FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD49 → LCD DREAM ESCALATOR

LCD DREAM ESCALATOR

By hydezeke and Salohcin894

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall254.3457
Fun1463.9956
Innovation1403.9557
Theme2864.0156
Graphics1054.4357
Audio64.5556
Humor2963.6650
Mood34.6356

Comments

2021-10-04 01:59

Your game require a password...

hydezeke 2021-10-04 10:33

@sylvain Game's not done! I was editing the page yesterday and clicked 'publish' ~30 hours too early!

timmith 2021-10-04 22:05

It's definitely a neat exploratory platformer, I really enjoy the LSD Dream Emulator inspired visuals

tony-li 2021-10-05 01:05

Great unique visual style and audio. I enjoyed running around the zones looking for the "exit".

firetwoonenine 2021-10-05 01:07

I... don't know what I just played. But whatever it was, it was done well. I do wonder what "effects" the devs had to be under to come up with this stuff though. ;)

lukeoco1234 2021-10-05 01:08

I thoroughly enjoyed playing through this game. Didn't quite get every ending but got very close. The mechanics felt intuitive and the game encouraged you to explore in such a nice way. The scuffed graphics and wiggy effects really sent home the theme of unstable. Amazing game!!!

daniel-giorlando 2021-10-05 01:09

This is my favorite LD49 game so far. I haven't played them all obviously but none of them took hold of me like this. Nice job!

nutella4gods 2021-10-05 01:35

Wow, what a great experience. I got all endings and will definitely play your future games.

chrishg12 2021-10-05 03:38

Heh, I ended up going through nearly all of the pathways and being about done with the game when I noticed the wrench for the settings "menu." That is a really cool way to do settings, but that wrench was a bit overshadowed by the critical path. Not a problem though, game is awesome.

fonserbc 2021-10-05 05:58

Nice & moody.

Specially liked the sound and the music.

cakeknuckles 2021-10-06 00:16

this is. amazing. what a great homage and a fun set of worlds to explore, fantastic job!!

edevjogos 2021-10-07 01:45

I laughed when a certain character popped up as a box texture lol haven't tried LCD yet so i'm not sure if it's accurate XD but it was an interesting experience.

2021-10-07 22:48

Great game. Do you guys have like a soundcloud or something where you put the OST? I loved the music.

hydezeke 2021-10-07 23:17

@all Thanks so much for the sweet comments!!

@unclemitch911 funny enough we were just talking about this today- sounds fun, so probably!

salohcin894 2021-10-08 02:14

@unclemitch911 We're working on putting up a Bandcamp album! I'll make a blogpost when it's ready!

simpathey 2021-10-08 05:00

I really loved the gameplay! One of the rare cases where I actually felt like exploring in an exploring game. Because everything was so interesting. Also loved the music! What an amazing experience.

thestoff 2021-10-08 05:16

This game was an experience! Wow really got pulled in to that

cad 2021-10-08 21:26

Wow, was not expecting this level of abstraction from a jam game. Unstable to say the least. I felt myself continuing to be pulled inward to this game for no reason I can explain. Very well done!

misterpapi 2021-10-08 21:35

Now that's a trip and a half! Amazing concept and the execution is incredibly clean for a game jam. Great work!

rextgun 2021-10-08 22:51

I finished your fucking game, fuck you, fuck this, fuck everything, worst.game I ever played and the absolute best ,I love it and it's rat filled glory, it's amazing 10/10. fuck you please make more

rextgun 2021-10-08 22:52

best interactive experience I've tasted.so far

hawkin 2021-10-09 01:08

This game is utterly imaginative. I took one pass through, saw 4 of the areas, and that alone would have been enough for a jam. But seeing how few of the crystal nodules I lit up, and the map you posted--I'm definitely going to have to come back and play more.

