Loneliness by Saering

[raw]
made by Saering for LD 42 (JAM)

title 1920x1080.jpg

Loneliness is our entry for Ludum Dare #42 and our second Ludum Dare game. We were 4 working during the 72 hours.

Loneliness is a first person immersive game where you're walking through a motel. We were not really inspired by the theme to be honest, and because we didn't want to create a game with a basic idea, we decided to create a game from the idea that inspired us the most.

We eventually made a game that we like and that allowed each one of us to learn things and experiment (which is great since we are students and want to keep on learning and discovering things in our main skill areas). And after all, game jams are also made to have fun and learn, aren't they ? :D

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/!\ Due to the short development time we did not really optimize the game and there are some issues with the web version. You can still experience it on your browser, it takes a few minutes to load but it works even if there are some shaders missing and other little problems like that, but don't hesitate to download it on your computer for a much better outcome ! :) Thanks for your understanding ! /!\

Hope you guys will like the game, feel free to tell us what you think and we will gladly try your games ! Cheers !

Ratings

Overall 593th 3.387⭐ 77🧑‍⚖️
Fun 968th 2.842⭐ 75🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 1180th 2.411⭐ 75🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1251th 2.128⭐ 76🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 210th 4.059⭐ 78🧑‍⚖️
Audio 65th 3.987⭐ 77🧑‍⚖️
Mood 50th 4.087⭐ 77🧑‍⚖️
Given 78🗳️ 37🗨️

Feedback

limejuice123
13. Aug 2018 · 20:28 UTC
Excellent and genuinely creepy, well done! Especially on the knocking sound, on my headphones I genuinely thought someone was knocking on my door, really made me jump. I would question, however: am I intentionally not allowed to walk forwards? Or is that a bug?
🎤 Saering
13. Aug 2018 · 20:35 UTC
Thanks a lot for your early feedback :)
What do you mean by not being allowed to walk forwards ?
N00ByPaPa
13. Aug 2018 · 21:18 UTC
Dudes, I've almost felt of my chair, scary! The sound ambiance did the job. Moving forward is clunky and slow, hopefully I can strafe jump xD
DrAluminium
13. Aug 2018 · 22:51 UTC
I'm also not able to walk forwards :( ((On WebGL Build, I did not try the download yet)

//Edit: Movement does not work on WebGL & Windows Build using WASD, only S and D Work. But arrow keys work.
🎤 Saering
13. Aug 2018 · 22:54 UTC
We will make a very little update tomorrow to make the game more clear and avoid people getting stuck :) Hope you will try again when this will be done !
🎤 Saering
13. Aug 2018 · 23:05 UTC
@draluminium I guess that's because we are french and we made the game for AZERTY keyboards and not for QWERTY. I'm glad you can still play with arrow keys but I'll work on this issue !
leadphalanx
14. Aug 2018 · 01:56 UTC
Creepy! Had some random mouse jerks in the webGL build, but aside from that it went well
Valentin
14. Aug 2018 · 01:58 UTC
Thanks ;)
PacoChan
14. Aug 2018 · 02:09 UTC
Wow, that knock door sound was really well done. I catually thought someone knocked the door to my right! I was also confused about WASD not working, but yeah, arrow keys work fine. Great work!
Blurred Lines
14. Aug 2018 · 02:25 UTC
Graphics and audio was superb. I played this without any headphone but still the audio sounds awesome.
BTiers
14. Aug 2018 · 08:18 UTC
Awesome work! Really cool sound effects. Everything went well for me on the WebGL build!
Bredera
14. Aug 2018 · 08:22 UTC
Love the atmosphere in this game! awesome! like the graphics and the Audio is creepy. But next time make sure that pressing W moves us forward walking backwards was really weird haha.
Gaming Night
14. Aug 2018 · 08:23 UTC
This game gave me slender-like feelings :)
whoisninja
14. Aug 2018 · 09:38 UTC
I have no idea what I was doing. Screen was really dark and all I could see was lights. I didn't know what to do so I just kept walking. Yeah It felt lonely but didn't feel like I was running out of space.
Void Productions
14. Aug 2018 · 09:51 UTC
Really liked some parts of the game especially sound and graphics. This was similar to the one that we made in our very first attempt at making games.
incinious
14. Aug 2018 · 10:05 UTC
Very nice atmosphere, the knocking sound got me good :smile: Would recommend adding in support for WASD controls, makes it a bit difficult to move with arrows, and open doors with 'E'.

