You Must Escape by GertJohnny
You awake in complete darkness. You have no memory of who you are or how you got there. You know only one thing: You must escape.
| Play (Web) | http://rac7.com/YouMustEscape/ |
| Source | http://rac7.com/YouMustEscape/YMEsrc.zip |
| Original URL | https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview&uid=22774 |
Ratings
| Coolness | 100% | 1 |
| Overall | 4.36 | 2 |
| Audio | 3.98 | 26 |
| Fun | 3.90 | 28 |
| Graphics | 3.94 | 94 |
| Humor | 2.18 | 594 |
| Innovation | 4.61 | 2 |
| Mood | 4.45 | 6 |
| Theme | 4.57 | 3 |
Haha, awesome game, love the visual representation of the sounds. All round nice work!
I couldn't work out the level where I started was surrounded by enemies and couldn't find a way out. Not sure what level though, the game is *that* minimalistic :P.
Congratulations !
On that subject, I cannot beat the tiny level where you are surrounded by monsters.
Brillant idea, totally minimalist, and really fun to play. I enjoy every level, every nice touch of leveldesign you put. The gameplay is really pure, but it fits the theme, and it is kind of awesome. Thanks for an amazing game!
While there's not a lot of audio, what you made was very professional sounding to have been done in the time.
1. The tutorial levels seemed very pedantic and not very much in line with the theme of minimalism. The central mechanics are pure enough to be self evident as soon as the player knows which buttons to press, and the text detracts from the potential of exploratory gameplay that entries like Orbfuscated excel at. By the same token, I think the escape narrative could have been conveyed more effectively using only sounds and graphics.
2. The controls felt off during the entire time I played the game. The movement speed felt awkward and the footstep sound didn't mesh well with the movement distance. The sneak mechanic was aggravating because I kept getting trapped in walls. The sneak movement speed was especially frustrating. On some of the last levels, I tediously moved around until I thought I was at the other side of the level only to realize that I was only halfway through it. The lack of feedback was frustrating, and making up for it by continuously tapping the space bar lightly was tedious. I also had no sense of my own size and that of the enemies. The visuals made me feel like a point source, but running into traps and enemies convinced me that I had a non-zero radius.
3. The level completion sound felt really great, but the accompanying visual animation was almost-but-not-quite a beautiful animation that illuminated the entire room, which I think would have greatly enhanced the experience of getting to the next level.
Overall, great work, and I'm really excited to see what you make in the future.
I too would rather have no tutorial, but after some playtesting it became obvious certain people need a push in the right direction. Sometimes a big push, hence the explicitness. I'd much rather have a less minimal tutorial than a more minimal audience.
Regarding your second point, it sounds like I've accurately modeled the experience of moving around in a dark, unfamiliar space. One of the core parts of the game is that all of your information is imperfect. Behind the scenes everything is done with points and rectangles, but you'll only ever see rough approximations of where walls, traps and monsters are, because uncertainty made the game a lot more fun. That said, I totally agree the controls and speeds can be improved, but a lot of what you mention is intentional.
I really appreciate the feedback, thanks for playing!
"I too would rather have no tutorial, but after some playtesting it became obvious certain people need a push in the right direction. Sometimes a big push, hence the explicitness. I'd much rather have a less minimal tutorial than a more minimal audience."
That's interesting. I still think you could tone the invasiveness of the tutorial down without losing your audience; lots of successful games get by with more minimal tutorials. It all comes down to playtesting, though, and there isn't really enough time to make and test enough iterations over the course of LD, especially the 48-hour version, to create a perfectly scaled tutorial.
"Regarding your second point, it sounds like I've accurately modeled the experience of moving around in a dark, unfamiliar space. One of the core parts of the game is that all of your information is imperfect. Behind the scenes everything is done with points and rectangles, but you'll only ever see rough approximations of where walls, traps and monsters are, because uncertainty made the game a lot more fun."
I totally get that, but even in a dark environment, you have a sense of your own body matrix and know approximately what your step size is. You can determine the distance you cover based on how many steps you take and can touch objects to sense how far away they are. If I were blindfolded, I might run into a wall, but I certainly wouldn't continuously walk into it. The sense of uncertainty worked really well for me in some cases, but in others my emotions bordered on frustration with the controls rather than tension directed toward my situation.
Totally agree. One of the bigger flaws in the 48H version is how walking into walls is handled. The continuous footsteps were left in to cause less confusion, as it's much easier to see that you're not moving by seeing identical footstep locations. Having the footsteps disappear almost made it feel as though you've lost keyboard focus, especially if you catch an edge going around a corner. A lot of what made it into the 48H version was never fully iterated on due to time constraints, so I completely agree certain tunings are less than ideal.
btw GOTY imho. Awesome work!
I just love it!!