LudumData

Fall of RS-17 Icarus - an Akaban Tale by Kooshy

[raw]
made by Kooshy for Ludum Dare 45 (JAM)

This new point-and-click adventure from us-two-dudes takes you to the doomed space station RS-17 (Icarus), a top-secret research facility used by the shadowy Akaban corporation, in its final moments. Dr. Alex Pratchett has no memory of this place or how they got here. What will they find? What can they do? Can it be saved? Find out!

This game has FOUR (count them - FOUR) endings. Can you find them all?

Bugfix 1.1 -- Added collider to airlock / Adjusted Credits to include ourselves.

POST JAM~! We've heard your feedback and somehow just now realized we can respond to it with additional releases! This latest release has: - Slightly increased base movement speed (still slow and atmopsheric) - Press left shift to run (when you know where you're going) - The wires are colored to kinda look like wires - Fewer unhelpful pop-ups - Some new (more?) helpful pop-ups - Better wire placement - Improved WebGL input handling (so you don't keep losing mouselock) - More consistent interactive object hilights - Shorter interaction distance - Improved prompt UI interaction (text-boxes autofocus and enter submits)

Youtube https://unlockingcube.itch.io/the-fall-of
Youtube https://prestist.gitlab.io/startwithnothing/
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/fall-of-rs-17-icarus-an-akaban-tale

Ratings

Overall 903th 3.057⭐ 63🧑‍⚖️
Fun 970th 2.726⭐ 64🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 860th 2.787⭐ 63🧑‍⚖️
Theme 611th 3.246⭐ 63🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 861th 2.943⭐ 63🧑‍⚖️
Humor 791th 2.18⭐ 52🧑‍⚖️
Mood 204th 3.82⭐ 63🧑‍⚖️
Given 65🗳️ 71🗨️

Feedback

Jason Porritt
08. Oct 2019 · 02:39 UTC
You set a great mood and I enjoyed walking through the ship. I fell through the door my first time and watched the ship and star fade into the distance. Nice work for such a short timeframe!
Marcel Oyuela-Bonzani
08. Oct 2019 · 02:45 UTC
Good concept and mood. Got two of the four endings- love the laugh sound effect.
Bernardex
08. Oct 2019 · 02:55 UTC
Hey yo! I agree with my comment neighbour @jason-porritt, nice ambience n' mood! I'm not a great fan of this genre, but went for it. Well... I almost had to change my underwear eventually. Good work, and great audio set up! But I didn't make it through the second door :(
Nick Parry
08. Oct 2019 · 03:00 UTC
Awesome feel to this, love the interior design. I found the walking was too slow and decreased my want to replay and find all then endings (I only found too). You should upload a walk through video showing all the endings.

Really good job with this its impressive and has fantastic mood and fitting graphics.
firetwoonenine
08. Oct 2019 · 03:03 UTC
Surprisingly fun with good worldbuilding for such a simple and short game. I managed to find three of the endings (hint to others: look carefully around the floor) but can't figure out the fourth.
🎤 Kooshy
08. Oct 2019 · 03:24 UTC
Thanks for the feedback! @nick-parry - you're absolutely right. We meant to bump up the walking speed and just never got to it. A sprint key also fell off the priority list ... as did a fifth ending and so much more. We're just glad you played! And a video may be coming, but there's no need to spoil things yet..

And for a clue to the fourth ending @firetwoonenine - that video mentioned above would get really boring.
Unlockingcube
08. Oct 2019 · 22:53 UTC
Added a Credit section to the bottom of itch.io Page, after noticing that the credits in the game does not show Kooshy and I.
Ojwk
09. Oct 2019 · 01:22 UTC
I love point and click adventure games!
bassguitarbill
09. Oct 2019 · 01:28 UTC
Nice and spooky.
mharring
09. Oct 2019 · 01:39 UTC
Great atmosphere, very spooky - attributed mostly to the sounds but also to the "recordings" you find. I accidentally managed to fall out of the end of the first room. As others have mentioned, the movement speed is a little too slow. Good work!
Nisovin
09. Oct 2019 · 02:05 UTC
I liked the overall feel and the creepy laugh. I know others have said this, but the slow movement really killed my desire to find all the endings.
Erin
09. Oct 2019 · 02:23 UTC
Holy molly that is creepy. Perfect music, great lighting, and it's really nice to see more point and click adventures out here. What are those big white needle things all over?
stuckne1
09. Oct 2019 · 03:05 UTC
This is fun. I am also wondering what the white needle things all over are.
🎤 Kooshy
09. Oct 2019 · 03:09 UTC
@erin @stuckne1 - when you say 'white needle things' - do you mean the bundles (kinda look like noodles) you pick up from the floor, the things you click with them, or the yellow-ish kinda spaceship-shaped things?

