HAL 2020 by OveRMolo

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

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ib6aZ9VUwbo

23/04/2020 Update: transition added after the player access to Hal's room​.

No special instructions to play. If you want to quit, just press Esc.

The game poses an ethical dilemma for the player: he will have to choose between 3 options:

  • Disconnect HAL successfully and save yourself and your partner's life.

  • attempt to disconnect HAL and fail, killing the player and his partner.

  • Do not disconnect HAL and continue living even though the partner dies

Assets: all assets were made for the jam except 3 sounds (from Universal Sound FX Unity Pack) and the typo font (Style-7, Sizenko Alexander)

Duration: 5 minutes. Game developed by J. Felipe Molina https://twitter.com/OveR_Software

Ratings

Overall 2412th 2.75⭐ 50🧑‍⚖️
Fun 2503th 2.177⭐ 50🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 2080th 2.811⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1531th 3.521⭐ 49🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1927th 3⭐ 50🧑‍⚖️
Audio 836th 3.394⭐ 49🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1048th 3.479⭐ 50🧑‍⚖️
Given 36🗳️ 64🗨️

Feedback

sadzanenyama
21. Apr 2020 · 14:32 UTC
Having to wait for Hal to finish speaking was a bit boring so perhaps his text could be speed up with a button? I also didn't really understand the puzzle of shutting Hal down. I haven't watched the movie so maybe I didn't get it? The mood and graphics were very nice though.

Nice job!
megamasterx
21. Apr 2020 · 14:36 UTC
Quite an interesting take on this theme! Admittedly I jumped right in and got immensely confused on the disconnect procedures but understood after a few failures. Aesthetically, this title nails it and you managed to create an air of panic pretty well. Good work!
Voidsay
21. Apr 2020 · 14:46 UTC
Great job with the audio!

Game itself is very basic, but it is improbable to beat it on the first try.

*Spoiler*
If anyone wonders the puzzle solution is:
1-4-9-13-19
sunnray
21. Apr 2020 · 14:54 UTC
I understand that to solve a puzzle you need to pull the parts in the right order, but there are too many to choose from in just one minute. Maybe there was a prompt at some point about what the order should be, but I didn't get it. Overall, nice atmosphere, and the choice of sounds is good.
🎤 OveRMolo
21. Apr 2020 · 15:01 UTC
Thank you very much for your comments. I know the puzzle it's tricky. The idea was to have a kind of "manual of operations" but I had no time.
Qux
21. Apr 2020 · 15:30 UTC
In my opinion, the UI is not very clear about what is to be done.
But I guess it's more about ambiance than gameplay, so for that audio and graphics do the job!
GreenDinoGames
21. Apr 2020 · 15:36 UTC
Nice entry! I found it very hard to get the correct order, so i needed a few attempts. But the difficulty keeps you playing, because you want to beat the game :) Good job!
jamesterjim
21. Apr 2020 · 16:27 UTC
Took me a while to figure out what to click on but I really liked the challenge - now I want to go and watch Space Odyssey! Great jam!
Cicero
21. Apr 2020 · 22:28 UTC
Great ambience and a really interesting concept, took we a while to figure out!
shayan_ebz78
22. Apr 2020 · 16:11 UTC
at first i got confused and didn't know where should i click, but after some time i understood, i decided to disconnect the devise for both of us (: script was fun tho. nice job!
Brickington
22. Apr 2020 · 16:20 UTC
Very tense, though i managed to glitch the game out on my first try by rushing and opening then immidiatly closing the console while hal was talking :P
0x01F0
22. Apr 2020 · 17:10 UTC
the itch site is down? :<

![firefox_Fa1np5nG05.png](///raw/2cf/z/32702.png)
Primum Ludum
22. Apr 2020 · 17:11 UTC
I liked the idea, but if the game would be longer, it'll be awesome!
MuchoBestoStudio
22. Apr 2020 · 17:56 UTC
Interesting idea of doing an ethical dilemma for the player. But for some players like me, this is not a dilemma. If I doesn't disconnect HAL, I will have the death of my partner on consciousness and nothing guarantee me that HAL can't kill me after. So, let's go disconnecting HAL.😬

Your story and audio is excellent and put quickly the player in the ambiance. Gameplay is simple, I would like to see more puzzles but I know that it was not your priority. Showing the button "Open Console" at the beginning can skip the story and doesn't put the dilemma to the player. If the button was "Skip dialog" (during the dialog), it will be better for player because if they want to understand, they don't have to skip the dialog.
Hexa3
22. Apr 2020 · 18:48 UTC
I played it few times to understand, what the HAL is going on))
MrHassanSan
23. Apr 2020 · 21:43 UTC
Nice atmosphere! I might be cool if there were options for the player to engage in dialogue with HAL, to further explore the ethical dilemma.
treska
24. Apr 2020 · 16:41 UTC
Super cool the way it lights up in the beginning. I think people who are unfamiliar with 2001 would be quite confused (yes they exist somehow). Also I am familiar and was still confused oops. I think I got impatient and just clicked on what I could too early. I think offering explicit feedback for your actions while still allowing for some corrections would be very helpful.
Elektroney
24. Apr 2020 · 20:18 UTC
Gj keep it up
Clockmaker
24. Apr 2020 · 21:54 UTC
the atmosphere was quite nice but it took me time to figure out what to do
notapixelstudio
24. Apr 2020 · 21:59 UTC
Is the HTML5 version working? I couldn't understand what to do besides opening the console.
0x01F0
25. Apr 2020 · 13:53 UTC
I love text prompts like these! :D
very atmospheric :) I can hear HAL's voice from the movie in my head when he prompts. (/▽\)
🎤 OveRMolo
25. Apr 2020 · 15:40 UTC
@notapixelstudio thank you for playing. When you open the console, a group of grey bars appear. These bars are the different modules of HAL and you have to press them in the correct order.
It's a reference of the film: https://youtu.be/I1iRWKARwTY?t=75

I know it's not very well explained, I had no time for more but I will expand the game with more dialogues and options.

I want to thank everybody for playing!
sndr
25. Apr 2020 · 23:13 UTC
Wow, definitely a different and unique take on the theme. I loved playing a game that was playing me.

The mood was set quite successfully, a mixture between HAL's subtle sounds, the pace of the text rendering on screen and... well, the actual content of the message of course. Probably helped the fact that I already knew what to expect from HAL.

Cool entry!
PeterBuo
28. Apr 2020 · 04:10 UTC
Great work
AryanJumani
28. Apr 2020 · 15:36 UTC
The UI is not self explanatory as what to do in the game, there should be an escape button to skip the intro and just play the game, took me a little while to understand what to do. The description above also does not give any hint as to what to do in the game. Otherwise the graphics and audio were really good!!