Never Ending Entropy by CodeKoto
Developed by Infinia Entertainment
Description:
A game where you start, well... from nothing. What is nothing you ask? In true nothingness there's no space, no time, and most importantly - no Chaos.
You start as a small singularity, with yet no complex parts to yourself, but as you gather more and more components of reality, you gain various abilities with which you continue your journey, gradually declining into disorder...
The path may be difficult, but we encourage you to fight your way through to the truth!
Controls:
Movement: WASD
Shooting: Hold Left Mouse Button
Aim: Cursor
Black-Hole: Click Right Mouse Button
Dialogue: Space/LMB/RMB (Some dialogues are important, and you can only read them once!)
Stats (Important!)
Complexity: Heath, Speed, Fire-Rate, Damage, Bullet Speed, Regen Rate, Black-Hole Recharge Rate are increased for every 100 complexity you gain!
Stability: You start with 100%, each time you die it decreases, if it reaches 0% game restarts!
Screenshots:
Tools used:
Except fonts everything in-game was made by us.
We used: Unity, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premier Pro, Audacity, FL Studio, Git.
Badass trailer:
https://youtu.be/IF2vFuDwVMw
Who worked on the game?
Stephan Dvoryanchikov (Codekoto) - Programmer, Boss and Enemy AI
Emir Akbashev (Anion-Z) - *VFX, Programmer, Animator, Story*
Timucin (Wolf-Neon) - 2D Artist, Audio Engineer, Level Design
Ilya (TheBlackAchilles) - Additional Programmer, UI*
Developer Comments:
Codekoto: "Some people think "Why do people do this to themselves, don't they want to have a weekend off?". Yeah we sure do, having fun with your friends while making a game, sleeping over and even cooking food. These are the experiences i will treasure in my life and Ludum Dare has been a great contribution to this. I am grateful to have such wonderful friends and i am happy to be able to spend this time with them doing what i love.
It wasn't easy, but the challenge is what i am here for, learning new things and improving oneself is what i consider being a core of a human being, and events such as this are very helpful. Compared to the last Ludum Dare, i realized that we have done much more in 2 days than we have done in 3 days last Jam, and every time, our projects are getting better, step by step we are going to achieve our dream of making games"
Anion_Z - "We had to sacrifice some parts of the game and the game feel overall to finish such huge project, even with 3 programmers it was hell of a task. Story came last so it may not be the best. But I'm very proud of ourselfs since we put our best effort into the project. I believe for a ludum dare game this is a huge success, I can definitely see our improvement in every aspect of game development, and this was our goal from the beginning!"
Join our Infinia Entertainment discord server to talk with us and other members.
Discord Server
Fixes:
- [1.0.1]
- The door to the boss room opens properly instead of halfway
- [1.0.2]
- More lights are added for player to navigate easily
- [1.0.3]
- Game doesnt crash anymore after player's death
- Enemie's size adjusted to it's complexity in a more appropriate manner
- Player's speed increased, enemie's decreased
- [1.0.4]
- Ending scene doesn't glitch anymore
- Music in boss room isn't too loud, and overall sounds were balanced
- [1.0.5]
- Better optimization, but still may lag on older devices, or when lots of enemies surround you
- [1.0.6]
- We really wanted players to see the full game, so the overall difficulty of enemies was drastically decreased and overall scene is not as dark for easier navigation, and visibility range was slightly increased!
- [1.0.7]
- Dialogues are easier to understand now, Fixed an exploit where the boss could be killed from range
- [1.0.8]
- Fixed a bug where after finishing a dialogue it opened again, changed color of lights in one of the rooms to green so that player subconciously knows its a safe route
- Many people wanted harder boss so I just increased his lifes and size of bullet.
- People really wanted particles when enemies die, so I added something simple, however, you dont have to take specifically these particles into account
- Black-Hole was hard to see during boss fight, its now much easier to see it.
- You can only listen to dialogue once, since its an action game and not a narrative (but story is pretty good too xD)
| Youtube | https://hinoarashi.itch.io/entropy |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/entropy |
Ratings
| Overall | 41th | 4.185⭐ | 64🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 101th | 3.935⭐ | 64🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 193th | 3.71⭐ | 64🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 80th | 4.121⭐ | 64🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 103th | 4.273⭐ | 66🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 103th | 3.927⭐ | 64🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 37th | 4.234⭐ | 64🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 83🗳️ | 81🗨️ |
I was able to get my sight, shooting, black hole thing, and ability to speak to the others...
I got lost and couldn't figure out what to do next, and i walked into a room with basically thousands of those enemies in it at once.
Very nice use of theme, and the gameplay is solid! If the sight radius was a bit bigger I think I would have avoided that room.
You guys are in desperate need of gameplay screenshots and pictures for your Itch.io page and here! Seriously! Great work
The only real complaint I have is that the dialogues could get in the way of the game sometimes. Maybe have each one only display the first time? That way bumping into one of the purple lights during combat won't stop the game multiple times.
