FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD48 → The Deepest Thoughts

The Deepest Thoughts

By aaronacus

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall12793.3043
Fun16952.6543
Innovation7363.3643
Theme7713.7543
Graphics9373.6543
Audio1344.0943
Humor13402.0831
Mood2194.0942

Comments

shin0nome 2021-04-27 13:41

Great Game ! The Art Concept and the sound design are gorgeous ! Well done _

myline-media 2021-04-27 14:31

Really cool game!

testudor 2021-04-27 14:39

Awesome game! One of the prettiest i've seen so far, sound design is also great!

lumue 2021-04-27 14:41

That's not a game. This was an experience.

Well done!

(If you like fish, though, check things out @beebo-studios :wink:)

remn 2021-04-27 14:45

Its very interesting concept, but realization can be better.

effarek 2021-04-27 15:01

The music works great with the game and the art, great job !

fabula-rasa 2021-04-27 15:31

I really liked the color palette and the music. Graphics is very minimalistic, but that fits the atmosphere well. It's all very meditative! And it is an interesting idea.

I didn't like the font size. The text is enormous and appears right in your face, creating this oppressive feeling, completely not fitting to the atmosphere. Smaller, more contained text would be much better. Could also use some text corrections, there are some mistakes and weirdness (if that's intentional, then this intention is not obvious).

The thing that seems strange to me is that you can fish out the same phone and see the same message more than once. I think the game should only allow fishing the phone out once.

Nice jamming :)

dane-tesla 2021-04-27 15:33

Oh, another game-experience, like ours! Really good one, it was sad and you the atmosphere was on point with music and graphic design. Amazing experience!

microchasm 2021-04-27 15:34

Very nice music and graphics. Gives me a What We Lost in the Flood vibe. I love when a game creates a vibe and a feeling, and this game accomplished that. I like the idea of thinking about the experience of the last human on earth. I would like to see the text be more about personal experiences, as it was it was a little too broad or general to have an impact.There were also a number of typos, which isn't a big deal, but the game is largely about text and there wasn't much of it. Overall, very nice little experience to have, well done.

martinek 2021-04-27 15:40

Really loved the minimalistic graphics and music as well. The text was a bit too large for my taste.

dzefris 2021-04-27 18:05

Pro: Interesting idea with the hook and ice.

Con: The moment of the character seems a bit odd. Maybe introduction better reference point would help to provide feeling that character is moving and not the scene. :)

norris-eldridge 2021-04-27 18:06

Nice work! I like the minimalist art style and the music is quite nice. I like the way it shifts over time. For me the web version text was a bit too big so it got cut off on the edges of the screen. For the most part that was fine but there was one longer text that was actually a bit hard to read because of it. I think the ending glitched out for a me a bit as well because the large text was on top of the white text for the end game. But overall, really solid work!

seanlim 2021-04-27 18:08

Really fun interpretation of the theme and I think the music really helped set the tone for the game. Wish there was a way to collect the messages and read them back to more easily get the big picture message of the game.

matif100 2021-04-27 18:18

Very interesting way to interpret the theme, and the music also is really nice. I feel the game is a bit empty though, and sometimes just feels like you are going over empty field.

iker-diaz 2021-04-27 18:22

Great game! I love the concept and the athmosphere. GJ!

thejookerful 2021-04-27 18:47

Really cool minimalistic and relaxing game ! But like other comments I just have a problem with text size when not on full screen. In Unity I think you have just to set the "UI Scale mode" of your canvas on "Scale with screen size"

nivbeth 2021-04-27 20:29

A little bit too depressing to me :c But the concept is really nice and with more time, maybe this can be even more polished!

nyanpierre 2021-04-28 00:56

very nice game ! good job ! I looked at your site it is also very nice!

mhorth 2021-04-28 01:11

Great artistic design (including sound)! It felt really well polished. I was able to fish out of a few spots but then started getting this, maybe a bug? Scrolling down would dip the hook into the water like normal, but then scrolling down more would reveal the hook again and seemed like it got stuck. I tried putting the fishing rod away but didn't seem to help.

Screenshot 2021-04-27 210627.png

caca 2021-04-28 03:24

Really enjoyed your game! Beautiful arts and sound, we really get into it ❤️ Congrats for your work!

mind0o 2021-04-28 04:21

I quite enjoyed this. Using the mouse wheel was quite intuitive and the mood is great.

noble-robot 2021-04-28 06:43

The player is forced to "dig" for the story via the fishing mechanic, which is a great way to give the player an active investment in the narrative. I think it runs the risk of being *too* mysterious, but that's more a matter of taste than a critical note.

