LudumData

illumynate by Zillix

[raw]
made by Zillix for LD18 (COMPO)
aim the flashlight with the mouse
WASD to move
SPACE toggles flashlight
R forces a respawn
X to start game, and to close messages

Press C to skip the intro story

Notes:
Keep in mind that the flashlight effects last a while after you turn it off- sometimes, it more effective to flick it on/off than to keep it on.

Also, there's only 1 ending to the game. Don't get confused!


This was my first LD, and I had a lot of fun! I used it to learn how to use flixel and flashDevelop.


I liked the idea of making a game where the player couldn't directly kill anything. Explore, play the game, and have fun!



I'm happy with how much I got done in 48 hours. I got enough sleep each night, and I even spent much of the second day at the Renaissance festival!

After having spent several hours optimizing my game for a better framerate, I was both elated and upset when I found out the the .swf runs much faster standalone than when tested from flashdevelop!

Windows http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4586463/illumynate.swf
Web http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4586463/illumynate.swf
Source http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4586463/illumynate.zip
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-18/?action=preview&uid=2460

Ratings

Coolness 21% 27
Overall 3.60 16
Audio 1.50 127
Community 2.88 79
Fun 3.28 33
Graphics 3.44 44
Humor 2.60 51
Innovation 3.84 11
Theme 3.52 61

Feedback

drZool
22. Aug 2010 · 22:34 UTC
I like the ending :)
vitae
22. Aug 2010 · 22:47 UTC
The creatures that thirst for my blood made the game frustrating, often so many would gang me that I couldn't kill them all.
jakkarth
23. Aug 2010 · 07:22 UTC
The notes were a great comedic touch and helped add depth to the game. Once I realized I could move with wasd in addition to arrow keys, it made it much easier to shine the flashlight around with the mouse. At the end (I assume), I got trapped in a room with some giant thing that ran into a corner and got stuck there. I couldn't kill it with light or escape from the room, not sure if that was a bug or lack of imagination on my part, or the intended result. Anyway, nice job!
Meep
23. Aug 2010 · 16:07 UTC
A very enjoyable game. =) The little story along with it added to the effect. Great work!
Switchbreak
23. Aug 2010 · 17:30 UTC
Loved the idea. The game is extremely frantic - the enemies seem to spawn faster than I can scare them away, and that damn battery flashlight is way too short. I love the story of it, feels Lovecraftian in a way. The ending is great.
HybridMind
23. Aug 2010 · 21:11 UTC
Pretty cool and fun idea. I like the story elements that are dropped in over time via the notes. I played for quite awhile but didn't reach the end because of a bug that happened with some floating gas bag enemies that made my character disappear and even the force R respawn wouldn't work and my flashlight was stuck on.

I also found the enemies respawned way too quickly and the easy respawn of my player upon death made death meaningless and the swarms of enemies frustrating more than scary. If I would change anything it would be this risk/reward and enemy spawn rate... it really kills the mood when you send a scorpion enemy into a spike wall only to have them reappear within a second and kill you.
🎤 Zillix
23. Aug 2010 · 22:05 UTC
Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad that the story seems to be enjoyable.


@HybridMind- Thanks a lot for the specificity of the crash bug report! It's fixed now. I hope you can play through to the end (it's a really short game), since in my opinion, the ending is the best part =P
Danik
24. Aug 2010 · 11:02 UTC
Good game, great depth to the story for an ld game.
bluescrn
26. Aug 2010 · 12:33 UTC
Very nicely presented, nice ideas - I found it very hard to play, though - the flashlight lasts under a second on a full charge, and starts to fade out at 50%? (Was that as intended, or is there a framerate/timestep bug there?)
🎤 Zillix
26. Aug 2010 · 14:32 UTC
The flashlight wasn't intended to be used extensively. I didn't make that very clear, but the best way to use it is only for split seconds at a time. That being said, I will approximately double the flashlight life in the post-compo version, to make the experience less frustrating.
🎤 Zillix
26. Aug 2010 · 14:34 UTC
Scratch that- I just checked, and on my computer it lasts for approximately 2.5 second. There must be a timestep bug- I'll address this to make the game more playable. Thanks for the feedback!
localcoder
27. Aug 2010 · 02:17 UTC
I got the creature at the end stuck in a corner (after I shined the light at it), and wasn't sure what was meant to happen. Right up until that glitch, though, I thought the ending was very good - I felt a lot of suspense in the final area.
mwest
27. Aug 2010 · 14:35 UTC
Probably the most atmospheric game I've played so far this compo! I agree that it was a bit too easy and the ending was a bit confusing... got the monster stuck in the corner and then wasn't sure what to do - did get the ending screen eventually after a few minutes .

Overall a very nice effort - well done!
JDruid
27. Aug 2010 · 17:17 UTC
I blew up the creature, but didn't find any kind of an ending here. Spent a couple of minutes finding the rest of the batteries after that. Too bad really if I missed something.
🎤 Zillix
27. Aug 2010 · 18:16 UTC
That is quite unfortunately, because you definitely did miss something! I'm impressed with your accomplishment, though.
🎤 Zillix
27. Aug 2010 · 19:10 UTC
You failed to fail, so to speak.
pekuja
30. Aug 2010 · 21:50 UTC
I thought this was a pretty cool take on the theme. What I found weird was that I could actually see worse when I was using the flashlight, but then that might actually be somewhat realistic because of how human eyes work. I was also bummed out by the unbeatable "end boss" (unless I missed something), but the mood of the game was great and the "end boss" sequence was unsettling. I did manage to get it stuck in a corner though where it couldn't hurt me. Then I had to somehow get it unstuck to finish the game.
Basic
01. Sep 2010 · 08:17 UTC
That was pretty fun, well done.
Entar
01. Sep 2010 · 19:24 UTC
Weird ending. Good use of the theme, simple but effective game mechanic. Would love to see this with some hi-res graphics and some creepy sound effects and music.