1922: The Unfortunate Olympian by Mark Keeble
This is my first game jam and I had a ton of fun with the game. It's definitely a little rough around the edges but I'm still proud of what I accomplished alongside my teammates.
Story: It's 1922 and you have the honor of carrying the torch across the great metropolitan plane. As you're running, carelessly I might add, you trip and fall into a manhole that was left open by some lackadaisical construction workers. You're stuck, at the bottom of a reasonably sized sewer-system, infested with green slime and overflowing with water. You have only the waning light of your torch keeping you safe.
You have to traverse through the sewer, jumping from platform to platform, and from platform to ladder, and maybe even ladder to platform... Keep safe, and keep your torch out of the water.
Keep the torch ALIVE!

Made for Ludum Dare (46)
Controls:
Move Left - A
Move Right - D
Jump - Space
Float (In Water) - Space
Climb Ladder - W
Aim Torch with your mouse
Throw your torch by either holding left-click for a second then release for maximum power, or just click for a weak throw.
Pick your torch back up - E
Tools: Unity Visual Studio 2019 FL Studio Audacity Piskel
Credits: Programming: Or1beau Visuals: Tipiika A Single Sound: Mo
| Youtube | https://or1beau.itch.io/1922-the-unfortunate-olympian |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/1922-the-unfortunate-olympian |
Ratings
| Overall | 1857th | 3.217⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 1789th | 3.043⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 2092th | 2.804⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 1610th | 3.478⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 853th | 3.875⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 936th | 3.31⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 862th | 3.583⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 25🗳️ | 18🗨️ |
And yeah, I was aware of the fact that you could get locked out of areas and wanted to fix it but just didn't have time. I'm probably gonna atleast fix the controls and the lockout, and who knows, maybe I'll try to flesh out the idea a little bit more.
Good art/atmosphere though.
Anyways, that was a fun game, nice job!
I have two things I think you can improve:
- The controls are super weird, make it that 'W' and 'Space' will do the same thing (it's pretty confusing to have Space for jumping and W for ladders)
- Make the water physics better, right now you can get into a loop that you start floating normally and as you float you're getting deeper and deeper and get out of the water higher and higher
But overall, it's a really fun and cute game, especially for your first Ludum Dare game, good job :D
I found graphics very pleasant and I wish there were more sounds/background music to compliment the atmosphere. The concept is quite fun and funny. I, sadly, had a pretty buggy experience with the game itself. For example:
- I pressed a valve to "empty the room" and first of all, the room didn't empty and second of all, my torch went out for some reason when I pressed the valve.
- Many times, the water didn't seem to spawn at all. I was in a room where my character was even mentioning that I can float with space but there was no water. That made the room impossible to finish.
- I saw a wall close behind me, yet it just disappeared when I went a bit further and came back.
I am a proper bug magnet :wink:
To be more precise, I launched the game three times and I never managed to go far.
- The first time, everything is fine at the start, I finish the tutorial and start the "real" game. However, comes the first time when the water rises and there, I get lost between being able to swim / float in the water and the fact that I have a ladder right in front of me that doesn't work when you're in the water. After that, I continued and ended up falling between a platform at 1 block high, a wall and a ladder in front of me. And there, whatever actions I do, nothing works. So I leave the game by forcing the closure because, I did not find an option to leave the game.
- The second time, I repeat the tutorial and I block at the end because the water doesn't want rise to kill me and allow me to continue. And then again, I force the game to close.
- The third is similar, to the second except that, I manage to bug the door of the last by activating it by entering and exiting as early. So the door doesn't stop. But otherwise, same bug as before, the water does not go up I force the closing of the game.
Otherwise, overall, I think I would liked the game if the bugs had not prevented me to go forward and the absence of a sound atmosphere (or it's very weak) is felt.
Yeah the game is really buggy, idk what to say other than that haha. It sucks because I myself really like the concept of the game and the art my partner made, and it feels like all the bugs take away from the experience. For that, I'm sorry.
At some point in the future, I'll probably return to the project and remake a lot of the systems in place to make the game at least playable. Ideally though, I already have some ideas in mind for modifications to how the water works as well as most importantly, how I can code the doors in a less stupid way lmao!
Regardless, once again, thank you all for your time, I really do appreciate it!
At first I did not know that the torch should be grasped with the E.
The art and the accompanying text were very well the same.
Nice job.