sean-esopenko 2022-10-04 00:47
The movement mechanic is clever, it's like a boat going over large waves at sea.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD51 → Sailing through life
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 671 | 3.43 | 67 | |
| Fun | 1042 | 2.82 | 66 | |
| Innovation | 320 | 3.61 | 65 | |
| Theme | 1184 | 2.46 | 66 | |
| Graphics | 543 | 3.68 | 64 | |
| Audio | 440 | 3.40 | 65 | |
| Mood | 226 | 3.84 | 64 |
The movement mechanic is clever, it's like a boat going over large waves at sea.
@sean-esopenko Thank you!! :D
Interesting game but needs a better page
Loved the writing, the end was a bit of a tear jerker (doesn't help that I'm tired from the jam). Audio wise there's room for improvement, you could make sure the music loops perfectly, as through a the course of a full playthrough the music restarts 4 or so times and it's quite an audible restart. You could also normalize it so it sits lower in teh overall mix, the SndFX get a bit drowned in the music sadly.
Overall really cool game, great writing!
Really liked the movement mechanic and the splashing water when sailing very fast :D And I think this song is now stuck in my head haha! Very nice narrative with some tear dropping moments in the end. There could have been more emphasis on the theme, but overall an awesome entry.
Had pleasure to discover a new movement mechanic after all these years! The theme song makes wonder. Interesting story too!
Really cool story
I kept competing against the other little boat
@huskitch thanks :D
@marjagil Thank you so much! And I have no idea why the audio started doing that but it only does it when it's run in browser.
@tobias-froihofer Thank you so much and the story moves forward every 10 seconds but always room to improve ofc ^_^
@cdmaniac Thank you so much -and am already planning a full game around that gameplay mechanic!
@sacha-soul Thank you!!
@jonrei lmfaooooo xD
A charming experience, and the sailing perspective a great method of maneuvering the boat.
That was really heartfelt, especially the part where all the ships return together. The gameplay was simple but unique, and I love the art (particularly those animated clouds)!
Loved the innovative controls, and then fell in deep thought from the message. A very nice experience, thank you!
PS: I randomly stumbled onto this game, but used to follow you on twitter years ago. Glad to see you're still making cool stuff! :D
@defilerzero thank you!! :D
@nataku92 ^_^ thank you so much!!
@auxc thank you so much for your kind words and glad you're still making cool stuff too!! :D
What an incredible charming game... I really enjoyed this very much. The idea of controlling the angle of the water itself to move your ship and collect the stars is just the most thinking-out-of-the-box thing I can image. Thank you for the wonderful experience!
@jag Thank you so much -very awesome of you to say! Really appreciate the kind words! ^_^
Nice Idea ! Well Done
The controls and visuals are awesome, both very minimalistic but look and feel very smooth and natural. The music is an interesting choice, I figure it would be a much emotionally heavier game if the music went for that. tho the current soundtrack gives the story a greater focus on acceptance and carrying on, which seems to be what you were going for.
Good game overall, I got 1490 in the end, which I assume is my high score
A really nice and charming experience, great work on this! Was a nice change of pace after playing some of the more chaotic games around :laughing:
A motion sickness warning might be appropriate here. Took me a minute or two to figure out what I had to do in the game play. Very unique idea and loved the music.
Lovely game, nice experience playing it. Congratulations for the unique movement system.
Wow you really know how to make people cry huh! I loved this game so much, thank you for making this. And thank you for having such a satisfying mechanic play with in the background to keep my entertained while reading through the story :)
The story you created is great. The art is amazing and fits in really well with the overall game. The nearer I got to the end the more I stopped moving to just take in the story. Great work!
@katreenashy thank you!
@kizilejderha I would say that's a fairly accurate analysis ^_^ and yes, that's the score and thank you so much!! :D
@hulien22 lol xD And thank you!!
@adriczero Will add a motion sickness warning to the page -hope it didn't give you motion sickness! Also thank you!
