Captain Robert by koe415

[raw]
made by koe415 for LD27 (COMPO)
Control Robert as he explores a derelict, seemingly abandoned ship. Darkness and empty halls are everywhere. See if you can figure out the fate of the crew and if it's not too late to avoid a similar fate. Perhaps not everything is as it seems here.

Captain Robert is a moody exploration game with a heavy focus on the setting and the story being told, similar to old school metroid games. I tried to spend a lot of time on the backstory and layout of the ship itself.

The controls are:
Arrow keys for movement/jumping.
X to interact with the world (doors, picking up items, reading things)
C to use any special item you may or may not pick up.

As this was my first LD, I may have tried to do too much with this submission. I am happy with how it turned out (that I finished it at all amazes me) and I now know not to try to learn a language by making my first game as large in scope as this was. Forgive me if you look at that the source. I think a slight wind will knock over my whole game.

Please let me know what you guys think. Any criticism is welcome. This was a lot of fun. It's definitely not going to be the last LD for me. Cheers!

Code: Flixel with FlashDevelop
Graphics: Photoshop, MS Paint
Sound: Audacity, sfxr, Reaper
DAME was used for the level creation portion.

Ratings

Coolness 75% 2
Overall 3.63 112
Audio 2.98 302
Fun 3.35 231
Graphics 3.49 235
Humor 1.94 750
Innovation 2.76 714
Mood 3.89 30
Theme 1.48 1185

Feedback

ratalaika
26. Aug 2013 · 09:34 UTC
The map is great, but I do not understand how you fit the theme in the game :S
Aaants
26. Aug 2013 · 10:23 UTC
I missed the theme in the game but never mind that, it's great anyway. You've packed a huge amount of interesting content in, somehow. Good work :)
01010111
26. Aug 2013 · 19:35 UTC
Wow, this is one of my favorites so far. The map is awesome! I loved the story, the ending, it was great. I would have loved a minimap towards the end, even though the map was very easy to traverse when the game starts. Also, Hi.
coreym1988
26. Aug 2013 · 21:12 UTC
Wow, really cool game! The level design was excellent.
tacograveyard
26. Aug 2013 · 23:33 UTC
I ended up outside of the map and wandered around for a bit. "Hi" back at you ;)
Nerlin
27. Aug 2013 · 06:42 UTC
Great job. I like level graphics. But true, the theme of challenge is untouched.
zillix
27. Aug 2013 · 06:45 UTC
fantastic exposition and presentation! loved it.
timtipgames
27. Aug 2013 · 07:00 UTC
Why oh why did you leave me with that ending :(
I enjoyed the game a lot though. I also liked how you structured the ship so you wouldn't get lost too much while searching. Would love to see a picture of the overall ship layout :)
loolpolo
27. Aug 2013 · 07:10 UTC
Hi to you too, hahaha. Well it's a great game, good story and excellent characters, but i think it bugged at the end, when I open the door of the storage the game just reset, was that the true ending? well, never the less it was pretty fun. =D
Zephyr89
27. Aug 2013 · 07:16 UTC
Wow. That was the best story in a ludum dare game I've seen. I wish i could give 10 stars for the mood, perfect! Nice theme use " this creature has a gestation time of 10 seconds ".
Larzan
27. Aug 2013 · 14:08 UTC
Wow, very complex map design, like it. Nice grafix, a bit too much dialog maybe...
Good game.
🎤 koe415
27. Aug 2013 · 20:27 UTC
Hey everyone. First of all, thanks for playing the game and all the comments and criticism. I'm taking all this stuff to heart. It really means a lot to me.

Sorry to leave you guys with that ending. Given a little more time, it would be more clear what exactly happened in those final moments. If I make an extended version of this game, that's something I'm definitely going to revisit. At least it will be more clear that that is indeed the ending. And the game really needs a map or guider later in the second half of it.

