Magic Escape by Xephrys
Probably one of the most classic takes on "start with nothing": Escape the room! Here you are locked inside a witch cottage, and you should probably get out (by problem solving and magical hijinks) before the witch wakes up. Music is just me plonking away on my trusty kalimba at 11 pm. Also, nothing could stop me from making a halloween themed game so there's that.
Made with Construct 2 (If you want to replay after escaping you have to reload page, ran out of time to do proper reset)
Bugs: some items will duplicate or become available again, as a rule i never touch up my games after compo is over so there will be no bug fixes :)
Ratings
| Overall | 201th | 3.523⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 165th | 3.435⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 440th | 2.543⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 380th | 2.978⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 14th | 4.348⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 107th | 3.522⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 215th | 2.65⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 21th | 4.065⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 21🗳️ | 8🗨️ |
The mood is absolutely great, graphics are super cute and music is perfect for the game. Got stuck a bit when I had almost everything (spoiler: I was just missing the log), but not long enough for it to be frustrating :) Congrats, awesome short game!
Fun: I'm not huge into escape games, significantly because the ones I've played don't seem to have a lot of logic to them - I just click at everything until I make progress. This game is pleasing in that regard: it doesn't take long before we have enough information to know what we need to do. On the other hand, I guess I didn't feel very challenged. The game is also quite short. (BTW, is there anything I can do with the mouse?)
Innovation: For an escape game, the innovation question is about whether the puzzles are original and creative. I'd say so - I haven't seen these puzzles (not that I've played many escape games).
Theme: Sure.
Graphics: Can't fault it. One of the best looking Ludum Dare games I've ever seen. And this is a compo game! Extraordinary.
Audio: The music is perfect for this. I think it would be nice to have some sound effects for successful actions.
Humor: The instructions are pretty funny, but this is no time to be laughing!
Mood: A wonderful spooky feeling thanks to the art and the music.
There were some minor issues with the inventory items. I noticed (particularily on the wood piece for the torch) that it sometimes didn't revert back to the inventory, and I could place it in the world). Also, the hitboxes sometimes were a bit off as they wouldn't respond when I clicked on something.
Game was short, but I enjoyed the time I spent with it. Puzzles were logical and not too difficult or abstract. Good game.