@gonzalol Thank you so much!! :D
@chilleh Awwww thank you so much for your amazing comment -that just made my day! ^_^
@glaikunt That's awesome to hear -thank you so much!! :D
Very unique game and cute graphics/audio, well done!
i've never such a mechanic before, it was a really good experience! music and graphics are nice, i loved the water particles when you do a big slope. thanks for the journey!
It was quite long for what it was, but it's a nice little experiment :). Audio looped perfectly for me btw!
So pretty! Cool main mechanic too with the rotation & star collection, goes well alongside the great little story :)
Think I completed it: Screenshot_2022-10-06 Sailing through life by Chase of Bass.png
Audio was fine for me too - music and sfx were great.
An novelty experience! At first I thought this could be a survival game and expected for new mechanics such as storm or vortex, but in the end I read a good story. Great work and I love the graphics!
Different idea , i didn't get how you make the theme. Cool game
Very interesting. Nice game.
Very charming and unique game! This game really shows the power of good writing in games, the story was quite touching. Liked the overall look and mood of the game aswell. Good that you have the stars to collect aswell to keep you busy while having the story as the main focus. Even though I liked the music, it felt like it didn't really fit well with the feeling I got from the game, but that might just be me. Overall great game!
This game really touched me especially after this horrible year. It was impressive how you were able to make an amazing atmosphere using very little. Excellent writing! It seems that you put something very personal into it. Music is beautiful and fitting too, even though it felt more optimistic than the overall theme. Anyway, really loved this! Easily one of my favorite entries I played this jam; you don’t see many games that would focus more on the storytelling, so I really enjoyed it. And I too hope we will all be together again, one day.
Got 1150. :)
Screenshot 2022-10-06 at 22.45.15.png
Really nice simple design, good job! I enjoyed swishing the boat around :)
The music was nice (is there a bit of microtonal in there?) although it got a bit repetitive after a while -- I'd suggest building a few calmer bits into the song to pad it out :)
The chill gameplay works so well leaving the other part of your brain soaking up a story. Loved the minimal art and vibes. About half way through I realised you can't fail if you hit the edges! Would have scored much higher and relaxed even more :)
Great innovative little game.
sailing.png
I really like the concept of "introspective narrative experimental thing". Precisely because I was hooked on the idea and I see potential in it, I would like to give a very detailed criticism. I hope that in the future this will make the works even more expressive.
It seems to me that in your work the gameplay exists separately from the story. No matter what I do, the story will go on by itself. Games where the player contemplates rather than acts exist. However, in this case it is necessary to give more content that works according to the laws of cinema or painting. That is, there are more animations, sounds, visual development – like in a cartoon. In your case, it could be not only the appearance of boats, but also, for example, a change in the weather and the state of the sea.
Sometimes your gameplay and story interfere with each other. For example, when I played for the first time, I did not read the beginning of the text, because I was impressed by the rotares of the sea and it was interesting to collect stars. Then I restarted the game and started reading.
I understood your idea that you control the ship and read at the same time, but specifically your mechanics make player concentrate and "aim". It distracts from the text. (Distracts some of the players, at least). Usually, in games with simultaneous actions, an important narrative is not put in parallel. For example, in "Brutal Legend" during an intense chase on the bridge at the beginning of the game, where you need to concentrate, the characters say information that is additional. The player will not miss anything important without it. (This is done because there are a lot of actions: drive the car with maneuvering, attack, dodge enemy attacks.) And in the game "Psychonauts 2" in interactive cut scenes, where information is IMPORTANT, the player is left with very, very simple actions (jumps and move) and does not give a goal at all ... And in both cases the story is told in parallel with the actions through audio.
In your case, the game would be improved by replacing text with audio. Listening and acting is much easier than acting and reading.
Or the second option is to visually include the text in the level design. I.e., for example, player float along the level from left to right and see lines of text.
It would also be very cool if the player's actions developed the plot. You can make it so that by collecting stars, you open new replicas and move further along the story. So mechanics and history would become one.
