Ashes to Ash by johnfn

[raw]
made by johnfn for Ludum Dare 45 (JAM)

You find a torn piece of paper with a poem on it:

Ashes to ash, dust to dust,
Eventually we all end up blind.
But when that time comes, no need to be afraid
'Cause I swear I won’t leave you behind.

Below the poem you see 5 signatures.


Ashes to Ash is a game about frogs.

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ashestoash5.gif

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Team Star Star:

All of the music, art, code, and level design was created by the team over the 72 hour compo period.

Ratings

Overall 330th 3.658⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Fun 801th 2.974⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 841th 2.816⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Theme 274th 3.722⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 73th 4.342⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Audio 6th 4.368⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Humor 201th 3.5⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Mood 78th 4.053⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Given 5🗳️ 7🗨️

Feedback

Clara Perrissol
08. Oct 2019 · 07:30 UTC
Nice game, I love the atmosphere !
theomaniacal
08. Oct 2019 · 07:40 UTC
Great job! I greatly enjoyed the dialogue and music.

The instructions for vine climbing state "W/A", but I'm sure you guys meant "W/S". The jumping felt a bit strange, but other than some small stuff, I was impressed!
kr0s
08. Oct 2019 · 07:44 UTC
Awesome game, great writing. It would be nice to see this game outside of a jam.
philomory
08. Oct 2019 · 07:58 UTC
The game is pretty good, and I like the writing, but, the _music_ is _really_ nice. I was not expecting that.

Also I feel like I might have missed some secrets or something, I may come back to check it out again down the road.
Nek
08. Oct 2019 · 07:58 UTC
Skate jesus is my new religion, liked the game overall, however i got glitched into the terrain sometimes and the game crashed when i got the "remorse".
Ongomato
08. Oct 2019 · 08:11 UTC
Pretty good game, nice soundtrack(dynamic music👍), the story is interesting, good job!
There is a few confusing moments with the interactions. first one is when you've already spoken to Ash the "Press X to interact" sign stays enabled. The second one is lenses don't give feedback on what can or can't be interacted with. Oh and the last one, when you jump, camera goes too high and you can't really see where to land.
Other than that, great entry!
congusbongus
08. Oct 2019 · 08:36 UTC
Outstanding presentation on this game, especially the music and art, they are fantastic! You really out to create some nice screenshots and cover art for this entry, and link to your team members' portfolios. Great work!
Celdur
08. Oct 2019 · 09:39 UTC
I have to agree that the music and art are really great in this. The controls and movement could've used a little polish though, but I know how these things go.
Also, aside from changing the music, which was a really nice touch, the lenses didn't really do much? At least, I didn't need them as far as I could tell.
Lucien Catonnet
12. Oct 2019 · 10:51 UTC
Very cute graphics, awesome music, good writing, not-so-good controls. It surprised me that when using a lense, pressing the key for another lense doesn't work, you have to disable the current lense before enabling another one, which felt clunky. I wish lenses showed what I could interact with that would have different results, I kept talking to people again with lenses but it never changed anything. I didn't get what the top-right crystal on the screen meant?
velvetlobster
14. Oct 2019 · 03:32 UTC
how had I not seen this game is beyond me ... this looks the kind of thing I would love to play ... you can feel the Undertale vibe on it from the start .... and you have multiple tunes, how amazing!

The idea with the compassion and affection lens was clever and feels like "Nino kuni" ...
The metaphors about emotions being used as items is something with a lot of narrative potential, that in your game makes me thing of "Figment", which is a great game!

I found some bugs as in every ludum dare game, as it is to be expected, one of them made me go through a wall and I had to go all the way from the beginning ... as I was quite enjoying my experience so that was not a problem tbh

This wall was the culprit

![Screenshot Capture - 2019-10-14 - 00-17-02.png](///raw/0e4/e/z/298e1.png)

folks this game is sweet, lovely, has one of the most incredible soundtracks and the most amazing characters

![Screenshot Capture - 2019-10-14 - 00-19-14.png](///raw/0e4/e/z/298e2.png)


![Screenshot Capture - 2019-10-14 - 00-14-46.png](///raw/0e4/e/z/298e3.png)

And overall it is so relaxing that I just want to chill, walk around this world and enjoy the music

I would really like to have a full version with the vibe I see in this one, so I just followed you on itch.io so I don't miss in case you decide to evolve on it

Congratulations for this work of art!
Amerigo Gazaway
14. Oct 2019 · 06:33 UTC
Lovely game, def reminds me of Undertale as well. Did you use middleware fro the interactive music? Fantastic art + soundtrack!
Jupiter_Hadley
22. Oct 2019 · 14:57 UTC
Cute graphics. I included it in my Ludum Dare 45 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look :) https://youtu.be/zqhSjSyg75I