aevek 2021-04-26 03:15
Really cool atmosphere! Really liked the use of the flashlight for both scanning and repelling enemies, that double use lead to some neat gameplay. Also loved the unnecessary detail of the water ripples as I dropped in.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD48 → Jupiter II
By wheffle
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 74 | 4.02 | 55 | |
| Fun | 87 | 3.95 | 56 | |
| Innovation | 202 | 3.68 | 56 | |
| Theme | 15 | 4.45 | 56 | |
| Graphics | 202 | 3.83 | 56 | |
| Audio | 167 | 3.67 | 56 | |
| Mood | 24 | 4.26 | 56 |
Really cool atmosphere! Really liked the use of the flashlight for both scanning and repelling enemies, that double use lead to some neat gameplay. Also loved the unnecessary detail of the water ripples as I dropped in.
@aevek I had coincidentally been working recently on another project that involved water effects. Naturally it was all fresh in my brain and I had convenient code to reference, so I thought I might as well stick it in there. Thanks for checking the game out!
Love the control, Love the audio, Love the graphic. 5/5
Really nice and moody! Would love to see even more stuff to scan! Great work!
Things I liked: - nice progression speed - the scanner is a nice addition to the game type; giving me two jobs rather than just that of decending - the music and sounds were a good match for the game - graphics are all clean and work well together
Improvements: - I assume the movement sound is supposed to be little water jets; if so, the sound is a bit harsh and bassy for that; it should be more of a hum and goes a little to close to being a buzz - a neat dynamic would to be carrying 'specimen container' that fills up as you analize stuff; the more you analyze the heavier you are until it gets to 100% then you send it to the surface with an inflatable automatically which slows you back down again; making the research have a tradeoff to progression - a scoreboard would be nice so that you can compare current run with previous runs
Bugs: - one of the amphibians/eels shoved me into the wall to where I couldn't move and my oxygen tank emptied out.
Wow, just wow. Great game.
Nice game. The silver fish with red eyes were pretty aggressive and killed me.
I really enjoyed this slow-paced deep dive. The art is clean and you better believe that I scanned the heck outta everything. I appreciate that you trusted the player to discover the mechanic of using the flashlight to drive away enemies.
Your post and another commenter mentioned music but I didn't hear any on the itch.io web build - I only heard some (slightly harsh) tones when my partner gave me the next bit of information, so I'm not sure what happened there.
Nicely done!
@shawn-moore Oh man, that's unfortunate that the music wasn't working for you. WebGL can be mysterious and a pain in the butt. If you are up to it and you're on Windows, I would highly suggest trying the downloadable Windows version. The audio (*especially* the music) is honestly really important for the experience.
The choice of music was fantastic, and I was even more surprised to see that you composed it yourself. In the initial section of the game I couldn't help but smile because of the Pokemon-snap-likeness + music + atmosphere. You made it feel like it was going to be a pretty fun guided tour of strangeness.
The pacing changes are a good twist. Especially at 1k because the section right before that is a bit slower on normal mode. I really enjoyed the scanning mechanic in general. It gave it enough of a skill requirement that kept you engaged with what was going on.
How did you create the cave? I figured you were just choosing random points and connecting them but there were some parts that looked really good, like when rocks jut out and such (like in your 2nd screenshot).
Very cool experience overall. Again, the first couple minutes especially are an amazing combination of sights, sounds, and gameplay!
@peachtreeoath I actually used simplex noise to make the tunnel. Lots of simplex noise, the theme of my game is basically simplex noise. I use one noise generator for the center line of the tunnel, and both walls use their own generators to give them their own bumpiness. At certain points the tunnel width is decreased (to increase the difficulty) which causes those ledges to appear in the screenshot. Somewhat unceremonious, but I thought it still looked alright.
I also used simplex noise in the surface water shape, and for the flashlight flicker at low power... I kind of went ham with simplex noise. Godot has a built-in class that handles it and it's amazing.
Thanks for playing and for the feedback!
Ooo I actually wasn't familiar with what you could do with that. I'll be keeping those in mind when I need something like that. Thanks!
A really solid game! The audio is great, sets up for a great atmosphere together with what is going on in the game. You could feel the tension rising as the music gets darker and the transmission cuts off, followed by an increase in speed. Different enemies kept you on your toes, and scanning them gives a hint of how to deal with them. Would like to see some feedback when you scan something, sometimes it did not feel like it was working. Other than that, great entry!
Really nice atmosphere, artwork, and music! I really enjoyed the turning animation and the aesthetic of aliased graphics -- like how you could see pixel jittering the green scanner line and the particles
What a pleasant game and very polished. Well done!
Wow... everything is great about this game. The art, music, UI, sound, controls, gameplay... I was having a really good time.
