FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD46 → to Leave

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By 5imon

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall10093.5794
Fun14333.2294
Innovation3413.7793
Theme23902.7392
Graphics5284.0996
Audio854.1894
Humor12942.7880
Mood8993.5691

Comments

fat-cat 2020-04-21 17:50

I'm stupid I can't figure out how to get water

pagetb 2020-04-21 17:51

I didn't understood what to do )

2020-04-21 17:52

Cannot figure it out :(

robopossum 2020-04-21 17:55

Maybe I'm missing something, but I couldn't figure out the mechanic. I randomly beat the first section, but it didn't help me figure anything out. But its a cute looking game that controls well.

littlemiky 2020-04-21 17:55

I'm sorry, i didn't understand too...but i like the graphic style !

lairinlair 2020-04-21 17:56

It looks good. But with my background with audio, I dont get it, haha. Will try again, some other time

brzyrt 2020-04-21 17:56

I like the music layering on top of itself. Some of the tracks don't really mix into well and are louder than others, but since I can just turn those off it doesnt really matter. good stuff!

sushiy 2020-04-21 17:58

Yeah didnt work for me either, but it was fun to play around with the music :D

slam0 2020-04-21 17:59

Didn't understand what to do so I made some cool beats by jumping from island to island. Great audio und visual.

the-blue-hatted 2020-04-21 18:00

I don't know how to get water, is there something i am missing?, is there a secret interact key that i don't know of?

solrinn 2020-04-21 18:00

I am trying to understand what to do, I'm trying harder and harder it's been now 30 minutes, I need water it seems but well there is plenty.

meowdy 2020-04-21 18:02

Some tutorial/ UI control panel would be very helpful in this game! The graphics looks pretty and I think the concept is pretty cool though!

2020-04-21 18:03

So nice idea! Music party! But logic is too hard

peter-jonsson 2020-04-21 18:04

The visuals are stunning, but I could not figure out what to do other than jump around and listen to the tones.

5imon 2020-04-21 18:05

There are 5 platforms per level that play a loop that matches. If only these 5 are playing, you get what you need...

fnkee 2020-04-21 18:07

Such a good game! At first I didn't get the objective(my own fault for not reading the description to begin with), but once I got the hang of it, it was really entertaining to try to crack each beat. [SPOILER]I even felt a little sad as the little guy left at the end u_u [/SPOILER]

Cool beats and intriguing gameplay! A one-of-a-kind concept!

aphid98 2020-04-21 18:07

Really cool concept! The Graphics were great, and the musical elements were well made.

Unfortunately, I really didn't understand how to complete each level and after a bit of messing around found out you could just play all of the sounds then turn them all off to complete it. With some proper tips and maybe a tutorial, could be a really well made game!

Good job

solrinn 2020-04-21 18:08

Ok we got this ! To find water you need to activate all the lands and the unactivate all

binaryspark 2020-04-21 18:09

Charming aesthetic, and good use of music too! And this is running on Unity 5.6? What? I couldn't figure out all the puzzles, though.

myro973 2020-04-21 18:11

Love the art style and music environment Had fun playing around for a good 20 min but couldn't figure out how to get water ..

connorh 2020-04-21 18:15

Cool concept. Figuring out the game was part of the charm in my opinion. Love the art style/music too, but stopped playing after I found the axe as I found the game got a bit repetitive. Overall an enjoyable experience.

binaryspark 2020-04-21 18:19

Okay, I played it some more, and got it figured out. Very nice beats!

mikonow 2020-04-21 18:21

This is the best game. I really like it ! I like the way we have to test and try to get how it works.

