LudumData

Cursed Temple by Neragoth

[raw]
made by Neragoth for Ludum Dare 47 (COMPO)

As you explored an ancient civilization temple, you were absorbed in a strange portal ! Write the future, then watch yourself fail... or succeed.

Touch the totem to end the curse !

The windows version (.exe & source code) is the main entry developed during the game jam.

The web version is updated after the game jam to fix problems.

10/06 : fixed a bug that would not allow you to reach level 7, displaying a black screen

Known bugs (that won't be fixed because of fairplay):

  • (minor) the saw sound will stay loud after dying
  • (minor) the character will stay on screen after the end of a loop if you didnt die or reach the totem (until you start new recording)
  • (minor) If you fall, the loop will play until its end (death from fall was not implemented)

(Work only with 16:9 screen)

Capture d’écran 2020-10-04 234907.png

Capture d’écran 2020-10-04 235232.png

As an amateur music producer, one of my first idea when I looked at the theme was music loops. Then I thought about recording things and hop! I had my concept :O (= recording your actions then watch how it works and redo with your new knowledge, etc)

My biggest challenge was certainly not the mechanics itself but how to make it juicy and funny.

I have to admit I’ve certainly spent too much time on graphics and the last hours were an absolute rush. I think I made the levels in the last 2 hours so it’s not perfectly balanced and I forgot to make levels of various time lengths… (but anyways the game can be finished, I did the entire run within 25 loops)

Youtube http://wyvup.com/?c=A2r7VVF
Youtube http://wyvup.com/?c=A2Iz7AP
Youtube https://neragoth.itch.io/cursed-temple
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/cursed-temple

Ratings

Overall 77th 3.887⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Fun 145th 3.677⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 63th 3.952⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Theme 390th 3.403⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 12th 4.484⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Audio 108th 3.645⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Humor 307th 2.518⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Mood 73th 3.79⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Given 39🗳️ 38🗨️

Feedback

PixelMoose Studio
04. Oct 2020 · 23:11 UTC
Cool and hard game. I realy like the player running animation. Getting the timing in is realy hard
allov
05. Oct 2020 · 03:02 UTC
Great thinking about the recording! It's hard to do without seeing, but it's fun to see your character succeed a good combo. Great platforming mechanics too. Graphics and aesthetics are over the top, you did great. Would be nice to have a kind of hybrid where you can see some times, and other time you can. Also, it's nice to have included a way to just go to any level.
TORT60091
05. Oct 2020 · 10:56 UTC
It’s a very beautiful game, awesome work :heart:
NamidaSai
05. Oct 2020 · 10:59 UTC
Really cool game! I particularly liked the art direction. The timeline mechanic is a cool concept, but thought it got brutal pretty fast. Hard to gauge where and when the character is gonna end up, but definitely has a hardcore feel that will appeal to some! Really good job!
GibsS
05. Oct 2020 · 11:13 UTC
Very challenging, I got a bit stuck in the beginning because the "recording" UI didn't line up exactly with the movement of the character so everything seemed to happen a bit late. Maybe the character should spawn at the same x position as the start of the recording UI and he should jump exactly at the x position of the recording if they've never stopped moving. Great game and concept though!
doomerismo
05. Oct 2020 · 19:40 UTC
Good implementention of the idea. Nice work with the graphics. I would add some colectibles to increase the fun.
clemonades
05. Oct 2020 · 21:09 UTC
This is fantastic! The art and sound effects are incredible. And the whole mechanic/loop is very creative. I had a blast with it. Great job my friend!
Cyborg Studio
05. Oct 2020 · 21:19 UTC
Gorgeous art! The web game crashed on me after level 6 or so, though-- is there supposed to be an ending cutscene?
nidrig
05. Oct 2020 · 23:47 UTC
Excellent game. Most of what I enjoyed has already been mentioned, but I would like to add that I think it's great that you included a tutorial so that one can start playing right away without having to read any instructions.
fabula_rasa
06. Oct 2020 · 10:19 UTC
I really loved the graphics. The color scheme is just great and the rain adds to the overall atmosphere. Ambience is spot-on, really well-made. Awesome job!

I'm not sure if I hit a bug or this is how it ends. After one of the levels (not sure about the number but it's the level where you start at upper left corner, with several small platforms to jump, slopping downward, and the totem is in the lower right corner) I just got a black screen. I could still hear the sounds and when I pressed controls I could still hear their sounds as well. But nothing was displayed - just blackness. Tried twice - same thing happened.

Mechanics are definitely innovative but I will admit that most of the time I ended up planning semi-randomly :laughing:, as I had trouble "seeing with my mind's eye" where my hero will be positioned.
SwiftVector
06. Oct 2020 · 10:51 UTC
The art and atmosphere on display here is probably the best I've seen in this jam. I agree with what others have said about the mechanics being pretty unforgiving - it can get a bit frustrating to record the same thing over and over again - but I think a quick remedy would be at least a hotkey that allows you to cut a recording short.
Sidonie_Go
06. Oct 2020 · 11:05 UTC
The gameplay is really interesting, so addictive :heart_eyes: The graphics are beautiful and the character well animated I love it. Also, the sound add so much to the game. Congrats!
🎤 Neragoth
06. Oct 2020 · 11:16 UTC
@pixelmoose-studio @allov @tort60091 @namidasai @gibss @clemonades @doomerismo @cyborg-studio @nidrig @fabula-rasa @swiftvector @sidonie-go

Many thanks to all of you for your feedback :heart:

I am very happy that you like the game!

