FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD48 → Exiled

Exiled

By ladybenko

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall4753.4241
Fun7322.8240
Innovation6472.8841
Theme2023.9441
Graphics684.2242
Audio1723.6642
Humor2393.0129
Mood1273.8342

Comments

phlip45 2021-04-26 05:25

Art style was great and music was very nice.

jeffez 2021-04-26 08:29

The art style was good, the music too. The story is quite likeable, but I find unfortunate that you don't have an "end" to it.

Either way, if you decide to make the game with more level, and with an "end", I would gladly play it again

2021-04-26 22:03

Loved it! Awesome aesthetics and music ^^

one-seed-fruit 2021-04-27 11:07

Found myself stuck in a loop for hours.

What I did wrong? I can't remember.

:laughing:

elendow 2021-04-27 15:43

I think the idea is cool and a very good way to tell a story. Maybe with some random positions for the keys, to avoid making the exact same movements every time would made it less repetitive.

I would love to play the entire game to know more about our little elf.

tomh1 2021-04-27 21:25

Interesting way to tell a story. I kept expecting enemies to show up but at the same time it's interesting that they never come --- your really just a lonely guy going deeper into the abyss (physically and maybe mentally?) Curious to see what happens next. One minor point: I feel like dialogues should be able to be canceled by just moving again using the arrow keys rather than pressing enter (or at least that's what I found myself naturally doing).

finntastico 2021-04-27 21:31

Looks raelly nice. I just kept going deeper and deeper while pondering about what I did wrong. I kind of wish there woud have been a tiny walking animation, that would have completed the look for me :)

tom-robson 2021-04-27 21:41

A really nice idea! I'm genuinely curious about the elf - what did they do?! Rare for a jam game to get me somewhat invested, in such a short time.

I'd have loved to have seen the loop be committed to a bit more though - just keep the player looping, maybe change the position of the key, and maybe (in an extended version) introduce some other mechanics to keep things fresh. But still, the fact that I'm wanting more is the best praise I can give!

anactualhuman 2021-04-27 21:47

Cool, the story was interesting and it has a very nice aesthetic. The gameplay was pretty repetitive though, a bit more variety in the levels rather than the same two would be better.

threeli 2021-04-27 22:05

As others have said I think this is a cool way to slowly meter out the story. Also I'm a sucker for these 1BPP graphics. I'd love to see what you might do with it if you decide to continue developing it, even just having some other characters to talk to and some places to see would be very cool.

kr4ft3r 2021-04-27 22:08

Little guy's self-blaming contemplations were adorable. Great graphic and music. Monochromatic is relaxing to the eyes. I guess graphics and music took most of your time, so you had to copy paste levels, but no worries, it was still interesting to play through.

ithildin 2021-04-27 22:18

OMG, I fall in love with that tileset every time I look at a screenshot. It looks amazing! :black_heart:

Execution in general felt really solid, from the controls to the small animation of the dialogue boxes, and including the music (although the loop is too short).

As for gameplay, the repetition was a bit too excessive to me (I'm insanely tired right now, which might not be helping, I'm afraid), but I still found it an interesting device to deliver the narrative. Perhaps smaller levels could have conveyed the same intent? Despite that, even after going through 3 loops I was still exploring the full layouts to see if I was missing something that caused me to remain there :sweat_smile:

In any case, awesome job! Very high quality, especially for a compo game!

nanda 2021-04-28 01:28

Nice art and i liked the story, even if it was short :)

hugimugi7 2021-04-29 13:06

Interesting story and the Déjà-vu floors. The deeper and deeper I went it was becoming certain that the gods wouldn't allow the elf back there.

quetzakol 2021-04-29 17:19

Interesting game. I enjoyed the cute black and white graphics. The music is also quite good and really sets a strong mood to the game, though it is a bit short. I also liked the story told with the little dialogues. I wish it was longer, the ending is a bit frustrating. I wondered if there was a way to get out of the loop, but it seems there isn't.

dotsquare 2021-04-29 19:12

very cool game! I loved the 1 bit art style, and the dialogues were very nice. I really liked the efforts you put in terms of narration (like explaining the controls in the beginning of the game). Maybe the controls were a little bit too loose (not sure how to say it in english), but overall a solid entry. Congrats!

mighty-mufflon-games 2021-04-29 19:38

Clean art style there. It is minimalistic in a good way. Also like the sound and how the narration is made.

