iaandrei 2021-04-27 08:26
Pretty cool game, the design is alright although I got killed once at an elevator and kept dying there for no reason, some odd blue ball kept jumping right at me when I hopped onto the elevator.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD48 → Power Station Beta
By dock-frankenstein, Jaworz and KubikZ
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 1478 | 3.18 | 66 | |
| Fun | 1438 | 2.97 | 66 | |
| Innovation | 1115 | 3.06 | 66 | |
| Theme | 1781 | 2.64 | 66 | |
| Graphics | 1243 | 3.37 | 66 | |
| Audio | 1013 | 3.03 | 66 | |
| Mood | 1271 | 3.23 | 65 |
Pretty cool game, the design is alright although I got killed once at an elevator and kept dying there for no reason, some odd blue ball kept jumping right at me when I hopped onto the elevator.
The game gives me Portal vibes. I had the same problem as @iaandrei where I couldn't get past the elevator.
@iaandrei @unbansheee could you tell me on what level was it or at least describe how it looked like fe. level after one where you go down a platform. If it was level 4 then you probably didn't get what to do there. You had to quickly go onto the platform and activate it to dodge the fragments
I was able to complete it no problems. Kinda feels like Portal or Half Life which is very cool!
The game is really cool and i think it has a lot of potential, but i think adding adding a little explanation about the blue balls would improve the experiance. Fun nevertheless!
Used "Jam-fixed" version of the game. Managed to complete all levels (I guess). Got the "bad" ending - probably because I forgot to collect some yellow balls on earlier levels.
An interesting mechanic with moving platforms.
Definitely also got the "Portal" aesthetics vibe.
The last level exit not being an elevator cabin and you having to jump directly down the shaft was confusing and TBH I only did this out of desperation.
Strong Portal vibe, nice graphics.
That "yellow" connect-thingie feels a bit clunky and probably lacks some sort of response (maybe sound? like a humming noise?).
@t90 the laser already produces a humming noise and the triangle isn't as simple as you might think it is. There is a collider that dynamically changes it size depending on the distance between it and the player so that the activation point is accessible everywhere
really nice idea, gj!
I think this could be an interesting starting point for a more fully developed game. I got confused about what kept killing me (at first I thought I needed to pick up the blue elements) and the fall damage was pretty annoying (I got killed by jumping of the platform in the last level, it really didn't seem that high), but I do like the concept. As other have said, and what you probably were going for, it had a big Portal/Half Life vibe to it and you could make a fun puzzle game out of this if you adds more ways to interact with the environment, such as different kinds of energy/colors that you can use. Congratulations on finishing a game for LD48!
@sigill yeah, the fragments AI is on the top of the list currently, since you can easily dodge them fe. level 4. Fall damage was introduced, so that you couldn't just skip the 3rd level (the introduction one is listed as level 1) and I was surprised to see that many people didn't know what was killing them there, since I thought it would be easy to understand with the loud sound effect of approaching enemy, shine and placement of that hole where they came from. Endings also still don't work sometimes so that needs to be fixed soon
That reminds me, I must download the Portal Reloaded :) great job but the ball confused me a little
Good job making this game. I love the portal vibe it gives out!
Like portal and antichamber had a baby but it was a little premature. Still needs some work to be in a really fun state. Most of the time the blue charges just came at me with no way to defend or keep myself alive. I ended up using cheesy strats to make it through. The voice for the announcer wasn't my favorite, recording your own voice might add some character, though on a tight schedule I understand using what you did. The overall vibe seems like it was pointing to the deeper and deeper idea, but I think you could have leaned into it a bit harder. Not bad, but can't say it was my favorite.
@chrispy977 I don't think antichamber is related in any way, since we aren't bending time and space. Yeah, level 4 is one of the buggiest ones, where you can easily bait fragments to kill themselves. We are already working on an improved AI that will be harder to exploit. The announcer is just text to speech. We couldn't use our voices, because of our polish accents and the lack of microphones. If we would like to expand this game voice acting will need to be added. We don't have much contacts, nor ways of improvising. It sucks, that we wasted the final hour on git. We wanted to text, but it was too late for us.
Beautiful, though confusing game. Here are some notes I took while playing:
- Beautiful Portal graphics! - Wish I could change mouse sensitivity. - Footstep sound too loud. - Yellow ray coming from you covers half the screen. - I don't understand what the puzzle is. Sometimes I just enter a new room and all the orbs are already yellow so I don't need to do anything. - Don' understand the ending, don't know if it's possible to get up to the last elevator.
So I'm super confused because I did not get how the orbs worked. Sometimes they seemed to turn yellow when hitting a wall, sometimes they just turned yellow by themselves, idk.
