FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD57 → Light - Ludum Dare 57

Light - Ludum Dare 57

By based-on-life and slow chaz

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall3953.6178
Fun5203.2677
Innovation3173.4577
Theme1294.1677
Graphics4423.6578
Audio1883.7677
Mood1813.9878

Comments

slow-chaz 2025-04-05 00:51

yay

ollulf 2025-04-07 22:54

What a cool and moody game. Nice atmosphere and sound design; those eels scared me, great work!

slow-chaz 2025-04-07 23:12

@ollulf thank you!

weirdbitgames 2025-04-07 23:47

What a lovely atmospheric game, and amazing voice acting too! It took me a moment to realise you have to click and hold onto the anchor!

slow-chaz 2025-04-07 23:50

@weirdbitgames thank you so much! that's helpful feedback.

celian 2025-04-08 01:57

The perspective is hard to get but the rest of the game is really cool, love the voices and the ambiance, the anchor sound is a little bit loud but pretty cool : )

zzy2141 2025-04-08 03:40

the atmosphere is spot on, and the sound designs and art really add to the whole experience, absolutely loved it! platforming and controls (how it feels to move etc) need some more polishing, but overall it was a beautiful game!

based-on-life 2025-04-08 04:23

@zzy2141 + @celian thanks for the feedback! We really appreciate it

glaupe-cabral 2025-04-08 04:27

Your game is so cool. I really liked the art, the theme is incredible, you nailed it! I play pretty badly with the WASD keys, ironic right? But I think I'll try to configure the controller to play more. I really liked the sound design too! Congrats on the game. I think I would just make the platforms a little more resistant, I broke several before I could get the light, but maybe that's because I'm bad at playing anyway lol

based-on-life 2025-04-08 04:31

@glaupe-cabral We sort of rushed our "tutorial island" section, but you can slow the anchor down by pressing up. Also I'm partial to the controller as well. It feels smoother. Thanks for playing! And thanks for the feedback!

reed-molbak 2025-04-08 04:39

Atmosphere is great! The learning curve at the start was a little too hard, I never really got a good sense of what my character could/couldn't do.

magnesiumninja 2025-04-08 04:39

Nice execution of the theme and the mood! The music and sound are great. I also liked the big eels and the plant life on the sides. Some elements were difficult to see, especially as we go further down, and the Z-axis was a little confusing; at certain points I'd be right on top of a light orb but I didn't realize I had to hit W to actually touch it.

foxecho 2025-04-08 06:36

The mood is really strong and it ties into the theme very well. The visuals and sound design are nicely done. The controls felt a bit odd though—I wasn’t sure how to move upward—and picking up the light orbs lacked feedback.

dadidou 2025-04-08 07:30

I love the general ambiance but I don't really know what I can do.

basekeet 2025-04-08 07:40

Such a vibey game!

It really gave me feelings of fear and discomfort, which I loved. At first, I didn’t quite understand the goal (I spent a lot of time trying to reach the island above with the anchor and kept losing for some reason). The idea of falling with the anchor is just awesome!

ssiannas 2025-04-08 07:41

Awesome game. Great atmosphere too. Found it a bit hard at first because I felt the lights were not being collected. Nice submission!

oscar-boix 2025-04-08 07:51

The depths of the ocean have always frightened me, and you've captured that feeling perfectly. The game is a lot of fun to play. Congratulations on your great work!

infecsean 2025-04-08 08:01

sooooo atmospheric. the ocean is such a good source of depth

team-9tailed 2025-04-08 08:05

Very nice atmosphere, as many here are also saying. Simple gameplay and some neat mysterious darkness creatures. Well done.

dywanix 2025-04-08 10:25

nice idea! atmosphere of the game is soo good

marcos-tulio-cavalcante 2025-04-08 14:08

Hello friend, I really liked your game. I think it would be interesting to add variations in the character's lines.

hope42morrow 2025-04-08 14:45

Love the concept and the atmosphere of the game.

jester1454 2025-04-08 14:46

Cool aesthetics and vibe! i was very surprised when i saw a big fish. And the main mechanics of movement are interesting!

justuspan 2025-04-08 15:12

The progress of the light going out sometimes confuses me. It would be better if there were clearer instructions. The atmosphere of the game is quite well done.

based-on-life 2025-04-08 15:17

@justuspan Yeah, we were trying to go for a "no UI" feel but I think it just ended up being confusing. If we do anything else with the game we will definitely add a clearer timer once you start getting down to the end of your light meter. Thanks!

xoudz 2025-04-08 15:36

oh i love this art

profit 2025-04-08 15:42

Anchor, covering your bases on the possible themes ;) i brainstormed an idea to use all the themes in one. The game was nice. i started to align the anchor and jump down to next platform to get light and then jump back on anchor. a timer on the amount of light left would be nice, to know if you have time to reach the next one.

derllie 2025-04-08 16:03

very cool and dark atmosphere, the lighting is just perfect!

meskaline 2025-04-08 16:03

Damn, love the atmosphere of the game. A well put together game. Love it.

dovodx 2025-04-08 16:03

I like the presentation, though I don't know if the anchor should be so huge and slow to move if it's going to destroy the platforms and the light sources that I need to collect. I think just getting stuck on a platform and having to move the anchor off of it is enough of an obstacle since we're on limited time before the light goes out.

