themaskedman 2024-04-16 19:18
Hey it won't start. "Couldn't load project data at path" :<
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD55 → Ballad of Lead Shroud
By krummsakura
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 887 | 3.29 | 53 | |
| Fun | 1138 | 2.70 | 53 | |
| Innovation | 990 | 2.90 | 53 | |
| Theme | 803 | 3.39 | 53 | |
| Graphics | 687 | 3.57 | 53 | |
| Audio | 370 | 3.56 | 53 | |
| Mood | 319 | 3.86 | 53 |
Hey it won't start. "Couldn't load project data at path" :<
@TheMaskedMan I can not thank you enough. Turns out Godot "embed pck" didn't embed anything at all :) I reuploaded a zip file which contains both the exe and pck files. So the problem should be fixed now (fingers crossed).
Super! I like!
Cool choice to go with something narrative focused. Def got the mood down.
The decision to put that tune + piano notes on interactions got me. Eerie stuff. Although on my first run I did walk into the pink room. :3
Cool atmosphere but sadly the lounge wasn't rendered in.
@megh-menghani Thank you very much for playing! Can you elaborate on the render issue? Are the textures/shaders looks wrong or the following scenes (Monkey's paw cutscene then the corridor scene) are not triggered to be loaded? Your feedback is very valuable!
@krummsakura i just fell through the map when i entered the lounge
@megh-menghani Thank you so much. Obviosly a good old collider problem. I'm trying to recreate issue to fix it.
@TheMaskedMan Thank you so much for playing! Was the issue you encountered in the first run falling through the floor?
@krummsakura Yea I guess its what the other guys say - first door on the right room wasnt there, all pink and I stepped right into it.
I initially thought it to be a part of the game, but falling for about 2 minutes I figured it wasnt :3
@TheMaskedMan and @megh-menghani, Thanks to your feedback, i fixed the issue caused by the wrongly triggered toilet door which was not intended to be opened :)
Great mood and setting that got me interested into the story. Nice way of pacing (no pun intended) the backstory, and I really like the chromatic aberration effect as well, cool touch!
I liked the mood a lot. It has a lot of potential and the concept could be expanded upon. asfljalskjfnalskjnfd
That was a nice short experience!
**Horror**: For me personally it wasn't scary, but I like the atmosphere with the music and visual effects.
**Technical**: I played in HTML which might be the reason for some jerkiness of the camera movement, though I think for me it even enhanced the experience but most likely wasn't intentional. Also, sometimes I skipped text accidentally as at first I thought it would just show the whole line, and then it happened a few times when I thought maybe I'd interact with that door, but oops it happened at the same moment game tried to tell me something.
**Story**: The story is well thought out and explained, and tells a lot about the characters. I think I noticed a few problems with grammar, so if you get someone to spellcheck, it would help. (Unfortunately didn't think to take a screenshot at the moment. One second.)
mistakes.jpg
*I didn't say I would sacrifice my partner.*
*I couldn't write any songs. I couldn't get along with any of the new members.*
**Art**: I like the models of the band members, they look decently creepy but still gorgeous! :D
Also, her "phrasing" was pretty bad (and I think it's intentional? and part of why it failed?) As I would understand it as "I want THEM to be rich and famous". And so they kill her. But also obviously because they had bad blood between them when they were alive. Which also makes our MC a bit stupid because she didn't realize they wouldn't be that happy to see her. All of that is NOT the critique of the game or story, but my feelings about this particular character :) Maybe it could even be enhanced with less of "it affected me badly and I got lucky I survived" and more of "It's their fault they died and left me alone, to fail" which would explain her egoistic and self-absorbed character more and make it more believable how she made that decision. After all, her second wish seems to be the reason they died, even? (Replaying 2nd time as I missed some dialogue accidentally on my 1st)
@kanity Thanks for playing and the detailed review!
This looks like a fascinating game. Sadly I didn't get very far due to the lag time — I am using an older system, unfortunately. Regardless, graphics and sound are impressive, judging from what I saw.
@gamebuilder Thank you so much!
This is very cool. I like how all the interaction noises are piano to go along with the background music. A single instrument like that plays well into the whole "I'm the last in my band left" feeling. To nitpick a little, the moving text was a bit hard to read and would have been easier if it revealed from left to right instead of expanding from the center.