Enjoyed the beginning; got stuck, has potential.
[Thank you for the submitting the game to the stream. If you want to rewatch the feedback, you can do so here.](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1008357028?t=02h56m19s)
Hey matey, thanks for submitting your game to stream! I really enjoyed it, and hope the feedback helped! Here's the vod if ya wanna rewatch;
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1009532702
I'm not quite getting the mechanics :D I have no idea when things turn yellow xD
But overall I like the idea.
I think overall the gameplay feel could need some more work.
Keep it up, man!
Puzzles are fun but the story got way over my head xD You turn blue balls into yellow balls, then collect it to get rid of your electricity? Then go to a "connector chair" and the AI says you can't connect anyomore because you have no more electric parts?
Graphics were nice, clear to understand and reminded me on a "Portal"-like environment. ^^
@leorid yeah, the good ending doesn't work. In the jam version if you collected all of the yellow particles you would get it, but because level 3 got corrupt it somehow it's not working. If you really want to get it you need to start the game and type in: scene level6 in the console. The game won't count the previous levels so you will get the good ending probably (in the fixed version). In the post jam version that we are making it will work even when you collected 80%, so more people will get the good one. Also you gain electricity with collecting those fragments, I've put a tutorial on the itch page
Good job. Really cool game but i think it is not my tipe of game. But anyway game is good
Very cool game! Reminded me a lot of Superliminal and Portal and those are some of my favorite games. Great job and really well done for the jam!
I liked your game. The sound and mood were done really well, combined with these puzzles it made the game really come o life. The puzzles are neither too hard, nor too easy, so that you dont get angry too fast, but also you dont speedrun your way through it in the first go. Definitely well balanced! Good job!
I played the web build from itch.io, so I assume it's the jam version.
I really liked the atmosphere, but I couldn't pass the first elevator. I don't understand if I need to dodge the blue things (which is really hard on that small place) or what.
However, I think the idea (from what I imagine and read from other comments) is cool, so keep working on it. Congrats for the submission!
@kotzi The itch io is listed as newest release, which is the post jam. In that version I improved the AI so that you had to solve puzzles and not exploit them. You can still have the jam AI by typing command ai 1. I've also added a tutorial and explained it even on that page. The first level with the blue ball doesn't even have a lose condition. It was supposed to explain the mechanic of the fragment having to be discharged. I'm really confused if your version corrupted or what happened
@franciszek-pyrc sorry, I just tried again and I think I choose some words poorly, because the game is full of elevators haha. I meant the first elevator with a yellow triangle on top, like the first one (probably) that you need to manually activate.
@kotzi I think you meant level4 with the two fragments behind you. The idea is that you trigger them and activate the wall so that they hit it. I saw many people just activating the wall and walking away from them, which kinda ruins the illusion that they have AI. Then you just jump onto a platform and lift it. Didn't know things are that hard, though
Would be cool to see an update with even more levels! :D
Really fun! I would love to see more levels added and a tutorial, but even without it, it's fun to just experiment to find out how things work, like trial and error. I'll have to subtract from the audio tho, sometimes it was too intense. Thanks for submitting your game to the stream!
Great job here! I love games that scratch the Portal itch lol. The puzzles were great, voice acting and writing was really interesting. The model of the power station thing looks insane too. Sometimes the mechanics were'nt quite clear, but I managed to finish it still.
Here's where we played it on stream: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1018587431 starting at about 2:13:30ish.
The Gamge directly pulled me into it and covered me into its mood. The Sound effects and "music" in the game is well placed and greatly defined. The Game Mechanics are working really well and the little riddles are great.
The Secret level shouldn't be behind a "Cheat Wall", just show EVERYONE how BIG you are ;)
Great Game Well Done
cool game!! the concept is realy cool
Soon I will play some more and do a detailed analysis (just like I did for the other games played in the other videos). :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVa3PizAFw8
**Analysis...**
1 - Mechanics, Learning and Flow: The main mechanics of the game is based on the exploration of a three-dimensional environment and advancement according to being able to overcome the challenges (in the puzzle style). By controlling the player's character (PC), you can walk, jump, control vision and activate objects using a type of lightning. The game puts us in control of a character that we cannot see, but it suggests that we are humanoid. Learning to move was easy for me, perhaps because I played games with similar aspects previously (Portal, Portal 2). So I will not be the best person to analyze this specific point in the maximum scope. In terms of game flow, I felt distressed and anxious a lot of the time, especially in the corrected version. This improved when I played the post event version. I believe that in part this has happened because falling is quite punitive. In addition, there are some elements that could have their speeds changed (the blue radius is very fast and the character's movement movement is very slow (in my view)). Despite this, I found the work very interesting, considering the short time that exists for the event.
