fedir 2022-10-04 12:22
Good game but... for me not enough action
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD51 → Enter The Black
By tomssuli, duckman, SilentLegion and koalanalle
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 749 | 3.34 | 31 | |
| Fun | 784 | 3.15 | 31 | |
| Innovation | 799 | 3.08 | 31 | |
| Theme | 490 | 3.75 | 31 | |
| Graphics | 864 | 3.15 | 32 | |
| Audio | 446 | 3.39 | 31 | |
| Humor | 755 | 2.50 | 29 | |
| Mood | 433 | 3.60 | 32 |
Good game but... for me not enough action
the level must've taken a while to build, really like the consept of this game and the lore at the start, I'm a fan of horror games so this was quite a ride for me, tho I didn't like how there is no sense of objective I didn't know what to look for untill I found the gas can, then I knew I should head to the maintenance area which is likely to have a generator. anyway I did enjoy dodging the monsters as I ran in a panic lol. survived for so long untill a monster spawned right at my position and killed me :cry:
The idea sounds very interesting, and I would like to play it. Could you possibly link a WebGL or Linux-Runnable version?
@0x-void-x0
Thanks for playing and reviewing! Hovering over missing inventory items should tell where they are found and you find the referred places in the map. Still it takes time to search around, we might have exaggerated on the level size.
You should be able to see the monsters kinda glitching into existence for couple of seconds when the lights start to flicker, so they shouldn't surprise you. That's the cue to hide fast :cold_sweat: Also, they stay put when the lights are on and emerge at the same place where they phased out.
The intro is really good!!! The gameplay is okay, and I had fun trying the game. But the gameplay also felt a bit slow, and too a real long time to find anything. But anyway this is still a pretty fun and a bit scary little jam game.
Solid build! (the walking speed is a little slow for me :p)
@jk5000 Nice that you liked the presentation and mood of the game. This time the mood was what we were going after :) ...In the end we prioritized making a full working game and didn't have much time left for balancing the speed and AI, so the game was left a little too slow.
@kevin-du We actually pondered within team if there should be separate sneaking button, so walking could be faster compared to sneaking and running would be even faster, but majority of our team thought that extra button would probably be too much clutter for so simple game...
So I made the worst of both worlds and made the default speed to be between walking and sneaking.
Running was also left a bit slow because enemies had to run faster than the player and the current enemy AI wouldn't behave on too high speeds and I didn't have time to tweak it.
The game is definetely scary, I like it.
Of course first of all this cutscene at the beggining really gives you a good start for the story.
Sounds are also really good. When I heard monsters for the first time I was really shocked.
It wasn't easy to navigate at first, 'cause there wasn't Player's position on the map, but with time I got used to it.
I think the game may have a potential for something bigger and story-related.
Reading the game description alone gave me the chills and the actual gameplay follows through! The footstep audio and the lack of background noise interestingly makes the game creepier. Well done!
Even with simple graphics and limited audio it is a decently enjoyable game, although it falls prey to classic 'can't run' trope of horror games haha. Nonetheless, very nicely done!
Great game! The cut scene gave me the right mood. First I was only walking and thought wow, this is slow. But then I saw I can run and rushed through the floors. It was fun to sneak around the monsters. But I think the map is way too big. I couldn't get all the items although I played it multiple times.
@helen Thanks for the nice review! I take it the hints about the general location to find the items were not enough? I also think we made the map a bit too big. Also the items have multiple possible positions at the expected location for the replay value.
@jirrev Thanks for the feedback :slight_smile: And yes - The running is a double sided sword, it might get you to safety when timed right, but you get killed if you run recklessly... Good thing the monsters listen only when it's dark.
Really nice concept. The darkness really gives me an intense experience at first, but it really slow-down your game pacing later. So it takes quite long to find something new and figure out what to do or where to go next. Could be nice if the mini-map has more details such as; your location, next objective, interactable items, etc. Anyway, great job!
kudos for the cut scene at the start :D
The monsters were cool looking and very intimidating, I really liked the minimalist sound design and the whole presentation was killer.
The intro sets up a good horror mood. Walking around the place that keeps getting dark gives me the creeps. The monsters were nice. I thought the walking around was a bit slow and the gamemap is very big (as mentioned above). Some better indication of what to do next would have been nice; the hints on the items were not enough for me to actually find most of them.
scary game, various things need to be adjusted eg player movement speed. it has good potential
Full of fun Game. audio was Amazing
Nice game!) It's similar to my old games when I was a child. I create same dark mood, top-down and something from minecraft (inventory). Your game is very cool! Good Luck!
I was looking forward to an entry with some AI generated stuff, well done. Suits well here
As others have said, the intro is pretty cool. It's definitely a good application of AI art -- in particular, there is no need for the different pictures to actually portray a wholly coherent location, so it's even good if they display something a little off or a little strange, as that's exactly what the hospital is supposed to be.
I like the variety of mechanics in the game. The fact that picking up the screws gives you a new ability was totally unexpected, for me, and although I didn't catch on super quickly, it's cool that running makes sounds that alert enemies to your position. I played twice before reading carefully enough to learn that mechanic, and on my third playthrough I was able to win with that knowledge.
The walking mechanic then actually feels pretty good. Creeping by the spiders and praying not to alert them really just seems to work very well.
The degree of suspense when I did reach the end of the game was pretty intense. I certainly did not want to win at that point. I was sort of thinking that the generator switch would be the end (the lights would turn back on, permanently, and then I would be basically done), so it was a surprise and a last dash of suspense when that was not the end.
I think this game makes really good use of the theme. I got so attuned to the light on/off cycle -- I could feel the limitations of my movement, and I really started to pay attention to them.
In my winning run I had two really close calls where I almost got eaten by the spider (or succumbed to the darkness, I guess). That was very intense as well.
The level design in this game is worth discussing, I think. First, I think that putting the map near the beginning is a pretty good move, although I totally missed it in my first playthrough. Second, I found that the knowledge of my early playthroughs was really helpful for my later ones, as it is actually pretty hard to find stuff in the map. Some of the items were also hard to spot on the background, such as the oil filter--that one I had a very hard time finding. One thing I think that made it harder is that areas that are marked as one particular area on the map are often not made of one connected room--you often have to go all the way around long hallways to get between two sections of an area. This means that it is very hard to just go from area-to-area and collect all the items in that area.
But this is of course a very effective decision. This kind of navigation is so awkward that it really effects the feeling of the game--and it definitely contributes to the suspense and the horror, I think. It does get frustrating at times though. :sweat_smile:
One thought I had about a small-ish change to the level design would just be to have, say, a couple different floor-tile-types or something, one for each area. That would at least make it easier to tell where each area starts and ends--I had a really hard time finding something in the storage area, for example, because I didn't really know that the right side of the map was the storage area.
The number of items required to win is, I think, a reasonable balance, but it is definitely difficult to win. It is very easy to lose, and it takes a lot of time investment to get back to the same point, and each second is kind of stressful due to the ease of losing. So, if I were to have lost in my third run, I probably would not have started another one.
Little note: after winning there is a "high scores" screen but it didn't seem to do anything.
But yeah, overall I think this is a pretty darn effective horror game. The walking is good, the ten-second-cycles are some of the best application of the theme I've seen yet. And, the level design is contorted in a way that is extremely effective. So, good job! :smile:
I liked the graphic style