Rest In Peace

by somnium
Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.22
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.02
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★2.53
Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.00
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.72
Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.35
Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.47
coverimage.png
An evil spirit is torturing ghosts, by forcing them to experience their final moments again and again.

As an expert in the occult, only you can stop it! Help the ghosts rest in peace, and defeat the evil spirit once and for all!

Rest In Peace is a short adventure game, made in Java using the LibGDX library.

A runnable Java-jar (requires Java installation), as well as a HTML build is provided.

screenshot
Tools: libGDX

Comments36

JCMonkey
JCMonkey5 Oct 2020, 00:07
not a bad little game, wish it was longer and the finding of the items was a bit harder.
BumDag
BumDag5 Oct 2020, 08:08
Thank you. The progression of the game was on par. Well done. I enjoyed it. Doesnt matter if it's short. It takes alot to put all that together.
Vollfeiw
Vollfeiw5 Oct 2020, 08:43
Kinda short, and expected to be able to fail somewhere, and not being able to spot everything.
Somehow, i love the idea, coulb be really fun expanded to a big thriller game ^^
shp
shp5 Oct 2020, 08:48
Well done, surprisingly moody for a simple compo game!
ABRDs
ABRDs5 Oct 2020, 12:15
I would've loved to have seen it with the same esthetic as the Exorcist, darkness, fog, as the music already sets that mood!
I was pleasantly surprised, good job!
Cryptomnesic5 Oct 2020, 12:18
I didn't know libGDX had a web wrapper!
Jegus9
Jegus95 Oct 2020, 12:22
well done for a compo entry! one thing that I love (and use in my games often) is this dark, morbid atmosphere. and i always wanted to do something around this genre.

some things in my mind after I finished the game. the audio is *good*, but it could be a longer loop. for the playtime, which was about 3-4 minutes for me, it seemed to drag a little. it's ok, the time was short indeed, but one fun way to build upon the audio compositions is to introduce some new track on the background (it can be just a chord with some vibrato) and just crtl-v the rest, you can make several minutes of audio that way!

graphically i think this is decent, but de-saturating the colors and making them fainter would definitely contribute for the creepy vibe of this game.

congratulations overall.
Somnium
Somniumauthor5 Oct 2020, 14:24
@jcmonkey @vollfeiw Thank you for your comments! Some of the objects do require previous quests being solved, but I might have placed them so that players will usually already have completed those quests. Game length was a consequence of the time limit, I would have preferred a few more ghosts, to make the game feel less linear.

@vollfeiw Specifically for failure states, I prefer the Lucasart "No Deaths" approach to pure adventure games in most cases :) And I agree, the concept works out quite well, and would be easy to expand with more ghosts.

@bumdag Thanks! A few more ghosts wouldn't have hurt, but overall I'm quite happy with how much I managed to do this jam :)

@shp @abrds Thank you for your comments! And yes, I too was quite happy with the mood effects I achieved, as I'm not very experienced in creating content in the horror genre. Playing around with colors in general would probably have made it even better, just as for the "ghost changes".
Somnium
Somniumauthor5 Oct 2020, 14:27
@cryptomnesic They have for a while, but depending on the version of LibGDX it is sometimes somewhat "temperamental" (as I discovered two weeks ago when I was trying to package my Alakajam-submission)

My current combo of working tools was using GWT SDK and plugins for Eclipse, combined with the Liftoff 1.9.11.3 alternate LibGDX project creator ( https://github.com/tommyettinger/gdx-liftoff/releases ) and the official guide ( https://github.com/libgdx/libgdx/wiki/HTML5-Backend-and-GWT-Specifics )
Somnium
Somniumauthor5 Oct 2020, 14:35
@jegus9 Thank you for your detailed comments!
Regarding the music, this was my first attempt at approaching music creation in a "structured" way (using a "real" DAW LMMS, and with separate tracks) - hopefully I can become more efficient with more practice. My current base sections could not stand much more repeating on their own (as you also noticed), but I see your point about reusing them with varying layers on top.

This was my first foray in trying to achieve "creepiness" through music and graphics, so thank you for your advice! One lesson I learned was that I need to have a more efficient pipeline for graphics (e.g. to be able to tweak my palette on the fly).