2 - Graphics, Audio and Narrative: The graphics are a highlight of the project, congratulations. There are few elements that I would suggest changing. And it would be interesting to hear news of expansions in terms of more stages and challenges. Unfortunately I get nauseous when playing games in this style (I suffered a lot playing Portal 1 and 2, I suffered/suffer a lot playing Minecraft). The audio was good for event time, which is more interesting because there is how to adjust the volume (unfortunately there is no way to do this by pausing the game, only in the home menu). I would start, as polishment post jam, the smoothing of the step sound effects (they made my ears hurt a little after repeating time, especially when they were the only elements, maybe lowering the volume or creating variants to draw that are softer could help quite). There is a narrative, I'm not sure if I fully understood the ending (and I would like to know, if someone reads this and wants to mark me by explaining the ending better it would be interesting).
3 - Culture: The game talks a lot about games with the same style of camera and mobility, also approaching puzzles and room escape games. I feel that due attention to the narrative can be quite interesting and could be a good starting point to facilitate finding a niche for advertising.
4 - Monetization: I think you will need to do a lot of polishment and adding stages, but you have an interesting and valid starting point. Narrative work can be the difference between being salable or not.
@gustavo-christino Thanks for the feedback. As I have never experienced people suffering from nausea by playin 3d games, but there will be FOV setting, mouse sensitivity in the future. I the post jam version we didn't want to alter the game too much (not changing the level, except level4, since it was a mess). UI and menu weren't altered either, except minor fixes (input settings kept being reset every time you loaded a scene). Although there were plans for a pause menu settings, we gave up on them, since it required some UI design and some new scripts.
After seeing your playthrough I realized you got stuck on the third one. I'm not a fan of it and it will have to get reworked in the future, or completely changed. The game in general is a mess, since currently the AI is having identity crisis. We didn't want to create a puzzle so efforts were made to make this game action packed. That's why in the 5th level there's glass breaking below you and enemies flying at you. As you might have realized, we failed since a lot of people still treat it like a puzzle platformer. A great example is level4. We intended for the player to quickly jump in front of the enemies and activate the wall, to make them hit a surface. Most people just activated the wall and hid behind one of the pillars. In the post jam version there was even more confusion, since we didn't account for people doing that, so hiding behind the first pillar does nothing, while the second one does. I am still trying to figure out how they should behave, since the original concept of them hitting a surface is rather more suited for action, not puzzle and the whole "collecting" thing isn't suited for continuation of this project.
Story was quite simple at the time and in the end it became so balanced, that it was confusing to some, but encouraged them to find out more (like different endings and explanations). Keep in mind, that the narration was changed a bit in the post jam release to make it less confusing and work as a tutorial, not a game manual. If you found bits of it funny, keep in mind, that the "funny lines" were added later.
As I mentioned by now level3 isn't that good. I only saw one person figure it out so far. It's rather confusing to have fall damage, while getting the player to jump down an elevator shaft at the end of the game. Also since many people compare this game to Portal2, where there isn't any fall damage it gets even more confusing. This level is harsh, but without the others wouldn't be as simple and cool (as technically it's still a tutorial that teaches you rather harshly how to avoid and defeat the enemies). We tried fixing it after, by adding screens that would tell you to look behind you (many people didn't even know why they were dying), but that created even more geometry which also created more confusion.
Finally: the harsh nature of the enemies. We are aware of that (hard to know how people will play the game, when you know everything). For now the project is idle mode (we have some things to finish before we can focus on it), which means nothing is going to change any time soon. We are planning on adding outlines that you can see through walls, visual clues and also some effects to make you know that something is nearby.
There's a lot of problems to be solved, mechanics to be changed, things to be coded and work to be done. We are ready to take this project to another level, but for now thank you for playing
:)
I liked playing it, also the concept and mood! But I think the blue sparks are too fast and have a big hitbox it feels unbalanced Adjusting that design would make an even more good game ^^
Cool idea for a game, feel like the player should have some way to be more aware of the enemy locations. Right now it feels like the player has to die about a dozen times in each level before memorizing where the enemies are and how to get around them. A radar could probably help this a lot, or you could give the player health rather than have them die instantly. Making more puzzles around having the enemies come into contact with walls could be cool though. Maybe have blocks that you can push around or something to mix things up. Overall a nice submission though.
