velvetlobster 2023-05-02 01:42
I like the concept of starting a story in a boat. The horizontal movement at least in this mac were very laggy, but managed to get some of the story through. I like the slow burn, but the text could run a bit faster.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD53 → Deliver Us, Brother
By oter
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 1114 | 2.91 | 26 | |
| Fun | 1203 | 2.33 | 26 | |
| Innovation | 807 | 3.08 | 26 | |
| Theme | 810 | 3.66 | 26 | |
| Graphics | 747 | 3.43 | 26 | |
| Humor | 973 | 2.34 | 24 | |
| Mood | 669 | 3.43 | 26 |
I like the concept of starting a story in a boat. The horizontal movement at least in this mac were very laggy, but managed to get some of the story through. I like the slow burn, but the text could run a bit faster.
The opening dialogue is insanely slow.
Yeah I added text animation in the intro pretty last minute, it could definitely use some tweaking. Especially considering that's the first thing a player sees :face_palm:
Love the mood. Didn't love that I sometime sank my ship with no obstacles in sight :( The one change to audio I'd like to see is making the water more wave-like opposed to a waterfall.
Really interesting game! Even though there wasn't a lot of story, the premise was enough for me to be invested in making it across and worried during the interactions! I made it though - phew. Cool style on the faces, and intriguing tidbits about the world it takes place in.
Interesting game. The narrative is intriguing, I kind of want to know more about the game world you've created. The opening dialogue was a bit slow to reveal itself, but it did a good job of setting the scene. There's a very moody atmosphere you've created, with the lighting and scene-setting doing a great job of making me feel very nervous crossing to Phiatho (even though I only ended up talking to two people in my first playthrough).
I'm in two minds about the fixed viewpoint. On one hand, fixing the camera so it only looks straight ahead amps up the tension -- I kept wondering if something was going to jump out at me from the sides. But on the other hand, I want to be able to look around as I travelled.
This is a great effort. Well done on your first LD jam game!
The mood really fits the game and I think is pretty impressive! As other people stated, the opening dialogue is pretty slow but the story is interesting. I wish that the game didn't restart when you wrecked your boat as it can be tedious getting back to where you were. The title made me intrigued to find out more! Well done for your first creation!
Thanks for the feedback! I’m glad that I could share my vision of the world I imagined for this game’s setting, and that even in this small game I could convey a sense of vastness expanding beyond what is being played.
@rose I’m glad you like faces in my pen sketch to vector art style. I’m not much of an artist, but for 2d that’s what I’m most comfortable in.
@the-neon-shark @coatline I agree about the boat and given more time I’d definitely add some sort of health system so you could hit a few rocks before going down (and probably a repair/upgrade system with it).
For the audio, I wanted the sound of water lapping against rocks and a boat, probably similar to what you’re thinking. Too many of the tracks I checked out were simple “waves on sandy beach” type recordings so this was the best I could come up with. Audio was a stretch goal anyway and only added in the last hour or so.
@digital-bacon was wondering if anyone would bring up the viewpoint/camera. I originally wanted to make a first person perspective and just have the boat be something you interact with to move. I scrapped that and tried for a couple hours to make a follow cam where you can still look around, as you describe, but I’d never made a third person camera before, much less one like that, so in the end I had to settle for a fixed perspective. The camera was meant to follow the boat and keep the whole thing in frame, but at some point it ended up over the bow and I gave up trying to fiddle with it.
kind slow at first but nice mood
It's quite hard to understand how to play
@nikolai-marian-sokolovskii Oh no! Is there anything in particular that was unclear/confusing?
Not the worst, a bit bland though.
I made it to the other side and got arrested.
@game-addict Thanks for the honest feedback, sorry you found the game on the bland side. In the week since the jam I've thought of a lot of stuff I could have done better, but it's been a good learning experience.
@Agrimes Thanks for the comment, I was wondering if anyone had seen that ending.
Great atmosphere and mystery you've managed to evoke here, and excellent work completing your first Ludum Dare! The soundscape and ambient wind with no music works well, and the evening lighting with crawling shadows and sweeping searchlights is great for building tension and immersing the player. I love the idea of a stealthy delivery-by-water game, almost like playing as Samuel in Dishonored.
If you decide to add more features after the jam, it would be cool to have a system where you can choose to move faster but the splashing would alert sentries at a longer distance. It could also be a lot of fun to manage your boat's inventory and keep a certain amount of cargo earmarked for bribes when you do inevitably get caught. All in all, this is an impressive entry for being so new to coding, and you should be very proud of your hard work!