Final Society

sacredbacon 2021-05-02 01:05

Music is incredible, the story was great very surreal. I didn't like the maze parts at first, but they started getting more interesting as you progressed. I liked the climbing portions and the final maze. Spencer's voice was pretty good, some of the dialogue got repetitive walking down the halls. That being said, you should port other platforms so that more people can play it - I guess the climbing would be tough though. Great work, thanks for the game. And double thanks for reminding me i can sideload apps onto the quest. Keep up the good work!

jerm 2021-05-02 01:26

Neat game! It reminds me of The Stanley Parable. Really good music, and also Spencer's voice really adds a lot to the atmosphere.

Also I don't have a VR headset so I rated it based on the gameplay video.

c4scar 2021-05-02 02:32

I dont have a VR set but I watched the video. I liked the use of unlit colored materials and the narrative of the game. Looked like it could get a little repetative at points however.

samarthmp5002 2021-05-02 06:53

Cool game! Interesting content, I don't have vr hardware but it looks cool. Keep up the good work!

pxldev 2021-05-02 08:20

Well made. I had problem seeing the geometry because of the flat shading.

retrome 2021-05-02 09:03

Great experience! Very emotional abstract drama, this is something innovative! Atmospheric music and speech. Nice tricks with colors.

Oculus Quest 2 here.

Some remark: game felt slightly too long with pretty same labyrinths at the beginning.

Cool and interesting entry!

udo 2021-05-02 10:19

I don't have an Oculus Quest, so I'm using the video for this review. Let me know if that's okay, if not I'll happily remove my rating.

First off: great work, you got a lot done in just 48h! The style, while super simple, is completely coherent. I can't judge how hard it is to get going with the Oculus dev kit, but yeah I like the completeness of the result. The music was well done, too.

Now the most outstanding part: the writing. Excellent work on the narrative, I also enjoyed the sort-of depressing humor :laughing: While I disagree with the philosophical message to a degree, I think it's awesome that there's a Ludum Dare game that even has one. You not only made 20 minutes of entertainment, you made a statement that communicates something personal.

conrad123 2021-05-02 21:58

Thank you everyone for the feedback so far!

@udo 1) Generally I'd prefer it if you only rated if you played in headset but your feedback was very thorough so I'll let it slide. :)

2) I somewhat disagree with the message (at the end) too haha. I was at hour 42 when I wrote it and was on brain-dead mode somewhat. I was looking for it to be thoughtful and deep, to really fit with the figurative take on the theme. It really just needed to make you think.

udo 2021-05-03 09:19

> * It really just needed to make you think.*

@conrad123 it did! My imagination went a bit tangential to the narrative, but a thought I had at the beginning of the game: If there was an AI assigned to watch over every single human forever, it might come up with "tasks" to keep us occupied. Clearly, the tasks in the game are everybody's definition of hell :laughing: But... it would be trivial for an AI to generate better tasks. A rewarding existence tailored to everyone's individual tastes. There is clearly a point where this type of final "society" stops being torture when the experience becomes more engaging - especially if the AI never tells you it's all a simulation. If the AI *then* told you what it's doing, would that remove your sense of meaning?

thegreenworm 2021-05-03 11:42

This title was cool ! I liked the narration, humor and "puzzle" design. One recommandation I'll add : unlit flat surfaces are quite hard to comprehend in VR. Adding a simple noise texture to it would greatly improve depth perception. Otherwise, very cool !

mkmuffi 2021-05-09 23:51

It would be better to add some textures or shading onto the geometry so it doesn't look very flat, but very impressive how you managed to make a VR game! Nice job!

nobody-goat 2021-05-12 14:32

I made a vr game too! They are pretty challenging. I'm not home right now but I will try it later today. looks pretty good tho.

sevkron 2021-05-15 15:28

I was looking for VR games to try out and I'm very glad to have found yours!

The player controller you used for this is fantastic, the body and controller physics really give a sense of immersion set by games Half-Life: Alyx. Suffice to say, the climbing felt fantastic especially having not read the controls before hand, it came as a nice surprise.

The pacing is a bit slow but worth it for the final sequence I'd say. Having some true puzzle elements instead of just not doing what you're told or finding the exit to the mazes give the game some momentum.

There was a real sense of style in the presentation despite the bare-bones graphics. Though, you can get a bit lost because of the lack of lighting/perspective. By the end of the game I grew quite an affinity with Spencer and the way he says "the Final Society".

I did start having headaches after awhile despite being pretty used to VR, perhaps adding a vignette effect when moving would help for comfort?

Thanks for making this, it was a lot of fun to play!