Gregos Journey by yotam180

[raw]
made by yotam180 for LD36 (JAM)
“Are you sure you want to do it? You know how dangerous it is…”
“I know. But it’s worth it”

This game is about a man named Professor Gregos. He and his coworker, Dr. Amy, have been trying to create a time machine for more than 6 years, in order to prevent WWII. And this night, Gregos has finally found the last power stone to power the machine and take them to the past.

But an accident happens, and instead of taking him to the 30’s, it takes him to the Stone Age. Determined to return to the present, he tries to seek for new power stones to power up his machine.

The game is made out of 4 levels – present, Stone Age, Ancient Egypt and The Medieval. In each level, you have to get 3 power stones, power up the machine and proceed to the next level.

As you pass from time to another, riddles and traps become harder to solve, and you can find yourself stucked in a room with no possibility to exit. The game has no “you lost” screen. You can not die in this game. The worst you can do is to never win – get stucked somewhere and not be able to go back to the present.

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We took a game which was too much for us to do in 72 hours. We have cut several levels out (including Ancient Rome, the Renesans, and even the future). We didn’t succeed in putting a lot of features because of the time limit, and we don’t even have a proper UI and winning screen. Hope you forgive us for that.

Special thanks to all our team members. Without you it would have never been possible to complete this game. Thanks to:
Yotam Salmon – for programming
Or Navon – for texture and models design
Ron Popov – for level design
Ilya Vikulov – for sound composing
And Shai Kimhi – for level design and programming

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Personal note:
I have had a great time working on this game, especially because it was my first Ludum Dare ever. I have participated in Hackathons and Global Game Jams before, but it’s my first time participating in LD. I must admit that the 72 hours is very deluding. Gives you the confidence that you have so much time, and after you spend your 60 first hours doing almost nothing, you realize how tight on time you are. Next LD I’m going to attend to the compo and make a much simpler game (maybe a platformer. Yeah, platformers are cool). Thanks to everyone who helped this LD to happen, and thanks to everyone in this community! Keep the great work up!

Cheers, Yotam.

Feedback

GrassWhooper
30. Aug 2016 · 07:56 UTC
hey there.
nice game you got right there, however i have one complaint in the second level, i just failed to find the stones, there are "binary rocks", "normal stones(which dont power up the machine)" and a paper (which is a very nice touch that i have liked hehe).

i can not hold the binary locks, and i tried placing the stones and paper above them, nothing happened, i also tried putting everything i can hold (normal stones and paper) above the camp fire but also nothing happened.

i was honestly enjoying and liking the game till i got stuck here :D

but besides that, i like the game, keep up the good work you and your team :) .
🎤 yotam180
30. Aug 2016 · 09:30 UTC
Hi @GrassWhooper. Thanks for the comment. We really were worried that the cave level would be too hard. The thing in that level is that you have to represent the number 36 (which is on the note) in the binary lock (making it 0100100). Basically putting the rocks in the right places. Then a stone door opens and lets you to the next level. I might upload a video showing the solutions for stucked people.

Thanks again for the comment!
Amine Tcherak
30. Aug 2016 · 11:25 UTC
Very Nice i love your Game Good Works )=
Capitals
30. Aug 2016 · 11:57 UTC
The games atmosphere was the most interesting thing about this game, if you take anything from this it is this. The use of v2t narration was a bit cheap, but the story was interesting. I found the pyramids puzzle really confusing and the room didn't look great.
mvasko2
30. Aug 2016 · 12:27 UTC
Quite impressive for 72 hours!

I really liked the puzzles, they were quite the brain stretchers, and I must admit that without reading your comment "spoiling" the solution for the first level (or second scene - simply the one with the binary stones), I wouldn't have made it to the end. It makes sense, but honestly, it would never cross my mind.

Considering it was made in 3 days, both the amount and quality of the content is really high, good job!

