ondy1985 2020-10-04 23:15
Can't really figure out what to do after filling my oxygen tank. It seems I can't interact with anything else. Will give it another try tomorrow though, maybe I'm just tired. Anyway, the visuals and audio are awesome.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD47 → Anomaly 47
By philstrahl
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 19 | 4.18 | 34 | |
| Fun | 237 | 3.43 | 34 | |
| Innovation | 183 | 3.59 | 34 | |
| Theme | 89 | 4.07 | 34 | |
| Graphics | 23 | 4.34 | 34 | |
| Audio | 8 | 4.28 | 34 | |
| Mood | 3 | 4.57 | 34 |
Can't really figure out what to do after filling my oxygen tank. It seems I can't interact with anything else. Will give it another try tomorrow though, maybe I'm just tired. Anyway, the visuals and audio are awesome.
It's a shame we can't play this on Web or Mac, it looks awesome and I want to give it a try!
I would love to see it if anyone does a stream, a playthrough or anything like that
Cool concept! Took me about 15 mins to escape and complete the game congrats.png I won't spoil the plot- I like how we have to piece together what happened and the loop system is intuitive right from the beginning.
Music is original and adds to the ambience.
Gameplay is simple but effective, controls are functional, though I did get stuck on the terrain in the dining room at one point- not a big deal though.
The art-style fits the theme well.
Well worth a playthrough!
Hope you're keeping stocked up on coffee!
Recently I played Outer Wilds a lot, so I enjoyed your entry :)
Completed it under 20 minutes, it's a good, well polished mistery game.
Two polishes I would add is to polish the colliders, and that unlocking the password should be saved between loops as well.
The first time I tried to open the door (at first it was a bit hidden, for the better or for the worse? :D), I was just after a death. For a few seconds I wondered where should I enter the password (I even wrote it down on a paper), and then I realised that maybe "getting the password" is the trigger.
Other than these issues... well, now that you have a nice framework for a bigger game, you just need a more content :D
Good job!
Great game so far but i was unable to find the answer :D will try again later as i really want to know how to escape. Reminds me to a movie "Passengers" a little bit.
As always, a perfect on theme and mood. You sir are reaaally good at telling stories. And it fits with the theme so much. I love it when a game mechanic - death in this case - fits so well in the storyline. Suddenly, death is just another story element. It reminded me of Sunless Sea on that aspect. I just wish you had more time to make the story a bit longer. I'm sure you had a ton of ideas. Great game.
@ondy1985 Thanks for being the first to give it a spin. If you haven't noticed, it's possible to go from one module to the next, just follow the scratches on the walls in the first module, maybe that helps :)
@TolMera I am sorry that I can't publish to Mac from GameMaker :/ I will put a full playthrough of the game up soon!
@Pony_Plop First up: Great username! 😆 And thank you for playing and sharing your time. I Thow long it would take you when you don't know the optimal route. Thank you for your feedback. Collisions are always a big problem for me, I think I should tweak some of the boxes a bit more. And coffee has been restocked!
@Tudvari Thank you so much for playing, Tudvari, and mentioning The Outer Wilds 😮! Thanks for the feedback, that makes total sense, that the passcode should stay the same between loops (and knowledge thereof); definitely something I'll fix in the next post-jam version. And the many typos 😅
@neowhoru Thanks for giving it a try! It makes me happy that the simple drawings evoke a sci-fi movie flair. If you struggle at certain points, please tell me where and why :)
@spacemonkey As always, thank you so much for playing! I wish I could tell you about the bigger picture of the plot but a) spoilers! an b) most parts of it I was making up as I went along, thankfully things started making sense at some point 😅 Maybe I do an expanded post-jam version with more story, intrigue, and a bit more stuff to do
@philstrahl yeah, I knew that :-) I was actually talking about filling my oxygen tank in the life support section, not from the first pressure suit. Anyway, I was able to finish it today. I just missed I could take the "domino" on the floor. Great game!
BTW I hope to see a post mortem on this!
Great game, especially the atmosphere is quite outstanding! Love the visual style and the ambient audio. The story-snippets create quite the nice mystery. The movement felt a bit awkward at times, when getting stuck at obstacles, but that's just a minor annoyance. Really enjoyed this overall!
Absolutely loved it, your best one yet in my opinion. Mood/music was great, I even had a 'jump scare' when Hedgy was revealed.. great title/end screens, and sweet art style. I only had a few times I had some squirrely controls, which could have been collider based, but no biggy; just a tiny, non-game breaking bug, that didn't take away from the overall experience and totally understandable for a game in 48 hours!
