Diffraction

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.46
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.19
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.02
Theme★★★★★★★★★★2.99
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.76
Audio★★★★★★★★★★4.00
Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.76
Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.46
Banner-scaled.png
 

WARNING: HARSH LANGUAGE

 

FROM THE TEAM THAT BROUGHT YOU INSTANT CLASSICS SUCH AS:

*- Tetris*

*- Pac Man*

*- Super Mario Brothers*

 

COMES AN NEW, INNOVATIVE GAMEPLAY EXPERIENCE

YOU ARE MAX DANGER, AN ELITE SUPERSOLDIER WHO HAS WOKEN UP TO FIND HIS MOON BASE UNDER ATTACK BY A MYSTERIOUS VILLAIN!

NAVIGATE THE FACILITY AND DISCOVER A WAY TO ESCAPE... OR WILL MAX DANGER CONFRONT THE NEFARIOUS DR. B.A.D.D. ONCE AND FOR ALL?

---

This is our entry for Ludum Dare #44! In Diffraction, you play as MAX DANGER- a supersoldier who wakes up to a moonbase under attack.

The game is a point-and-click adventure, where every "action" you take costs health! It's a bit loose with the theme, but we all had a GREAT time working on it!

 

For the next few weeks, you can find VoDs of the gamejam at

http://mixer.com/slimabob

http://mixer.com/chambre19

http://mixer.com/divic

http://mixer.com/thegrandpa

 

*Walkthrough (SPOILERS):*

- Go to the Kitchen and grab the knife
- Go to the Cryo Control Room and use the Terminal (Password 1 2 3 4)
- Return to the starting room, and click on the now open Cryostasis Chamber
- Take the Severed Hand to the Armory Fingerprint Scanner
- Use the Power Console and pick your ending
- Go to the cafeteria and walk through the door you opened!

 

THANKS FOR TRYING OUR GAME!

*The Team:*
- slimabob (Programming, Audio, Level Design)
- Ryan / chambre19 (Concept Artist, Environment Design)
- Tony (3d Artist)
- Divic (DR. B.A.D.D.)
- kt2goofy (MAX DANGER)
- Renny (Robot Dog)

Github Repo: https://github.com/slimabob/LDJam44

screenshot

Comments32

Lemur
Lemur29 Apr 2019, 20:29
Loved the audio and graphics, gameplay was fun to, good job! Would love to see more of you!
Nate Prince29 Apr 2019, 20:43
Loved it amazing little point and click. i played it twice to see both endings
just one little bug when you open the cryo doors you can collect the hand from the same room
slimabob
slimabobauthor29 Apr 2019, 21:10
@mr-bojangles Thanks! They did such a good job on the voices.

@lemur Thank you Lemur! Just about to check your game out now :)

@nate-prince I appreciate the bug report, glad to hear you checked out both endings!
sahoskins129 Apr 2019, 21:13
Linux version works. Was a bit laggy at times on my potato PC but I think that's just because I'm running old hardware. The audio was amazing for this and the game also had a good feel to it.
slimabob
slimabobauthor29 Apr 2019, 21:28
Thanks @sahoskins1 , really glad to know that the Linux version works! I would have loved to put some more time in optimizing it for all types of rigs... oh well- next time :)

Thanks for playing!
TheGrandpa29 Apr 2019, 21:33
Thanks guys! We poured our hearts and collective talents in to this little game. More exciting things are coming!
coachsisyphus
coachsisyphus29 Apr 2019, 21:46
This is too great love the voice work!!
Bojkott29 Apr 2019, 22:19
Love the voice work!
Retti01
Retti0129 Apr 2019, 22:29
Audio and the graphics are amazing.The game felt nice to play.
CaOrJavier
CaOrJavier29 Apr 2019, 23:26
I like the game, good job
SquishyWizard4430 Apr 2019, 00:03
Nice job! Great voice acting, especially for the villain!

I have a few critiques that might be useful. I chose to go after the bad guy instead of escaping, which resulted in a short cutscene, then the game fading to black and closing itself. Is this intended? If so, I feel a bit more feedback that the player finished the game would be useful. As is, it felt more like the game crashed.

Next, after glancing at the walkthrough, I noticed I may have interacted with a bug that let me skip a step in the progression. After completing the button puzzle (1 2 3 4), I found I was able to grab the hand by moving my mouse slightly to the left of the console, which means I was able to skip the cryo chamber completely.

Finally, a bit of writing critique since I write as a side hobby. One thing I learned is using profanity when it isn't necessary often leads to readers either disconnecting from a character or disregarding the story as a whole. Sometimes writers tend to use profanity as a crutch for character personality and it very rarely works out. As a consequence, I found myself not really liking the protagonist much, though I adored the villain. His cheeky quips and humorous delivery created a very charismatic antagonist in the very short time we get to know him.

Overall, a fun little point and click adventure with a great antagonist. I look forward to seeing what you guys come up with in the future!
slimabob
slimabobauthor30 Apr 2019, 00:16
Thanks @squishywizard44 , I really appreciate the feedback. The fade-to-black + quit was intended, although it was done because we were in the final few minutes and realized nothing happened when you beat the game. I threw in a quit-to-desktop as a last minute thing. If I could go back, I would absolutely return to menu instead, but it didn't pop into my head at the time.

