nishikku 2023-10-02 22:36
Cute & Creepy! Love the idea :scream_cat: :cat:
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD54 → Whiskers in the Dark
By dgo, diego-teran, Skoprimon, hanadulcet and Seth Johnson
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 101 | 4.11 | 103 | |
| Fun | 179 | 3.92 | 102 | |
| Innovation | 284 | 3.69 | 104 | |
| Theme | 678 | 3.49 | 104 | |
| Graphics | 170 | 4.26 | 104 | |
| Audio | 25 | 4.27 | 102 | |
| Mood | 28 | 4.37 | 103 |
Cute & Creepy! Love the idea :scream_cat: :cat:
Sadly there is a bug (for me) if i run right at the beginning scene i despawn and stuck at screen one..
I loved the overall theme with the graphics and sounds but couldn't get past the 4th level. Great work!
Really cool art and the cat felt good to move around. I liked the theme and how big a cardboard box must feel to a cat! great game
Beautiful art, gameplay is ok, but sometimes I felt the controls were not built for how fast we need to act/react to some of the screens. I did not make it as I got stuck in one of the later rooms because the controls for double jump don't work off walls. I kept expecting to refresh my double jump off the walls, and instead the cat just falls down.
To be honest I never figured out how to climb the walls reliably without rapidly jumping and inching my way up, so this might be a "me" thing. The cat felt really sticky when grabbing the walls. Perhaps if the double jump refreshed when hanging, or "jumping" off a wall gave more kick upwards to help climb, it would feel a lot better.
I liked the theme, and the art, music, lighting effects, even the sudden grabbing all were fantastic at setting the mood. I smiled at the bucket once I realized what to do, it felt very cat like and clever to solve those rooms. :smiley_cat:
Love it! The atmosphere is great and the gameplay feels pretty clean!
I really enjoyed the graphics (the art is beautiful!) and how the lights interacted with the environment and the cat! The game is cute and a bit creepy, which fits the atmosphere of being a cat that was left behind. The wall jumping is a bit hard to nail down, but there's a good foundation for a puzzle platformer here
Hey! Super cool game. I LOVE how dark and spooky it is. The controls feel very nice too. The little touch of climbing up a ledge if you hit the corner is so smart. Stuff like that just makes games feel much nicer to play.
The music is also INCREDIBLE - Like I could listen to this for hours :D
This is definitely the best jam game I've played so far! Good job :smile:
really enjoyed playing this! i found it just the right amount of difficult without it getting frustrating. the art is great & music was nice! i really liked how the exit for the room was shown by following the other kitty- nice touch.
Love this platformer!! Really stands out against the rest with a fun sneak mechanic and stylish art. Controls feel nice as well. Love love love. And I ran the mac build, which worked great (for as far as I could play because I am bad at platformers LOL)!
The sound effects is really enjoyable, I would jump several times just to hear the jumping sound. It's cool to stick to the wall and the motion graphics are perfect for the mood! whereas the opening CG is kind of long.
I really had some fun playing this, it reminded me of some levels in Rayman legends. The only problem I may have is how strict the light can be, there was a few times where I barely was touching it and the hand caught me.
But that's really a detail compared to the quality of the game. The graphics, the sound design and the gameplay is so well polished it really feels good to play it. Well done !
Awesome atmosphere and artwork. Love it. But quite tough to play. :smiley_cat:
That was really fun! Hahaha I was thinking such a cute cat and almost jumped out of my chair the first time I died! Great game! :smiley_cat:
This has an amazing artstyle and the play with lights, I absolutely love it! And the hand that grabs the kitten was genuinely terrifying. The hitboxes sometimes felt a little bit strict, but nothing I couldn't beat. Well done!
The game really isn't kind to us :D The atmosphere and gameplay are really interesting, well done on the rendering!
I love the art style of this game, and I could see this going far as a non LD game! Stick to it, great work!
