beginning if you go to the last room
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD31 → Voyage
By bogdan-tana
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coolness | 3 | 61 | ||
| Mood | 286 | 3.26 | ||
| Graphics | 438 | 3.27 | ||
| Humor | 458 | 2.62 | ||
| Innovation | 610 | 3.06 | ||
| Overall | 614 | 3.14 | ||
| Audio | 698 | 2.44 | ||
| Fun | 822 | 2.81 | ||
| Theme | 1139 | 2.67 |
Interesting. couldn't get past the engineering bay. not sure what the weird camera effect is supposed to be nor why you teleport to the beginning if you go to the last room
Found the issue, thanks a LOT for the feedback! Will fix it as soon as I can. In the meantime, you can surpass the bug if, after getting the code for the Engineering Bay, you first pass through Captain Snow's room before actually opening the bay.
The camera effect was meant to relate to panic. Without going too much into detail, functionally it triggers progression. The teleportation is heavily related to the ending.
Will post a walkthrough and event explanation soon, just to clarify what I wanted to illustrate.
Nice topic and nice mood! Reminds me of Stanley Parable!
Thank you! Yes, The Stanley Parable is actually one of the games that inspired me to create this. I wanted a darker, less humoristic tone. Alas, I had no time left for the music and effects, so there aren't any other sounds in game except for the voice recordings.
I REALLY want to like this, I love experimental narrative experiences. IF they're done right. Right now there are some logical issues:
> The flow of leave room > look at a map to see where to next > get there do something > go back to "your room" > teleport > go back "there" to find a number to punch into the next keypad > go to "your room" > teleport > leave room again... It's very strange to me. It doesn't make sense, and not in a mysterious way, it just doesn't make sense :/
Otherwise I got to the med wing thing and lost interest. Could really be interesting :)
Bugs:
> Suggest you find a new shader for the texts to they don't show up through walls - google "unity 3d text shader".
> Suggest you lock the mouse pointer so you can use clicking instead of E - creative solve for not knowing how to lock mouse pointer though :)
Also... This has what to do with the theme? :P
@Tusim, instead of implementing the theme as a functional specification, I chose to bind it to a key element in the game, namely the main room terminal, where you see your progress on the map. Eventually, it will show the entire game area on one screen.
regarding making sense:
- the room is supposed to advance the timeline. There is no actual constant flow of time, because you are experiencing some sort of sequential memory access. You are initially clueless of what has actually happened, but you will find out once you progress through the game.
I wanted to make sure that:
1) the first time the player loops, he/she gets it that new clues MAY appear. Also the best time to learn how to interact with key objects.
2) the second time the player loops, he/she gets it that new clues actually appear because a TIME ADVANCEMENT happens, but only when you've found all the clues there are in that time frame.
3) the map gives the player a hint of whether the time advancement has actually happened.
regarding suggestions:
- Yes, pretty immersion breaking, the Textmesh component in unity4.6 is behaving odd. Will solve that one way or another.
- I've searched the web about that. Screen.lockCursor = true does not seem to work properly for some reason. I actually prefer 'E' for object interaction because I'm accustomed to it from pretty much every FPS that uses object interaction.
Hi there. Interesting design. Found lack of a clear button on panels repeatedly annoying. Only got through first two doors, found (my?) room at end of corridor, couldn't open anything after that, tried some numbers but... Shame no sounds or music (not on Chrome/W8.1 Web) anyways. Good job so far!
@Tuism*, sorry 'bout that :s
@mrexcessive. Thanks for the feedback! Will add that in the post-ld version coming up soon. That goes for the sounds and sfx as well. As I said previously, Captain Snow's room advances the timeline, so you probably just need to look around the corridor (hint) after you search every corner of the captain's room and find nothing (hint) :D Good Luck!
pretty cool idea, is the white screen (and looking down to see the big reveal) the ending? because otherwise i may have missed something
I got stuck after the Engi-Bay after update v2.
The models look good, but are very repetitive. I missed a bit more innovation than just running from room to room (sometimes twice or more before the next hint spawns) to look for a new number. Music or other sounds would have been nice, but I had no time left for those myself :D
@duon44, due to the compo's deadline, yes. I initially wanted something more sophisticated instead of the big white nothing, but ended up cutting queues :P
@kruemelkeksfan, there was a temporary problem even after that update, but it eventually got fixed again.
I agree regarding what you said about the art being very repetitive. Had a couple of more things that I didn't finish.
The Engineering Bay was going to be something more than a couple of boxes stacked, and the final room, well, it would have looked like an actual deck :D Also, would have integrated the information you get (from the small message sheets) into more proper forms, like id cards, med sheets, pagers, mobile phones, etc. Maybe on the next occasion :D
Yeah, I feel really awful regarding the music and sfx, but I will have a post-compo version in a couple of days with what was intended, just for the sake of not letting the game be so silent :D
Interesting game ^^
Good Work xD
nice 3d graphics..
really nice mood, I got really focused on solving the puzzle!
Well, there goes all my stars. I really like this, even though I fell through the ground when I entered the code to the first room, and head straight down the stairs and into what I thought was a white wall. Nice atmosphere, that I think could have been improved with some music. Not sure I was found of the extremeness of the camera effect (although I liked the intent).
Stanley Parable meets Potal.
I like this kind of games.
First I was a little confused but got pretty fast what to do.
I liked it. It was pretty neat how the screen told you where to go next to use a code, etc. Once you make that connection it was pretty good. I liked wandering around at first trying to figure things out and what was up with the world. Teleporting through the Captain's chambers was a neat touch. I could see this being pretty engaging if it was polished and every puzzle wasn't a keycode.
Thank you all for all your awesome feedback!
@GeorgeBroussard, interesting view. I have never looked at the keycodes as puzzles themselves, rather more as progression mechanics, along with the captain's room. The 'puzzles' would be the exploration and the object interaction. If I could actually call them puzzles. All in all, it's more like a visual novel of some sort (regardless that it lacks part of the vibe - effects, music; lol). Thanks for the feedback! :D
I am a wimp, so i haven't actually finished the game.
I can see why it got some nice reviews though!
Nice looking game! I finally solved the puzzle. I think you could have done better if given more time. Do you plan to keep developing it?
@DonovanWu, thanks for the feedback, I don't have any plans for it, or at least not in this form, maybe part of something bigger. It was more of an exercise :D
Nice game, almost like Stanley Parable ;) I like the puzzle element of this game and, wow, it's a compo entry! Impressive.
At first I felt that the terminal in the first room was some kind of I-pushed-the-theme-in-the-game-I-wanted-to-make-anyway, but it was actually pretty usefull since it tells you were to go. pretty subtle :)
I didn't feel the need for a sheet of paper, but an ingame diary would indeed be nice.
Also I don't really understand what you were trying to accomplish with that camera effect, but that is my only concern with the game. It's a great entry
@MintArcade, @PapyPilgrim, thanks for the awesome feedback!
Yes, something like a diary would have been completely fair, given just a little more time.
The camera effect was to be part of a mechanic through which your character would have actually died/lost the game if exposed too long (sort of like a sanity-meter). But I never got to implement it. Oh well :)