Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → LRL64
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 48 | Deeper and deeper | š„ | Into the Dark | jam | 522 | 3.76 | 3.36 | 3.64 | 3.47 | 4.10 | 3.47 | 2.16 | 4.00 |
Solid entry. Some cool particle effects and just solid visuals all round and the sound is no slouch either. It is a bit tricky getting your attacks to land since they move you so far but that is a plus in my book since it takes a bit to master.
Nice game. The gliding feels good, sound and graphics are well done too. One criticism is that hacking is not explained but totally understandable for a jam game. Well done.
Wow, this game is so addictive. It is innovative in it's concept. Well explained, fun and addictive. Visuals are nice and clean. I also wish I could have rated you on the audio because that is great too. Really REALLY good game you have here.
The visuals and audio are really good. Flying through all those equations was kind of trippy. Lol, really cool game. I don't know if it was something I was not understanding but it felt like the responsiveness changes sometimes and I don't mean when I am going really fast. Sometimes you just barely go left or right even when moving slowly.
The audio design was pretty good. Cool concept with the messages with them sounding more and more haunting as you went further into the level. The visuals are also very fitting of the dream setting. It is a bit slow and thus lacks any sort of challenge though I suppose challenge is not what you were going for? Lol, it's just weird to me since I am not good at platformers generally and am not used to playing easy ones but the haunting vibe given off by the visuals and the sound of the messages may be all that is really needed for the game. The movement is also fairly stiff lacking weight and acceleration for the character though. Wish jumps felt better.
This was really cool. The different coloured gates and switches was a really well designed mechanic and introduced beautifully that made it so intuitive to play. Awesome stuff.
Good sound design, graphics and setting. The mood is perfect for a horror game. A couple of things though, I am not sure what I am meant to do in the game. Am I supposed to get somewhere while avoiding the monster? Should I get something to somehow defeat the monsters? There is a counter saying 0/8 monsters but I don't know what that is meant for. There was something said on screen when starting the game but it wasn't in english so maybe that was telling us what to do? Not sure but the setting is really good.
Neat concept and pretty good graphics. I don't have much feedback that hasn't already been said. Biggest issue is with aiming with projectiles not going to the centre of the screen. Also, those acid pit platforms were killer. Lol
Solid entry. Good onboarding, great visuals and the music is SOOOOOOOOO good!!!
Well one thing is for sure, you definitely followed the theme lol. Simple and fun game though it does get a bit stale rather quickly. I like the music too. It's stuck in my head now haha.
Ah meta jokes. Gotta love that. Cool graphics too.
I really REALLY love the music. Really nice.
The music is really good and the graphics fits really well with what you are going for. Puzzle games like this are not exactly my thing so I don't know if some of the puzzles are too obtuse or I am just bad (which I am). Lol
Oh, you made a dark game too lol. The mechanic of converting O2 to energy and energy to O2 is awesome. Delicate balancing act and keeps you on edge before you get to that next volcano. One thing I would have preferred is to have the switch mechanics be bound to buttons instead of having to toggle the mouse cursor on to do it which disables turning with the mouse. Makes it more trouble than it probably should be to convert while still steering. Cool game though.
@whysguy52 Haha, I know the feeling the same thing happened with my game. Would not have taken much time to put the controls and more info on the light chaining mechanics on screen on one of those popups at the start of the game. But in the last minute scramble to get it done we just completely forgot to do it. It was a facepalm moment. Lol
The lights have to be in range of a generator or in range of another light has power. You can pick them up and place them closer to another light. You make a chain of lights leading INTO THE DARK. Generators have a limited number of lights they can power. They also recharge your flashlight.
@whysguy52 I guess it may be a little too dark right from the get go. It may have been better to not make it so dark right away and give a chance to ease into it. That glow stick idea is something that could be considered, especially at the earlier stages when you are low on resources for crafting. If we presented the fact that you can chain lights together in game as well as picking them up and replacing them maybe the frustration players feel would be lessened a bit. We do want the player to be on edge though. Getting lost and then seeing an enemy in the distance and stumbling upon a generator to recharge your flash light and a point to chain a few lights from can be a cool feeling if the player sticks around long enough to experience it. This was mostly due to time constraints and oversight on our part but can be addressed going forward. I would love for the game to gain some interest. We would be happy to go further with it.