I love it!
Everything is very cool from the mood to the story. I would only change the text, to appear in one go, probably. Letter by letter feels too common and annoying if you read fast.
@tykenn Thank you so much, your kind words and the way you interpreted the atmosphere made my day! Also it is not nitpicking, I totally agree that the text expanding from the center was a bad design choice. It somehow works for short expressions, but makes the longer sentences hard to follow. Noted for the next time.
@lestat Thank you so much! To be frank, I am also not pleased about the “letter by letter” approach, and totally agree that it feels cliché - even with the “click to reveal all then proceed to the next'' option which is common in many narratives/visual novels. I will definitely try different options for upcoming projects.
Nice atmosphere, a very narrative entry, i like the tension it creates with the story, maybe the missing opportunity here its the sound/ambience. I felt that could have added more to the atmosphere, all the interactions were making that piano sound (maybe adding more interactions, door sounds, the objects, etc), the piano in the background its the same in the complete history, even in the most tense part and in the end, so that could be an improvement to create more engagmenent with the narrative. I think the story could have been a bit longer, or maybe adding some flashback or something else like more interactions, but i know there is no much time for a bigger scope. Overally the concept is good and well done.
When I realized after three or four interactions that it was I who was causing the extra piano chord, I fell into a warp zone where I played in rhythm with the main music loop... until I forgot the story.
I've found it hard to move on now... weaning is hard........------------
Who's coming to resurrect me?
@ilbini Thank you so much! In fact, all the things you pointed out, corresponds to the corners I cut during the jam. I recorded more musical material but time wasn't enough to add them in a meaningful way. I didn't want to just cut the ongoing music without implementing a mechanic for a proper transition. Flashback scenes were also among my intentions , especially for the corridor scene to explain the former events caused by the first two wishes… I plan to expand the story after the jam.
Interesting story, I liked the creepy atmosphere and the environment looked great. Just nitpicking but the way letters appear one by one made some words warp to the next line and would break my reading flow a bit. Congrats on your first LD!
Very cool and intense! The narrative builds up nicely and everything that happens is clearly readable from the setting. The music keeps you in suspense until the very end.
A few times I mistakenly skipped the monologue when I clicked on the E. It seems like it would have been better to rewind the text on the button first and then close it. Because the player tries to press the button everywhere, and the monologues appear too abruptly, giving the opportunity to skip them. You could also do a little protection against - make it impossible to skip a monologue for the first 2 seconds after it appears.
Also, at the end it's unclear when the band is speaking. Before the "reunion" the player always sees text of the same color and associates it with himself. This could be solved, for example, with a different font color. That is, when the group members speak - their font color looks like their clothes or something like that. You can also highlight the words of the group with sounds - when the player's monologue appears "sigh", and when the group's monologue appears "infernal laughter" or something like that.
Very nice visual and audio experience ! I had no technical issue during my playthrough, and I really enjoyed the overall atmosphere. The audio really got me. I feel it is more a technical demonstration than a full game, but it is really impressive and it got me hooked until the end anyway.
@k-toll Thank you so much! You made my day! My intentions were more intricate aural shenanigans yet time was not on my side. I plan to develop the game further after the jam, I hope you play that version too, when it is ready. As for the matter of resurrection… BOOONNNG.. (the answer is unheard under a deep A5 chord, then the scene fades out…)
Music and looks set the mood really well. But i could not understand what to do. Also doors opening out of the room is creating some navigational problems.
The mood, arts and sound are good good usage of the theme :)
@kurakurture Thank you so much for your detailed feedback which contains highly beneficial points to improve the game! I am aware of the problems around the text. I should follow the classical method in visual novels/narrative games (first E to reveal the text and the second E to skip to the next line). Also, I totally agree that there should be some visual indicators to distinguish the protagonist from the band. I will definitely improve those in a potential post jam version.
@jebouin Thank you so much! It’s not nitpicking! It's valuable feedback which points out something that I didn't realize. I will definitely fix it.
@human Thank you so much!. It is valuable feedback! You point out something that I overlooked. The doors on the left side of the corridor open out of the room. I will definitely fix it!
@jean-francois Thank you so much for the kind words!
