Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD59 → Lonely Crossway
By polyvishap
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 548 | 3.40 | 24 | |
| Fun | 696 | 2.90 | 23 | |
| Innovation | 685 | 2.90 | 24 | |
| Theme | 289 | 3.97 | 24 | |
| Graphics | 440 | 3.72 | 24 | |
| Audio | 329 | 3.52 | 24 | |
| Mood | 198 | 4.00 | 24 |
Wow, super impressive for 12 hours! Nice atmosphere, felt a bit like backrooms. I got 26 traffic lights. And btw I accidentally learned about the "thing" ahead of time from the logs since I ran the game from a terminal :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:
@theoratkin Ayyyy! A fellow Linux nerd! :DDDD yeah okay wow - that's a very good eye. Need to patch this up real quick LOL
I really like the atmosphere of this game! I was expecting someone behind me who could scare me at any moment! XD Good job!
Played it thrice and 16 traffic lights is my limit so far :D
Screenshot_2.jpg
Anyone beat that?
Really cool for something made in 12 hours. Wishing you all green lights in everything you do!
Very atmospheric, I liked it :)
i got around 19 traffic lights - really moody game :D
Very cool! Couldn't get past 18. Great atmosphere - I like that the roads are completely empty (until, of course, the worst possible moment) - gives it this darkly omniscient vibe. Cool stuff!
Really cool concept, wish there was a web or Mac version :C
@tanjou Yeahhh, sorry about that. I actually tried exporting to web as well, but as I have discovered, the web version's audio got really messed up -- apparently real-time effects sometimes are a no-go =\ -- so, unless if I end up redoing some of the things for the web build specifically, I'll probably do that if I decide I feel like making a post-jam version or something. No promises, but never saying never here, at least!
I wish I could have been able to do a Mac build as well, but ~~aside from Apple themselves making it unnecessarily fucking difficult to make apps for their posh-expensive ecosystem,~~ I... don't have an actual Mac I could have tested to see if it would've worked natively? And I don't know anyone else who could... oh hey - speaking of which, do you have a BlueSky, by any chance? [update: an attempt was made]
I had the very same problem with audio! xD I couldn't find a proper solution, so I removed the effects from my web build and left for download only. I'll see if I can try this in another device soon!
My blue sky is @tanjou.bsky.social !
@tanjou ok let me in your PMs. 👁️👁️
I managed to play it on Mac! Truly fun experience with a great mood. There was a bug where I couldn't see the traffic light's object but I could see the light, so it was enough to play. Good job!
@tanjou "WOO-HOO!!" on the Mac build working part! "god dammit" on the traffic light sprite specific visual bug I can't seem to track down in exported builds.
agh—
Very opresive ambience, liked it :scream: (and the mac version work fine :thumbsup: )
The atmosphere is really good, I felt horrified the entire time. Simple yet great use of the theme as well!
I do admittedly wish the payoff to messing up was a bit more than what it actually is, only because of what the atmosphere is already setting up.
Would love to see what you're able to do in the future when you have more than 12 hours!
The atmosphere is very themed and the scene is very impressive. Although I didn't finish playing due to network issues, I really enjoyed it!
Funny game but i can't fullscreen(
impressive you got this done in only 12 hours !! the atmosphere is great and i like the interesting take on the theme !
Cool game
Nice atmosphere and sound. Reminds me on sime indie japanese game I saw on steam lately. Impressive job for 12 hours. You've done great!
Okay, so you've put a couple of aspersions on this game in the description on account of it being done in 12 hours, which I wanted to push back on a little, because I really loved this thing. I think it's super well-designed.
The difficulty with making a horror game in a Ludum Dare is that it's really hard to do well, because doing the asset work to make a horror game is a monumental task. To scope something for a 72 hour jam (or a 12 hour jam, in this case) you really have to pare down to the essentials, and the essentials of a horror game can still sometimes be a pretty high bar to pass, especially if you're a beginner. That's just kind of how the genre is.
Do you remember PT? PT was a looping horror game, just like this one. The map design in PT was really important, despite the fact it was basically just a hallway. The essential moment of PT comes from the repeated 90-degree turn off to the right when you start a new loop. Whatever other terrifying stuff they put in that game, PT is at its core just a game about turning that first corner, and the anticipation of what lies ahead.
You basically did PT in 12 hours. Yeah, Lonely Crossway doesn't exactly have the same aura, but that's not the point of these game jams. The essential design elements of this game are identical to one of the best horror games ever made. The anticipatory build up of leaving the traffic island, but only when you're allowed to, and then heading off into the dark -- a dark you know is dangerous, because you're sprinting across a 4-lane highway, but also because the player knows this is a horror game and something terrible is probably going to happen to them -- is executed on really well.
So the experience is this constant never-ending anticipation of what's just beyond the edge of the dark. That'd be spooky enough, but you also had time to go a little further! You play with the player's expectations by removing a traffic light, and you have to listen to the echoing from the other islands to figure out when you can cross the road. On a design level it's just like turning the corner in PT and seeing something different, something unexpected. You never know what's going to happen at the next island. And then you introduce your threat and its off to the races! Suddenly what was an unnerving but ultimately safe game of Simon Says turns into waiting painfully as you *know* The Thing is somewhere behind you.
But it isn't really a game about The Thing, it's a game about Turning The Corner, and I think you did that well, especially given that you did it in 12 hours, wow. Sure, eventually you realize that the game is essentially solvable by holding shift, but (for me) it really was suspenseful for longer than you might anticipate, seeing as, being the developer, you probably became inured to your own horror pretty quickly. And on a technical level, as far as I can tell, it's perfect, so it's both well-designed and well-executed. I followed you on Bluesky, I'm excited to see what you tackle in the future. You should be really proud of this. Good job!
14 traffic lights here! You turned something as mundane as crossing the street into a tense (and fun) experience. Would love to see a bigger game from you with this same urban horror mood.
Great job for delivering something so cool in such short time!
i love the atmosphere and for 12 hours it is really impressive.
The atmosphere was very scary! Very polished for the time that you invested in it. Great entry!
great work with the lighting and the atmosphere!! this game feels like walking home on mars after 8 martian hours of martian routine
Okay, so after receiving my first anonymous comment, I had to disable anonymous comments, because...
Presumably an anonymous comment that only appears as a... as a dash.
...I can't read them. That's just how they look like on my end.
This is weird.
simple and effective game; very scary
Neat atmosphere and sounds. Also the eerie mood worked very well for me. But I didn't quite get what to do, I stopped on red and walked on green, but still got rolled over :D.
@remusnomos you must have also scared your mum like that as a toddler a lot, huh? :^)