Running Blind

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.19
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.30
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★2.45
Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.19
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.60
Audio★★★★★★★★★★2.81
Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.67
Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.29
Coolness★★★★★★★★★★88%
This is my first Ludum Dare and it was a blast. I think it came out pretty well. I spent last week creating a rough framework for a hex game in Phaser. I had a bunch of strategy game plans for many of the other themes.

When the theme got announced as Beneath The Surface my plans did a complete 180. I ended up going with Unity and absolutely everything was built this weekend.

This was my first time ever doing sound and music. I found it an interesting experience.

Anyhow, this is Running Blind, an endless runner set underground (beneath the surface). You play as a hapless amnesia-stricken adventurer named Erik. Press space to jump and left shift to brighten your lamp to ward off ghosts. Watch your lamp's oil level in the top left. It will recharge after a point, but there's a delay, so don't get caught by ghosts with a dim lamp!

Comments38

tiffi_gaming28 Apr 2014, 02:31
Wow beautiful. Hard but beautiful :D I had fun!
SteveSalmond
SteveSalmond28 Apr 2014, 02:35
Love the atmosphere you've created! Definitely getting a subterranean vibe from this one. Nice work :)
MattV28 Apr 2014, 02:40
EAT FLASHLIGHT BLOBBY GHOST FIENDS!
PapyGaragos
PapyGaragos28 Apr 2014, 12:33
Hey congrats on your first LD!
What did you use for the music?
Covenant28 Apr 2014, 18:55
Very pretty! Good job!
Artylo
Artylo29 Apr 2014, 07:28
Really nice game, the music is a bit repetitive, but all in all a very nice piece of work.
Xeke_Death29 Apr 2014, 08:34
Looks good.. I liked the sliding after hitting something, thats a good touch...
Lizzip29 Apr 2014, 11:34
Nice game. I really like the visuals and how you took the existing premise of an endless runner and added the lighting aspect.
SIMON_SIMON29 Apr 2014, 12:21
Nice and fun little game ! It's a bit addictive :P

The music is a bit repetitive.
javifugitivo
javifugitivo29 Apr 2014, 21:38
Yeah, great entry. The graphic combination is interesting and works very well with the lightning engine. Simple but fun, nice game!
IAmSpencer29 Apr 2014, 21:45
nice simple idea, lots of fun. The graphics were good, and the lighting was a nice touch. Would be fun to play on a phone, great job! :)
sP0CkEr230 Apr 2014, 04:03
nice job on your first entry. i really enjoyed the game. it would be nice to have just a wee bit more light. nice job.
lukepilgrim
lukepilgrim30 Apr 2014, 12:04
challenging,simple and fun! I liked it!
raulincze
raulincze30 Apr 2014, 12:20
Is there any way to avoid the ghosts? I could only find the jump button but that gets me nowhere.

Anyway, I love the graphics and mostly the colour pallet that you have chosen.

This was my first LD too, and while it was an interesting and fun experience, doing music and sound for the first time was really frustrating for me. so I ended up without a main theme song for my game.

Really good entry! Nice job!
SoupWithBits
SoupWithBits30 Apr 2014, 12:34
The menu music is looped weird. But the in game music is perfect wouldn't even be able to tell it was a first time. Overall you set the mood perfectly and difficulty in light of flappy bird is decently frustrating. Well done!
Garris1 May 2014, 02:22
This was very well done. I'm a little surprised at how few endless runners I've seen so far this LD, and I love a good endless runner. Good job!
Thorig
Thorig1 May 2014, 07:01
Love this game. Maybe it is a bit too dark for me, but fun to play.
Lucio1 May 2014, 19:10
Very challenging. Lovely visuals!
kirbytails73 May 2014, 03:29
Very nice. Good first LD game!
(As it happens, I also made an endless runner, if you'd like to take a look.)
Sim00n3 May 2014, 15:10
The graphics are amazing for a 48 hour production. I love the simplicity of this concept and I genuinely played a couple of times instead of "moving on" to rate other games. The one thing I couldn't figure out is why does the play move back in the camera window and how to bring him back forward? Great job!
Balloonsfor600
Balloonsfor600author3 May 2014, 15:29
Thanks everyone!

@Sim00n - he does that when he hits the corner of a pit just right. It reduces his velocity for a few frames (unintentionally). Post-compo, I have a plan to fix this without removing it (I kinda like the stumble, but he needs to get his butt back on screen as quickly as possible).
BrothersT
BrothersT3 May 2014, 15:34
Lovely little game, after getting the hang of it, its quite addictive! Artwork is great, especially the background and lighting. Erik is quite endearing! Its a little repetitive.
BrothersT
BrothersT3 May 2014, 15:38
Nice simple game, got a big jumpy framerate at times, and I'm on quite a fast PC. Very charming :)
ElStevo3 May 2014, 16:05
The art is beautiful ! I like that the character is so big in the screen ! good use of the space :)
bebopbraunbaer3 May 2014, 16:13
haha, nice game! the dying sound sounds like a fart though : D and the background music is catchy but to short to be heard longer than a minute i think : D

still great work and a fun game! Looking forward to your next one
Cake&Code3 May 2014, 16:32
I definitely played it quite a few times to try and get further so you've got the fun factor down. I did feel like dodging the rocks was too hard because it was only a fraction of second of time you'd have before they messed you up. Maybe I'm just not very good at it :)
hbocao
hbocao3 May 2014, 17:43
I'm not a fan of runners, but you made a good job. I really liked the art and lighting.
Gamepopper
Gamepopper3 May 2014, 20:35
Like the designs. Good job!
GarethIW
GarethIW4 May 2014, 09:37
Simple, fun, hard. Nice visuals!
CoderMusgrove
CoderMusgrove5 May 2014, 02:34
Wow this was a lot of fun! After ever loss I found myself replaying it, and not with any anger built up! The feel given to it was amazing. My favorite part were the visual effects. The music and sounds that you had in it just fit great! Great job!
Cambrian_Man6 May 2014, 05:21
I'm terrible at endless runners, but a good, solid entry.
JavadocMD6 May 2014, 17:24
A solid entry with some good artwork. I think it's tricky tying the difficulty of the game to screen brightness. I got the feeling that if I could crank the brightness of my screen any higher I'd do a lot better, especially dodging rocks. But darkness is kind of your theme, so I'm not sure of a good way around it. Perhaps having a very sudden fall-off in brightness at the edge rather than a more linear fall-off. Or perhaps putting a "calibration" screen in there to have some standard for the brightness setting you're supposed to play at. Anyway, just some thoughts for how to improve things, but overall well done!
PIXEL^37 May 2014, 05:05
Takes a little getting used too and once you do it feels a little repetitive tbh. jump, jump, flash. The rocks are a little annoying to spot as well. Getting rid of ghost though was a rewarding experience and I wish it had more things like that.

~AlucardX60
Cirrial
Cirrial9 May 2014, 00:29
Nice little runner game here. Seems like the player character is a little big for the style of game but runner games are not my field of expertise. Atmospheric!
Pitoum
Pitoum14 May 2014, 18:46
Very hard but nice mechanic with the lamp :)
wschorn
wschorn19 May 2014, 02:29
cool game, I had fun playing it and think you should do more LDs!
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