Ooh, cute cats! Love the illustrations. That last level was tricky—took me way too long to figure out that it's just two lights going around clockwise. I _love_ the lighting effects, like the subtle outline on the cat sprite that adjusts based on where you are. The movement in some narrow spaces was a little weird, but it's in general a very polished entry!
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P.S. my headcanon is that those creepy hands that were grabbing the cats are actually people wanting to adopt or just pet the cat and it's only scary because the kitten doesn't know that
Amazing game, lovely graphics, very atmospheric audio. Great job!
Well made!
Love it, but waaay to scary for me haha! I couldn't finish it, my heart broke every time the thing lurking in the shadows caught me, poor little black cat! That's ironic because we also made a horrific game with light and shadows, but conversely ;) Very good gameplay, love the little cat, the sound design is very scary and very great & the lights reflecting on the cat is interesting! Good job guys
Okay I love the art, the sound is good, One thing I noticed though was that when the room resets the lights don't so it makes the last room a bit annoying because there is one time that the lights line up and every other time you can do everything right and just get grabbed anyway because it had the wrong timing of the lights.
Anyway, thanks for sharing. Have a good day.
a really good-looking game! kind of creepy kind of cute – the perfect balance ~ had tough time to play some levels but in the end it was worth it to give it a try!
I love the graphics and the atmosphere, it's cute and scary at the same time! It's a very amazing game !
It's cute, black cats are my favorite. I love the creepy atmosphere. Amazing game!
I like how there are no instructions needed, the levels just teach you what to do. Very atmospheric.
So creepy and so cute at the same time, I like the simple vibe it helps keep the mood creepy and its easy to know what to do, nice job
Cute game! Nice atmosphere. Good job voice actors on the meows!
Love it. Cats doing wall jumps makes so much sense! I couldn't work out how to get past the rightmost light in the room with three static lights - maybe I needed better platforming skills 😅
As I mentioned on Twitch, it worked for me on web on a Mac - it just took a while to load, like all Godot 4 games do on web
Um this was amazing. I wish I had more time to play. Wonderful mood, art, music, animation - great work!
Black cats are cool ^^
Love the game, please give Gnar and Zoe pets from me <3
Really great work on this one. Most games that use lighting are brutal on the browser. This one runs great. The audio is AMAZING great work.
Spooky and cute at the same time. Really liked the art/music, at first would of preferred if the cat didn't blend in as much, but after being grabbed by the pinchers it felt more right. Well done on the game!
Wow, this game is awesome. Im really curious about that ray system. Great job!
Very cool black game! The cat doesn’t blend in at all, it’s good that they made the light! And the idea is interesting that our hands take us away. Very beautiful!
Amazing lighting, great sound design, good graphics (although the animation, while good, just wasn't of the same quality as everything else which was jarring. It would have been a perfectly fine animation if lighting wasn't of so high quality). I really like that rim light on the cat. Gameplay was ok - it required a bit too many super precise jumps which kind of kills the fun - I wasn't able to finish the game. Level with the bucket was just too frustrating (although I suspect it might have been a bug? I was just flying through that second platform, instead of attaching to it). Really solid entry, good job!
Charming and technically impressive! Makes me wonder what the deeper story is of the game.
Very fun and different sort of game! The perfect amount of frustrating but rewarding when you finally get it.
Beautiful! Veeeeeery cute cat! Really nice simple art with the edge-lighting of the void kitty. The music and the art really fit well together to make a tense game! I really liked the bucket mechanic, it gave this just enough extra something to make the gameplay more interesting. Good job!
Great concept and a wonderful game, very atmospheric! The level design stands out to me bc it was very challenging and fun with a very satisfying gradual increase in difficulty. By the last level, I gave up completely and just ran through the level lolThe visuals are also stunning, The play with light was executed beautifully!
This genuinely feels like such a well polished, complete game! I am obsessed withe the visuals. The art, as well as the audio really does complete the atmosphere! Amazing job!
The wall-jumping might need a little polish but otherwise seriously an astounding game for the amount of time given - we had a similar concept for our game :D Love your graphics. It was sad to play because I own a black cat and I couldn't help but imagine him getting snatched all the time:') But that made it emotionally impactful too!