With all my team we try to figure it out, it was so cool. And after we won we streamed each other island to try to have good sounds xD

Nice job !

nathan-wiles 2020-04-21 18:23

Wow, I really loved this! I was very confused at first and almost quit, but once it finally clicked what I was supposed to be doing, I was addicted. I was disappointed when the game ended. Great music and very fun mechanic. The hopping around controls are a little weird, I would have rather been able to walk around the island, but maybe that was done as a time saving measure. Following you on itch, I'd love to see this game grow into something bigger.

fat-cat 2020-04-21 18:23

Tried it again and matched the tunes and left the island. It was really cool but yeah kinda hard to understand what you were supposed to do at first ^^' The matched tracks sounded very nice

chris-rock 2020-04-21 18:24

Like everyone else, I messed around with it for a while but couldn't figure out what to do with it. The music and visuals are really neat though. I like the fish swimming around a lot.

double-top 2020-04-21 18:29

The music and graphics are really good. I randomly got the water but couldn't get the wood; I see the character dancing and disapproving, but it doesn't help much. Great job anyway!

renanocanha 2020-04-21 18:32

I got stuck for the first... 20 minutes just clicking random stuff until it all clicked to me. The music is amazing and the graphics are really pretty!

zesix 2020-04-21 18:35

Messing with the music was fun, but I couldn't figure out what to do. Perhaps update it sometime with instructions?

abel-lefelfernandez 2020-04-21 18:43

Took a while to figure out, but finishing the game was an absolute goddamn blast! Honestly you shouldn't have included instructions :-P

mikonow 2020-04-21 18:44

Men i've just finished TWO times the game, i want to work with you guys XDD I want to see more of your works !!!

But i don't think you need to explain the game (in the description, I just notice you updated it) because i think it's a part of the magic of this game. To found out everything by yourself.

I repeat myself, GREAT JOB, i'm your fan number one

5imon 2020-04-21 18:49

Thanks so much for your positive feedback!!!

solrinn 2020-04-21 18:51

This game is freaking tooooooooo cooooooooooooool

shardykins 2020-04-21 18:56

Definitely took me a couple minutes to understand that the first stage didn't involve just the watery platforms, but once I understood what was happening I really loved it. When the right tracks combine it genuinely made me smile. Brilliant music, great concept, simple and clean execution.

blaster391 2020-04-21 19:07

Wow this is such a polished game, I love it when you first find those two beats that just come together.

The graphics are super pretty and I love the little interactions with the level (chopping down wood, swimming)

I think the "I need water" at the start throws you off as I spent a lot of time clicking the water before haha

magus77 2020-04-21 21:42

at first i didn't get it but after reading the comments i gave it a second chance! it looks soo good and the sounds are amazing. I would love to have this one in SteamVR, maybe that is possible??

taffyko 2020-04-21 22:04

very nice! love the charming voxely art you got goin on-- took me a moment but yea its satisfying once it clicks and you get somethin that sounds nice, heh

attx 2020-04-21 22:11

Graphics and different sounds were great. Cant help but to agree that it was a little confusing. I stumbled through getting water, but I couldnt figure out what was needed for the next level. It was fun to try and figure out and play with the sounds though.

duck-reaction 2020-04-22 18:40

That's definitely not easy to understand what you suppose to do but when you realize it's awesome! Music is very cool and rewarding when you solve a puzzle! But I think some help for the first puzzle would be great to really enjoy your game. Good job!

theamerican 2020-04-23 14:12

Super cool. My favorite part was how the player gets rewarded after they finish the puzzle by getting to listen to the tune while they collect resources. Audio, and graphics were so polished. The animation were amazing. I can't think of any issues besides maybe a tutorial.

Great work!

eran-haas 2020-04-24 04:39

Very cool. I love the idea of an audio based puzzle game, and I am not sure if I have ever seen something like this before. I think with a few more mechanics it could be developed into something really interesting, really lovely art style as well.

redbeard84 2020-04-24 05:06

I confess I couldn't figure out what the first cue was supposed to be telling me. I liked the visuals and audio though, but if I were to get more than one bit of music playing it just seemed to turn into noise pretty quickly.

tyler-anders 2020-04-24 05:19

Couldn't figure out what to do. Liked the sounds and atmosphere.

5imon 2020-04-24 08:40

@redbeard84 & @tyler-anders Sorry for the lack of in game guidance, in each level, you will have to find the 5 matching platforms and activate them.Then you will be able to gather what you need to get to the next day. Try to start with the 'monks voice' loop...