Thank you very much for your comments and your tips!
Gorr
Gorr5 Oct 2020, 15:57
Really great game. I enjoy it. The atmosphere is conveyed very well. Also I like you made it in libGDX, before I used to make games on it too :)
Somnium
Somniumauthor5 Oct 2020, 17:12
@gorr Thank you for your comments! I love to code in Java, even if I would probably get more work done in a full game engine... :)
bradur
bradur5 Oct 2020, 19:52
That was a spooky little adventure :). I enjoyed the writing in this, especially the lady in the pond with her poems. Very imaginative! The background music was good for the atmosphere and was enjoyable to listen to. Game was intuitive to play. Good job!
Somnium
Somniumauthor6 Oct 2020, 13:11
@bradur Thank you for your comments! It was pretty fun coming up with the poem.
davidcmcdonald
davidcmcdonald6 Oct 2020, 15:06
I found this game actually really intriguing, well done. I like the story, even though it was simple I was curious enough to finish it until the end. :)
schraf6 Oct 2020, 15:10
Good game. I agree with the others that is was a bit short, but it had a good mood and seems like something that could be built upon.
pvg6 Oct 2020, 15:11
This is a nice hand-crafted adventure game. I think the music sets a nice tone. Also, as a guy with a ton of Java experience, it's always fun to see libGDX still being used :)
Somnium
Somniumauthor6 Oct 2020, 16:07
@davidcmcdonald Thank you, I'm glad you liked the story!

@schraf Yeah, I agree, a few extra ghosts would have been even better, but alas, 48 hours never seem to be enough.

@pvg Thanks, I'm also glad I took the time to create music this time, it's much harder to establish a mood without it. As for LibGDX, I like how hands-on it is, even though there are much more efficient game creation engines out there :)
dusho6 Oct 2020, 17:02
nice little adventure.. lovely music and graphics
Corporation
Corporation6 Oct 2020, 18:21
Actually very user friendly and polished complete experience. Finished the game and found my self kinda involeved into little story. Great game!
blobo
blobo6 Oct 2020, 18:58
Nice! I like how intuitive it was, I was never lost or looking for direction! The art, though could be improved, was charming, and I liked the background music. Great work all around!
CesarGary_
CesarGary_6 Oct 2020, 20:36
It was a fun little experience, for a Horror theme I think the ambient could be a little darker or creepier, but the puzzle system was on point!
Lombax
Lombax6 Oct 2020, 20:55
nice. first puzzle-ish game ive played this ludum dare.
the game pointed me in the direction i needed to go, so never got lost. all around, quite enjoyable game.

i know time is limited during ludum dare, but i kinda missed some explore for clues kinda moments. it was go there, do that.
i personaly like exploration, so adding moments where you are lost and you need to go around and look for where to go next wouldnt necessarily be a bad thing, in my opinion.
Milestone Games
Milestone Games6 Oct 2020, 21:57
Fun game, it was nice to be able to run around and explore the place. I like your take on the theme as well. Good job!
Somnium
Somniumauthor7 Oct 2020, 05:01
@lombax Thank you for the feedback! And I agree, I had planned something a bit more elaborate for the locket, involving a more traditional exploration based puzzle with clues, but in the end I didn't have the time for it.
Somnium
Somniumauthor7 Oct 2020, 05:04
@cesargary Thank you for the feedback! It was my first attempt at a "horror"-themed game, so it's definitely not perfect :)
ubershmekel
ubershmekel7 Oct 2020, 06:16
The level was a bit too simple, and the game itself felt too linear, without anything really interesting happening in the mechanics or the story. Would be cool to see more stuff. Maybe I missed something?
Somnium
Somniumauthor7 Oct 2020, 07:46
@ubershmekel I'm not sure, my main focus was to try to create a small story with an "eerie" feel - a bit more ghosts and some puzzles would have been even better, but I prioritized presentation, music and writing this jam.
Tori
Tori8 Oct 2020, 11:52
I loved it
Ramble House Games
Ramble House Games8 Oct 2020, 11:57
Nice little Compo submission. I can tell you that chose a scale for this game that would allow you to do a small number of things well. Rather than a large number of things poorly. Congrats!!
M8rix
M8rix10 Oct 2020, 10:54
Required a little bit of thinking which was nice. Good job! :)
smbe19
smbe1911 Oct 2020, 12:44
Nice game, although quite predictable and not that challenging.
freeworld
freeworld14 Oct 2020, 20:56
A short and nice experience!

The music and graphics fit well with the atmosphere, love the darker theme and the nice glowing animation of the evil spirit slab :P
gamescodedogs
gamescodedogs23 Oct 2020, 16:35
Nice little game with easy puzzles. I would even say very easy. And nice work with the theme, by the way.
sakura_magika
sakura_magika23 Oct 2020, 18:13
it was very pleasant, and very easy. i think there's a lot of potential with this theme and style, to add more complexity! for a game jam, i think this set out and achieved very reasonable goals.

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