6knowledge 2025-10-07 10:25
The atmosphere was for sure the highlight of this one, but the gameplay rand it's course quite fast. The ghost "running away" but still moving towards you was quite a heart-stopper before knowing what it did.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD58 → The Hollow Library
By snowdrama
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 380 | 3.52 | 21 | |
| Fun | 544 | 3.10 | 21 | |
| Innovation | 588 | 2.89 | 21 | |
| Theme | 489 | 3.52 | 21 | |
| Graphics | 502 | 3.42 | 21 | |
| Humor | 583 | 2.47 | 19 | |
| Mood | 258 | 3.76 | 21 |
The atmosphere was for sure the highlight of this one, but the gameplay rand it's course quite fast. The ghost "running away" but still moving towards you was quite a heart-stopper before knowing what it did.
@6knowledge Yeah for sure, there was originally going to be 4 different ghost AI, only the first one would run when you shined a light on it, and yeah I had thought about making it search more away from the player. So it wouldn't run at you when fleeing. But didn't have time to figure that out, so it just picks a random spot.
After I built the one AI that ran from you, and had a plan for the 4 ghosts, I started on the art/animations/atmosphere. By the time I finished the art assets it was half way through Sunday and I spent the rest of the jam doing the scene transitions, the actual like level unlocking mechanics, the dialog thing, and such. I was working on the game loop right up to the end basically.
Thanks for giving it a shot!
Nice work, the flashlight and the darkness add to the atmosphere. That big scary monster did look forboding and did make me want to run away from it. I got to 9 souls before it got to me!
i didnt knew that you fully did it alone this time :) i really like the mood of the game and the dark scenery. Hope you get the 20 votes until the end.
@raysplaceinspace I did try really hard on the atmosphere, so I'm glad that it worked out! Thanks for trying it!
@neowhoru Yep this time it was just me, the only thing not me was music/sound which is why I opted out of that, but I had to have sound to get that atmosphere so I bit the bullet on that one. I also really liked where the mood ended up, my main wish is that the mechanics were deeper but I'm just glad I finished lol
It was not easy, especially the last one, but I beat all the ghosts!
@lereveur Congrats! I don't know how many people beat the game, but I only know of 2 people XD I'm glad you managed it the last level layout is definitely challenging. I do wish I had more time for the ghost AI to make things mildly easier and more interesting but definitely ran out of time!
I haven't finished it - gave up on the 4th level, with one soul left and unable to find it for 5 minutes, before getting approached by the ghost not reacting to the flashlight >,< But still it was fun with good ambience! Something that happened to me on the last level was the ghost (I guess that by chance) picked the direction they were running from to be where a shard I haven't picked up yet was - if that's not a mechanic, but it should be? It would both make sense and help with finding shards when you don't have many left.
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Really nice game! I liked the music and the atmosphere; they worked very well together.
A small note on sound balancing: the music in the third level could have been a little bit quieter, as it was noticeably louder compared to the other levels.
I also think a hint system to help find the souls would have been a nice addition, but nonetheless, I managed to beat the game! The art was fun and I had a great time playing it.
Really enjoyed! The atmosphere is dark and mysterious. Great visuals — well done! 👏
@macron Yeah the last one is tough since the layout is twice the size as the other levels. Funny enough the final ghost was supposed to have an AI similar to what you describe, each was supposed to have a different behavior but I ran out of time. The final ghost was supposed to stalk the player and when they got near a soul they'd sprint to it and try to cut off the player and defending.
To help with the missing souls issue, there was also going to be an in game map system to help you find where you haven't been. Appreciate you playing!
@chuchugeralt Thanks for playing! Yeah there was supposed to be a mapping system that would assist with helping you find the souls, but it got cut due to time constraints(90% of the gameplay was made in 6 hours, the rest of my time was art and atmosphere lol)
The audio was added last minute, as I initially didn't have sound at all, but instead of having no sound, I used some CC0 audio so I didn't make it myself(Hence opting out of Music) thus the mixing wasn't adjusted at all and I didn't notice it but I noticed it later.
@darianifakina Thank you! I spent a lot of time on the atmosphere! Thanks for playing!
Simply lovely! Good graphics they are very unique, interesting gameplay in general, theme is present. Good job!
Pro Tip: Post often about your game on the feed. So now and later to reach the 20 ^^
@patuwu Thank you! I spent a lot of time on the graphics (more than I'd like to admit lol) Thanks for playing!
@neowhoru Yeah I plan to make another post soon I've been playing and rating games as well trying to help get the danger ones up to 20 haha
Awesome game! The use of lighting is excellent, the music fits perfectly, and the art is great. I like that the flashlight can also be used to chase away corrupted ghosts. Great work!!
Really love the art and the atmosphere! Great job! I tried to use flashlight to make the first enemy run away. It worked for the first time but it didn't work anymore. Is this by design or a possible bug?
Wonderful entry! The atmosphere and lighting plus the audio really brings everything together. Would be interesting to add a different mechanic in each room, but that's always an option for beyond the jam. Well done!
@wormkingboo Thanks! I spent a long time on the visuals to try and get that part down.
@rol Yeah the issue is that while you shine the light they don't stop coming at you, so it's mildly finicky. The area to hit them is also a sphere located at towards the feet(which is the collider) not the whole body, combined with the fact the flashlight collider is a cone shape, could be part of why it feels inconsistent.
@alex-mcgrath Thanks! I had planned to do a unique ghost AI for each room but I ran out of time haha! I can dig into it after the jam for sure! Might be worth doing an update
A very cute game!! The atmosphere is great and it's not difficult to play. Nice job!
@ciphereo Thanks! I spent a lot of time on the character designs and I think they came out actually fairly good! Thanks for playing!
Nice light effects! I liked the dialogs with the ghosts at the end of the levels. Sometimes they ran in to me when I was at the end of a hallway and couldn't avoid them, which felt a bit unfair after shining the light on them, so that's my only complaint. Overall I liked the mood and that it got increasingly scarier for every level. Nice game!
@bacontree Thanks! I wanted to try to add more "character" this time, usually there's not time for lore or characters in my past jams so this time I figured I'd add some personality.
Yeah the AI isn't very smart, it kinda just walks towards the player, so it can follow you down dead ends which I can imagine is frustrating. The flashlight delay is also kinda broken, if it goes off the collider for even a second, it resets to 0, which is something I want to fix in a post jam release by having the charge goes down slowly when not pointed at the ghost.
The other issue I know of is hitbox for the light is a small circle at their feet, I found during post jam play-testing people were pointing it at the ghost's face, which works when it's far away but you end up with situations where the cone shape of the flashlight, would miss the circle due to angle, which would break the connection, so it compounds the whole full reset if it even loses contact for a second.
I may be updating it at some point but yeah all good feedback thank you for playing!