Trailwork by sudocoffee
A game about exploration, and the knowledge that not everything is in our control. There is no ending, and no interact button, but take a look around and see what places you can find.
Controls
- Move - WASD / L-Stick
- Camera - Mouse / R-Stick
- Quit - Esc
Tools
Changelog
- v1.1 - Fixed the player randomly snapping to a single direction.
Notes
For a small hint to find new locations, click below.
!> At the start of the game, stand at the beginning of the hallway, hold forward, and don't stop until you exit the hallway.
Otherwise, here's a more complete description of how the game works.
!> I'll start by saying that the game is pretty broken. I ran out of time to test most of the level design, so a lot of the geometry doesn't work as intended, you have to quit and restart (manually) in some cases, and there's no good way to figure out what's going on. !> !> That said, the game is structured around a set of "beacons". Every beacon has its own gravitational pull, and every surface also has a gravitational pull that keeps you from falling off. As long as you have a surface to walk on, you have full control, but if you run off a platform, then you lose all control (except for where you're looking) until you land on a new surface. !> !> Each beacon also holds a unique structure. This is where the theme "signal" comes in: the closer you get to a beacon, the clearer its signal, and the more it affects the position of all 76 shapes to form the level around it. !> !> The final mechanic is that you continue gaining speed the longer you run in the same direction. There's a system of ramps in place that were intended to give you the momentum you need to escape the gravity of each beacon and send you to a new location. !> !> This is where the level design fell apart. Most ramps either don't give you enough speed to escape, or send you flying out way farther than intended. There are a some locations that are difficult or impossible to escape. !> !> The gravity mechanic also makes it overly random where and when you land. The loss of control was intentional, but you often end up orbiting around one or several systems for much longer than intended (and sometimes forever). I have a few ideas for ways to fix this, but nothing that made it into the jam version. !> !> And that's basically it. There was a soft ending in mind for the game (which actually does exist way out in the distance, in a place that's impossible to reach), and other ideas for level design and mechanics that never made it in. As it is, though, it sort of works as a game about flying around, looking at shapes, and letting the game take you where it wants to take you.
| Link | https://github.com/sudo-coffee/ld59 |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/trailwork |
Ratings
| Overall | 216th | 3.196⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 220th | 2.932⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 73th | 3.688⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 242th | 2.955⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 188th | 3.283⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 179th | 3.045⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 99th | 3.659⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 26🗳️ | 18🗨️ |
I played the linux build inside a VM and I only use the WASD input. Mouse and controller didn't work.
Play-through:
https://youtu.be/fpb6wdksTRU
I just couldnt stop playing at first. Even though its quite simple scenes i still felt compelled to find the next one.
There are only six unique "places" (including the hallway and short ramp), one of which is completely inaccessible, so there's a good chance you've seen most of them.
@local-minimum -- Thanks for the video playthrough! The controls were implemented through Godot's input system, so either something's funky with the Linux build (I've only tested it on my own Linux system), or there's something with the VM preventing Godot from seeing the input. I didn't mention in the description, but you can also use the arrow keys as a fallback for camera control.
There is indeed no way to control the character while floating through space. But normally you should at least be able to look around (and see where the game is sending you).
I did end up finding two additional stable configurations:
But I also enjoyed just watching the space move when I was just drifting around, too:
I definitely felt the lack of control that you were going for!
Cool unique entry.
But still, the intended vibes of the game got across extremely well, like I mentioned I love the chill spacey otherworldly vibe it created. Not just with the geometry rearranging, but also the sound design, with the signals the beacons send out, I think those were neat, as they got louder or quieter while you orbited. Made you feel like a satellite. Very cool!
It was very effective at provoking an eerie and mysterious, otherworldly feeling. I found it really beautiful. The sounds of the orbs added a lot to the mood.
The game could have turned out very disorienting, but somehow it didn't. Instead it was quite relaxing to play and I enjoyed watching the shapes rearrange themselves as I flew around.
I think I found four different stable configurations. It was great finding the ramps and throwing yourself off them with speed :laughing:
Not that it's possible to get there ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯ (although I know of a bug that could get you pretty close).
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@bonedaddy -- Glad you found it inspiring! Cinematic gravity is a pretty cool way to describe what's going.
Originally I had plans for invisible "anchors" (separate from the beacons) that would give me more control over gravity and how the player enters each area. There's still an [object](https://github.com/sudo-coffee/ld59/blob/main/hole.tscn) in the source for that. I had to scrap it part way through, though, because it would have taken a lot more play-testing than I had time for.
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@captaindreamcast -- Thanks for playing another one of my weird experiments! I originally had more goal-oriented ideas in mind for the game, but had to pivot at the last minute because most of the jam was spent wrangling with the gravity and movement mechanics. So I'm glad floating around space and watching the world reform itself is a neat experience for people (even if it's not a traditional sort of game).
If you've seen the starting hallway, the short ramp outside the hallway, the long curved ramp, the long flat runway, and the cube, then you've pretty much seen everything in the game.
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@vidarn -- Thank you! Means a lot that you think my stuff has all been worth checking out. And that this game was such a cool experience.
You might be the first person to tell me a game I made is specifically *not* disorienting (although I did try to make movement and transitions here feel as seamless as I could make them). Not a bad thing, but just interesting that different people seem to experience my games in different ways, and it's hard to tell what that will be beforehand when I already know the game inside out.