Hats off to you fellows. You made one heck of an experience! I do also like how you slowly introduce the idea of searching for "exits" or gateways by illuminating the rat like the crystal. Smart design there.

essarrgee 2021-10-09 01:19

Extremely surreal, I love it! It looks a bit long so I haven't completed it yet, but I absolutely enjoy what's going on in the game. Good job!

peterfiftyfour 2021-10-09 03:46

I live for this shit. Thank u please make more. OK the ending music is glorious

osh-studio 2021-10-09 04:01

For me the best mood / visual game I have played, absolutely loved the imaginative landscapes and different paths you could take. Made me feel very thoughtful and creative, would love to work on a project that had this kind of vibe. Great job, its a 5 for me.

flywolfe 2021-10-09 04:50

Wow, really surreal experience. The mouse feels a bit weird in the web version, but changing mouse speed helped a bit. But holy, that was really cool to go through. The atmosphere and sounds fit perfectly. Awesome job!

antom 2021-10-09 07:03

At first I thought I was at the end of Evangelion, then I was in a rodent dimension and then I was talking to a couple of planes ... certainly an unstable experience :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes: Excellent atmosphere and music !!!

caladrius 2021-10-09 15:31

This was such a beautifully authentic love letter to "LSD Dream Emulator" that I'm simply blown away. One of my favourite experiences of all time represented in a Ludum Dare, absolutely amazing. Thank you so much for this <3

epicureanistik 2021-10-09 15:38

Very atmospheric, I especially loved searching for the exit in the forest level.

fiakaiera 2021-10-09 15:54

I was not expecting this kind of entry to appear in Ludum Dare and I really want to experience going through the surreal experiences of LSD Dream Emulator again and you guys just nailed it! Honestly, the walk-tapping will definitely make me go through a bunch of nostalgia.

The exit for the forest is the only thing I'm complaining about since it's the only one that's really hard to see. (spending minutes on that one area alone) The magazine map was definitely a very helpful subtle guide throughout the experience.

The way that more areas are needed to be explored at the beginning was actually a nice touch and very much appreciated!

I went through all the areas, and... *WOW THANK YOU FOR MAKING THE ENDING REALLY SATISFYING I LOVE IT!!!*

Superb work! I really want a fuller game now. Can't wait for the OST!

rubiia 2021-10-09 16:10

This was a wonderfully trippy little adventure and honestly one of the most unique uses of the theme I have seen. I adore the music and the sound design, with particular favourites being in the street with the dancers and the forest. Really reminds me of LSD Dream Emulator and I would love to see more, even though I'm certain I probably missed more than a few bits. I know for a fact I will be back again to play this some time soon.

odakine 2021-10-09 16:12

This was a really nice experience from start to finish, trippy and unnerving at first before becoming a nice game of "what can I interact with" after falling through the first round of rooms. Audio was absolutely amazing.

eldogg 2021-10-09 16:30

It's an instant classic. Just pure immersion from the get go. The music is wild, the graphics are wild, the game design is wild - yet it all makes perfect sense.

shrillwhip 2021-10-09 17:40

Yo, this game was DOPE. I love this kind of stuff. If it was just a little longer I would have been willing to pay for it on Steam. It looks absolutely beautiful, the environments are really cool and the music is great as well. No complaints, so far this is the best game I've played in this jam (or in any game jam tbh).

antrimplato 2021-10-09 19:39

Wow! It's a greatest atmospheric game I ever seen here, coolest oldschool graphics and nice music 👍

kukurammus 2021-10-09 20:10

Overall artstyle is great, liked it

vivianmochi 2021-10-10 05:05

This is INCREDIBLE work. I thought it was great until a shrimp pulled me into the shrimp realm, then I realized it was FANTASTIC. Mapping out the world seemed impossible at first, but it was surprisingly manageable and fun! Great work, I love it :P

sakura-magika 2021-10-10 06:47

this was a cool experience! very cool! i like the music and retro graphics and strange newspaper thing a lot. and the title! cool title for sure.

i made it to the forest, and then i was doing my best to follow the sound, there seemed to be a sound that got louder.

then very suddenly, i stepped behind a tree or something, and warped back to the beginning? does that mean i won? or i lost?

if i lost, then, well, so be it. i wish i knew if i made it to the end or not; it wasn't very clear. but then again, neither are dreams. this definitely felt like a dream. a liquid crystal dream.

zimny11 2021-10-10 11:36

Well, this one is definitely unique :)

Good job with interesting game concept!

hydezeke 2021-10-10 11:44

@sakura-magika HI! You may have found the warp in there correctly. You didn't lose. But the end comes later.

kr4ft3r 2021-10-10 14:22

The settings scene is neat :D I love freeform entries like these, have spent quite some time and discovered a lot of scenes, though perhaps not all and I don't think I was very much near to "win" it. Eventually I had to give up due to cyclic nature and the chances of discovering something new reducing, but it was a pleasure to have this thing on my screen, well done.

bbaf 2021-10-10 19:25

Well, I have a weakness regarding LCD Dream Simulator inspired games :grin: Even made a one with my team couple of years ago.

