A short button mashing game - can you button-mash your way to safety?
This game was made for Ludum Dare #39 with the theme 'running out of power'. The game is pretty straight forward to play, every level there is a set of rooms each with a button. Press the buttons in the rooms that are lit up to pass the level. You start with 30 seconds on the clock, with 15 seconds added for each successful level. The patterns for the buttons are random on each play through. This was our first Ludum Dare & first ever publicly released game - we hope you enjoy it!
Win Conditions: First Level - 6 successful button activations across 3 rooms. Second Level - 8 successful button activations across 4 rooms. Final Level - 10 successful button activations across 4 rooms.
If you are going to vote for us in the audio category, please consider that the only bit of audio that we did not create ourselves during the jam was the music track which was found on the asset store. A link to the asset store page can be found in the game menu.
Tools Used - Unity - Photoshop - GIMP 2 - Maya - Audacity - Google Pixel Voice Recorder
04/08/2017 - An update has been released for the game on itch.io which fixes some bugs and implements some improvements. The Google drive version will remain the same though because that shows what we were able to get done in the 72 hour deadline and that's what peoples votes should be based on. If you are not voting please download and play version 1.1 from itch.io for the best experience.
Damn that game was intense ! Simple but effective idea, challenging too ! The endings are a bit abrupt though and the intro should be skippable after seeing it once. Nothing else to complain about, very polished game !
This was a pretty cool game. I particularly liked the voice acting, it's not something Ludum Dare games tend to have. The graphics were clean and suited the environment.
The voice acting was superb really enjoyed it. Even though the game doesn't offer super interesting mechanics. It was fun playing it and intense at moments when you know the energy is really low and you realize you are going the wrong way. Anyway good job.
Very intense. Rare to see voice acting in a LD, and I appreciated the effort. I felt the trigger boxes for the buttons could have been a tad larger, occasionally I had to waste time readjusting in front of a button I thought I should have been able to push. I do like the spotlights on the active buttons, it made it easy to see which way to go. And I agree the intro should have been skippable. Overall cool game!
I felt like playing Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald at first, but here the intensity escalate more quickly. The music was perfect for building tension but the footsteps were a bit annoying, a little less volume would be great. A cursor or little mark would be good to know where are you aiming. I think that if you try to enter an elevator backwards you get stack on the current floor with the time stopped. Nice game.
great idea. Rapidness of gameplay was fun :) would have like to be able to restart from the second level as it would have given me time to learn the pattern.
@zenmumbler the mac build is now live on itch.io, let me know how it runs. @jake-shaw cheers mate! Glad you enjoyed it. The pattern is actually random every time you play, although some times it may seem like it is similar. Have another go and see if you can get it! ;)
Nice idea with voice acting. Additionally to lights indicating which switches we have to press I would add some sound so that player can hear which direction they should follow. Solid experience overall.
@assoonasimpossible thank you! I did initially plan for an audio notification coming from whichever console was active but ran out of time. Another thing for a future update! 😁
Hey! Voice lines! Interesting idea, as for me, it was a little bit confusing without crosshair. But straightforward idea and good implementation is a plus. :thumbsup:
A fun game with great, intense and sometimes funny voice acting. While the game was simple I had a lot of fun playing it. The addition of varied switches and levers would add some extra challenge to the game. Good game.
Those voice acting skills are epic, best aspect of the game. The game was awesome; the art and lighting design, the tension, the music choice are all great. This can be extended into a full experience where more types of tasks can be added and puzzles would be good too.
I liked the graphic and the gameplay, nice work! Perhaps would be a nice thing to add subtitle to the guy speaking while in the elevator, some people don't play with audio and even for those that do play with audio, sometimes they are not native English speakers and usually reading is easier to understand than listening. Also, Would be good to have the option to skip the tutorial (which seems that you added to the post compo version, nicely done).
Game was intense from the outset and because it was so hard it wasn't fun for me. It was too hard too soon. But a great idea. Just needs more balancing. Nice work.
Quick action, fast clicking, and and panic attacks - good times! It'd be fun to see an end-game flash of white at least to signify the meltdown, but all in all fun.
Great introduction, it's very clear what you have to do and it's nice having a voice explaining stuff.
The intro reminds me a lot of portal, minus the humor.
The sound effects are nice along with the art. I read you didn't compose the soundtrack youself, it's a good choice for your game still and works well.
In terms of movement it got jerky whenever i walked onto a wall and you could have been more lenient with the hitboxes for the buttons you have to press. Overall it was easy to walk around though.
I was surprised at first when I suddenly had to press buttons again after pressing them once, in an arbitrary order. That was a bit odd, and there should have been an indicator when the elevator was ready.