Absolutely love the artistic direction here, and the experimenting with light/shadow as the light source moves was really cool. Really polished for 72 hours, but agree with some others on wall jumping/clinging mechanisms. I think some way to control the power of your wall jumps would be good. It's also a bit challenging, esp. with some of the levels requiring a lot of movement and bringing you to the start if you fail, so I wish there was a way to skip levels just to explore more of the game and the world! Really want to see where the other cat will bring me, but I unfortunately don't have the time to go through all levels :(
Overall really well executed!
This was a great submission.
Art - great all round, loved the use of the larger pieces at the start to set the scene for the story. The aesthetic was nice and consistent, and the lighting was unreal - really, really impressive stuff going on there, including how it made its way into later puzzles (buckets, movement, etc).
Movement generally felt good - obviously a hard thing to totally nail down within jam deadlines, and I'm awfully spoiled by stuff like Celeste - but I generally felt competently in control of my cat. Difficulty was definitely there, but it was pleasantly challenging for the most part. I have a note on this below with audio however.
Audio - music was really restrained and professional. I love the slow evolutions and introductions of new instruments (from just the synth/percs, into the keyboard, into the flute, etc). Super minimal but really tastefully put together. I didn't feel like the character sounds were as strong (kind of bassy and... hard?) considering the protagonist, but they were serviceable. One criticism on audio implementation is that having died *a lot*, the strings lick got pretty abrasive after awhile. First time it happened, it hit beautifully - but as the game got more challenging, it started to sting a bit. I think in a game where the player is expected to die repeatedly and quickly (and you've managed this great with quick respawns), any visual/audio cues should be a little more restrained so the player doesn't feel too punished.
Oops, this writeup got huge.
Well done all! Overall killer submission.
Adorable game! Loved the presentation and general mood. It's a bold design choice to make a black cat character in front of a black background but it works really well here and reinforces the slightly claustrophobic feel. The audio and sound effects are great; my cat walked up trying to identify where the meows were coming from!
My only critique is the wall climbing/grabbing mechanic, feels a bit too sticky at times. I also found a bug where I just beelined to the exit on the last level and I passed despite getting caught by the hand.
@rosypenguin thanks for the feedback!
Lol that bug is easy to repro, Im surprised you are the first one that tried.
This was beautiful, I checked it out because of the post about the lighting. Its really cool how the lighting plays off the cat sprite
This is really well done! The movement immediately felt intuitive and "right" in terms of speed, jump height, animations, etc. I'm torn on the wall-hang mechanic. I loove how clingy you are when hanging on to the edge, compared to the slipperyness of other wall-climb mechanics, but it was frustrating to unintentionally stick when trying to climb fast. I wonder if that could be improved by only sticking to the wall while pressing a movement input against the wall.
For the light mechanic, I would have liked if it were an accumulating "detection" value rather than a binary one. Being caught after leaping through a tiny sliver of light felt bad.
I was really surprised how nice the music was. By the time it started playing, I had already heard the "you got caught" sound a dozen times and wondered to myself why it started quietly instead of with nice music. For the capture sound, perhaps some sort of sound like a subtle reversed noise swell would have fit in without becoming too annoying. But if it's something meant to be heard over and over, I think it shouldn't have pitched musical content, and ideally would have slight variations on each playback.
Thanks for sharing, I enjoyed it a lot!
Very cool graphics and music! Definitely gives me strong Mark of the Ninja vibes, which is great. I love the small details like the cat slowly sliding down the wall while hanging. This is the first stealth game I've seen in LD54, and it's very well done!
This game really surprised me with how well the player cat's animations done are, the little fall animation as you walk off a ledge was a nice touch. The lighting mechanic was really well done, I was very pleasantly surprised with how in-depth the idea was fleshed out. I also really loved the hand grabbing the cat as the antagonist, that was such a unique idea and it really surprised me in the best way. All in all great entry!
This game is really well made. There are some slight clunky controls when jumping and sticking to the edges, but I haven't played a better made game during LD54 and I've played around 50 of them. Really well done! 5 stars all around.