Had a lot of fun playing this one. Great entry and awesome music!

fupi 2021-10-10 19:38

I'm here because of the post about the soundtrack. I listened to the ending song on Bandcamp and was like DAMMMMMNNNN I GOTTA PLAY THIS. So hi! This was creative and bizarre, I really like that! There were some quirks that kinda bothered me though:

* Mouse sensitivity is too low, I have to do 4 full swipes with my elbow to do a full turn. The maze room is a nightmare because of that. * I accidentally pressed Ctrl-W twice while playing and lost all my progress, so a desktop build would be nice. * That manual scan is cute but no help honestly lol. If I wanted to spend hours on this I could probably find where every single hidden room is, but repeating the same stuff over and over got tiring, especially with that mouse sensitivity thing. xd

Never got to hear my jam in the game unfortunately. :( I got a few paths then gave up. Visuals, mood and music are the best part definitely.

ommadawn 2021-10-11 14:27

Very nice, I don't know what to say, it was weird but kind of fascinating. Big love for the audio

salohcin894 2021-10-11 22:23

@fupi glad you enjoyed the music!

If anyone else is having issues with mouse sensitivity, there is a wrench in the main area ;)

fupi 2021-10-12 00:19

@salohcin894 Wait the wrench on the ground was an options menu? Really?? ;-;

zacharypinkham 2021-10-12 01:12

Wow, one of my favorites of the jam! Very well done all around, loved the art and presentation, I love that it had gameplay as opposed to just being a tour though surreal imagery, and the music/sound design was SPOT ON. Altogether easy 5 stars from me!

angela-he 2021-10-12 17:33

This was just incredible, the music was awesome, the color schemes were great, I felt like I was transported to ten years ago when silent exploration games were a thing; I also love how the controls are taught to you in the beginning, how their UI won't disappear until you've done the specific input. Also the "Lucid Dare" pamphlet thing is such a nice aesthetic touch and guide. I miss LSD Dream Emulator now, maybe I should boot it up haha. Great job!! :)

jitspoe 2021-10-13 06:23

Glad you put the diagram on the page to show how everything was connected! Even with that, it took some effort to track everything down. Happy you had a nice outro/credits screen to make it all feel worthwhile, but I feel like it's a shame that many people probably won't play long enough to see and hear it. Some really groovy music. All in all, it was a memorable experience, and also inspirational. For a while, I've wanted to make a game that was very surreal visually, but I couldn't figure out quite what the gameplay would be. After playing this, I realized that simply exploring bizarre worlds and how they connect can be enjoyable. Oh, I did notice there was one world -- the one with the flying shrimp and lava(?) -- where you could fall off and not get reset, but that's pretty minor since you can reset by holding space.

Thanks for the experience!

samuel-fine 2021-10-15 16:32

Incredible. Just incredible.

vphyre 2021-10-18 03:00

Wow what a trip! Haha.

The graphics are very different and beautiful. I can't explain it exactly, but I found everything visually pleasing. Everything seemed simple but very well produced at the same time. Perhaps the chosen artistic style fit perfectly with the purpose of the game.

Sound is very good. Nice music and sound effects.

Gameplay is simple. The idea behind it fits perfectly with the interpretation of the theme. it's nice to try to find the exit of the level.

In general it is a game with a very different and interesting concept. Good job!

myles-doupe 2021-10-19 20:44

This is my favorite game of LD49.

jerem-watts 2021-10-20 14:26

Hey for the part with the four pink hands around the white hand, you wouldn't happen to know the name of the vst you used for that would you? It's... so pretty...

vivyhasadream 2021-10-21 04:51

very experimental. I don't know how you related so many scenes together, but it's amazing.

salohcin894 2021-10-21 11:37

@jerem-watts Glad you asked, so I have a chance to plug Pianobook.co.uk! It's full of free, community made Kontakt instruments (and some are even made for an open source sampler called decent sampler).

The one I used is called Micah's Choir:

https://www.pianobook.co.uk/packs/micahs-choir/

The only caveat being you need the full version of Kontakt to use it. It's worth getting if you haven't yet, but wait for a sale, it goes on sale for 50% quite often.