John by Diptoman
"John" is a game about holding on to memories.
All assets created within the 72 hour stretch.
All assets created within the 72 hour stretch.
| Web (Dropbox) | https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/130451846/John/index.html |
| GameJolt (Web/Windows) | http://gamejolt.com/games/other/john/25786/ |
| Original URL | https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-29/?action=preview&uid=25325 |
Ratings
| Coolness | 73% | 3 |
| Overall(Jam) | 4.18 | 15 |
| Audio(Jam) | 4.13 | 24 |
| Fun(Jam) | 3.65 | 68 |
| Graphics(Jam) | 4.54 | 25 |
| Humor(Jam) | 2.29 | 485 |
| Innovation(Jam) | 3.94 | 32 |
| Mood(Jam) | 4.55 | 4 |
| Theme(Jam) | 3.65 | 133 |
@Atta: There are memories beneath the surface. :P
I love the interaction between the nightmares, and the good and bad memories - I love how the gameplay just augments the point. I love how the dream graphics fill your screen and make it hard/impossible to avoid the nightmares - it is a deep game without taking itself too seriously. Really fantastic entry.
@j_peeba: Yeah, adding more variety was the initial plan and probably would have been there had it not been messed up by my router malfunctioning and me catching a fever on the 3rd day. :| Also they're not totally randomly moving, they target the player y'know.
Very nice work !
Fantastic job
The voiceover at the beginning seemed like some sort of processing needed to be done to it, or the microphone was low-quality--though the VA was speaking very distinctly and gave a good performance, the sounds themselves blurred together a little and sounded "fuzzy" even though my speakers were cranked pretty high.
I was playing the web version, as well, and despite building my computer recently and having a decent connection, it froze up quite a few times when I was by the edge of the screen and catching a memory. That threw me a bit on mood, but as I would have given you 6 stars (that voice acting! those graphics!) you're doing well anyway.
Otherwise, great game. I especially enjoyed the beginning voiceover, which added a lot to the game--it was short, to the point, emotive, and a nuanced performance... and there were some moments, when I would pick up a lot of positive and negative memories at the same time, which were very emotionally striking. A quick succession of images, flickering one after another, and then one would stay longer, like a burning imprint.
I liked that there was no way to attack--just to defend. Great job.
@VictoryGarden: The game probably just lost focus and hence froze since you (possibly) clicked outside. :| And yeah, that was raw voice, needed processing. But thanks a ton for the in-depth comment!
Graphics and sounds were great! Man, that music... Just awesome.
But I have some complaints about the controls... I'm not really a fun of mouse controlled game in which you follow the mouse with a static camera. You see, since the action is contained only inside the screen(in this case, the canvas) when you move the mouse outside the screen too often things get troublesome. If I can't dash nor repel properly right by the border, because I would end up clicking outside the screen. And when I was moving near the border while repelling, my mouse accidentally got out of the screen and called the right button menu... (this totally screwed a run)
There's also the problem that if you move the mouse outside the screen, you'll be stuck in place. It really shouldn't follow me outside, but it could follow the mouse while respecting the constraints...
Still, this was a great game. Those things got in my way just a few times... It's a pretty good game!