Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD54 → Lucas and the House of Lost Souls
By binayas
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 621 | 3.51 | 32 | |
| Fun | 947 | 2.91 | 32 | |
| Innovation | 798 | 3.06 | 32 | |
| Theme | 840 | 3.21 | 32 | |
| Graphics | 738 | 3.31 | 32 | |
| Mood | 91 | 4.15 | 32 |
I actually really like the style. Gives me old Lucas Arts vibes. It did get a little confusing to know what I was supposed to do next, but that's the difficulty in doing both narrative and puzzles during a jam. You took on a lot but I would say you have an impressive achievement, especially for one person. Thank you!
There's definitely some interesting points here, but I'm not sure it's being presented in an entirely appealing package. The bright lightning + thunder jumpscares are pretty unpleasant and disruptive. As far as I can tell, there isn't much in the way of direct instruction in regards to controls (J advances text, I opens inventory, but I had to fumble for a while to discover what key does what). Some more context would be nice - what are the colored orbs that we are collecting? Why is Lucas a green rectangle when the rest of the art is depicted more literally?
I was only able to play up to the "power outage" section - not sure at the moment how to progress the game further. Even so, an interesting and mysterious start to a story.
Love the atmosphere! It is quiet and disturbing all the time in the dark. I got stuck in the three orb part: I placed all of them in and flipped the cross yet still couldn't get through, but I'm really curious about what could happen next :( Anyway, love it!
Pros: * You nailed the atmosphere - consistently gave off the feeling that I was being watched * Checking for changes every loop was a neat system; felt very unpredictable as to what would come next * Sound design felt very solid and unintrusive * Puzzles felt appropriate to the game's atmosphere; I personally don't think they need to be made harder
Cons: * Felt there was a bit too much walking; in particular, getting a puzzle wrong then requiring a second loop around slowed things down considerably * I was able to softlock the game by spamming the J button shortly after leaving a room that an orb was placed in (in this case it was the purple orb). This led to me picking up the purple orb and duplicating it, which then led to me being able to duplicate endless purple orbs by picking up & placing it. * I feel that J should be rebound to Enter; that button would feel far more natural.
Overall a game with a solid atmosphere! You did well with the 3-day time limit.
A little pixel game, good interaction and text audio.
Holy moly, I really felt the FAITH vibes from this one. You definitely nailed the atmosphere, even just walking through the house for the first time felt super tense. The secret ending was a really nice touch, too. I think the house was maybe slightly too open of a floor plan- some clutter or narrower hallways might have worked well. That's really just a nitpick, though, fantastic job! I'm rarely so scared by a jam game.
I like the story, but the game feels choppy at times and i feel like more could be done for the atmosphere
Nice game!
Some nice atmosphere here. Like that the simplistic art style makes everything a bit abstract and Surreal. Would make the rooms a bit smaller or at least make sure that important items are closer to the center path so that you don't have to go back and forth with the light to find stuff.
Fantastic atmosphere! Way spookier than it had any right to be. Puzzles were simple but solid and the looping concept was fun to explore.
Love it!
good atmospheric puzzle game!
The narrative and its execution were great. The gameplay on the other hand was a bit odd, there were no instructions on how to play so I had to literally go through my whole keyboard to figure out that 'J' passed the text and 'I' opened an inventory that I had no clue I had access to.
I spent a few times going around the house loop and in the beginning it was very intriguing and involved but as I kept walking with no other things happening other than eventually finding the orbs, which I had no clue what to do with them, I just got frustrated because I felt I was not making any progress and I WANTED to make progress because the beginning was promising. So I would suggest making sure that the player has enough feedback to know it is doing things right, even if it sounds or changes in the environment, exactly as in the start.
This does a great job of building up the mood and atmosphere throughout, which is impressive when the main character is a rectangle!
Some of the gameplay could be tightened up a bit in places, but this is a solid entry and one I really enjoyed.
Excellent mood and immersion in this one! The sound design works really well here, and the lightning flashes were a cool mixture of "that's convenient that I can see what's around me!" and "do i actually *want* to see what's around me?". The item descriptions help to accentuate the eerie setting, and I keep staring into the darkness and dreading what I might see next. Very well done, and I hope you continue working on a post-jam version and/or make more narrative puzzle games like this!
Very good use on the theme, and the atmosphere is so good. Nice work!
Amazing game! Awesome visuals