LudumData

The Shadows by KevinWorkman

[raw]
made by KevinWorkman for LD26 (JAM)
I'm entering this into the jam because I used public domain sounds and music from freesound.

The game is (hopefully) a creepy, atmospheric, minimalistic recreation of what it's like to suffer from insomnia and see shadow people (which are a real phenomenon, check out the description at the game's homepage!).

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You suffer from severe insomnia.
You close your eyes, but the shadows come.
You hear them as they scuttle.. closer.

Open your eyes and the shadows fade.
Keep them closed and be devoured.

Fall asleep to escape this waking nightmare.
(Defeat 14 shadows to win)


Controls: Press the correct key when prompted. Do so quickly, or the shadows will devour you.
M to mute, but I highly recommend keeping the sound on.

Thanks for playing!

(And yes, there is a potato in this game!)
Homepage http://staticvoidgames.com/play/?game=shadows
Applet http://staticvoidgames.com/play/?game=shadows&view=applet
Webstart http://staticvoidgames.com/play/?game=shadows&view=webstart
Source http://staticvoidgames.com/play/?game=shadows&view=source
Shadow People http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_people
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview&uid=5364

Ratings

Coolness 26% 1775
Overall(Jam) 2.94 340
Audio(Jam) 3.11 204
Fun(Jam) 2.29 470
Graphics(Jam) 2.94 341
Innovation(Jam) 3.28 175
Mood(Jam) 3.53 104
Theme(Jam) 3.22 283

Feedback

Jonny D
30. Apr 2013 · 13:56 UTC
Yeah, pretty creepy. Did I just play a typing tutor? :) Well, the last couple of shadows are tough and you have to press a lot of buttons to close your eyes each time, which gets annoying. At least button mashing works!
Hayawi
30. Apr 2013 · 21:19 UTC
Nice game, and although horror games are not my cup of tea, this was a nice change from platformers
Norritt42
30. Apr 2013 · 21:42 UTC
Good game! Scary! Kind of annoying when you have to restart all over. But that fits the game so don't change it. I did only manged to get to 3. Very innovative.
magnpeas
30. Apr 2013 · 23:53 UTC
Niiiiice and spooky!
MaxSzlagor
01. May 2013 · 19:46 UTC
Interesting idea. If you could host it in a way that didn't require installing multiple files that would be even better. Thank you for sharing!
recursive frog
02. May 2013 · 05:38 UTC
My one suggestion would be that it would have been even better if the room had some decorations, nooks, or crannies such that the shadow creatures could be plausibly interpreted by a mind in dream-state from the arrangement of objects.
KEFIR
05. May 2013 · 17:41 UTC
Concept is really interesting. Creepy indeed, but I think you should add some more scary sounds :)
Yezu
12. May 2013 · 15:32 UTC
The last two shadows are very difficult.
It'd put less of them in total, I got very sleepy through the first part of the game :P
RawBits
17. May 2013 · 18:41 UTC
I love this one! The graphics are bad on my card and I'm a bad typer though. :)

Insomnia is the best thing a programmer can get from life!