Good Job!
Shozou
14. Aug 2018 · 10:09 UTC
The graphics are really nice, did find some issues with walls tiling though. In rooms you can see through the thin gaps in them. There were some doors that you couldn't interact with but you could walk through them because they had no collider.

Audio is a strong point of this game too, but I wish there would be more game in this.
KirillR
14. Aug 2018 · 10:16 UTC
Beautiful design!
Valentin
14. Aug 2018 · 10:28 UTC
Thanks dudes ;)
🎤 Saering
14. Aug 2018 · 12:59 UTC
Thanks everyone :)
@incinious @bredera @pacochan This will be fixed in a few moments, in case you were wondering this is because we use ZQSD controls in France haha
DrAluminium
14. Aug 2018 · 13:50 UTC
@saering Ohhh thats why WASD did not work :D Thanks for replying :) I will try the Game again when we can play with WASD. Thanks for creating the Game :)
🎤 Saering
14. Aug 2018 · 13:58 UTC
@draluminium Normally it's fixed now ! Yeah that's a dumb mistake but the only people who tried my previous game had ZQSD keyboards so... XD and my first ludum dare game was playable with mouse haha
VPhyre
14. Aug 2018 · 16:23 UTC
I found a good start for a horror game (the audio is really well done), but I did not understand the concept of "Running out of space", so well applied in the game.
🎤 Saering
14. Aug 2018 · 17:13 UTC
@vphyre Yeah as I said in the description we were not inspired. Not an excuse though. We tried to follow the theme by spawning some walls that block the players, and reducing the floors size after each elevator :)
LoOoNeliEst
14. Aug 2018 · 17:32 UTC
you misspelled my name. but the game is fantastic, really. well, it doesnt really fit to the theme "running out of space". at least i didnt see it.

but the game overall is great
Sengi
14. Aug 2018 · 18:07 UTC
Running through the comments revealed me that not only I was impressed by the knocking sound, the worst part in my case is that there is nothing in my room on the right of me, except the cabinet, so yeah that was quite an experience)
Anyway, despite having a grey hair now, I'm really enjoyed your entry. Impressive work on assets, keep it up!)
Tednesday
14. Aug 2018 · 19:42 UTC
Had to wear the brown pants for this one.
digitaldude555
14. Aug 2018 · 19:55 UTC
I just knew there would be a jumpscare, I yelled out... Mood is a solid 5/5, graphics are great. In terms of theme, i'm not sure how it fits the theme at all to be honest. Good use of sounds to scare people lol.
Gurbx
14. Aug 2018 · 20:50 UTC
It looks super amazing and the mood is a solid 5 stars! I didn't realize I was playing a horror game at first, so I wasn't ready for the jump scare at all and it really got me :) Unfortunate that you didn't follow the theme, but a good game either way
🎤 Saering
14. Aug 2018 · 21:07 UTC
@digitaldude555 @gurbx Yup, I already explained this, that we were not inspired and everything and we eventually managed to add some features to stick a bit to the theme (that were of course not enough). We ended up our production creating a horror game and not a "running out of space" game haha, which is indeed unfortunate.

I'm still glad you both liked the atmosphere and had a great experience !
Donitz
14. Aug 2018 · 21:23 UTC
Whelp! Well you got me right in the stomach. It's quite impressive that you managed to make such an atmospheric horror game in just a few days. Very good job indeed!

I had some random extreme slow downs when looking in certain direcitons. Forward rendering + many light sources perhaps?
Metju
14. Aug 2018 · 21:33 UTC
I'm always up for a horror game and this is no exception! It has a creepy vibe and the I gotta admit, the jumpscares made me twitch a little. The only thing that bugged me was the mouse sensitivity which was too high, at least for me.
🎤 Saering
14. Aug 2018 · 21:39 UTC
@donitz Thanks! Yes probably, as I explained in the description we didn't had time for optimization so the web version can sometimes slow down, and even the windows one actually but with less risk.

