HORIZON'S CALL by deadjolly
After waking up on a beach, a strange device guides you into a tropical wonderland. Will it point you to paradise? Or is there some other unworldly presence lurking deep within the jungles of this mysterious island?
Will you answer the Horizon's Call?! Headphones recommended.
On a beach, somewhere...?
A curious machine hidden in the jungle lies dormant
The device lights the way forward, but best avoid whatever's causing interference!
Thanks for playing!
CONTROLS:
KEYBOARD: - WASD - MOVE - Mouse - LOOK - LMB - SCAN - RMB - VIEW - Shift - SPRINT - Space - JUMP
CREDITS: - Art, Design, & Sound FX _ _| @deadjolly - Programming, Design, & Sound FX _ _| @cody-raethke
KNOWN ISSUES: - Nothing at the moment, you tell us!
CHANGELOG:
4.20.26 | 1.0 - First version published
4.20.26 | 1.1 - Added missing textures
4.25.26 | 1.2 - Adjusted scanner indications - Adjusted glyph locations - Adjusted level layout - Fixed floating meshes (trees, bushes, suitcases)
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/horizons-call |
Ratings
| Overall | 359th | 3.655⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 483th | 3.293⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 430th | 3.379⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 238th | 4.052⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 257th | 4.067⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 186th | 3.845⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 250th | 3.931⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 33🗳️ | 41🗨️ |
The game is intentionally designed to be a bit of a mystery/puzzle, with the player discovering where they are, why they're there, and what the device they're carrying does. That said, we probably need to make it a little more obvious.
HINT: the device in your hand is the key. Try holding it up as you walk around, and pay close attention to what happens when you press the button while walking around, as well as what you see on the screen!
@matt-swieboda Thank you for playing! We've added another version that is hopefully more clear now, would love to get a second look from someone who played the 1.1 version.
@furyohfury As mentioned we've updated the game with a second version that hopefully addresses some of your feedback, and would love if you gave it another shot! Thanks for playing!
@Julester 1.2 version has addressed some of the early feedback, would love if you gave it another go. Thanks for your feedback!
@verttixpertti Awesome that you finished it! Thanks for persevering! We've updated the game to try and take your feedback into account. Thank you for the detailed breakdown and we're glad you enjoyed the narrative loop!
@conduit-games That's some high praise, thank you for the kind words! We didn't want to rush the player at the beginning and let them figure out what was going on. Hopefully the new version is more apparent. Thank you for playing!
@pixel-studios We've updated the game 1.2 to address some of the early feedback. Would love if you were able to give it another go! Thank you for the feedback!
I played the 1.2 version, so I don't know if you changed anything, but I found the game to be quite intuitive. There was a period at the beginning where I was trying to figure out what was going on, but I thought it was quite clear when what I was seeing through the scanner didn't match what I was seeing on the rest of the screen.
I think that you pulled off the atmosphere/horror-esque vibes quite well. It was quite tense. Good length of game too, the core mechanic didn't get stale (but I think if you had more levels without new mechanics it probably would).
I wonder if there should be some reason to not always have your scanner out though, I was almost entirely looking at its screen, and not much else, since that allowed seeing the goals and the enemies.
Great entry though. The sound through my headphones sounded great, the mechanic was fun to discover, and the world was very pretty!
And if you could rate my game, I'd appreciate it, it has very similar mechanics to yours, haha.
It's certainly kind of counterintuitive at first. I was relieved that death does not revert all progress though.
@bloodcat8090 Thank you!
@ciaranw Only benefit to putting the scanner down is that you can run away faster ;). Thanks for playing!
@leophyte We'll call it horror-adjacent. Thanks for playing!
@valb-soares The scanner will lead you to where you need to go, and there's something about that portal...Thanks for playing, I will check your game out!
@tetrergeru We get more efficient with every jam :). Sometimes I surprise myself. We didn't want death to reset any progress made, so glad you appreciated that! Thanks for playing!
@sid37 The compass is more flavor than useful, but it does show the way North...Thanks for playing!
@alexandr-gerya Glad you appreciate the discovery aspect to it. We tried to make it as intuitive as possible. Thanks for playing!
@tinykidtoo Yeah we wanted to add more props to the scene but time was a constraint and we did what we could. The tutorial glyph is something that keeps coming up, we'll have to consider that for next time! Thanks for playing!