Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD46 → Letter to Thomas
By louiejams
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 891 | 3.62 | 74 | |
| Fun | 1899 | 2.97 | 74 | |
| Innovation | 1287 | 3.25 | 73 | |
| Theme | 1815 | 3.36 | 74 | |
| Graphics | 365 | 4.23 | 75 | |
| Mood | 219 | 4.04 | 74 |
I felt kinda lost when playing. I discovered i could jump across the bridge by accident and didn't get across the bush. Pretty sad, the artwork, animation and sound are beautiful, a tutorial or any hint what to do would be helpfull.
The mood feels amazing, the story is deep and impactfull and the animations and pixel art look great! Very nice, little calm game, deffinetley a nice game to play at the end of a stressful day spent reviewing jam games.
Dang that was a super interesting game. Must have take for every to make all those scenes. I liked how the text was paced such that you could read it all while walking to the other side of the frame and then there were little obstacles you had to get over and look away from the story for a moment. The game was beautiful and I liked the story I'm glad you got to make this game and share this story with everyone. Also the sound effects were pretty good.
--- Two minor suggestion (not game related): You should update your link to be a windows build so people aren't confused. And you should make your itchio page link back here, there's an option on the edit page.
I struggled to get past the bridge :/ Really nice art though :)
very story heavy all things considered... graphics are nice. got to the bridge. pressed space and he wouldnt jump.
Thank you for the feedback guys! There is a controls on the Itch.io page, but I'll add some here. I intended the puzzles to be a trial and error but i can see how it could get frustrating, thank you for playing!
I loved the graphic details in the scenes and the story. The puzzles were hard to figure out, but not impossible. Cool game :)
Nice graphics and overall cool game. Good job!
The game looks beautiful
The audio is great
The pace is relaxing
And the story is amazing
I love it!
New_Piskel.gif
Love the pixel art! :)
Woah! Despite the limitations of the pixel art the backgrounds are beautiful, and the game manages to feel really tranquil. For what is effectively a 2D walking simulator game it's written and made pretty well! I manage to soft-lock the game when attempting to walk back over the bridge and jumping though heh, although that's not the expected course of play. I would not mind a longer version of this game, and I feel like a voice over would've been effective for this type of game had there been time.
Maybe the postman should have spent more time looking where he was going instead of reading someone's private mail and he wouldn't have gotten that broken leg that he so strongly deserves. Gorgeous pixel art, soothing atmosphere and an interesting little tale. The puzzles maybe a little overly simple but you've done really well for a solo dev doing this kind of project. Well done :)
The feel and look are great. It's got that SNES Out of this World vibe mixed with a more modern narrative game.
It's yet so simple but creative at the same time :D I love how the pacing gives the player time to appreciate the art. I really liked how the game made me want to stay alive to see what happened next and not because it told me to. It sure was kinda weird to find out about controls at the start as you can only jump when there is an obstacle nearby but I kinda liked that after I knew about it.
I seriously loved the artstyle.. simple but so beautiful. I got stuck at the river tho... couldn't jump over on the other side from the second stone xD
Nice game, awesome story
Beautiful art, and nifty story :)
The jumps are a bit disturbing and the character is quite slow but the story and the music that accompanies it form a beautiful and soothing couple.
very cool game
Damn fine job!!! this was fantastic for a solo game! Loved it
Nice game. Looks gorgeous, that's for sure. Gameplay wise, it's simple but that's not the focus.
Great job! Hope to play your game next time. Cheers!
Really beautiful pixel art, reminded me a lot of "Another World" and the likes, together with the gameplay and the fixed screens with certain places to jump and climb. Very nice! :thumbsup: Also the noises are very fitting and the story keeps it all together. Cool entry!
this is like 'the lake house' feat keanu reeves and sandra bullock in game form, very cool
I really liked this game, it's very calm and the artwork it's very good. I would suggest that the puzzles are a little more challenging, and the story it's just good!!
From the awesome pixel art to the writing, this game is really well done. I enjoyed walking and reading the letter written from one friend to another. I also liked your take on the theme, I always appreciate interpretations that are a little less obvious and maybe more metaphorical. The gameplay was simple and easy to understand, which allowed me to pay more attention to the story and environment. Nice Job!
very good game I enjoyed it keep it up and good luck!!!
love it
beatiful artstyle <333
Very deep and atmospheric game. Love it. The simple controls and gameplay mechanics emphasize the focus on the story and the atmosphere which, to me, is perfect. Loving the art and the vibes in the game. Story is really captivating. Really nice job.
