cloud 2024-10-07 19:19
We finally finished it, thanks to my two friends!! mmexport1728329677202.jpg
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD56 → Vortex of Life
By chenlola108, yvpian and Cloud
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 989 | 2.93 | 25 | |
| Fun | 1067 | 2.23 | 25 | |
| Innovation | 433 | 3.43 | 25 | |
| Theme | 796 | 3.33 | 26 | |
| Graphics | 404 | 3.87 | 26 | |
| Humor | 791 | 2.54 | 24 | |
| Mood | 660 | 3.39 | 25 |
We finally finished it, thanks to my two friends!! mmexport1728329677202.jpg
非常好游戏使我文本旋转升天
I like the experimental art style of this game, the theme is very interesting as well. (btw I also has a game, if you can play it that would mean a lot to me and to the team!!
This seems like a really interesting idea, and I liked the voice over at the beginning, but the embedded player isn't properly sized so it takes a lot of scrolling. I think you need to adjust the viewport dimensions in itch to that of your game's resolution. Other than that it's pretty intriguing.
Even tho the art in the cut scene is "crude" in a way (and on purpose), you guys have a good understanding of art and shapes. I could tell what was what and it all made sense. I couldnt draw perspective like that. Good work!
Nothing is clear, but it is very interesting) (guys, there are not enough sounds \ music for the background! sad..) And the opening cut scene is beyond praise, very cool!!
This work is gorgeous but I have to admit I haven't been able to understand how you're really supposed to interact with the game. I understand the fact you have these cards and those petri dishes and you can make them interact, but I haven't felt like I was progressing towards anything.
I understand there is some social commentary in there, but i'd be damned if I was asked to extract any themes out of it.
Overall this has a lot of potential if you ever take the time to guide us through what you want us to see, and i'll be glad to give this a shot again if you ever do.
Big congrats to whoever did the intro slides and the game screen, this really IS a gorgeous game
It was quite difficult to understand what to do. The art style is unique, but it's hard to discern things and what they're supposed to do.
Absolutely phenomenal storytelling! The cutscenes in this game were truly something else and I really enjoyed the story that was told. I do share the sentiment with some other developers here that it's a little difficult to really tell what's going on in terms of gameplay and what the cards really did in the experiment. But regardless I still had a great time looking at the wonderful art and witnessing the amazing story. With some more clear instructions you could have an absolutely phenomenal product
We apologize for forgetting to include the gameplay introduction in the description. I'm adding it here. How to play: 1. Click the left and right arrows on the cards below to switch card types either forward or backward. The numbers on the cards indicate how many of that type you have. (Note: there’s a temporary bug where the number may not update immediately after you consume a card. To refresh, just switch to the card type that you just consumed.)
2. Click the three magnifying glasses on the right side of the screen to view the three Petri dishes. You can choose whether to feed them the selected card, as different card types will affect the values of the three bottles in the lower left corner.
3. When you select "✔," it means one card of the current type is consumed, and a story panel will appear in the center of your screen. Please read it fully and wait for it to disappear before proceeding.
4. By balancing the values of the three bottles in the lower left corner, you can achieve the true ending before all cards are consumed. If any bottle fills or empties early, you will reach different endings.
5. Ultimately, these endings reflect your conclusions as a mouse scientist. You may successfully reach the true ending or fail early and receive a subjective false ending.
You are awesome, good job 😌
This game is a surprise! The story is deep and the art style is unique, which makes me want more...
Really impressive story and great intro! Well done
Interesting concept!
good game, great aesthetic, overall fun experience!
I didn't understand anything at all. But after a while I ended up overflowing the blue vial, which brought me to what seems to be an end... The graphic style is good and the mood interesting. About the intro with explanation, I would have preferred previous/next buttons in place of automatic transitions (too shorts).
@patbgames Thank you for your suggestion! We will consider placing the explanation diagram in the game's interactive interface for easier access. Regarding the story content, we’ve written many different stories, such as each magnifying glass presenting a unique story, the news panel updating constantly, and hints that appear next to the magnifying glasses when you place the cards. However, these can be hard to fully grasp on the first playthrough.
To better understand each petri dish's story, we suggest interacting with just one magnifying glass during each playthrough, then switching to another for the next game. This will help you gradually uncover the full story behind the three dishes. Also, pay attention to how different cards affect the bottles, and after using a card or restarting the game, refresh the card values by clicking the arrows to make sure you know the exact number and types of cards you have.
Remember, in the game, you are a mouse scientist, and the three magnifying glasses represent three different petri dishes. Using the news panel, experiment logs, endings, and card types as clues, you can gradually piece together the full narrative of the game.
The graphics are nice, the game play is different. I wasn't able to see the description of how to play while listening to the intro scene because it just went by so fast. I would have liked to be able to press next on that so i could study it before going forward. The cards could also use mouse over tips to let me know what they did. I can tell you have a good basis on the game mechanics, but the player doesn't have enough information to really be strategic about it.
This seems like a super fascinating concept and I would have loved to play the game thoroughly, understand the social commentary, and reach the true ending. Unfortunately, it was really difficult to understand the gameplay. I feel like the problem is the possibilities are too vast, so making any one decision in the game makes it hard to grasp the outcome / pattern immediately. Of course, maybe this could be changed by playing the game a lot (as you mentioned), but it feels like to actually make the gameplay fun, there needs to be incremental learning and obvious patterns to grasp from (almost) each action / decision. It felt a bit like stumbling in the dark, not knowing what or why something happened. But great effort, and the art is really awesome too! I'll keep an eye on this one and I'm really looking forward to playing your future games :)
@shasaur Thank you so much for your feedback and support! We’ll definitely focus on improving the incremental learning and clearer patterns you mentioned. Initially, we thought replaying the game a few times with some text explanations would be enough, but we realize that it’s still limited. Currently, we’re developing a new feature that includes tracking the experiment records you’ve obtained, providing hints on how to achieve different endings, and developer notes from each update. We’ve also added a new gameplay mechanic that ties more closely with the cards, bottles, and story. Since we’re students and busy with our studies, the update timeline is uncertain, but we’ll work on creating an interactive prototype for players to preview and experience!
@lelulagames Thank you so much for your feedback! I really appreciate it! You’re absolutely right, the explanation on how to play should have been manually controlled. We previously debated between automatic playback or manual control, and ultimately chose automatic thinking it would be easier for players since they wouldn’t need to click and could simply wait for it to finish. However, this clearly limits the flexibility in how players consume the content. Moving forward, we’ll adjust the gameplay instructions to be manually controlled and place them in the main interactive interface to give players more freedom