monogatari 2025-04-09 00:31
Concept is nice and artworks are fantastic but it was a little too cryptic to me so i didn't understand how to pass monsters.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD57 → Party Crasher
By gamebuilder, genie, yumi8, AnatolyKarpov, homocysteineonfire, CritterCipher and Christopher Marinis
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 868 | 2.36 | 21 | |
| Fun | 865 | 2.18 | 21 | |
| Innovation | 661 | 2.89 | 21 | |
| Theme | 776 | 2.78 | 21 | |
| Graphics | 591 | 3.32 | 22 | |
| Audio | 457 | 3.10 | 21 | |
| Humor | 695 | 1.86 | 20 | |
| Mood | 497 | 3.47 | 22 |
Concept is nice and artworks are fantastic but it was a little too cryptic to me so i didn't understand how to pass monsters.
Love the artwork and the overall style of the game really works. I had trouble figuring out if I was meant to interact with the enemies or just try and get past them as fast as I could, there did not seem to be any feedback when I stood next to them and hit space other then my health going down. I think this is a solid base for a cool story experience with some polish though, great job!
Hmm, I turned small and then died of hunger. Not sure why and what happened :-D but it was a surreal experience.
You've done an excellent job, and the result is really good! The music is quite loud, which can be distracting at times. I liked how the monsters and the main heroine are drawn – it's clear that effort and care were put into this.
It's not entirely obvious where the monster colliders begin or end and how to avoid them altogether. I just went straight through, and I think this is a perfectly normal strategy. It wasn't completely clear what to do with the dark segment – I couldn't find the controls, just walked a long time into the darkness and eventually died. There's a real need for highlighting objects that you can interact with, and information about what, for example, viewing does. I tried to kill a monster by interacting with it, but it wouldn't die.
A rather strange situation occurs if you press and hold the right arrow, although this is the first thing you want to do because it seems like a platformer. But in fact, it's a "survival" game. It gets very tiresome to constantly press right. Perhaps it would be better if the heroine walked forward automatically, and we just had to interact with the world by changing the direction of walking, or interact with objects near which she finds herself. In any case, great work!
I really like the art, but I think mechanically this turned out rough. I think this game could be upgraded massively by using an engine like Godot to create smoother movement and just generally more fast/up-to-date visuals, so to speak. The game only seems to update when the player moves and it feels janky. I also didn't understand what the eye above my head meant or how to refill my hunger.
I think I made it to the end? Where there is no further "right" to go (past the red monster). This experience was baffling, but also intriguing. I played it several times to interact with everything and see where it ended.
I love the monster designs. They look mystical and bizar. I would love to be able to interact with them more. The music works well with their strange appearance. Gives the game an ominous, occult vibe.
Collecting the eye from the painting in the beginning was very neat, though it took me a few tries to realize what it does (lights up the dark!).
I don't mind that I didn't understand what was going on. I feel like the artwork works with that kind of strange, difficult to grasp game. I do wish there'd be more gameplay, some way to gain information from the game by doing things/interacting with stuff. Give me a sense that I'm unraveling the mystery, even if I might never fully understand it. More things like the painting with the eye, maybe a different way to interact with the monsters.
Great artwork and an interesting concept.
@monogatari I added some clues to this page that may help (see translations above).
@smilewood the trick is to avoid the monsters as much as you can, at least until the final stage of the game.
@icks I like your comment — “surreal” is what we aim for. Thanks for playing.
@kurakurture yes, the music can be loud, but it's just a matter of adjusting your system's volume setting. As for the darkness, there is a solution for that, you just have to look closely.
@dovodx Godot would spoil the game, we are not aiming for polish or anything that smacks of professionalism, the bane of creativity.
@mikemikemakes you win the game by defeating Pride — the monster at the lowest level. As for the “ominous, occult vibe” — thank you, that is what we wanted for this particular game. I agree that having more ways to interact would be an improvement, but sadly we ran out of time...
a bit too fast pace
It took me a little while to understand what to do (rather: where to act), but I managed to finish LD#57 Party Crasher.png As always, you push up the player experience, mood and arts, rather than search for a complex gameplay, and your entries are unique and immediately recognizable Good job!
@lereveur you are one of the few to actually complete the game — congratulations! Thank you for the compliments, they're much appreciated.
Rather cryptic, but loved the art. The calligraphy was also a neat touch, though it could definitely be better communicated
Your last game must've really trained me well to figure this one out! Looks like a lot of people struggled, judging by the comments. Nonetheless I was a bit confused about a few things too but after a couple of tries things started to reveal themselves. Some have pointed out that it was unclear what was interactive or not, but since there wasn't a lot to interact with anyway I kind of just tried everything.
The very first thing I did was to go left so I already knew my goal was to return after shrinking, I can imagine some people missed that. My biggest issue was to figure out how to deal with the monsters. It seems pressing space to let them pass through is the way to minimise damage? I ended up walking back and forth to stock up on life at the beginning.
I found the first powerup by accident as I happened to press space in the right spot trying to deal with a monster so I didn't know about the dark area until a later attempt where I forgot to get it.
Took me maybe 10-15 tries in the end, with the main issue being the monsters killing me.
I really like the paintings that tell me some story and/or give clues! The music is really nice too, and of course the art in general has your signature style.
Perhaps a bit short and simple compared to some of your previous entries but I enjoyed solving it. Now I'm left pondering the meaning of the seven sins and the creatures, some of which seemed familiar too.
@ava-skoog Thanks for playing! I didn't do the art myself, but the inspiration for the creature designs came from Hieronymus Bosch, Goya, some medieval art, and a few other similar sources. That's probably why they look familiar.
@ava-skoog yes, a lot of people struggled. You are one of the few to beat the game, congratulations.
Actually, there is no need to press space to get by the monsters. Before the protective bubble is obtained, you just have to avoid the monsters as much as possible.
There are only five sins; I didn't have time to squeeze all seven deadly sins into the game. Humility is, in fact, a virtue — it is the mirror image of pride, one could say. Hence, it plays a key role.
Please accept my apologies, I have failed to play your game during the voting period.
As usual with your games, I end up surprised that I managed to finish it, as they seem so alien and mysterious at start. A bit harsh to get a full reset on death, it took me 3 retries with dying of hunger in 2nd retry just a step away from food while in the final phase (shield). It is an optimization game that is hard to get right on the first try without a lot of luck.
It was a lovely audio visual experience that I won't pretend to understand the meaning of, and there is probably no need to, I was both the princess and the prince and overcame the challenges, yay.
@kr4ft3r better late than never. I wondered what happened to you. Well, no worries. That you beat the game after only three retries — that is impressive. Usually it takes much more effort. You must be getting used to my games. Thanks for playing.