The Tulpa

simon-rahnasto 2017-12-06 18:15

Hoooooolyy... What a gem I have found! This game looks amazing, I think it is the best looking Ludum Dare game that I have come across so far! I love the atmosphere, the different camera angles are super cool and I love how the player is 2d while the rest is 3d. Being able to bump into things and have them move just feels soooo good. My favorite room is the one with the clock, the ticking is so effect-full.

When I am playing this I get Amnesia vibes, it feels scary and creepy, but in a fantastic way without jump scares but rather through the ambiance.

Fantastic entry guys, you should be really proud. And for all of our sake, continue development on this, I would pay to play a full version of this game. It is just that good!

nahual 2017-12-07 22:27

Thank you, for your feedback, I'm so glad that you like the concept and say, that we should develop it further. It's very important and inspiring. I already feel the responsobility for finishing this game :blush: Good luck!

weeping-rupee 2017-12-08 00:56

This game is surreal and strange creepy and has a very original look.

Pros: - Very good choice and use of color and silhouettes - Sense of intrigue - A feeling that this is a personal piece of art-- makes me wonder what life experiences inspired it. You say lucid dreams, but actually the feeling of playing this is more like an uncanny nightmare. In lucid dreams you have control where in this I get more of a feeling of being lost.

Cons: - The starting over when I get too weak is a little frustrating-- maybe at least keep the peices of the puzzle I've solved in the same place so that I don't have to re-hunt for things? - The environmental story telling is obstructed by the dreamy motion swirl effect

I really like what you're going for, keep it up.

gamepopper 2017-12-08 13:42

This game is kind of trippy, particularly with the wave effects.

mr-madcat 2017-12-08 15:42

Really cool concept. I think it is a bit too punishing. The atmosphere is great, but it gets ruined by "oh, I have to start over again, just because I walked into the wrong room".

But I really like the visual style. Looks really awesome. Great work folks.

gruhh 2017-12-09 13:06

Aesthetics, graphics and sounds very beautiful. The gameplay is interesting, mainly by the option of a depth perspective, only the control of keyboard movement that got a bit difficult, but interesting. Congratulations.

Estética, gráficos e sons muito bonitos. A jogabilidade é interessante, principalmente pela opção de uma perspectiva de profundidade, apenas o controle de movimentação pelo teclado que ficou um pouco difícil, mas interessante. Parabéns. :flag_br:

nahual 2017-12-09 18:03

Thank you guys for your warm feedback, really appreciate it. I changed the magnitude of the swirl effect and made it less, because a lot of people complain on difficulty.

@weeping-rupee I should say that lucid dreams are not only about controlling of a plot of your dream. It's like creating your own unstable and morphing reality. And sometimes can happen.. Unexpected and uncontrolling things, for example, I was struggling during a long time with one demonic girl that was looking like Samara Morgan from the movie "Ring". I met her when I was flying around in my dream. Suddenly, I lost control and felt down. Then she appeared and started choking me. So, I woke up because of my own loud scream. Once, I woke up in my room and she was standing near my bed. She pushed me and I woke up second time (the first was a lucid dream). Next time, I had a calm lucid dream, I was walking around the place when I used to live long time ago. I lost the attention for a moment and woke up. It was ok. But I had a sleep paralysis. And some weird shit happend. In the first moment when I woke up, I noticed a huge spider (1-2 meters). He jumped on the wall and then on my closet. It was terrifying. I was lying in my bed without any move during the next half an hour and listening the wall clock (actually this is the reference to the room with a clock in the game).I checked the top of the closet and it was empty. So, this was a hallucination caused by stucking of my conciseness between two worlds simultaneously, the "real" one and the world of a dream. It was mixed. And, the sleep paralysis actually the one of the best ways to provoke a lucid dream. So... the mood of lucid dreams is gloomy. The more you practise, the more weird places you can visit. I know that I can sound.. Weird. But you can try this and check my words if you want. I know the almost 100% techniques and can share it :)

nikchernyakov 2017-12-09 20:49

Good game! It's look very nice. Visual and graphic is perfect and fascinating colors you chosed! It was very surprising for me when I died and the game was restarted.

Maybe you can add a bit more story telling by text or voice for deeper diving in your game. But the game is very nice. Well done!

nahual 2017-12-09 20:57

@nikchernyakov so you don't like this mechanic? Should I turn this off completely? Actually, I tried to fit the theme in this way :D

adroitconceptions 2017-12-09 21:04

graphics effect is interesting, but the distortion seemed to get stronger and stronger over time to the point that things just became a mess and you couldn't really figure out what you could interact with.

Couldn't figure out the point/what you were trying to do in the game.

the-triumvirate 2017-12-09 21:06

Really like the idea and the graphics, but it feels really weird that you can't walk in a diagonal. And I really missed a story as I expected one after reading the description. :cry:

nikchernyakov 2017-12-09 21:07

@nahual No, it's interesting concept, I like this :)

akusan 2017-12-09 23:17

Very interesting experience you have here. The wavy thing gets annoying though. The visual art looks amazing but I think there need to be better cues on which things you can interact with because it was annoying clicking on everything and the screen getting wavy. But this experience is one of a kind. Your Lucid dream experience on your comment above also hightens the experience of this game. Great work!

mahalis 2017-12-09 23:44

The art is really impressive and I like the idea, but I can't even get out of the first room - I see the sparkles on the thing on the floor, but nothing I do - hit E, click, hit other keys at random - makes anything happen. From the screenshots it looks like there's some really cool stuff to see, but I can't get to it. :( I've tried it on Safari on macOS, and Chrome and the EXE version on Windows... no luck at all.

nahual 2017-12-09 23:51

@mahalis, thank you for the report, I noticed this problem on another laptop with mac os and safari.. Have no clue what's going on :( Can you maybe try another browser?

hayzar 2017-12-10 09:29

This game is super moody, the graphics are really nice and the design is charming.

