FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD45 → Cradle of the void

Cradle of the void

By notime4games

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall1443.6233
Fun4192.7433
Innovation1123.7032
Theme1153.8233
Graphics733.9333
Audio323.9332
Mood84.2233

Comments

gerh667 2019-10-08 09:20

wow, rly good game-idea!

rillep 2019-10-08 09:28

Looks like it might be fun, but I have no idea what to do. I managed to figure out that i could move with the mouse. And I hit the spark thing (which scared the shit out of me). But then what?

bootak 2019-10-08 09:32

This is very atmospheric! Love it. I love how you have no idea what to do at the beginning, and you have to figure it out. Very enjoyable and fun.

notime4games 2019-10-08 10:08

@rillep Sorry you got stuck! The game became quite exploratory. When you've caught the spark of Purpose, maybe you can ignite it in some way?

rillep 2019-10-08 10:58

@notime4games Oh, now I got it! Very nice and creepy graphics and sound. The only real gameplay here was to figure out what you could do, or how to do anything. That's a very interesting idea.

maximbegunov 2019-10-08 13:02

Very atmosheric game. I enjoyed its couple levels, but could not know what to do in the level after you kill the monster with the gate, monster there just stood still and didnt react to me. There is really good mood in this game. Great job!

notime4games 2019-10-08 13:09

@maximbegunov Thank you for playing and for your kind words! Sorry, the game is very diffuse in telling you what to do next. A hint: Since the Will is put in the Bones of the body now, you might be able to control it...

tic 2019-10-08 14:25

Got to control the body but was stuck at the next door, tried to hit every keys on my keyboard but then I made the game crash.

I like the mood of this game and it fits the theme great.

odeyalko 2019-10-08 14:27

looks very good

lombax 2019-10-08 17:50

wow, realy spooky. realy nice mood that this game have. i didnt get so far, but killed two of the creatures then when i got to the 3rd i managed to lose my will/spark..... :-/

some kind of hints would be realy nice (for ludumdare atlease), if not for the hints from the comment section, i would never have gone past the 1st level. buuuut it may have been your intention that the player is going to solve the puzzle by themselves and explore. great game if that was the case :dog: .

notime4games 2019-10-08 19:44

@Lombax Thanks! Yes, it is the kind of game that wants the player to explore and figure things out by themselves without much(or any, really) hand-holding :) I hope you still enjoyed it!

jonas-michael 2019-10-11 09:13

I wish I could play the game, but in the web version I couldn't see my cursor, and as other people said they could control something with their mouse, I suspect I am unable to play this game... I liked the atmosphere and the sound from the beginning a lot though! EDIT: I figured it out. It is not even close to intuitive, but eventually I got the controls. I will leave new feedback once I explored the game EDIT Nr. 2: Yeah, this is a great moody game. The atmosphere, the sounds, the creepy graphics. I wonder if I got to the end (it said "now give me everything", then the screen turned grey). Anyways a nice puzzle game I'd like to see an extension of. SOme kind of hints at the beginning would still be nice though :D Thank you for this experience!

notime4games 2019-10-11 10:44

@jonas-michael Yes, you got to the end ;) Thanks so much for playing and for the feedback!

hajden 2019-10-11 15:20

I really liked how atmospheric this is and the overarching narrative, but the gameplay hurt my wrist, too much mouse dragging required for small strides (in the web version at least).

lamossus 2019-10-11 16:34

I really enjoyed the game's atmosphere. The sound and graphics added so much to it! The idea is also very nice but the gameplay could be improved a lot. The movement feels kinda awkward, I think having higher sensitivity would help. Giving a bit more direction to the player would be great too, I didn't notice the monster at first and just wondered somewhere in the dark for a while and after I finally noticed it I lead it to the right making it fall of the edge softlocking my game. I think this could make a really interesting game with more content and polish, are you planning on making post ld version?

selkkie 2019-10-11 17:11

Very nice atmosphere, fantastic mood and lighting. I also liked the spark mechanic conceptually. Unfortunately, I spent a lot of it being totally lost and directionless. I hope you expand on it!

notime4games 2019-10-11 20:27

@hajden Thanks! And yeah I get complains about the mouse sensitivity being too low. Should've fixed it!

@lamossus Thank you for the kind words! Hah you found that softlock, I did too but didn't have the time to fix it. I don't think I will make a post LD version. Maybe I will, but just thinking of goung through that game jam code gives me shivers. :P

@selkkie Thank you! I blame the lack of direction on the lack of playtesting and time :D

notime4games 2019-10-11 20:29

@tic Thank you! Oh I didn't know about that crash. Good catch. There is a contraption close to the door to open it.

hmaya 2019-10-11 22:56

Fantastic mood Fantastic graphics Fantastic sounds Fantastic fitting to the theme Fantastic idea no really this is just great, What a hit ! Best game of this Jam I have tested so far.

totally love the narration !

Also love dual control with mouse+keyboard, been wanting to explore things with such controls for long on platformers-ish games

Mouse sensivity was slow in my case, but I like the impetus in the movement. I see many people suggesting you add hints, but I think it would be very difficult to do without taking something out of this game. At the same time, I found myself clueless in front of this gate for a long time, but so happy I played it through :)

Guess this kinda game is not for everybody to love the same.

have I told you how great this game was ?

Cheers

someone 2019-10-11 23:00

Interesting experience. Wonderfully atmospheric. I love it. Either some collision or something to keep within the playable area would be useful. Also a fullscreen option on the html5 version would have been nice. The intro was confusing, especially due to dealing with how the html5 container interacts with the mouse. Managed to get to the end after reading some comments here though. I assume it was the end. It just stopped after the third level. I also hit that softlock guiding the first creature to the right, proceeded to get completely lost, then it crashed when I tried to see if I could reset the level by pressing R.

ogre 2019-10-12 08:18

This is cool. I think I won? My creature and I were in front of a big vase, and then the window just went grey. Was that the end and it crashed? Or was that on purpose? I don't know. I may never know. This seems like a fitting way for this game to end.

notime4games 2019-10-12 18:02

@hmaya Thank you so much for the kind words! It's very encouraging :D I agree on the hints probably not adding to the game, I tried baking some hints into the texts that are shown, seems it wasn't very successful :)

@someone Thank you! Yup you got to the end! I thought of allowing fullscreen for web but I just never got to it.

@ogre Thanks! Yes you won :)

rodrigo-robles 2019-10-26 02:38

Brilliant design. You could improve the graphics, sound and music a little bit, but I gave you the best score of the games I evaluated. Great idea, well done.

johnny-turbo 2019-10-26 06:41

Loved it. This is a perfect example of why lighting is so important for game design. Your graphics looked great as is, but the way the interacted with light really brought this world to life. Yes, I was a bit frustrated at first not knowing exactly what to do, but it made me feel very accomplished when I did figure out all the little mechanics. Also, I kinda respect the fact that there aren't any boundaries in your game and you can go on forever and get lost, something about it kinda fits the mysterious and ambiguous nature of the game (even if that wasn't you initial intention :grin: :smile: ) But great job overall, one of the most unique and memorable games I've played.

maxklimenok 2019-10-26 06:54

A good one!

Pros: - Solid concept of finding what you have to do in this game... But honestly, I have to read other comments to figure it out. - Mood and atmothphere. - Take on the theme - SFX

Cons: - Controls sensitivity

Woys to improve: - Controls scheme - give it more love. - Hints (maybe if game sees that player has no progression throught the plot for say 60 sec - give him a hint.)