The Volunteer

by doctorturbo

co-authored: @arlet-muristaja, @fallout-babe, @karlhk, @kr-m, @mustkonn

Overall★★★★★★★★★★4.15

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.61

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.21

Theme★★★★★★★★★★4.11

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★4.38

Audio★★★★★★★★★★4.20

Mood★★★★★★★★★★4.67

Story

You were as excited as everyone else when they started building the power plant. Your town would become the site of a scientific breakthrough and burgeoning infrastructure. Now the city is in ruins. The streets are blocked, covered in the rubble of collapsing buildings and attempts at containing the fallout after the incident.

Those who survived were evacuated, but the disaster is far from over. The situation is still on the verge of poisoning the continent for good. They say what remains of the core could explode any day now. Someone has to go in to stabilize the reactor.

Gameplay

- Find the power plant schematics in the abandoned city
- Traverse the dangerous crumbling underground passages
- Reach the reactor and use the stabilizing reagent

Will you make it before all is lost?

Team

Made by a team of 1 experienced Unity developer and 5 complete beginners (who all managed to put in hard work and make core parts of the game).

- lower third (team lead)
- Arlet Müristaja
- Mark Robin Kalder
- Karl-Hendrik Veidenberg
- Ivan Hladkyi
- Anton Kastuba

Screenshots

Tags: #3d, #dark, #fps, #fps platformer, #horror, #narrative, #story rich, #walking simulator

Genres: adventure, platformer

Tools: Blender, Unity

Comments35

Zapturk4 Oct 2021, 11:31

Very atmospheric. Would like to see where you guys could take it next.

blobo4 Oct 2021, 19:01

I like the story! The setting is lifeless and spooky, the scene is very well set! The ambient background noise and the grey aesthetic of the world was super well done! The ending is cool too, with the sacrificial nature of it all.

What's the deal with the "2nd place winner at UT Game Jam 2021" header on the itch page? Is that another jam you submitted this too? It's pretty crazy for those results to be back on the day the game was finished.

DoctorTurboauthor4 Oct 2021, 23:21

@100th-coin Yes, we participated at a local (University of Tartu) LD49 site and won 2nd place with a version we only had 39h to develop (minus sleep). The game got an update that fixed major bugs and issues, and then at the LD49 official deadline another one that added music, revised levels, and some polish.

I'm glad you enjoyed it. Our team was all beginners except for me so I'm proud of them for having put in serious effort to make levels, sounds, systems, etc.

Tattomoosa5 Oct 2021, 01:24

This was great! Loved the visuals and audio, really nailed a sort of beautiful but sad feeling that fit really well with the story. The movement felt really great.

The schematics took me a while to find although once I found them I'm not sure how I kept missing them haha. I think it could really use a more difficult final challenge too.

DoctorTurboauthor5 Oct 2021, 01:47

Thanks a lot @tattomoosa ! I was just worried that if we added more exciting platforming challenges we would get a lot of "didn't know where to go" or "didn't get past x level" scores. It's always a risk since developers are way better at their game than new players, and you are really short for time and fresh players to playtest in a gamejam.

This movement system definitely has some room for more challenging levels though so you are not wrong.

Jake Marks5 Oct 2021, 03:37

Awesome homages to HL1 and Chernobyl. I like the mix of platforming and story. And the visuals are great!

VOD Link: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1167820260

Simpathey5 Oct 2021, 03:48

I loved the game, I would like to see an indicator at the end where to stand for the core deactivation. Like a noob I looked for 2 min and parkoured off the walls trying to see where to go. Haha, but the game was great! So polished!

nardandas5 Oct 2021, 05:05

Great moody game1 I found the level design a bit unclear at times - I think an "F" prompt would help clear a lot up! I really liked the story! Great job!

3mpty5 Oct 2021, 05:39

Really awesome mood piece, solemn and somewhat relaxing, really nice level design and well built movement made for an extremely solid and pleasurable experience.

Honestly no complaints or criticism, this is a really great submission!

Rein5 Oct 2021, 06:44

I gave you my feedback during the stream earlier, but I just wanted to reiterate that this was a solid entry and your whole team should be proud of releasing a complete product like this - especially for most of them being beginners!

Pitisek5 Oct 2021, 10:54

Great submission! Atmosphere is amazing and the screen effects in combination with simple graphics have really cool feel. Good job

LDJam user 2691615 Oct 2021, 14:37

It's a very atmospheric game! Very good Sounddesign and minimalicist graphic style!

Denhette5 Oct 2021, 14:38

This was so unsettling. The sounds, the graphics, the general feel of the game. I feel like you nailed what you were going for!

Falawiska5 Oct 2021, 14:47

Very nice! Insane reactor.

Andreadbx5 Oct 2021, 15:18

Loved the mood of this one, it convey the feelings and the story exceptionally, a gem of a game, congrats :D

Proxy-Games5 Oct 2021, 21:43

I loved the mood and atmosphere of this game. The sound ambience really helped in selling the world and its story, and the aesthetics, while simple, aided the atmosphere while still making the environment readable for players so they could figure out where to go. I really enjoyed this one. Good job.

