FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD33 → Separated

Separated

By rxi

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CategoryRankScoreCount
Theme44.44
Graphics134.56
Audio34.47
Mood14.70
Overall513.89
Innovation3023.26
Humor7292.06
Fun7492.59
Coolness179635

Comments

ewchap 2015-08-24 02:31

Wonderful mood. Love the music and the feeling of being a monster where everyone runs from you. Wasn't able to figure out if there was anything else to do but still beautiful.

knatt 2015-08-24 02:41

I really like the momentum behind the character when moving, and the music and lighting work well to create a stellar mood.

Not much to do however, just explore the map. The sound the monster makes is a bit grating after a wile, so I stopped interacting with things

ghostbomb 2015-08-24 02:43

Gorgeous lighting effects and incredibly chilling music. Really drives home the feeling of loneliness and otherness, being surrounded by people yet unable to reach out to anyone. I see anything to do other than drift around the town. Did I miss something or is this more experience than "game"?

kchplr 2015-08-24 02:48

The pixel arts is the highlight of the game, which is fitting for an exploration game. I thought the dirty / blurry effect at the end did not match the art style though. The mood is really good too.

Just to be sure I did not miss anything, is there some hidden puzzle to resolve ? The game somehow reminded me of Fez, probably because of the cryptic symbols in the village.

allwoodgamedev 2015-08-24 02:54

Love it!

ganonsspirit 2015-08-24 03:05

Pleasant to look at and listen to, but there isn't much to do. Does the action button do anything?

mklee 2015-08-24 03:09

Gorgeous, a narrative walker in top-down form done very well. The music deserves special attention for completely selling the mood and story.

thebrickanator 2015-08-24 03:22

I loved the atmosphere :D and I don't know whether you were intending on it but I felt quite lost.

modoc73 2015-08-24 03:35

Awesome mood, and art. Amazing what can be done with little colour. And yet save a lot of time! Music was good too! After a while the repeat was a bit annoying. Would have liked something else to do other than scare villagers. But the theme wasn't extremely easy. Well done!

conormn 2015-08-24 04:30

Geez, really great job. You kind of nailed it on all fronts.

mactinite 2015-08-24 04:50

Reminds me Journey in a Link To The Past World. I like the effect of the Monster trying to communicate. Good work@

orni 2015-08-24 07:16

best art I've seen so far
great entry overall too

loved every second of it

cryptix 2015-08-24 09:37

I absolutely love the graphics, and music!

digital_sorceress 2015-08-24 10:24

nice graphics and sound, but there is no gameplay as far as i can tell.

nicotuason 2015-08-24 10:53

It's beautiful but sooo sad to play... I JUST WANT PEOPLE TO LOVE ME T~T

jorgemoag 2015-08-24 11:27

I love the graphic style and the gameplay is so smooth i love it :).

nebulaorbit 2015-08-24 11:59

Incredible! I'm touched! But it wasnt really a game, or was it? More like an experience/work of art.

ghostbomb 2015-08-24 12:09

Could you maybe link the music for this game?

rnlf 2015-08-24 13:28

So sad! Took me a few moments to figure out what was going on and then it was like "Awwwwww maaaaan".

You cannot do that do me after a sleepless night, I almost started weeping.

demogorgon 2015-08-24 16:01

The lack of any explanation as to what I'm supposed to be doing really made me thing about what I was seeing. Very well done.

jaredsartin 2015-08-24 17:26

When are you making these web-capable? Emscripten! Love the game

theholychicken 2015-08-24 19:37

A button to try to speak that only makes random noises.
To wake into existence and discover that you are different and doomed to be alone.
In the end looking for an exit, some escape, something new, but there is nothing.
Then I close the game. The exit is closing the game.

Wonderful job!!

pighead10 2015-08-24 19:41

Not a game, but as usual, the graphics, audio, and mood you create is astounding.

gfm 2015-08-24 20:13

Nooooo! The poor creature just wanted to befriend the villagers... why couldn't they understand that? >__<

Amazing game and amazing mood!

tijn 2015-08-24 20:18

This game is a-ma-zing. You have such a sense of style, rxi. It's great that you're able to set the mood with just sound & visuals, without having to rely on text.

steve 2015-08-24 20:28

Absolutely awesome, my favourite so far, I want to give it 6/5 for audio :)

I couldn't resist making this though *spoilers!* http://imgur.com/Q31Fbd3 ;)

aurel300 2015-08-24 20:30

I don't know, … It's kinda pretty and all, but it's not really a game for me.
The soundtrack is very well done, other than that it feels a bit pretentious to me.

mantis 2015-08-24 20:33

Great game! Amazing mood.

korso 2015-08-24 20:44

Graphics are awesome, although some tiles reminds me to Zelda Link's awakening, and the sound and controls are good too. The thing is that these games -for me- need a reason to continue exploring. In 3D is somewhat easier because you can draw an interesting place far away. In 2D you need some history, motive, clue, anything. Look proteus, dear esther... Nice work though!

tacospice 2015-08-24 20:45

Not much to do ..

