Vain by Tudvari

made by Tudvari for LD 42 (COMPO)

Vain is a surrealistic platformer, experimenting with different styles and different mechanics, while the world collapses on you as the music progresses.

Plot

Herr Tannhäuser, a scientist who has gone mad due to his past experiences,

*found a way to escape the madness of this world. *

He invented a device which can tear a hole in space and reality,

opening a gateway to an unimaginable realm.

After he used the device, he found himself between the space and the final frontier.

A place where the rules are ... uncanny.

Objectives

*Travel through 1 and a quarter totally different worlds until you reach the final frontier and you leave behind time and space. *

*Use 2 different mechanics on your aid in those 2 worlds: transform into a raven or rewind time. *

But be quick, because this realm is collapsing on you and you've got less and less space, second by second!

Screenshots

Summary

Basic platformer controls, but

E to relocate yourself to your 3 second old position.

Double jump to transform into a raven, then jump to flap your wings. (3 charges, landing refills it)

As the music progresses the wall on the left progresses as well, so be careful and adapt to the music.

*And it can be completed! (I'm surprised as well) *

(The first world needs skill, the second one needs cunning. ;) )

*Sadly I couldn't fulfill as much as I wanted to. Couldn't even finish the "story". *

*(But I had plans. Hint: name of the game) *

What I tried to achieve:

*3 full world, with 3 very different *

mechanics, (the 3rd is already complete, but doesn't have a world: "ghost form"),

art styles, (both visually and audio-wise)

and feelings.

Ps.:

In this game I wanted to try out how much have I learned since my first (LD41) game jam.

For example I learned about basic visual arts and music. Hurray :)

So now I can proudly say that this game is 100% made by me.

If you are interested in my future projects, post mortems, etc, follow me on LD, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, etc, etc (links on my profile)

Thanks for reading. :)

Is something is wrong with the browser version, try using a standalone one. Thanks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ts48sHZVNc

Windows	https://www.dropbox.com/s/4yctkuch38pif2p/Vain-Win86.zip?dl=0
Linux	https://www.dropbox.com/s/u635y4c6res605g/Vain-Linux.zip?dl=0
macOS	https://www.dropbox.com/s/3183mq7fw7srabs/VainMac.app.zip?dl=0
HTML5 (web)	https://tudvari.itch.io/vain
Source code	https://github.com/udvaritibor/vain
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/vain

Ratings

Overall	437^th	3.25⭐	36🧑‍⚖️
Fun	504^th	2.957⭐	37🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	423^th	3.088⭐	36🧑‍⚖️
Theme	564^th	3.088⭐	36🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	574^th	2.7⭐	37🧑‍⚖️
Audio	203^th	3.286⭐	37🧑‍⚖️
Humor	179^th	2.952⭐	33🧑‍⚖️
Mood	130^th	3.485⭐	35🧑‍⚖️
Given		34🗳️	14🗨️

Feedback

Stillnotsure

13. Aug 2018 · 08:12 UTC

I like the surreal world, it definitely feels like you had a lot of ideas about what you wanted everything in it to mean. The platforming felt like it had a few leaps of faith which typically aren't fun, usually when you had to do something with the raven form. You could try and pull the camera out when you use the bird so you know where's safe to land.

The level reacting to the music was a nice touch! Oh and the developer comments actually got a chuckle out of me

Ghen

13. Aug 2018 · 08:28 UTC

ahaha, i love how the game react to the music, become faster and slower dynamically, i also love the hand drawn graphic, but its imho the inconsistency between background and character a bit jarring, the platformer feels fine, control also feels fine, different music for different world also a nice touch, well done !

🎤 Tudvari

13. Aug 2018 · 08:38 UTC

Thanks for the constructive criticism!

@stillnotsure Ooooh, that's what I forgot :smiley: changing the camera distance according to the movement speed of the player. Well. Next time I won't forget this. And I'm glad that I could achieve ... something with you. :smiley:

@ghen Thanks :smiley:. Regarding to the "jarring": I wanted a "worlds flowing into each other" feeling but due to lack of time, quality suffered and I just mashed them together .. which is ... yeah, jarring a bit. :smile:

NNNIKKI

13. Aug 2018 · 08:51 UTC

You should work more on the game. It's a really neat concept, but definately needs polishing.

psychead

13. Aug 2018 · 09:02 UTC

I loved the mood of the game, the music is really outstanding. (I usually rush music in the last hour before submission hour :laughing:.
I encountered two game breaking bugs, though. For one, jump inputs didn't seem to get registered consistently. Also, in the time rewind level, you can just rewind past the line at the beginning. (Or is that deliberate?)
Over all, good job!

Alexey Akulovich

13. Aug 2018 · 09:03 UTC

Funny game, I like. Dependence of speed on music really interesting. And second level is too monotonous :)

🎤 Tudvari

13. Aug 2018 · 09:54 UTC

@alexey-akulovich Yes, that's why i called it the quarter level. It was created under 20 minutes, just before the submission hour. I didn't want to waste all the visuals, audios and mechanics created for that level.
In the design phase I planned that as the most important level, so I really wanted to make it, even it will be nothing compared to its planned "glory".
Thanks for playing :smile:

🎤 Tudvari

13. Aug 2018 · 10:00 UTC

@psychead Yeah, sometimes jumping is off :\
At first I just wanted that you have to use the time rewind to spare the running back to the "crossroads" from the lever, so you could just reach the just opened gate before the wall is killing you.