Myles Doupe6 Oct 2021, 01:14

This game is heavy. It's very well executed, it looks great, it sounds great, but it's heavy. I highly recommend it if you like heavy things.

LDJam user 2024086 Oct 2021, 09:23

Honestly one of my favorites so far, really love the atmospheric SFX and the story telling element, as someone who's really into story based games this is amazing! the level design is also pretty good, wow you guys really did a great job I definitely had my "Oh Wow" moment multiple times there, the reactor reminds me of the one from Half Life 2, was that an inspiration for the design ?

DoctorTurboauthor6 Oct 2021, 09:37

@0x-void-x0 Actually yeah, the main inspirations we had were the Chernobyl miniseries by HBO and HL1.

Thanks a lot for your kind words everyone, they really mean a lot!

OllieOA6 Oct 2021, 13:18

I watched this on twitch, so caveat that I got my experience second hand, but the atmosphere is great and very spooky. I like that you worked as a team of beginners with one lead, and it turned into something great! Teams can be a challenge for such a short term. Good work to all involved, and especially @lower-third, the wrangler!!

Skvader_4186 Oct 2021, 15:21

Absolutely Amazing. The atmosphere and sound effects create this amazing world. I hope to see this game grow into something like Penumbra Overture. I say this game should be expanded. (Include Jared Harris next time lol)

DoctorTurboauthor6 Oct 2021, 15:49

@skvader-418 Post-jam update with Hared Jarris confirmed. Also penumbra is a good source of inspiration to look at if we continue developing this actually. Thanks a lot!

pdotjpg6 Oct 2021, 19:46

Oh man, glad I saw a post about this game earlier today. This was very a very impressive entry, kudos to all the team. Atmosphere, visuals and especially audio were on point. The platforming in level 2 was a bit frustrating and it wasn't immediately clear what to do with the reactor (first I though I have to use the computer, then I saw doors on an upper level and thought I need to do platforming in the previous room), but the atmosphere more than makes up for these nitpicks.

Frozendoze6 Oct 2021, 20:04

HNNNNGGGG the atmosphere is soooo goooood. The soundtrack and visuals and vfx juice are all very well crafted to add to the experience and it had some slightly spoopy moments too! Lovely entry!

DoctorTurboauthor6 Oct 2021, 20:17

@pdotjpg yeah these are things we only noticed after the deadline as new people saw the game, shows that we still have room to grow as designers. Looking back I really wish we would have had more time to playtest and make some changes here and there. But I'm glad you enjoyed it overall.

@frozendoze thanks so much for playing this on stream and being the first person to mention the soundtrack : - )

kyboon6 Oct 2021, 21:15

The geiger meter sound was my favorite, it gave me goosebump! The fog and monochrome world made quite an atmosphere. Good job.

gentoogames6 Oct 2021, 22:35

Wow the visuals here are incredible (colors, low-poly models, shaders, filters, etc), and some of the design decisions you made with the visual design and colors were really excellent as well. Some fantastic intuitive game dev at points, and just an overall enjoyable short experience! Good job :)

Heiach7 Oct 2021, 00:43

Really atmospheric. The gameplay was fair yet challenging!

BluishGreenPro8 Oct 2021, 13:52

Really somber atmosphere; effective and simple aesthetic. I do wish more of the branching paths didn't terminate in dead-ends, but I understand this was a result of limited time.

mhm321678 Oct 2021, 20:09

Nice job!! Great visuals and quite atmospheric. Really like the sound design :)

LDJam user 2504269 Oct 2021, 00:24

I love the colors you have going on here, where the bright colors draw your attention, even more so against they gray environment. The fog/condensation was a nice touch on the mask! One of my suggestions for that was if the fog transparency pulses in sync with the breathing you said you had planned. I also wish there was a secret @ the top of that ladder xD. I'm also a sucker for sad story + endings! Good stuff all around

elysiagriffin11 Oct 2021, 15:24

Hi there! Thanks for submitting your game for me to play live during my Twitch stream!

If you’d like to rewatch the playthrough, you can find it here:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1172268556?t=2h36m55s

Good luck on your ratings, see you next LD! :D

💜 Elysia Griffin AKA Button Feedback Lady

https://www.twitch.tv/elysiagriffin

Paulsams16 Oct 2021, 12:48

Funny game. But all the same, the highest quality thing that was done in this game is a jump, huh). To me, your game was a bit filled with the Valley game, but of course everything was more dynamic there. And for a long time I tried to figure out how to get out of the apartment, but it turns out I had to press "F" on the text and it confused me a little. But otherwise - just an ordinary and cool game.

Pilar Hidalgo19 Oct 2021, 05:01

love the details and the sound design, good job!

TyronePemberton29 May 2022, 18:33

I am constantly volunteering and sometimes it looks like in a game. After the working day I come and play. If interested, you can read about volunteering using https://graduateway.com/essay-examples/volunteering/ for this. It's actually very hard work. Although many people think that it is easy. And in most cases unpaid.

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