FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD48 → Callous

Callous

By mateusboga

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall1284.0937
Fun9693.3036
Innovation944.1137
Theme84.6137
Graphics364.6237
Mood64.6237

Comments

sandtoise 2021-04-27 01:28

Itch.io seems not to be working. I'd love to give this one a try but it's currently unplayable.

Edit: Awesome, going to check it out now.

mateusboga 2021-04-27 01:42

@sandtoise I had the page on private by mistake. Should be public now, sorry about that! ^^'

sandtoise 2021-04-27 02:18

This is beautiful. I love the atmosphere. There's a lot of emotion in this short game, and it feels very lovingly polished. The character designs are great, and the story feels very sincere. This is a really neat take on the theme, and I really enjoyed playing it. This is impressive.

My only issue is that I was really confused on what exactly would take me to the next area (flowers seemed to be the right one) but I didn't know what the other things seemed to do.

mateusboga 2021-04-27 11:41

@sandtoise Thanks so much for the feedback!

Flowers take you to the "Cave of Instincts" which lets you know the cipher to unlock the gate to the next area. The other objects are just a way to explore each area (also its randomly generated every time)

Each area is technically endless, so you can just keep going "deeper and deeper" until you run out of patience (or your browser runs out of memory)

Thanks for playing! :D

caiolima 2021-04-27 14:16

Congrats for the entry @mateusboga! Great art style and theme, It's a very sensitive topic and your project cover it beatifully, the sound and backgrounds really creates an atmosphere! I think some little tips, as game of this genre uses to do would be a nice adjustment to avoid been stuck in some areas (like I did haha). Really loved it and I'm following your work!

mateusboga 2021-04-27 15:39

Thank you @caiolima ^-^ Yea I think I did some mistakes in game design, and I ran out of time to add tips and more dialogue. Thanks for playing!

jakob-willforss 2021-04-27 17:36

It was great! I enjoyed the atmosphere, and the take on the theme. And the end :) I struggled with the game mechanics though - didn't realize I was looking for the portal code first (didn't see the portal in the beginning) and searched for long for flowers. When the game said 'you have to persist when you are the verge of giving up' I was really on the verge. But skillfully told story with the aesthetics and story. This is one of my favorites!

vaanrile 2021-04-27 19:09

Excellent game ! I found the storytelling and the concept quite excellent, but more importantly, I really loved the graphics and atmosphere, which were really great. I had trouble at the beginning figuring out what to do because I thought, based on the different colors and different interactable items, that they were a pattern to follow in order to progress, although I guess it turned out to be a bit different. Aside from this minor problem, congratulations for making this game, I hugely appreciated it !

mateusboga 2021-04-27 20:42

@vaanrile @jakob-willforss Thank you for the feedback :) Yea sorry if the puzzle was a bit hard to get, its an issue of the genre as well. Thanks so much for playing!

beachboogeyman 2021-04-27 23:00

neat idea for a survival horror game! art is great, and i enjoyed the prychological themes.

mateusboga 2021-04-27 23:31

@beachboogeyman Thank you ^^

zenbarista 2021-04-28 09:46

I really like this game. The atmosphere is quite disturbing, and the endless walking really evokes that feeling of being completely lost. I gave up on finding the ending after a while, but will go back to it and try to solve it another time.

verygenuinecraze 2021-04-28 12:47

Very nice game and atmosphere! I loved the mood. Same feedback as @caiolima, maybe more tips during the game :smile:

mateusboga 2021-04-28 13:40

@zenbarista @verygenuinecraze Thank you guys for the feedback :D

pedrohph 2021-04-28 15:19

I felt lost sometimes. But I was super curious about how this story ends.

Graphics are beautiful and you succeeded in telling a good story in the game.

Great work :smile:

mateusboga 2021-04-28 15:21

@pedrohph Thank you so much :)

akronsus 2021-04-29 11:17

Was super lost at first and didn't know what to do. Manly because I haven't seen the gate at the beginning and because a skull and flower totem spawned right above each other leading me to believe that the flowers are not special xD

Finished with 14 stones

mateusboga 2021-04-29 13:00

@akronsus Yea the spawning of objects is bugged, sorry about that :c I will try to fix that in a post-jam version once I get to it.