I appreciate the bug report, we didn't have as much time to bugtest as I would have liked and that one slipped through.

Regarding the writing, I absolutely get where you're coming from. The protagonist was meant to be a cheeky poke at the duke-nukem type of character (overly """badass""" to the point of being ridiculous), whilst the antagonist is more of a wacky, saturday morning cartoon villain. I definitely agree that the villain was the stronger character, I had a lot of fun writing his lines :)

But I do appreciate the input and will absolutely take it to heart for our next game! Thank you so much for taking the time to write out a lengthy comment, it means a lot.
Torculus30 Apr 2019, 01:21
Really enjoyed the voice acting, very quality! Cool idea for a game, good job!
hernandack
hernandack30 Apr 2019, 01:32
I love the way of the environment you all bring to this game, not so casual but still fun and playable.
what really take my eyes is actually the story it self, with the output of choosing the action. Overall it's nice and have soul, I'll recommend put more audio that supports your stories (as in a pov a stage musician) because it will take your game a whole lot more. again, good job!
slimabob
slimabobauthor30 Apr 2019, 01:37
@torculus Appreciate it :)

@hernandack having that input from a musician means a lot to me! Every one of us had so much fun working on the game, and put little pieces of ourselves into everything. I worked hard on the audio that we could get in, but it ended up being a bit too time consuming to do everything I wanted to. The next game will have a stronger set of audio :D

Thanks again for the reviews, both of you!
ColeSlaughter
ColeSlaughter30 Apr 2019, 02:00
Oh man, I love the voice acting in this! It really sounds like you guys had a lot of fun recording this. :)

Pretty ambitious to try and pull of a point-and-click adventure game in a single weekend, but I'd say y'all accomplished that in spades! There were just enough breadcrumbs to guide me to the next location, and I can't say I ever really felt lost. Would've been nice to be able to interact with more object (even if it would just be filler dialogue) but I imagine time constraints were tight enough already.

Awesome work, guys!!
Bakenshake30 Apr 2019, 02:03
Love that this was point-and-click. It was hard to understand some of the audio pieces, and I didn't understand my entire goal. I kept clicking away, though!! Had fun. Thanks for this.
TheGrandpa30 Apr 2019, 02:14
@ColeSlaughter Thanks man.. yes the time constraints really nailed us at the end. We would have loved some more to time push some more audio/ features. Thanks for playing!

@bakenshake Thanks for playing, I'm glad you had fun!
Sherlock52730 Apr 2019, 03:18
I have not played a point and click before so I was confused at first but I eventually figured it out. The voice acting was awesome. My biggest critique is the ending, when it faded to black and closed, I wasn't quite sure if the game ended or crashed. But other than that, it was a nice experience.
VuvuzuellaInc
VuvuzuellaInc30 Apr 2019, 05:49
Ok, the voice acting is very very good!
A very good game for the Ludum Dare!
Want more !
Respect, keep the good work !
Quagga
Quagga30 Apr 2019, 08:13
the voice is very cool. Looks like game i want to play )
lidborn30 Apr 2019, 08:17
Had some issue where i sometime couldn't click anything at all. Otherwize a fun game! Well done
wolderado
wolderado30 Apr 2019, 10:45
Nice game. Great graphics. I think voice volumes a bit low
Synedraacus
Synedraacus30 Apr 2019, 12:00
Linux build works alright.
LiauJ
LiauJ30 Apr 2019, 15:13
That villain's voice acting on spot on! It was a bit confusing at first to navigate around, but I finally understood it after a while.

The ending definitely looked like a crash, but I see now that was how it was programmed. Nice work all around!
Kurner30 Apr 2019, 15:32
Really like the voice actor of the vilain, he is excellent ! When I discovered what he looked like, I have to say that you make me laugh the way he look at you, ahah !

Overall it's a really good little game but I have to admit that I don't see the theme of the LD in it, we lost life with time but I don't remember loosing life when choosing an end or opening a door, maybe I didn't see it ? (Maybe I took the theme too literal ?) And apparently even tho' you have to choice one ending, you can unlock both door ! :D

But anyway, I hope to see more of your games with this kind of voice acting and humor ! Great work !
Dumivid
Dumivid30 Apr 2019, 15:37
What a missed opportunity to implement "Ah shit, here we go again" meme. Idk why but on my laptop, the game seems a little bit laggy. Besides "not knowing" what to press on some areas, the game is pretty intuitive and ofc, the voice acting rocks. Quite a unique experience to enjoy so much humor and sound with LD games. Impressive work, nothing more to add.
lagrume-masque30 Apr 2019, 22:27
Hi! I really like the graphics and voice-acting, good job! The point-and-click mechanic is simple but works real well with the mouse cursor becoming green where I could interact. Puzzles were nice too! Just a note: the repetitive alarm sound was a bit too repetitive and tiring for me. Overall, good job!
JofersGames1 May 2019, 20:17
This was wonderful, thank you
Beastiebeastie5 May 2019, 17:59
Wow, so impressive that you made this in 48 hours! The dialogue and voice acting was brilliant and it was nice to see a proper old school adventure game.

Other games by @slimabob

Found a bug?
Tell us on Discord