Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD43 → Altruist Project
By syverlauritz, poacher2k, haxton2694 and mgns
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 147 | 3.89 | 57 | |
| Fun | 420 | 3.37 | 57 | |
| Innovation | 214 | 3.58 | 57 | |
| Theme | 44 | 4.32 | 57 | |
| Graphics | 108 | 4.30 | 57 | |
| Humor | 594 | 2.69 | 44 | |
| Mood | 7 | 4.47 | 57 |
Great mood and really well put together game. Love the movie The Cube. The concept is strong and fits the theme perfectly. Sound effects can be a bit harsh a few times, but overall it sets the mood perfectly, ambient is top notch. It's a bit hard to choose a good strategy at times as the concept is random rooms that kills you but overall a very solid entry. Good luck!
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Thank you for the kind words! I'm glad you took the reference to The Cube. And grats on making it through. Reducing randomness and giving the player more creative ways of avoiding traps is definitely something we would like to push for if we were to continue working on the game.
AH! The team leader died ... Again! Hilarious game. A bit too random, perhaps?
I'm glad you appreciated the dark humour :) Personally I agree that it's a bit too random and I would love to give the player more ways of determining a safe-ish route, but @mgns now thinks it's too easy and wants to up the difficulty. There are (perhaps too subtle) hints on where the exit should be and how you can choose the safest route, and I guess he has mastered them. Thanks for the feedback!
The game was a bit laggy for me but I think it was because of my browser, not sure exactly why. I absolutely loved the theme application to this game and the overall idea. The graphics and music/mood were absolutely stunning. Really awesome game! Kudos
Thanks so much for playing! Yep, I was watching your stream and we haven't lagged that bad during any of the tests. Very valuable feedback though and something we will look into:)
Amazing game. Going through the rooms felt like it relied on a lot of luck, but that kept me on the edge of my seat as I had to choose between them! I was able to get to the exit on my third try! Great job!
The game fits perfect to the theme, has great audio and the atmosphere. The one negative thing is that it's to much try and error, so i hat do be patient. But never the less i enjoyed the game! Well done!
I like the game a lot, but it feels a bit too cryptic/subtle for a short experience.
At first I thought it was completely random, if you hadn't said on stream that glowing rooms have people in them I probably wouldn't have figured it out by myself, especially with how faint the light is. I tried to look for cues on where the exit is supposed to be but I couldn't figure it out. I think it has something to do with blood stains?
Either way, this is honestly up there so far in terms of mood and polish. Good effort!
Thank you! Really glad you enjoyed it! :) There are subtle clues that you can pick up on that might give you an edge, but it's true that it might be a bit too random at the moment.
The mood worked perfectly! I liked the style and simple approach. The randomness is definately something to work on. But well done!
Played on this stream https://www.twitch.tv/videos/344558693##
There could be a clearer cues or maybe some more strategic elements for figuring out what the safe route is. Otherwise pretty good work, I like the character portraits and the art in general. Definitely one of the moodier games I've seen so far.
Love the graphics and audio, especially the sound design of the intro. Really set a perfect mood.
I think the traps could be a little more obvious and the levels could be a little less stingy with items. Maybe the game could count how many items/people you use in the level and set some "par" to give you a reward for optimizing it.
Otherwise, it's a neat use of the theme for sure.
Here's my play: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/344727890?t=29m49s
I really enjoyed the idea. Simple and fitting so well with the them. Thank you
Amazing game! The art style and the mood are perfect! Good job!
I didn't saw the "subtle hints" you talk about, so without that it's pretty unfair giving on the randomness of the "budies" encounter and the rarity of the "abilities". For the budies problem, I think it would be logical to have a permanent ability for everyone to listen on a room if there is a respiration in it (possibly with "fake respiration" traps sometimes, but not in the first next rooms), and for the abilities rarity problem, possibly make them usables more than once - I mean : I think I could take back a stone, at least in the safe rooms (could be destroyed by any trap), and chemical candles could be used at least for two or three successive rooms (and obviously not retreivable in traps rooms) - I don't know if there is other "abilities", giving I didn't play so much (I played it on a break at work ^^). Despite that, I really liked play this game, I even will give it another try when I will back to home (because I really want to find those subtle hints). Arts and mood are very good, and I liked a lot Cube movie reference. Well done ! (and I will follow you all, because I don't want to miss your next LD's entries ^^)
Hi @lereveur and thanks for the useful feedback! To be quite honest, we simply didn't plan things well enough, ran out of time and didn't have time to incorporate all the mechanics we wanted to. Each character should have various traits that differ from items, like there might be a savant who always knows where the exit is, or someone with great intuition who can tell how many traps are in adjacent rooms (Like minesweeper). Not only would that make it more fair, giving the players more ways of avoiding traps, but would also make the choice of who to sacrifice and who to keep much more interesting. We are discussing whether we want to actually make this into a game (I think the idea has potential for a great roguelite), and if so we will definitely make it more fair :) Thanks again!
The atmosphere, music and art in this game are great, I also really like the concept. However, I think some of the gameplay is too luck based.
