nrankin13 2023-05-01 22:54
I like the various art styles. I don't necessarily *get* it, but you have the visual style nailed. Also, the music tracks are bangers.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD53 → Sunshine Trial
By ardorugus and Ramona Storm
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 1161 | 2.76 | 60 | |
| Fun | 1210 | 2.19 | 60 | |
| Innovation | 828 | 3.06 | 60 | |
| Theme | 1206 | 2.38 | 60 | |
| Graphics | 531 | 3.77 | 60 | |
| Audio | 339 | 3.61 | 60 | |
| Mood | 533 | 3.60 | 60 |
I like the various art styles. I don't necessarily *get* it, but you have the visual style nailed. Also, the music tracks are bangers.
The art is great! :) As above, I'm not sure I necessarily understand the game as such, but it's a really nice combo of art and music!
As @nrankin13 and @quanta-studios said, loved the art style. Maybe I would prefer a softer transition between scenes (both for music and graphics). Not sure how is it related to the theme as I don't quite get the story honestly :sweat_smile:
Very surreal! The art is quite impressive, and I'm not sure if I finished? THe game went to a black screen, the little invisible mazes were interesting to sneak through. Fascinating journey by our tad-kid
ALSO the artstyle reminds me a lot of Limbo, love that game and love that artstyle
I liked the art style. It kind of reminded me of Limbo. I was a little confused at first what to do for each level. I got a few levels deep though. The game kind of has a trippy vibe. Good job.
Pretty surreal. I didnt understand what's going on however :smile:
I didnt understand how to play, and the instructions were not in english :( the cover looked appealing tho!
@noam-blei Work with scene transitions, added to the study list, thanks! We're still playing with the style, this one comes from our game 7Deeps, a bit of Limbo vibe here, aye. As for the theme, it's there. Let's just say: **deliverance**.
@asmadigames Aye, it's the fade of the story. You caught and befriended the sun, keep the sunshine.;)
@paul-avallone trippy vibe it is). As our artist says, this one is a haiku game. Thanks for having this trip!
@achila-eranga-mohottige well, there's kiiking, and chasing the sun through the astral, to put it short. But it's just one of the possible meanings...
@nrankin13 Thanks for playing! And listening to...
@quanta-studios we tell the story, you decide what the... experience you just had). Thanks, we try our best to get our art and music playable.
@blue-pin-studio wait whaat? Which language are we using here, like, now?
**Controls**: space - move up, arrows - turn, click - wherever clickable. *After tired of looking at the tad kid swing and listening to the tune* **Start with Space, then click** on the Kid, then Play through the Maze. Can't move down when in the maze, for you can only strive through the tides, not turn them backwards.
Cool experience, dont really know whats going on though lol
Loved the artstyle and really liked the music in the start scene, very moody. No clue what was going on, but it was a nice vibe
Awesome and unique art style! The story and objective of the game is a bit abstract. The gameplay of sunrising with invisible blocks is fun. Overall a great game!
The game is crazy but its good!
Where are the clickable areas?
I didn't mean to comment twice, website was slow.
Cool art style, but I have no clue what it's about
@nuin well, whatever's there, it's up to you. We're trying to not tell it "in your face".
@teun-de-vries hope, the music in the maze and in the end were noticed also). The experience you play is the experience you choose to live through, so, the clue is up to you.
@jamesw you aimed to touch the sun, it ran, you followed to grab the sunshine, get the sun on your side. This is if put simple. But there's more to it. Thanks for playing and appreciating our art!
@smdaniels crazy but good, that defines it, thank you). Though, I played a baby with a scalpel here the day before, that was crazy for real.
@johnsensei Kid/Sun. Cursor changes, when clickable.
@kypello Thanks. The clue is inside you).
A bit more on our game in the first [devlog](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/53/sunshine-trial/$369537).
It was sort of confusing to figure out how to play. I don't know where the invisible walls in the maze were but it was pretty easy to solve through trial-and-error. I *think* I beat the game---it closed itself in any case. I'm not entirely sure what was going on but the art and music was really good throughout.
I've have no idea what was going on but it looked and sounded pretty. Found it engaging and enjoyed moving through the mazes.
You should make a sound a bit lower. This is nice strange surrealistic game, which make you think about flowers, sun. Love it.
That's something creative. Visuals and music really great. I think moving in mazes was a little bit too wooden and i did not have any idea what was the strange circle on the mouse for. I like that you leave the interpretation of a story to players! Congrats on your game :D
That was an interesting experience. I wasn't exactly sure how the game parts connected to the story parts, but it was still a unique idea.
