Groundhog Garden

cedric86 2020-10-06 21:05

Sadly nobody else was on the map when i was playing so i can't really judge the multiplayer aspect. Controlls are jerky and the caracter isn't rendered where it is supposed to as far as i can tell. Aside from that interessting idea. Have to come back once more players are active.

svyatozar 2020-10-07 17:43

Greetings! Thanks a lot for the review! It took me a whole day to fix the jerky movement experience in client. It now runs smooth, so please give it a second chance. Gl hf!

nocity 2020-10-07 20:13

Super interesting concept and good job implementing an actual MMORPG for Ludum Dare :eyes:

los 2020-10-08 12:55

Screenshot from 2020-10-08 14-52-43.png

Kudos to you for implementing a multiplayer game in a jam :smiley:

I was lucky to have another player with me in my run so it played wonderfully and I was able to guide him thru the first 3 levels, then we sadly parted ways on the fourth level (that map too big for my likes).

I'd loved to being able to chat or at least drop hints on the map (something like "dont go down here: dead end").

Well done!

svyatozar 2020-10-08 19:08

Greetings, Los!

Thanks a lot for testing!

That other player was me, still playtesting and fixing bugs 3 days after event. Right when you finished the game the server crashed, so I had to put that bug on my to-do list as well...

I did notice that the bigger maps get way too complicated for human brain to handle. So I came up with an idea to let the people put a mark on the floor, that will stay even when the player loops. While another player is within your field of view, you will also see his/her marks. That's one way to communicate. What do you think?

xbdoblex 2020-10-08 21:37

It is a very interesting game,hope to see more soon!:D

pee-thief 2020-10-08 21:59

I really liked seeing the other players

runtra 2020-10-08 23:22

I think the idea was interesting, with a little bit of polish and better assets it would be much better

chukwuebuka-racer 2020-10-09 01:47

Is this a multiplayer game?

frozenfire92 2020-10-09 01:51

interesting concept, impressive to have multiplayer in a game jam! The movement was very jarring and got a little hard on the eyes after a while. With some iteration this idea could be fun!

adil 2020-10-09 09:54

Well, that game looks ambitious, but it needs fixes and improvements of concept and gameplay. I believe that next time you'll do your best, idea of that game is very interesting! Good job!

svyatozar 2020-10-09 11:50

Adil: could you please be more specific about fixes and improvements? I think it's way too obvious that any gamejam entry needs fixes and improvements, especially if you're a one man team. I'm literally exhausted at this moment. You can see from my previous game entries, that each time I'm trying something new, I'm not doing same game genre over and over.

Best regards and good luck with your game!

shelvid 2020-10-09 23:05

Very fun experiment, had fun with my viewers, well done for managing a multiplayer game on LD!

backyard-dev 2020-10-10 08:48

Interesting idea and cool to have a multiplayer game in a jam but could use some polish (eg some animations).

sandpile 2020-10-10 09:26

Cool graphics. The multiplayer aspect deffinately makes this something special. Level 4 is really tough!

eldogg 2020-10-10 09:33

Love that you made an online multiplayer game. really low lag etc., when I was online there were a few other people there and that made it fun to do.

alpacalypse 2020-10-10 15:43

Really impressed to see a multiplayer game, especially with a server from scratch. Good job!

acaral 2020-10-10 16:08

Tough work to develop a multiplayer game in only three days.

It reminded me Dark souls for the community side. Sadly there were no other players. In any case a good idea, a good entry.

ale 2020-10-11 13:53

Game: Well done! Let's try a bigger map

Bigger map: Screenshot_20201011_094316.png (spawned next to portal)

This was a good submission. Multiplayer games in LD are always hard to pull off both due to the development time, and the difficulty in getting enough concurrent players. Luckily I signed on at the right time to find another player. The ghost replay thing sounds like a good idea to work around that, since you can benefit from other players' actions even if they're not online at the same time, although it'd make the game very easy if every solution was available.

I think you could go with some Among Us-style trickery here, by adding a competitive element (like a race to the end with leaderboard completion times) along with hidden hazards, like land mines that reset you. This way, even if you have multiple ghost replays available to you, you still need to decide which one to trust. Some might send you astray, while others actually try to help. You'd need to add some identity system, like letting people choose a color, or just a name that renders on top of the character. That way, players can distinguish ghosts from each other and can decide who to trust based on past decisions (however, a ghost could always decide to betray you!)

also, for the record, I didn't see any ghosts when I played. Maybe it was a glitch? Or do they get deleted from the server after a while?

svyatozar 2020-10-11 15:53

1. Yes, I wanted to make "character creation" page, but without login system it's not worth the effort. 2. They are not ghosts, they are glowing players. Once you find exit you start glowing until you find it again. Some people start calling them "divine". Lol!

zathnic 2020-10-11 20:22

Sadly I could not find any marks on the map, even though it said there was another player online. Even after I reloaded the page and started over from level 1, I still could not see any of the marks I left on my previous playthrough.

I enjoyed solving the mazes, though. I quickly figured out a way to leave markings so that the correct path ended up being highlighted even on my first walkthrough, so the second time you have to go through the levels started feeling a bit redundant after that.

I did spot another player on my final page refresh. They were just standing there, so not sure if that was actually just a leftover from my own playthrough. I did leave them a little "hi" message out of marks in case they were a real player, though :)

Edit: Just read the marks were only supposed to be visible when there's another player in range. That's okay, however I feel it would be more interesting if they stayed around for, say, 24 hours. Would add a whole new element of messing with people - once the right path has been marked, people could try to "outdo" each other with the amount of marks, one side trying to mislead the player and another trying to reemphasize the right path ;)

svyatozar 2020-10-12 10:24

Thanks a lot for playing and reviewing, @zathnic! I was afk for a while, but I saw your "HI ---" message when I came back.

doot 2020-10-12 18:53

Nice one!

Played a bit with you and PvPlayz27 when he streamed. Great job on the maze generation and the online code, they both work solidly.

The idea is very interesting, I love the collaboration it can enable. I found that mazes don't offer enough visual details to remember, so sometimes your second loop is just random wandering again.

Thanks for the game 💕

svyatozar 2020-10-12 19:08

@Doot indeed, I wanted to add more variety to map generation, but haven't had time for that left.