I really like the sound design and graphics of it. It sets the mood really well for the game. I also like how the player can interact with almost anything around it.
DUDE this was fantastic, loved the mood and art, the only problem I have is that it needs to be longer since I want to play more! also are there multiple endings? or is it just the shuttle escape? since I could really go for more lore and investigative gameplay
Yaaay, I managed to escape! As always, you did an extremely good job of setting a nice mood, writing a compelling narrative and creating amazing graphics!
The player's movement was a bit off though, I got stuck at some small spaces, losing precious seconds.
Another little detail that bothered me was the fact that I couldn't tell which things were interactable without getting close, making me have to touch everything that I saw. Maybe if the interactable things had some kind of highlight, like some glow, it would improve the gameplay.
Overall, a very nice entry, good job!
Very nice atmosphere you created. The hand drawn style, the music, the minimalistic color scheme - all went together beautifully to create a memorable atmosphere. The only problem I had is that it was really easy to get stuck on the elements of the environment, making for quite a clunky-feeling movement.
I wish the story was more fleshed out. It is nicely told mystery and I enjoyed putting together the bits and pieces of information. Well done! And truly amazing for 48 hours of solo work.
This is one very good designed piece of art. I mean, look at these UI, fonts and colors, you sure put a lot of effort in visual style!
I really enjoyed the atmosphere you build with graphics, music, sounds and text working in perfect synergy. And of course the only animation in the whole game is as polished as it could be. How many frames did you put in it? Looks spectacular!
I found several minor glitches such as objects drawn on wrong layers and possibility to end up stuck between a wall and a shuttle, but really, it doesn't matter. The game is brilliant! :thumbsup:
At last! In the second run, I managed to finish it. The first one was frustrating, as I missed the key. Great visuals and the music is just outstanding, as always.
The story itself is intriguing and makes you think about the background. But it could be a little bit longer, as a lot of station sections appear to be not crucial for finishing the game.
Anyway, it's a great and polished game. And I can't wait for a documentary.
Just kidding, no pressure here. I literally CAN wait.
Would love to see a WebGL version!
Loved the art style and mood! I think that could be a little longer, but maybe is for the better.
@erkberg Thank you for playing and the feedback. Yes, movement (and colliders) are still a bit problematic to me. Glad you enjoyed it! :)
@redhermit Thank you so much for playing! And it makes me very happy that you enjoyed the experience! 😊 I will try to make the controls a bit better--and the collision boxes as well-- for a post-jam version. Fun fact: The crew names are different each time you launch the game, so it's not always Hedgy ;)
@preda Thank you, Préda! I ran out of time on having more things to examine and interact with, hope you didn't notice that module D-2 is empty in that regard 😅
@simex Thanks so much, Simex! I think I will do an expanded post-jam version where there is a bit more to explore and to piece together. Makes me very happy that I the mystery aspect works! 😊
@eduardo-yukio Thank you for playing and your feedback, Eduardo! I know what you mean, i think the biggest problem is the harsh 8-direction limit on the movement and subsequent interactions with colliders that just stop you in your tracks. The idea about highlighting what's possible to interact with makes sense too!
@fabula-rasa Thanks, fabula! You're not the only one complaining about the movement (rightfully so). Alas, I ran out of time on implementing the "puzzles" so the story was kinda rushed 😅
@yngvarr Thank you so much for commenting on the visual design! All I see is problems but I guess that's how it goes with all of my games at a certain point, I only see the flaws 😅 The walkcycle is 17 frames of animation, I tried having just 8 but I wasn't happy with that. I am working on a little post-jam version that should address (hopefully) all of the issues with depth sorting of objects and maybe smoothen out movement a little.
@bereg Congratulations on finishing, bereg! I hope it wasn't too infuriating (and if it was, I would like to know precisely *when* 😅). You're right, of course, I overscoped on the station and then ran out of time to come up with and implement reasonable "puzzles" for each module. And the post mortem is in the works, I recorded 170 gigs of footage and screengrabs. But first, I gotta finish the LD46 documentary, I'm half way through the edit on that one :)
@rhoff95 Sadly I can't export one without GameMaker's HTML 5 module which costs $150 😱 But I will record and link a video of a playthrough; a cold comfort still.
@jon-nova Thank you for playing, Jon! Yeah, I ran out of time on the story. Then again I agree, I rather play a short game than one that's too drawn out for what it's worth. 😅
@philstrahl haha I totally understand. I started on GM before unity and switched over to be able to get export functionality for everything, for free (among other reasons). I would definitely recommend making the jump to a tool that will let you get your game to more people.
