Drain by morphine
Drain is a story driven puzzle FPS game that explores loss.
You must transfer energy from the various lights and devices in order to make your way through the game.
The game is intentionally dark and by transferring power to the different lights you can make your way safely. Additionally there are environmental clues to help you navigate.
It was designed for the Compo by Patrick Greene (https://twitter.com/morphinestudio)
Post Mortem http://morphinegames.com/drain-a-ludum-dare-39-post-mortem/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Nd_ghkeaRY
Links
- Web (Play online): http://play.morphinegames.com/drain
- Post Dare Web + more ambient light (Play Online, DO NOT RATE): http://play.morphinegames.com/drain-post
- Windows: http://play.morphinegames.com/drain/drain-windows.zip
- Source: http://play.morphinegames.com/drain/source.zip
| HTML5 (web) | http://play.morphinegames.com/drain |
| Windows | http://play.morphinegames.com/drain/drain-windows.zip |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/drain |
Ratings
| Overall | 31th | 4.043⭐ | 48🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 244th | 3.326⭐ | 48🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 36th | 4⭐ | 48🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 32th | 4.196⭐ | 48🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 188th | 3.63⭐ | 48🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 7th | 4.295⭐ | 46🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 20th | 4.196⭐ | 48🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 47🗳️ | 43🗨️ |
Good work!
I like the mechanic of borrowing and giving energy. The visuals are nice and simple, only the round objects would look better with more polygons IMO. The gameplay is slightly more difficult than I expected, but it helps build the mood.
Well done!
The last part that need to jump into the middle a little bit confuse for me. :)
The doors didn't take 100% power to open; that's not necessarily a bad thing, but since other items in the game required 100% power to correctly function, maybe it would be good to make that consistent. Maybe make it so that doors with less than 100% power automatically close again after some period of time? But that inconsistency isn't that much of a problem.
Overall, I think this game is great. Thanks for making it.
https://aws.amazon.com/polly/
It's a text to speech engine
However, I found the cold abstract sci-fi visuals didn't fit the dramatic warmly "human" audio (kinda like a mix between Portal and a dramatic comedy).
The main mechanics is a great idea, and having to find the right balance between activating more stuff and not seeing anything anymore is challenging, in a fun way!
The audio, the mood, the story! Perfect!
Congratz, it's the most polish game I have tested until here (on this jam) for a compo! Very good job!
The music and voicing really adds a lot of effect and it's amazing for a compo to build such art!
On a side note, darkness is not everyone's favorite obstacle in a game, it definitely adds an effect to the game. But movement becomes very disorientating with such low brightness.
Otherwise, great game! Good job!!
I did not quite get that I had to walk back to the beginning at first, but I got to the end after all.
There was one lamp that I never reached. When you go left first, and after the bridge you see it to your right. Is that one only a decoy or is there something hidden over there?
You captured a great mood. I also have to check into Amazon Polly!
The gameplay fit the theme very well and is very clever. Also the narrative dimension add some quality to the experience.
Good job :)
When you fill up the terminals that make the blue spires light up, the area around them should have a blue glow around them as well. (also make that a checkpoint so you don't start from the beginning if you mess up). That would make it easier to get back to those area, which backtracking should be hard, but preserve the challenge when initially turning them on.
I like how the game balance between letting you see the level and using the energy to accomplishing the goal. When I turned on the game I expected a walking simulator, and I think the mood/narrative would work better without fail states. You could still get messed up in the dark but it wouldn't force you to restart. A example could be to have complex corridors or having a door close if you walk on pressure plates which you would have to avoid.
Also it pretty hard to make dark games because most screens have different brightness, so it might be a idea to include a slider, "slide until you barely see the icon" thing.