@metju Did you play on the web version ? I got the feeling that the web version has a higher mouse sensitivity but I don't really know why (not used to Unity web builds :p). I'm happy you liked the game!
Metju
14. Aug 2018 · 21:42 UTC
@saering Yep, I was playing the web version so that's why my sensitivity was going crazy lol.
Bismark
14. Aug 2018 · 21:48 UTC
Sorry, but i think i did it in my pants ... more than once :-)
frostByte4k
14. Aug 2018 · 22:08 UTC
There were a few bugs, one I can't turn in one direction forever it will stop you after about 360 degrees. and there were some visual bugs here and there to. Also I didn't know what I was supposed to do in the game and I didn't feel like i accomplished anything by the end of it. The game was fun enough to keep me playing till the end but it was missing something. any way good job.
Cedric Fey
14. Aug 2018 · 22:19 UTC
Yep you got me scared alright. I wish there would be a bit more to do. Even some red herring or some lore.
🎤 Saering
14. Aug 2018 · 22:47 UTC
@frostbyte4k Sorry for the bug then, apparently you're the first one to have it. And yes you're right, we wanted to add some other things but we were short on time and that would be cheating adding new features after the 72 hours :p

@cedric-fey Thanks for playing and your feedback !
HYPRGLOO
14. Aug 2018 · 23:15 UTC
The creepy ambiance was very well done, I think a few more story elements would have helped push the gameplay forwards. I encountered a bug where I was able to walk out of the map by backing through the rear wall of the second elevator, but the tense atmosphere up to that point was well constructed!
Alexey Tarabrin
15. Aug 2018 · 14:32 UTC
Scared at first knock xD
NORRIMO
15. Aug 2018 · 14:48 UTC
Hey I wanted to play your game in the browser because your game is no longer available in the dropbox but it lags too strong so that I couldn't enjoy it enough to get to end. Can you please upload your game on dropbox again? I really want to play it. :D
🎤 Saering
15. Aug 2018 · 14:53 UTC
@norrimo Doing it right now ! I'll tell you when it's done :)
ZephyrExtreme
15. Aug 2018 · 14:53 UTC
Wow! Awesome gameplay mechanics, impressive visuals! Kudos
🎤 Saering
15. Aug 2018 · 15:01 UTC
@norrimo Is it good now ?

@zephyrextreme Thanks a lot :)
Jorge-Baptista
15. Aug 2018 · 15:02 UTC
Very nice! That scare-jump got me every time! Graphics were great and so was sound and the dark atmosphere and mood was very well integrated but I feel gameplay was a bit tedious after a while since you just keep on moving onward until you go back to elevator and repeat until you finish. But overall it was very nice! Good job :)
S_London_BY
15. Aug 2018 · 15:22 UTC
ten brown panties out of ten )))))
Bartosz
15. Aug 2018 · 15:39 UTC
Omg. I thought that someone is nocking to my window... on second floor!! Scarejumps got me a little bit, but unfortunately after taking elevator i experienced some weird graphical issues with white blobs blocking my view :(
I was using desktop version.

Good entry, but as you mentioned - i don't feel theme here and there are too much chromatic abberation effect for me, but i enjoyed it in the end :)
Nufflee
15. Aug 2018 · 18:40 UTC
Wow, that first jump scare made me ALT + F4... I'm not made for horror games!! I liked the graphics and the atmosphere a lot! Good job even though I didn't get to play most of the game haha.
Flower
15. Aug 2018 · 20:06 UTC
Very interesting game)
I really like the athmosphere, graphics are really nice)
Wahooney
15. Aug 2018 · 20:59 UTC
The game looks great, but unfortunately I wasn't drawn enough to play for more than a few minutes. I saw slenderman twice and that was fun, but the game needs a bit more of a driving force, ie. some sort of goal besides just walking and opening doors, if there was something to discover in the rooms (like being able to read the notes, etc. [can you read the notes? I couldn't :shrug: ) it would have had more holding power.

I know it may seem that I'm being overly hard on the game, but I do feel there's a lot of untapped potential in here and I hope you explore this idea further.
🎤 Saering
15. Aug 2018 · 21:26 UTC
@wahooney Hi ! Thanks for the feedback !

We know the game is only a fear and walking simulator, however we didn't really had time to implement more gameplay. And I don't really think adding some objects to interact with or some storyline would have helped this much. It would've been better, but still, it would have been a slenderman-like.

We are probably not going to explore the Loneliness project, but we really want to create more horror games, with real gameplay features, interesting storyline... and of course more production time ! :p
Annie Owl
15. Aug 2018 · 21:31 UTC
That was quite an expirience. I really enjoyed the atmosphere and tention you've managed to build up. Exploring an empty hotel and opening door after door was pretty unnerving. Unfortunatly the atmosphere kinda breaks by the unnecesery jumpscare. I think if you've put some creepy and wiered stuff in the rooms it would have worked much beter.