The mood-setting was really excellent on this one, from the lighting to the music and the sfx! I definitely jumped a little the first time I got grabbed, haha. And the introduction of an auxiliary mechanic (the bucket) midway was fun -- it would've been cool if there were more "interactable" auxiliary mechanics like that. Also the intro and ending animations were a great touch!
Made me want to go play Omori again :') Great job!
So sorry for the cat :cry: (I'm not that great at platformers)
The game is great though, lots of levels and pretty interesting challenges. Well done!
Great game, nice atmosphere! The Jump & Run mechanics work great. Love the lighting mechanic. Once the game froze while the hand catched me right when transitioning to the next level, but that was just bad luck I guess. The last level was tough, but not undoable. Good job!
Cute cats, great visuals, many meows! Really nice atmosphere and lightning. And just to give a little feedback, I got a little frustrated with the last level and just sped trough it and got to the ending cutscene before the hand reached me lol. Great game! Congrats on the entry.
nice game ,cute character, and the 2d lightning are aswsome
Excellent idea! It was scary to play, but a very cute kitten!
What a fantastic entry! You've elevated the platformer with style and charm. I enjoyed the little details, such as a cat's fixation with boxes and knocking things off of high places! And the shifting lights were a novel challenge. Well done!
I appreciated not being limited to 9 lives XD And the last level was definitely a tough one, but very rewarding! And what a beautiful credits theme song :)
I had a fantastic time playing this game! The graphics were nice, I love the kitten animation! The dynamic light system was cool, it really added to the atmosphere which was a perfect blend of cute and a bit creepy. The first time the hand came down and stole my cat I almost got scared haha.
The intro sequence was really well made and immediately set the tone for the game.
Overall I enjoyed this a lot, great entry!
Very nice atmosphere. The lights and music really adds to the mood, even if the levels art was a bit bland. Overall the gameplay feels a bit like any generic platformer. Getting caught also felt frustrating and it's very tempting to ragequit (which I did at some point :) Controls are a bit clunky and the light hitbox is very punishing. I think overall it's a solid entry, but I think it succeeds mostly because of the atmosphere and music, and the gameplay itself isn't particularly fun.
I really like the art music and intro! Super cute! In the later levels the light can get a bit unpredictable since it appears very fast. Super cool idea and congrats!
I saw your post on how you made those lighting effects, and I got very curious. I was not disappointed! It was just a shame that you try to avoid the light, and therefore dont get to see the cool lighting that much. I nontheless tought it was very cool. I might try to do something similar in one of my games in the future since I really love the effect.
Anyhow, the game itself was also a lot of fun. Especially the later levels, where you really had to sit still for a moment and figure out the patterns and the best way to get through. I think it was a good choice to keep the platforming not too complicated, such that the puzzley element became more important. Sometimes the wall jump was a bit finnicky, but nothing too bad.
I just could not really figure out the relation to the theme, but I dont care too much about that :P Really well done! I enjoyed this one a lot :D
The graphics are perfect, full marks, the sound too. I would add about 4 or 5 different sounds for when the hand picks up the cat, so it doesn't get repetitive. I would put it in ramdom or choose, each time the hand appears it chooses a sound, this would make it more attractive, because in certain parts I die a lot and the same sound, but this is a detail that I would do, it is not a negative point here. I only got stuck at the end but I don't know how to specify the stage number. It would be great to finish this game.
The mood is so scary. I was really afraid when I first met the black hand with the scary sound. and the graphic technology is great and really made the mood.
Holy cow, this is a great game, super cool atmosphere you guys created! I really like the graphics and art style, those dynamic lighting effects literally BLEW me away, absolutely top notch! The sound effects are also great, the cat's meows are so adorable and lovely. The last level was quite challenging but I managed to finish it eventually, and helped our precious baby reunite with his friends!