@python-b5 if we develop further, mazes will be harder, a bit different. Anyway, within the concept of this haiku game, that was enough. You made it to the end, aye. You grabbed the... whatever you grasped in the end. Thanks for appreciating our art!
@thaprofesional many times in life we've no idea, that's ok. Thanks for playing!
@durkagames More sound work, normalized, less loud, better transitions, seamless if needed - aye, adding to the 2do list essentials, thanks! Love that our game made you think of flowers, especially. Such a peaceful vision...
@marcodeevil not smooth enough, I get it, will be working on that, thanks. We have some interesting thoughts on the maze levels now... Strange circle is the black sun (eclipse, eaten by a moth...). Shows when clickable. In this kind of narrative it would be a crime to tell what the story is. Some even saw a coitus in there, why the heck not. Thanks!
@indigoninja I vaguely described the connection in the 1st devlog. We wouldn't release this little game like this, if it had no sense as the whole story. Deliverance and transformation are the key words here. Thanks for playing!
I really liked the art style, concept, and music. But as most commenters, I struggled to understand what was going on :) At first I thought that some assets were missing. Still managed to figure out how to solve some of the level though. Good one
pretty cool game but a little hard to get into the game & get what's happening, looks really nice though.
honestly, it was a weird experience but I liked it! You definitely achieved a great mood with this one. Congrats!
At first I expected a lot, looking at the stunning first scene, but after that I had no idea what I was doing.
I guess you were trying to tell a big or emotional story, but when you decide to let the story be the main focus, you'll need to be sure that the gameplay is simple to understand. Now you just press a few buttons in order to let something happen.
The score is tremendous! It reminds me, probably because of the high-concept visual storytelling and booming music, of "Koyaanisqatsi". The intro scene is so great, the image will stay with me for a long time.
The gameplay is simple, but I did like the invisible maze mechanics-wise. The whole experience is definitely unique - a piece of interactive art. Thank you for this :smiley_cat:
I think I have to agree with a lot of the other comments when they say it's really interesting but I have no idea what's going on. I think the first couple of times I tried to play I ended up in a blank grid when I clicked on the character, but the third time I actually got some kind of minigame thing. Hard to say what the actual game was. Regardless though the artwork that I did manage to see and the music and sounds throughout were all really good. It's a shame that I ended up just transitioning to a black screen after a few minutes. I'm sure there was a lot more for me to see.
Overall a really cool game, what I managed to experience was good, just wish it was a bit more polished.
I did not understand it, it was too much for me. What a pity that I did not even understand the controls...
I had two hands on the keyboard (arrow and space bar) and there I was supposed to use the mouse too. It was not comfortable and I did not even know if the mouse was doing something or not. I am confused
But graphics and audio are great.
I still don't understand if the game is over or not =) The symbolism is too complicated for me. Looks good but I don't get it =D
@fabula-rasa wow, what a nice sophisticated review, thanks! At first, the maze was quite obvious, but it didn't tell the essential part of the story that way. We really appreciate, you got the idea. We'll be making a proper soundtrack, with the tunes from this game, shall announce when it's done. Thank you for your good words!
@blazerdom it's over, if you feel it's over. I really wasn't expecting the symbolism of this game to come out that complicated... but that's the fruit to chew through, analyze, etc. Thanks for playing anyway!
@skel3ton wait why? The description of the game doesn't tell you to prepare extra hand and erratically click wherever capable, rather tells in a kinda specific way the clickable areas (sun/kid) which only appear on the story screens. We wouldn't really make such terrible controls, although it seems, we did, at least when we deciced to narrate them, not just tell straightforward, what to do. Anyway, at least you managed to like something we did, thanks!
@pegasys so, the blank grid... with Space you move through Tides. Tides make you move backwards (it's actually falling there) in the maze. If the grid is blank, use space to get back and continue. First you encounter the abyss (mini-game), then you can avoid it later. The black screen with white is final. Same as the first one, you can listen to the music, click, when tired and decided, that's enough with this haiku game. We mindfully connected all the parts, this game is as it should be, however, we're thinking of developing a mobile maze-like game based on the overall idea of this one, and we're listening to all the players to get more approachable.
@ominusgalaxy44 funny thing, we tried to be as simple as we could, but it seems, even if we don't use deep text narrative it still comes out as a complicated trial. Thanks for playing!
