Beware the Dark

A bit short, but the atmosphere is really nice.

The atmosphere is nice, but the game is really short : maybe an infinite mode would be nice, with more and more ennemies and a scoring system ;)

Also, when you are not using the key q (or z), you can also make that q = left and z = up, so that azerty keyboard don't have to change layout to play the game ;)

Thanks for playing! I'll have to remember to add support for other keyboard layouts next time...

BTW: Increasing the difficulty increases the size of the woods

I like the graphics, the audio, and overall vibe. I would however add some variety to it, maybe different types of enemies - I feel like it's a little basic. Good effort nevertheless

If this is your first try at making music, you're good at it. The music is seriously foreboding and adds a great deal to the game's atmosphere. I also liked the effect of the light on the tree trunks as you pass them by.

As others have mentioned, the gameplay is a bit basic, though when I was travelling full speed to the right, it reminded me a little bit of something like bit trip runner.

I think more variety in the level layout (especially some verticality) would make the player go slower, and contribute even more to the eerie mood you're going for.

Edit: Oops my comment posted twice!

Cool game. The music and art style work really well together. It was a nice option to have different difficulty levels. Nice work.

Very nice touch with the difficulties and the audio was spot on, it made the game feel tense and threatening. Having a crouch button to make you dodge the high up monsters would fit perfectly and add a little extra to the game imo and like others have suggested, a bit of variety in extra monsters too. Super hard would be a moving one! :laughing: Seriously well done on your game!

Simple gameplay, strong sense of mood, nice 3d lighting effect. Idea: difficulty could be increased differently perhaps by 'jumping' enemies or by a dimmer light on the player/shorter view distance rather than more frequent spawns. Well done on finishing the compo. :)

Thanks @liam @gwinnell @squirmonkey and @vectrex28!
I'm planning on continuing this once I finish porting my LD45 game to Phaser too. (For those who have played it: Yes I lied about not continuing it)

Among my plans for this game are:
* Wind - If you don't dodge it your lantern will go out and you will have to navigate in the dark with the monsters chasing you down
* A story to go with the game, and maybe other areas you have to make it through
* Making the monsters in the trees drop down to the ground at a regular 1-3 second interval. That way you will have to memorize their movement in addition to location

The game becomes a bit too easy when using the background as an help. Maybe it would be good to add a parallax effect on the background to break that effect, or make some moving enemies.
Good work on the mood tho, even more since it's your first time at making music !

I like the concept. The game's not very long so there's not a whole lot of interesting feedback I can give you, but I do have two thoughts:
- When you die (or win) and the game is unresponsive for a few seconds that's pretty annoying. It should either have a button that let's you restart immediately, or have an animation that plays so it doesn't just look like the game ended. I originally thought I was going to have to refresh the page to play again.
- I think the monster hiding could be done much more effectively with a bit of graphics trickery. Basically, have the light work as an inverse-light on the monsters, so as you get closer they just naturally fade out. This kind of fade out would, I think, look a lot better. And it would look pretty cool--as you got closer with the light, the monster sprite would kind of get camoflauged into the background. I think it would be neat.

In terms of music: I like what's there. If I'm not mistaken it's quite short and therefore kinda repetitive. But it does succeed at creating the correct kind of atmosphere for the game, which is half the battle. :smile:

Great game and mood!
This is a really good concept game. I like the mechanics. It becomes too easy after you learn how to play. But it's still good.
I would change the dead state so we can start playing again immediately, as others pointed out.

Congrats!

Congratulations on your first Ludum Dare Compo! And I love how you've improved (comparing this to last LD)

I beat it easily on Hard mode :sunglasses:

I enjoyed it overall, the music was cool, the art cool, the theme was *kinda* used (if you die you lose, basically, so keep alive to win) The woods were spoooopy :ghost:

I enjoyed it! :smile: