Ludum Dare #45compo

Amnesiac Adventurer

by justinooncx

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.97

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.80

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★4.29

Theme★★★★★★★★★★4.35

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.88

Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.20

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.21

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Our brave adventurer has made it to the final floor of the dungeon, and the Final Treasure is within his grasp... but wait, how did he get here in the first place? Help our forgetful friend recall how he cleared every previous dungeon floor, working backwards to jog his memory! One thing he's sure of, though... He started each floor with no items whatsoever!

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Amnesiac Adventurer is a dungeon puzzle with a twist; start from the end, and make your way to the beginning! The only rule is that your adventurer started out the floor with no items! Think backwards in time, and try not to end up in impossible situations! Of course, you can take the easy way out... Maybe your Amnesiac Adventurer didn't open every single chest and kill every single zombie. But then... who did?

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HOW TO PLAY
- WASD to move
- Use the Mouse to click buttons when prompted on the top left of the screen
- Click on Retry to refresh the level and start from the end
- You can only hold one of each type of item (helmet and sword)
- Your goal is to make your way to the entrance of the dungeon WITHOUT any items on you (helmet or sword)
- Interact with all possible objects to get the full score and good ending!

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Gah, this was a hell of a project to do... I've made games solo before, and I've worked on Unity games before, but this is my first solo Unity project! Whiiiiich is why the polish is severely lacking, and the UI sucks even more than usual. Plus, I just bought Playmaker two days before the jam started, so suffice to say I was learning how things worked the hard way. Using a brand new engine for game jams is the best way to get caught up with what you need to know, in my opinion!

If time permits, I'd love to polish up this game, maybe add a few more levels, a few more objects to interact with... Consider this a short preview of what could be! Music, sound effects, particles, maybe a mobile build, the whole shebang. In the meantime, though, enjoy the game, and don't forget to give me your opinion so I know whose game to play next!

Also, if anyone is planning on recording a playthrough, I'm mighty curious how the game would look when you play the video backwards. Hope I got the backwards logic right!

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Programs used:
- Unity (Playmaker)
- Magicavoxel

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Genres: puzzle

Tools: MagicaVoxel, Unity

Comments45

Bagenzo7 Oct 2019, 02:46

Incredible puzzle! Any puzzle game that requires you to think backwards is always a real headscratcher for me.... Once I got into the groove of things I was thankfully able to get the good ending. Great game.

karlipoppins7 Oct 2019, 02:55

Such an awesome and unique puzzle concept! I love the graphics, you could have played a known tune backwards to engage with the mood. Levels are well balanced and some are quite tricky to get right. Still can't get used to the character facing backwards from where it's walking after playing for 15 minutes lol.

Awesome entry!

justinooncxauthor7 Oct 2019, 03:01

@bagenzo Thanks for playing! I was worried that people wouldn't understand the backwards mechanic and get all confused... Good job getting the good ending!

@karlipoppins Ah, man, great minds think alike! I totally wanted to play some music backwards as the BGM, maybe add blood particles flying back into the zombie when it's un-killed, stuff like that... Maybe after the jam is over!

kuviman7 Oct 2019, 03:10

Thats a really cool one! I wish there were more levels to this.

AkirAssasin7 Oct 2019, 04:57

Just because the theme is "start with nothing" doesn't mean the game has to start from the start! Brilliant interpretation of the theme! .

NachtWitch7 Oct 2019, 14:30

Really interesting idea there

GoldenEvolution7 Oct 2019, 15:00

Amazing idea for a puzzle game. I love the voxel graphics as well. I just got confused for a bit when I stepped on the sort of cross things, where I apparently gained items from. I kept thinking I died so I pressed retry right away. After two times, I realised they didn't kill me

JxWinkler7 Oct 2019, 15:05

Love the style! I loved the idea!

Marcin J7 Oct 2019, 15:11

I won't be original with my feedback haha. Awesome voxel style graphics, it really makes the game stand out. I had some issues playing it at first because of controlls etc but very positive experience in general

Jajakeim7 Oct 2019, 15:32

unfortunately the game crashs right away for me :/

justinooncxauthor7 Oct 2019, 15:38

@jajakeim Oh, crap, it crashes on your browser? Chrome seems to be the go-to browser for playing Unity Web games. I guess I can put up the PC build I made, but man, that thing is ugly as sin.

