FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD58 → Before I Go Blind

Before I Go Blind

By lesdremlet

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall1463.8755
Fun6762.7951
Innovation703.9255
Theme2813.8455
Graphics1224.2954
Audio764.0352
Humor6222.2942
Mood114.5154

Comments

zevsehg 2025-10-07 03:22

Nice graphics and deep mood. Would be perfect if the line, connecting the panorama wouldn't be visible.

lesdremlet 2025-10-07 14:05

@zevsehg thank you, and thanks for reporting the panorama issue, I just fixed it

viad17 2025-10-07 14:36

The game is simple, but very conceptual. I liked. The music and atmosphere are very cool made. The only thing I really want is to be able to view the gallery on phone.

pandalk 2025-10-07 17:00

big fan of the art direction ! I wasn't sure what would happen at the end, the explosion was very pretty

re-markable 2025-10-07 17:08

Wow this is gorgeous. Impressive you made everything yourself!

When playing it in browser in fullscreen you kind of have to push a bit harder to make the screen rotate. So the first time I played it, I didn't realize I could move the screen to the side. I was just taking the same pictures of the old guy hahahaha. The only reason I knew it was possible was from your screenshots of the other people on the beach.

Maybe a little indicator in game could be nice or have it be a bit clearer in the controls that you can look around the beach with the phone on top of just moving the phone?

Beautiful entry though <3

sheepolution 2025-10-07 17:14

Really interesting. Personally I would have loved a bit more interaction or gameplay, but it was beautiful to see all the different expressions. Very moody. Great job.

nekobones 2025-10-07 17:28

Great narrative game! The music just fits sooo well, the animation and overall art design is great. It's a little confusing that I really didn't know i could turn my view. Would be better if I could control view through keyboard! Nice job!

milq 2025-10-07 17:28

Wow! What an amazing artistic direction, both visual and auditory! I kind of missed having a bit more interaction or being able to see the photos I took to witness the consequences of my actions. Still, the artistic direction is outstanding, and the fact that you created everything yourself is truly impressive. Great entry!

outstar 2025-10-07 17:31

This was a powerful experience, the presence of a little girl with seemingly religiously fixated father made me really sad! On my first run, I did not get that I could move my camera off-screen to capture other people in a panorama, but seeing your screenshots I understood I missed something. The ability to browse the gallery throughout (or after) would be great. Overall, great concept with a heavy mood

yungfrv 2025-10-07 17:50

It made me tear up ngl. Beautiful take on the theme, perfect music, I'm sad now

gyzra 2025-10-07 17:50

Such a wonderful project that feels like an art gallery experience. Very clever use of story set up to create tension in an otherwise beautiful scene. I wish there was more, but the fact that there isn't makes the moment that much more powerful. Well done!

wetburritosupreme 2025-10-07 20:07

Such an impactful experience, to have to choose where you look was very difficult. The art style and music fit perfectly. Nicely done!

raysplaceinspace 2025-10-08 00:41

Wait, you can rotate the screen? I spent 2 minutes just looking at the guy. It was still poignant and meaningful, but I would've had a better time if something told me I could look around somehow.

lesdremlet 2025-10-08 08:46

Big thanks for the feedback, guys! The screen rotation bug has been fixed. Let me know if you find any other issues!

nurakim 2025-10-08 10:02

Deep meaningful.

chuckeles 2025-10-08 15:26

Damn, this hit deep. You embraced the limitations and got out maximum! Very well done. 👏

koolruz 2025-10-08 15:59

I love how you've made such a polished tiny game, which has a single experience that it's selling! :)

FYI - On my first playthrough, the camera couldn't scroll at all, even after the update you pushed out to try to fix it - No matter how much I pushed the phone towards the edge of the screen, it just got locked into place. I knew there *must* have be some way to scroll, based on the gifs that you shared, so I did give the game a second playthrough and it worked perfectly on the second attempt. I'm not sure exactly what was going wrong, because it felt like I took the same steps both times, but I did get to play the game as intended on my second attempt!

I really love the dynamic art style that you have for the scene, the little bit of jitter on the player's hands really adds a lot of life to the presentation.

In terms of presentation, this is the *tiniest* polish nitpick, but the way that you're currently revealing text can lead to awkward jumps as the text box reformats itself whenever a word becomes too long. It looks like you're adding each character to a text box one-at-a-time, but a different way to achieve the same effect is to start with the full string of text rendered at 0% opacity (or the same color as the background), and then change the font color of each character to be visible one at a time. This gives you the same character-by-character text reveal, but it locks the layout of the text into a preformatted block because the *contents* of the text box won't change, just the font color. This prevents those jumps in layout as text is revealed.