@shoc I think I know what you mean: the sparks are supposed to be one hit KO (we will change that very later, don't worry) and they were actually supposed to be faster and more impossible to avoid. Their hitbox is extremely small already, since they kept hitting the walls, so I guess you mean that the player collision should be smaller? But if that was the case, then what would be the point in every puzzle, when you can dodge enemies?
@cdunham Yes, we are planning on adding an outline visible through walls + a bunch of other ideas, that we will have to test if they will work. The health idea was supposed to be implemented, when the game was supposed to be an action platformer, but in the end we've decided on puzzles and got rid of it. The whole puzzle element is currently being reworked, since it was really a mash up of action + puzzle. We are planning on removing path finding and adding some kind of way of "returning back to idle mode", but that's still just a concept. Your idea of pushing blocks around seems cool, but keep in mind the game is based around "you control power", so that doesn't make sense as a puzzle element. In fact there are already moving walls in some levels (technically it's a platform, but without a fancy model, but who cares)
Fun game! even without explanation I quickly figured out how each level worked which is pretty good. I'd love to see a full scale game with this.
I got some stuff spoiled for me by watching it in other streams, but I still had a lot of fun playing!
Beware Angry Blue >:)! :large_blue_diamond:
[Thanks for submitting your game to the stream!](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1023830637?t=01h44m41s)
Sorry we couldn't catch ya while you were in chat. :slight_frown: We actually had quite a bit of fun with this one, hope you enjoy us messing around. :sweat_smile:
@coleslaughter wait, but weren't I there? I mean there was like 5 of me
This game is pretty well polished, with cool graphics, but I did not really have fun with this one, so I'll try to explain why, I believe argumented negative feedback is always a good way to progress. Keep in mind it is still my humble opinion, I don't claim to have the absolute truth ! Plus I was playing with a mouse pad, so maybe the lack of precision made the game harder than normal for me.
I think the game references too much similar games like portal or Cube, while having mechanics that don't really fit in the genre. The First Person view is not really fit for judging distances, so when the big orbs float in your direction it is quite hard to know where exactly they are. And you expect the player to do things like activating a block when the orb is at a certain distance, which need a lot of precision. The mechanics are also not really well explained in my opinion. I did the first levels without really understanding why the orbs became yellow, it took me until the level with the elevator to understand that blue orbs kill you, and the first few times they killed me while I was looking down to activate the elevator. The activation system is also a bit strange, especially the range at which you can activate things, that seems to be different for every object, or at least never the one I expected. I thought at first that the change of display of the triangle was a display bug, and it took me time to understand that it was a selection hint. The fall damage seems a bit inconsistent, maybe it is just caused by the level design that has ledges that don't feel high, but are exactly the height needed to kill you. But the main thing that I found frustrating is the fact that there are lots of places where you just have to die once to understand how to avoid the obstacle. For example, in a level you go up on an elevator, and an orb that could not be seen from the bottom kills you if you don't stop the elevator at the right time. It is an obstacle easy to avoid, but not the first time, so it is not really a challenge, it is just frustrating. I think it is the main problem of the mechanic : the orbs either die or kill you, so whenever you fail at anything you die and have to restart again.
Cool game, the mechanic is fun to use and I see a lot of potential in it.
I think the enemies move too fast though, sometimes it felt more like "Press the button at the right time" rather than "Solve the puzzle", which was a bit frustrating.
Still a great entry, good job!
@jrevel so just by hearing this: you played the jam version. That's fine. Not for me, but that's fine. During development we tried avoiding the "puzzle" genre, by making it more action packed (that's why there's glass shattering in level5 and things flying at you). I really have no idea how to fix the not understanding part. We tried everything: changed dialogue that tries to catch your attention by throwing jokes sometimes, a safe glass sealed level, where you could see it for yourself. We even explained it in the itch page. Maybe by switching the order of the activation tutorial and the "orb" tutorial would fix it, but we wanted to keep the game as jam level as we could, by enhancing the mechanics and such. In level3 (the platform) there are now screens which tell you to look behind you or to watch out. Recently I've made a shader, that could show you different icons through walls. These icons will be added to all enemies and points. After the jam we have the intention to update the game once more and then focus on it more professionally. Also about the range. I don't get it. The range is well above the length of the level. Only rules are that: the path cannot be obstructed (electricity through walls isn't that realistic). If something you could check out the post jam version later, or maybe checkout the dev level (by activating the console - remappable in the settings run: scene game)
@asdehielo As I mentioned above. We tried making the game more action packed. We failed. That's why there weren't any puzzles to speak of. Also, not sure about speed. They are supposed to be instant kill after all. In the future the whole concept of enemies will have to be reworked. We have some ideas, but it's rather difficult.