Then, out of nowhere, a big Mario 64 eel instakilled my character by shoving it into the wall and making it impossible to escape. Having to restart from the beginning broke the immersion and is simply too punishing in my opinion, considering you would have to wait several minutes just to have another shot at avoiding the eel.
I really want to see the bottom of your game, so I'll give it another try later today. The intro is excellent, so it will be awesome to dive back in. Hopefully next time will be smoother :sweat_smile:
@secret-magic-404 Yep, the eels may have turned out a little too intense. There's a way to deal with them, but you have to scan them or discover it on accident to figure it out, which may not have been the best design decision. I think tuning it at this point would be disingenuous to the spirit of the jam, but it's definitely something I'd look at if I had more time.
I did fix the situation where they could literally shove you into the wall and get you trapped forever, so that (theoretically) shouldn't be happening anymore.
Thanks for the feedback, very appreciated.
Great idea with the scanning and energy instead of traditional life and damage stuff! For the music, I prefer to create my own, but ofc its time consuming and you have to have proper tools. For this LudumDare a friend suggested using http://unityassetcollection.com/universal-sound-fx-free-download/ which I find really nice. Good job with the game!
First LD game I've ever played. Really smooth and fun experience. The difficulty seemed just right--it was great being able to make it to the bottom in a single play (maybe I just got lucky) since I'd like to play as many different games as I can, but I did nearly die toward the end. I agree with some other feedback that a scoreboard would be a fun addition. Thanks for your submission!
I gave it another shot with the Windows build - the music syncing up with gameplay moments definitely made a huge difference! :D
✔️ Excellent atmosphere. I really liked how the music changed over time.
✔️ I liked how scanning the enemies was both an objective/mechanic and used to teach you about the game at the same time. Smart move.
✔️ The art and overall visuals very also very nice. The small details like that 1 frame of animation when switching direction really adds a lot.
➖ Maybe have a bit more player feedback when you are actually scanning something.
Great atmosphere. Great design too - I wanted to go deeper to find out what was down there! Good tension too as the level progressed and I found myself missing battery packs - I was genuinely tense about running out of power! Thank you for making the scanning mechanic actually meaningful. The player could use it to find out what was hostile - the little fish for example. A pet peeve of mine is scanning mechanics that do nothing but enable you to see what's around you! Neat that the light scared them away. I was pleased with myself when I figured out the "just swirl your torch around and around" technique to keeping the light-sensitive fish away! I would suggest decreasing the length of this level somewhat - it was repetitive, especially at first. I also thought the difficulty ramped up too fast after a certain point. Great work overall. Thanks for a fun experience!
@shawn-moore I greatly appreciate you going back and trying it with the executable to hear to audio, I know everyone's busy playing and rating games and that took time out of your day.
Nice meme ending haha. Enjoyed it a bit. Had audio crackling in some parts, but overall I liked the game. I felt it played quite well. Good job!
Well done! I have one small question - are things procedurally placed within the space available? I ran into the ambush worms, and got killed because there were two of them right on top of each other, and then another not far below that.
The art and animation of for 48 hours is fantastic.
I like it! The mood was great. Just a slight nitpick on level design: when you first encounter the ambush predators you get 3 in quick succession before you have a chance to read the hint how you defeat them. That first one should be higher so you have time to read and not get hit by the next 2. Felt a little unfair with that many all at once.
@t-c Ah, audio crackling is unfortunate. Were you on the web version? I have had some reports that for some people the audio has issues on WebGL. Super annoying. Oh, and you're the only one that has mentioned the secret ending so far, so congrats! Haha.
@devmerlin @kraemahz The levels and enemy placement are all procedural, which is a huge time-saver but also causes some nasty corner-cases when you aren't careful. Which is what looked like happened to you. Sorry about that, I should have taken measures to make sure enemies were spread out more, or perhaps used predefined seeds that were tested and vetted. Ah well, wouldn't be a game jam without someone getting an unintended double eel to the face I guess.
Also, thanks everyone for trying out the game! I'm making my way through the list to reciprocate! Y'all got some awesome stuff.
Wow this was awesome! I loved the gameplay, I wondered how far I could get and I love the different things that happen as you continue to go down. Very fun, good job.
Hey @wheffle
I made a copy of our stream from yesterday on youtube if you wish to see us play again: https://www.youtube.be/watch?v=KLwrzc7DkDo&t=12655s
Thanks for being part of the stream, yesterday was amazing! :smile:
Jupiter II is a very well crafted game, and an impressive achievement for a one person compo. The gameplay is simple but intuitive and captivating and fun. The player keep wondering what's next in the depth of this alien water world.
The game ramp up in difficulty nicely but doesn't become impossible, you achieved a nice balance.
Congratulations
Very nice game, really like the different take on this type of games, with "enemies" being beings you need to scan rather than shoot, while still having similar mechanics. Great innovation! Music is very cozy as well.
Good job!
