FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD49 → Unstable Prison

Unstable Prison

By barrier

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall3413.3267
Fun4033.0068
Innovation3093.2367
Theme2353.6668
Audio3142.9768
Mood893.7168

Comments

aquachain 2021-10-04 07:13

Great idea. Heavily inspired by Portal. (and a bit of Qube) But i cant collect more than one Ball. After i collect one i stuck and cant move back.

barrier 2021-10-04 11:26

@aquachain the hint is to hop like a bunny ;)

devparty 2021-10-04 11:36

Awesome game! I really love the concept, but the game is VERY hard. I tried to beat this 6 times, but just couldn't get it.

haydads 2021-10-04 11:41

Cool game. Has a very jump scare vibe. Struggled with collecting multiple lights, but was getting better after each attempt. Nice Game!

loig 2021-10-04 12:06

Good idea. Very difficult, though. I did not find how to avoid the "monster" and it killed me at each and every try.

barrier 2021-10-04 12:37

@loig The trick is to remember where you ran into it and then just avoid that location.

bridgeonastick 2021-10-04 13:07

It was a pretty eerie game. The sound the lights make when near them is unsettling, and I didn't know at first that the floor disappears from under you. I think it could have been explained better instead of a bunny every time you die. Very hard, and the monster made me jump, did not expect that!

caudatecoder 2021-10-04 13:16

Wow, that was an experience!

I really enjoyed it. Reading credits after all this pretty fun and relaxing too, nice touch!

It was too hard to react to ghost if you go straight in their direction, so I had memorize their location. There could be more warning there.. maybe you could here them a little earlier than you see the red light. Dunno. The game is short enough for this to not be a big issue.

Amazing job!

osh-studio 2021-10-04 13:26

Was scared that something was gonna jump out at me, good job with making darkly light space. Could use some spacial audio cues for when the ground is falling out beneath you. Solid entry :)

dekajoo 2021-10-04 14:02

Great job!

I really liked the mood of it. The game is challenging but doable that's a great balance you found.

flying-dog-fish 2021-10-04 17:15

Bunny hopping is hard. And than the ghosts get me.

shp 2021-10-04 17:31

the mechanics are a bit obtuse but there is an interesting game here

slimmerburger 2021-10-04 18:07

It's pretty difficult, but overall I really like the concept :thumbsup:

binaryprinciple 2021-10-04 23:58

I liked the concept, initially I thought, ok just be careful where you walk, then it turn into a memory puzzle. Good idea, my feedback is the following, allow me to recover tiles for a few seconds once a light is grabbed, so I have to have a quick memory reaction.

nshbae 2021-10-05 10:23

Nice game with insane difficulty! How about adding small map before play main part? Or flickering light for short time after taking light globe would be helpful.

barrier 2021-10-05 10:26

@nshbae thats a good idea, a little map in the starting room might be helpful. I did think about turning on the lights in an area after you pickup the orb but then decided against it to keep it more spooky :D

jk5000 2021-10-05 10:39

It was not super clear what was happening, but when you first understand it, it's pretty fun.

chesschaser 2021-10-05 13:36

Great creepy atmosphere! I kept falling off the platform lol, but I think its really cool! Great entry!

justcamh 2021-10-05 16:13

Hey matey, thanks for submitting the game to the stream, it was a good time! Here's the vod if you'd like to rewatch; https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1167974254

betamorfosis 2021-10-05 16:41

The mood was so good. And the monster actually got me terrified. I always wanted to make a scary game experience but didn't quite got the hang of it, but yours was damn good. Liked the puzzle as well. Only got 2 spheres after quite a bunch of tries but enjoyed the ride :)

samuel-fine 2021-10-05 20:13

s p o o k y

barrier 2021-10-05 22:23

@justcamh Thanks for streaming it! I love seeing how players experience the game for the first time :D

uglyswedishfish 2021-10-06 15:56

Wow you really do jump like a rabbit! The one complaint I have is that the ghosts are too hard to avoid, it took me several attempts to finish the game. The credits are good fun too!

randomerz 2021-10-06 17:37

This game was super spooky! The sensory deprivation worked super well, and the ghosts/enemy scared me when I first saw it! The game is also super hard, I think maybe if the player controller/sensitivity was played around with, that would help the experience a lot. Great work!

erlioniel 2021-10-06 18:54

Hoping like a bunny in dark with an enemy you can't predict oneshooting you? Probably I'm too old for this, I didn't make it :crab:

barrier 2021-10-06 19:44

@uglyswedishfish @erlioniel The ghosts are always in the same spot, they start going for you if you go too close. So all you have to do is go around the spot :D But next time I will probably make it a bit easier.