Although I like the wall jump mechanic but it was a little tricky to get around in my opinion. Especially when moving up 1-block stairs, I was going forwards and pressed jump, but the game detected that wall and hence made the cat jump towards the opposite direction, as if I was wanting to perform a wall jump. I suggest that you guys should add some kind of height limit when check for whether the player should perform a wall jump, or should only do that if the cat was not grounded. And one more thing is when the cat was hanging on the wall, holding the "S" or "Down arrow" key would make the cat slide down faster, this would make the controls more forgiving and flexible, I actually got caught a few times because I was trying to get off the wall by pressing jump or the movement keys.
Other than that, the game feels really polished and well designed, I appreciated the amount of effort you guys put into this entry, especially the dynamic lighting, in such a small time frame! Very astonishing job!
Good job on this one ! The game was fun, my only concern was about the jumping/climbing mechanics that wasn't realy fluid.
Dang that last level was tough! Took me way longer than it should have, but was still a good time. I see a ton of speedrunning potential with this. Despite being very cute and not having any real time pressure, I still felt a ton of tension, especially when I was near the end of a level and worrying about having to be reset to the beginning. Very well done.
This was so cool. Felt super spooky and atmospheric (and the poor kitty cries!) and the way you played with light movement was so magical.
What a masterfully designed game! I love how you made the absolutely least threatening situation possible seem scary just by setting the tone with the art direction and sound design, and the juxtaposition of cute and creepy. The little puzzle-like levels and tight controls, like the way you stick to walls instead of sliding down them, perfectly complemented each other, every decision in this game felt very intentional. I'm very curious to how the collision with the lights worked too. One thing I thought was kinda weird was the jumping sprite, it feels like it goes a bit farther up than your hitbox, so when you try to reach high spaces sometimes it feels like you couldn't reach a place where your sprite clearly showed you could, also looks a bit weird when the cat phases through the roof quite a bit when jumping, because of how high the jumping sprite goes. I also feel like the double jump could have been better introduced, since I only *needed* it for a single level, and I forgot it existed by then. Nevertheless, this didn't negatively impact my experience at all, I was still able to finish it with no problems, the difficulty curve was very well designed, just a good game all around! Congrats to the team. <3
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First of all, levels look really pretty, I love the design of this game, as well as the atmosphere you've created. It reminded me a bit of Walk in the Dark, a platformer I really enjoyed, where you also play as a cat and the background is dark, etc. However, the gameplay here feels different: in Walk in the Dark you have to be fast and react fast, here I had another approach of getting into a safe spot, waiting a bit, getting to another safe spot, checking out the situation, moving on, rinse and repeat. That said, I did enjoy the gameplay a lot. It is hard enough but not too hard. The climbing/sticking to walls and bouncing off them mechanic felt a bit uncomfortable to me, but in general I made do. I like the scary Wallmasters that grab you in the light, really adds to atmosphere (calling them Wallmasters or Floormasters because they remind me of Zelda monsters who also grab you and send you to the entrance of the dungeon). I liked that I had to restart only the level itself, not to go to the very beginning. Overall it was a beautiful experience, thank you for this wonderful game! <3 cat.jpg
Hey! Thanks for sharing to the discord. I really liked this idea, especially in the ways that you diverged from just making it a platformer and embraced the cat aspects of the game (knocking buckets over to break lights or obscure them was really nice).
I felt that the visual presentation was a little on the rough side, though I think the elements were all there. The procedural lighting with normal maps were definitely the way to go, but the way it all came together was a little inconsistent (hard v.s. soft edges, high vs low contrast areas. mostly compositional things).
The light mechanic was a little bit overtuned, difficulty wise. I would definitely have appreciated a bit of "grace" on some of the timings where I really only had a foot out of place for a fraction of a second and still got caught. Particularly in the later levels where there was very little warning about when certain lights would appear.
Overall though, I thought this was a pretty solid entry. I really appreciated the cutscenes, music and SFX, which all helped immerse the player in the world. Thanks again and good luck!
Really nice game, though I had a bit of a struggle with the wall climb mechanic. On a PS5 controller, the joystick up was "jump" which was interesting. Very cute concept game!