1. The bundles are meant to be bundles of wires used for repairs
2. The things you click with them are supposed to be broken wires, though our model ended up a little rough
3. Those are amnestic autoinjectors used by researchers who might need their memory erased in an emergency..
stuckne1
09. Oct 2019 · 03:18 UTC
@kooshy I was referring to the bundles of wires. Oh okay, awesome!
ketura
09. Oct 2019 · 03:42 UTC
lol there's no collider on the back wall of the first room.

After restarting, I have to say the only thing scarier than the audio track is the graphics. The wires are pretty hard to tell are wires, and after fixing two wires in the second room it wouldn't let me proceed.

I think there was a decently well executed mystery thing going on, but the actual walking around and interacting with the world part leaves a lot to be desired.
SirRed
09. Oct 2019 · 03:48 UTC
I loved the sound and how it made you feel like you were in an abandoned space ship. For some reason when I played it was very laggy so I only went through once.
Yolziii
09. Oct 2019 · 06:58 UTC
Nice prototype, very atmospheric! Movement is too slow as for me (
Ace17
09. Oct 2019 · 12:30 UTC
The soundscape is great, but the slow walking kills it.

Especially for a point and click, where you have by design to do a lot of searching, you shouldn't be thinking "oh I'd like to try this shiny widget over there, but walking to it would take too long"

Too bad, because it's very promising (and I want to know the rest of the story!)!
SaltFactory Studio
09. Oct 2019 · 19:07 UTC
Great sound in background, really helped built the atmosphere you're looking to create. First section took me a while, probably because I didn't know to pick up the 'wires' and ended up walking back and forth. Movement is a bit slow in my opinion.I think overall it's a decent game and enjoyable, but with some more improvement it can turn into a great game. Nevertheless, good job!
SKDF
09. Oct 2019 · 19:38 UTC
As said above, that's slooow. But nonetheless very interesting and eerie!
NachtWitch
10. Oct 2019 · 12:39 UTC
Love the slow pace you made! Really atmospheric and eerie, absolutely fun and interesting to play
Marcin J
11. Oct 2019 · 17:08 UTC
I think being slow what helps build the atmosphere because player can take in the sounds and visuals but for that too work and avoid the players complaining it's 'boring' you'd need to deliver more variance in environments and sounds.
Daitse
11. Oct 2019 · 17:25 UTC
As mentionned by others, the walking speed is a bit slow however you did a great job with the general atmoshpere (kudos for the evil laugh !)
Snowdrama
13. Oct 2019 · 16:59 UTC
Good atmosphere, movement is WAY to slow, needs to be faster especially if you expect people to play more than once. I can't seem to find the 4th ending, only guess is it's something to do with the axe but I can't grab it.
🎤 Kooshy
13. Oct 2019 · 17:08 UTC
@snowdrama Yeah, the movement speed is 1m/s. We want it to be a little slow for atmosphere, but even during development commented that that was too slow. The current development build raises it to 1.75m/s, which feels better, but we're not sure if that's the kind of fix we're allowed to publish post-jam.

As far as the fourth ending, it's not exactly something you do... Consider what the recorders are suggesting you do. (Which I know is super cryptic. We'll be sharing a detailed solution video after the play and rate process is done.)
_Le_Dav_
13. Oct 2019 · 17:08 UTC
The atmosphere is so dark! I love it :) but the game is a bit too slow :)
Muse en Lystrala
13. Oct 2019 · 19:57 UTC
I loved this. Slick graphics, great ambient sound, awesome puzzle. Reminded me some of the Myst games. Look forward to more!
Omiya Games
13. Oct 2019 · 20:22 UTC
The audio design is really great, and I did like the slow build in the story. Even if amnesia is a cliche start, it's effective enough to encourage the player to start seeking for more information on their environment. Most of the UI was pretty clear and easy to navigate, which given their importance in puzzle solving, is pretty critical.

That said, some visual elements were hard to read. For example, I didn't know wires next to the panels could be repaired with an item. ETA: It would have been nice if some indicator appeared when either hovering over it, or just having an exclamation mark to things that can be interacted with. As mentioned in the stream, it was a little difficult to tell what other items can be interacted with as well, such as wires (tape recorders were more obvious). It would have also been nice to see more items to interact. Pretty neat!

ETA #2: also, the item to repair wires looks a lot like chopsticks. I had no idea it was meant for repairing any wiring.

https://youtu.be/wkzhmrjM_28
d3garcia
15. Oct 2019 · 05:00 UTC
Loved the game, excellent execution!
BarracudaDisaster
15. Oct 2019 · 07:00 UTC
Great moody game. Nice to see a story-driven Ludum Dare game. Great mystery and it's nice that there's multiple endings. The walking speed is way to slow for me to explore all the endings but the game's a nice take on click and point games. And the puzzles were fun to try to solve.
reheated
17. Oct 2019 · 14:04 UTC
Overall: Great story, tense atmosphere.