@barce mildly esoterical with this one... But we set the mood, hooray!
@the-martijn we could make a quite basic narrative story with the visuals of the story screens (ones with the kid and sun in this one), but that was not our goal. Working as narrative designer in gamedev, I try to think of different ways of telling the story without text, using level design, mechanics, even the controls, to get the overall mood and the flow of the story. We designed this game the way it is thoughtfully. We may change or add something, if we're to develop it into a mobile game, but the idea here is not the big story of our own, but the even bigger story of whatever you get while playing. A little while ago we released a 30-min narrative story with similar art style [(check, if interested)](https://ardskape.itch.io/7deeps), so we really didn't want to repeat ourselves. Sunshine Trial is actually a test of our skills, before we venture into the professional development.
Very interesting art style and gameplay!
Nice graphic and audio
Nice art style and music behind it! Overall I had no idea what to do and got stuck on the grid a few times before giving up. Keep on making games!
@saffeine our gratitude.
@vantos3001 thank you!
@frozenfire92 light objects hint the way. Anyway, thanks for playing! We're developing more games (and big ones) right now;).
Very unique visual style :thumbsup:
Well I started the game because I found the swing art really excellent - I wish I had to discover more the world which was presented there and kept in similar style for the rest of the game. The music was also really awesome. The maze puzzle was interesting although I first thought there is a bug in the game because of the invisible walls. Maybe somehow it could have been hinted that walls can be invisible ... Also I would have sticked with either mouse control or keyboard control it was a bit confusing which one to use when. Anyway, great entry and super mood, congrats!
The invisible mazes was the game element I understood the most, and those were interesting. Other than that, felt very artistic. Liked the music/mood, good job!
I like the idea of a haiku game! This was a really nice experience, good job on doing something unexpected and thought provoking. I think the idea of spacebar moving you upwards while having to wait to go back down was really cool. The art and music were great and worked together well to make something unique.
@milkyjoe73 thanks!
@hotaloca this time we wanted to present a transforming narrative, for the game would carry a different idea (and a different LD theme maybe) if we'd worked only with the kind of swing art. We had the maze in mind, but not just any maze, so we used the thing of kiiking, which we discovered while developing the story of our previous game (7 Deeps on itch.io). You know, I never thought of these walls as invisible, for I made the labyrinth quite visible the first time, then it changed to fit the narrative. If I realized that these walls would feel invisible to players, I'd think of a way to tell it's not exactly like this. But it seems, there's still to learn to switch from narrative design to game design faster). I think you have a good point on controls, however - trying to think fast at the face of the deadline - I found no better solution than to use mouse clicks in the kid/swing/sun scenes, bearing in mind the desire to let players get as much image and music, as they wish, until the game transitions into mazes. Thanks for playing our game!
@praccen finally, the mazes, thank you! Alas, we had no time to add more challenges to mazes, but it seems that they were challenging enough. We have some interesting puzzle mechs in mind, which might use if we develop something maze-like further. Thanks for having these minutes with us!
@vidarn this kind of movement is based on the idea of tides, which flow through the maze. At first there was a threat that you had to pass down by balancing, which reminded of the way you swing (on the swings), but we caught a bug. I'd definitely give that Spacebar more showtime... well, time we lacked. Still, there's a haiku). Thank you for your good words, we're getting better with this friendly attitude!
That was weird! It's neat to see some very experimental games here. I followed the game to what I think is the end because I wanted to know what was going on. If I have to take something out of this game it's that we should enjoy our lives as much as we can, because who knows when it will all end and how sudden it might be. Interesting stuff!
@sodoj in the context of a 2-3 days jam - starting from this little game - I declare the idea of assembling and delivering the finished concept with the visuals, narrative, gameplay and sound that can get inside you, be remembered (at least, for a while). If, at some point, this doesn't bring the whole finished (or looped) experience, then it shouldn't be released. Well, we'd stick to this motto now, I think. More experiments to come. Thank you for playing through our little game!) We tried to put there many sense, working specifically with design approach. And the meaning that you felt there... we should enjoy our lives and develop to our best no matter what, or when, or where, aye! With the knowledge, that even when something is finished in the moment, it continues to the series of moments that may deliver the same narrative, although a different lore.
Check more on the game lore (the **kiiking** sport) here: [devlog.2](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/53/sunshine-trial/$370774)!
We thank LD community for this jam. Set prepared for the next one! [devlog.3](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/53/sunshine-trial/$371097)