Overall, an excellent execution of the theme via tone (and audio)!

aaronacus 2021-04-28 10:53

@caca Damn thanks so much <3

aaronacus 2021-04-28 11:07

@thejookerful Thanks dude, I think that the big text creates a contrast in the player between the feel of empty(the place) and full(the thought). Anyway I have updated the game reducing the font size a little bit. The bug in the last hole is weird but I like it, you can fish the last thought or nah and if you do it, it's more important than the credits.

Thanks for the feedback and loved that you liked it

aaronacus 2021-04-28 11:12

@noble-robot thanks so much bro! You are right it's a risky narrative but I think It helps a lot with the mood of the game and the feeling of being lost in your thoughts. Your feedback is really niceeee<3

she-wrote 2021-04-28 15:48

Deep, I really like how the gameplay and story work together.

crow-seeds 2021-04-30 02:17

The music adds a whole another layer to the desolate nature of this game. The simplistic graphics combined with the lack of features on the ice add to the feeling of "holy shit we're all dead" feel of the game. Well executed atmosphere!

villanelle 2021-04-30 02:43

The music and sound effects are awesome. The game is beautiful with this minimalistic style and its for sure a great interpretation of the jam's theme. Liked the short stories and the feel of exploration. Congrats!

whysguy52 2021-04-30 03:18

I really like the art. the sound also really makes you feel alone. Great job.

ismael-rodriguez 2021-05-04 02:27

This is pretty cool. I like the visuals. Very simple but stylish. The music is very mellow and "atmospheric" and fits the visual mood nicely. I like the snowflakes, that's a nice little touch of particles to complete the vibe!

I don't read instructions when I play games, I just play and check to see if the game is taught to me, or if it plays intuitively. This may be personal preference, but I do believe a game should have some level of "conveyance" to them. Reading instructions outside of the game, to me, is kind of anti-game design. I believe we should strive to make sure the player has everything they need, in the game.

That said, here's some friendly feedback about the experience; I get started up, caught the mellow music and all, started checking out all the animations and visuals. Then started moving the character around. I wasn't sure where to go, so I just assumed "deeper and deeper" would be downward. I moved downward (I think) until I hit an invisible wall (I think).

It can be hard to tell if I'm moving on the all white ice. Some kind of texture may have gone against the artistic vision, but it would be nice to know I'm actually moving. So if it's not a texture, maybe some kind of particle effect or trail render?

I didn't notice anything along the way (well, there was probably a crack I ignored), so I started mashing buttons. I learned I had a fishing rod. But it didn't actually do anything. I tried casting it... nothing.

So I read the instructions, and it says I need to crack the ice with LMB, so I try, but nothing. I read the instructions again to see if I missed anything... Oh I need to do it "while moving", so I try to walk around and crack the ice but... nothing?

Anyway, I try exploring more and find the cracks. Finally the game/experience is revealed.

The use of inputs was interesting, especially the mouse wheel. A part of me is kind of annoyed that so many different actions are applied to different buttons, when they could probably all work with 1. BUT I also *DID* like the use of the mouse wheel, because we don't see that used often, especially with something like a reel, which feels like a good fit.

So I pulled up a note from under the ice, and I wasn't expecting a message at all. I wasn't sure what to do with it. I explored around and found more cracks to break. I wasn't sure if they were in order, or spawned randomly, or what exactly the message was supposed to be. I imagined the fishing creature to be an evolved form of humans who's rediscovering their ancient origins and learning how they're cousin's lost their way. Not sure if that was what you were going for, but that's what I got lol :sweat_smile:

I wrote way more than I expected there lol Forgive me if anything comes off harsh because that's not my intention. I just wanted to share my experience in a detailed way to be helpful!

Good job on your entry!

nonumbersgames 2021-05-16 17:09

Beautiful atmosphere created by sounds. Really felt the vast emptiness of the cold dead world. The wavy memory effect was a nice touch.

Fascinating how you can make an interesting looking character with just a few circles and some smooth animations.

Not sure if mouse was needed for controls. Also sometimes mouseclicks didn't actually register until moving a bit and then clicking on the crack again.

The reeled-in masks overlapping with the face was really cool. Thought the text scrolling along with your catches sometimes made it a bit difficult to distinguish them.

The ending came before I could reel in the last message, so it then appeared over the end game screen.

Overall, it was an immersive, somber experience.