I liked to concept, however i was unable to get anywhere near the end goal as it just seemed to only keep going until your luck ran out. Apart from the luck factor the graphics were great and the atmosphere overall very gripping. Also, it fits the theme well, with you having to balance your equipment and people well, bringing a strategy aspect to the game. But, in one scenario i had 3 people and deliberately chose to go around a specific room because i thought it would have a trap in it, so i clicked to walk into the rooms around it and one of my group walked into the darkened room regardless and died. (Just something to possibly consider.) Overall a great concept and very fitting with the theme
It always impresses me when I see a game that practically looks like it never had to cut any corners. The art, sound, ambiance, story, and overall tone of this game is top notch. Walking into every room was always a tense experience, though I would have liked to have been able to make some more informed decisions. The rocks and flares were nice touches to test a room before you walked into it, but I almost always threw them into safe rooms, making me feel like I wasted it. :(
It's difficult not to see this game as something of a bit of random chance (unless I missed some critical strategy somewhere?). Finding a new person vs. dying in a room looks exactly the same BEFORE you choose where to go next, so I didn't really see any optimal way to find the exit, which from a player perspective can be pretty disempowering (unless that's what you were going for, in which case kudos!)
I really dig the mood of this one. I hope you guys make similar stuff in the future!
**Great idea and great execution!**
Feels really polished and well thought - although it's hard! I wasn't able to finish it, but i'll get back to it definitely!
PS. Loved ambient sounds and pixel art <3 PS2. To be honest - it doesn't look like made in 72h - if it was really creation of 4 ppl from start in 72h - CHAPEAU BAS!
I'm having difficulties loading the game in browser. Does it require a specific plugin?
@coleslaughter Thanks for the feedback! Yep, as I mentioned in a previous comment we didn't plan well enough to incorporate everything we wanted to. But hopefully we'll finish it someday!
@bartosz Thanks for the kind words!! For the graphics I was really inspired by early semi-3D games like GTA1 and 2, various PS1 games and early 3D PC-titles. The atmosphere is going for B-movie pulp. Glad you liked it:)
@mza Which browser are you currently using? We have tested it on Chrome, Firefox and Safari - Firefox being the most successful. Safari doesn't like the game at all but if you're in Safari you should get an error message.
Love your color choices! The red blood on the teal really sets an intense mood! Great use of the theme!
Boring to starting, but it grew up to me.
Incredible style and sound design, it looked and felt really good.
It felt kind of random to play though, like I was pretty much just waiting to lose. Unless, I did notice that the map was actually the same each time and not randomized, so I started to suspect that I was supposed to be memorizing the level and avoiding the traps. If that's what you were going for, that's pretty cool. It would have been nice to have a way to leave notes in rooms, and then have them viewable by the next group of sacrifices.
I thought the game looked and felt very good. I loved the death animations! Despite the frustrating random mechanics, it kept me engaged for almost 10 minutes, and I enjoyed the anticipation of how far I could go this time.
However, I could not figure out the hints for where the traps are located, so eventually gave up because I couldn't get very far through the level. Regarding the sacrifice, it felt like there was no real reason to choose one person versus another (unless I missed something). I ran out of items pretty much immediately after someone joined my party since the items were one time use (I almost always had a character in the party that didn't hold any items so I would just sacrifice them).
Anyway, I had a lot of fun, so thank you for making this!
Wow the ambience is completely crazy. I'm astonished because 1)it's very neat 2)there is a true stage setting like in cinema. In my opinion your game is very professional and you're talented.
The mood is awesome, really liked it!
Super nice pixel style, I really loved the art :)
Great atmosphere (graphics and sound), great art style and well polished! The idea is **perfect** for the theme. I would certainly play it if you would fully develop it.
In its current stage, it has the appeal of curiosity and those sadistic games (like Mutilate a Doll, for instance), but IMO it would be an amazing game (with a shot at being a hit) if it was presented more like a **puzzle**. Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes may be a good reference of puzzles with dynamic solutions. It's a design thing to be solved and asked around, but it surely can be done.
In the end, really great game. If you ever develop it further, I'll certainly keep an eye on it.
Congratulations, great entry, excellent start!
I really loved the atmosphere here and on theme. I wish there was a bit more control. On my first playthrough I walked through one door and died with no warning. Introducing the rocks helped, although it annoyed me that I could see them but not pick them up. Overall, solid game concept that could maybe use some polish.
You can watch my play through on stream at twitch.tv/cyberlightgames in the about an hour into the 3rd episode of "Dare to Play"
Very good start! I included it in my compilation video series of games from the Ludum Dare, if you’d like to take a look :) https://youtu.be/8tDu1hDasJ8
Hey punchbox2694! Thanks for submitting your game for me to play on my livestream!
If you'd like to rewatch the playthrough, you can find it here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/346059114?t=01h52m37s
Good luck on your ratings, see you next LD! :D
💜 Elysia Griffin AKA Button Feedback Lady
https://www.twitch.tv/elysiagriffin