The Light House Keeper by kenevil1

[raw]
made by kenevil1 for Ludum Dare 59 (JAM)

He's been tending to the beacon, feeding the lanterns, and fighting off the ghosts that want to claim his lighthouse for themselves for forty years. And he'll do it for forty more if it means his one true love makes it back to him someday. He's salty, he's grumpy, and he's hungry for vengeance (maybe a little too hungry).

He is:

title page low res.PNG

Featuring original, hand-crafted music, voice acting, and art! (No AI used)

It's another dark and stormy night and you, The Keeper, must get to the top of the lighthouse to relight it by any cost. One problem: the ghosts, ghouls, and other unnamed horrors beyond your comprehension have seized this opportunity to crawl out of the depths to try and take over!

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Fight through hordes of enemies to make your way up the tower, lighting your way with conveniently placed lanterns. Will you save the tower from falling into the hands of your sworn enemies? Will you finally be able to guide your long-lost love back to you?


Instructions: WASD to Move Shift to Dash G to Throw Weapon E to Pickup Weapon


Credits:

kenevil1: developer, gameplay design

Vinnnie: developer, gameplay design, voice

Rise12600: Lead artist, character design, environmental design, animation

HalfPintofBitter: music, voice, sound

Hungsin: 2D art, level design

nextnoon: 2D art, voice, story

Ratings

Overall 546th 3.417⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Fun 389th 3.433⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 747th 2.733⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Theme 715th 2.967⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 573th 3.433⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Audio 312th 3.567⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Humor 208th 3.426⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Mood 386th 3.69⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Given 25🗳️ 36🗨️

Feedback

Gamcho
Apr 21st · 01:44 UTC
Cool! the fighting feeling is good.
LDJam user 428140
Apr 21st · 01:49 UTC
ITS DARKER THAN DAVYS DORMITORY!!! Fun game! The busy backgrounds made things a little hard to see but other than that you nailed the Hotline Miami feel and the bloodsplats were sick!
LDJam user 395656
Apr 21st · 01:50 UTC
Nice! It was a little hard to see the braziers, but I'd imagine that's mostly due to the size of the HTML embed. other than that, feels pretty good!
penagwin
Apr 21st · 01:58 UTC
It's pretty fun! A bit like hotline miami. I do agree with some of the other comments that the braziers could be a bit more clear, it took me a minute to figure out what I was supposed to be doing. The art is pretty thematic which is nice
rta228
Apr 21st · 01:59 UTC
Fighting mechanic feels amazing... Reminds me of Hotline Miami. There is only one small issue, that is that sometimes it is hard to see something. But other than that it is very solid
DontGiveUpBoy
Apr 21st · 11:57 UTC
I can't find the lantern! I can't see the walls. Make it in other color palette please. I am stucking in door holes sometimes. But i loved the combat fealings. And i respect your jobs with art and voice.

Oh! I find a lantern! It is in bathroom! but i can't take it!
a333
Apr 21st · 13:07 UTC
Rusty salty brawler with some pretty darn good music! Fighting felt yarrrrr! Noisy walls blending with background felt uggh! 8/10!
Eugenik
Apr 21st · 19:13 UTC
The moody, desperate atmosphere of the lighthouse is fantastic. The care taken with the hand-crafted music really builds into that sense of eternal vigil. This gave me a wonderfully spooky experience!
ChknTikka
Apr 21st · 20:34 UTC
Love the atmosphere, the combat feels great. Audio is also really well done, overall I really enjoyed it. Only gripe is that I did struggle to see walls sometimes.
LDJam user 426288
Apr 22nd · 07:52 UTC
The character and story design are really interesting, but the setup of the case is a bit awkward. It’s not very easy to press G and E to control the weapons. 🤔
chakramgl
Apr 22nd · 16:31 UTC
Great atmosphere and a familiar combat system. The music and visual style really enhance the mood. I like that the main character fights with a ship anchor.

It was hard for me to see what was going on — the visuals are not very clear, and personally I felt there wasn’t enough feedback from the game, especially in combat.

Special respect for the voice acting!
Xiao Duye
Apr 23rd · 04:00 UTC
The combat feels very satisfying, and the retro art style is fantastic. The sound design and voice acting are especially impressive. My only suggestion would be to differentiate the color of the walls or barriers a bit more, as I often couldn’t clearly see the path ahead and only realized there was a wall when I ran into it.Overall, it’s a super great game!
borjaparraga
Apr 23rd · 11:50 UTC
Good combat, cool atmosphere and overall good game! It has some old school rol game vibes mixed with frenetic action!
OttoBroccoli
Apr 23rd · 14:15 UTC
A very atmospheric adventure. At first it really reminded me of Hotline Miami, but as I progressed, the atmosphere and story started to evoke something more Lovecraft-like. Excellent work!
VenomousMouse
Apr 23rd · 16:01 UTC
Nice game, good combat, but a bit more clarity would be nice. I needed some time to adjust and understand what i`m seeing. And even at that point, when u move the walls are totally smudged.
nextnoon
Apr 23rd · 16:38 UTC
@OttoBroccoli @penagwin @jpat We were definitely very inspired by Hotline Miami. It's a huge compliment that it comes across ^_^

@jpat @jungledorf @rta228 @chakramgl @xiao-duye The colour did get a little messed up by the HTML, but we'll make sure to account for that next time!

@venomousmouse @shivvvy Thanks for the feedback! We'll put some more care into making sure the controls are good next time around.

Huge thanks to everyone for posting their feedback! We loved making the game and we are glad to see people have enjoyed it enough to comment and give us things to improve on!
fabelay
Apr 23rd · 17:00 UTC
I couldn't decypher what is walkable area and what is a wall until I finally found some clues, lol! Other than that it was actually fun and the best was the splatter decals! That was pretty impressive! Also bonus points for voice acting!
Nellaskg
Apr 23rd · 17:10 UTC
Nice game ! Graphics are pretty cool!
FLemming1k
Apr 24th · 01:10 UTC
Nice graphics, sound design and visual effects, though visuals, in my opinion, need more clarity
Alex de la Cour
Apr 28th · 12:54 UTC
Incredible dialogue! I really loved all the little turns of phrase. Wall tiles definitely needed to be clearer, I kept walking into them or accidentally walking into a room and backing myself into a corner.
LDJam user 413537
Apr 29th · 19:50 UTC
Loved the vibe of this one. Weird in a very good way)
Alexandr Gerya
May 05th · 14:26 UTC
ran into walls for 10 mins straight cause everything blends together once i figured it out tho the combat clicked hard