Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD39 → Eclipse
By saramartins, Vasco Rodrigues and isaque-picao-sanches
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 361 | 3.45 | 70 | |
| Fun | 658 | 2.77 | 70 | |
| Innovation | 292 | 3.29 | 70 | |
| Theme | 731 | 2.86 | 70 | |
| Graphics | 183 | 4.11 | 71 | |
| Humor | 1 | |||
| Mood | 58 | 4.08 | 70 |
I was unable to find the exit two time in a row. I supposed it's on the bottom right side of the maze but I was walking near the wall and never found it. Apart of this, the mood is great, nice music. Maybe a life/energy bar would be nice to know when we are running out of it.
Hey @benjamin, thank you for playing! Actually, if you move your mouse up, you can check the moon and how much time you have :) Maybe you can give it another try to check it out? Also, we had a bug with the exit, which we corrected. Let me know if you play it again, and thank you so much for playing it!
The game looks very pretty with some great art but perhaps a tad too dark, at least on my screen. I found it quite awkward getting the character through some hallways cause I couldn't tell where the character was standing exactly and you couldn't pitch the camera quite enough to get a good view. Beautiful artwork and style though.
@poffle Thank you so much for playing the game. Based on your feedback, we tried to improve the lighting and the maze limits. Thank you!
I see above you mention you are working on lighting some more - I think that will help a lot! I enjoyed the mood and the sound and the overall ambience of the game but actually navigating the maze was.. well a bit of a chore. I was leant right forward trying to see as best as I could and could frequently not tell which side of a wall I was etc. Still, a little more refinement and could be a good little maze game :)
Beautiful artwork and music :)
Hi @hs-dave, thank you for playing our game. Yes, we're working to improve the lighting, we hope to get it more noticeable where the player is. Thank you so much for your feedback :)
Thank you so much @orcdraco!
I really liked the ambience of this game. Also, the fact that you follow a light instead of an avatar is both innovative and nice.
I really like the whole look and feel of the game, its a very nice and relaxing experience. But I found it a bit awkward too play and I think fixing the lighting will help a lot.
Really beauty the environment and sound, the character is very cool
Very interesting way to implement a maze. The character looks quite mysterious, as the whole game. I really like music and art, thank you for your game!
Really nice art, audio and mood - the nicest I've seen of all the ld39 games I've played so far :)
On the flipside, the gameplay itself seems a simple, and artificially difficult / fiddly, simply because it can be hard to see where you're standing. Making this clearer by tweaking the lighting or raising the camera position could be good.
But overall, definitely cool :) Nice work.
Impressive work on the artwork. The mood is great. It could be improved but in less than 72 hours, you have done a fantastic entry. Thumbs up ++
@player2point0 @essel @geckoo1337 Thank you so much for your feedback! We'll keep trying to improve based on your comments! :)
@atridas @dino-jr @enot487 Thank you so much! I'm glad you were captivated by the ambience, we were really going for the mysterious tone :)
This was visually stunning. The music is perfect for the mood of the game. I like the difficultly in seeing I feel like it adds t the game play. I love the goofy smile he has at the end. this is really cute and I like that it plays differently than most of the other games on here.
Great job with the visuals and sounds, you created really wonderful mood. Gameplay on the other hand wasn’t really interesting. I didn’t really find any motivation for completing maze after first time. Sometimes it was also bit confusing where the character actually was. Moving camera with mouse felt bit pointless, why not just adjust camera so player can see? Maybe flesh out the story more, and give player that way more motivation to keep playing?
beautiful game, but control is little hard. Great job and cool idea! I like it!
- +++ for graphics very good art work - i like the light indication to solve the puzzle - mucis fits the game
This is astonishingly pretty - the visuals and music are lovely and give this a sort of dreamlike contemplative mood. The mechanic's novel and challenging too; it seems straightforward at first but it gets tough keeping track of where you've been and where you're trying to go. Amazing work.
Very simple, but amazing. Graphics are just awesome, with nice music, they create really nice mood. Mechanics are simple, but fun. One of the best games I've played so far!
WOW! Graphics and music of this game are amazing!
I wish there were some more game mechanics on top of mazes. The introduction and starting animation was so exciting, but solving maze after maze seems disappointing. Please don't get me wrong, I don't want to offend you, art and sound give so much potential to this game and but it stays unused
Beautiful art and great mood! The zoom in on the little guy's smile made me chuckle. The gameplay itself isn't that fun or interesting but it's more about the atmosphere I guess. Quite relaxing. Is it just one maze that loops over and over or am I crazy?
A quite interesting concept about setting atmosphere while trying to find an exit in a maze. I liked it quite much. The graphics and audio choice are really great too!
Nice art and music. I like the little twist on the maze where I only see the light coming out of the character. My only complaint is that I can't find it's relationship to theme.
