FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD48 → To Return To One's Root

To Return To One's Root

By c3ll256 and zhi

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall14353.2133
Fun16062.8132
Innovation5283.5531
Theme9943.5832
Graphics4574.0634
Audio9853.0833
Humor13132.1324
Mood4613.8431

Comments

pandalk 2021-04-27 01:49

Hey, nice game, found a bug tho, you can get infinite "movement points" by taking and dismissing the worm next to "control a worm to quick get through the sticky mud", it doesn't respawn like the others !

c3ll256 2021-04-27 03:50

Update 2021-4-27 11:43:

1. Fix infinite movement points issue

2. Animal next to the label now respawn like the others

foursay 2021-04-27 10:05

The art style is truly amazing at first glace, and the control of this game reminds me of one of the compo game in this LD48, created by Gao Ming. Nevertheless, the concept of Falling Red make a difference though the audio might be a little buggy at the main title page. Anyway amazing game and well done!

lalada 2021-04-27 13:27

Chinese Ink Painting really great!!

c3ll256 2021-04-27 14:33

@foursay Thank you for your recognition of our style! If the music makes you feel a little strange, we'll continue to improve it, thanks. About the audio issue, we found that audio problems do not occur on the Firefox browser. If you have time, you can use firefox to replay. Thanks again!

c3ll256 2021-04-27 14:34

@lalada Thank you for liking our style! This style is also very much our theme idea

appix 2021-04-27 15:13

Nice water-ink paintings style~ Animal animation would be better with skeletal animation~ Maybe you can try it next time!

zhi 2021-04-27 15:56

@appix Hello there! I'm the art creator for this game, working on art and theme ideas, etc. Thank you for liking it~ We'll listen to your comments and improve it a little in the future. That said, the crawling of the earthworms is pretty cute and funny, so we decided not to change it, hahahaha

zhi 2021-04-27 16:02

@Pandalk Hi! Thanks for pointing out our problems! And thanks for playing our game! I wish more people like you would speak up here. I'm very sorry for not replying for so long~

flying-dog-fish 2021-04-27 16:18

This game sure is pretty and the music complements the visuals nicely.

thebooksnail 2021-04-27 16:20

The art style is great! I loved the ant. The dual theme of going deeper down along with reincarnation was well done. I can't really think of any suggestions. Having more creatures would be nice but due to the time limitations of the jam it's understandable for it to be limited.

quantumseagull 2021-04-27 16:22

Enjoyed the art style. It made the game stand out. Played it all the way to the end. I don't know if this was my computer acting up, but after a while the movement got stuck so the animal I was controlling kept moving without using the mouse button. Clicking it stopped the movement though, so it wasn't a big deal.

lilifull 2021-04-27 16:29

Good game, pleasant to play and very beautiful. I really like your idea.

omaewander 2021-04-27 16:51

Very stylish game!

c3ll256 2021-04-27 17:26

@flying-dog-fish Thanks! We put a lot of effort into the overall style design!

c3ll256 2021-04-27 17:29

@thebooksnail Hahahah the ant! I love this little creature too! We actually have in mind more complex ecosystems, such as earthworms that can shed a section to hide from natural predators. But we don't have enough time and energy to implement it anymore. We'll try to keep optimizing the update if we get the chance!

c3ll256 2021-04-27 17:32

@quantumseagull Thanks for playing! We can't reproduce the problem at the moment, if you can please tell us exactly in which part of the game the problem occurs?

c3ll256 2021-04-27 17:33

@lilifull Thanks, glad you enjoyed our game!

c3ll256 2021-04-27 17:34

@omaewander Thank you for your compliment! We will continue to experiment with different artistic styles

ghubert 2021-04-28 01:40

Graphics nice. It is relax.

zhi 2021-04-28 06:47

@ghubert Thank you for coming to play our game~

stone-studio 2021-04-28 07:07

Very good art, the teaching part is impressive! Feels a sense of Zen in it~

caca 2021-04-28 07:14

You're visuals are just beauiful! So relaxing to fly in it... <3

zhi 2021-04-28 07:17

@stone-studio Hi! Man! That's the feeling we were trying to convey, and your feelings and understanding can be said to be exactly right, cool

stroe-andrew 2021-04-28 14:56

I think the game is overall pretty good! Nice job :) I like the idea of controlling the animals, very very good

doot 2021-04-28 15:06

I loved this!

The game idea of controlling things is cute and nicely executed. It reminded me of the game Everything! The music is lovely, even if a bit choppy on the web version. I mostly loved the visuals and the mood they set!

The ending felt a bit strange, changing controls for just one short scene did not add much to my experience. Was it not finished as intended?

