FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD40 → Jade

Jade

By flynn

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall9642.9726
Fun10242.6426
Innovation5283.2026
Theme10872.4526
Graphics7073.2627
Humor9112.0924
Mood973.9526

Comments

flynn 2017-12-03 17:40

Made a comment by accident and no way to delete it :\

safrmo 2017-12-05 14:56

This is really pretty! The music and super minimal aesthetic work very well - I'm a little confused about what I'm actually supposed to do, though, so it might be helpful to include instructions in the game page here. I'll check back and try again later on! [edited - missed that you included controls already, I'm just not sure about the objective]

rumpffinator 2017-12-05 15:01

I really like the mysterious vibe. I sadly couln't solve the puzzle though :(

interpol 2017-12-05 15:03

Really depressing game. I love the background sound, what's the name of the song? A quite interesting idea, like Fez or Echochrome. Clean and neat.

But atmosphere. I think with some tweaking it could be the game about the loneliness. Don't you think? Some metaphoric "mysterious place", dark and dangerous, where you are alone with the puzzles. And you have only yourself to reflect. But this place represents you head, your mind and your dreams and problems.

Huh, I got carried away a little, sorry.

shephard-joseph 2017-12-05 17:53

Hello,

I would like to start by saying that i loved the esthetique of the game , that it was a great song choice and that I really enjoyed my time with it.

The main issue I have is that it lacks enough hints to suggest what the player can interact with. The lighting up of the symbol that gives your mouse the torch (combined with nothing else happening until you do) teaches you at the start that you can interact with things that glow. you quickly realise that the blocks can turn too but nothing really suggests that you can turn the symbols that are on the wall. This unintentional bit of player miscommunication leads to an initial period of frustration which you kinda have to power through could be mitigated by using some kind of hint (like mouse color changing slightly or something).

If you improve slightly on this point this would be a really great game.

other thoughts:

. some hard lines on the edges of the cubes or the use of directional lighting could have helped to show which direction cubes are spinning while spinning on the y axis relative to your view(without it they look like they are stretching).

.an automatic float if at water surface state with a second swimming state could have made the game less frustrating at the start but admittedly could kill the mood.

.rotation time is a little slow, killing slightly the feeling of panic created by the in media res start, the time pressure of the water rising leading into the realisation of there being no way out by pausing the game and giving you time to look, think and get comfortable.

flynn 2017-12-05 19:12

@interpol the name of the song is BRIAN ENO - AN ENDING. Really appreciate your time and an interesting idea you have there! Will take it into consideration later : )

flynn 2017-12-05 19:24

@shephard-joseph Really appreciate that you took the time to write suggestions. Some of them I would never realize from a developer's perspective. Big thumbs up :thumbsup: :thumbsup: and will take those into my future games .

yancouto 2017-12-05 21:11

Any chance of a linux build?

eriklez92 2017-12-05 22:01

Very cool idea (I love Puzzle games :D) and a simple, but pretty aesthetic! But even with your hints I felt completely lost :O

2017-12-06 19:57

Pretty graphics and cool atmospheric vibe. I like dark games! Puzzle is just the right amount of hard and rewarding! Good job!

budgiem2 2017-12-07 00:10

I had a rough idea of what to do (match the symbols with the glowing symbols) but I was never sure when I got anything right. Very interesting game nonetheless!

vfabien21 2017-12-23 11:50

The atmosphere is incredibly good ! And I really loved the perspective change. However, I am not sure that moving the character does anything. Does it ?

However, I felt that very quick the game was getting too dark, and something in the control felt frustrating : I was not sure wether my key presse / clicking were not rigistered, or wheter there was no interraction at this spot (I am thinking on the the bright spot on the pillar. I have had one animation once there. But I am not sure how. Also the text is flickering when hovering over it, which looks more like a detection conflict than an actual animation...)

But, once again the atmopshere is really catchy, and will probably bring me to play again !

vfabien21 2017-12-23 11:50

The atmosphere is incredibly good ! And I really loved the perspective change. However, I am not sure that moving the character does anything. Does it ?