Nice Graphics and The Music was also pretty nicely made
The puzzle or maze type game was pretty nicely made
Well Done!
Thank you so much @elizabeth-thomas! We were aiming for difficulty when seeing and just trying to pinpoint the light, trying not to be just a maze game. The goofy guy at the end is indeed a twist :P Thank you!
Thank you for your feedback @tuomo. The camera panning up was not to see the maze but rather to see how much time you have left by looking at the moon passing through the sun. The story wasn't the objective for us to define, we were more aiming to mythical significance and a mysterious character/actions. However we will sure think how could we add story and keep these points we wanted. Thank you so much for playing!
A really calming and chill game in the surface but stressful when getting in the end of the maze/eclipse. Awesome music/mood. Good Job. :)
Thank you so much @brolton, @sagarpatel25700, @mahalis, @theflyingkeyboard and @cursetats! :)
Don't worry @kpded! We were going more with a theme and experience with this one, so we didn't focus much on the mechanics aside from the chore one. We also did start late and had to work monday, so we didn't have much time. However maybe for a post jam version we can try to figure out more mechanics into this game, we will definitely try to think about it! Thank you so much for playing and for your feedback ;)
That was pretty unique, the scrolling effect on mouse movement was a neat little touch too. I was just about able to make my way around the maze, the arrow key widget helped a lot with that.
Thank you so much @silkworm-sweatshop! Yeah the little guy ended up being a tiny bit derpy :P Yeah we were aiming more for the mood. Yeah, it's the same, we had no time to implement more, but we'd like to. Yeah it is just one maze, I guess we didn't make that clear... Maybe we will look into. Thank you for enjoying!
I'm glad you liked it @kiirohanabi! Thank you so much for playing!
Thanks @yetman! When the eclipse ends, you cease to exist, so you're running out of power, or existance. Thank you for playing!
Thank you @sir-daniev! Yeah, one really starts to feel the pressure when the power of the eclipse is ending! Thank you for playing!
I see, I didn't notice that the moon was moving. I played it again and waited for the eclipse to finish, it was heart breaking.
Simple puzzle game, with very climatic art.
Oh glad the arrow widget was helpful @joebeard! And glad you enjoyed playing it, thank you!
Thank you @wbebowicz!
Loved the ambiance and mood, a little to be desired gameplay wise. The idea is really interesting however and I love how the character looks. I just wish you could see him in the maze rather than a light. Great work!
I love the atmosphere created by the art and the music. Well done!
@gamechoy Thank you for playing and your feedback :) We chose to focus more on mood instead of gameplay. Also the choice of having to follow a light was to make the gameplay a little bit more difficult, instead of just being traversing the maze.
@fwazle Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed ^^
That was nice. Graphics look so good. Nice job for that. And also the mood was so great. That light in the darkness of the night looked fantastic.
I suggest adding surprises for the player to experience while walking through the maze. Like adding an evil ghost to follow the player, so the player has to decide faster. Or evil trees! (It came to my mind just right now) But in total, It was great. keep working on it. :D
I finally found the exit at the third try.
I gotta say, it's really hard to maneuver through the maze, you only get a rough sense of where you are located.
That's my only real issue with the game, but it really gets frustrating over time.
The art is great, music superb and it overall has a very relaxes and nice atmosphere to it, with the gameplay sadly being not as much fun as it could have been.
again, loved the music
I'm glad you enjoyed @pnghasemi :D Thank you for playing, and also for your suggestions, we will try and think how we could add some "surprises" to the maze that would fit the mood ;)
Thanks @tjakka5, we focused more on the ambience and mood, leaving the game to be a pure maze. The rough sense of location is to turn that gameplay a little bit more hard, as being a simple maze, just traveersing it without a challenge would be too easy. Thank you for your feedback and playing it.
Wonderful atmosphere, and a unique spin on a maze game. The difficulty in seeing my exact location, whilst frustrating at times, did add to the challenge. Nice little compact experience. Music was perfect, too.
Really beautiful artwork and visual design but I must say I don't really get it, the game is, in essence, a maze but you have to solve it slowly.
The angle change with the mouse was really cool but you didn't really use it for anything other than seeing the end of the maze, you may as well have just had the higest angle for the gameplay. I wish you'd used it for something! Like have a section in front of the maze and one in the back so you actually have a reason to switch back and forth, it could also allow you to vary up the gameplay at certain points!
I don't really know what the true power I was supposed to find is, all I found was the exit and I didn't really want to slowly go through another maze again to find out.