sepjani 2025-04-08 16:08

great concept for atmospheric narrative game

machetemami 2025-04-08 16:18

Great atmosphere! "My light is fading" will definitely be echoing in my head for the rest of the day.

resty 2025-04-08 16:30

the voice and sounding part is so good.

bamboodesigner 2025-04-08 16:42

Really fun and well completed!

pigeon-dp 2025-04-08 17:21

Fun game. Really nice gameplay idea. Got a heart attack from the snek :rofl:

cure 2025-04-08 17:51

someone @me if they upload a linux or web build pls

lepol 2025-04-08 18:24

OK that's a veryyyy cool concept, and oh my gosh the execution of it is as good as the concept. The art is cool, the audio aswell and I really looove the concept of the telekinesis ! Great work !

rensun 2025-04-08 19:06

The game is very addictive, I was really scared when I went down low so I thought we were just buzzing around collecting lights, in the end something jumped out at me, it turned out really cool! Really sucked me in, the only thing I would add is a more detailed explanation of the mechanics of how the lights work. Incredible work! You guys are great!

a0405u 2025-04-08 19:24

Good atmosphere, this is the most wonderful thing!

pythorogus 2025-04-08 20:02

Loved the atmosphere, but didn't really understand all the mechanics

lev-ramburg 2025-04-08 20:08

Well made, congrats

bizzybee 2025-04-08 20:13

It didn't launch in fullscreen which was odd (application bar still showing) (windows) and there wasn't a way to fix that, but it wasn't a huge deal. The starting poem only read the first line or so before harshly cutting to the game itself with a very loud noise- the audio balancing is definitely an issue.

Beyond that though, it's a really solid game. I think the most impressive aspect is the mood- it hits is so well with the low gravelly tired voice, the atmospheric music, and the light and dark visuals. The anchor looks a little too 3D-mold for my personal taste and a little out of place visually, but the game definitely hits feeling in a way that works very well for it. I didn't mind the lack of a UI personally, the light going out and not knowing when it's done really encourages you to keep rushing for the next source of light.

Great job!

grizembrrr 2025-04-08 20:31

I think I would looove playing this game. But light.exe is downloaded as "Unconfirmed 224463.crdownload" can't open, I think my computer blocks the downld even tho I turned off my firewall I'm so very sad.

ruthiepee 2025-04-08 23:43

Very clever game mechanic, floating downward on an anchor. I can't say I've played a game like this before! The dark and eerie mood is super immersive with the spooky voice acting, lighting effects, and ambient background music. I guess I'm not fast enough to grab the light though because I keep dying haha. Would be nice to have a little more feedback on the length of time you have after collecting a light orb. Great game

daniel 2025-04-09 04:43

Impressive ambience and you were able to create with limited time! Also, love when any voice acting is used in jam games, great stuff.

chiyeon 2025-04-09 04:52

Saw a lot of “water depth” games but this one stands out from others with a novel concept, cute presentation, and overall a good experience. Nicely done!

karenchik 2025-04-09 05:49

It's an interesting idea, I like it!!! Well done!!!

artemco 2025-04-09 17:41

Very good game, but its a little bit boring

kr4ft3r 2025-04-10 10:58

Ah, now that's one proper Ludum Dare art game, it was really deep. And, idk but the poem seems original as well? I couldn't find reference to it and didn't spot any clarification.

I tink you are green to continue the development, but honestly I don't see it a fully featured game, rather a short experience with more polish that you didn't have time for. For example, I think the generic 3d-clipart person can remain but the anchor should go full 3D with heavy, rusty feel to it. And of course other graphical details but I wouldn't go overboard, you probably shouldn't want AAA look. There are also playability issues to tinker with - to name some, the part with projectiles is too hard (I never managed to pass) and it is easy to get lost when out of cam like when pushed by the vertical fish. You don't want such hinderence to get in the way of people experienceing your art (which is why getting the games-as-art balance right is hard). Anyway, thanks for making this.

sayeg 2025-04-10 14:05

Super cool game!

protzz 2025-04-11 16:57

Atmosphere is crazy!

ch48 2025-04-12 19:22

This game has mood for DAYS - the quiet voice reading out the poem felt SO GOOD, I got SHIVERS at first. Good stuff!!

The gameplay felt a bit unresponsive at times - the experience would greatly benefit by giving the player more feedback on their actions, aaand maybe a bit more wiggle room when encountering enemies?

Overall, one of the highlights of the jam for me. Thanks for the game!

ammonit 2025-04-16 14:10

At first, I thought it wasn’t an anchor since it’s missing the ring at the top, so I saw it as a human silhouette and imagined I’d be swimming down on the soul of a drowned person, collecting pieces of light! 😄 Basically, a new concept based on your game!

atsh 2025-04-23 18:36

I really liked the sea weed graphics and the snake, really well done art here. I think if it was matched with more fleshed out audio the mood here could be really incredible. It's a shame the text was a little small. The controls for the dude were good, but I think moving the anchor was a little counter intuitive, and felt slow, but didn't really feel like it was water as it should be. I did like there is variety when you go down, with enemies and such. I think there's a seed of really interesting experience here, and it's interesting to investigate the dark deeps

helen 2025-04-23 21:13

I like the poem. Graphics and sound fit well together.