Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD57 → Subconscious Abyss
By ugly-robot
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 84 | 3.66 | 29 | |
| Fun | 129 | 3.40 | 28 | |
| Innovation | 15 | 4.17 | 28 | |
| Theme | 21 | 4.28 | 28 | |
| Graphics | 126 | 3.59 | 28 | |
| Audio | 112 | 3.42 | 28 | |
| Humor | 130 | 2.85 | 23 | |
| Mood | 49 | 3.90 | 28 |
For someone who's neither artist or musician, you did quite well in these domains ! Neat game, a bit easy maybe. Only complaint is that it is a bit laggy, but that's probably due to being in 3D in a browser. Nice idea you came up with !
Well done! I thought at first that the stick were moved by the mouse, not disappearing. Great execution!
@littlegamer thanks! Were you able to beat 'crisis mode'? It's the harder, more rewarding mode to play - the initial run is really to set you up for crisis mode. And yeah, the hitches are unfortunate - has to do with how godot loads assets (can be tweaked, but not in jam-timeframe) - but once all assets are loaded, it should run smooth on all subsequent runs (for most PCs).
@barnabewild thanks!
Very interesting concept!
This is a fantastic game concept and was super fun to play. I'll be honest after a couple, I really didn't read much of any of what I was clicking on lol However the concept of removing certain rods to allow the physics of the objects to take them to the bottom was very satisfying. The art and music are also extremely well done. Great entry!
I think you had a very good game mechanic there, which together with the description makes sense and fits the theme well. but I couldn't read the texts (they were very small) and so I just clicked on the bars without a plan. At some point I unfortunately got stuck because I couldn't click on a remaining bar.
The description on the game page here is quite crowded and scared me away first, but I'm glad I read it all and understood the game better.
It ran smooth in my browser.
Well done!
I'm really impressed, I really enjoyed playing this! The concept is a great idea, I haven't seen it before. I had some pauses when "asking questions", but this may be browser/os related. Good job!
I'm stunned by how good this was ! I really had an awesome time, even with the lags. I managed to release all 40 thoughts but I didn't feel very rewarded for it, so maybe that could be improved..if my patient had started smiling to show she was feeling better that would have did the trick i believe. Amazing work nonetheless !
Loved your interpretation of the theme. Sadly it's melting my PC. Could you provide standalone downloads?
I love how you chose to tlk about those deep topics, really cool!
@ugly-robot Yes, the crisis mode was quite challenging.
This was a very unique experience. A game with great symbolism. I can imagine it being quite depressing though writing all those thoughts in a weekend.
@deadcode thanks for playing!
@dingbat I'm glad you liked it! Yeah - after reading one or two - it's basically just 'kerplunk' with people talking in the background. Thanks!
@duality yeah there are a few hitches as godot loads the different audio assets - but once loaded, it *should* run smooth. Thanks for playing!
@rascarcapackdev yes - would've been a good idea to add different emotions - but art is not my strongsuit, haha. But great feedback, thanks!
@gargantuan-janitor yes! Good point - I 'll do that - one moment...
A mikado psychologist game was certainly not something I expected but is a great idea! The base game was a great introduction to the mechanics while crisis mode kept it interesting after beating that - well done on getting the balance right in crisis mode, managed to beat it with exactly zero patience left.
I liked the effort that went into all the different problems and their resolutions - didn't notice any that felt superfluous so well done on that front. Great game overall - the only big criticism I have is the performance one but that's already been addressed above. Very well done!
@gargantuan-janitor - okay, windows build uploaded (as that is easiest to test rn) - hopefully between that and web it covers most folks.
@mauzart thanks! Yeah - it was fun to be able to have 'deep' concepts rattling around when working on the game - something to ponder while debugging!
@barnabewild ah, thanks for trying it!
Awesome, thank you!
@grid96 thanks! Yeah - it was cathartic, bittersweet. But also very enjoyable to work on!
@bad-fetus Great work beating it on crisis - that's not easy! Loved reading your comment - thanks!
Not too much to do but echo the praise above. Good job with this game.
I wasn't quite good enough to beat the game in crisis mode, though perhaps after a few more tries. Thank you for defaulting to an easier mode to teach the mechanics.
An interesting extension might be to uncover a hidden fear mid-session, adding an entirely new level. Maybe not accurate to the therapeutic method, but could make for some interesting gameplay.
