Amazing atmosphere and art style. I love the sounds as well as the effects on the water with your torch. Some of the sounds were jarring and rather scary, however I think that was the intention. I found the earlier levels very easy and the later levels were difficult. The difficulty curve felt well done and seems like you have a handle on it.
I look forward to what you make in the future, keep it up!
The font is really difficult to read, though perhaps that was intentional. The = button doesn't seem to work for mute, at least on Firefox.
The overall style is very consistent, and the mood is good, though I'm personally not fond of the extreme low resolution.
The game seems quite difficult to not have level-based restarts though. Running through the first few levels with no interaction just adds extra time, so I quit after dying 5 or 6 levels in. :P
This game is phenomenal, the atmosphere is rock-solid, I love the minimal graphics, the sound design is amazing, and the gameplay is great. I was literally frightened at multiple points as I played, regardless of the low-res graphics.
Great Game! The style and the mood (graphics as well as audio) are really well done. I really got scared in some situations so you definitely did a great job! :D
Some (small) drawbacks are the font and the kind of harsh sounds (some slight high shelf filter loweing on the SFX would have done great pleasure).
There were two minor typos in the game when it first released that have been fixed:
◙ Originally, WASD/Arrow control was going to be toggle-able. This was never implemented and the variable that set control was set to WASD permanently. I intended to remove any reference to the toggle ability from the code and enable both methods of control, but overlooked it. Arrow control has been enabled by deleting any toggle code. ◙ The final level was supposed to take you to an ending screen, but due to a typo, it took the player to the game over screen. Nothing was added to the game; 2 words were changed and now the game works as intended.
If you would like to verify what changes have been made, download both version of the source above and compare them in Construct2. :-D
Successful demake of horror genre. Unique sprites for each shooting angle - great touch. Usually people just rotate the sprite, which wouldn't work with your big pixel style.
I really liked it even though it's really hard. I wish it wouldn't restart at level one every time. I feel like this is a design decision that you've made knowing the frustration it would cause, but could you explain a bit more about why you implemented it this way?
the low res low color pixel art style is very unique and great! having to run through the tutorial levels every time you die is a bit tedious in my opinion.
I second the opinion of allowing you to continue on the last level you died instead of doing everything all over again. GREAT atmosphere. From the art direction to the dirty sound effects I was being pulled into this little hostile alien world.
Unfortunately, the sound wasn't working on my browser (that doesn't surprise me). Even without the sound, the mood set up in this game was very good. Nice work with this.
J
Jiggawatt7 May 2014, 18:25
Streamed this. There's a point when low-res graphics stop being "retro" and become simply unreadable. I feel like it was trying to be moody but didn't really succeed, and there wasn't much else to carry the game. So yeah.
In a simple game like this, polish is extremely important, and the lack of it is an eyesore. The difficulty curve is ok, but the restarts are what really subtract points. You're trying to teach the player the basic design implicitly, yet you punish them for trying things out. It doesn't work out like that.
@Jiggwatt Completely valid points! Having to restart from the beginning was not intentional, though. I wanted to put in checkpoints every 2 levels, but ran out of time.
Oh my god! You created really solid horror game. Couldn't pass the first level with red head, but then understood that it came aggressive by light of flashlight. The next level after it - not to look at the red head, NOT TO LOOK AT THE RED HEAD, ouch, so many hives, BANG! Oh no! OH NO! NONONO! GAMEOVER =_=
Super nice looking game! I included it in part 17 of my Ludum Dare compilation video series, if you want to check it out :) http://youtu.be/wBne0r55jPY
This is my first time i visit here. I found so many interesting stuff in your blog especially its discussion. From the tons of comments on your articles, I guess I am not the only one having all the enjoyment here! keep up the good work.
![Way of the Gear [Unfinished]](https://pics.ldj.am/cover/-4/-4179587419-43405a8b.webp)
Comments48
I look forward to what you make in the future, keep it up!
The overall style is very consistent, and the mood is good, though I'm personally not fond of the extreme low resolution.
The game seems quite difficult to not have level-based restarts though. Running through the first few levels with no interaction just adds extra time, so I quit after dying 5 or 6 levels in. :P
This is best game on this LD so far.
Some (small) drawbacks are the font and the kind of harsh sounds (some slight high shelf filter loweing on the SFX would have done great pleasure).
Really fun - I love the ultra-low res pixel art!
Would be nice to have some sort of checkpoints. I don't want to replay the whole thing to get back to where I was!
There were two minor typos in the game when it first released that have been fixed:
◙ Originally, WASD/Arrow control was going to be toggle-able. This was never implemented and the variable that set control was set to WASD permanently. I intended to remove any reference to the toggle ability from the code and enable both methods of control, but overlooked it. Arrow control has been enabled by deleting any toggle code.
◙ The final level was supposed to take you to an ending screen, but due to a typo, it took the player to the game over screen. Nothing was added to the game; 2 words were changed and now the game works as intended.
If you would like to verify what changes have been made, download both version of the source above and compare them in Construct2. :-D
I DID IT !
awesome work !
In a simple game like this, polish is extremely important, and the lack of it is an eyesore. The difficulty curve is ok, but the restarts are what really subtract points. You're trying to teach the player the basic design implicitly, yet you punish them for trying things out. It doesn't work out like that.
Pretty fun~