Nevertheless the game was fun and interesting to play. Good job.
🎤 Saering
15. Aug 2018 · 21:41 UTC
@annie-owl Thanks for playing and your feedback ! That's indeed why jumpscares are not this easy to implement haha. When we added and tried the first door, the rotation was in a wrong axis so the door opened by getting to the floor, and we found that so creepy that we thought of adding stuff like that but we finally didn't. Maybe we should have !
NORRIMO
16. Aug 2018 · 12:42 UTC
Thanks @saering the game works now. :D
Was a really scary experience.
I really like these depressing corridors and that you not really know what's going on there.
At first I was happy when I found a new room, because I expected to find something game relevant.
But after a few rooms where nothing really happend I decided not to open more doors. But to the end of the game I started again to open the doors.

Keep in mind that the player always expect something important when he hears a knocking can open a door. But he never found anything interactable in the rooms. And that's not a huge enjoiable experience.

The jump scare were really well placed. Reminds me on P.T. and I not like so much these jump scares (<- every player is different) And so I have done the same thing like in P.T. I walked the most of the time with my face to the ground. xD
And I like the part when the wall behind the player appears so he has only one way and that guides him to the elevator. Was a good level design decision.

Fun fact: I played with headphones and when I heard the knocking I thought someones is knocking on my house door. :D
🎤 Saering
16. Aug 2018 · 13:32 UTC
@norrimo Hi! Thanks for playing and the detailed feedback !

I'm glad the game gave you a great horror feeling and reminded you of P.T., it was one of the game we thought of while working on the idea ! The walls appearing were also a way to stick to the theme by reducing the size of the environment the player can walk through, but we mainly used this mechanic to indeed guide him !

And sorry that you couldn't interact with more objects than doors haha! That's the main mistake we did and we will take note of that for our future horror games :)
Vulture_42
16. Aug 2018 · 21:20 UTC
I got scared, then my husband got scared that I got scared, then I took off my headphones, then I still got scared, then the game ended. Considering that, I'd say you did very well with the mood and atmosphere!

I was expecting there to be a bit more to it than just walking, good sound effects and jump scares, though. I feel like I was missing some background for the situation, or that there could have been some details that revealed themselves as I went along — definitely something to interact with, as people have said. All that happened was I wandered round for a while and found a lift to take me to a smaller room, did that a couple of times, then died(?).

Still, I couldn't come close to making something like that in 72 hours and it looks amazing, so great job!
Julia-Lundman
16. Aug 2018 · 22:41 UTC
Hello! I am one of the developers of a game you rated (Miss Eyesore) and believe it or not, even if I made a horror game for this Ludum dare, I do not dare to play yours! I'm a real scaredy-cat ^^. From what I saw when I opened the game: The graphics are splendid! The dim atmosphere made me want to bring up the brightness of my screen to feel safer but NOPE it was already maxed out! In my thought process I felt that I had to keep going since you left such a nice review for us, as a thanks, but... after the knocking on the door I immediately closed the game-tab... So a great performance on the audio too! The whole feeling of just entering the game was too eerie for me. I will rate with this in mind. BUT I will however also force my boyfriend to play it for me so I will still give a fair vote! I can already tell you've done a great job!
🎤 Saering
16. Aug 2018 · 22:57 UTC
@julia-lundman Hi! I know what you mean haha ! Fun fact: during the jam we were working in a building where there were only the four of us, and we tried the game and heard the knocking sound, all of us looked at the room door and it was pretty stressful XD Making games and playing them is different !

Thank you for trying the game despite your fear, I appreciate this :p Hope your boyfriend will be brave enough to reach the end !
Filip Bergkvist
17. Aug 2018 · 00:39 UTC
Ok so I played it, for like 5 seconds longer than my girlfriend did. No way in hell that I go any further. The atmosphere, the noises. Nope, nope and nope. Great job guys in making me really not want to play any more...

Despite making a scary game I really hate playing them, I can barely playtest my own game, but I don't trust you guys. I don't know what's going to happen and I really don't want to find out...

The models, lighting and materials look great. You seem to have put a lot of effort into the walls and furniture.

The walking "animation", or wiggling is really cool, makes it more immersive. The walking sound could use some work though, it has a very sudden start.

The audio that I heard otherwise was great. The knocking sounds so real!

Personally, I would want a toggle for motion blur because it makes me sick, but it was a jam game so it doesn't really matter.