I can't really put my finger on why, but this is one of my favorites so far. The worldbuilding is fast and cool, and the mechanic works really well. I had some browser issues with sound, but I don't think that has anything to do with your work or design.
The scanning mechanic is one I love in pretty much any game that employs it: I loved learning about your world while also trying to stay alive. Top notch cliffhanger at the end there. I really hope you continue working on it. It's got such (I swear this is a massive compliment) a slick 90s adventure game vibe. I really would love it if you could upgrade your equipment and base and travel from trench to trench.
Anyway, great work!
The mood of the game overall was so great! I loved the mechanic of scanning life to understand the mechanics of it. I do think the predator fish were the hardest thing to deal with overall and would have liked to see another lifeform of some kind, but the ending had me wanting more! The alternate ending also got a good laugh out of me!!
This was very well done. I really liked the scanning feature, and the use of the flashlight to push the fish away further down added some complexity to evading enemies. I also thought the timer/energy meter combo added tension and made it important to actually watch your surroundings and not just scan indiscriminately.
I also appreciated the prompt to let players know scanning the same type twice was a waste of energy because it's actually a very important detail.
Short but pretty kind game. looks like new style for old theme
Those darn aggressive fish ate me :( The game itself is done very well, has a nice mood and is fun to play.
Very nice game! Very relaxing gameplay to start, increasing danger, and scientific non-violent goals. :heart:
I wouldn't mind a way to go deeper faster, or stop descending for a moment. And like you said in your post, the snake creatures are too dangerous and hard to scan. I died immediately.
What I wonder is: What's the plan to retrieve our intrepid explorer? I kind of felt like maybe she/he was being sent on a death sentence. If you continue with the game, maybe they send down a cable to pull you back at certain checkpoints, and then you can use the science you gathered to get upgrades.
Nice and pleasant to play. Maybe the first meters a little slow the progression but very nice after that :)
@deathray I was actually planning on having a cable attached that would break at some point, causing the signal loss and kicking off the "spooky" part of the game. I just never found the time to implement a cable that moved realistically enough. Since it would be mostly aesthetic, I guess it fell through the cracks. But you're right, without the cable it's a pretty irresponsible science mission :P
I think this was my favorite game of the dare so far. Great job. I liked how simple the mechanics were but still engaging. Always good to see another Godot developer too.
Not only was it visually and audibly pleasing, but I had a lot of fun discovering the types of life in this game. great job!
I freaking LOVE this game. The music at the beginning really makes it feel like I'm going on an awesome exploration adventure. It set the mood perfectly. The idea of the game is great: Just keep going deeper and scan lifeforms. Music overall was great, sound effects were good, graphics were serviceable, yet still stylized! Big fan of this, good job!
I liked the variety of creatures to encounter, especially the pattern of "this might be dangerous, I have to actually look to find out" in the darker parts with the little chomper guys. I'm definitely planning to look through your source code to find out how you did the scanner ray, that's cool! Nice work :thumbsup:
Nice game, I found the concept interesting, didnt anything like in the jam. Grapichs and music are doing a great atmosphere for the game, they match. Congrats for the game!
@markopolodev If you're interested, this 1 minute tutorial is where I started with making lasers in Godot. From there you can experiment and tweak. Feel free to poke at the source as well!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dg0CQ6NPDn8
@wheffle woah, that tutorial is something else, thanks! I didn't even know Line2D was a thing :laughing:
Lots of fun. Thanks.
I absolutely love this game. It really gives this great feeling of exploration and adventure, exploring this deep underwater environment. Learning new things about nature, even though a bit of an alien nature. Just a really great vibe.
But what really sells it above all else is the music. The music just sets the mood so unbelievably well, giving that feeling of exploration and adventure... and with a tinge of melancholy. I just love it so much.
I also think it's great how the potential of each game mechanic is really utilized. The scanner serving as the research device, but then it becomes your only protection from the hostile fish... but then the scanner beam *also* has to be used for protection! Super awesome double use of the mechanics. I also saw that in the post-jam you made the fish interact with each other... that's just great.
Other comments: - I felt bad about shining my light on the poor light-sensitive fish... at least, the ones that weren't gonna attack me. Not really a problem with the game, just thought it was worth mentioning. - The way the scanner dialog interacts with the radio transmission dialog is not too bad, but it did kinda confuse me my first playthrough. I wonder if it would make sense to have two separate dialogs? Or even add a new dialog box for each scan that occurs concurrently? - I did laugh at the hard mode ending. I admit I was hoping for something a bit more substantive though! :laughing:
@honey-pony Thanks for the detailed feedback! I originally planned on having the scanner reports show on a different panel, but the UI was already getting crowded and I was afraid it would be annoying for two dialogue boxes to potentially pop up at the same time. As far as the hard mode ending goes, I admit I just really wanted to put that meme in somehow but didn't want to replace the normal ending, and literally added hard mode last-minute specifically for that purpose. I can't say I'm proud.