I love your artstyle and the mood of your chill game. The character is perfect and I think some trees lack shade or lights. I was just frustrated by the input. Maybe a sprite pop when you need to push can be cool. Well done !
Artwork is very nice. I struggled a bit with the controls, trying to get him to jump or climb when I wanted. Thanks for the game.
Really nice entry pal. Graphics as already said are very cool and sound too. I would prefer better improve on control but guess it's what you wanted. Nevermind good job !
Big congrats to do all of this alone, I'm impressed :o Just a little thing, I found the collisions for the actions were small. But it's a very good game, one of my favorite for the moment !
@louiejams - aw I dropped by to play your game but unfortunately I don't have a Windows machine :sob:
@sndr aww damn thats a shame, If i can figure out how to upload different versions, ill let you know. What do you use?
@louiejams - I use a Mac (and of course web would also work)
Nice, simplistic pixel art. I enjoyed the narrative and the overall mood of the game.
The feel when you are too distracted with reading and this happens:
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:DDD
Great artstyle, great little story, great game overall. And great twist at the end, of course.
very good game
Very nice short story! Mood is captured very well! I wish at the end there'll be an actual e-mail so I can write a letter to Thomas and complete the postman's mission) Good luck!
nice world, nice story, was fun walking through this place. The only thing I would change is to allow the player to jump everywhere, just to make the input feel more reliable.
beautiful art, very good design! It delivered the immersive feeling it promised. Very good story too. Love it
Nice drawing style! Somehow this makes me think of Myst, which I love.
Well done!
The pixel art is absolutely amazing! A memorable submission!
I really enjoyed the narrative and overall mood of the game. It's a very good game, I really liked it.
Love the atmosphere and art on this one. :) I almost wish the more "game-y" elements were toned down a little, so I could focus more on the story and characters, but I really like what y'all have put out here!
I also respect the bold choice to save your title screen until the end, very nice touch. :ok_hand:
PS: Super appreciate the nuanced take on the theme, too! One of the more unique interpretations I've seen so far.
The landscapes set a beautiful mood for the story. I think the landscapes and the story together make this a stunning accomplishment in 72 hours. If this were a film, animation, or otherwise non-interactive media, I would have really enjoyed this.
I felt that the precise platforming worked against the delivery of the narrative. Dying would have been fine in any other platforming game, but in this one it is especially jarring because it interrupts the flow of the text appearing on the bottom of the screen. Furthermore, the fact that platforming was so precise meant that I had to focus intensely on the postman at times, which meant not reading the text. Audio delivery might have helped, but it wouldn't have solved the problem that dying interrupts the narrative flow.
I think it's interesting to think about whether player death, which is so ubiquitous in games that it's easy to take for granted, are a necessary aspect of games. In this game, the possibility of death forced me to engage with the platforming mechanics, which meant looking more closely at the details of the landscapes. That act of scrutinizing the landscapes made me feel more connected to the postman, which I think is a good thing (sidenote: why is the postman reading the mail he's delivering?). It made me feel like I was actually navigating that treacherous terrain myself. On the flip side, the unforgiving deaths took me in the opposite direction, disconnecting me from the postman. What if death wasn't possible? What if there's no fail state? I can't even imagine what that would look like, because I generally don't play narrative-focused games, but I think there are plenty of successful narrative games out there which do exactly that.
Something else that kind of bothered me was that dying at the end of the game was an unavoidable part of the intended narrative, but dying elsewhere in the game just led to a restart of that screen. The lack of consistency made me feel like the experience was somewhat arbitrary and took me out of the moment. Then again, this problem seems to have plagued adventure games since their inception... there's a narrative the designers want you to follow, and if you don't follow it, you have to restart.
@turncoda Hey there, i really appreciate you taking the time to look at my game and it's design in depth. You make some good points and have given me a few things to think about!
So i'll start with what inspired me to make this game like it is. I really admire the environments of older pixel art games, namely monkey island, runaway and the less older heart of darkness. While all these games had fantasy in them, the art is somewhat realistic and i wanted to try my hand at that.I wondered how i would be able to fit the mood of point and click games along with the precise platforming of heart of darkness.
