Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD40 → The Will of the Wisps
By adsilcott, greg-lord and inkystache
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 19 | 4.23 | 113 | |
| Fun | 437 | 3.45 | 115 | |
| Innovation | 177 | 3.68 | 113 | |
| Theme | 363 | 3.68 | 116 | |
| Graphics | 10 | 4.71 | 116 | |
| Audio | 4 | 4.46 | 113 | |
| Humor | 868 | 2.24 | 87 | |
| Mood | 4 | 4.55 | 114 |
I am so glad I found this game.
What you've created here is beautiful and haunting. In five minutes you wordlessly created an entire universe in my mind. In particular, I loved walking onto the dock; Genuinely unsettling!
The art is astounding, the music is phenomenal, and the controls are just right.
Fantastically well done!
Waou ! I loved the graphics ! Too bad I can't listen to the sound/music right now, but I'll play again with it ! Good work.
Great graphics
Great graphics and effects are well executed, I had a little trouble to understand how it fit the theme but the universe you created is really great and ask questions about the story behind it. Congrats !
Definitely the best game I played here so far. The mood and music were amazing and the art was absolutely stunning!! Very well done and I don't understand how come only so few people have played so far. An amazing experience thank you so much for making this!
Pretty cool ! Great graphics, cool music. I need more ! A bit easy btw.
The illustrations in this game are fantastic! Really great atmosphere. I liked how the music would amp up as the monster got closer.
The rock that changed into a creature scared the flip out of me! Really well made and very nice music. The lightning in general and on the bushes gave a very cool effect.
Wow that was incredible and the mood was great, I actually started to get a bit uneasy, and jumped the first time a rock changed. Well done I love the interpretation
I love the atmosphere in this game, the music and design of all the art is amazing! what an hidden gem this is!
Awesome music! Great job! I think it would be good to go a bit faster
The graphics, music and atmosphere is really good. I would have liked a bit more focus on game mechanics. Overall very well done.
Great interpretation of the theme with really well put-together art and music, which seemed to really convey a consistent mood. The game had some really great moments (the first time you see the monster, walking down the dock, when the 3 sets of eyes start glowing around you). Feels like a lot of effort was put into the progression of the story. There was a fair bit of wandering around in the first half and I nearly gave up a couple times but managed to find the new area that had opened up in time. At first this was a little confusing because in my head, I had already explored and area but now suddenly a wall was gone so I had to keep reexploring areas that I had already been to. Maybe if they evolved more visually then it would be more interesting to go back and look again. Anyway, all in all super well done, congratulations!
That was so cool. The only critisism I have is that the gating felt a little clumsy compared to the amazing level of polish. I was uncertain wether the inaccessible areas in the first minute were due to a bug or intentional.
Incredibly beautiful game. Thank you for sharing it @kantora! The audio and visuals are wonderful, and the concept of the elements in the level becoming more visible as you collect the little lights is brilliant.
One thing I might change to improve this is to make it more obvious (somehow) that you can enter the blacked out areas in the future.
Great color and beautiful artwork. This game is simply beautiful! I'm so delighted I've played it. I just think the movements could be a lil faster.
Great ! :) I really like the mood and music of this game. How did you make this shadow effect ?
Cool game and great graphics. The mood of the game is awesome
Amazing art! There's not really a lot going on gameplay-wise, but that didn't really matter. Definitely the most atmospheric game I played.
The atmosphere on this game is really good, The graphics and music works very well. Great job !
beautiful art and audio. congrats!
Some of the best art and music I've seen so far. I love how creepy it got near the end!
I can only say this was amazing.
Great in graphics, audio and mood!
What a beautiful entry! Damn, the art is amazing as is the music. Great job there, guys. The environment being revealed when the lights hit it was simply awesome. I just wish for a little bit more of mechanics, but this is a great entry either way.
Beautiful game! Mood was extremely haunting, loved it!
Oh my god! This is absolutely the best game I played in this jam so far. Art and visual style are beyond stunning, music completes the atmosphere, and he theme implementation is just perfect. The way the game looks and sounds allows to really feel the engagement in the story. It may not be most challenging or replayable game, but it made my heart miss a beat when I first entered the forest, and I believe that is exactly what games should do. Thank you so much for this little masterpiece. I hope it will get all the appreciation it deserves. Please, keep up such amazing work.
Ambient is perfect. Music and graphics: A++. I will make the girl walk a little bit faster. On the other hand, shadow effect is outstanding! Good job.
I love it when games use shadows well. You hit the mark. Great job on the music too.
Beautiful game. I love how the obstacles change when shining the late over them, very nice subtle touch. Only thing I'd say gameplay wise is that there doesn't seem to be much of a ramp up in difficulty/progression, But really well done anyway.
Lovely game. Nice ambience, and as the top comment said, I made up a whole story of myself with the resources given by the game. Love the line of sight mechanic as well. It felt like it was rather easy but I liked it that way
This was one of my favorite jam games so far without a doubt. The artwork particularly towards the end was awesome. Really impressive designs in the trees and rocks when they changed.