Could you please check it once more, I'm really curious about your opinion!

zubspace 2020-04-24 09:38

I actually did it, I think. The trick is: ignore all sounds which are weird and start searching for two samples which work well together. Go from there. About 20 minutes later I had a sail. I didn't know how to use it and pushed it into the water with the character...

Anyway: The graphics are great! And I like the small animations you built in. The final music of each level is also nice to listen to, when you finally get it. Good job!

5imon 2020-04-24 11:25

@zubspace you made my day! Thanks for playing!

thibaud-ligneul 2020-04-24 15:32

At first I was at lost, but when I figured out how to play, man what a game! Wonderful soundtrack! Really good game! Maybe add a visual tutorial at the beginning, but apart from that, you got one heck of concept !

levlaj 2020-04-25 13:10

That was a very interesting experience! Even with my musical background, it was difficult to find the matching samples, but once I found them, it was very rewarding! Especially the last song! :) I think some more cues to if the matching is going well or not would be useful, because this way it is very difficult (I actually tried to check the reaction of the little guy when activating each platform, and thought the headshake at the end means it's not good... but I'm not sure). Anyway, a very nice experience, even artistic, I would say!

thelemba 2020-04-26 10:54

interesting concept even though I don't really get it, I'm not sure If I broke the game or not it played a lot of sounds

pythooonuser 2020-04-26 10:55

I love everything about this game! Good job :) The tracks are really cool. The swimming animation is just hilarious :D And the graphics are very stylistic.

5imon 2020-04-26 15:22

@thelemba In each level, you will have to find the 5 matching platforms and activate them.Then you will be able to gather what you need to get to the next day. Could you please check it once more, I’m really curious about your opinion!

ldd 2020-04-27 12:38

No mac or web build :(

tobiasw 2020-04-27 13:25

Alright, so that was extremely interesting. Hard to sort out my feedback between excitement and confusion, haha. I *really* want to leave good feedback here, because this was both one of the most interesting and confusing experiences I had this LD, and I hope it helps your next LD game to be equally interesting while being a bit less confusing!

Okay, so lets start with some questions.

Does needing water have *anything* to do with the platforms we have to activate? Initially I activated all water platforms, but that didn't do much. I then proceeded to try other things, like "all the cactus platforms" because they contain water, with similarly unfruitful results. To be honest, I would've given up if I hadn't read the comments and found "Try to start with the ‘monks voice’ loop". (Maybe the 'monks voice' should played at the beginning, or you shouldn't even be able to stop it?)

And following, are there any hints on the platforms for the following days? I assumed e.g. the "wood" would use all the platforms with trees. I was wrong, but it took a bit for my non-existing musical sense to figure that out.

It seems like the monks voice was needed in every song. Was there a hint for that? Is it because it's our "base" platform? Initially I didn't even try it again because I assumed every song uses completely unique samples.

I am really curious in general about how you thought the player would figure things out. I'm not sure if posting it here would be best (to avoid heavy spoilers for casual readers), but maybe you could say a few words about it off-site and link to it or something? (E.g. pastebin.com)

Having another sentence after "You need water...", like "Right click on a platform to start" would've been really nice, btw. And maybe "Try right clicking again on this platform and see what happens." Or something similar. We were told that we can interact with things in the beginning, but interacting with *platforms* is not what I thought of.

I think it would've also been nice if the game somehow makes clear that you need 5 platforms. Maybe it shouldn't even allow to have more than 5. Maybe there should be UI that says something like "3/5 platforms activated".

Maybe there should be ongoing hints if things go together. But I can see how that could change the game for the worse and push it away from its core concept of "finding what music loops go well together by listening". To be honest, I have no idea what hints would work well here, so I can hardly blame you for not figuring that out.

But still, despite all those complaints and through my missing musical sensibilities, I persevered. Because it was interesting, novel and very, very curious. The music is fantastic. The art is cool.

