The Hum

codyhansen 2020-04-21 21:58

This style of game tends to be a favourite of mine, so perhaps I'm a bit bias, but I really loved the way this game looked, sounded, and felt. You can tell a lot of thought was put in to the way the character moved at specific times (holding a lot of wood, after a trap, etc). The audio as well! A lot of focus seemed to be on creating an atmosphere for this game that really, really paid off.

Keeping a source of light active is a typical horror trope that fits this theme very well.

The game does feel repetitive after a bit as, at least from what I saw. Nothing changes as time goes on, no ramp up in sounds or any urgency when the fire gets very low or dies.

But that's only a small thing! I had a good time playing this! Plus one of the bat clips sounds like the one from the Scooby Doo intro, so bonus points.

noahro 2020-04-21 22:12

@codyhansen Yeah, our main focus was to create an atmosphere, and less on the gameplay. For the post-jam version we'll keep the keyword "urgency" in mind. Thanks for the feedback!

ava-rae 2020-04-21 23:30

I really liked the feel of this. Getting the wood to the fire feels like it's important, but it doesn't induce panic. I did manage to get trapped though. If you get enough wood, you can't jump. And if you end up in the pit on the left hand side, there's no way to get out!

In any case, looked and sounded great! Excellent job!

jacobwing 2020-04-21 23:36

The atmosphere worked well, but the platformer styling took away from it. The focus on atmosphere was nice, but the gameplay created a loop where the atmosphere and gameplay started to subtract from each other, and wasn't ideal. It was certainly an interesting concept though. On its own, though; the atmosphere is beautiful, and the art and sound is incredible. Great job on that.

loopypicklehead 2020-04-21 23:40

You did well with the atmosphere. These are great rough assets to test pallets, and with some refinement they can really make your game feel cohesive. The lighting was nice. Same goes for the audio.

I didn't sense any urgency with the game, so some kind of resistance to the objective will go a long way. As a fine art, you did well with concept!

noahro 2020-04-21 23:46

@ava-rae Yeah, we're aware that you can get stuck. We're thinking about a way to show the player to be careful where they walk, instead of preventing the possibility of soft-locking. It's supposed to be a part of the game, the player should learn from their mistakes and try again. There's no motivation to play again without a score though, so we're working on that for the post-jam version too!

Obviously this is just a straight-up soft-lock in the jam version. Sorry! Thanks for playing!

vrerabek 2020-04-21 23:51

This game gave me creeps! Seriously well done. It just fits so well together. It's very intense and I can't explain why, but the ladder-climbing fits the game so well.

yscik 2020-04-21 23:59

Great visuals and atmosphere! I feel like the platformer gameplay conflicts with that though, jumping around floating islands isn't really a great fit for the this style. Just walking around in some open area, trying to find scrap pieces of wood might work better. I like not being able to jump with a lot of wood, but couldn't find a way to drop it to be able to get back to the fire.

fedorl 2020-04-22 02:18

🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀

This looks awesome!

🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀

philliptrudeau 2020-04-22 06:19

Legitimately scary, the sound design is good, and the diegetic music was a nice touch. In terms of gameplay, I found that the character was a bit floaty, and the infinite-survival gameplay got a little stale (unless I missed an ending), but the sense of discovery and mystery were sold well. I enjoyed feeling a sense of dread as to what's encroaching in the darkness. Overall, this will make a fine addition to this trio's growing collection of Ludum Dare titles.

2020-04-22 06:46

I'm a youtuber, your game is very nice! I want to make a video with the best games of LDJam46. Something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOdTsWE7iIk . Can I find your game also on indiexpo website? The channel is linked with them.

noahro 2020-04-22 06:55

@philliptrudeau The platformer aspect of the game might have been a mistake, with the primary focus on atmosphere and all that. But well, that's what it is now :) Yeah, there's no proper ending (spoilers), it's an endless game, with the goal of feeding the bonfire with as much wood as possible. We just published a new patch (`v1.0.2`) which shows the amount of wood you fed the bonfire in the game over screen.

Thanks for the feedback!

tversteeg 2020-04-22 08:37

Another Rust game, awesome! The game runs very smooth even at fullscreen on my 4K screen.

Really dig the atmosphere and the sound design.

szieberth-adam 2020-04-22 16:01

This error prevents me to play the game:

``` [WARN][rendy_factory::factory] Slow safety checks are enabled! Disable them in production by enabling the 'no-slow-safety-checks' feature! [ERROR][gfx_backend_vulkan] Could not enumerate physical devices! Initialization of a object has failed thread 'main' panicked at 'called `Result::unwrap()` on an `Err` value: ErrorMessage { msg: "No physical devices found" }', C:\Users\runneradmin\.cargo\registry\src\github.com-1ecc6299db9ec823\amethyst_rendy-0.5.0\src\system.rs:148:52 note: run with `RUST_BACKTRACE=1` environment variable to display a backtrace ```

Win 10, Thinkpad T420 laptop.

raineii 2020-04-22 23:09

Very cool atmosphere! I liked the attention to details, like the radio playing the ghastly music, and the lighting works really well with the game. Also loved the visuals!

Something I didn't really understand is the purpose of the traps. Do they only slow you down? It was a bit frustrating to step on them, especially when I was carrying a bunch of logs and couldn't jump, but also couldn't get rid of some of them to regain my jump and avoid it.

Great work!

noahro 2020-04-23 01:45

@szieberth-adam Sadly, the game requires Vulkan API support to run. If it's worth it for you, you could try updating your graphics drivers. Which graphics card do you have?

Sorry!

noahro 2020-04-23 01:50

@raineii You have limited time, because the bonfire's flame is constantly diminishing. So the point of the beartraps is to slow you down and make it harder to get to the bonfire in time. It's intentional, that sometimes you may have to step into a beartrap, because you can't jump. The player is supposed to learn when not to take your third wood log, to avoid this.

For the post-jam version, we'll probably add the ability to drop wood logs.

Thanks for your feedback!

szieberth-adam 2020-04-23 06:13

@noahro I have the most recent drivers. It is a 2011 made laptop. Thanks for the answer.