This game has a load of great points, decent polish and an interesting mechanic, amazing artwork, atmospheric music but it's kind of ruined by this lack of focus on some things. Like you can't really focus on all that atmosphere cause your focus is immediately on the slow maze that you've already solved but need to finish still, and you never use that mechanic and you don't get any kind of ending other than a smile. Just a bit of thought into some key details could do your game wonders, looking forward to the next one!
Very beautiful game. Music and artstyle set a nice atmosphere. The objective could have been made a bit clearer. I was quite confused to just start at the beginning again when I finished the level. Well done.
Amazing game ! The concept is really original, and very well executed. It's really enjoyable to cross the mazes, and the art style and music are nice.
Good job !
Poetry and melancholy for this beautiful game. It's just a maze, but what a maze! I like the idea of not seeing directly the character, guessing its position with the light it's emitting. A minus? Yep, a little one : lose and win are almost the same, I was a little decept not having more… Don't know, maybe longest animation, something like "I've found myself a new way to live my death", something like that. ;) Anyway, beautiful art, peacy music, simple gameplay : good job!
nice experience, loving the art and mood style you took. it all comes together nicely to set the ambience, well done!
Thank you so much @pickens-inc! I'm glad you enjoyed the atmosphere and the challenge in pinpointing your location :) Thank you for playing!
Thank you for your feedback @mickeyg. Yeah the game was made as a mood experience with not a real focus on gameplay other than being a puzzle. However, you are wrong about the mouse angle change. It wasn't supposed to help you see the maze better. You didn't notice, but the moon walks in front of the sun. Slowly (matching the time we set for the level), but it does. When the moon exits the sun, the character loses its power and ceases to exist. So that is the real reason to switch back and forth, and it is really used for something gameplay related (as in checking how much time do you have left).
Thank you so much for playing :)
Thank you @mr-madcat! Yeah, we wanted to make the credits in the end to make a little bit clear that the game ended, but we didn't have time, we had to work monday so we just finished the game on sunday and didn't get to change it. Thank you for playing!
I'm glad you enjoyed it @meta-link, thank you for playing!
Thank you so much @lereveur, I'm really glad you enjoyed it :) Yeah lose and win are definitely too much alike, we're not great animators and for the time we had we weren't able to expand and work on that. But it's definitely something we should change and we will try to improve it. Thank you for your suggestion ^^ And once again, thank you so much for playing!
Thank you @oboshape, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
It's got some issues with visuals bing unclear but it's got a great mood!
First of all this is gorgeous game, so really good job on the graphics and even the sounds are perfect to set a right mood. I agree with other feedbacks you received, loosing and winning... not much of a diffence to see but on a jam i'm not gonna be hard on you I'm gonna play it again, just for pleasure, here take 5stars
Visuals are stunning. Congrats! Very relaxing maze with a nice poetry touch. Really good job! :)
I felt quite immersed, even though it's basically just a maze :smile:
Occasionally I would seemingly get stuck in a place, but the arrow-system in the interface sort-of made up for that. I'm not sure how you'd be able to fix that without taking away from the experience.
I'm left pondering the meaning, especially since the 'maze' is very simple in the daylight cut-scene, but transforms into a more complex shape by moonlight. I don't really need an explanation, I just like pondering :slight_smile:
I'm very bad at remembering stuff like this, I keep going in circles, but I liked it anyway. Great sfx, good art, nice mood. Great Job!
Nice game.. great graphics, music and mood. I did have some difficulty with the controls and understanding exactly where I was in the maze though, so I could not complete it.
I really enjoyed this game. Not much to say in addition to the other comments.
Thank you @valphera! Yeah, definitely something that needs to be changed. Thank you so much for having played and enjoyed it!
@hav24 Thank you so much, I'm really glad you enjoyed it and liked the mood!
@remco Due to the player being just a light, sometimes it is colliding with the walls already and one doesn't notice... That's the reason for the arrow system.
About meanings, I'm really glad it got you pondering, it definitely was one of our goals, make it about reflecting, feelings and mood, and maybe even about relating the little guy with the person who plays. Darkness gives and takes, maybe that's something I can say without taking you the experience of pondering :D
Thank you so much for playing, and I'm glad you enjoyed :)
Thank you @m-dam, but the visuals being unclear on the maze is part of trying to make it challenging, for being just a maze :P Thank you for playing!
Thank you so much @abductedplatypus!
Thank you @schizoid2k, the lighting really is tricky and something we are trying to think on how to improve to make the location a little bit more noticeable. Thank you so much for playing :)
These graphics are incredibly beautiful. Great job.
I'm glad you enjoyed @david-greene! Thank you for playing :)
Thank you so much @azziliz ;)
Very nice game ! The perspective really makes the maze interesting to solve. Good job with the light, the atmosphere is great !
Great job! The mood, the music are beautiful! The character is cute! Maybe you could make the light get little as the time passes(for the theme, it's just a suggestion). Again great job!
EDIT: Now I saw the moon! My bad. Mistakes were made lessons were learned.
Very nice game! The graphics look amazing! There isn't any story though, and I don't see a lot of variation between the levels.
I don't see the power mechanic within this game, but my game doesn't include that either so I can't criticize that a lot.
The music was nice and fitting!
Overall, I enjoyed it, but I can't say that it is complete. Changing some of the levels more would improve the game, and adding a small story behind it would make your game even better! Well done, and better luck next time! :smile:
Definitely one of the most beautiful visually games i've played so far from all the LD39 games. The camera work is nice, graphics are beautiful, lighting is well done. Music was very nice and pleasant.
Overall, well done, however here's **some things I disliked / would like to see changed.** -The game was too dark. My screen settings that I have is already several shades darker than most other peoples screens, so a dark game is several shades darker for me, where normally people can see some shapes, i can see only darkness. So that's a thing I think you should address and keep in mind, that not everyone runs on the same settings as you. So keeping game with settings (darkness / brightness) that works for jsut about everyone and not only for you will be a good practice, same applies to running game in full screen, I typically personally never run a game in full screen.
So with my screen being so dark, it was quite difficult to near impossible to see the maze and navigate through it, but I managed anyways. However, setting brightness and the full screen setting aside, this was an amazing game that was really enjoyable.
Great job on this one ! The experience and the atmospher were really nice. Liked the visuals and the simple graphics. Really amazing and enjoyable. Great entry !
Love the artistic way you've done here, very beautiful ambient and good hand-painted backgrounds. I love the music too. I like how the light is glowing in the maze but I didn't like the core mechanic itself, I was a bit frustrated while I'm moving in the maze with the only feedback of the keyboard indicators of the top-left corner. Maybe it was intended but unfortunately I didn't enjoy playing the maze, sorry.
@bellatrion Thank you so much! I'm really glad you enjoyed playing :)
@indiealchemist haha no problem, don't worry :P But the light getting weaker is a good idea, but I don't think is manageable unfortunately, people are already feeling it's too difficult with the amount/type of light right now :\
Thank you for your suggestion, and for playing!
@vkmicro Thank you so much for playing, and for your comments.
Regarding the game being too dark: we know that the lighting of the character is a bit difficult, we are trying to improve that, but the countours of the maze are noticeable. I personally have my computer screen on the lowest setting of brightness, so I do understand what you're trying to say. However if the whole maze was more lighted it would be just a simple maze to go through, no real challenge, and even more boring gameplay wise. We did try to make a compromise between that, as I use my settings on lowest, and we felt that more light would break the challenge.
About running a game in full screen, I guess it's something about taste. We also felt that running the game windowed took away the immersion of the experience. Also, when you buy a game, it is a wide spread standard (with exceptions) to start on full screen. For this experience, it felt fitting for the mood.
Thank you again :)
@jason200101 Yeah, the story was left as an interpretation, so the player could connect with the ambience, the actions and the metaphors. The power mechanic lies in the eclipse: as the time passes, the moon keeps passing in front of the sun. You only have power when the eclipse is happening, which is shown by the fact that when the eclipse ends, you lose and cease to exist.
About the story, we really meant it as an interpretation for the player, to make him feel and mauybe connect with the journey of the little guy. We do like metaphors. We are improving some animations for the winning and loosing, to tie the story, but having a backstory is not something we are planning to do.
Thank you so much for playing and for enjoying it :)
Thank you so much @belga54! Glad you liked it!
Thank you so much @franfox. Yeah, the mechanic of the light was intended, however the keyboard indicators were added as a tool for help, not to replace the light on the maze that helps you traverse it. Thank you for playing.
I enjoy a lot this kind of games. Also I love the way you have to guide yourself through the maze just by the light.
Maybe you should be more clear showing that you can see the moon passing by the sun, because I just realized it by reading the comments and the first time that I played the game I thought that you don't have time limit or that the game doesn't fit the theme of the LD, because I finished it without any inconvenient (even when I think that the game is beautiful and very well done), but then I realized that you have this natural timer and that you where running out of time.
I love the work, the art and music, really artistic and pretty game :) Good work!
@mspawa Thank you so much for playing and enjoying! Also, thanks for your suggestion, we've added a note near the controls ;)
We streamed your game with Danae plays on Twitch. :) Here's a link:
[Danae streams Ludum Dare 39: Day 3, part 1: Eclipse](https://youtu.be/LN1svjCl2z0?t=2h51m10s)
This was interesting … The art is quite lovely, but I'm not sure I would call this a game. I wish there was more experimental gameplay, not just the maze, which was more tedious than challenging.
But, nice job :)
Lovely graphics! I included it in my Ludum Dare 39 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hFP2TT_L4k