Also, is it really "to be continued"?
🎤 yotam180
30. Aug 2016 · 12:31 UTC
@mvakso2 It's planned to be ;) We already designed a large part of the future level, and we absolutely don't want to waste it, right? So when we have time (hopefully today or tomorrow) we'll add the next level.
Thanks for the comment, anyways!
Petzi
30. Aug 2016 · 12:33 UTC
On the Egypt level, I pressed one of the buttons with the Purple letters on the wall and they sunk into the wall, never to return. Did I break the game?
🎤 yotam180
30. Aug 2016 · 12:39 UTC
@Petzi Nope, it's to prevent brute-forcing those buttons. However, they're supposed to return after like 1 minute... Didn't this happen?
Lojchin
30. Aug 2016 · 12:44 UTC
Very good game and graphic!
JK5000
30. Aug 2016 · 12:45 UTC
A great little adventure game. For the second level, would it not make more sense to place a stone on the third and sixth places.
🎤 yotam180
30. Aug 2016 · 12:53 UTC
@JK5000 What do you mean? The right solution is putting the stones on the third and sixth places... I'm not sure I understood you :P
mathiasj
30. Aug 2016 · 13:01 UTC
The game is nice even though I don't know how to proceed in Egypt. I know that the number's supposed to be 5 but once I press the button nothing really happens. When I press a symbol button, all of them disappear...

But still, the game itself and the puzzles are nice!
🎤 yotam180
30. Aug 2016 · 13:10 UTC
@mathiasj
*spoiler alert* the numbers change the direction of the light

*more spoilers*
That changes the symbol which the sundial points on.

*even more more more spoilers*
Then you take that symbol and press on the same symbol button on the wall. This opens a secret door. Enjoy!
holgk
30. Aug 2016 · 13:29 UTC
Nice stargate inspired game. Impressive work, especially for a first timer.
Casevse
30. Aug 2016 · 13:30 UTC
Good atmosphere! To much work for only 72 hours. Good work!
happy30
30. Aug 2016 · 13:48 UTC
I wasnt sure what to do after the binary lock, but i liked the enviroment :)
darthbox1
30. Aug 2016 · 14:00 UTC
Very cool and inventive game. The graphics are quite nice!
nicso
30. Aug 2016 · 14:00 UTC
Got stuck on egypt too, light buttons didn't came back :(
Nice entry tho (not sure if prehistoric mens where aware of binary counting)
Voices sounds pretty cool for vocal synthesis ^^
ValiaP
30. Aug 2016 · 14:33 UTC
Honestly it's impressive for 72 hours. I enjoy the story. The scene was build up properly. And the second puzzle was fun -- binary lock and the LD36,that's a cool idea.:D I really enjoy the open gate animation. It reminds me of golden age sci-fi. Another detail I really enjoyed was that most decorations have descriptions, which made the mood more vivid. But I suck on the Egypt level. I pressed the light buttons and they just disappeared.
frix360
30. Aug 2016 · 14:57 UTC
Very nice games. Puzzles are quite hard and that is nice :). Graphics look great too. Good job.
🎤 yotam180
30. Aug 2016 · 15:14 UTC
To everyone who were complaining about the egypt level - I'm not at home now, but when I get back I'll fix it ASAP. Thanks for all the comments!
Findor
30. Aug 2016 · 18:44 UTC
Even didn;t finieshed, but still good :) I think you guys should continue it, definitelly :)
MaximumIllusion
30. Aug 2016 · 18:48 UTC
The game is great, but too hard for my brain. I could not wrap my head around the egyptian level. I loved the voice acting tho. That cold voice of the women was really fun to listen to also the limited gameplay mechanics were used really well. Graphics are in the category of programmer art.
MaximumIllusion
30. Aug 2016 · 19:06 UTC
It's nice buddy, even tho we don't have to much time to make everything, we encounterd the same problem but we managed to finish everything just on the last minute, i like the game, it's not to easy, that's a very good point right there!!
JK5000
30. Aug 2016 · 19:57 UTC
You asked med way I would place the stones on the third and sixth places. It is because 36 contains the numbers three and sixth. Is it not more logic to use then using binary numbers? I think binary numbers is logic for programmers, but not so much for none programmers.
catchthefloaty
30. Aug 2016 · 20:26 UTC
great puzzle game. love to see more
TerraCottaFrog
30. Aug 2016 · 20:43 UTC
Cool game, love the implementation of dialogue. Very interesting puzzles.

The controls locking until the end of a step made it a little frustrating at times, however.
metalhaze
30. Aug 2016 · 20:59 UTC
First off i want to say that the game was great, the puzzles were hard and the story was engaging. It was a nice touch to have voice acting.

When I say the puzzles were hard it's an understatement i literally had no idea what to do on some levels and I only made it through the cave with trial and error. If not for the comments section i do not think i would have been able to complete the game.