It has a lot of potential you should definitely finish it!

nahual 2017-12-10 16:43

@hayzar thank you ;)

naca 2017-12-10 17:52

Wow, awesome experience. Despite the fact that keyboard control is a bit clumsy, the overall atmosphere feels reaaaaally good. Especially the outstanding use of light and sound. Well done, it was a pleasure to play this.

On the other hand, it doesn't seem to fit the jam's theme in any way. It looks more like you added the swirl effect in order to adapt the game to a concept that was totally unlinked to the theme. But hey, it's not mandatory that everyone follows the theme, it's just there to help some people with "blank page syndrome". It's only that I like the "theme interpretation" part of Ludum Dare jams.

nahual 2017-12-10 18:44

@naca thank you :) Yeah you right, that thing with raising a swirl effect when you walking and doing some things was added to fit the theme. I have a role of a game designer of this game and it was my first entry, so I don't really know how to do things.. right :) But me and my friends, such as our artist and sound designer wanted to create some.. Experience that is close to watching a meditative movie. But suddenly it became scary and gloomy :D

yupasama 2017-12-10 20:29

Visually, audibly, and mood-wise the game was fantastic. Not so much game play wise unfortunately. Though I feel you could definitely do something amazing with this caliber of art + sound.

umsingelopugmanco 2017-12-10 20:46

Really nice aesthetics and atmosphere, but you could've given a little bit more visual clues for which room is which, they felt kind of bland and with the wavy graphics it became really hard to distinguish where I was (I think that may've been proposital, but that perdured for too long before I died). Also, the ending was kind of sudden. Other than that, great submission, congratulations! =)

patrick-woodcock 2017-12-10 23:42

Intriguing concept, I feel like I'd like to play more of this. I loved the wavy effect and sinister sounds.

nahual 2017-12-11 00:08

Thank you all for the feedback ;)

for-science 2017-12-11 00:39

I love the aesthetics and the atmosphere. Felt kinda Twin Peaks towards the end. The controls could use a little work though, especially if the mechanics make every step count. I was running into walls a lot, diagonal movement would be a nice addition. The swirl and the soundscape are very dreamlike and give the game a nice sense of urgency. I'm not 100% sure what I did in every room though... especially towards the end when it got harder to decipher the items due to the wobble. I guess that is fairly consistent with the dream theme though :grinning:

wetdesertrock 2017-12-11 05:04

Well done!

I think the weakest part of this game was the puzzle. It didn't feel like it had any sort of reasoning behind it. I did this and suddenly I get the item I need to progress? While you can say that is how dreams work (and they do sometimes), the player isn't actually dreaming so whatever tenuous explanation you can give them is good. Even if your explanation makes no sense, if you pretend it does then it will be better.

I think your audio was on point, the subtle knocking sounds, the slow ambiance, weird chanting sounds, all on point. I'm not sure if they achieved the feeling you were going for. Some people felt like it was closer to a horror game than a dream like game, which makes sense. All of your sound affects are dark and dramatic. Horror games frequently use the concept of isolation to make things scarier. Along those lines if you wanted something more dreamy less horror-ey then add more ambient sounds. The TV could use some noise, add some muffled talking, a slurred lullaby, maybe the clock could have an offbeat rhythm to go with its crazy antics. Any talking or TV needs to really be clear and audible (think about simulating receptive aphasia, the inability to understand speech), it should just be there to provide context and make the game less cold and isolating. Unless this is what you want, then bravo! It worked well as a creepy game!

The graphics were amazing. The avatar going more and more transparent, the wavy graphics, everything worked out to enhance the feeling that you were going for. The only complaint I have is use of cues for player interaction. In Mirrors edge the colors mean something about the routes the player can take. Glowing items is another pattern to use to guide players to the right choices. You used glowing items as well, but there were some things I couldn't interact with that were glowing white. This caused confusion and some frustration at the game because at that point you can't trust it. The things like the glowing chair could've been glowing with less intensity or maybe glow a different color (like the TV).

ekilibr 2017-12-12 20:47

My 5 stars for the Mood! This game manages to create such a deep, oppressing ambiance...! It's impressive. Add to it the effect on screen and the character inevitably fading...Well, everything on the art and sound design are awesome :)

As WetDesertRock said, some glowing items I couldn't interract with put me in some trouble, as I feel that I lost some "steps" trying to make something about them.

Anyway, really "bravo", because it's not an easy thing to set a true identity on a 72 hours game. Good job to the team!

goat-toaster-games 2017-12-14 09:55

This was so moody! I really loved the feel of it, I loved the wavy effect happening more and more. Fantastic audio. Great submission.

nahual 2017-12-15 08:59

Thank you all, for a very constructive and useful feedback! :)

djeycreations 2017-12-15 22:27

Huge job on graphic design! The gameplay and the enigm could be improved but still a good jam for you.

axoona 2017-12-24 00:07

the mood and game idea are excellent, they definitely want me to play the game until the end. But I'd appreciate some form of hints to understand what I should be doing or that what I'm doing is correct ;)