A small sound effect or game over screen would have been nice too.
Overall, the atmosphere is great and it looks nice. There is still room for improvement regarding the gameplay.
This would make a super sick VR game, maybe where the buttons are all around you, and you have to frantically spin around to find the right one. Definitely a simple but effective mechanic to give nerve-wracking gameplay. Nice job.
The mood is really well done, and the graphics and voice overs are really great for a jam. I was unable to reach any other level because I either fell through the wall, and subsequently, the floor, or just couldn't get to the buttons in time. The voice overs do a good job at keeping the intensity up! I didn't like how the doors were done here. You can walk thru the elevator door as well as the elevator's rear wall and the first time I played I thought I was locked in the first room. It felt strange eventually just walking through the doors. IT was just too hard to hit the buttons.
Then I played the fix. I really liked that you made it so you could skip the instructions, good patch for sure. You didn't fix any of the wall coliders tho. The walls are not solid in many spots and I kept falling into and through the main cylinder. The buttons work better this way except that you can aim through the door and press the button. The idea of levels is good, but it didn't seem like it has as much instruction or explanation. Why does pressing buttons prevent power from running out The rooms also looked the exact same so it felt like I was just doing the same thing in the same spot and not on a different floor. Good job making something that appears polished, at least at first glance, and works as a completed game, with a small team at that. It's simplicity is truly inspiring!
@rikoclon Thank you so much for the feedback! Version 1.1 fixed most of the issues that were immediately apparent to us but there are still a few bugs being reported that I am having difficultly recreating, and the wall collider bug is one of them. You are the third or fourth person to report this bug but for whatever reason I can't seem to recreate it :/ Thanks again for your feedback though it is greatly appreciated! :D
Concept is great! I really liked the those talks :D Controls is very tight too. Nothing blocked me and doors were opening just the right time. Great job!
Very nicely put together. it is refreshing to play a game with some voice acting, which by the way was done well. The mechanic was simple but the music and the voice acting make it seem very tense. The models for the levels were nice as well. Nice work :)
I played this 3 times, losing on the third level each time. Overall, this was pretty fun! I liked how much polish you had with the graphics and sound effects, and that contributed a lot to the tense atmosphere and overall engagement of the game. A few suggestions/nitpicks: - I sometimes had trouble pressing the buttons because I wasn't sure where to aim at. Some crosshairs or other indicator would have been nice (I see from the patch notes that you added that in 1.1, which is good). - The "you're running out of power" voice effects were a nice touch, but got annoying after a while because they kept repeating. I'd suggest having a larger variety of sound effects, or just playing them less frequently. - It was a little jarring how losing took you back to the menu with nothing in between. Even a small sound effect would have been nice. - Right now, it sort of feels like beating the third level depends on getting lucky with the RNG: I thought I was pretty fast, but I kept getting buttons that were 2-3 doors away from me.
Overall, great job on making a very polished, engaging game. It is a very simple mechanic (and I do wish there was a little more complexity), but you really managed to make something quite fun out of it!
Such a good concept and smooth gameplay. It looks beautiful and explained things just the right amount...You have a future in game making for sure! I see you had a playlist on YouTube for your favorites. Think "POW" could make that list? Play and see what you think!
@drums thanks for the positive vibes! I haven't played your game yet, but I have watched a few streamers play it and absolutely love the game. It is definitely one of my LD 39 favourites, so you can count on it making it into an upcoming video ;)
Really fun game, although it was way too easy to beat, as I needed to only do 2 rounds. I also think that you're a bit too generous for giving power for the second round, and there should be a run button. I also noticed that you can look behind walls and even walk through them by standing close to them.
This was quite fun, thanks to the various voiceover lines. Maybe it was part of the challenge, but it was a little bit frustrating when I hit E but nothing happened (because the crosshair was not lined up with the button well enough). I could see the levels getting more interesting, e.g. more complicated platforming (but more time to do it of course), ladders, jumps, … Or, more complicated controls, i.e. not just hit the button, but hit this sequence of buttons, pull this lever, turn this knob, etc etc à la Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes.
I feel like the game was warning me about something...like about the power and not let it run out because something bad would happen? lol That kept me moving back and forward as if I was working out! :D I like how it gives you the sense of "importance" which motivates you to act quickly but it is not complicated so it is fair. :)
It's fun to see different treatment on same subject :) I saw you video too on Breathe and i thank you for that =) Regarding your game, it's a very nice entry for a Ludum Dare guys, keep it up and we will se you around at the next one too =) Would love to see more one day !
Hope to see more of your work in the future !