But when I first tried, the 3 seconds was too long, and the "past position" was always behind the wall.
At that time I was 2 minutes in submussion hour so I didn't really wanted to balance it, and I also liked this tricky way of escaping certain death. So I left it this way.

But the second level was built in 20 minutes, it's really just a visuals, audio and mechanics showoff :smile:

rhewid

13. Aug 2018 · 14:54 UTC

Definitely a 5 for humor. Liked the idea, first time I didn't get that is a lever. Anyways a solid entry. Keep it up.

TontonPizza

14. Aug 2018 · 11:45 UTC

I like the world you have made here. Id like to see more gameplay shift for the futur level to come.

(never used the E key, totally forgot about it :/ )

T8kk

14. Aug 2018 · 12:13 UTC

Started out as a regular platformer until the song got slower and suddenly was caught off guard by the increased tempo haha. Cool overall concept and it seemed you got unusual amount of depth to your story in a ludumdare game which is refreshing definitely! Cool idea with nice execution, well done Tudvari!

incobalt

14. Aug 2018 · 22:30 UTC

I really like the feeling that you're building up here. I think that, perhaps, the theme isn't doing your game any favors. It's almost a game where I want to slow down and explore. I like seeing weird, surreal games. Turning into a bird, obeying the tempo, the strange creatures, it's all very good feeling to me. The constant threat of needing to move forward added a tension that I don't think the game needed.

Bungalow

15. Aug 2018 · 08:40 UTC

Pretty much everything about this game is awesome, except I feel the graphics could have used a bit of work. That can be completely forgiven because this is a compo game though! Great work and good luck on future titles! :)

🎤 Tudvari

15. Aug 2018 · 10:08 UTC

Thank you all for your feedback :smile:

Raccoon_JS

15. Aug 2018 · 16:20 UTC

It was good. But how do you do about the endless pit beneath the platform? Does it make the game automatically over?

Call_me_Nutty

15. Aug 2018 · 16:24 UTC

The first game I found that tries to go for an uncanny valley style of game. I wasn't a fan of the blind jump every now and again. I like how the music is constantly messed with and has an irregular rythim, it's difficult to tell whether certain sounds are from the game or the music, so you definitely ticked the "Confuse the hell out of the player" aspect of the uncanny.

I think it was missing the terror aspect though. The player constantly being in fear of what the game may do next. That long bridge segment was a perfect time to add in a speed up or a glitch to the music. A good example of a game that perfects this aspect is Doki Doki Literature Club, if you want an example of what true fear of the game feels like I recommend you take some notes from it.

Otherwise, this has a lot of potential and something one can work on to perfect it.

🎤 Tudvari

16. Aug 2018 · 10:15 UTC

@raccoon-js Why didn't you try it? spoiler: yes it does :smile:
@call-me-nutty Thanks for the feedback, I will have a look at that.

Furtive Pygmy

16. Aug 2018 · 23:03 UTC

Nice game, the art style and music is nice and made it all flow nicely. The jumping felt a bit too floaty, meaning I died a few times trying to get to the ground to hit a switch.
A nice base, and entry. I'd like to see it when it's completed :D

Vlassis

17. Aug 2018 · 12:59 UTC

The idea with the guy becoming bird and human again based on the number o flaps is brilliant. The game is pretty fun and difficult as well!

Jiri Holzel

19. Aug 2018 · 19:54 UTC

your games has really good atmosphere. Graphic would be more compact and the puzzles are unnecessary for this project. It can be more about your story and special feelings.

🎤 Tudvari

19. Aug 2018 · 23:28 UTC

Thanks for all your feedback :smile: @furtive-pygmy @vlassis @jiri-holzel

Firesplash Entertainment

20. Aug 2018 · 20:31 UTC

I just played your game thanks for submitting! You should keep on working on it and fix a few flaws we just discussed on stream :)

arron-fowler

20. Aug 2018 · 21:23 UTC

Totally worth taking to the next level. I found it pleasent without feeling gripped. I think it could be great with time and finesse. Good work

EdwinGameDev

20. Aug 2018 · 23:30 UTC

LOL the game music has trolled me. It became slow and then fast to i fall off the platform. Nice entry, good job finishin the jam. :heart:

ThibaultAr

24. Aug 2018 · 10:13 UTC

Took me a while to understand that the game reacted to music (slower and faster) ahah btw, love that part :p

The idea is cool, push the player from left to right is a great thing !!
The only thing I could say is that music is a bit repetitive and can be a little annoying after a long time :)

In any case, great job !! :)

Lagman9000

28. Aug 2018 · 20:35 UTC

Fun! I enjoyed mix of styles and your use of audio to set the pace.i got stuck a few times and sometimes it felt like the camera was maybe a little too central. Overall great jam! :)

Roman Petrov

30. Aug 2018 · 14:15 UTC

Congratulations on the completion of the game! Platformer in just two days is a cool achievement! Your entry can become a prototype for something bigger.