And I really like how you combined everything. This could just be a set of buttons - there was no *need* for a person on an island. And after combining you could've just said "well done, you got the water/wood/food". You didn't have to let the player actually collect stuff, or play a nice swimming sequence. You *did* put in all that extra work though, and the game is all the better for it.

I wish this was a bit more accessible so it could reach more players. Because it should be played. It's one of my favourites so far, problems and all. I'm following you now, and I hope I'll see lots of other cool games in future LDs from you!

PS: If possible, move away from the low Unity version that I saw mentioned elsewhere, and make web builds too! accessibility and all!

tobiasw 2020-04-27 13:26

edit: Sorry for the double post! LD is not working very well in my favourite browser Firefox, so sometimes I submit multiples times and can't delete them anymore. Finally figured out that it works well in Chrome though. (https://twitter.com/tolicious/status/1254764235155857411)

5imon 2020-04-27 14:17

@tobiasw thank you for your very detailed review - you really hit the mark with your thoughts. Developing this game, I was perpetually torn between the audio and ressources theme that I tried to combine, repeatedly giving up on one of them. When it then came to the message implementation, my objectivity was gone - I guess I would have needed your feedback at that moment :D Again, thanks a lot for diving in!

2020-04-27 22:15

Edit:

after seeing your game spammed for 3 days in a row I changed my votes, obviously you don't get the sense of a ludum dare.

nolanfa 2020-04-28 10:58

The game was kind of unclear as to what you should do (I did one playthrough just clicking on every platform twice, and I spent a lot of time trying to harvest berries and fish before getting the spear), but once I got it I really enjoyed it.

It's rare to get a game focused on sound, so points for originality. I liked the sofly square aesthetic (especially on the trees, and the fish are pretty), and the animations added a depth it wouldn't have had otherwise (like sound does in graphics-focused games). Also I liked how you made both berries and fish available as food. Plus it's fun to play. Which is the most important.

I'd be interested in the mechanics of making it: did you make a music tune with five tracks, assign them each to an island, and then add random ones to the rest? Or is some part of it procedural?

5imon 2020-04-28 11:56

@nolanfa thank you for playing and your comments - your assumption is right, the 5 tracks are assigned to a specific island. The initial idea was to have a specific pitch for each island, allowing the same loops for all days (that's why the pitch for the appearing messages always goes with the pitch of the 5 loops) but I finally went for different tunes for each day to have more diversity in audio.

vernalbehemoth 2020-04-28 12:24

Absolutely awesome! Did not expect that! :D I love it please make this an app you can play! I guess most people struggle with the musical side to it. Maybe there could be an easy mode that allows you to see which part of the music is currently missing from the track then that would imply that you should click around a bit and find some more parts that fit with the track (also it could show if you have are playing a part that doesnt fit).

Best game I have played in this Jam so far and stars to match ;)

shubart 2020-04-28 12:53

Sorry i could'nt figure out how to play. Nevertheless, i really enjoyed the design of your game. Nice graphisms, cool music. Under which engine did you make your game ?

monblu 2020-04-28 13:00

Lovely graphics! The music seemed to be part of the gameplay but i didn't understood how the play exactly... Maybe a tutorial could be great!

hcursino 2020-04-28 14:37

At first I hated it, started clicking everywhere and the beats just got on top of each other all I could thing about was (What the hell is this guy trying to do?) Then I came back ready to be angry at you, read the instructions on how to play, gave it a second chance and it just blew my mind! It was so fun to figure out those beat and how they go together. Amazing entry! I got stuck at the part I am supposed to have dinner, clicked everywhere but little guy doesn't wanna it, he just want to dance.

microchasm 2020-04-29 04:56

This is exceptional. I love the idea, the graphics, and the audio. But, like many other reviewers, I found it to be very difficult to understand what I was supposed to actually do. This has potential as an actual game.

