dmitry-mozgin 2020-10-04 23:37
I like the graphics, but I don't understand why do you need guns if you can't destroy anything.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD47 → Looper
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 194 | 3.63 | 21 | |
| Fun | 245 | 3.42 | 21 | |
| Innovation | 463 | 2.92 | 21 | |
| Theme | 346 | 3.50 | 21 | |
| Graphics | 68 | 4.07 | 21 | |
| Humor | 1.89 | 16 | ||
| Mood | 103 | 3.69 | 20 |
I like the graphics, but I don't understand why do you need guns if you can't destroy anything.
@dmitry-mozgin you use guns to fight enemies, if you don't encounter any enemies please le me know it may be a bug. also the enemies include the blue and orange things, and the ghosty shadow things
I got shot through a wall :( Fun idea though :)
@indiedevdan it can occasionally happen if an enemy cant find a good path to you and they are on the other side of a wall, but dont worry if you die its the whole point of the game!
@play-pause-games you're right. I've just watched the video on the itch.io page and there are enemies, but I didn't encounter them at my playthrough.
@dmitry-mozgin could you send a screenshot? i want to see if i can fix it, and make sure you are not hitting continue, it will cause loading errors
@play-pause-games I redownloaded the archive, started a new game, and the enemies appeared. I should try to play once more then
@dmitry-mozgin i figured it out, pressing continue on the menu without save data breaks the game, it used to not, but i had to remove the check that stops it due to a bug, let me know how the game is after solving it!
I just played through this from beginning to end, barring freeroam, it took about an hour and a half to finish. My laptop certainly didn't make it easy, I had about 10-15 fps the entire time, haha, but the screenshots for the game were too good to resist. Regardless, here are my thoughts : It looks really good, I was surprised when the game loaded up. The models looked great as well, you must have a real talent if you modeled those yourself. It was very blurry though, although to be fair that could be due to the low framerate. When I first started the game up, I was intrigued by what was around me, I walked around although I never really could read the notes very well bar a few because of my fps. I was looking forward to a good scare. However, it quickly became boring. Combat suffers from the issue that enemies will consistently shoot you through walls once they spot you, and so combat consists of either you and the enemy taking turns shooting one another point-blank, or you shooting and killing the enemy before they notice you. The particle effect enemies are obnoxious as well, not all that fun to deal with although the fps on my part compounded that since it was hard to time the closing of doors to trap them in rooms, I think they were a little too fast, especially the orange ones.
While I liked the idea behind the loop, I think it could have been implemented in a less-clunky way. I know I'm not one to talk when it comes to clunky mechanics, but I just think that with such an explanation behind the loop, a mysterious disaster of this scale, some kind of animation or even sound, something, anything would have gone a long way compared to the pick-4-squares that pop up when you die or run out of time. Since I mentioned the "Bringing items from death" system, I think that maybe it would have been neat for there to be upgrades for this, where maybe you could start with less and slowly gain more item transfer slots. The weapon rarity system seemed tacked on, like you changed your mind or lowered the scope of your game midway through and kept it in in a vestigial manner; perhaps time could have been spent in other areas besides creating weapons.
I know the 48 hour timeframe is tough, I could write a long paragraph on my game as well on the rough around the edges. I've always liked games with these kinds of scenarios, taking care of a lab experiment/situation-gone-wrong, I think it is great fun. I think the game would have benefited from better room placement, it took me a long time to figure out where I was going, I thought the layout was very confusing, and the final chamber room could have used another entrance, perhaps one farther away but not so guarded by so many deadly enemies. I eventually just ran past those enemies and closed the reactor door behind them, and then pressed the button. I'm sure you are aware of many of these critiques yourself, and the 48 hour timeframe makes every single one excusable in my eyes. It's just good to hear honest thoughts, especially since most people don't care to take the time to express their opinion. As you will hear in the comments of every game in this jam, polish would go a long way. Overall, I enjoyed playing this, although I do think it overstayed its welcome, becoming a boring grind as I wandered through the same halls to find the reactor, which turned out to only be about 5-6 rooms from the start. Definitely one of the nicer looking games here, and I don't mean for my criticisms to make it sound like I hated it, I'm saying it solely in a neutral manner. It was a unique experience, I'm glad I played through it. Also, most importantly, congrats on finishing it!
I'm going to begin with the negatives, because when I start talking about the positives, it'll be hard to stop.
First of all, just a minor annoyance you may want to patch: the game first tried to start up SteamVR, and having to close that was a little annoying. This happens a lot with Unreal Engine 4 games, and you should be able to disable this somehow.
Second, just a few bug reports. For one, I think the sniper rifle sound effect has a second sound playing afterwards. It doesn't feel like an echo, and for a while I was under the impression that an opponent heard my shot and was returning fire. I also found that your pieces of paper are invisible when seen from behind, appearing on glass walls as a flying wall of text. I also had one enemy spawn inside a wall, which confused me as I thought for a while that I was fighting some kind of invisible enemy with a floating gun and nothing but a few particles to mark their presence. I probably should have looked closer before burning so much ammo... but what's done is done.
