sudocoffee 2026-10-17 03:16 ♥ 0
( test / placeholder )
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD60 → Stars and the Sea
By sudocoffee
| Percentile | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | LD60 | Ever | |
| Overall | 18 | |||||
| Fun | 17 | |||||
| Innovation | 17 | |||||
| Theme | 17 | |||||
| Graphics | 18 | |||||
| Audio | 18 | |||||
| Mood | 18 | |||||
( test / placeholder )
That was a nice relaxing game. I must have misunderstood something because I never got especially close to my goal on the map, but it was a nice interactive experience anyway.
Love how such simple game can be so vibe. Great job! Special respect for music. Love it
I’m thrilled with the game! I hope someone made it (also was thinking on this technology). Thanks for the game
I managed to find the island! It took me a bit to realize the large stars were the only ones that mattered, and the clouds made things a bit frustrating at times, but other than that I think the gameplay was solid. The lovely instrumental music helped keep me engaged.
It'd be nice to have some more onboarding in the game itself, even if it's just a quick text blurb explaining the controls and objective.
Great job! I really liked the music in this game, as well as the easy controls and the feeling of acceleration. Thank you!
@cogcomp -- I added a hint section since you posted, if that helps. Although the game might be a bit too hard to navigate even if you understand what's going on.
@henk -- Thanks for playing! Definitely a lack of onboarding, and I'd have added a more info in-game, except that everything was mashed together at the last minute (as is tradition with Ludum Dare) and I ran out of time.
The opaque clouds were originally meant to be sandy/rocky islands where you could land your ship and venture. Even had some ship/island collision detection. It was pretty janky though, and messed with the game's mood, so I got rid of it. I like the idea of not always being able to see the stars -- sometimes when navigating, you have to choose a heading and keep moving in that direction until the next sign you find. But I do think the game ended up more difficult than intended.
My sense of direction is horrid so at first I was sure this is the goal (in hindsight, it should've been obvious the green point would be, well, green), and got very disappointed nothing happened once I reached the dead center. g.png I did manage to find the actual goal and reach the next level afterwards though! The abrupt transition caught me of guard so I didn't screenshot it but uh, trust me :)
Anyway, this was nice! I really enjoyed the music and graphics here, they were awesome! I was incredibly confused at the start, but once I realized what was going on - and some further confusion when trying to navigate via the small stars - it definitely clicked. Finally finding that green island at the end felt so good too!! I tried doing it again but I'm too impatient for this sort of stuff apparently :( I also got frustrated a little with the turn speed when aiming for the orange thing's dead center, but that wasn't the goal anyway and it did fit the gameplay. But overall yeah, great entry!
That's so cool! The size of the map and the fact that there's nothing except the stars on screen makes you feel really lost. The game is quite hard, but I was able to find the green island with the help of the hint section (I was trying to use the small stars at first, so I wouldn't get near the goal at all). I found the clouds to be a bit frustrating, but I think the game just calls for a slower pace that what I'm used to. Waiting for them to pass by, listening to the sound of the waves and the music creates a very calm and soothing mood. Great game!
Found my way to the green! Relaxing music, navigation using stars fits the theme well, fun idea. Pretty hard too. Good job!
Love the idea! The clouds added more frustration than anything else though even though I get the point. I'd rather have a longer path with a clear sky. Also took me a while until I realized the game doesn't pause when you open that map which makes sense I guess but made me lose track. Might also be good to always have at least one star visible at the start. I did make it to the green star in the end after a few restarts. Music is great and fitting!
@frogravity -- Thanks so much for playing! Yep, that does kind of look like a target. Every pattern in the game (except stars) is generated by placing lots and lots of randomly placed gradient circles everywhere, because learning to write perlin noise seemed too complex to do over the weekend (Love2D has noise generators, but I also needed the same noise in shader code). So target-like patterns are going to be pretty common.
When developing, I mostly had the goal much closer to the player for testing. It did surprise me after the jam was over how hard it is to actually find the goal, so I'm glad people are sticking around long enough to find it.
@ghettobastler -- Gameplay ended up more frustrating than intended, but I think I was mostly interested in creating the vibe of getting lost in a massive sea, with nothing but the sound of waves and the endless water to keep you company. So I'm glad it seems to give people that sort of feeling.
@silkworm-sweatshop -- Yeah, spawning in without any stars is a problem at the moment. Ideally you'd always spawn next to three stars, which would (almost) guarantee you could figure out your orientation. Pause is also unclear: the original intention was to have the map still show the game around the edges (so you know you're moving), and I just never got around to it.
It's fun to play and relaxing. The music reminds me of *Outer Wilds*. I think I've found the end, but the map is huge, so I'm not sure.
Mountain dulcimer - fantastic. I'm interested to try recording music for our future games. Was this your own composition or just your own playing?