Beautiful though (no surprise there). And rather depressing. But in a good way? A bad good way. Or a good bad way..

Poor monster :(

Now, where's the New Game+ where all the speech is translated?!

tacospice 2015-08-24 20:49

Oh, one more thing I forgot to mention.

I like the "heavy" movement of the character, and although I initially disliked the low maximum speed, it makes sense after I got through it why you're not some crazy speed demon.

crypto137 2015-08-24 20:51

Amazing atmosphere, but not that much of a game.

thomcc 2015-08-25 01:01

wow how do you even mood that well

(apparently by using great audio, lighting, and artwork. who would have thought?)

pinkmonkeyhead 2015-08-25 03:11

I almost cried playing this

zatyka 2015-08-25 04:07

I don't know if I'd really call it a game, but everything came together for an effective experience. The graphics and the futility of pressing X was especially remarkable.

mitkus 2015-08-25 08:21

Amazing feeling. Loved exploring the area, feeling like a monster.

kikaz 2015-08-25 12:51

Very immersive, it's difficult to be a monster, to be different, and you made us feel well through your creation.
Good music, stuck with this theme perfectly.
Excellent job !

vikingpotato 2015-08-25 13:55

One of the best pixel art so far! Keep up the good work.

gnuwilliam 2015-08-25 16:59

Great game!

cowboycolor 2015-08-25 17:52

NO COME BACK I JUST WANT TO TALK :( best use of theme so far

dawik 2015-08-25 18:27

Nice to see a SDL release on all platforms =) ran well, nice mood, I like how the character looks really sad and doesn't mean any harm yet everyone runs from him.

seconddimension 2015-08-25 20:31

*** SPOILERS MAYBE! ***

I really did think that was beautiful, I'm glad I stuck with it and saw the ending. Even before the ending I was really feeling that sense of the monster being isolated and misunderstood, the attempt at speech just being gibberish was a great touch and made me empathise with that sense of frustration. Then the people reacted as people tend to do when they don't understand something. It was just so sad. In the end I just crawled onto the pier and watched the sea as I died

kaype 2015-08-25 20:34

This is excellent.
I actually felt something while playing this, and the fact that it doesn't even need gameplay to invoke emotion is really impressive. Or maybe this is the gameplay, and the reason why there isn't anything to do is because of the fact that this poor character can't communicate with anybody or, well, show himself.

That's the way I see it at least.

kaype 2015-08-25 20:50

I have just made it to the ending. I'm tearing up right now. :(

This game is great. Thank you for making this.

aske 2015-08-25 21:11

WOW! This is really a good game, it took some time, but in the end it turned out really good. The graphics were amazing, not to talk about the incredible audio design on it. Outstanding ;)

jishenaz 2015-08-25 22:52

Nostalgic graphics and awesome soundscape! This experience should teach people why we shouldn't see others as monsters.

mventurelli 2015-08-26 02:00

Dropbox link is broken =(

tehphen 2015-08-26 06:04

Art + Audio really bring home to mood. Nails the story! I feel however I missed something, and had to wander a bit to find it.. Wandered a tad too long :(

vividhelix 2015-08-26 06:26

I'm creeped out. This was beautiful.

kerdelos 2015-08-26 08:06

The game is gorgeous and sounds great but it feels a bit like a walking simulator.

vaida 2015-08-26 09:14

I absolutely loved this. The quality of the art, music and visual effects is amazing! At first I was a bit saddened that there wasn't anything to interact with, but then I realised that not being able to do anything is a message in itself. Loved it to pieces!

randomhuman 2015-08-26 21:14

Poignant, but not much to do.

stevenlr 2015-08-26 21:50

Very nice mood and graphics. It is unfortunate that there is apparently not much to do, but I guess it is intentional. You did succeed in making the player emotionally involved with the monster.

wetdesertrock 2015-08-26 23:57

I fully understand what you meant by being afraid that not everyone will get it. Its true, many people don't get it, however the tradeoff is that people who do get it will get a much deeper experience when playing the game.

