The Basement by Geckoo1337
Hello everyone. This is almost the end of the 47th LudumDare session and it was cool. I really appreciated the main theme which has been chosen by the community - Stuck In A Loop. I did an experimental game - something weird. You can explore some non-Euclidean rooms, changing your gravity, enabling doors, passing through portals, etc - until you reach the core. You stuck in a loop because the main gameplay creates some 3d maze and (even for me sometimes) it is really hard to understand where we are. Try it, explore the basement - and find the core. There is a full explanation when you start a game. Thank you ++
WASD to move and Spacebar to jump,
Click using LMB on the AllSeeingEye so as to change your gravity,
Right Mouse Button to take a purple cube,
Left Mouse Button to put a cube,
R to restart level and Escape to quit game.
Explanation : Many players did not understand how works gravity control on walls (the AllSeeingEye). It's a pity because you cannot proceed further. When you click on one of them, you change your gravity according its normal/angle. So if you are walking on a AllSeeingEye sprite, you have already the same gravity. Click on the AllSeeingEyes sprites which are on walls or roof. Have fun ++
Code and Level Design by Geckoo1337
Objects have been created by Tim6kya using Blender
| Youtube | https://geckoo1337.itch.io/the-basement |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/the-basement |
Ratings
| Overall | 326th | 3.865⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 750th | 3.385⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 177th | 3.942⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 390th | 3.96⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 220th | 4.222⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 501th | 3.5⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 231th | 3.944⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 24🗳️ | 27🗨️ |
There is a few things that makes it a bit hard to understand:
- first how to pick the cube, as right clic is not really intuitive (maybe the text should precise "left to put" and "right to pick") and just using left clic for both would have been better I think, and having a little feedback when you are close enough (like a "pick" text :p)
- then using the allseeingeye was not intuitive and it took me a while to actually active one. I didn't see any hint on why some works in some gravity and some don't. Again a visual prompt would fix that but then maybe it would be less mysterious and "slow but exiting when you understand"
- you don't precise 'r' for restart while you can get stuck pretty easily, maybe you should add it to the game description
But all-in-all it's very cool and it felt fresh even while I have lots of experience with those kind of games ;)
Visual and mood are good and works to give a disturbing ambiance while providing "some" visual clues to orient yourself. Awesome work!
- Not sure if this was a bug or not but sometimes when clicking on the Eye nothing would happen. One suggestion I'd have is to display the color which the Eye is going to change the room to, sort of a preview of what direction you'll be switching the room to.
- I agree with Nusan about the controls for picking up the object. Feels like it should be either flipped or combined on to one button.
- More visual and audible indications when something has been interacted with.
Again, great job to the team!
Anyway, the graphics and modeling in this game is very aesthetic, and the maze take on portals is creative and implemented really well. It's like solving one of those toy glass sphere mazes where you gotta shake it around to get the ball to the center, but instead you're the ball and my brains the thing being shaken.
The puzzles are maybe a bit too easy, but at the same time, I can appreciate a game not making my brain hurt for once. Played 3 times through thinking with further loops more rooms would unlock or something, but it was the same game, which is fair too.
I think my one nitpick would be to have more feedback for when an object is interactable or when interacting with it doesn't do anything. I wasn't sure if I couldn't interact with an eye because it was too far away. And I also wasn't sure if I could interact with it up close because of some bug...or because I was already in that eye's gravity setting.
Overall, fantastic work!
[EN] Starting to get the hang of it (I would like elements that I can interact with to be outlined in some color, I think I would have an easier time noticing). Hahahahah.
1 - Mecânicas, Aprendizado e Fluxo:
Infelizmente não consegui concluir (fiquei preso na segunda parte).
Tentei muito do que eu imaginei que poderia ser a solução, mas (como sinto enjoo fácil com esse tipo de 3D, acabei tendo que parar sem ver o final (sad)).
Conforme mencionei antes, delimitar com contorno (amarelo por exemplo) tudo que pode sofrer interação teria sido algo que me ajudaria bastante.
Gostaria de ter sido apresentado mais lentamente aos desafios e que tivesse um pedido de confirmação ao apertar Escape e [R]; isso porque eu só pretendia tirar a tela cheia (não perder o progresso) e isso acabou me fazendo repetir muita coisa. Hahahahahah.
Algo muito interessante foi a aplicação do tema.
2 - Gráficos, Áudio e Narrativa:
Muito bonitos, com estética interessante e algumas referências simbólicas.
O áudio é simples, gostaria de algo mais na parte sonora para aumentar feedbacks (talvez a sugestão por som substituísse a ideia de contornar elementos supracitada).
Creio que o foco não tenha sido tanto a narrativa, acredito que por não ter finalizado o jogo eu não tenha visto o ambiente como um todo contextualizado.
3 - Cultura:
Bebe de fontes como o jogo Portal (ao que entendi) e outros puzzles do tipo.
4 - Monetização:
Reitero (conforme já mencionei em outros eventos) que seria possível reunir todos os seus jogos em um tipo de compilado ou bundle; creio que assim haveria um conjunto interessante de jogos/desafios que poderiam ser vendidos.
**[EN] Analysis...**
1 - Mechanics, Learning and Flow:
Unfortunately I couldn't finish it (I got stuck in the second part).
I tried a lot of what I imagined could be the solution, but (as I feel easily sick with this type of 3D, I ended up having to stop without seeing the ending (sad)).
As I mentioned before, delimiting with outline (yellow for example) everything that can suffer interaction would have been something that would help me a lot.
I would have liked to be introduced to the challenges more slowly and to have a confirmation request by pressing Escape and [R]; this is because I only intended to take the full screen (not to lose progress) and that ended up making me repeat a lot. Hahahahahah.
Something very interesting was the application of the theme.
2 - Graphics, Audio and Narrative:
Very beautiful, with interesting aesthetics and some symbolic references.
The audio is simple, I would like something more in the sound part to increase feedbacks (perhaps the suggestion for sound would replace the idea of circumventing elements mentioned above).
I believe that the focus was not so much on the narrative, I believe that because I didn't finish the game I didn't see the environment as a contextualized whole.
3 - Culture:
Drink from sources like the Portal game (as I understand it) and other puzzles of the type.
4 - Monetization:
I reiterate (as I mentioned in other events) that it would be possible to combine all your games into one type of compiled or bundle; I think that there would be an interesting set of games/challenges that could be sold.