As for the dialogue and it's length, I really didn't have much of a choice as the mood and atmosphere were the main aspects developing well with the game. At least I kept the critical path dialogue somewhat reasonable :)

If anyone's interested in my thoughts on how the game turned out, check out the post-mortem below:
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2013/08/26/post-mortem-captain-robert/
Jason
28. Aug 2013 · 14:08 UTC
Great job overall except for the theme. Too bad you didn't have time to work that in, oh and a sprite for the main character :)

It was a nice change of pace to play a story driven game and explore the ship.
Jason
28. Aug 2013 · 14:11 UTC
Oh forgot to mention, I think you did a great job of the game mechanics, jumping, etc felt spot on. And I loved the low gravity effect you could toggle.
namrog84
29. Aug 2013 · 07:14 UTC
Loved the art, would have preferred to jump up 1 extra block than only the 1? +1 for the lighting

Good control, gameplay, everything was pretty good
immanuela
29. Aug 2013 · 07:20 UTC
I like the idea of being able to interact with objects, not just pick them up by running over them! The mood was great, as others have said :)
Tifu
29. Aug 2013 · 14:38 UTC
This is really great, really enjoyed the atmosphere and story and the level arts look really good. Personally I wouldn't have turned the lights on at the start, because the moody lighting at the start of the game looked pretty great :D Shame the theme is only in the plot, not anywhere present in gameplay, it seems.
I think the ending is pretty good as is, left kind of open to interp.
Is it possible to get the message in the black area that you can see from the bottom left of the greenhouse? I found a few vents, but none seemed to lead to there =/
PapyGaragos
29. Aug 2013 · 22:03 UTC
Not sure if this is a bug; but in the room with the log ADY4 you can jump deactivate gravity and jump over the roof. Same in the room bith BUT1
Reyn
30. Aug 2013 · 06:35 UTC
Very well done. You keep giving the player the next page at the right time, like a well timed joke. I loved the ending, anything else might have ended up like the end of lord of the rings (it felt like it would never end).
Toshiro
31. Aug 2013 · 09:53 UTC
Cool cool cool.
Just, I think the dialogue are tooo long, or at least, for me. Good work ! :)
zatyka
31. Aug 2013 · 14:35 UTC
The theme was missing, but otherwise, you have a very rich game. Very nicely done! I loved the story, the mechanics, the graphics, and the sound. Quite an accomplishment!
Sink
31. Aug 2013 · 14:38 UTC
This game was amazing! I just couldn't really see where the theme fit in. I loved it as a game though, were mysterious and the mood was absolutely amazing! I liked the story and the games graphics were simplistic and really good looking.
rxi
31. Aug 2013 · 15:32 UTC
It looks like you and I went for quite similar takes. In fact, I think nearly your entire description of your game would be applicable to mine! Have a look at my entry (click my name) to see what I mean.

I quite liked your visual style, I loved the variation in the colours of the different parts of the ship. The level felt really well designed and quite claustrophobic in a good way -- proportionally realistic in relation to the size of the player. I liked the variety of music, it was simple, but it really set the mood when it changed at different points.

There was a lot of dialogue but it all flowed well. The story was enjoyable. Overall a really nice job.
fdevant
04. Sep 2013 · 21:56 UTC
Nice!
Soundless_dev
05. Sep 2013 · 00:44 UTC
Fantastic story, compelling gameplay. dissatisfying ending 3:
loved it nonetheless. But I couldn't see the theme anywhere.
lesterpig
05. Sep 2013 · 08:38 UTC
A white rectangle as a hero, why not ?
Don't fit with the theme, and jump is really frustrating.

However, graphics and sounds are really nice ! Good work.
naufr4g0
05. Sep 2013 · 18:49 UTC
Yeah I love 8x8 tiles! :) Map is really big and exploring it takes a very long time.
Story is interesting and well-written.
I'd like a less squared character, but that's not necessarily a lack.
urth
07. Sep 2013 · 18:47 UTC
Amazing game. Too bad it has nothing related to the theme except the 10.3 sec mention.
xhunterko
13. Sep 2013 · 10:30 UTC
The hell did you make something creepy and why did I play this before bed! Still though, lost a couple points on original story there. Should have seen the ending coming. Was disappointing when it did happen. Despite the cliche', very neat atmosphere!
Esenti
14. Sep 2013 · 18:36 UTC
Amazing game. I kind of like the ending - leaves a lot to player's imagination.
Keith Evans
14. Sep 2013 · 20:55 UTC
Great mood and really dig the background tiles. Good Job. Not totally sure how it fits the theme.