I thought your music was wonderfully fitting, the qualms I had when listening to it outside of the game beforehand were gone when listening to it in context. My only problem with the sound was with the interaction sound. Many games use similar sounds, and I'm not sure why. It is annoying to hear more than once and doesn't fit into any atmosphere. I'd like something lower pitched with a bit more growl or noise in it, almost fitting into the background but with enough contrast it obviously is triggered by the player.

The graphics worked wonderfully. The 4 tone pallet really made the experience complete. For instance, when you see an un-lit villager there is the perfect silhouette made already.

The interaction was a nice touch, but I almost wish there was more variance in how you interacted. You can still have the gibberish, but there was little reward to interaction. Kinda made it feel like I was cheated because I got through the end and none of my interactions did anything different. Except maybe when I trapped a villager and interacted with him? I let him go and a second later he vanished. Almost made me wonder if I was normal and the villagers were ghosts.

Overall, nice game, great submission.

s0lll0s 2015-08-27 00:34

A work of art in all categories. The amazing graphics and sound work together and perfectly convey the mood. Simply 5/5.

dancingmad 2015-08-27 13:27

Music, graphics & gamplay together give this game an unique atmosphere.
Good job !

yrr 2015-08-27 21:38

one of the most beautiful entries I've played, in every sense

thebmxeur 2015-08-27 22:50

Thanks

plusultra 2015-08-28 09:47

fantastic mood. The sound, art, movement of the character... you did a great goddamn job!

piotrek 2015-08-28 09:51

Music, pixel art and color palette gives incredible mood.
Good work.

sanju 2015-08-28 10:06

Love this entry. Touching experience.

bneutral 2015-08-28 10:34

Them feels

randoman 2015-08-28 10:47

It's nice to see how your game affected people in different ways. One of the best experiences I had so far in this Ludum Dare.

crucknuk 2015-08-28 11:07

sO sad ;( Good job indeed! One of the best atmosphere of this jam. Graphics remind me Zelda Awakening. Nice light effect too.

bender 2015-08-28 11:45

amazing mood, pixels and music

mathijs750 2015-08-28 14:04

The music is wonderful. I felt really sad because nobody liked me. But not he lightning bugs they are my friends.

gty 2015-08-28 14:11

Gorgeous game experience, congratulations, the music is incredible to the game mood. Well done!

eddy93 2015-08-28 14:22

Nice entry mister! Good mood and nice art! I learned a lot from it. Thank you

everlessdrop41 2015-08-28 14:28

Not sure if this is really a game, but very nice art, audio and mood

inbetweengames 2015-08-28 17:09

The fireflies were my only friends. :(

mach60kas 2015-08-28 17:28

Very atmospheric. I loved the lighting tricks with the 4-shade palette, and the feeling of isolation was conveyed brilliantly. Not very fun, but I guess that wasn't really the point. The music fit extremely well, fantastic work!

ibai-aizpurua 2015-08-28 19:36

Great music and graphics, but a little bit empty :(

awpteamoose 2015-08-28 19:57

Man, some people can surely do a lot with a little. Loved it.

5/5 for all but humour.

gus 2015-08-28 22:30

Short and interesting experience.

The pixel art is pretty good, as well as the sound design. The music is very moody and congruent to the experience.

I wonder if I've missed something.

miotatsu 2015-08-29 05:58

baawwww

happyhour 2015-08-29 06:51

You get all the points for atmosphere. Poor monster guy!

arche-san 2015-08-29 12:12

Beautiful art, immersive music and lovely great atmosphere!
Good work! :)

intxparts 2015-08-29 13:13

This game has a beautiful atmosphere to it. The gameplay left me wanting more though. Awesome entry overall!

scorched 2015-08-29 14:20

Very artistic! Is there anywhere a separate soundtrack for this? Cheers

gillenew 2015-08-29 14:25

how not to love this monster, the game became so beautiful

a shame that travelers came together and gave me a beating xD

pirate_shell 2015-08-29 14:48

The presentation was fantastic for selling the theme of being the misunderstood lonely monster. From the well made character sprite that captures the emotion of the game perfectly, to the lovely graphics, lighting and music it all sets the atmosphere very well. Other than that, I didn't see much to do outside of soaking in the environment and emotion. That's my one issue with it, other than that - lovely entry!

soulgame 2015-08-29 14:58

I managed to catch a villager in a corner, and then I shouted non-sens to his face: "£^@!%$&" for two minutes Mwahahah, so devilish of me. Then I let the poor bastard go, of course I could have end him, but ya know... I'm mostly into shouting.