I forgot to add, but the Player Animation is really good! Nice job!
Love the artstyle and especially the player animation. Great atmosphere as well (no pun intended). Nice as always Phil! Will we see a post mortem of this in the future? :)
You aced the hand-drawn art, and i really liked the soundtrack. Got stuck a few times between colliders, but escaped!
Also. There are 4 crew. But i found 4 bodies + the player. Something the game's not telling me still )
I managed to escape :sunglasses:
Really well done. It's hard to believe this was all made by 1 individual. The setting, the story, the atmosphere; all top notch. You should be damn proud of your work.
Easy 5 star for an incredible compo.
Atmosphere was great, music and graphics amazing plus really polished, I did get stuck on a few colliders quite a bit which annoyed me a lot as I had to wait to die but other than that an amazing and solid entry! Also: Spoiler warning: I did domino key > data cores > key card > shuttle but it felt like there was more to the story missing, did you just not get a lot in or did I miss something? And I did get stuck for about 20 minuets on trying to find the domino keycard.
Phil, congrats for once more! What a great concept. Music was awesome, especially when the drum pattern drops, it actually makes you excited for anomaly! :D (Some collision issues though, as you already know. Got stuck in the corner of the library and had to restart.) And I love how you used hand drawn assets again! Awesome!
Fun little space adventure, was pretty moody thanks to the music, the hand drawn art style was really nice and worked a lot better than i would have expected. Some more visual clue about which items are interactable would be nice, also in a way its a shame that you have the timer because it discourages you from stopping to look at everything and see every bit of story, but on the other hand you need it for the sense of urgency soo..? I liked the take on the theme too, reminded me of many a sci-fi time anomaly plot. All felt pretty polished. GG.
I managed to escape. The only thing i wasn't sure about was the reset anonomomennely thingy. I ended up thinking it retained your progress from one loop to the next. I loved the concept, fairly innovative with the massive loop to walk around in. Worked really well together. :D
@rhoff95 I have been dabbling with Unity for quite a while now but for game jams I feel that I am the fastest with Game Maker still, but maybe I should recreate the game in Unity should I decide to keep working on it. I love how porting to platforms literally comes down to one click 😅
@jon-nova Thank you, that's 17 frames I spent too much time on :wink:
@m8rix Thank you so much! And of course, I still got the post mortem of LD46 to finish, its edit is half-way done
@enderr42 Thanks for playing and spotting that discrepancy. There might have been an unexpected visitor on the LOOP station...
@langotirel Hooray! 🙌 Thanks for playing and your kind words!
@sharks Thank you for playing and for not giving up on the key card! And sorry for the collision code that gave so many people grief. And you didn't miss anything (maybe filling your oxy-tank from the life support unit, but that's optional), it was all the story that I managed to cram in there in the last couple of hours.
@spyranteros Thanks, Spyranteros,m glad you liked it! It seems like clunky movement/colliders have become my signature somehow and I don't like that 😅 At least I tried to distract from it with presentation 😅
@automatonvx Thank you for playing and the feedback! Yeah, I had a hunch that the constant resets would become annoying but then again the timer stops when there's a dialog box open so that you're not actively discouraged from interacting with anything. The plot is a bit trope-y as it stands now, but, hey, it works! ☺
@commanderstitch Thanks for playing and congrats on the escape! I was going back and forth on what the anomaly would reset but since I wanted it to be a time loop, it felt most consistent to put everything back as it was; maybe a bit too much, as @Tudvari pointed out: It doesn't make sense that the passcode changes between loops. Once you know it, it should remain the same. 🤔
Ah, I didn't see the need to fill my oxygen tank which was why I thought there was more that I was missing.
Great atmosphere, and I love the character walk animation. Would have preferred some more directions/prompts as while I enjoy a mystery, walking around and interacting with everything multiple times to find the right thing became a bit tedious. As @automatonvx mentioned a visual cue would have been really useful - maybe when you get close as a prompt? Otherwise a solid polished entry, nice one!
Loved the music, audio, art, and title screen! The game itself was a fun mystery to explore. The text system and the interactions were very well done. I think the story felt rushed (probably had to be though given the excellent trade off was polish, sound design, atmosphere and even some survival mechanics). I wish there were even more engaging mechanics like the Oxygen levels that make you rush or give you instances of panic/challenge. The item pickups were really neat for unlocking the story elements. My favorite parts were the feeling of rushing around, racing the clock to uncover more clues. The storytelling/mood is awesome. Looped space station and rooms were very well designed. Great game! Well done!