I'm loving the games coming out of this theme and was excited to get to play this, but inbetween (a) getting interrupted (I should have stopped my boat but didn't think I'd be gone long), (b) some particularly long cloud cover, (c) dozing off - to relaxed by the music? (d) getting what I consider harder maps when I was able to focus - I didn't make it to the end. But I'm going to try again another day!
One thing I wished for was a bit of scale between what I see and what is on the map. Also, instead of remembering colors, would be nice directly marking "start" & "stop" --> If that's a problem for star map interference, perhaps a legend. I'd also use circle & square or shapes for people who may be color blind.
@runningopenloop -- Thanks for trying it out! Yeah, I composed the music myself. Mostly just me fiddling with an instrument I haven't played much, but seemed like it would fit to hear over the sea. I don't have a recording space, so I just set a USB mic next to the mountain dulcimer, recorded and patched a bunch of takes together in Audacity, normalized the audio, and added a little reverb and compression. I used the "air" key on a concertina to make the wind/wave effects.
The Audacity files are [here](https://github.com/sudo-coffee/ld60/releases/download/tag/music.aup3) and [here](https://github.com/sudo-coffee/ld60/releases/download/tag/waves.aup3), if anyone wants to check them out.
None of my last five Ludum Dare games have had any text. Mostly that's because it's always a scramble to get something even halfway playable out the door, but at this point, it almost feels like a kind of tradition. I'm sure there were clearer ways to communicate what's happening on the map though (including the scale), even without text.
I reached the goal as well! The green area with the black inside, I hadn't expected it to go to the next level immediately, or I would have taken a screenshot before I reached the black part, alas.
My strategy was what we in the business call "reload-the-second-you-get-lost scumming". The goal was usually relatively close, so the strat is to look at the closest stars, align towards to goal then pray and race. I just did another run just to prove how perfect this strat is, but apparently raced right past the goal during one of the cloudy sections, so it's still not perfect. BUT it works sometimes! I got to the goal!
Very beautiful game. The stars glimmering in the sea and the clouds drifting by give it such a nice serene atmosphere, the music perfectly enhances the mood as well, this was all very expertly crafted, that makes it very enjoyable. And while my ultimate strat makes it sound like I just went in a line, I did actually have a lot of fun exploring, correcting my position and just having a little boat adventure under the stars. I think that captured the old tech theme and that star navigation adventure perfectly. All around great game, very well done!
Nailed it. I think, small stars should've been less attention-grabbing, maybe slowly fading away and reappearing in other places, just to show that they are not your markers. I like the music and game concept, but I feel that this game misses something, I don't know what exactly. Or maybe it's just this kind of game where you just sit and chill. You know it better than I do, it's your game. I hope you'll keep up the development, it's definitely something!
the atmosphere here is incredibly relaxing. the star navigation is a really unique and clever idea, and the instrumental music is just beautiful. it really makes you feel like a lonely sailor lost at sea.
it is pretty hard to navigate though. i got completely lost a few times and had to restart because i couldn't figure out which way to go. maybe adding a quick in-game tutorial or a clearer indication of which stars matter would help players not feel so overwhelmed at the start.
still, a very beautiful and meditative experience. great job!
@fifut -- I had someone else (in person) also say the music sounds like Outer Wilds. I've never played that game (so I won't spoil myself on the music), but from everything I know, seems like a game I should try someday.
@captaindreamcast -- I think that strategy is basically what I had in mind by the end of the jam, as it's pretty difficult to get un-lost in the game. Originally you could see a much larger area of (large) stars at a time, and it seemed too easy to identify constellations, so I lowered the field of view, but maybe corrected a bit too much ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯ Glad you enjoyed the game!
@artonix -- Thanks for playing! There are definitely things missing, in the sense that I ran out of time to implement 90% of the stuff I had in mind. The atmosphere and feeling were my first priority, and the goal and starting points were only added at the last minute to give the player something to navigate towards. But I'm happy with what I was able to throw together in the time I had.
@chingiskhan -- The game could do better at messaging things to the player, especially about what stars they need to follow. But I'm glad you had a cool experience! Lonely sailor lost at sea was the sort of vibe I was going for.
This was interesting!
A bit too hard for me to figure out. Anyway I looked I was not able tell which way I was oriented. I probably sailed off to wrong direction :D
The audio in this game was amazing! It was so relaxing and quite nostalgic. One thing that would've been nice is if you had clarified that the orange circle was the start, I just thought it was an extra circle and spent wayyyy to long trying to figure out where I was and which way I was facing. The transition between maps could be a little smoother (like a fade out and fade in). That is my only complaint. The game was so well done! I have played it so much just because it's so fun and adventurous and relaxing. Again, the music is amazing! Love the game. Good job!