I love how the music changes shifts when different elements are in play. Really good design. I recommend editing some of the geometry so it is harder to get stuck on.
That was a really incredible experience. I'm totally blown away! BRAVO!
I think this is one of the most memorable games I've played in a Ludum Dare ever.
I loved the artwork, especially how some of the things changed over the course of the game when you got closer to them. I kind of liked the mechanic of not being able to go into certain areas until you had enough light, but I would have preferred some way to indicate how many more Wisps you needed before you could enter a given area. Also it felt a little weird that the "monster" could walk through walls, but it moved slowly enough that it still worked.
All in all a fun experience. Nice work!
Very lovely- the graphics, the music, everything. The only problem I found was the speed- the character moved eeeextremely slow for me, nothing like the gif shows, so I expect this is a problem with my browser loading it. Still, this is an extremely lovely game, great job on this!
Woah, this game is incredible. Moody as all get out and honestly rather perfect in execution. The ominous building terror was spot on with the theme. It really did get worse the more you got... and then that ending though.
I wasn't sure if there'd be more monsters coming after you than the first green one, but I really loved how when you got certain fireflies, different things would happen! Like when the sea serpent one near the bridge popped up I was like whoah, that's so awesome! Super good atmosphere in my opinion~
Love it. Took me a while to see how it fit with the theme, but the build up was perfect. The character is really well animated and rendered. The shadow physics were done so well! Make a longer version with more game play variance in this style please :D
Truly gorgeous use of graphics and sound. The reveal mechanic for nearby objects was perfect. Would have liked something other than just darkness indicating an area I couldn't go through without more like. Felt like an unfinished element. But really that is a quibble. Excellent game.
Very pretty and nice atmosphere. I like the way that the music made it clear to me that the shadowy figure was not friendly.
This was... I am a bit lost for words with this one. It is exceptional! I was there, living it. I lost it on the deck, god scared when the trees changed their shapes. I had to play it multiple times. I showed it to people at work. I just loved this game, the music, the art, the whole design and idea. You are very talented and should be proud of what you created. Outstanding! One of the best games I found at LD40, if not the best!
You've been featured in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEapySEVwTE glad to see this game really took off! Definitely deserves at least number one in mood!
I didn't understand how the theme fit in here, but it was a really good game none the less. The atmosphere you created was amazing. nice work! :grin:
Really cool audio/visual experience! I absolutely loved how stuff lying around became menacing as you gathered more fireflies. That was awesome. And the music was superb. My only suggestion would be that it might have been nice for there to be a visual cue to let the player know an area is blocked off, or when an area is unlocked. I was confused why I couldn't go into certain dark places at first, and did quite a bit of wandering sometimes after areas were unlocked. Overall, really well done! Really glad I found this. Kudos guys!
@derek-brouwer The more fireflies you collect the more they illuminate the spooky stuff around you. Thanks!
@mikomikisomi Thank you for pointing that out! I thought people just thought she should walk faster, but it is indeed just running slow for some people in the browser.
@kantora You're the best, thanks again!!
@tad @tutaratuta @dr-binary @cyberpunks and many others, I can't thank you enough for all of the kind comments and excellent feedback! We had a great time making this game. It has really made my week reading the comments and seeing the kinds of experiences that people have had with it. If we have time we want to do a post-jam version with some tweaks to address some of the issues and expand on things we didn't have time for. Thanks again LD peeps-- this is such a great community!
Thank I really can't explain how much I loved your game! It's a pretty cool being thanked by you guys, it's my first LD and I am not used to having the developers of a game Talking back. Glad to be one of the first who played it,hope you enjoy the rest of this LD :smile:
Excellent game!! Great music and great graphics, everything fits well together. Nice work :D
P.S: Please teach me how to make beautiful art like youuu :3
Great entry, well done - the art and mood towards the end were awesome. :thumbsup:
One of the best entries, this is an art. I love dynamic music, atmosphere, story you managed to to tell without any words. Very good job.
Wonderfull : ambience, music, mood. I definitvly love it. :-D
Great entry, nice little level design. I expected more difficulties tho. Nice mood and the concept is great too.
Great graphics, really nice and sleek gameplay
Great atmosphere, mood and graphics! The animations also adds a lot to the experience. Simple and great game mechanics. Like the clever way of exposing the environment further the more fireflies you catch. The only minior minuses are that the controls seems a little off and that the rendering of the bush tiles where a little glitchy. Overall great job though!
Fantastic visuals, especially with the dynamic lighting. Your interpretation of the theme is novel, and I loved the way the darkness concealed the monsters, with your light revealing their true form.
I think the music, while orchestrated well, takes away from the mood. I think it would have been much better to hear crickets and the occasional strange monstrous sound, with only perhaps only a couple of notes suspenseful music when a monster in close.