Unfortunately, it is difficult for me to fully experience the story due to the language barrier (I use automatic translators). But I really liked the theme. And also you have absolutely charming art and music. The work itself is poetic and really is a work of art. 💚
man its just aneat concept and also the art is soo cool, it gives you a non describeable mood wich i loved while playing this game :) seems to be a cool idea for smartphone game :)
I love the simple mechanic but incredibly unique visuals with the boat sliding. I loved all the different boat designs. I noticed that only your boat has a reflection I thought this was an oversight at first but then I realized it was there for symbolism. The music was really good but I don't think it matched the tone of the story. I think maybe if it started off more somber and then turned into the current song towards the end it would be more impactful. Really beautiful story. Fantastic job! boat.JPG
I don't want to repeat to much of the other comments, but one thing I wanted to add :) I really wished that you could turn the ship around, like under the sea. So that when I tilt the sea to 90°, something magical could happen.
Idk, don't listen to me, I just enjoyed it :)
Very interesting small game. The movement mechanic feels very fresh to me and it really took time to get used to it. That does not happen often nowadays so this is a clear achievement for the game!
The movement gave me a little nausea though. It is hard to do rotating movements without someone getting nausea so I would not blame the game for this.
As for the story, it was a bit hard for me to focus on the progressing story and collect those stars at the same time. So I think the game lost a bit of its magic by combining these two things and it was hard to focus neither of them.
But overall, I really like the innovative ideas in this game. Great work!
I love the graphics, the music, and the touching texts that you've created. I'm not sure if I got it as you expected, but projecting memorial subjects to the ships floating around on the sea and making them fading in and out, such an image just brought me an outstanding experience. It also made me recall so many things in my life.
I love the last sentence very much:
> Most importantly, keep making new ones.
The ship models were wonderfully done. The writing was beautiful. The mechanics were surprisingly engaging. Solid entry!
Really unique control scheme! I liked how the story interacted with the other boats that you could also control, nice little touch!
I adore little introspective story games like this! The boats where well drawn and I really like the mechanic of tipping the sea to control the boat. Music is great as well and hits the sweet spot of fun on the sea but introspective. Overall this is a unique and great entry! Well done!
The mechanic here is really surprising and fun! I don't know if I was supposed to avoid or collect the stars, but I still enjoyed it. The story is also beautifully written. Although I found the game a bit long. After a while, the narration felt slow, and I was mostly waiting for the next sentence to come. Still, it was a sweet interactive vignette!
@helzinko thank you! :D
@amarokczukay thank you -I love trying to come up with new mechanics!
@exilegl Thank you! and thanks for sharing your score -nice!! :D
@ggross I wanted to do stuff like that but didn't have the time lol and thank you so much! :D
@megafocus Thank you and it says in the desciption Theme: the story moves forward every 10 seconds
@cope thanks!
@theheheo thank you so much! And I was kinda going for a weird bittersweet sailing vibe with the music -kinda part happy and part sad -but I'm sure given more time it could be improved and fit better
@dzejpi So sorry you had a horrible year. Loss really, really sucks. I hope things get better for you soon! And you are correct about the story coming from a very personal place. Have experienced a lot of loss of loved ones -too many. Anyway, thank you so much for your kind words, sincerely appreciated! (Also awesome score!) ^_^
@leekanarchism Thank you and microtonal -yes, kind of -the actual note is on key but the synth instrument itself kind of drifts to give it that almost off key dream like quality. I agree it did get a bit repetitive and would have definitely done more but I was very short on time on this jam -in fact I spent the first day and a half making a different game lol -Anyway thank you for the kind words! :D
@choo Was definitely going for a chill experience -thank you so much! :D and nice score! :D
@shumarie Thank you for your detailed criticism! I did actually make it start storming a little bit in the middle -light rain and bigger clouds but it wasn't very dramatic and easy to miss. . I actually would have loved to do a lot of what you described, but I simply did not have enough time. I was actually making an entirely different game and started over in the middle of day 2 to make this game -but I might polish this one up after the jam and do a lot of what you described! Thank you for sharing all your insights and really appreciate your kind words! :D
@merlinperlin I am definitely going to explore this further and would like to make a spin off smart phone game from this! And thank you for the kind words! :D
@paul-avallone I wondered if anyone would notice that the ghost ships had no reflections -good observation! ^_^ And you might be right about the music -may have to go back and experiment with it more! Thank you so much for your feedback and kinds words and also woooah i think that is the highest score! nice! :o
@fribolin Dude! I actually made a fork of this project with something like that -it kind of let you play upside down in the water -defintely something I'm planning on going back and experimenting with! And thank you glad you enjoyed it!! :D
@nash Thank you so much! Sorry about the nausea though! And you might be right -given more time there is a lot I would have done differently. Really proud/happy with the gameplay mechanic and planning to explore it more- so means a lot for you to say all that -thank you! :D
@wizcas ^_^ that is a really awesome comment -meant a lot to read that! -thank you so much!