Just FYI, I stopped playing when the light turned off in the first room. As I said, I don't trust you guys, you would have spooked me. Sorry for not being more detailed, but I just can't...
Koala Squad
17. Aug 2018 · 04:17 UTC
@saering @valentin @icekyu @talyn We've finished Part 1 of our Play and Rate video for Ludum Dare 42, and we've added it per your response. Check it out!
https://youtu.be/vuUp1EYEiuA (The video may be uploading for a little while. If so, check back after a day or so)
dimlight
17. Aug 2018 · 11:20 UTC
That's so scary! The sound effects and the whole atmosphere make me almost fall from the chair. The jump scare fits well with the graphics which is so cool! I love it XD
Icekyu
17. Aug 2018 · 12:05 UTC
thanks a lot !
🎤 Saering
17. Aug 2018 · 12:16 UTC
@filip-bergkvist Thanks for trying to play then haha! You're right about the motion blur and the walking sound, and yes we put a loooot of effort into the graphics. Well I did not since I was working on the programming but all my 3 comrades worked on it and I'm glad of what they did !

@koala-squad We will check that when this will be available :)

@dimlight Thanks !
JamesOliverMusic
17. Aug 2018 · 15:33 UTC
Wow! Loved it! Very atmospheric and creepy. Keep working on it!
SimplePotential
17. Aug 2018 · 17:10 UTC
I really dislike First Person games because they make me dizzy but that isn't your fault. What I was able to play before I couldn't take it any more was good. Controls were responsive though sometimes lining up to open a door didn't seem like it wanted to trigger when I pressed E. Visually it was great, that's a lot of work for a Jam. Nice job.
badabooom63
17. Aug 2018 · 19:37 UTC
Well, I turned it off after the second screamer, so I think you did pretty great job, I was frightened as hell. Great graphics also, but little lags in Web version
MZA
17. Aug 2018 · 20:14 UTC
Really spooky. I was playing the game with my eyes wide open. Good us of music, colours, lighting to give a sense of immersion. A litle bit of momentary voice acting would perhaps make it more immersive. Overall, great entry.
Koala Squad
17. Aug 2018 · 21:30 UTC
@saering It's ready! Check it out now!
🎤 Saering
17. Aug 2018 · 22:37 UTC
@jamesolivermusic @simplepotential @badabooom63 @mza Thank you guys!

@koala-squad Just watched the part where you play our game! Thanks for that. It's sad that the dropbox link was down just when you decided to play it and right after you read the warning about the webGL build. However, when we tried the web version of the game, it ran pretty smoothly (the problems are simply missing shaders and frame rate wasn't this low), the game isn't optimized but it's still a little game, so I don't really know what it is running terribly on your computer :( Anyway, that's not your fault but ours haha!

Thanks for playing and for sharing us the video though ! We appreciate that :)
Zicboy
19. Aug 2018 · 23:59 UTC
Awesome game! really enjoyed the mood and graphics for this entry!
halomegames
21. Aug 2018 · 17:09 UTC
I'd almost had heart attack after just few seconds. I love the stereo sounds of this game :)
but i had to check my back on real life! Great!
Zahab_AQ
24. Aug 2018 · 12:29 UTC
Okay, the knocking got me. Twice. So did the jumpscare, even though I was expecting one, but after the room opened. The audio and the mood was really well done. There were some gaps in the walls in the rooms, and the sound of the start walking if you pressed W multiple times took me out of the immersion a little, but overall I really liked it. Great job.
Kappinski
02. Sep 2018 · 16:05 UTC
Seriously... I put on headphones and quit the game right after the first knock on the right. I am scared of those games. I can't play them. At least I tried xD I enjoyed the few seconds, I am just a coward ^^
Ava Skoog
03. Sep 2018 · 19:28 UTC
Whew, you weren't kidding—that's the longest I've ever had a Unity web game load, haha. But in the grand scheme of things not a particularly long wait. Quite amazing how far technology has come these days, rather!

You've got a real mood going here. I do like this sort of æsthetic. Audio is great. You're able to do a lot with very few assets using this motel setting, which is clever!

I'm not prone to simulation sickness myself but I can't say I'm fond of motion blur when turning my head in a game either way, and I know some people who probably couldn't play at all because of it, alongside all the head bobbing, so it might still be worth pointing out. c:

I do like eerie but jumpscares are a tad cheap IMO. I'd prefer something else instead. But you did implement it well for whomever's into that sort of thing by planning out where and how to present it, in those particular doors. I did like the sudden elevator activation tho—that was great!

Overall really nicely done and I'm glad I played it. Content is always hard in a jam, so I won't fault you for not including it in this version, but if you were to keep working on this game post jam it would be really cool to have an entire story in there, with things to find in the rooms as clues to figure some mystery out, because this really is something solid. Great work!