weenie-walker-games 2021-10-07 01:49

Interesting game. I wasn't able to do much; took me quite a few tries to figure out to point at the ground. Plus, you know, I really wanted the cake that was a lie.

g5-leonardo 2021-10-07 09:26

Cool idea! When I reached the first light, and saw all the platform around me gone, I was like "WTF! And now?" Then I remember the Hop clue at the beginning and that was a strong "Ah-Ah!" moment that gives me a nice reward. Well done :smile:

gorypixels 2021-10-07 10:50

Very very moody and atmospheric piece with so little elements! That tiny twist of only being able to advance backwards is simple but genious! I do see some potential here for a full game! :D

christianb 2021-10-07 11:39

Pretty spooky! Learned real quick what the rules were after standing in place reading the text on the wall haha. And the ghosts actually startled me a bit, too! Also, the credits were pretty funny.

Well done!

yahya-alruby 2021-10-07 11:55

the game is somehow hard specially on the way back to the gate and there is not that much of audio in the game but still good work keep it up and you can go check out my game, rate it and give me your feedback but I warn you!!! it's a bit challenging so don't try it if your not an epic gamer :upside_down: :upside_down: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/49/the-unstable-battlefield

barrier 2021-10-07 12:06

@yahya-alruby I did it! Stayed out of range and beat all the levels, does that mean I'm an epic gamer? :)

ttu-hasan 2021-10-07 14:43

nicelyDone.loved it!

xinera 2021-10-07 14:59

Got me to jump I'll give you that! Jokes aside your game had a nice eerie atmosphere and although the gameplay elements were a bit confusing at times it was nice. Good job :)

flywolfe 2021-10-08 04:21

Man, that first jump scare really gets you haha. Really awesome atmosphere and I love the whispering voices in the background. This is really cool! Great job :D

squeg-inc 2021-10-08 15:27

I shat myself after I died to that first enemy, love it! Big fan of the mechanics and mood!

jka 2021-10-08 15:28

Nice game! The difficulty's well-balanced. It's challenging, but not too hard. Also, very scary vibe!

dilem 2021-10-08 20:41

That was a pretty fun game. I got confused at first and thought that the world was just changing around me, only to realise that the platforms could only be stepped on once. Also, the game was surprisingly scarier than I expected, well done!

ubershmekel 2021-10-09 07:08

You are on unstable dude :P Seriously though this game got me creeped out. Good job on the vibe. It felt deeply unstable and uncomfortable. Those mask things scared me every time. I was hopping like crazy. I don't know if this was a reference to the Star Trek "four lights" thing or not. But I felt it. It was fun doing those aerial maneuvers, trying to save blocks for later. At some points I was doubting myself if I got lost or not. My only complaint is that I wanted more. I mean, you obviously had some story-telling itch in the credits, so perhaps if the ghosts were to say something, or if there was a line that would show up when I die, explaining the lights or the situation. But the game worked very well as minimalistic as it was. Awesome experience, I almost forgot to mention - the sounds were terror inducing. Thank you for the game.

barrier 2021-10-09 08:34

@ubershmekel Thanks for the comment and I'm glad you liked it!

I did watch that star trek episode not long ago so I might have been influenced subconsciously by it :) I do have a story-telling itch but I never want to plan too much for these compo jams, you can quickly run out of time. If you are interested what I was thinking story wise: You are dead and stuck in some kind of hell or purgatory and you need to collect pieces of your soul (the lights) to be able to move on. The cake is just there as some kind of object of desire that guides you towards the exit. The ghosts have a voice line that they keep repeating but its hard to hear. They say you are weak and will fail.

commanderstitch 2021-10-09 14:50

ok. My kids and i enjoyed the atomosphere till the ghosts got us. Then it was very difficult to figure out the puzzle because you could solve the first one without the key hit given at the beginning of the game. The ghosts were very scary, the lighting extreme, and the blocks and jumping forgiving once we figured that part out. That is the key to win and once you figure that out, we were so glad you can jump over 2 blocks. xD We got the cake!2021-10-09 10_48_45-LDJAM49 - Unstable Prison by BarrierX.png

bloodycoin 2021-10-10 11:35

`AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA` I am done. Nice atmospheric game. Tooks several tries to figure out mechanics and memorize routes. And even though I expected the unexpected, they still got me good, HAhaha :D Well done with sounds to make game eerie enough, but still curious enough to play. Liked the rather indirect hint with hop. Also kudos for good jump controls, would be insanely hard without it.