Thanks for the game I had a good time 💕

ancient-pixel 2021-04-28 15:14

Nicely done, the experience was lovely :) only the audio crackled a lot for me (especially on the main screen)

zhi 2021-04-28 15:15

@doot If interested, you can look at my profile introduction ~ indeed a lot did not do, a lot of regret hahaha. It's actually a story with some Chinese zen.

c3ll256 2021-04-28 15:21

@doot Thanks for playing! We are very sorry about the audio problem and are looking for a solution. We found that Firefox browser works fine, if you do not mind the trouble, please use firefox to play our game again!

c3ll256 2021-04-28 15:24

@caca @stroe-andrew Thank you for the compliments! It's our biggest reward!

eugenik 2021-04-28 15:39

Very nice game! :D.

tim-sims 2021-04-28 16:34

Beautiful art! It's a very relaxing game for sure. I enjoyed it!

psv-games-studio 2021-04-28 17:05

Hello, I really liked the graphic style and the proposal of the game and the mechanics are well done!

carolinewang 2021-04-29 10:08

i loved the artwork in your game, it was so simple yet so effective for the atmosphere of your game. i really enjoyed the meaning and intent you put into your game, my only critique is i wish there were more game mechanics (and that the game lasted longer). i hope you guys do a full build of this game, but overall, nice work! :smiley:

smiley405 2021-04-29 10:10

A deep philosophical game with a great art style!

c3ll256 2021-04-29 12:15

@carolinewang Thank you for liking our style! We did think of a lot of game mechanics, but due to personal constraints this is all we can do, next time we believe we can make a more interesting game!

natalia-dushkina 2021-04-29 12:20

I'm not an experienced gamer so I liked the relaxing gameplay. Played the game with my 4 year old son, I moved the leaf and he was responsible for F and G controls.

I like the black and white art and the music that's playing during the game. Didn't like intro music that much (sounded like too complicated for me). Also it would be cool to add some animations when you press F and G. Overall, good job!

fabula-rasa 2021-04-29 13:27

The art style and the music go together very well here. And both are very nicely done! I enjoyed the atmosphere you created.

The gameplay is very simple, and it lends itself to the overall meditative and chill atmosphere. So it goes well, even though it's not particularly challenging.

I think you made a mistake over-explaining things in your description. It would be better, if you would just lay out your basic concepts and ideas and left the interpretations and impressions to the player. The fun in this kid of games is exactly in my personal experience, interpretations and emotions they create. Like a piece of art. If an artist lays down an essay "This is what I mean by this piece of art", he takes a lot of the experience away from the viewer, who would be better off taking it all in by himself. Just a thought :smile:

Overall, it's a really interesting entry! And definite plus points for using Godot!

zhi 2021-04-29 19:46

@smiley405 Thank you for giving such a high rating, I feel very encouraged.

zhi 2021-04-29 19:48

@natalia-dushkina Thank you, thank you for your patience in giving your comments and honest opinions. Your game mechanics are also great and there is very much for me to learn.

zhi 2021-04-29 19:51

@fabula-rasa You are right, today I also discussed our profile with my partner, your opinion is very pertinent and useful to us, to give players to retain the imagination and suspense is indeed a problem that we deserve to think about, thank you again.

zhi 2021-04-29 19:53

@eugenik @psv-games-studio @psv-games-studio @tim-sims Thank you for visiting our website and giving us your comments!

wizard-sino 2021-04-29 21:17

I don't know what to say that others have not already said. You made an interesting game.

namidasai 2021-04-30 15:18

Interesting game with a fantastic art style and a fascinating premise. Expressing complex ideas such as this one is tough, especially making them culturally agnostic (making sure every culture can relate even though the concept is chinese). I welcome the description, because I like seeing game devs that, like me, try to explore unchartered territories where the game needs to be meaningful beyond the scope of the screen. There's a lot of great ideas, but I feel like the execution was flawed, and please do not take the below feedback the wrong way: it's because I care that I give it.

- the music's melody and harmonies were interesting, unsettling, slightly alien. What I did not enjoy was the instrument choice. I feel like more acoustic, less grating sounds would have suited better to contrast with the dissonances.

- the in-game texts were unnecessary and took me out of the experience. It felt like a long tutorial. Consider removing the extra control scheme at the very end and presenting the ESSENTIAL controls at the beginning then let the player explore.

Now to go deeper. I'm not sure if this was your intent or not but here's how my second playthrough went. I would jump in an animal then jump out straight away. I stack the timer value and don't get a penalty for staying as a flow of energy. Coupled with the timer, this made me feel like the message of the piece was that life is disposable, not important, meant to be discarded as soon as possible. Quite a grim message! On the other hand, jumping from animal to animal means that we become stronger and stronger each time learning from our past lives. I feel like balancing the two feelings a bit better by penalising the energy’s movement or putting a delay on when can you switch from animal to animal could work well.

As I said, really interesting game, and there's definitely something to explore there, and you have the art style to match. Focusing even more on the intent and how the mood is experienced by the player would complete this piece.

Great work, hope my feedback will be taken for what it is: someone who cares. Please keep making this type of experiences!

c3ll256 2021-04-30 18:12

@namidasai Thank you very much for your reply. I'm sorry it took so long to get back to you, my partner @zhi and I had a long phone conversation after reading your response, and we thought very hard about the advice you gave us and the problems you pointed out. We feel that we have learned a vivid lesson. We were caught in a loop: the loop of "playing" for the sake of "playing," but after reading the comment, your words delivered a shocking blow that woke us up completely. Our theme is "fear of life," but here did not consider the players' feelings, which is a vast fault and regret. We realize the importance of this concern for player's understanding. We can only say short words to express our shock, and we are very sorry. Thank you again. Your response is the most thoughtful words we've seen so far.

peace-of-cake-games 2021-05-03 05:31

A short and beautiful experience! The mouse controls were a bit weird to me, but that's what I get for using my laptop's touchpad instead of grabbing my mouse, which was only a few feet away from me. 😅

jarnero 2021-05-18 13:06

I didnt understand anything, becouse there is no exploration of game story inside game. But anyway - that was a nice experience. Thank you!

P.S. - what a nice game mechanic with some life control...