@civ92 Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed it!
Very nice creepy vibes and an enjoyable short story. The dolls are very creepy, do not want to meet them at night :smile: I had to play it trough twice to read everything because I skipped some messages on accident, I think some delay before skipping on keypress would be better, especially since its a story oriented game.
Really had a ton of fun, nailed the mood
Really like the mood and the feel of the game. It is truly unsettling. The camera effects work well with the feeling. The story is nice and interesting, although I wish it was a little more drawn out with some more gameplay/exploration with environmental storytelling, maybe some more areas of the studio where you could explore more objects scattered about. The story felt a little rushed, I would've liked a slower start to it, but I guess that is to be expected of a ludum dare game! you don't have all the time in the world to add details. Overall it was a fantastic little game, very cohesive with the story, graphics and sounds all working together to create a great mood. well done!
A solid premise, but a bit lacking in the execution. The story was interesting, but felt somewhat rushed. Gameplay wise there could have been more to do, perhaps some puzzle elements or more exploration. Some of the graphics looked quite nice, for example the paw, most of the props and the character models, but the environment itself looked a bit bland. Visuals effects like the rattling doors were a nice touch tho. The soundscape was suitably moody and contributed nicely to the overall atmosphere. I think that the story telling could have benefitted immensely from voice acted dialog with subtitles, instead of the text prompts that interrupt the gameplay. But considering that the game was a solo entry, I feel like it turned out quite well. Good job overall.
Fit the theme well and the mood and audio was very good. Graphics were decent for the time allocated. I liked the story of the experience but it didn't feel like there was much interaction and it could have been an animated short rather than a game.
@freamdev Thank you so much for the feedback. Glad that you liked it. I agree that it was a design mistake for a narrative game which was pointed out by players. So I uploaded a new post-jam improvement version to avoid the skipping text.
@joshua-miller-pio Thank you so much for playing! Glad you enjoyed it!
@linus-lindberg Thank you so much for playing and the feedback! I wish I had more time to add interactions with the objects. It was really painful to let the objects be mere props after spending a huge chunk of the time to model them. Another unmet goal was adding flashback scenes for the events mentioned in the corridor scene. After the jam, I plan to work on an extended version.
Love the mood and the story. Dialogues (or rather the monologue) can be improved. Good work!
I am always impressed by 3D games during jams and especially 3D games that manage to maintain a sense of polish and consistency like you have. You implementation of the theme feels more grounded and I appreciate that. Well done!
Love the graphics and the sound design, altho it was really short, still a great job for doing this in such a short time !
@justmars thanks for playing and the detailed feedback. I totally agree that there is a balance issue between the details of the environment and the objects. It was a combined result of the available time for modeling/model optimization and the performance considerations. After all, the environment is sacrificed to summon the game :)
@surfa Thanks for playing and the feedback. Glad that you enjoyed it. The time was a huge constraint to implement the exploration/interaction elements beyond the main line of the story which I initially planned.
Nice game, the atmosphere was great. I can easily imagine a full walking sim game with this. The "backstage" ambiance is really cool and I like that there is no real jumpscare moment. Sometimes its more efficient to have none : in the long and dark corridor, i was a bit afraid to walk xD Really well done ! :)
This was a pretty fun story! I really like narrative walking simulators, and the story about the monkey's paw and this super selfish character that only wants to be rich and famous is ridiculous but also intriguing.
There's a few things that made getting through this story kinda difficult... like the mouse sensitivity is too low, the text is too slow adn the skip action doesn't let you read it, the FOV is also too low which feels kinda disorienting, and I feel like you could have made text boxes that allow for more than one line at a time, so that walking 2 steps didn't always interrupt you with a text box.
That all said, I did really enjoy the vibe of the graphics and shaders, the music and the way the story was told through the environment. If you take care of those little problems, you could make a lot of really cool games in this same style!
@hare-software Thank you so much for your kind words. But it's not as impressive as implementing “vs cpu” mode in a card/strategy game as in your case ;)
@bumblebee-studio Thank you for playing and feedback! Glad you enjoyed it!
