Wow - if this had sound this would be amazing! I LOVE the theme you went with, and the graphics are to die for :) The opening title gave me shivers (Asylum first appears normal, then becomes more and more twisted).
I feel like the opening text / intro went on a bit too long :)
The beginning was really drawn out, but the mood of it was great. You don't really need much in the way of sound/music. Just some creepy ambient stuff and monster noise. Very cool though.
Fantastic. When I was fighting the monster the first time, I accidentally right clicked and hit "zoom in", making the fight even more intense. The ending was amazing too. You need sounds to make this a perfect entry!
Wow. This blew me away. Honestly!? Wow! A little psycho and crazy but that is what soaked me into your world. Great great great - and horrible! Send this game to Jason Rohrer! He will love it!
Yeah, the intro took forever... almost to the point that I thought that's all the game was about. The only clue I had was the photo you use don the game page that shows the monster. But yeah, needs sound to be super rad, but MAN this has a great mood. I love how it all ends, even if you gotta wait a while to get to the action. Great work!
Wow, this game is awesome. everyone have already all about the game so i don't have more to say. Maybe the lack of real impact of the player on story? my favorite one so far.
Fantastic. A shame it didn't have music or sound, but nonetheless I think this is easily among my favorites. You nailed the theme, and the mood was simply amazing. I really liked how you had to move the camera to catch some of the dialogue lines, and the character movement responded to the controls so well I almost keep wishing I had a bigger space to move around in. I'm a sucker for pixel art as well, and this is one extremely beautiful game. Thanks for making this!
The intro was a bit too long, and it's really too bad that there's no sound. Other than that, this game is great. Loved the art style, the sort of particle-effects when you hit the monster, and the back-story. Great job!
I agree with the others, the intro was a bit too long, but the overall game is intriguing. Audio would have added a lot, but it's still an interesting experience without. Good job!
Same as everybody. Images are beautiful, mood is the best i've seen so far, storytelling is incredible. Too bad there is no sound, and that you can't make the introduction go faster (even though it's totally normal it's like this.
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bitslap_25 Apr 2012, 20:22
Yes yes, this applealed to me alot. Would have loved audio to these graphics. I also like the characters!
thanks guys - I'd never thought my entry would be received so well. I'm really regretting to not have worked on it more (damn you real life obligations!) ... I could have implemented much more content and audio.
I'm promising you guys to work the whole 48h in the next LD and not let you down like this again :D
Extremely drawn out beginning, boring gameplay, and no sound (unfortunately). However, the theme, mood and graphics were all great (with the exception of an unanimated character).
Oh if only there were sounds! This is a brilliant entry otherwise, and with a great take on the theme! I'm glad I kept the tab open last night and came back to play it this evening.
That was really radical, I loved it. Set such a crazy mood I don't even know if it needs sound! The way the text showed up and the mouse moved the camera looked so good. Great work
Creepy and mysterious, very good ambience and graphics are a really good fit. Some minimal noises would have been good but this is really nicely polished, good stuff!
I love the script and the artistic feeling of the game. The mouse camera control is a nice idea too. You should make a version with sound once the voting has ended. I have never missed sound so much!
Wow, easy 5/5 in the mood even without sound! This game is very inspiring. I liked your take on the theme a lot. The camera made me feel paranoid like the character right in the first room of the game. Awesome game, one of my favorites so far! Please make a version with sound someday =)
The graphics are also insanely good. In the platforming part I think I think the controls broke a little bit the atmosphere (because some ledges are too high above the ground and you have to hold the jump key to climb them, which makes the character jump again right when he steps on it, made it look like a bug which broke the immersion a little bit) but that's a very small detail. Apart from that, everything was perfect for me!
I thought the beginning took seriously *way* too long. I was tempted to quit had it not been for the mention on indiegames.com
But then when I actually got to the game it was pretty awesome. You should definitely put some sounds even now though.
Let me take a crack at interpreting the game. So perhaps this monster is basically the embodiment of the realization that he is a crazy man stuck in an asylum. And the less he takes the pills, the crazier he gets but the happier he gets as reality slips away.
So as the pills bring back reality crashing down, they also bring back the monster. And the scene at the end is basically him being forced to take the pills.
@chambers: yeah - the platformer controls aren't perfect. but as you can see the whole game is far from perfect. there isn't much gameplay in it to begin with. originally I planned more "game" stuff in the main level (it should also be much much bigger) but the time ran out - I only worked about 12h on this after all
@blackdogg: I'm european myself (german) so I don't understand what's wrong. maybe the flash element isn't in focus - you have to click on it one time so that keyboard input will be registered.
@bastiandantilus: it's not a traditional game, although I initially planned to include more gameplay stuff. my main goal was to make something different from the other entries - and I think I succeeded, afaik no one else interpreted the theme in this kind of way.
@4urentertainment: I wasn't aware it got posted on indiegames.com until now. I'm very surprised since this is only a small 12h piece of work. about your interpretation: very interesting, there is no right or wrong interpretation though - however yours is quite similar to what I had in mind ;)
Great use of the theme! Not as much a game as an interactive experience, and what an experience it is! No wonder games like "Lone Survivor" can scare you shitless, even with their 8-bits style graphics. Awesome use of psichological resources to create anxiety and discomfort on the "player".
I hope you decide to take it further after the compo :)
I think someone was betting on 'One room' theme ;) Fantastic game, so simple but had so much character. Agree with the other commenters, some sounds and music would/could push this over the edge into bwcoming an incredible experience!
Artistically and thematically, really strong. I understand why the the intro was drawn out and why a 'fun' game wouldn't suit the theme. Shame about the lack of music - I would have rated the mood higher but for its absence.