Very beautiful, both audio and visual, and the story and concept as well! Enjoyable, but not quite my cup of tea, since it doesn't have a lot of mechanics. Seeing the wisps behind an invisible barrier was a bit frustrating.
Aesthetics are the best part of the game. Graphics are on par with Don't Starve for sure. Music is beautiful and haunting at the same time. Well done Melanie and Greg!
However the game feels sluggish and too slow. Part of the sluggishness was probably my low end laptop, which experienced lag when the monster appeared on the screen(who is gorgeous by the way!).
Picking the wisps up was not very fun and engaging experience. I finished the game just to admire the beauty of the artwork that kept changing while I advanced in the game. Ending was visually very satisfying.
Absolutely solid entry! Graphics, audio, concept are very good and polished.
Good job!
Wow, that was a lovely experience! Best game I have found in art/mood/sounds!
Congrats on this nice concept!
Great mood and you have managed to create a very short but memorable storytelling experience! I can immediately imagine the story to take off in an Alice in Wonderland kind of way. An interesting idea to make it a little more challenging could be that the "monster" could increase in speed as you collect more fireflies.
I'm astonished. This game is so visually stunning. I mean, I've already told you that in my comment back on that post about the art direction, but it wasn't until now that I caught up with the comments that I actually had an opportunity to play it :P
While the mechanics of the game are just alright (akin to a 2D walking simulator), the themes and feeling of dread and impending doom were no joke. The atmosphere of this submission is one of extreme tension, which gets even stronger as the music changes when the player approaches the enemy. It's so satisfying.
Impressive displays of art, sound and light effects really let this project shine. I feel it's important for player to catch up early on with the visual cues, since the game, which begins as a simple and friendly firefly catching collectathon, slowly but steadily degrades into a crooked forest of hysteria.
Incredible work there. [In behalf of my team](twitter.com/whalesandgames), we congratulate you on making one of the greatest quality submissions on this LD. Cheers! :whale:
Nice dark mood. The roadblocks feel a bit arbitrary, but otherwise this game is really cool. I love how everything becomes more horrible when you shine light at it.
Oh wow, your game is really good! The music, the art, the mechanic, unbelievable! Awesome game!
Omg the art on this game is so detailed! I loved the music, the raycasting and the glowing and growing light. Really good! Although I was a bit confused by some graphical glitches which made the grass change position slightly and also sometimes there was clearly a path, but I wasn't allowed to go there. Regardless this really a great game with a bit of a terrifying mood, but overall very well done! Congrats!
Whee. Not bad at all. Best entry in the mood category for me so far.
Beautiful sights and sounds, slow and edgy! So much work I hope it gets developed further.
Wow, this is beautiful. I love the art style and and the music. The atmosphere is fantastic and your slow pace really helps to build tension. I love the alternative art for the commonplace objects when you get far enough along.
I also liked the way you used the theme. It's not harder for the player but worse for the character.
Great job!
Wow, this's just gorgeous and the music is so spot on.
Two things I didn't like were the black edges that blocked the progress - these felt very artificial, not like something I couldn't go through because I couldn't see but 'because reasons' and the redraw terrain becoming various monsters is very sudden. An alpha blended fade or something of the sort might have been better.
had some minor light bugs (no pun intended) but over all it worked very well, even more than the graphics did the music set a kinda scary mood for me
I liked the update! I like that you re-tuned it so you need to shoot the little glowy things. I'm not sure if it was intentional, but when I died I started over with all of the glowing things I had when I died. I also think that some checkpoints would be nice. Once you know the pattern of where the things are, it's a little frustrating to play through the first ones again since you move so slowly. I still like that you move slowly, though.
great entry. Everything done well, but I especially loved sounds and music.
best game of the LD40, beautiful, congrats !!
Is this a game or is it visual poetry? Or the best of both worlds?
The artwork is just plain beautiful and so is the sound. Really nice how you progressed with the new version adding a new mechanic to lure the monster. Although due to the low pacing and and repeat the stage over and over gets a bit frustrating, all and all great entry
Amazing gameplay! And nice artwork.
Lovely game. The mood and the graphics are excellent!
So I was running away from my family?
https://youtu.be/RqGSQr4ubzU
Played the both post-jam and original versions. This one and Jazzy Beats (cc. @moski) are the best in JAM 'Audio' for me, like six stars. I have a video playthrough as well if you need another one -- `https://youtu.be/0MdaPAncE3o`
Don't want to duplicate all the previous commenters and mention atmosphere, raycasting, art, animation and the plot twist (or did I just... oh).
Post Jam version has a larger level layout and I think if you expand it even more -- it could be hard to navigate and remember all 'closed doors'.
I didn't get if it's dangerous to touch all the spooky things around: flyings shadows, deadly-locking rocks, trees, etc. Was trying to avoid just in case.
Great game. :ghost:
Stunningly pretty and atmospheric game. Great job for a Ludum Dare game.