chillertyp 2021-10-10 16:35

The cake is a lie!

jessefreeman 2021-10-10 16:52

Interesting idea. Was a bit hard to navigate but got a good scare when the monster or whatever that was attacked me.

tejasvonly 2021-10-12 00:26

Interesting Concept, Nice atmosphere, that first jump scare really had me.

nyxkn 2021-10-12 21:20

The ghosts were definitely VERY creepy. Really nice game though! Very well made and the atmosphere is really effective. Maybe some creepy bgm would have helped even more.

atmospherium 2021-10-13 16:03

Mood is perfect for this kind of thing - nice use of creepy whispers and a great jump scare. I like forcing players to jump to make it through, but the control acceleration made it feel a bit more difficult than I'd like. Obviously that's just a minor complaint for a Ludum Dare entry. The layout and monster positioning was done really well, it felt like it was difficult enough to have to pay attention, but not difficult enough to give up on. Great work!

rufson 2021-10-13 17:36

I give up :cake: :sweat_smile: tried so many times and haunted :ghost: made my psyche unstable. Scary&hard game :scream: I like the bg noise sound&mood. Grats!

james-7777 2021-10-14 20:04

Great mood and atmosphere! Although I did struggle to find my way around after finding the first orb.

fireslash 2021-10-16 20:08

Neat idea!

I found the mixture of low lighting and the floor just vanishing without any real vfx to be extremely disorienting.

I made several attempts but never got past the first orb.

The tutorial also doesn't really explain the mechanic; it looks like it's trying to, but as a new player I just think it's teaching me to jump over pits, not teaching me to hop to reduce the lost blocks.

Love the concept though. Nice work!

barrier 2021-10-16 22:18

@fireslash Yeah there isn't really a tutorial, I wanted people to just try and discover the problem and then how to solve it on their own :)

I probably should have added some effect for the floor falling though.

vphyre 2021-10-18 02:50

Interesting interpretation of the theme. I almost had a few heart attacks during the scares I got at the game hahaha.

The graphics are simple, but I believe they work with the game's proposal.

The sound is minimalist and very good. Helps set the game's horror mood.

The gameplay is interesting. it's nice to try to locate the lights as you run around the floor that will eventually disappear. This mechanism of disappearing pieces of the floor was an excellent interpretation of the theme. The possible scares that the ghost gives also help to keep the mood of the game.

Although I wasn't able to finish the game. I love horror and suspense games and would love to finish your game, but unfortunately I couldn't understand the ghost's behavior. Sometimes I just died without apparently having much to do.

If I may suggest, maybe you could add a little more "juiciness" to your game, or rather better audio-visual impacts to indicate when the ghost would arrive. Or maybe somewhere you could put some instructions on how to deal with the ghost.

But I recognize that the short time of a gamejam, can make our games lack some things. But no problem.

In general your game is very interesting, unique and creative. It was a very different interpretation of the theme. Liked it. Good job!

jin9310 2021-10-18 08:17

Ok you got me scared with some red thingy that jumped at me adn I was not expecting that at all :D Solid entry, however I can imagine to make it even spookier with some nice tense music in the background. Good Job!

barrier 2021-10-18 09:14

@jin9310 I wish I could add some nice music, but I don't know how to make music yet and since its compo, I had to do everything myself :D

barrier 2021-10-18 09:18

@vphyre Thanks for long feedback! The ghosts are always in the same position, no random, I was hoping the players would learn their position and avoid them. They have this static effect that increases in loudness the closer you are but I think it's probably not strong enough.

schwede 2021-10-20 19:00

Those red things (rabbits?) scared the **** out of me. Good job on that one. I really wonder if you would make the word shiny and colorful instead of dark and grey, if the theme of the rabbit might fit in better. I have the feeling that the game design could also apply to a colorful world. The blocks would be a heap of earth instead and they would fall apart. I see the game as a nice colorful platformer a la Mario with nice carrots. Congratulation to your game!

barrier 2021-10-20 21:25

@schwede It's not a rabbit, it's a spooky face of some kind :D monster.png

Yeah, you could make it colorful and not scary, but that would have probably taken a bunch more artistic talent than I have :D

rjmarzec 2021-10-21 10:58

A really interesting game that makes you think about your path and is super creepy to boot. My first run-in with that creepy monster thing made a jump a bit! Nice job on this one.

2021-11-08 10:44

Interesting game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 49 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/BCEhcn4pHX0