The beginning was a BIT drawn out. I think music would have really helped there. But once the game gets moving it really brings out that sense of claustrophobia and dread. Other than sound, I think the only thing that could have been improved is a bigger change when you kill the first monster. I shot at that thing for ages before I realised.
Very nice little game, loved the graphics. The intro might have gone on for a bit longer than I would have liked, but it wasnt too bad. Would be tiresome if you wanted to play a couple more times though, so perhaps some way to skip the intro would help. And of course sfx would have really added to this too! Either way though, awesome game with some great mood and atmosphere.
My gawd! This game's amazing! ^^ The graphics worked so well with the insanely freaky mood :D and it fit the theme perfectly! Lovely game :3 add sound to this and it'll be perfect :)
This would've been so, so, so much better with some audio. The idea, graphics, overall feel are awesome - but lack of music (especially since the main character is supposed to be hearing voices) is a bit disappointing. Of course this is a great entry anyway, so: Good Job!
Took a long while to get started, but was interesting once it did! I love the concept and lo-fi graphics. I also liked how you displayed the slowly rotating text. It's a shame you ran out of time though I think it's very important for a game like this to have audio, hopefully you will make an expanded post Ludum Dare version.
I like the concept quite a bit, but there was far too much text, and nowhere near enough gameplay. I understand what you were going for, but I feel it could have been accomplished with less text. Great job though, certainly interesting! :)
Wow, I have a feeling sound and music would make this game twice as good. You have a very good mood going on and sweet graphics, but not much in the way of gameplay. I would consider shortening the intro sequence before the monster a bit too, it was pretty long. Other than that, very good job!
I believe you could get away by adding simple sound effects and ambience. :)
I treated this as an interactive movie than a game though, gameplay was pretty plain and the monster AI wasn't challenging. You could use his phobias as obstacles and give some kind of backstory or foreshadowing.
Concept was nice and you played around with the theme nicely too.
Comments86
I feel like the opening text / intro went on a bit too long :)
Overall love it though. Good job :)
A little psycho and crazy but that is what soaked me into your world. Great great great - and horrible! Send this game to Jason Rohrer! He will love it!
I know, it was necessary but...
And really good usage of the theme and mood!!
everyone have already all about the game so i don't have more to say.
Maybe the lack of real impact of the player on story?
my favorite one so far.
I agree with the others, the intro was a bit too long, but the overall game is intriguing. Audio would have added a lot, but it's still an interesting experience without. Good job!
Images are beautiful, mood is the best i've seen so far, storytelling is incredible. Too bad there is no sound, and that you can't make the introduction go faster (even though it's totally normal it's like this.
Good Job!
I'm really regretting to not have worked on it more (damn you real life obligations!) ... I could have implemented much more content and audio.
I'm promising you guys to work the whole 48h in the next LD and not let you down like this again :D
The graphics are also insanely good. In the platforming part I think I think the controls broke a little bit the atmosphere (because some ledges are too high above the ground and you have to hold the jump key to climb them, which makes the character jump again right when he steps on it, made it look like a bug which broke the immersion a little bit) but that's a very small detail. Apart from that, everything was perfect for me!
But then when I actually got to the game it was pretty awesome. You should definitely put some sounds even now though.
Let me take a crack at interpreting the game. So perhaps this monster is basically the embodiment of the realization that he is a crazy man stuck in an asylum. And the less he takes the pills, the crazier he gets but the happier he gets as reality slips away.
So as the pills bring back reality crashing down, they also bring back the monster. And the scene at the end is basically him being forced to take the pills.
yeah - the platformer controls aren't perfect. but as you can see the whole game is far from perfect. there isn't much gameplay in it to begin with. originally I planned more "game" stuff in the main level (it should also be much much bigger) but the time ran out - I only worked about 12h on this after all
@blackdogg:
I'm european myself (german) so I don't understand what's wrong. maybe the flash element isn't in focus - you have to click on it one time so that keyboard input will be registered.
@bastiandantilus:
it's not a traditional game, although I initially planned to include more gameplay stuff. my main goal was to make something different from the other entries - and I think I succeeded, afaik no one else interpreted the theme in this kind of way.
@4urentertainment:
I wasn't aware it got posted on indiegames.com until now. I'm very surprised since this is only a small 12h piece of work.
about your interpretation: very interesting, there is no right or wrong interpretation though - however yours is quite similar to what I had in mind ;)
As everyone else has already said, sound would definitely improve it 100x.
I hope you decide to take it further after the compo :)
Congratulations!
Fantastic game, so simple but had so much character.
Agree with the other commenters, some sounds and music would/could push this over the edge into bwcoming an incredible experience!
Either way though, awesome game with some great mood and atmosphere.
The graphics worked so well with the insanely freaky mood :D and it fit the theme perfectly! Lovely game :3 add sound to this and it'll be perfect :)
Sound would have been the icing on the cake for this one.
Very artistic! Kudos to you, sir! (Or m'am. Whichever.)
Great interpertation of the theme; especially at the beginning. And the end, too!
I didn't think the intro was long-winded at all-it got me into the feel of the game, and it was an interestng narrative.
Same as above, with music the game wiil be even better :)
The pricipal character is too fade with the background. In the first second I thought the screen was a top view.
Very good work :)
It fit with the story, but when I realized the monster couldn't hurt me I didn't really stay engaged.
Still, incredibly polished for a first LD, moreso than anything I've done. Good work.
I treated this as an interactive movie than a game though, gameplay was pretty plain and the monster AI wasn't challenging. You could use his phobias as obstacles and give some kind of backstory or foreshadowing.
Concept was nice and you played around with the theme nicely too.