Seriously, impressive work on the overall mood, it's very engaging. The audio, arts, animations, are very coherent and bring something special.

I know it's a matter of taste but: moving slowly, instead of adding up to the experience of being a poor monster, tended to disengage me by lack of dynamism. I'm 100% positive that I'd have enjoyed it more if I was allowed to move around a bit more lightly (like in Journey for example). But that's of course, subjective.

/!!!\ SPOILER /!!!\
Oh god that ending... I was pretty bored as it was getting long since I first started the game. But then oO that's something!

Very, very well put together. 5/5

sparrow 2015-08-29 15:20

Wow, what an experience. Beautiful. I almost cried.

literal_games 2015-08-29 16:49

Interesting, some of it went over my head a bit, would have enjoyed having a goal but then I suppose that's not the point. However, really nice sound and graphics, very polished!

fullmontis 2015-08-29 16:57

The game has a thick atmosphere that really hits you. But gameplay is confusing, I didn't really understand what I needed to do in the game. If there is any gameplay at all, cause it seems the only thing you can really do is go around and scare people away.

nidzakornjaca 2015-08-29 17:54

Stellar audio, visuals and mood - not quite sure what to do though.

ithildin 2015-08-29 18:26

Beautiful and melancholic atmosphere (that music!). You managed to capture and convey the feelings of loneliness and incomprehension from the others while at the same time trying to engage wih them brilliantly. There's not a lot to do, true, but I guess that was not the point of your entry.

Amazing entry.

ryusui 2015-08-29 23:23

A beautiful art piece. The only place I'll ding it is the sheer number of background tiles ripped straight from Link's Awakening (believe me, I'd recognize them anywhere).

nikteddy92 2015-08-29 23:35

This is like art. Love ya.

xvw 2015-08-30 01:35

My god... this end... this game...

Wonderful.

Shadow 2015-08-30 01:42

Beautiful game with a very well-achieved mood. Every tile, sprite and animation is simply gorgeous. The music fits the game perfectly and the lighting work was a really nice touch.

If there was something to do beside scaring villagers I totally missed it though; I ran out of people to scare and was left alone with nothing else to do.

I loved/hated the awful feeling of being "feared" by everyone and unable to communicate with them.

To think this is a Compo entry is insane though! the amount of polish is ridiculous! Well done mate!

chuigum 2015-08-30 01:58

Fit awesome with the theme. You should opt out of the Humor category because this was the opposite of funny. I like how You Were the Monster and how sad it was. Everyone would just run away from you. Not really a finished game, but I loved it.

shawn42 2015-08-30 02:27

Such. Wow. So frustrating for a while... then just sad. Way to build the atmosphere and connect me to the player in a way that really makes me feel sad for the little guy. Amazing game.

jackdegree 2015-08-30 07:37

Makes you think....

scorched 2015-08-30 09:54

Nevermind. Found OST in sources! Listening to it right now!

jofra 2015-08-30 15:15

Did you saw Miyazaki film "Grave of the fireflies"? The mood and the theme fit the film perfectly and that is very good. (and if you did, awesome reference!)
This game is a great entry (but i can see people not liking it X) ) it have a very strong felling to it and the mood pulls you right in to the middle of it, and that for me is all the gameplay you need from a realy good game. It is a game with our feellings, that without saying anything tells a great story.
A 5* game for me :)

commanderstitch 2015-08-30 23:39

moody. nice graphic set. nice lighting. nice atmo. music worked. I wanted to find someone. Everyone ran from me. I tried to speak, but the words that came out had no meaning. I decided to be the hero and leave the island for a new land. They gave me a parting gift. Only then, was there peace.

geckoo1337 2015-09-01 04:35

Cool aesthetic and fun game. Gorgeous lighting effects and incredibly chilling music. Well done ++

euske 2015-09-01 09:39

Was kinda expecting if there's anyone accepting the player.

bluewizard 2015-09-01 14:12

Lovely game with a nice twist to it. I was desperate get away, but how?! Tried squeaking alot but that didn't do much...

