LdDB
Ludum Dare #54jam

The ECRU Experience

by dock-frankenstein
Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.46
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.77
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.12
Theme★★★★★★★★★★2.83
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.06
Audio★★★★★★★★★★2.98
Humor★★★★★★★★★★4.00
Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.63

Description

Surreal puzzle (sort of) game where you keep going through the same room over and over again.

Controls

* WASD - walking
* E - interact
* Escape - menu

Tools used:

- Engine: Stride3D
- UI library: Myra
- IDE: Visual Studio
- Debug: New qASIC (my own asset currently in works, allowed me to view log messages outside of the game)

Devlog



So this was my first ever proper game not made with Unity. Stride is... an interesting engine let's say. It was quite buggy, unstable and doing the most basic things required a lot of work (fullscreen support took me ~3 hours). But overall I found it quite fun and I will probably continue using it in the future.
Tags: #3d, #first-person, #funny, #surreal, #walking simulator
Tools: Unity

Comments26

Shad2 Oct 2023, 20:31
The game is not starting for me. Nothing happens after clicking executable. EDIT - it finally opened, but it took a lot of time after doing nothing
Shad2 Oct 2023, 20:40
Mike is definetely up to something
Franciszek Pyrć3 Oct 2023, 05:19
@shad Stride is a bit of a clunky engine, how long did it take to open? What specs do you have? This information will be quite useful for my future games
Shad3 Oct 2023, 05:46
@dock-frankenstein about a minute to open, on rather reasonable system (i9-9900k, RTX2080)
Foursay
Foursay3 Oct 2023, 08:50
- Sry but I hate Mike don't know whats he thinking but he could be a good friend i guess
- What's his favourite though
- I guess I looped through all endings, its pretty funny and annoying to read those ending remarks, haha
- 21/10 puzzles design since it really gave me some emotional damages
- Ye
- Good work anyway ;)
- Mike will remember this
Anatol Dumitras3 Oct 2023, 15:46
Got all endings and in life there's roblox...
JOZGames
JOZGames3 Oct 2023, 15:49
Não entendi foi nada, hehe
Franciszek Pyrć3 Oct 2023, 17:10
@anatol-dumitras afk in the first room for 60 seconds unpaused, don't even move your mouse
NIrlandec4 Oct 2023, 20:28
The minimalistic art-style supports the small puzzle gameplay . Well done
PabloAbraham
PabloAbraham4 Oct 2023, 20:46
Just played 'The ECRU Experience' and I was intrigued by its minimalist design and looping rooms. It definitely prompts curiosity and makes one think. The idea of repeating the same room but with minor changes kept me engaged. Great use of a simple concept to create an engaging experience!
AntariaN5 Oct 2023, 09:58
Please ping me if you make a macOS or a web build, the game seems interesting to try :)
ldkuba5 Oct 2023, 11:26
I'm a huge fan of these type of games. No real criticisms, except that I want more :D Maybe one thing is that the music did not play at all times and seemed to start at random moments.
Franciszek Pyrć5 Oct 2023, 16:21
@ldkuba I didn't have time for making a whole theme and I was too scared that it would get repetitive, so I just played clips of it randomly

@antarian Stride doesn't support web and I had very little luck with exporting to other platforms (texture glitches, crashes, etc). I've managed to run it on my steam deck with proton. You can try playing around with some sort of a compatibility layer, but I understand that it's not as smooth of an experience as a native port
Hawkin
Hawkin6 Oct 2023, 03:49
Fun experiment! I definitely dig the surprising, self aware puzzles (like Stanley Parable). Very courageous trying a new engine!
Tudvari
Tudvari6 Oct 2023, 08:20
Mike did not remember. :'( I was hoping that next run he's going to kill me or something. :smile:

Anyway, cool entry, gave me Stanley Parables vibes, and it was interesting enough that it made me go through all the paths. Even if I had to repeat first half like 5 times. :smiley: It would be nice if you could come up with a solution to this because I think most of us wants to find the other endings as well. :)

Sometimes I heard clicking sounds, supposedly randomly. Mind sharing some info about that? :D Or did I miss something?

Nice game Dock, keep it up, see you next LD! :)
Franciszek Pyrć7 Oct 2023, 07:50
@tudvari About the clicking: Stride. I rest my case
nusan
nusan8 Oct 2023, 14:45
haha that's a nice entry, got me a few times and kept being surprising along the way. The visuals could be a bit more interesting, the audio is sometimes too harsh for my hears (the "broken glass" for exemple) but the experience was short and fun, keep up the good work!
shiny Elster
shiny Elster8 Oct 2023, 17:37
Mike. Why are you doing this to me?? How cooould you??

No srsly, what a cool game! The first try i was a bit unsure what to do, took me a few runs but the different endings and the memes were worth it. The crashing sound from the button took me by surprise but other than that well done!
Notinatal
Notinatal9 Oct 2023, 16:01
Mike lured me into the hole of betrayal. Mike is a deceiving piece of red T-shirt who will steal your faith in yourself. Don't be like Mike.

Good game though. I felt really stupid checking the wall behind myself after the first room and not the second. Interesting concept!
LDJam user 26072015 Oct 2023, 20:37
Very funny entry good job! the button's audio made me jump tho lol
LDJam user 206001
LDJam user 20600115 Oct 2023, 23:41
I was watching the devlog and ended up here. Wow, if I hadn't seen the devlog I would never have known that it was so difficult to change engines, and I wouldn't have even imagined such a difficult engine,But about the game, I like the room, although it could be a much smaller room. I would like something happening or a feeling of claustrophobia trapped in some room. But from the devlog, I understand that it was tense
zimny11
zimny1119 Oct 2023, 21:24
The game is nice, cleaver and fun to play. Music is awesome. Simply well done! Ah, and I love the fullscreen feature :P BTW Awesome dev vlog!

F* you Mike!

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