But otherwise the combat felt satisfying and you did a good job on the progression - it felt satisfying to grow more powerful, but the more powerful enemies were still a threat even as the weaker ones become insignificant.
Overall, a very good game. Thanks for sharing it with us on the stream!
Понравилось:
+ Плавное развитие событий
+ Постепенное обретение навыков и прокач
+ Баланс - в целом не слишком легко, но и прошёл я всё с первого раза
+ Противные мобы пачками с тентаклями в полумраке => кирпичный завод
+ Прикольный способ подавать наратив
+ Достойный визуал и пост-процессинг.
+ Сюжет - точнее сам факт его наличия.
+ Неожиданно включившийся звук (ну при очередной прокачке), а я до этого выкрутил на максимум у себя всё... оно там пол игры где-то пищало, думал, может напишу разрабам, может где чё в сеттингах накосячили... и Бах! Мой кирпичный завод выходит на новые мощьности!
+ Ничё не глючит, всё понятно как управлять, играется так, как должно играться.
Не понравилось:
- Наратив иногда бывает не к месту, особенно посреди боя - у меня заруба, кирпичный завод, и в угаре мачилова я натыкаюсь на "нейтрала", и он мне своим бла-бла-бла - весь угар обломал.
- Вряд-ли во вселенной есть прямые линии и коридоры. Сделай вы уровень весь кривой и изогнутый а не перпендикулярно-параллельный - от была бы бомба!
Что улучшить:
- При том же объёма наратива, больше драйва, мочилова, мобов, пушек, бла-бла - думаю и сами это знаете - ваша потенциальная ЦА в игру за мясом идёт, а не на "роман почитать"... Ну и взрывов там каких завезите...(Кашу маслом не испортишь).
- Редизайн уровня - все двери, переходы - всё оставьте как есть на своих местах, просто сделайте всё косым и кривым, избегая прямых линий ну кроме дверей может быть...
- Сделайте например, что если рядом есть активные мобы - пускай нейтралы "окукливаются" (тригер делайте неактивным) - ну чтобы угар боя не ломать...
- Ну и не охота дважды один и тот же текст читать, помечайте как-то "прочитанных" нейтралов...
Ну а в целом, молодцы. Имеете годный, отполированный продукт/прототип. Мои поздравления и респект!
Идея с редизайном неожиданная, но очень точная, я бы не додумался. После конкурса точно так и сделаем, про нейтралов, мы так и думали сделать, однако то за одно, то за второе цепляешься и времени не хватает...
Ты наверное единственный кто предложил идеи для дальнейшего развития и как мне кажется каждая из них правильная!
Я думаю побольше разновидностей врагов и оружия занести после LD.
Да, Я давно уже работаю с визуальными эффектами, планировал добавить остатки тел врагов, взрывы и тд. Но немножко преувеличил с тем что я смог бы сделать за 3 дня...
Люди как ты навес золота, спасибо большое, все будет принято во внимание. Согрел душу и разжег мотивацию продолжить работу над проектом! :D
Не ожидал, что многие русские люди также будут заниматься LD, ваш комментарий нам очень важен, так, как мы хотим стать лучше с каждым разом.
Мы рады, что вам понравилась наша игра, и с нетерпением ждем, чтобы она стала еще лучше, мы сообщим вам, когда сделаем следующую игру
:'D
Хотелось бы врагов поинтереснее, имхо враги со скоростью выше героя и большим уроном, хоть их и можно замедлить черной дырой, не лучший вариант. Прикольно бы смотрелись враги с дистанционной атакой и какие-нибудь ловушки на уровнях. А так молодцы :D
Мы вообще хотели как минимум 2 типа врагов, но ясное дело работа над другими аспектами игры и работа над багами отняла наше время на это
I am sorry to hear that D: Next time we will be sure to include a warning for such occasions!
Thank you for mentioning that though, we probably wouldn't think of it otherwise.
And i am glad that you enjoyed the game ;D
However, after relaunching with the integrated graphics processor instead of the GPU, all was good, and amazing was game!
I'm surprised this hasn't gotten much votes! This game is well made! Rarely a bug found, graphics amazing, objectives clear, amazing story, nice twist at the end though. My max complexity at the end was 1400, then I got poofed :rofl:
I admire how you introduce new abilities gradually, that way it's simple to understad and master them :wink:
The game is strong in story department, though I would've preferred if I could activate the dialogue with intelligent creatures myself (e.g. by right-click or F to pay respects or something). In particular I like how the ending neatly wrapped the story up - personally, I kinda rooted for chaos, though I'm also the kind of person who went "oh, look how adorably they wiggle their tentacles" when looking at the enemies. #TeamChaos
(that said, I would really like to see an interpretation of chaos as something other than organic horrors, but I guess it is pretty well-established)
As someone who firmly believes you cannot have too many particle effects (as long as your GPU can handle it), I liked the visuals here a lot. The audio was fitting, too, too it's unfortunate that it really played part around the endgame. Also, the initial portion of the game could have really used Yakety Sax, but I understand you might have not wanted to use it so that you could be rated in Audio (and/or copyright reasons, don't know what's the copyright status of Yakety Sax).