Georg Wacker7 Oct 2019, 15:40

Great concept plus the voxel graphics are looking fantastic

walaber7 Oct 2019, 15:58

amazing idea! It's quite the brain teaser once the levels get a bit more complex. I love how the character runs in reverse, it's a great touch :)

Daniil Krylov7 Oct 2019, 16:19

Cool idea, great execution and the game is pretty challenging too!

XCVZXC7 Oct 2019, 17:27

i got some error :((

W0lfEnstein7 Oct 2019, 17:35

Cute isometric graphics. It'll be better with good sounds. Nice work ;D

justinooncxauthor7 Oct 2019, 17:36

@xcvzxc @jajakeim I've added a Windows build if you still want to give the game a try, though I recommend playing in a smaller resolution, because I still hadn't figured out how to use the Unity UI properly in Playmaker.

Daxic7 Oct 2019, 18:15

Great game! Love the puzzle idea and graphics.

Jiri Hysek7 Oct 2019, 18:22

Great idea for a puzzle game. I really dig the voxel graphics, everything works well, take on the theme is spot on, levels are challenging... overall it's amazing entry!

blobo7 Oct 2019, 18:26

Oh wow, this is super neat! I love how everything is in reverse! Very well implemented too. great game!

Enver Arco7 Oct 2019, 21:15

nice idea, might be nice to have more player instructions

Abacus7 Oct 2019, 21:28

OMG, the game is awesome! The cube creatures are so cute, and I love the reversed time mechanics, really cool puzzle game!

AdroitConceptions7 Oct 2019, 21:29

really nice puzzle game, would have been nice to have a 'zoom out' feature so you could better plan your pathing. it often became a sequence of trial and error trying to get through the level instead of planning.

TheseusInABottle7 Oct 2019, 21:45

Really good little puzzle game. Little confusing how the player walks backwards but makes sense with the entire idea of the game and all. My only real critical point of this game is actually your color scheme for your Itch page is neon blue which really strains my eyes but gameplay wise you made a really good game.

justinooncxauthor8 Oct 2019, 01:47

@theseusinabottle Ah, jeez, I was trying to match the background of the game with the page, but with my naturally low brightness level on my screen, I didn't think it was that bad... I'll swap to a darker theme later. Thanks!

justinooncxauthor8 Oct 2019, 01:57

@adroitconceptions Thanks for the feedback! You're absolutely right on both suggestions; however, due to my limited technical ability, some things couldn't be done during the timeframe. It would help to see the whole map at once, or at least, have an undo command so that trial and error isn't too annoying... I might recreate it in 2d and improve upon it, or get an actual programmer to help! Thanks for the feedback!

jvolonte8 Oct 2019, 02:24

Great idea. At first I was like... why is he walking backwards. Oh waaaait. Nice take on the theme :)

Corrade8 Oct 2019, 03:54

Fantastic idea and interpretation of the theme. In addition to a restart button, a 'rewind to latest action' button would've been great. At first it was unclear what the buttons did, especially since the walls they rose had keys marked on them and therefore seemed unrelated.

jordanvang8 Oct 2019, 03:55

Wow that was extremely unexpected going into it. At first, I didn't quite understand the premise, but after tinkering around, I realized just how brilliant this was! The theme fits so well, and it engages the player from the beginning. The puzzles are a little confusing, and it would be cool if at the end of the level, it played a video of what you did in reverse, so it looked like you were moving forward to the end (just hopeful game suggestions from a fan). I really hope you continue this concept!

justinooncxauthor8 Oct 2019, 05:17

@corrade Thanks for the suggestions! Initially, the movement was meant to be grid-based, but I couldn't get it to work... If I do fix it, though, the second thing to add is the 'rewind' feature, for sure! I lack the technical ability to do that right now, but it's a good thing to have, especially with some of the puzzles being unsolvable after one wrong move. And yeah, the doors were meant to have keys initially, but I had no time to change the assets, so I just reused what I had.