5imon 2020-04-29 06:09

@shubart @monblu in each level, you will have to find the 5 matching platforms and activate them.Then you will be able to gather what you need to get to the next day. Could you please check it once more, I’m really curious about your opinion!

blue-pin-studio 2020-04-29 06:32

Had no idea what to do until after i rated the game and scrolled down to the bottom of the comments where the dev explained it. :( Perhaps adding a tutorial in game, even a text box with the rules would've been really useful. I love the sound and the art tho! thats very well done

magnanix 2020-04-29 10:17

After reading through comments to figure out the goal of the game (kept clicking on the submerged blocks expecting to "get water" lol), I enjoyed it.

I loved the art style, and the music sounded great (when it wasn't overlapping like crazy).

Just probably needed a small tutorial section @ the start, to assist the player in what they needed to do to progress the game, or possibly some visualization help too - maybe the song clips could have changed the water (waves/rippled), so you could see when things were in harmony, and when things were discordant :).

Nice work!

anaferus 2020-04-29 10:38

I found water. At first, I did not understand that you could step on other blocks. Cool. Good puzzle!

notan-lemon 2020-04-29 14:08

This is fun! It was hard to find out how to play this at first, but once I got the hang of it, it was really fun to find the matching tunes. Also the music is so cool. I love this game.

trexxak 2020-04-29 18:32

After understanding what to do this is so much fun. Made it through and left the island, eventhough I'd really loved to stay a while longer <3

Clicking the trees, while making the map interactive and bringing more depth to the table, felt kind of unintuitive, but other than that I really can't stress enough how much I loved playing this gem. Thank you for bringing this great game!

huitre 2020-04-30 01:14

Really fun overall! Like everyone I had trouble in the beginning, but once I understood it was all good! You should put some screenshots in your page, to make it more attractive too, the game is really cute!

5imon 2020-05-02 08:12

@trexxak thank you for playing, glad you enjoyed it!!! Hope it will appear in your 'titles you should play' series, these are really good choices...

zenris 2020-05-02 09:11

At first I did not understand anything, it just sounded like random sounds, mainly since I randomly clicked all the platforms. After a few minutes I started to try and match up the beat of each music piece, I manged to get the axe, before I ended.

I really like the concept, but I am not very musical so found the game very hard. It might be a good idea to have your character indicate when you are on the right path, example having him start dancing or cover his ears if you got most right or wrong.

The art style is simple, but looks very nice and consistent, agree that your LD and itch.io page need more images to really show the game off.

lazzydev72 2020-05-02 09:11

Something New. I like it.

fatpenguin 2020-05-02 13:50

What a sweet game with a nice and fantastic idea. The more it makes me mad that you offer no guidance :( Pal, you need to realize us people are lazy pieces of shit. If something doesn't work the second time (and they've not already invested hours of gameplay) they're likely to drop it. "Life's too short" and everything (which doesn't mean these said lazy pieces of shit are gonna then spend it meaningfully, most likely will waste it on Instagram, but you get the point, right?) Yet you didn't even add the instructions in your post, you made others have to SEARCH for them in the comments, grrrr. this makes me angry on your behalf, because I really like your game, artstyle and feel like you've put a lot of work into this! And you did it all alone.. whaaaaat? :O Amazeballs!

Nowadays, there are too many games on the market. Making games has also become about selling yourself, and that continues after the player bought the game with the tutorial! I know, I know, gamejams and all, ain't nobody got time for that, BUT your game looks soo polished and nice, at least add a proper description in the post OR offer a gameplay video where you show what to do! ^^ The music is nice and sweet, the colours look great (good lighting!)

So overall good job finishing this n your own! but for godzillas sake, MAKE A BETTER TUTORIAL IN YOUR POSTING <3

mineiwik 2020-05-07 19:31

Very nice graphics. Well done!

fabula-rasa 2020-05-08 18:05

This game is so not for me - I could not match any tune with any tune if my life depended on it :laughing:

I think you have something great here. It's nothing like I ever seen before and I can see people with less of an "elephant stepped on my ear" problem really enjoying this one. Graphics is very cool and clean. Reminds me of the "Touryst".

Very nice job on the game!