Otherwise i had fun stretching my brain capabilities, great work!
MonsieurDuc
30. Aug 2016 · 21:25 UTC
nice one dude keep going :) !!
Whitepot Studios
30. Aug 2016 · 21:46 UTC
I was doing the binary lock left-to-right rather than right-to-left - didn't realise until I came to your comment! Argh. Great music though and I liked the text-to-speech stuff.

- Vicky
robochris
30. Aug 2016 · 21:50 UTC
Pretty fun little game. Would play more if they had more time.
BTW i completely guess the sun dial symbols. Didnt understand what the thing on the wall meant
colozz
30. Aug 2016 · 22:40 UTC
YOU WON!


The first puzzle was funny to solve!
The second lead us to some interrogations (is the answer 5 or 6?), the last one just consisted in finding the glasses

Fun to play though, the voices made us laugh ;)
kyyninen
31. Aug 2016 · 12:38 UTC
Synth-voice acting was a nice touch. To be completely honest I solved most puzzles by reading the comments here and brute-forcing, only in the middle ages I had tiny inkling of what I should be doing. That's mostly about me being bad at puzzles so don't worry about it :)

One thing of note: I first played this game with quality set to Fastest, which made textures so blurry that reading them was impossible. You should probably set texture resolution to full on all quality settings or have fewer of them to begin with.
Culturebosh_games
31. Aug 2016 · 17:53 UTC
Great job - this was a fun game with some nice brain teasers. The music was really nice and fitted each of the rooms. The main lab had really nice atmospheric sounds - it was a shame that the other levels didn't seem to have as much love.

The atmosphere was the true winner - the half hints and story discussion were all compelling for something so short.

I also struggled with the second level! Only got it when I read your spoiler. I did guess that it was something to do with the magazine, but the leap to binary was too far for me to make by myself.

Enjoyed the other puzzles. The letter block placement was infuriating, but I actually really enjoyed that puzzle - it gave me a sense of achievement!

Great game, good job.
Elit3dGaming
31. Aug 2016 · 21:15 UTC
Puzzles are very challenging, had to read the spoilers as I was struggling. Great game however and very relaxing to play as the music is soothing.
AWOL
01. Sep 2016 · 01:29 UTC
very Nice! this is up there in the ranks. Kinda like portal but not like portal, lol.
Ebriosus
01. Sep 2016 · 05:05 UTC
Pretty cool game! The Microsoft Sam and Mary voices were a hilarious touch. The stone age puzzle really confused me and had to look up one of the comments here to solve it, but the other puzzles were done quite well.

Keep it up!
Lênon Kramer
01. Sep 2016 · 12:36 UTC
Very nice game and atmosphere.

But you lied to us! You said that the puzzles become harder as one progress in the game, but it is the contrary: the stone age one is by far the hardest, and the middle age one is too easy. :P

Anyway, good game overall, for a jam. Hope to see it continued. :D

About your comment on my game (Lost Earth), yeah, it could've been a compo, but I started working on it only Sunday by noon, because of job. It took me 30 hours to build it. Also, it's a Jam entry because I used music made by my friend (it's on the description).
cubotrox_toni
01. Sep 2016 · 13:01 UTC
Very good graphics for 72h dev, and puzzles are interesting. Good work man
🎤 yotam180
01. Sep 2016 · 14:57 UTC
@Lênon Kramer To be honest, we were sure that people will easily (or at least with a small effort) solve the binary lock, then the Egypt level will be hard, and the medieval level will be a bit tricky but easier.
Didn't know how hard the cave level would be!
CyberStarLight
02. Sep 2016 · 15:30 UTC
Nice to see other Israelis in the competition :)

Nice models and textures!
You guys did good work on the levels and the puzzles were really smart in the way they were constructed, I did manage to get to the end.

I think you managed to create quite a lot, maybe expecting to make another 3 levels on top of that was a bit too much, so you shouldn't feel like you made too little.

The portal reminded me a bit of stargate, for obvious reasons XD

Well done on all your work.
Jupiter_Hadley
08. Sep 2016 · 18:17 UTC
Interesting game! I included it in my compilation video series of Ludum Dare 36, if you’d like to take a look :) https://youtu.be/66O503w0cEI
alfie275
15. Sep 2016 · 22:19 UTC
Hey, fun game, though the Egypt puzzle stumped me for a while and I think I got it accidentally as I didn't figure out the number sequence things.

You can see my playthrough here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yese3tXZX38