As just a few minor suggestions, I would have liked to use 1-8 on the keyboard to pick weapons, though thankfully scrolling the wheel wasn't too cumbersome. I also would have liked to be able to close doors, but Lab/Sec/etc. doors can't be interacted with without the card in hand-- even when already open. Closing normally-locked doors was definitely a huge minor frustration.
Okay, I need to get to what I really want to say now. I HAVE NO IDEA HOW YOU PULLED THIS OFF.
I like the core gameplay loop, and forcing me to pick between whether I want my basic Lab/Armory keycards or good weapons I've found (especially when you get to Tier 1 and 2 weapons) is an interesting dilemma. Your gunplay feels solid, and while the enemies are a little bit basic, they're perfectly capable of destroying you once you have to fight a group. Ammo is not a problem, until it is, and I can never 100% rely on a weapon type-- I'm constantly checking all my weapons to see what I can reliably use in a firefight.
The visuals are clean, and while I can't say I'm a fan of the large voxel decorations in some cases, it feels consistent. The shaders on doorways, custom gun models, it's all just... pristine. I am in awe of ALL of this. I also like the worldbuilding notes, despite the fact that I really have more important things to do than read them-- my particular highlight being a report on an unusual Shotgun overstock.
Your enemy models definitely made the most of what you had, and your particle-monsters were a particular sticking point. You did NOT mess around.
I'm just going to set the bar unfairly high for a sec, but I would have liked some stronger ambience/combat music with some good synth riffs here and there. As another user noted, an animation on death would have been nice. A sprinting mechanic might have been nice (if there was one, I had no idea), and some kind of right-click function (melee? iron sights?) could have spiced up what eventuallyboils down to shooting at targets.
I have all four keycards but have not successfully stopped the collapse yet. I cannot WAIT to play more. Seriously, congratulations. This is exceptional.
@anchorlight Thanks for taking the time to write the review! I did want to add more depth to the gunplay, like reloading and ads, and i probably could have done so easily, but I did want to focus more on atmosphere, i spent quite some time making the guns feel "weighty" as you move around. i dont know what caused an enemy to be inside a wall, i do know that the particles can clip through walls, but i have never found an enemy inside a wall. I very glad you enjoyed the loop and ammo system! i tried to make sure you never had to many bullets. i do know how to fix the steamVR issue (ill do that in a bit) and i do agree that the game could really use some combat tunes, ill take all your ideas in mind for the next build/
@squeed-fingars glad you checked it out! i do know that having a lower framerate will really ruin the game, it takes out the smoothness and atmosphere of it all, and definitely makes navigation harder. but from playtesting i can say that the levels should be fine, and the core entrance is supposed to be so deadly, its normally supposed to be a one time forced kill, that way players remember it for later. but im glad you play it all! especially through such bad framerates, ill see what i can do to improve it for others who have a similar issue
I did it, I saved the timeline!
The exploration in this game was a lot of fun. Getting all the cards and having to manage your inventory as more space was taken up added a real organic sense of increasing difficulty. I also liked the notes scattered around the Sigma Labs, those added some nice lore and context to the game. And one thing I still want to praise is that final assault on the core room with all the hard enemies, that was awesome stuff! Great job!
@captaindreamcast glad you checked it out! im glad you liked the lore too!
I really loved the graphics. The game is well balanced and the idea is cool. Lacking a bit of ambient sound IMHO, but hey, it's a game jam, there is always something missing ;)
Well done.
I really enjoyed the graphics and art in this game, it makes it stand out. Like the story pieces you can find as well scattered in the map. Multiple times I had too little ammo and just had to die because I could not find more which was a bit annoying. But gameplaywise it is a very solid entry!
I had some trouble with controls being way too sensitive but you managed to build quite a suspenseful atmosphere and the enemies felt really spooky. Well done!
Altough the bright "things" on dark rooms were a bit annoying for my eyes, I liked the gameplay and the atmosphere!
PS. I don't know why, but after spending multiple loops searching for the core card, I found the door to it opened, so I won cheating (?) I don't know xD
@island-jam-2-group-3 enemies can actually open doors! you got real lucky that run! also the core card is on a desk in kenneth's office in one of the security areas. thanks for playing!
Your game was played on my stream ( https://www.twitch.tv/ursagames/videos ) on 10/13. Thank you for sharing your game with us! You can find the timestamp of when your game was played here: https://tinyurl.com/yy4oycvv
what is the goal of this game?
where is the music?
I liked the mood and elements of story with the notes! I also liked the mechanic of having to choose what you keep when you die, but I think the time loop made the game feel too rushed. I would rather be able to take my time and only restart the loop when I die. Also, I think the combat would feel better if the enemies only took one hit to kill (or at least one headshot) but were also faster and had a longer detection range. I think this would make the combat a little more intense and reaction based, which would fit the scary mood of the game.
@eugenik the goal is to stop the collapse (find the core card and shut doen the core) i do not know why you are not hearing any music, there is some at the start of a run but it goes away when it finishes