Hopefully that makes sense? The reformat that I'm talking about happens in the attached gif as "would" and "12:00" are revealed.

breakpoints.gif

That tiny nitpick doesn't change the fact that this is a lovely polished little game! :) You've put a ton of care and attention into all the little details of the scene (having the camera album button was such a nice touch!), which is why I bring it up, because I can tell you really care about the fine details! Great job overall!

badpiggy 2025-10-08 16:41

I've always wanted to tell stories through games, but never really knew how to do it well. You made something pretty impactful which lasted only a few a minutes, and I commend you for that

Maybe it's because of how short it was and how the timer on the phone was so close to the end that I felt like I really had to take a few pictures, lol. It definitely made the experience tbh. The anticipation because of it kinda had me on edge

Part of me wants to nitpick and wish that the game was maybe a little more interactive, but it doesn't take away from the fact that you made something really good here. Well done

lesdremlet 2025-10-08 17:59

@koolruz First of all, thank you so much for such a detailed answer!

Regarding the scrolling — I'm glad you found the time to check the game again after all the fixes and finally got to experience it. Fortunately, I was able to fix the bugs on the second try, and now the scrolling feels intuitive (just as it was originally intended, of course).

Everything you wrote about the text is an extremely valuable point! I'll admit, I hadn't given this aspect enough attention before, but now I clearly see how this oversight can be confusing. I'll definitely keep it in mind for future projects.

I'm really glad you noticed the details — it means my efforts were worthwhile. Once again, thank you very much!

mooyett 2025-10-08 20:39

Wow, thanks for waking up my existential crisis aha, the graphics and music are simple but they fit well together to create a spooky dreamy vibe. Would have loved to see a diaporama of my pictures at the end, would have been a nice touch. Nice entry!

anachrone 2025-10-08 20:49

oh my god, im depressed now, but great game and unexpected turn of event !

pikario 2025-10-09 12:44

A sad entry, but I like it. I don't know if it was your goal, but I quickly stopped to take photos, because what was the point? I just waited for the end

cataclysmicknight 2025-10-09 22:19

When I saw the text about going to heaven, I assumed this was a humorous game mocking the rapture news recently, how it was supposed to happen. So I expected the end to be, like, "Well, nothing happened!"

And that might be why the end surprised me SO much! Well done!

norah 2025-10-10 13:17

Really cool entry, I personally love narrative games :slight_smile: I would have liked the game to be a little longer so that the ending could be even more impactful but i know that's hard to do in only 72 hours. Congrats !!

solidhinken 2025-10-10 17:43

Wow. I love how the music, the battery and time is all adding up to the suspence, while when it all happens all that's left is to take pictures in awe.. Really like this one, very emotional

amande-dooce 2025-10-10 18:01

I lvoe when games make me experience things. I felt dread seeing the clock on the phone indicating 11:59; the ambiance is also really good and I love your artstyle it matches really well with the theme ! I also like really much that you represented different age groups. My only complaint (but I might be asking for what could be a distraction from the essence of the game) is that I would have loved to read different interactions between the other characters on screen, even a single line of text just to know a bit about their feelings. But once again, maybe the perfect balance has already been struck with the Religious Dad. :D Thank you for making this game !

gastoon 2025-10-10 18:22

The game actually scared me, and the characters are so expressive. Pixel art and gameplay are simple, but effective.

yorsh 2025-10-10 18:24

Interesting take on the theme! Very well made, audio and graphics are really nice and work together to create a strong mood. Congrats!

l6ria 2025-10-10 20:23

I'm in shock. This game made me about all. Thank you for this beautiful game.

michlau 2025-10-10 20:34

i feel like the intro is too drawn out, but otherwise the game is so atmospheric and immersive. the music and the end animation is so good. i thought it was fascinating how the mc talks about facing the end "with eyes wide open" but they are constantly shielded with a phone screen. so much that you cant read the monologue while taking pictures. again, in the atmosphere and mood setting this game is peak. also very innovative from other entries i've been playing. great job!

rayhimmel 2025-10-10 22:52

damn that's good

mestrerothld 2025-10-11 04:44

This is an awesome experience. Very well tied actions, atmosphere and narrative.

roroto-sic 2025-10-12 14:04

it would be cool to watch photos that players has shooted when credits rolls. cool art ;)

captandrey 2025-10-13 11:21

amazing art and sound. It was cool to see some little things with zoom, like tears. Maybe i missed, but maybe it would be better to add more things like that

amiuke 2025-10-14 05:55

Oh my god, I absolutely love this piece. It feels like an apocalyptic prose poem — the music and art are both pure works of art at their finest.

