FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD57 → The Depths of Winter: Survive Until Spring

The Depths of Winter: Survive Until Spring

By samuel-hollywood-summers and hammy0212

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall7003.1525
Fun4163.4125
Innovation5783.0425
Theme8092.6025
Graphics5833.3425
Audio3053.5225
Humor1843.5024
Mood4683.5225

Comments

aveezavr 2025-04-08 14:32

To me, it doesn't quite fit the jam's theme, but throwing snowballs is fun. The voice actor is distracting — I had to mute him, thankfully that option exists.

bamboodesigner 2025-04-08 15:33

Good Control about throwing snowball. But attack frequence is a little bit slow, while enemies come together.

jona-scheidig 2025-04-08 22:54

During my gameplay I was like: "Broda, what in the world are you yapping about in the background... I'm fighting evil snowmen!". Then I got to spring, chilled and listened. I am deeply moved now

buni 2025-04-10 18:39

Fun game, but I have to agree that I don't really see how this fits the theme.

shp 2025-04-10 18:45

Other commenters have missed the point I feel, but I thought it was quite funny and clever to have the narration be the "deep" part of it

samuel-hollywood-summers 2025-04-10 18:57

A general response to those not seeing the connection to the theme: The depths of winter refers to the coldest part of the winter, hence the physical setting/visual theme, and the voiceover explores a couple of 'depths': as @shp points out, it is written as a 'deep' reflection of philosophy, ethics etc, and also touches upon darker emotions (the depths of despair/depression). I had fun dipping in and out of both deep thoughts, and shallow, vain ones, in the script. Thoughts of varying depth. The theme doesn't really inform the mechanics of the game, and I love when jam games do that, but the theme absolutely informed our creative choices for this game. I hope that clears things up!

jver422 2025-04-10 19:44

I really wasn't expecting the voice over, good take on the theme, well done.

jk5000 2025-04-11 19:14

The game sounds and looks great. The gameplay is overall simple and pretty fun.

But more important is the voice over, and it's kind of interesting, but also pretty confusing. The script is long and it's not very clear what it's suppose to tell me. You say it's about despair/depression, but there is a lot talk about being proud of the games you/I have made. Then there is a lot jumps from subject to subject and yes, some of them is about despair/depression, but others about happiness, and others seem more random topics. Another small issue is that voice over often drowns in the gameplay action.

But okay I should not really complain, because I made a lot of games, that I have damage by making much worse voice over then yours. And I really liked the small reference to Stanly. So overall an interesting and a bit confusing little jam game. Well done.

mrantoinest 2025-04-12 03:24

Cool game ! It was a little too simple, and tbh i did not listen to the voices at all. But overall, it was cool

daniel 2025-04-12 03:33

Cute and unique idea, I love seeing any kind of voice acting implementation in jam games. Some kind of simple or idle activity in the end area, like platforms or targets, could make listening to the script more fun :) Surprised at how long it went on for, that's some dedication to the concept.

eugenik 2025-04-14 00:33

Fun game.

zshandi-krahn 2025-04-14 06:30

Interesting game, though after dying a number of times I had to give up on making it to spring. The most frustrating part was when I kept falling down and being surrounded by about 5 or 6 snowmen. Would help if they weren't so relentless (maybe when they charge they could go straight until they hit a wall rather than following you perfectly), there were less motion blur, and a crosshair to help me aim (I missed so much).

I did listen to the whole voice-over still though :)

volkolak 2025-04-14 09:50

The "cold" of winter is conveyed very cool. The snowmen fly apart very cool. Perhaps I would have made the edges of the surfaces a little more noticeable, so that it would be easier to navigate after falling, where to jump.

marcos-tulio-cavalcante 2025-04-15 11:19

wow nice graphics

jahwffrey 2025-04-17 03:23

What a strange thing you've made, I loved the guy talking nonstop about being cold or something. Jumping was kindof more frustrating then fun sometimes but so be it, I had a good time.

carraka 2025-04-18 11:58

The narration was what made the game for me. Some philosophy, some Stanley Parable...the fact that the narration continued even when you died was the only thing that made me want to keep playing, because it was fiendishly difficult for me. A simple thing like adding a reticle in the center of the screen for shooting would have made the game much easier. Also, it took me a while to figure out I could double jump, and an even longer time to figure out I could double jump to avoid melee. After that, it was just grinding. Fortunately, the narration was long enough that I only had a minute or two of silence before I completed the game. As for first-person platforming...I have nothing to say to that.

Thank you for the philosophy to start my day. I don't drink coffee, so I didn't take your suggestion. Nice Stanley Parable reference. I didn't think about it until skimming past the comments to post mine, but I agree that the Depths of Winter are not the actual depths featured in this game. Well done!

moondweller 2025-04-19 00:56

Still chilling and listening to the voiceover :)

chill_and_listen_to_voiceover.jpg

That's undoubtedly the strangest entry I've seen this far.

yurissmile 2025-04-22 01:12

love it hhhh

jonathan-ray-pollard 2025-04-23 17:21

Impressive AI and graphics for the Snowmen.