u died by arcayn

[raw]
made by arcayn for Ludum Dare 46 (JAM)

Read the devlog here

u died is a conceptual genre-mixing game which aims to 'keep alive' two genres close to my heart which don't have much representation these days - text-based adventure games and pure platformers. I hoped to encapsulate the energy of the very first days of game development and really make the player feel like they had stumbled on something ancient. The game you see here is a minimal, immersion-focused, text adventure and the combat system, one of the few things I always find lacking in this genre, is very simplistically replaced with platformer levels - you fail in the level: you lose health. You beat the level: you beat the enemy. These levels are stripped-back, removing all gimmicks and focusing on the core component of moving through a level which is out to get you not through whats in it, but by its layout itself!

Play (kind of) as yourself, someone venturing into long-forgotten games and finding something new! Interact with the game world and talk to your new friend

A picture here

In terms of fitting the theme, I'm mostly looking at it from an abstract position: the act of making the game is "keeping it alive". However, much of the game is focused on protecting someone else whilst you have little option to do anything else, and the questions that raises (at least I hope this is communicated properly). The minimal storyline I do have right now does conclude with something that takes the theme a little further but I'll leave that as a surprise ;)

I'd love in the future to see more interactivity, more dialogue, more rooms, more platformer levels, more objects and most importantly properly flesh out characters and important game events.

The only asset I didn't make myself was the amazing font. Credit to sensi.org for this.

WARNING: the intention is for this to be dark, and without giving too much away, some of the descriptions can me quite graphic so please do make sure to keep this in mind.

Ratings

Overall 576th 3.771⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Fun 970th 3.44⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 371th 3.75⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Theme 2218th 3⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1226th 3.63⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Humor 1377th 2.705⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Mood 366th 3.885⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Given 22🗳️ 22🗨️

Feedback

zondarg
21. Apr 2020 · 12:14 UTC
Wow, this was great - much more than just a text adventure. I much liked the platformer levels, even if I could not get through the one in the shadows room after many, many tries :rofl: so I could not finish the game. But the atmosphere was dense and creepy in the adventure, and the platformer parts are very challenging (in my humble opinion). Also, with the shader effects and increased wobblies and bluriness after being exhausted, this was a very nice touch. Really enjoyed this! Very good work!!! :thumbsup:

(btw: to get more ratings you need to vote others entries to be listed higher and get the required 20 or so votes for a result - it was very hard to find your entry in the zero votes section. :wink:)
edgelord
21. Apr 2020 · 13:36 UTC
I love the graphics
🎤 arcayn
21. Apr 2020 · 13:46 UTC
@zondarg This is such an awesome comment to have received :) Consider my day made! If you have a desperate urge to get to the ending then writing `goalCollision(man)` in the javascript console during a platformer stage will let you win it immediately... :zipper_mouth: (I don't mind a little bit of cheating for a good cause!)
Simply
21. Apr 2020 · 13:48 UTC
Very intresting and fun Game! Well done
tarfield
21. Apr 2020 · 13:51 UTC
There is a lot to do. When the screen started flashing I was positively surprised.
zondarg
21. Apr 2020 · 14:04 UTC
@arcayn Thanks for the hint, I did that to get to see the ending. Very nice! :slight_smile:
🎤 arcayn
21. Apr 2020 · 14:08 UTC
@tarfield in a good way I hope...
mneubrand
21. Apr 2020 · 14:11 UTC
"this is the end for you". nice little platformer/text adventure mixture. the platformer sections took me quite a few tries. very challenging.

i had to reverse engineer some portions. couldn't figure out how to go straight ahead into the "treasure room" or how i get to the state so i can attack the shadow. but it was easy enough to figure out in source code.
🎤 arcayn
21. Apr 2020 · 14:20 UTC
@mneubrand I think one of the main difficulties of making a text adventure in a short period is not having time to write the massive lists of synonyms for each action. I think one of the first things I'll improve is that section to get to the attack state but I'm really glad you enjoyed it enough to dive into the source :)
R3D3R
21. Apr 2020 · 15:16 UTC
Oooooh this looks cool I love the overall look of the old computer hacking style :D Made me feel like a hacker love it xD Hope to see more updates in the future :)
ashashza
21. Apr 2020 · 19:06 UTC
This had quite a bit of atmosphere. I really liked the text effects and how they changed as I failed to navigate platformer sections (which were pretty tough!). I'm pretty sensitive to motion-sickness so the up-down wobble was a bit much for me after a while.

