FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD59 → Beyond The Ridge

Beyond The Ridge

By thierry, evil23, , , , and

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall7762.8824
Fun8132.4024
Innovation8112.4024
Theme7023.0024
Graphics5913.3526
Audio3913.3624
Humor6372.0025
Mood7312.9724

Comments

2026-04-21 10:24

Interesting concept with the safe houses progression tied to the lore. The aiming was very difficult though and missing a lot of tweaking (especially the weapon recoil making it very hard to see what's happening).

aashen 2026-04-21 11:03

The idea is not bad on itself, but the implementation is poorly done unfortunately. Weapon recoil+ lack of seamless aiming really do make hipfire the only available option in the game. SFX are great though! The mud sound is so satisfying :D

miclefirst 2026-04-21 11:04

The aiming and shooting were terrible, but I like the overall idea and mood. The alarm sound and the spread of the danger zone worked perfectly, creating a sense of danger

2026-04-22 08:17

the shaders are good but the aiming was weird

squimmy 2026-04-22 08:41

A first-person shooter lives and dies based on its gunplay and I'm sorry to say this one kind of dies. It was also not very performant on my (admittedly old) computer: the frame-rate was pretty patchy even with graphics set to "low".

Also the setting was confusing --- why would anyone start a village in a valley full of poison gas? Why does everyone shoot at you when you try to leave? Why aren't the people shooting at you worried about the gas? Maybe these questions are answered at the end of the game but sadly I didn't make it that far.

pixel-studios 2026-04-22 09:00

The game idea is wonderful and definitely the most innovative I think I've seen so far, but the gameplay just didn't work as well. The aim was way too large and there was too much feedback, and I didn't know what to do after I shot all of the bullets, so kept dying. Also it was really laggy. But the graphics are excellent and the music is too, well done!

evil23 2026-04-22 14:15

@vincenthuet @aashen @miclefirst @haoxuan @squimmy @pixel-studios Thanks for the feedback guys! I agree that the recoil while aiming is way too high. We published a bugfix version.

nekuake 2026-04-23 13:40

The mood was on point and really good job en patching the game, I've tried both versions and the improvement is night and day. Good luck!! :3

jk5000 2026-04-23 14:04

I love the intro. The gameplay is simple and pretty fun. But the game overall feels a bit unfinished, and I find it difficult to go very far. But overall a fine little jam game.

profugo-barbatus 2026-04-23 20:26

Neat premise, but plays very poorly. There's no real feedback to being hit, so its difficult to tell if you're even being attacked or taking damage. At the same time, the enemy is highly aggressive and often cheesily positioned. I walked down a few times and just fell dead for very little apparent reason before realizing there were just two guys waiting to shoot me in the back passing a blind spot, etc. Combined with me not making it far enough to figure out if there's any health recovery options, and it quickly wore out its welcome.

The static asset quality is pretty nice, but it does clash with the low resolution environmental details, and the lack of animation/feedback on the players weapon, making the whole thing feel visually inconsistent and clash, bringing consistent attention to its weaker parts.

I think with a balance pass to move it away from the super low TTK and towards its evidently arcade leanings, there'd be something decent here, just needs to embrace the pieces it has available.

half-animal-half-beast 2026-04-24 01:07

really nice atmosphere and visual direction. i’d love to see the idea expanded further, but even as a jam entry it has a strong vibe. nice work!

2026-04-24 12:23

The idea of the game is cool, and it looks great. But the controls don’t feel very good, and I think the game’s theme doesn’t quite fit well with “signal.”

fassenberg 2026-04-24 14:37

Wow, you even made a trailer! A lot of work has clearly gone into this — cutscenes, voice acting, effects, visuals, shooting mechanics.

The gas theme is interesting, but it could use a bit more development. I can see that you’re responding to comments and making fixes, which is great. The game just needs some polishing.

evil23 2026-04-26 20:38

Guys, thanks for the great feedback!

@pixel-studios Valid questions, we planned for the player to not wear a mask but as we ran out of time, we used the one character model that we had and looked decent. @profugo-barbatus Yes, not knowing where you're being shot from is a major problem. We had damage direction indicators high up on the list but didn't manage to complete it in time. When you rest in a shelter, your health will recover after a while. @danibeve The alarm sound before each gas wave is supposed to be the "signal". But true, we haven't made that clear anywhere.

About the lack of details and animation: Creating a first-person shooter with this kind of artstyle was an overly ambitious goal for a gamejam so we had to cut a lot of corners. For example, lowering the weapon during reload was just a trick to save work we would have to spend on a reload animation.

As always, if you set the bar too high, it's your own fault if you can't measure up. Doesn't mean you shouldn't try :smiley:

2026-05-08 09:39

It's a good game that can be completed; you have to move from bunker to bunker to escape the green gas.