You took a physical game and turned it digital in a very natural way. By the end of my time playing, I didn't feel like the controls were getting in my way which is a wonderful thing.
Thanks for spending the time to make and share your game!
@thepelranthean thank you so much! I'm glad you had some fun with it - yeah, crisis mode is very much 'see if it's possible to get a little more' - can you get 10? 20? 30? Getting all 40 on crisis is definitely not expected - I've learned with my (compo) jam games that it is nearly impossible to balance well - you just don't have enough QA. So all we can do is provide players a 'ramp' and say "Well done player! You did great! But if you want to go farther - you can!". You do still have to do some balancing, but instead of saying 'this experience needs to be exactly the right amount of challenging' you can say 'the first play has to be < the perfect amount, but if they keep playing for mastery, that level needs to be > the perfect amount'. Then, players can choose their own off-ramp - and you, as a designer, have to find the best way to communicate 'The offramp you choose was totally valid!'
Not that this game pulls this off perfectly or even well - but it was my first real attempt at that kind of balancing, and (i assume it's why Dark Souls -a game famously without difficulty settings- actually luxuriates and spends tremendous effort on having optional bosses, different endings, providing items for boss vulnerabilities and and player buffs, allowing cheese-strategies, etc)
Ah - I'm rambling - sorry!
I love your idea of uncovering a hidden trauma - I actually did toy with adding new levels for something like this. Of course, scope creep is always the biggest enemy - so I had to put the idea aside. But great idea!
Thank you so much for your comment!
The music gets very repetitive lol, but the theme is wonderful and the gameplay is suuuuper satisfying!
Wow great idea for game
@katastudios haha yeah I'm no musician - but thanks for playing!
@pusheeneiro thank you! yeah idk where it came from lol but it was fun to make
Well done! An interesting take on the theme, and a cool interpretation of the therapeutic method. The visuals and the music give the game a unique tone that I enjoyed. Great work!
interesting concept but it felt like game lacks some polishing, dialogs skip randomly, and it is hard to get into it at first. Visuals are nice, though my suggestion for future would be to find a good color palette and work with it, lots of different colors that don't mix well together create a bit of a bust picture.
I enjoyed the stick game, but the text was too small to read. I had fun, the audio was good reminds me of banjo kazooie
Ooh it's like the children's board game! This was such a creative idea, and love how you expressed the abstract concept of "trapped thoughts"!
Was initially going to say it was too easy, then I tried crisis mode and nearly failed, so yeah :)
@the3rdhunter thank you very much for your comment! Glad you got some enjoyment - thanks!
@hijomo yeah - text scaling continues to be an annoying problem - I believe there is a way in Godot to have the dynamic auto-scaling that matches a background image - but it's not as straightforward as using the normal anchor/container-sizing tools. Maybe next jam I'll figure it out! Luckily - for the most part - you don't really need to read the text, haha Thanks for playing!
@cr-nch and great work beaking crisis mode - not easy! thanks for playing!
I liked the end reveal of "solutions", how it was presented was a solid artistic choice. Controls were intuitive, and the overall concept worked really really well. Also, I think you need to start identifying as both an artist and musician xD, but maybe there is a pesky rod in the way! Excellent work
Combining psychoanalysis with KerPlunk is genius. Really enjoyed this! Music and art was great too; I loved the strange aesthetic it all evoked. Like @slef said, we're gonna have to remove a pesky rod to get you to stop talking ill of yourself! At the end of the day, I just love when compo devs try things they're unfamiliar with, and you knocked it out of the park.
Very refreshing to see a unique interpretation of the theme, as well. I did that for LD48's theme "Deeper and deeper" by exploring "deep" relationships, but this time I got lazy and just made a game about mining.
All in all, I loved this entry. Writing was succinct and the "crisis-mode" introduced a fun change of pace. Great work!
@slef hahaha thanks! loved reading this <3
@decadedecaf you're too kind! Thank you so much for your comment!
Fun gameplay some as tabletop games in my club in real life - 5 score! Check my game too, comrade!