@langotriel Solid comment! Sincerely, thank you!! :D
@nardandas Thank you! Thought it would be kind of cool being able to also have them act like a bonus to get extra stars for a few seconds. ^_^
@pixelydian Thank you so much for your kind words!! :D
@itooh Funny you say that -originally I had it so you had to avoid the stars and it was much more fun to me that way -but wanted to make it a more chill experience. However, am already messing with a spin off sort of game that is a more arcadey -game play focused use of this mechanic. The narration felt slow to me too -especially on the shorter parts but was trying to stick to the ten second theme there -probably should have approached it different but ya know how game jams are lol Anyway thank you so much! :D
Nice and chill. Had a good time just vibing. Took me a little long that it should have to figure out I could collect the stars. Great job!
Interesting game mechanic! The presentation is pretty good, with nice and cohesive visuals, art, and music. The boats are particularly cute and I really liked the water splashing effect. I wanted to keep playing to see if there was an ending but eventually it got a bit too boring. And while initially the dialogue was intriguing, it got a bit long-winded and after some time it just felt like it was just stalling for time. That felt a little frustrating. The game mechanic quickly got repetitive so the dialogue was the only thing carrying the game through, until it wasn't :D Overall very good presentation and a well polished game that's just missing a bit more engagement!
I noticed there are a bunch of comments already, so please excuse me if I'm repeating some things that others have already mentioned :)
Such a sweet message! Have you played Spiritfarer before? The gameplay is very different, but the narrative message is right on par with this game. The dialogue here + the ending was so touching! ToT
My score was 1120, and I continued collecting stars for several minutes after the end of the story before realizing my score wasn't going up any higher haha. I think one thing this game would benefit from would be additional obstacles. I actually thought there would be some sort of penalty if my boat went off the edge of the screen, which made for slightly higher stakes in the star collection, but my playstyle changed after I realized otherwise.
Additional suggestions unrelated to gameplay - I think it'd be so cool if the sky scenery at the end changed and sunlight came out! But I totally get if the scenery stayed the same while all of the boats were out because it's still sends a message like your loved ones are helping you through hard times.
Overall, the gameplay was intuitive and easy to pick up! Great concept, and congratulations on your game!
This felt like quite a personal story and was quite nicely told in conjunction with the appearance of the various ships. Really liked the simple artwork as well, and the way the different ships are conceived. The actual gameplay, although interesting, seemed to be totally separate from the story, which was a shame. Tying it in more closely, perhaps collecting stars to uncover the next part of the story, would work better for me personally I think. Really nice bit of work though - thanks for sharing.
hsdsg.JPG nice game！
Despite it being about the story, I enjoyed messing around with the movement and stars for a good bit of it. Nice little narrative game that I wasn't expecting to come from a jam. Good work!
Cool entry, nice graphics and sounds, really like the story and the message behind it, good job!
Interesting mechanic! The music is addictive too!
Cool mechanic. Gameplay distracted from the story, so I think you would either want to commit to one or the other, either focus on the gameplay or have it more story focused. Dig the minimalist graphic style.
Played on my stream: www.twitch.tv/zedkraze
What an entry filled with so much soul and love. The art, music, mechanic, story, it was all great :smile: keep on making games!
I got 1230
Sorry it took me so long to get back to your game! This is super cute!! Very peaceful as well, which I love. It's a relaxing and cute story, really cool to get done in a game jam :3
Overall, well done!