Fun: This is a really good piece of storytelling. I like the creepy story, and all the sounds work well to add to the creepiness. I enjoyed finding the messages left behind by the other crew. I find it a bit strange that I got the best ending by stuffing up (I wired things the one way that does nothing, and then just wandered around not knowing what to do until the game ended). Several of the endings require waiting - I would make the wait shorter.

Innovation: Good.

Theme: Amnesia - yep, I'll pay it.

Graphics: Mostly good. However, I had trouble understanding that the bone things were wires, which slowed me down a bit.

Humor: N/A? I just found the whole thing tense.

Mood: The excellent choice of sounds gives this game a really tense feeling.
Sprotex
17. Oct 2019 · 15:19 UTC
I liked the audio, but didn't like the rest. The models were very crude, the movement incredibly slow, the text was squished (it was a little taller than wider), I almost couldn't see items I could interact with. Most people here say that they felt a tense atmosphere, I just thought that I was playing an unfinished game.

I'm sorry to give such a bad feedback, but I think that I should give it to you, so you could improve. :slight_smile:
Noshiz
19. Oct 2019 · 12:57 UTC
Interesting game. I managed to get 3 out of 4 endings, not sure what the 4th one is. My only feedback would be on the movement that was a little bit slow, I get the idea that you are in a space stations and there is zero gravity but still felt a bit slow, and the I kept messing around the mouse. It locks when playing but unlocks when reading text and somehow I managed to keep losing it lol. Fun game otherwise, wish I had found the 4th ending too (which I suppose is a good one?).
🎤 Kooshy
21. Oct 2019 · 01:42 UTC
We've made some improvements! See the changelog in the description for details, but in short, the movement speed has gotten a bump (but not so big of a bump as to damage the atmospheric feel), there's a run key (left shift) for when you want to get somewhere in a hurry, fewer textual speedbumps, and a little more guidance (plus tons of little quality of life improvements.) I invite you all to check it out and see what you think!

@nick-parry @mharring @nisovin @yolziii @ace17 @saltfactory-studio @skdf @daitse @snowdrama @le-dav @barracudadisaster @noshiz
Rrawrr
22. Oct 2019 · 03:16 UTC
I liked this station, very atmospheric. The puzzle is good, pity that it is so short and you can achieve a dead end (when you put wires wrong and there is nothing to do with it) I like how you made graphics - pretty simple, but original, for me it is nice.
🎤 Kooshy
22. Oct 2019 · 03:29 UTC
@rrawrr It's not exactly a dead end. OooOOOoOoOO.

But yes, it's very short. We had a lot more planned, but we ran out of time really fast. :/
scsc
22. Oct 2019 · 10:12 UTC
Great atmosphere, but in my opinion it's just too unforgiving for players who get stuck - the semantics of our intentions could be explained using more hints. Some people may appreciate the difficulty though :) Also I'd add some crosshair change while the user aims at an interactable object, and I have to criticize the choice of a default text GUI of Unity - the font is too small and simple, plus the background also feels unfinished. I think it'd really improve immersion if you used some custom UI textures :) Plus I appreciate how you point cursor at the OK button by default, but it's still just annoying that we can't close it by clicking outside, or pressing Enter/Esc (or just WSAD). One last thing, the speed increase using SHIFT is really vital (and still doesn't feel fast enough) - what about making it a default speed as long as you don't implement any stamina mechanism? :)
nidjo123
22. Oct 2019 · 18:43 UTC
Very nice, I like the space theme and the mood you set. Story details are nice addition. Sounds also improve the atmosphere. Overall, a fun little game. :)
Lumos
22. Oct 2019 · 22:54 UTC
Four endings? More like 1 ending and 3 softlocks (all of them being: "Stargate Universe", engines, antenna, using both wires for engines and comms on the first playthrough and ending up with no route to the main computer, and I couldn't pick up the axe to sever connections..).

It's faster to walk backwards whilst strafing. The walking speed isn't an issue, though my LShift didn't seem to do anytning, considering the game is about 2 minutes long.

You get a high mood score and a middling theme score. I liked the name of the virus/entity/thing, "Mrezhek", loosely Russian-sounding for _"networker"_, and the term "amnestic" as well.

Decent game... if you made it in five hours. For three days? Not quite. Sorry.
pkenney
26. Oct 2019 · 17:44 UTC
Nice and moody. I really really wanted a jog button or just a generally faster walking speed. Or a smaller interior. I know the pacing is languid and that really works with the mood, but it became a barrier to my enjoyment of investigating. I got out my cell phone to time the commute, and while I was looking for the stopwatch, I turned back to the game and saw that it said I waited so long it was game over. Wow, I guess I'm the slow one after all? Haha, nice twist of the knife! :)

But really, you got a great mood and I was very intrigued by the story. Nice job.