I ended at the start screen after some stairs. So this is the twist (exiled) isn't it? Liked it.

snip-man 2021-04-29 19:49

Cute elf. Really liked the music and the art was really eye catching. Good job

jason-wilson 2021-04-30 17:39

I liked the excellent pixel art and the audio was great. With the repeating levels it was hard to get a sense of progress. At a certain point I began to think that I was in an intentional loop that I had to find a way to break out of. If there is a solution, I didn't find one.

ladybenko 2021-05-01 09:21

Thanks everyone for playing the game and for leaving useful feedback <3

@Jeffez @quetzakol @jason-wilson You're right about the ending, that is not clear enough. Ideally, I would have wanted that with each run something _changed_ and the player could somehow lift the looping curse… Or at least tell the player what the curse was more explicitly! I agree it can be confusing. But I was so pressed with time that I couldn't wrap the ending properly.

@elendow @tom-robson @ithildin you are absolutely right, ideally the levels should be somewhat different or at least a bit nicer to explore. Changing the keys position is a nice idea, indeed!

@tomh1 yes, you're right. I did try doing so but couldn't fine tune it enough and sometimes the player could close the dialogues unintentionally. Since I didn't have a mechanism to repeat them and they're somewhat important to understand what's going on, I decided to put closing/advancing them in a separate key. But you're right, and if I continue working on the game and release a post-jam version this is something I'd like to fix.

@finntastico the silly part is that I drew a walking animation! But in the end I ran out of time and couldn't include it. I'm leaving it here as a GIF because I do think it's cute even if it's just 2 frames :)

hero.gif

meritcoding 2021-05-01 10:01

Feedback - I know you reused the same 4 levels but maybe you could have altered the decorations or the keys - The music was cool - The animations were super sweet - The story could be a bit improved

littlegamer 2021-05-01 10:08

Nice game, I loved the graphics and the music (tho a looping one instead of a fading one would have been a slightly better choice), and the story is nice. Is there a secret ending or is it just a loop ? I'm not sure, I did the gam three times searching for something... It is overall very well made because the monologue drives a story in the player's mind. Really nice !

bastienre4 2021-05-01 10:22

I loved the aesthetics but I was kinda sad that it's the same room over and over. I would also have loved to have a "real" ending :) Music is awesome.

Good entry, well done!

halogen 2021-05-01 12:52

I loved this game i've played it twice I cannot believe that was made in under 2 days impossible

Great game :smile:

profan 2021-05-01 15:41

Doomed to walk the same halls forever :eyes: Interesting idea, would have been nice to have had a clearer "conclusion" to it, but it felt very cohesive with the art and music regardless :)

Nice entry

lereveur 2021-05-01 17:09

I liked a lot the mood and artworks of this game, I would be glad to play a version with more levels and an extended story! Great work anyway!

g12345 2021-05-01 22:38

The graphics are really nice. It took me a second run and reading here before i understood the ending, because i thought i was missing something. But now that i understand it, i think it's fine. :smile:

felo07 2021-05-02 05:52

great pixel art and sound effects, but too short, I was expecting more and more ;( I was looping something? did I miss something?

oune 2021-05-02 19:34

Graphics and sound are great! For the pixel art alone, it's worth playing your game! With the walking animation it would have been even better :smile: Regarding the gameplay, unfortunately I got stuck in an endless loop at some point.

ladybenko 2021-05-02 21:20

@felo07 @oune hey sorry that the ending wasn't clear! You did not miss anything, the story is supposed to be a Sisyphus myth of sorts, but I ran out of time and couldn't make an special sequence for the ending to wrap it up.

kotzi 2021-05-05 12:44

I loved this game! Nice idea, art and music. Solid execution. Congrats!