@whysguy52 We also perhaps should have given away more resources in the tutorial map before moving over to the big one. All good lessons learned. Appreciate the feedback also. It means a lot.
@threeli That you very much for the feedback.
About picking up the lights it is a bug that allows you to pickup pre-placed lights you are only supposed to be allowed to pickup the lights you placed and place them somewhere else. The pre-placed lights that you are able to be picked up actually don't allow you to place them again. It's a known issue.
As for the crafting station shooting out the items, it's not a quirk of unreal or anything like that it was just us. It is that when the crafting station mesh got brought in it had a default collision around the entire thing so the items were getting spawned inside the collision and getting shot out even though it look like they are spawned above the tray. We actually did change the collision and made the items spawn in the tray but decided to revert it to this because we thought it was funny that they just got yeeted out like that. Them getting lost through walls or something after being shot out isn't surprising that it could happen which is probably again due to the collision on the rock assets not being properly adjusted. There are some rocks that you can actually walk inside of on one side but not the other. It is something that just never got cleared up in the frantic push to the end even though it is known.
Both issues were down to time really (though we probably should have kept them actually spawning in the tray. would have avoided the rocks collision issue in this case). There are so many things that were planned but never got done. An example of one such feature is that when a light gets powered there would be a chain of electricity going to what it is receiving it's power from. It would have shown clearly that lights can power other lights in range so you can chain lights together which is a pretty crucial mechanic but yeah.
Really glad to hear that you see the potential in it and we definitely will make improvements to it later on for sure. I would be really excited if people were interested enough for this to become a successful full release and not only a jam game.
@kelvination Thanks for giving it a go and leaving your feedback. And yeah, no shortage of "Too Dark" comments unfortunately. It really is very dark and we should have had more areas with light scattered around to guide players in a particular direction and we also should have probably had more mining resources right at the start to allow players to more freely be able to craft more lights and generators and mess around with them more freely without much punishment so early on.
Were you able to figure out the generator and placing lights mechanics and that you have a flashlight that also gets recharged in range of generators at least? We had messages popup explaining that in game but I feel like most people didn't read them or understand them. Do you have any suggestions about how we could have conveyed that information more clearly to the player?
Also, did you ever get to any enemy encounters? I wish we had put one right at the starting area as well so that players knew and understood that the game also has combat. It would also help with the feeling of dread wondering off into the dark without generators and lights.
@miej Thanks for the feedback. There actually is a flashlight health indicator on screen. It's the bar at the bottom centre of the screen. It is perhaps maybe too small? We will make it bigger and change the colour probably.
@lrvstudios Thanks for your feedback and I am really glad you at least like the concept. Improvements will be made for sure. And yes, we will do something to make the darkness not as frustrating without destroying the sense of dread you are supposed to have when venturing out into the dark without adequate numbers of generators and lights.
@jogy34 Oh my god you are the real MVP. You played a game jam game at least 8 times and actually took time to learn and understand the game, this particular game no less that is not exactly the simplest game you are likely to play in this jam, and even figure out the generator only meta? Hats off. And you actually made it to your ship by the way (the two giant robots were guarding it), probably the only person who has done so at least so far.
There are so many thing we could have done better no doubt and all your criticisms are completely on point. Balance is obviously one of the things that get the short end of the stick when rushing to finish such an ambitious game like this. But as of right now, we plan on sticking with it and take it as far as we can get it.
We should have given players more of everything (ammo and unmissable mining materials) right off the bat. Made the flashlight drain more slowly. Not made it absolutely pitch dark but allow you to at least see one or two steps in front of you (probably one). But we didn't want to make the game too easy which was in hindsight not the best decision. Difficulty can always come later on in the game in other levels. It is a tight balancing act because we do want players to be on edge and not feel as if they can just run around freely with no consequences. Lots of balancing and quality of life stuff to do.
@alexjdg Rip
That cat was ANNOYING lol. Nice concept and pretty good execution. Wish the performance was better though.
I actually can't find any constructive criticism for this game. I... LOVE IT. Great entry. Seriously good work.