Ludum Dare #48compo

Live Free

by prodigalson

Overall★★★★★★★★★★2.62

Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.65

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★2.35

Theme★★★★★★★★★★2.21

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.85

Audio★★★★★★★★★★2.87

Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.71

Mood★★★★★★★★★★2.38

Description

You have been diving deeper and deeper into depression, but there's hope!
Pick up the encouraging words and punch depression to have victory over it.

Controls

- A/D or Left/Right Arrows to move
- Use Mouse to select the "Word" to complete the encouragement

Objective

- Collect 3 words to engage depression in battle
- Chose the right word that completes the sentence
- Do this 3 times to defeat depression
- Dodge the Doubt blocks or you will lose the battle

Note

The theme of "diving deeper into depression" was to be illustrated more through dialogue but in the interest of time and having a "playable" demo I was not able to include this dialog. Instead, here's the missing intro that would've helped propel more the theme.

Cutscene

[Depression]
"You weak pathetic waste of space! You are nothing but a mistake and you should just end it, right here and now!"

[Scene]
The player is kneeling with their head down casted while rain falls on them.

[Player]
Maybe I should...No one seems to care...

[A disembodied voice]
My dear child. You are not alone and I love you.
Do not let these lies get your dishearten.
Standup, and use my words against depression to have victory over it.

[Depression]
You see! You are too weak to even pull the trigger! Here, let me do it for you. Ha ha ha!

[Scene]
Rain stops
The sun begins to shine
The player punches the ground, stands up, and points at depression while saying:

"No! You are a lie! I am loved and you have no power over me!"

[Depression]
Ha ha ha! Pathetic fool! Your words are but empty. Now, prepare to die!

[Scene]
Depression moves into the background and the player runs after it.

*Game Starts*

Tags: #3d, #cute, #infinite-runner, #low-poly, #unity, #voxel

Genres: action

Tools: Unity

Comments24

lokt0226 Apr 2021, 08:11

Main theme of the game is depression but I dont feel it. I like this music and this sound "NOOOO". It is very fun

ProdigalSonauthor26 Apr 2021, 11:31

@lokt02 I hear you. I meant to have dialog through to make it more evident but didn't quite make it. Thanks for playing

binroot27 Apr 2021, 04:40

Oh, I think it was strictly a dodging game until I had to fill in the blanks. I totally loved the novelty. It's a feel good game in a time when we need it most! Great work there!

ProdigalSonauthor27 Apr 2021, 04:48

@binroot thanks for playing. Yeah, I really want to add more "action" based things to the traditional "infinite runner" which I'm planning to continue to work on post jam :)

karlipoppins27 Apr 2021, 05:19

fun little dodging game with a quirky music and sound (TAKE THIS, DEPRESSION!!)
I must not be depressed since I kept guessing the wrong words :)
anyhow I loved the take on the theme and I think we need more optimistic games like yours these days!!
great job!

Lakea27 Apr 2021, 07:22

had a lot of fun with thiis one, well done.

Game-mon27 Apr 2021, 16:03

Nice entry! And a creative usage of the theme. Well done :)

ProdigalSonauthor27 Apr 2021, 17:30

@lakea and @thomas-bringer Thanks for playing! :D

Brendev29 Apr 2021, 00:21

Had me smiling the whole time! I would love some random generation for increase replayability, but the run I played was a blast. Good work!

ProdigalSonauthor29 Apr 2021, 01:54

@brendev thank you for the comment 😀 and thank you for playing!

Tek29 Apr 2021, 11:34

The concept of the game was good, but the game play was kinda confusing, you have to use "sad" things to defeat depression instead of using encouring and motivational words that fight against depression.

The music was good.

ProdigalSonauthor29 Apr 2021, 12:09

@tek It's not obvious because I never went back to it to make it so but what you are actually doing is putting together a verse. Meaning, the 3 sentences are to be read as one single thing. It's starts by revealing the condition of the character's state of being and ends with a refocus on hope. But I can see why it appears as you said. I did plan to revisit it before submitting the game but ran out of time. Thanks for playing and commenting. :)

msipp271 May 2021, 23:17

the doubt blocks kinda look like goombas, it was ok i guess, not too great but not terrible, could use some more gameplay variety and definitely better music.

radmccool1 May 2021, 23:57

maybe its because im not religous but the part where you had to pick "God" to win didnt really fit for me. All the word selection felt kind of arbitrary.
One suggestion to fix this would maybe find a passage in the bible or book of faith that really sells the point youre trying to make. i dont know of anything that tackles the subject so i cant really suggest one, but i think it could be a fun way to share some words of wisdom.

ProdigalSonauthor2 May 2021, 00:42

@msipp27 agreed 👍thanks for playing 😀

@radmccool thanks for your honest feedback. That's the goal 🙂 thanks for playing!

Reactor-Scram3 May 2021, 01:21

The graphics were cool but I couldn't get into the role-playing aspect. The game wouldn't accept "myself" as the right answer

LeviDSmith3 May 2021, 01:48

Good idea and nice implementation. I managed to select all of the correct answers during the confrontation phases.

michaelyount3 May 2021, 01:52

Thanks

ProdigalSonauthor4 May 2021, 13:04

@reactor-scram That's poor design on my part. The game is not designed as a "role-playing" experience where you get to choose from multiple choices but I can see how it looks that way and I will need to work on that. Instead, the game is about putting together a verse to defeat depression. Thanks for playing!

@levidsmith Nice! Also, I've been calling it "Battle Phase" but I like "Confrontation Phase" better as it makes it more personal like you are facing up against it intentionally to not let it have power of you. Thanks for playing! :)

@michaelyount You are welcomed? lol. ;)

willjardine4 May 2021, 22:24

Fun game, I really liked the boxy 3D look to everything. :)

ProdigalSonauthor10 May 2021, 04:02

@willjardine Thanks and thanks for playing :D

matthewrobo15 May 2021, 08:06

Why can't I put faith in myself?

ProdigalSonauthor15 May 2021, 12:07

@matthewrobo because you are putting together a scripture verse and that's what is written. 😀 I forgot to put the scripture reference to clarify this.

Thanks for playing 🙂