@simun182 Thank you so much for playing! Say hi to the calico cat for me :)
I really liked this! Great atmosphere and storytelling! It kinda reminded me of Joe Hill's book "Heart shaped box". Really like the juxtaposition of a spooky rock and roll aesthetic with a classic tale like the "Monkey's Paw". Well Done!
@fupi Thank you so much for playing. Glad you liked it! I appreciate the valuable feedback you gave which I noted for further improvements!
@trezark Thank you so much for playing! Glad you enjoyed it. Probably I, too, would expect some jumpscare shenanigans in the corridor! XD
Neat little story and presentation! I liked the lowkey haunting atmosphere a lot. The musical sting when you interact with stuff was a nice touch, I legit didn't realize at first that it wasn't part of the background music, it blends so well into it. I thought the way that story beats pop up the screen was neat but found it just a teensy bit irritating because it stops you all of a sudden. I'm wondering if it'd feel more fluid if your walk speed slowed down a little instead? Sort of like a cutscene where you control the camera.
Anyway, great job! It's a lovely, multifaceted showcase. Story, mood, interaction etc.
Quick side note on the web player: It seems you can't focus the game viewer again if you loose focus and have to refresh the tab. No biggie when you know of it though.
@whenyoucantfindafriend Thank you so much for your kind words! So glad you liked it! I’ll definitely check “Heart Shaped Box”.
Nice game! Really liked the way interacting with objects made chords that match the ost
@jojopalambas Thank you so much! Glad that you enjoyed it!
@smidgens Thank you so much for playing and the valuable feedback! In fact, until the post-jam version, walking speed was reduced to 20% to create slow motion effect combined with reduced mouse sensitivity, but to avoid some rare bug leading to erroneous triggering, I reduced it to 2% (aka practically no motion). Totally agree that it doesn't look fluid. Also, thanks for the warning. As you say, In the current state, the mouse is not captured properly, once clicked outside the game window. Noted to be fixed. Hopefully, I will expand and improve the game after the jam.
A short but very interesting experience. The mood is just right; it's not particularly scary, but you feel a sense of unease. I appreciated that you took the risk of telling a story and didn't just make another 'tower defense' game based on summoning monsters. Excellent job
Cool idea with the piano notes on interactions, it adds greatly to the mood!
I think you should capture the cursor on every click in web builds for these type of games, so that the game doesn't become unplayable if you ever hit escape and want to come back.
I was a bit annoyed in the ending corridor by the texts appearing and stopping me at wherever I was and wherever I looked at the moment, it also felt a bit awkward. I don't think it's a good idea to take away the control from the player this repeatedly. You could just have a longer corridor and let the sentences appear as the player walks toward the end to make it all feel more fluid.
Think you missed a chance to add a bit more detail by not specifying the favorite record and book as you did with the absinthe.
ASFKJALSKJFNALSKJNFD indeed.
I liked this. I see what you meant in your comment on my game. Very cool premise but not much gameplay. It's still neat to experience a short story in a slightly interactive way like this, and I enjoyed looking around and trying to find more interactions before moving on, like the ones on the vases or the one on the sign.
The chromatic aberration is nice and fits. I did not like the headbobbing one bit I'm afraid, especially not how much there was even when standing still :') Overall very nice visuals. I think if the characters had been put into the initial environment they would've clashed, but they fit in the weird, dreamy space you find them in. It's a cool contrast.
Good effect when you speak, altho the width of the text should probably have been limited as it ended up spanning my entire monitor so was a bit hard to read.
The music was nice and I liked that the interaction sounds were based on the same piano. Nice sounds after the ritual when the corridor got ominous.
Overall very interesting and well made! Still wondering about the backstory, very mysterious.
@nuanda79 Thank you so much for your kind words! Glad you enjoyed it!
@unless-games Thank you so much for playing and the valuable feedback. I’m aware of the mouse capturing issue which is quite annoying, but couldn’t find a chance to fix it. I'll try to implement a better way to display texts in the version I plan to develop after LD. As for the book and the record, these are the unfortunate examples of the corner cutting due to the time constraint.
@ava-skoog Thank you so much for playing and the valuable feedback! You are probably the only player interacting with the unintentional easter eggs which were not designed to be so :). I guess I should make the head bob optional which is a cool idea. I plan to expand the game after LD to add some depth to the characters and events. Hopefully you can play it when it’s done.