However, I felt that very quick the game was getting too dark, and something in the control felt frustrating : I was not sure wether my key presse / clicking were not rigistered, or wheter there was no interraction at this spot (I am thinking on the the bright spot on the pillar. I have had one animation once there. But I am not sure how. Also the text is flickering when hovering over it, which looks more like a detection conflict than an actual animation...)

But, once again the atmopshere is really catchy, and will probably bring me to play again !

(Keep voting anrd commenting other games, so we can we can see how well you make in the end ;) )

gustavo-christino 2017-12-23 13:31

I liked the art (graphic and sound). Unfortunately the problems pile up too fast. I have recalled complex challenges, but these seem to me to be more interesting to apply to later parts of the game.

lilkrit 2017-12-23 15:11

I was going to ask why you didn't allow us to rate the music because it was great, but I see it is something you used... Cool game and very ambitious for your gamejam. Thanks :D

pinneh 2017-12-23 15:12

Pretty fun, not really my style of game but the atmosphere got me to play a bit more than expected. Good job!

themonsterfromthedeep 2017-12-27 07:49

The atmosphere is really awesome, as previously mentioned.

My main gripe is that I really don't get what I'm supposed to do. And that, despite this fact, I managed to win, because the game basically told me (?) what to do with each of the symbols.

If it was more clear what influence the player actually has versus what the game simply does by nature, I think that would help.

aurel 2017-12-28 00:49

Well, I've played through it twice and won the second time, but I'm not really sure how. I have no idea what I did and if I did it correctly, but I got the ending screen. It took me a long time to understand that you're supposed to turn the screen using Q and E, as there were no instructions pointing that out.

I suppose I could've read the instructions better, but yeah. I was trying to not spoil it for myself and trying to figure out the puzzle.

shivur 2017-12-28 01:40

Good mood, but for a puzzle game of this kind you have to give the player the time to think. Now it's a weird mix between the stress of having to breath, the relaxing music, trying to click things frenetically because it doesn't turn most of the time and thinking to solve the puzzle. Don't be afraid to assume your genre. If it's a relaxing game, don't be afraid to remove the gameplay elements that makes it stressfull and slow everything down. Also the most important aspect that makes or breaks every game is controlability, a game with this mood shouldn't make players ragequit because screen don't turn when you press the button or click something that is supposed to turn.

multiplexor 2017-12-28 01:44

Cool ambience, but the gameplay is a bit confusing, not very sure on what I was supposed to do! Also, some introduction story might have been a good addition :)

Keep up the hard work :D

abcdef65g 2017-12-28 03:23

Unfortunately I wasn't able to solve the puzzle, even with your hints. The idea of a 2D game with multiple perspectives was clever, but it feels like you can only guess at some points, and the increasing darkness and time limit didn't help much.

What I enjoyed were the graphics and audio, though. They helped give the game a lonely, hopeless sort of mood that really set it apart from the rest!

bryceltaylor 2017-12-28 03:54

I think I see what's going on here. I think the real problem is a lack of tutorial. One easy puzzle that didn't rotate the screen and then introduce that mechanic on another puzzle. I just wasn't sure what I should be doing the whole time or how I had to interact with things. Also the controls felt unresponsive, so if I tried to do anything nothing would happen sometimes. Or maybe there was just a delay..? I'm not sure. Sometimes I could rotate the world and sometimes I couldn't. I'm also not sure what being able to move around achieved. Since I didn't know what I should be doing, needing to go to the surface every few seconds mostly felt like a chore.

The music and atmosphere were nice, though.

goat-toaster-games 2017-12-28 04:43

Lovely choice of song and I really liked the simplistic graphics, it really set the mood very well. I also was unable to figure out the puzzle despite the hints, however I had fun trying to figure it out! I think this has a lot of potential :smile:

talisra22 2017-12-28 15:29

I agree with the people above! Just a nice game!