Thanks for playing!

brainloaf-studio 2021-04-29 23:27

Woah, I really enjoyed this! It's a really unique take on the theme, and I really enjoyed progressing to understand the story (that twist at the end, though!). The art is impressively polished, I especially liked the portraits. The environmental work looks really nice too, the parallax effect and color tinting adds a lot. The only issues I had was that I didn't spot the touchstones at all until a few layers in - they might be a little hard to spot - and that I wished the movement speed could be faster at times, or to add some kind of sprint button while searching. Those were just minor things though, and the overall experience was excellent. Awesome entry!

mateusboga 2021-04-30 00:10

@brainloaf-studio Thanks so much for the feedback ^-^

beatrizw 2021-04-30 18:53

Vey well executed!!! Really impressive. With a good background music it would have been absolutely perfect! Nonetheless, everything else is perfect! Great Work!!!

nisovin 2021-04-30 19:06

Very cool game here, with good atmosphere and story. Wandering left and right did feel a bit slow a times, but still a cool experience.

mateusboga 2021-04-30 19:15

@beatrizw @nisovin Thank you so much! :D

oddarock 2021-04-30 19:53

I really enjoyed the game (or story). One of my favourite so far. I was lost at first, but this was not really a problem, I just went deeper and deeper collecting touchstone on the way, while enjoying the walk and the atmosphere. I will probably dream of clocks, flowers and telephones !

The story is very well balanced between the texts and the environment and all makes sense at the end which is very satisfying.

Amazing entry.

krapht 2021-04-30 20:22

Loved it! might have been nice to have a little more explanation within the game about finding the cyphers and returning to the base level to type in the code.

unpronounceable 2021-04-30 20:36

Playing the game was a bit tedious and confusing, but the art and story more than made up for it. Really enjoyed the ending.

mateusboga 2021-05-04 00:02

@unpronounceable @krapht @oddarock Thanks guys! ^^

papaver 2021-05-05 15:33

Cool and interesting entry! I really enjoyed the graphics and the mood. I was a bit confused about what was happening and what I had to do, but that kind of fitted the theme. :wink: I found the end eventually. Well done!

peace-of-cake-games 2021-05-05 17:03

What a deep experience.... very mysterious and sad....

The fact that the touchstones are not only your only way of going back, but they're also how you get scored at the end of the game, is pretty neat.

fabula-rasa 2021-05-05 17:31

That's a very nice take on the theme! The backgrounds and the sparse soundscape create this atmosphere of introspection, perfect for this kind of game. And the angry shadow, along with the environment change was a great touch.

I would suggest adding some graphic element at the right-left edges of the area, so that the player never sees the edge of the world and the illusion isn't broken. Some mist would do nicely in this case, or some clouds or waves (to represent the vast, unexplored mindscapes :)).

The slow walking pace of Samuel fits the mood but gameplay-wise it gets a bit tedious when you want to backtrack through the area. Maybe allow running and let players decide on their preferred pace of exploration :).

xariusexcl 2021-05-05 17:35

Wow what a beautiful game! Took me a while to complete, I did not understand that the flowers made you go deeper, but I wouldn't have explored the game more if I knew. Although there was not much to explore, it's definitely important for the mood of the game. And dang those ghosts are scary.

One of (if not my) favoutite entry! Well done!

mateusboga 2021-05-05 20:00

@xariusexcl @fabula-rasa @peace-of-cake-games @papaver Thank you guys so much for playing and for the feedback! ^^

itsisaac 2021-05-06 13:23

Holy crap! What a crazy game! (in a good way) Very moody and well done! I quite agree with @fabula-rasa that you should make the levels go round in a circle so you never see an edge. But other than that it was delightful! Good job!

orcpaladin 2021-05-06 13:27

Stunning visuals style! Nice implementation! Good job!

nablaz 2021-05-06 13:48

I really enjoyed the experience! I was a bit lost at the start, but then I got a grip on it and worked my way through the maze (you wonder at first why there are so many touchstones lying around...). Although I found the exploration (and sound) a little repetitive, the game has a very interesting concept and implementation and I think the lostness/repetitiveness works in favor of the player's immersion. Oh, and I loved the graphics! It's a very nicely crafted story and original design, I think you did a great job with this! Cheers

kotzi 2021-05-07 23:27

Great aesthetics and take on the theme, it was really a touching experience. Congrats!

mateusboga 2021-05-08 13:13

@kotzi @nablaz @orcpaladin @itsisaac Thanks so much for the feedback :)

fy0 2021-05-09 10:48

Really good design, I can't believe it was made in three days!

one-seed-fruit 2021-05-13 05:04

Incredible art! You even have a walk cycle! I'm still not quite sure what's going on, but there's a mysterious feel to it. Wish I can run though, haha.

coleslaughter 2021-05-18 07:39

What a twiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiist at the end! I really appreciated how you ended this. :slight_smile:

The art in this one was absolutely gorgeous, and a super neat way to represent the inner workings of one's mind. The game did run a liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittle slow on WebGL, but I'm glad I was able to stick it out and see this through to the end.

Also, it took me a while to figure out there were rocks I could pick up. Maybe making them easier to spot (especially in lighter backgrounds) would be a good idea.

Overall though, this was a really stellar entry, excellent job!!