I beat the game on crisis mode, cool idea. The music combined with the visuals makes an uncanny vibe for the game, but it works really well. The game-play itself isn't really related to therapy, initially I was looking at the question and answers and wondering why the person kept giving such cop out answers. But it was nice seeing solution for each of her problems at the end. That was confusing but I guess I understood it eventually. Overall nice job.
oh man I LOVE the theme of this. Representing therapy with kerplunk is genuinely brilliant. I did find the text a bit hard to read and honestly kind of gave up on it after a bit. Maybe part of the reason is because the question for each bar shows up as you hover over it, so the text is constantly changing and hard to keep track of. If the text only showed up as you commit to pulling a bar then it'd encourage the player to actually read it? Not sure. The text also doesn't seem to scale quite right when switching to full screen, and I had the sprites disappear as well.
I do also like the crisis mode, it adds a good layer of complexity and makes the player have to decide quick on whether they should pull a bar or just wait for gravity to do its thing. I think my best run was 3ish ruminations remaining? Oh I also really like the looping tune, it fits the vibe incredibly well. Again, really amazing job with the theming, nicely done!
I like the way you did a mini-game with the repressed thought bottlenecks represented by intertwined pipes that form a net that prevents them from being release. It kind of reminds me of Ace Attorney mini-games. On the other hand, I did not understand what the end of the game entails. It seems like she now has agency over her bad thoughts in the end, but there is no more gameplay after that anymore I think. The relationship between the pipes and the thoughts is confusing because they repeat each segment and she doesn't really give any meaningful feedback until the end of the game, which I understand is the point because her thoughts are still repressed, but as a player I believe that there is no immediate reward for in the form of feedback from her just for pulling one pipe, the only thing I've accomplished is that I made a shape fit, I think there's that disconnect from the gameplay vs. the therapy: I've accomplished to fit a piece but she did not react. Other than that I liked the mood of the game and the music fits perfectly I think. Good work!
@oxnh and @vary thank you for your comments! Yeah, good points -the UI for their 'dialogue' is nonsensical when considered as a 'narrative' game. In a way, the text ends up closer to 'background juice' - like particle effects or godrays, something the player notices once, then just becomes the fabric of the game. E.g.: you might walk into an area in a 3d adventure game and go 'cool, these godrays look nice.' After that, you go about the mission fighting goblins or whatever, and the god-ray's presence exits your conscious mind, never to be noticed again. With this text, you quickly stop reading it because you don't need to - but perhaps in your subconscious (heh), I think the knowledge that each marble _is_ representative of some corollary struggle, slightly enrichens the game. Then, at the end bowl, when you are 'confronted' with the failures and successes of the kerplunk game - you have that reminder of 'what you were working for' - again, even if it is too tedious to actually read - it represents some (small) part of the mosaic.
Not saying that this approach to dialogue is 'a good idea' or that it even 'works' here - but, in a way, that's what jam games are for - trying stuff that might not really work. At least that's what I tell myself!
The failure for the UI to scale properly is just that I don't yet know enough about mixing images and text in the godot canvas control system. I learned quite a bit more about it this jam, but not enough - maybe next time!
Anyways - ramble over - thank you both very much for playing and for leaving feedback!
@andriybyelikov thank you for your comment! Yeah - good note, any indication of 'reward' feedback for the player is held to the end (and even then it is pretty nebulous). I had hoped to add art for her smiling/reacting - but I'm no artist, and thus am quite slow - so more faces fell out of scope for the 48hrs. Perhaps if there had been a sound effect for each marble as a it moved a layer down? Just something to indicate progress - I think I was just relying on players understanding the physicality of the marbles (or being familiar with the board game) and thus understanding that any 'clearing of actual blockages' is helpful (and that clearing of 'useless' pipes, is, therefore, just a waste of patience). But good point - more clarity and positive-feedback in the design is always a good idea, I'll keep it in mind next jam.
Full transparency - I've never played or even seen the board game in real life! Just as ADs on TV as a kid, and I guess it 'got stuck in my subconscious' since then (lol)
Anyways - good points, thank you for playing and thank you for your feedback!
I really liked the innovative combination of simple concepts. Some things could be more polished, for example the camera rotation or text size and readability.
An incredibly deep dive into the theme! I loved the "thought" physics and the overall atmosphere. Excellent game!
@piw thanks for your feedback! Just so I understand, by polishing camera rotation - are you saying you would've preferred a different sensitivity? Or different control input for rotating? Or something else?
@torte478 Thank you! Very kind - happy you were able to enjoy it!