Now in Heart of Darkness, the player can jump, all the time, but that game was also long with plenty of environment and places to mess around in. Mine had 10 planned environments and if the player did infact have the ability to jump all the time, they would skip past all the puzzles (maybe not the snake) and completely miss the text. Now maybe that's their choice, but then, I wanted it to be rated on a mood and artistic view than be rated as a short, boring platformer. Which, i believe, is what it would of turned out to be.
With the limited timescale, i had to find something that would best fit what i was trying to make. So i tried the method of "you can only jump or climb in certain places". Which not only slowed down the player to read the text but also made it somewhat a puzzle game, of stopping and thinking, so it wasnt a complete walking sim. That's where the point and click aspect comes in, you can't just proceed by jumping around the place and it's not always obvious what you need to do next. I think if i had time to make a point and click, i may of tried that instead, but i also love platforming, so i'm torn!
So with the story, at the start of the game, you are talking to the postman, who you have found stuck under some landslide near the town. The actual gameplay itself, you go back in time and is showing you how the postman ended up getting stuck there. He's not reading the mail while he's walking. The mail is being shown to tell a story on the side of why its important the postman reaches his destination. Now whether or not the postman ends up reading the mail after he gets stuck down there, I didn't decide on. but at the end, you decide that in that situation, you would take to the letter and help the postman deliver it or you wouldn't. But the question is rhetorical, because that's where the game ends.
I realise that this type of gameplay has caused other issues, while trying to fix others, such as frustration for players, and i may have to plan differently for it in future.
Again, really grateful for the input and glad you gave my little project a chance :)
Looks cool! Good job!
Beautiful retro graphics.
I didn't like the long text delays that are not skippable in the intro. Especially after encountering the bridge. After 3 times crashing the bridge, I crashed the game, and I had to restart the intro.
I usually enjoy discovering the game, but the jumping mechanic is strange, as it only works when you're exactly in the right place. I was wondering for a while how to get over it, until the game crashed and noticed there was in fact a jumping key.
Great presentation and interpretation of the theme, you show off a really unique style int his that breaks the rules of perspective and stuff in a really cool way. Great work on this wholesome entry
So cool, but my person isn't jumping..
Brilliant ending. The soundscape does its work. And the story is well written. Found the commands and the way to jump very clunky, other than that, great job!
Oh wow. What an emotional story. Really got to me. Your pixel art is fantastic, am completly astonished by the variety in backgrounds, and the smoothness of the animation. Your ambiant sound gives just the perfect amount of context. The only thing that didn't work well was the jump. You did a fabulous job, congrats.
@jmad Thanks so much for dropping by! I was hoping you would after I had played yours, I'm glad you enjoyed it! I have had many comments about the jumping, It is something I really hope to improve on, my art skills definitley trump my coding ones! :D
Great game! Was this letter addressed to me? :) I liked that minimalistic gameplay. The visuals were great, too. Some minor downsides: there might be a bit too much text for one level (I guess I play faster than I read haha), and the text should maybe not reset when dying. Overall, great creation, very emotionnal! :D
Good Job It is fun to play.
I got to the end! I think the platforming/puzzle aspects were interesting, but wasn't sure how dying to different things related to the story - though I guess the last thing didn't kill me.
I think narratively it's just a bit confusing because it's a story of a story of a story. The story of the two people in the orphanage is being told by letters delivered by the postman who he telling you the story of how he got stuck who you are now playing through, but you are not actually the character that is playing. I think it would be more direct if it was one of the people in the orphanage who got stuck (perhaps the one who received the letters), or perhaps you find this person and it's revealed you're the other person who the stuck person is looking for.
Visually the animation is good, I think if the guy had a postman hat or uniform maybe if would be more clear, but maybe it's better if it's left more ambiguous as to what is actually happening.
Anyway nice job!
First of all, the pixel art mood is amazing! And the sound environment fit it very well. The storyline is very good and we have time to enjoy reading the text while there's not a lot of things to do in the screens. I find the animation very nice, and it's pleasant to move the character, but I don't understand why you only let the possibility to make ridiculous jump at very short moment when there's a danger. In this way, I find the game artificially difficult. But anyway, this is the destiny of the character to fall down at the end ^^. In fact, it's a good narrative experience, and a very good entry.