@jordanvang Thank you for the feedback! Following on what I just replied to Corrade, I super duper want a reverse-play at the end of the level, and utilizing the rewind feature to do so sounds like the best way to do it! For now, though, any forward-replays have to be done manually by the player... Perhaps when I get better in Playmaker, I'll come back and add it as a feature!

frenchie8 Oct 2019, 07:32

Wow, these are some really well crafted puzzles! And the premise that ties it all together fits so well with the theme! I had a blast playing this one! :smiley:

> Also, if anyone is planning on recording a playthrough, I’m mighty curious how the game would look when you play the video backwards. Hope I got the backwards logic right!

I tried to record it so that I could play it backwards. I don't know of a way to "reverse" a video, but I manually scrubbed through it backwards in VLC and it looks mostly correct! Minus some awkward turning after interactions. You can check it out here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vi933xvat3xzr4w/Amnesiac%20Adventurer.mp4?dl=0 I tried a few times to get a flawless run so that there wouldn't be any fluff. Enjoy!

justinooncxauthor8 Oct 2019, 09:48

@frenchie :O Thanks for the video! I'm looking it over now and playing it backwards, it looks hilarious~ I'll probably reverse it and post it up, maybe troll some people and figuratively see the confusion on their faces~ Also, thanks for the feedback! Much appreciated!

Danielcmcg8 Oct 2019, 15:27

Haha, nice and fun idea! simple aesthetic and smooth controls, there's a lot of nice puzzles that can be done with it.

Iak8 Oct 2019, 18:49

Hmm... something feels backwards but I can't quite put my finger on it. Going through the dungeon with perfectly normal movement, killing zombies in perfectly normal ways, looting chests and pushing buttons... yes... all quite usual. Not sure why I feel like something is wrong...

WanSou8 Oct 2019, 18:55

I love the original idea
instead of getting items, you put back the items, or lose them... by getting them

its kind of confusing what i mean
but just play the game and you'll see

The game is really cool, i love it - i spent too much time on this game messing if i can get a different result etc.

Keep up the awesome work!

aboogoost8 Oct 2019, 20:31

Wonderful game. I'm extremely impressed! Clever idea, great design, good execution. My only suggestion would be to tutorialize it just a bit more with some simpler levels.

StoneMonkeyMark8 Oct 2019, 21:12

Finally a game that has a real game and puzzle in it. Good puzzle design with growing complexity.

U-Tsang Clan9 Oct 2019, 19:27

Really liked it. One of the few games that actually fit the theme in a meaningful way and it is fun on top of that. My one suggestion would be a way of making it clear which buttons connect to which doors. Right now players have to do trial and error which is fine but I feel it would be nicer to just get down to business right out of the gate.

PNWAlex9 Oct 2019, 21:20

Really clever take on the theme! I appreciate puzzle games with simple mechanics that still have solutions that aren't immediately obvious. Great job!

Zanthous10 Oct 2019, 08:50

Funny idea and pretty good execution. The last level took me a while. One of my favorites so far

SharkWithLasers10 Oct 2019, 10:42

Great puzzle game! really creative with your interpretation of the theme and great puzzle mechanics! Very impressed, good work!

Rhoka12 Oct 2019, 01:14

That was a really neat concept! The movement confused me for a second but then I understood what was happening. First time I just cruised through and got the bad ending but I went back and figured out each level properly. Level of difficulty felt just right for the number of levels and I could see this easily expanding to more levels. Overall Very well executed simple idea!

Keppu12 Oct 2019, 16:45

Really clever to turn this theme upside down. You venture with stuff but it's all a memory and you have to backtrack to your starting point, where you started with nothing.

Took a while to figure out, but the puzzles are quite good as well. Positively surprised by the use of theme here. Nicely done!

Sean S. LeBlanc15 Oct 2019, 00:55

Definitely one of the more clever games I've seen this jam! It's a great interpretation of the theme, and a solid puzzle mechanic. Some audio and more deliberate UI would've been nice for some extra polish, but it's still impressive as-is!

- Making it so just having nothing is all you need to progress, instead of actually "clearing" the levels is a nice touch; it's rare for puzzle games to have flexible difficulty like that
- You mention it'd be cool to see a reversed replay of players' runs; if you switched to using grid-based movement for the player, it probably wouldn't be too difficult to simply record their inputs and then play them back in-engine to do this (still a big ask for a jam game tho haha)