Embers by Anuke
Keep the fire burning, craft tools and fend off enemies for as long as possible. Play it here.


Tools used: - Framework: Custom, Java (code is somewhat based on libGDX) - Dungeon generation: SquidLib - Art: Aseprite (pixel), GIMP (general purpose), Krita (logo) - Sounds: sfxia - Music: LMMS (slapped together in less than half an hour, I apologize) - IDE: IntelliJ
Changelog: - Added Java version download to itch.io; identical to web version in terms of content. - Critical issue: Fixed keyboard focus (WASD) randomly not working on web. - Removed the startup dialog mentioning keyboard focus (as it was only there to warn users of the bug above) - Fixed a crash in the web version caused by breaking crates
| Youtube | https://github.com/Anuken/LudumDare46 |
| Youtube | https://anuke.itch.io/embers |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/embers-2 |
Ratings
| Overall | 54th | 4.049⭐ | 247🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 185th | 3.738⭐ | 248🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 344th | 3.516⭐ | 246🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 119th | 4.108⭐ | 247🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 28th | 4.423⭐ | 249🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 60th | 3.949⭐ | 245🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 609th | 2.55⭐ | 201🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 47th | 4.101⭐ | 245🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 10🗳️ | 1🗨️ |
👍Randomly generated map gives replay value and gives a sense of exploration
👎Could include a map/minimap since the world is quite mazelike
This is the game I wish I made. I'm archiving this page to play more later.
Good job. I love it.
(Loading time can't be helped but WASD needs some work though. It didn't work on my first try.)
I'm not sure if it has an ending though? I played for 15mins but I think I still had many places left unexplored.
I did end up simply exploring and seeing what I can find. Feeding the fire just wasn't fun at all. The concept of having only one item that you can hold and use while exploring a world was neat and I think there's something to it!
Special thanks for the settings.
Snowmans nearly always drop keys. I lost the screenshot but my base was filled with keys. And chances of the dropping wood was soo rare. I only encountered like 3 probably. They dropped a lot of stones tho.
Pathfinding needs some tweaking, maybe game slowly shifting to a idle game like forager where you set your torches, and enemies will come and die automatically, giving you resources etc. Most of the snowmans got stuck and never reached the base.
Anyways, I probably exceeded the games's regular play time haha. One of my favorites. Keep making games!
Amazing job!
In short i bloody loved this little game.
I love the art, the atmosphere, the mechanics, it's really well made - good job!
Would REALLY like to see an expanded version of this for steam
but yes-- wonderful job, love your art, everything comes together super nicely! couldn't expect better from a compo!
Great job!!!
Again just ... wow. Awesome game!
The art is really good, the visual and audio feedbacks are great, the gameplay is simple enough with a bit of cryptic discoveries with the crafting and purple rocks.
I had trouble understanding the difference between Amber's life and the fire life at first.
Thank you for the game, I liked it a lot!
I'd REALLY love an inventory system, since it's a bit bothersome to go exploring further and be able to only take one item with you back to the base.
I can imagine that it can get made with good management. She need torches around the fire and also an axe to chop trees.
-It felt counterproductive that the game has a huge focus on exploring, but you force the player to keep backtracking to the fire. This made it feel very tedious since about half the game becomes backtracking. A clear goal other than to survive might have made this more interesting.
-The "combat" was strange. I felt like since you were literally a character made of fire, you should have just made her throw fire at them instead of throwing rocks and stuff. Seems like a huge missed opportunity to throw some cool fireballs.
-While the controls and art were quite fluid, the atmosphere and gameplay felt slow.
-Maps were unnecessarily big. Considering how much backtracking is encouraged, there is basically no reason to go far from the campfire and it would only make it more difficult.
Overall, cool experience, but would need some reconsidering of the overall design.
- Keys, diminishing resources and finding new resources pushes you outwards to explore,
- having to regularely return to the fire to replenish it and yourself keeps you from exploring far, and
- only being able to carry one thing at a time makes all of that a chore, more so the further away it is.
Don't get me wrong though, the current experience is still enjoyable and *extremely* impressive for one person in a 48h jam. The art is impeccable, the music is great (half an hour? Get out of here...), the sfx work super well, and the atmosphere created by all these combined is one of the best I've seen in this LD. And on top of that, well-working procedural map generation, different enemies and crafting? Fantastic job!
It still has a few corners and edges where you can get some more out with a little more time.
For me it is in many ways the best I have tried so far.
Bonus points for keeping it simple on controls!
- Tone down on the button mashing for rock breaking.
- I was confused if the top bar was my heat or the fire's
- Maybe add a final goal, sort of a win condition.
Again, loved the idea, expanding this to add some sort of automation to keep the fire alive while you dump logs into a chest, the torch being sort of an automatic defense, absolutely perfect.