There is more to this game than just wandering around at random a little...

freaknarf 2015-09-01 17:57

Aww. I was thinking that some gameplay was missing... Then it was worthly to reach the end. This is art. I felt sad.
Not really fun to play (the x key stuff was fun i must admit...). Very good job on pixel art and visuals overall, music is fine and fits well...
More a piece of art than a "game" to me. And a quite beautifull and depressing piece of art.

nightshadow0 2015-09-01 21:08

Oh man, this was really depressing, in a good way. The goal isn't very clear though, i was trying to avoid humans for a long while and only randomly started to chase them after running out of places to explore. Totally worth it though, brilliant work, i love everything about it.

dickpoelen 2015-09-02 12:10

Looks/sounds great. And I like that it's just what it is.

uheartbeast 2015-09-02 22:12

Great graphics and mood. Loved it.

kles4enko 2015-09-03 08:12

Fantastic mood! Sweet sound!

hjalte500 2015-09-03 15:30

I love how you are doomed as the monster even though your intentions are good. You can speak but only gibberish. You give me a button to interact but still its hopeless. I love that! So sad.

Awesome graphics, Audio all that usual stuff 5/5!

kerotan24 2015-09-03 17:11

Inmersive game, really like the many you do with so little, Great entry.

dregamr 2015-09-03 17:35

Beautiful and sad at the same time. Great work!

tylorlilley 2015-09-03 22:17

Some nice ambient music and graphics to set the mood, but not much actually goes on in terms of gameplay...

devark 2015-09-04 08:16

Simple but polished. Has a nice, eerie mood created through the music and lighting.

abcdef65g 2015-09-04 22:16

This game is simply one of the most beautiful ones in this whole event. The graphics were impeccable, easily one of the most beautiful sprite art games I have ever seen, without any single flaw and with a pixel-level attention to detail. It is hard to classify it as a game, because the actions you have available are tailored exactly to bring a sense of lack of empowerment, to feel weak, vulnerable, like the world is judging on you based on looks alone. Easily one of the best experiences I have ever experienced in such a short game, productions like this makes me question anyone daring to claim a game isn't art. Easier to classify this gem as not a game than as not art.

drauthius 2015-09-04 23:04

Very nice artwork. :)

spotco 2015-09-05 01:33

Very cohesive art + music!
Wish there was some sort of closure (though maybe I just didn't discover it).

walsh9 2015-09-05 04:32

Six stars for mood.

glerikud 2015-09-05 12:07

Wow and this is a compo entry?! I didn't want to quit just to listen to the music. Really good one, grats!

zncatlaw 2015-09-08 23:17

Wow! This is amazing. The ending is really well done, too. It was so different in terms of the look and feel that it gave the scene real weight. This is probably my favourite game of the dare? Probably!

SPOILERS

I'm so glad I stayed till the end. I had a bad experience because the last villager had wandered into a corner somewhere, so for me it didn't feel like a gradual organic change in the villager's behaviour; rather it felt like a discrete switch had been flipped. I think it is possible some players did not experience the ending, not for lack of trying or patience, but because the last villager was just too hard to track down.

evergreen-games-ludum-dare 2015-09-09 00:09

Not much of a game, but incredibly touching. I didnt get the ending the first time, but after looking at the comments i played it again. totally worth it.

flannelvindicate 2015-09-09 16:09

Pssst - You are featured in todays Ludum Dare to Believe! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK8Ya1OP2ZI

gamepopper 2015-09-10 22:20

Amazing music and graphics, creates a brilliantly eerie and lonely atmosphere. I felt really sorry for the monster though, it shouldn't even be called a monster. :(

demy 2015-09-12 19:03

It could be be batter iif player could read text on the stones and posts, or there could be any scaring counters. Right now there's no gameplay sadly.

lafolie 2015-09-14 13:52

I don't feel that there is a game here, however I do feel that this is a fantastic piece of interactive software. I find it difficult to describe because it blurs the ludonarrative boundaries, kinda like Facade. Very immersive, and the lighting system was very well implemented.

erkberg 2015-09-14 15:16

What a beautifully sad "game". The visuals and audio are incredible. One can feel the isolation. I was hoping to find some significant other somewhere, but it was not meant to be...

RLQ 2015-09-27 01:27

I can't find where to contact the developer or report bugs, so. . . here in the comments?? :(

Downloaded the OS/X version, but it always crashes immediately after the second screen (showing which keys to use: WASD, etc.). I'm running OS X 10.8.5. The crash report includes the following:

Crashed Thread: 0 Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Exception Type: EXC_BREAKPOINT (SIGTRAP)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000002, 0x0000000000000000

Dyld Error Message:
Symbol not found: ___sincos_stret
Referenced from: /Users/USER/Desktop/rxi_separated.app/Contents/MacOS/juno
Expected in: /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib