Spotlights in the Deep

Overall★★★★★★★★★★2.95
Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.64
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.25
Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.48
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.44
Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.10
Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.46
Coolness★★★★★★★★★★70%
*HEADPHONES AND TURNING THE LIGHTS DOWN RECOMMENDED*

This isn't my first LD, but it is my first competition entry, put together at the London meetup at Google's Campus London!

You wake from an unnatural slumber to find yourself standing in a single light, surrounded by blackness. The light does not stay lit forever though...Find your way out of the gloom by entering the lights!

Left mouse button : Click on a lit space to move to it.
Right mouse button : Click on any area to shoot there, at a cost to your sanity.

You can also use the link to play this game on mobile where it is perfectly playable, touch to target move...you just can't shoot.

The only tip I'll give you : The yellow monsters hunt based on movement. Good luck!

Music created with Terry Cavanagh's excellent Bosca Ceoil

Made with the excellent HTML5 engine Construct 2. My .zip source contains a .capx for those who also use it.

I am on twitter if you want to follow me or contact me directly : @SrslyCrunchy

Commenters, a few questions :

1) Did you try the game on mobile? How did it run and was the touch responsive enough?

2) Would you like to see this remade as a VR game in Unity or Unreal Engine or similar?

screenshot

Comments21

dekart8 Dec 2014, 11:05
The music creates a very strong mood. Nice game!
oskardevelopment8 Dec 2014, 17:45
Nice gameplay. Was very fun and felt nice to win! Thanks for the game, good luck!
pancakecity
pancakecity9 Dec 2014, 01:24
I like how the music speeds up to increase tension!
Binary Gambit10 Dec 2014, 11:18
I like that your monsters each have different AI. Great idea, similar to one of my old LD entries. :D
UrbanLogicGames
UrbanLogicGames10 Dec 2014, 11:24
Interesting concept! The art and music set a strong tone. I think some stronger audio/visual feedback when your sanity is being effected would be good, but otherwise I liked it. :)
LukuluK10 Dec 2014, 11:26
Mood with music and gameplay merge well !
Challenge is a bit random though.
01rafael10 Dec 2014, 11:28
I like it!
Great style!
ramonparaiba
ramonparaiba10 Dec 2014, 11:28
I think the presentation could be faster. But I liked the result. congrats, man!
hexagore
hexagore10 Dec 2014, 11:44
This is hugely atmospheric, Cthulhu-esque. Would be nicer if the spotlights stayed lit a little longer. I didn't manage to reach a single one of the little ones! Oh well :)
piotrevic10 Dec 2014, 11:55
I Win! And now I'm gonna have nightmares
estebanm
estebanm11 Dec 2014, 20:27
I won great audio and mood, I think this could benefit from keyboard controls.
SeriouslyCrunchyauthor12 Dec 2014, 00:25
Thanks for the comments so far everyone! Few things :
- originally I was going to have keyboard controls but I decided id quite like mobile support, and restricting movement to the mouse means I was able to restrict where the player could go by only allowing them to target areas of light. I could have got it working and balanced with a few tweaks though.
- sound effects I sadly just ran out of time for, which is a shame, I reckon if I'd have had another hour and a half I could have got them in, but hey ho, next time.
alecmilne12 Dec 2014, 17:49
I like it. Great interpretation of the dodge/move mechanic.
scias
scias15 Dec 2014, 16:33
I loved all the colours on the screen after playing for a minute or so. The music creates a very unsettling mood which is cool, but it can get a bit repetitive after a while. If you were to continue working on this I'd recommend working on the feedback which will let the player know when they're doing something right or wrong. All in all, thumbs up!
RHY3756547
RHY375654717 Dec 2014, 18:24
Very nice! I won on my first try. The game screen became pretty insane, but I found it hard to lose sanity if you always queued up going to the next spotlight after you reach the last. The bullets didn't seem to do much to the enemies - do they have more than 1 hp or something? Either way, I had fun playing, good job.
Crosstales24 Dec 2014, 12:44
Nice game with good graphics and sound. The idea is original and created a fitting mood.

Very well done and happy x-mas!
pht59x24 Dec 2014, 13:55
Good little game with a strange atmosphere. The intro is too long.
TyrusPeace
TyrusPeace27 Dec 2014, 20:51
I like how the movement and firing are separate components of the game to some extent, since you can't move often enough for this to be like a dual stick shooter. It helps force the player into a fair amount of strategy, and increases the spookiness!

Impressive number of different monster designs, too! Nicely done.
Valeour
Valeour29 Dec 2014, 13:09
Very interesting game. Not sure what shooting helps. Nice touches to the music and good mood. Definitely would be great with improved graphics. Nice job. :D

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