I thought the switch from text to platformer was really neat, I've never seen that before.
🎤 arcayn
21. Apr 2020 · 20:26 UTC
@ashashza thank you! it's so rad you enjoyed playing but I'm sorry to hear you had those issues :(. If you'd like to keep on going without the wobble then opening the javascript console and typing `fuzzController(0,true,true)` will disable the wobbling text (`fuzzController(1,true,true)` will set it to the baseline level) :)
Sandra Jasionowska
24. Apr 2020 · 14:00 UTC
It reminded me of the the text adventures that I played in the childhood. In one of them it was very easy to die :smile: You were a young man, student, who had vacations and he left the house and met some people... Nvm, I'm just rambling.

I like the graphics and text animations.
Did you know you can use creative commons copyright music in Jam tho?
As a programmer I really liked that the console remembered my last typings and I could use them to type the same thing.

It's nice that I have 50 attempts when attacking the troll :smile: Controlling the square was kinda hard, but I guess that was the idea (I'm attacking the troll, right? so...)
And, I'm not good at this :v: I killed the troll on my 28th attempt, and later found some items. But I don't really know how to win! I've seen the cheat command, but I want to win normally. Maybe you could help, please?

Such a nice done game. Very polished. I enjoyed this experience.
colozz
27. Apr 2020 · 11:33 UTC
You tried to keep alive text-based adventure games and platformers, and let me tell you that you did great!

- The text-based adventure is captivating, I really really loved the art of the terminal (this is somethind I tried to do on one of my previous games but you nailed it) and I didn't get stuck searching what to input
- The platformer is challenging (I died 20 times on the first one, if only I had my controller with me, damn you lockdown!)

Overall your game is good, you want to keep working on it? **Please do!**

Fun fact: I closed my shutters just before playing this game, I'd recommend anyone playing it to do so
🎤 arcayn
27. Apr 2020 · 13:34 UTC
@colozz I was wondering whether to request it to be played in a darkened room in the help file... I'm really glad you enjoyed it!

@sandra-jasionowska I completely forgot about the audio until an hour before the deadline and couldn't wrangle with the HTML API properly to get the mood music I would have liked :((

In terms of winning (spoilers!): take the items and leave the room with the chest and go back to the landing, then go left. Once you're in there, talk for a while. Once you get a response I hope the rest of the path to the end is clear :smile: (it involves another fight...)
asfdfdfd
27. Apr 2020 · 19:57 UTC
Love idea but this text moving up and down, ouch.
maxtgax
27. Apr 2020 · 21:39 UTC
i cant make anything happen in the platformer levels

but it's a great game!
unfinished
27. Apr 2020 · 21:43 UTC
It seems that I cannot see the player. I made a screenshot.. is it supposed to look this way? ![bug.jpg](///raw/895/2/z/33705.jpg)
BoxedMeatRevolution
27. Apr 2020 · 21:53 UTC
Made it to the end. What a twist :scream: :skull_crossbones: :scream:
I liked the text effect, I thought it added to the atmosphere.
🎤 arcayn
27. Apr 2020 · 22:02 UTC
@maxtgax @unfinished aaaah!!!!! let me see what i can do :) what browser are you using?
🎤 arcayn
27. Apr 2020 · 22:02 UTC
does the console show any output?
🎤 arcayn
27. Apr 2020 · 22:07 UTC
@maxtgax @unfinished earlier today i tried to fix some bugs with input from controllers but it may have broken the game for older browsers 😭

I've done some testing on edge and I think it could be it... I'd only tested on firefox and chrome!

I've disabled controller input for now again, it should work :)
🎤 arcayn
27. Apr 2020 · 22:08 UTC
@boxedmeatrevolution thank you!!! im glad you enjoyed
🎤 arcayn
27. Apr 2020 · 22:16 UTC
@unfinished @maxtgax (make sure you ctrl+f5!)
unfinished
29. Apr 2020 · 10:13 UTC
Overall a nice game 🤗.. had fun playing it. I did not quite get where the man that I have to save is coming from. He is suddenly just there. Maybe a story bug? Also you could work on the controls which are quite fiddle. But all in all a great game, I like the minimalistic style and the focus on core gameplay.
Artur Hawkwing
30. Apr 2020 · 04:05 UTC
Super creative game! I love the combination of game-types, and the writing is great. And I must say, that troll was hard to beat!
Defiant Genesis
06. May 2020 · 00:44 UTC
I loved this game! It was quite the challenge but I worked through it. Just when I thought I was doing good I think I accidentally killed the man I was supposed to protect. oops! The graphics were wonderful and I'm glad people are still making platformers and text adventure games like this!
yellow
06. May 2020 · 04:18 UTC
Because of the language, I can't play this game very well, but I tried my best. I like this graphics very much.
kristinamay
12. May 2020 · 03:38 UTC
I love text adventures! My first LD game was also a text adventure with some quirks in how text displayed. :) Yours was much more impressive, though :laughing: even though the platforming bits were super tough.