@sharks Sounds like you had to finish in a single loop then, congrats!
@almax Thank you for playing, Almax! Ah, I see. I am working on a post-jam version where it's possible to hold down shift and have all hot-spots highlighted with a subtle glow. 2020-10-12 05_31_31-.jpg
@datadazer Thank you very much for playing and your feedback! I know what you mean. Once I had the framework working at last, there wasn't enough time for a more interesting interplay between mechanics, but I got some ideas for an "enhanced edition" 😅 I am very glad that enjoyed the rest of the game!
I got out!
Very nicely done. The art looks great, the music is exactly right, and the story works, although we never really find out what's going on (but getting out alive should be enough for anyone!)
One thing that could be better is handling of collisions. I kept getting stuck against things, and this made me think a room couldn't be explored while it could several times.
@frank-gevaerts Congratulations on seeing to the end even with the controls and colliders. Thanks for playing and the feedback, of course! Seems that this is still the biggest problem many of my GameMaker games have and it really does hurt this one.
I love the graphics and the music! Finding the right spot for the kick drum in an atmospheric song is quite difficult in my opinion, but you nailed it!
I personally feel like the timed reset mechanic works against the exploration, but I get that it fits the theme. However I like that you implemented the theme in two ways with the great level design.
The glow highlight sounds like a great idea and looks awesome! I'm looking forward to the enhanced edition. :smiley:
Wow, that was a great entry! The opening and ending screenshots were gorgeous, the art in the game was very nicely done, the music great as always... Best entry I've played yet!
Also... Is it possible to have a list of the "crewmembers" in your game? I'm curious who got in on the deathtrap. I saw Preda and I saw RedHermit found Hedgy
@hybitous Thank you for playing, glad you liked my rushed soundtrack, even! :) Thanks for your feedback regarding the time loop. Yeah, I figured it would become annoying at a given time so I decided to stop the counter when a text box pops up (at least), maybe I can come up with a way for players to manipulate the time loop duration as well.
@ladymistleaf Aw, thank you so much!! And of course, the list can be found in objects\CTRL_game\Create_0.gml in the source project. Nonetheless allow me to reproduce it here for your convenience: ``` names = ds_list_create() ds_list_add(names, "Yngvarr") ds_list_add(names, "Hedgy") ds_list_add(names, "Persson") ds_list_add(names, "DeathStorm") ds_list_add(names, "Preda") ds_list_add(names, "Cormic") ds_list_add(names, "Afholderbach") ds_list_add(names, "Desaunois" ); ds_list_add(names, "Skarzynski" ); ds_list_add(names, "York" ); ds_list_add(names, "McCaffrey" ); ds_list_add(names, "Ritter" ); ds_list_add(names, "Knight" ); ds_list_add(names, "99floors" ); ds_list_add(names, "MistLeaf" ); ds_list_add(names, "Topp" ); ds_list_add(names, "Williams" ); ds_list_add(names, "Redeky" ); ds_list_add(names, "Atwood" ); ds_list_add(names, "Cannon" ); ds_list_add(names, "Fox" ); ds_list_add(names, "TechBoxNorth" ); ds_list_add(names, "Kislitsyn" ); ds_list_add(names, "Dvorak" ); ds_list_add(names, "Robinson" ); ds_list_add(names, "Sponholz" ); ds_list_add(names, "Hysek" ); ds_list_add(names, "Demchenko" ); ds_list_add(names, "RedHermit" ); ds_list_add(names, "Holmberg" ); ds_list_add(names, "Sterling" ); ds_list_add(names, "Gevaerts" ); ds_list_add(names, "INCD021" ); ds_list_add(names, "Prophecy" ); ds_list_shuffle(names) ```
First Whuhuuu I was in the Game and then You killed me XD
But in general it was a real cool moody game. Unfortunately the colliders where a bit weird and "too edgy". But the Sound and Graphic was really awesome and the Mood kicked in directly.
Great Game and well done. Awesome Job
@deathstorm Thank you for playong despite the problematic colliders. I think the issue is made worse by the rigid 8-direction controls as well, I really should do proper collider code at least *once*! Glad that the mood worked at least. 😅
Hey Phil, awesome game! I love the hand-drawn graphics, the mood is super cool (as always) and I also dig you putted an easter egg with names of your patrons into the game :)