Lonely Crossway by polyvishap

Haven woken up in the middle of the road, all you can do is keep moving...
It's awfully quiet here.
What the hell is this?
Lonely Crossway is my Ludum Dare 59 Game Jam ~~rushjob~~ entry that, following the "Signal" theme, turns crossing the road following the traffic light signals into a small... nightmarish scenario.
Yes. It's a very bite-sized psychological horror game.
I spent 12 hours on this. Yeah, I don't know what I was doing either, but I am genuinely happy I pulled through, regardless of the fact I may have messed up the final... thing.
Controls
Up arrow - Move
Left/Right arrows - Check sides
Spacebar - Look back...
Credits
The car model by GGBotNet
Everything else, from coding, sprite artwork and all that - Colbeala 'PXLDUD' Moghes @ Polyvishap
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:
I literally rushed through this, finishing it in under 12 hours, right before the end of the submission deadline. So, yeah. It is missing some things, like the main menu (so, you will be immediately jumping right in), and... footsteps.
It's not ideal, so don't expect this to be the next Amnesia: The Dark Descent or something... however you spell it, I am not spellchecking this. lol
But I feel great anyway!
Additionally:
IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT THE WEB VERSION: As of April 28th, I decided to put up a web version of the game at a cost of a very vital game element, which might make it ultimately more difficult than the desktop builds. And honestly, I'd recommend that you play either desktop build for the intended experience.
Otherwise, I'd recommend you play it in a Chrome-based browser... just in case.
IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT THE MAC BUILD: The game build is purely experimental and completely untested (I don't have a Mac to test on), so I can't really guarantee that it's gonna function. The zip contains the "Universal" .app build that - in theory - should work on both Intel and Silicon abominations.
First launch may need you to right-click → Open (or Ctrl-click → Open), or you will need to allow third-party apps in System Preferences → Security & Privacy → General → Allow apps downloaded from: App Store and identified developers and click Open Anyway, otherwise Gatekeeper will refuse a plain double-click because the game binary is unsigned.
~~why the fuck is apple like this~~
(thank you @tanjou for the hints)
Extra
When you're done playing the game, I bet you must be curious about what was my thought process behind this hot steaming piece of crap... well, I wrote about it!
| Windows (mirror) | https://polyvishap.itch.io/ld59-lonely-crossway |
| Linux (mirror) | https://polyvishap.itch.io/ld59-lonely-crossway |
| macOS (mirror) | https://polyvishap.itch.io/ld59-lonely-crossway |
| web version is also on itch.io | https://polyvishap.itch.io/ld59-lonely-crossway |
| ...and Newgrounds, apparently. | https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/1030221 |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/lonely-crossway |
Ratings
| Overall | 549th | 3.409⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 697th | 2.905⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 686th | 2.909⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 289th | 3.977⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 441th | 3.727⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 330th | 3.523⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 199th | 4⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 48🗳️ | 21🗨️ |
yeah okay wow - that's a very good eye. Need to patch this up real quick LOL

Anyone beat that?
Really cool for something made in 12 hours. Wishing you all green lights in everything you do!
I wish I could have been able to do a Mac build as well, but ~~aside from Apple themselves making it unnecessarily fucking difficult to make apps for their posh-expensive ecosystem,~~ I... don't have an actual Mac I could have tested to see if it would've worked natively? And I don't know anyone else who could... oh hey - speaking of which, do you have a BlueSky, by any chance? [update: an attempt was made]
My blue sky is @tanjou.bsky.social !
"god dammit" on the traffic light sprite specific visual bug I can't seem to track down in exported builds.
agh—
I do admittedly wish the payoff to messing up was a bit more than what it actually is, only because of what the atmosphere is already setting up.
Would love to see what you're able to do in the future when you have more than 12 hours!
The difficulty with making a horror game in a Ludum Dare is that it's really hard to do well, because doing the asset work to make a horror game is a monumental task. To scope something for a 72 hour jam (or a 12 hour jam, in this case) you really have to pare down to the essentials, and the essentials of a horror game can still sometimes be a pretty high bar to pass, especially if you're a beginner. That's just kind of how the genre is.
Do you remember PT? PT was a looping horror game, just like this one. The map design in PT was really important, despite the fact it was basically just a hallway. The essential moment of PT comes from the repeated 90-degree turn off to the right when you start a new loop. Whatever other terrifying stuff they put in that game, PT is at its core just a game about turning that first corner, and the anticipation of what lies ahead.
You basically did PT in 12 hours. Yeah, Lonely Crossway doesn't exactly have the same aura, but that's not the point of these game jams. The essential design elements of this game are identical to one of the best horror games ever made. The anticipatory build up of leaving the traffic island, but only when you're allowed to, and then heading off into the dark -- a dark you know is dangerous, because you're sprinting across a 4-lane highway, but also because the player knows this is a horror game and something terrible is probably going to happen to them -- is executed on really well.
So the experience is this constant never-ending anticipation of what's just beyond the edge of the dark. That'd be spooky enough, but you also had time to go a little further! You play with the player's expectations by removing a traffic light, and you have to listen to the echoing from the other islands to figure out when you can cross the road. On a design level it's just like turning the corner in PT and seeing something different, something unexpected. You never know what's going to happen at the next island. And then you introduce your threat and its off to the races! Suddenly what was an unnerving but ultimately safe game of Simon Says turns into waiting painfully as you *know* The Thing is somewhere behind you.
But it isn't really a game about The Thing, it's a game about Turning The Corner, and I think you did that well, especially given that you did it in 12 hours, wow. Sure, eventually you realize that the game is essentially solvable by holding shift, but (for me) it really was suspenseful for longer than you might anticipate, seeing as, being the developer, you probably became inured to your own horror pretty quickly. And on a technical level, as far as I can tell, it's perfect, so it's both well-designed and well-executed. I followed you on Bluesky, I'm excited to see what you tackle in the future. You should be really proud of this. Good job!

...I can't read them. That's just how they look like on my end.
This is weird.