wdebowicz 2025-10-15 21:12

Thats why I love game jams, your entry was a really interesting experience. Also interesting why to make photos if there will be nobody to watch them, yet I'm sure many people would do that. Thank you for you game!

shadyshade 2025-10-18 12:00

This game is so suggestive :crying_cat_face:

lesdremlet 2025-10-20 17:18

@viad17 thanks for the feedback!

lesdremlet 2025-10-20 17:18

@pandalk glad you liked the visuals, this was the first time in four years that I actually returned to Aseprite :)

lesdremlet 2025-10-20 17:18

@re-markable yes, that was a small settings issue, I've successfully fixed that bug, and now the movement works intuitively as I originally intended, thanks for playing!

lesdremlet 2025-10-20 17:18

@sheepolution I understand what you mean, thanks for appreciating it

lesdremlet 2025-10-20 17:18

@nekobones to be honest, I didn't think about keyboard controls this time, I'll definitely keep it in mind next time. Yes, there was an issue with rotation, fortunately it's all fixed now

lesdremlet 2025-10-20 17:19

@milq thank you for your feedback, I'm glad you liked the graphic style, it was an amazing experience for me:)

lesdremlet 2025-10-20 17:19

@outstar I'm glad the game gave you emotions, thank you!

lesdremlet 2025-10-20 17:19

@yungfrv yes, unfortunately in our life not everything is as calm as we'd like, but I'm glad you appreciated my small contribution

lesdremlet 2025-10-20 17:19

@gyzra thank you, I'm very pleased!

lesdremlet 2025-10-20 17:19

@wetburritosupreme Oh, thank you, creating these graphics and music also turned out to be a truly interesting experience that I had to go through :)

lesdremlet 2025-10-20 17:20

@raysplaceinspace that was my oversight, thank you for reporting it, and I actually fixed this issue shortly after

lesdremlet 2025-10-20 17:20

@nurakim thank you for your rating!

lesdremlet 2025-10-20 17:20

@chuckeles yes, I was literally falling off my feet finishing this work, so I'm extremely glad I could give you emotions, thanks for playing!

lesdremlet 2025-10-20 17:20

@badpiggy I perfectly understand what you mean, this is my first experience creating a short but complete story :) I'm glad it gave you emotions, that was the main goal, thank you for the comment!

lesdremlet 2025-10-20 17:21

@mooyett feel free, I can repeat it haha! Thanks for playing, I really appreciate it.

lesdremlet 2025-10-20 17:21

@anachrone thanks for the feedback, hang in there, everything will definitely get better!

lesdremlet 2025-10-20 17:21

@pikario you can just wait, why not, in the end we'll all come to the same thing anyway

lesdremlet 2025-10-20 17:22

@cataclysmicknight oh, so I did everything right, thanks for writing that!

lesdremlet 2025-10-20 17:22

@norah thank you, yes, fortunately we don't have much time for creation :)

lesdremlet 2025-10-20 17:22

@solidhinken I'm glad you wrote that, very grateful

lesdremlet 2025-10-20 17:22

@amande-dooce oh, I'm very glad you experienced the same emotions as me, that's very important to me. Good thought, thank you very much for the comment!

lesdremlet 2025-10-20 17:22

@gastoon I understand, it scared me the whole time I was working on it, and it still scares me

lesdremlet 2025-10-20 17:23

@yorsh thank you very much!

lesdremlet 2025-10-20 17:23

@l6ria I'm glad you appreciated it, which means I did everything right, thank you for your feedback!

lesdremlet 2025-10-20 17:23

@michlau Haha that's interesting :) I'm very glad the game delivered emotions

lesdremlet 2025-10-20 17:23

@rayhimmel Thanks for that

lesdremlet 2025-10-20 17:23

@mestrerothld Thank you, which means my efforts weren't in vain

lesdremlet 2025-10-20 17:23

@roroto-sic thank you

lesdremlet 2025-10-20 17:24

@captandrey thanks! Indeed, I could have added much more if time had allowed

lesdremlet 2025-10-20 17:24

@amiuke thanks a lot for such high praise! It was really important for me to tell this story, even though it's not the entertaining and fun experience that is usually expected from a game. You hit the bullseye - that was exactly my goal, thank you again

lesdremlet 2025-10-20 17:24

@wdebowicz that makes two of us! Thank you for playing and appreciating my work, I'm extremely pleased

lesdremlet 2025-10-20 17:25

@shadyshade oh, I'm glad this work made you empathize and reflect, that's the most important thing for me