@cyborg-studio
I modified the web version to remove the bug in level 7 :wink:

@swiftvector
As indicated on the timeline, you can press the R key to restart the loop :smile:
SwiftVector
06. Oct 2020 · 11:56 UTC
@Neragoth hmm, maybe it's bugging out for me if this is what it's supposed to do but I was thinking it would be useful to have a button to play back the recording immedeately rather than re-record it? Nonetheless it's a useful feature to undo mistakes.
🎤 Neragoth
06. Oct 2020 · 12:25 UTC
@swiftvector oh I understand now what you meant. I'll keep your idea in mind, its a very good one indeed. Lots of features I could not add because of rush but Im gonna do a more complete version 😊
remusnomos
06. Oct 2020 · 13:32 UTC
Quite nice game! I really liked the player animations and the little details with the bird flying away. Makes the game feeling much more alive. And the rainsounds were quite relaxing.
Unfortunately the level after the one where you jump down some steps above the abyss didn't load. The screen was just black, but I heard the gamesounds and input sounds. Don't know what happened there.
Anomay
06. Oct 2020 · 13:57 UTC
Interesting, we use similar mechanic!

I learn a lot, your visualization of jump is really cool XD
Zashers
06. Oct 2020 · 14:05 UTC
The environment is very polished, with a clever game mechanic. Well done!
FabDynamic
06. Oct 2020 · 14:12 UTC
The graphics and controls are amazing and the statue even taunts you haha! You've got platforming mechanics down perfectly and its pretty impressive actually. Then you introduced a totally new mechanic of planning your actions out in advance which makes this really interesting.

1. On mac the game works in Full Screen on Chrome or Safari (with great sound even) but not in windowed mode.
2. The tutorial cuts off if you dont double jump over the blade pit on the second level of the tutorial. i never actually made it over that pit to the statue.

Thank you for making this!
vem
06. Oct 2020 · 14:18 UTC
Looks stellar and has a really interesting gimmick to it. I think there ended up being a bit too little going on when you were recording inputs, but that's honestly a quibble.

Really the type of game I love to see from a game jam!
nethead
06. Oct 2020 · 16:07 UTC
Great entry, really novel mechanic and the atmosphere was great. Only minor complaint is that on my system the saw sound ended up mixed kinda loud? The rain was super nice though ^^
Hugo1306
06. Oct 2020 · 19:24 UTC
I really like the artwork and the atmosphere of the game is nice, the controls are quite difficult to understand because of the timing.

On the web version, on the level 4 I don't know if it's done on purpose but when you fall, you don't respawn :)
Celuloide
07. Oct 2020 · 07:00 UTC
I really like the idea of this game, also the art it's great too! I had a bit of trouble picturing were my player was gonna move specially after dyinng. As a small suggestion, maybe would be nice touch if the lower bar was more synched with the level (like, the spot where you put a jump in the bar is pretty near to where you are gonna jump in the scenario)? In any case, a great game with a solid gameplay! congratulations!!
🎤 Neragoth
07. Oct 2020 · 10:26 UTC
@anomay @zashers @fabdynamic @vem @nethead @hugo1306 @celuloide
thanks for your feedbacks!
@hugo1306 thank you for the clue, I'll add the falling auto restart in an other version :)
@celuloide Indeed, it seems that the timeline is confusing for some testers... My thought on this was to add a ghost appearing at the player position during a very short time every 1 or 2 seconds to break the confusion. (and add a grid to the timeline with seconds to make sure you can understand it is not related to scene width)
Nate Wert
07. Oct 2020 · 14:42 UTC
The art was absolutely beautifuly. It gave the game such a nice feel coupled with the audio. My only suggestion would be to add something so the player would know where they were when creating the loop. Currently the loop is actually really close to where the player will be if you keep running, but its slightly faster so it would be nice to know precisely where you are. (Actually now that I'm looking at the comments it looks like you plan to add a ghost, great idea I think that will make this game even better). Overall this game was very fun to play. Nice Job!
zimny11
08. Oct 2020 · 18:01 UTC
The art style is simply amazing! I've seen similar ideas in other games in this game jam, but this one is probably best executed so far! The player's controls feel smooth as well. Everything fits together very well. The one thing I notice is that when you fall of the screen, game doesn't restart immediately but waits for the loop to end.
Lombax
08. Oct 2020 · 23:54 UTC
realy nice game. some level were definetly more challenging then others, but a realy interesting game. didnt get any bugs on the web version.
GameFriend
09. Oct 2020 · 08:09 UTC
Very clean game, well done! I enjoyed playing this. Everything looked good and the sound effects were okay. The saws kinda got annoying, but it's better than nothing at all. The whole planning your movements gimmick was challenging, but cool and relatively well implemented. Sometimes my right arrow wouldn't show up if I was holding it down from what I would guess was the previous scene. Regardless, the movement felt pretty good to me, even if it was challenging not seeing where I was.
Haustgeirr
09. Oct 2020 · 08:55 UTC
Really nice game, great art style and mechanic. I ended up playing it a bit like a rhythm game, really rewarding to play. Really enjoyed the sass from the totem. Top notch effort!
mahalis
10. Oct 2020 · 17:24 UTC
This is cool! Really original concept—a bit like classic programming games but more analog. It is pretty hard; I think one thing that would help with that a lot is being able to see the previous track you made when setting up a new one, so you could more easily see where to adjust your previous timing. The visuals are simple but well-polished, and the sounds are good too; this has a ton of potential. Nice work.