Overall, quite a fun and original entry, with a well-developed story. Well done. ^^
Sorry if the lights confused you, I thought I deleted all big lights but I apparently didnt xD
About the Chaos, when you kill Chaos you become Chaos,
in reality we planned a fight with Observer as second boss which would teleport, spawn enemies etc, and the player would gain abilities that Chaos had, we have part of it coded but we did not have time for the rest and few bugs prevented us from adding it.
Chaos in this game is perceived as something that allows for evolution, and progress of the species, so its not the bad guy at all, the observer actually is.
Yes the dialogue systems definitely needed some work around.
And yes we strongly wanted to use only our own assets which we did, except from a font! But thanks for recommendation
Нет, английский у тебя замечательный, я просто не так понял!
Stability drops each time you die, if it reaches 0, you become unstable and the game finishes.
Thats how much effect it has on the gameplay.
We purposefully downgraded all the enemies and the boss since players could not defeat them, instead of exploring the rooms and getting above 1000 complexity they rushed to the boss and died. Personally I would make the game with less enemies but harder ones and much less stability.
Level design was nearly linear, sorry if you missed something, you probably decided to go backwards right?
Game Juice is just perfection. The shaking camera, the background particles, the simple animations. Postprocessing, camera laggy just enough to feel organic.
Good job fellow slavs!
My only suggestion - adding some kind of marker to show the way or a map. In the end it was hard to find a way to unexplored area.
Btw, only some of us speak Russian, @wolf-neon is British, we had to translate some comments to him, its funny how many people with fluent English, are actually Russian speakers. Guess they lived in a foreign country for a long time, just like us
And I'm not a Russian speaker, nor living in English speaking country haha. I'm Polish, but that's still slav ;)
The graphics are on-spot - and I hope I'll learn to make pick-ups feel as good one day!
Enjoyed the power growth a lot. It was slightly difficult to navigate the maze, so I kinda wish the Neutrals I've talked to were marked somehow... same may be said about doors, I guess.
Indeed I was expecting the fight with Observer (and/or a different ending on killing the Chaos uncapped, but, judging from your previous comments, getting there _capped_ would be the alt-ending?) but the wrap works really well already.
Overall, I'm amazed at the amount of stuff you've managed to do in the timespan given!
Pick-ups in this game impactful because of: screenshakes, particles, post processing, and appropriate sounds combined, time-slow, pitch and volume decrease of the sounds which helps player concentrate on the pickup!
WE WISHED for a fight with observer, we had coded around 90% of it, but there were bugs that prevented us from adding it to the game, as it happens with every jam :D
Great to have people actually finish your game and give constructive feedback, helps you improve!
'Final stage of the boss fight' speaks for itself doesnt it? We wanted the player to feel under pressure of dying, but again even if he did, not much is missed it was close to the end of the game :D
You wouldn't restart as long as your stability is above 15%, otherwise yes you restart (In my opinion players who were careful from before and took their time + smart play are rewarded with easier boss fight! On the other hand players who rushed a lot should feel the consequences...)
We maybe made the boss fight a bit more difficult, but trust us its not even 20 % as hard as we planned it to be xD
We are glad you liked it!
Great job!
When it comes to LMB/RMB, I believe most people other than game developers/very experienced gamers aren't used to that acronym, and they are supposed to be your main consumers post-LD :) To be honest, first time I read RMB, I subconsciously felt like it wasn't important and it slipped my mind. And there was also too little emphasis on it, as it was just at the end of a relatively large block of text - which was also only displayed temporarily. Luckily, the second time I tried to click and found out that I can fight - though it wasn't like I really had to, as I was always faster than the enemies, and they kept getting locked out :) Though it took me a long time to realize that I gain the required complexity from the large enemies after I got told to get 1000, as after several minutes of playing I only managed to rise from 500 to 510.
Nevertheless, I think the text skipping issue is still relevant even though it's fast, even if only as a misclick prevention. Also I would vote for making the text appear from the left and not centered, as it's impossible to read it during the transition :) Plus a fun fact, I was afraid that the Superspeed buff is some enemy trigger, so I took my time cleaning up the room first :D
This game's controls and feel are exceptional. Fighting enemies and moving around feels great.
I did get lost a bit, but it wasn't a serious issue and I found my way quickly.
The way that the enemies turn into monsters is awesome.
The boss fight at the end is great.
On the other hand, the info dump at the end, was not really necessary. As you can see in the stream, we all thought was a bit too much.
https://youtu.be/No9PjQTpi0s?t=4742