Beacons by Last Angle

made by Last Angle for Ludum Dare 59 (COMPO)

Headphones recommended!

Make your way around the haunted maze while looking out for a signal from one of the beacons you have to collect. Evade the enemies lurking around the corners, luckily they quickly give up the chase when they loose sight of you! Collect all beacons to open the exit, and escape the maze!

Controls: Wasd/arrow keys to move

Mouse to aim flashlight/look ahead if you move it further away.

~About the making of~

It's been a while since I've done a gamejam (or any gamedev/programming really), it was nice to get back at it!

Originally I wanted to have each beacon give the player a specific skill or weapon, and have different types of enemies, that you could only defeat with the maching skill or weapon. But I ran out of time, and kinda liked shaking off the enemies, so I went with that.

I also was considering making different levels with different maze sizes, but since the maze is procedurally generated it's already different enough each playthrough. Because the generation is random (and knocks out some random extra walls to create some loops you can use to shake off the enemies) the difficulty can also vary quite a bit. It's not ideal, but in this timeframe i couldn't come up with a good solution for this.

Link	https://lastanglestudio.itch.io/beacons
Link	https://lastanglestudio.itch.io/beacons
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/beacons

Ratings

Overall	205^th	3.229⭐	26🧑‍⚖️
Fun	214^th	3⭐	26🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	250^th	2.813⭐	26🧑‍⚖️
Theme	168^th	3.563⭐	26🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	205^th	3.146⭐	26🧑‍⚖️
Audio	140^th	3.292⭐	26🧑‍⚖️
Mood	94^th	3.667⭐	26🧑‍⚖️
Given		29🗳️	27🗨️

Feedback

cupofmilk7

Apr 20th · 12:20 UTC

great work with the lighting!!

P1x3lc0w

Apr 20th · 12:35 UTC

Great Work!

The sound mechanics were great, to the point that i feel like you could have leaned into them more heavily (i.e. making enemies invisible until they spot you or not being able to see beacons through walls. i feel like navigating only with sound already work pretty good, especially with headphones). Enemies chasing you felt okay, but would probably be one of the first things i'd like to expand on: The way they worked currently they didn't feel very threatening and it did not feel like a lot of skill was required to outrun them (unless you ran into a dead end). There are ofc. lots of ways one could do that potentially (one of the first things that came to my mind was maybe giving them a lunge). Still had fun overall, i really feel the navigating t a maze with the help of sound idea has lots of potential, creative use of the theme!

bereg

Apr 20th · 13:01 UTC

Interesting game. I like the idea of positional audio that hints which direction to go. The enemies are annoying, but thankfully they’re easy to outrun. I collected all the beacons on my third try. And there’s procedural generation too! Great work!

mathemagics

Apr 20th · 16:04 UTC

The procedurally generated maze is impressive! Thank you for the game!

LDJam user 428646

Apr 20th · 16:19 UTC

It takes a lot for me to enjoy a maze game, but I think you've done it. This is really good! It's simple, but everything is so well made. Running away from the enemies felt great, although I will say that the beacons don't really communicate their importance that well. I just assumed they were health pickups until the very end, so I was confused as to what the goal was. I think most people would interpret the beacons as the goal, so I'm pretty sure that was just my sleep deprivation playing tricks on me. Great work!

🎤 Last Angle

Apr 20th · 16:28 UTC

@p1x3lc0w Thanks for your feedback! Originally I wanted to make the enemies jump out of the walls when you would shine your light on them, and use some pathfinding to make them a bit 'smarter' while chasing you. So I agree with you they could be improved! I just didn't have the time to implement all that :')

@tolviere Thanks so much for your kind words! I doubt you will be the only one who doesn't see the beacons as the goal. Do you have any advise in making it more obvious you need to collect them?

LDJam user 428646

Apr 20th · 16:56 UTC

@last-angle I think indicating some kind of progression in between the beacons would cure a lot of confusion there. Each beacon, besides the last one, appeared the same way without any indication of a goal or the progression towards it. I was just gettin me some health :) but however you might implement something like this depends a lot on personal taste. Some people might just show a number or progress bar, and some people might choose to implement it into the object or environment. It's not a necessity by any means though, this is mostly just nitpicking.

xotraz

Apr 20th · 17:06 UTC

Contrary to others, I got stucked by ennemies a lot, I kept running fast into corners or getting two ennemies to follow me.
But I always appreciate a randomly generated maze and the sound design was good!

cogcomp

Apr 21st · 20:19 UTC

I agree with most of the others the sounds design worked very well. The enemies were a bit annoying and it felt ok that they don't follow you around corners, as it would've made the game too hard. Well done!

LDJam user 76491

Apr 22nd · 02:37 UTC

Great job on the mood! As others have said, the positional audio was really cool, and the lighting is stunning. Being blind in a maze isn't something that looks like it would work, but it all clicks together with the signal mechanic, and I was able to traverse it and find all the beacons. The enemies weren't that much of a threat, but the claustrophobia got me good. Good job!

It's also been a while since I joined a game jam. Welcome back, and keep making games!

RedEye Games

Apr 23rd · 11:09 UTC

I just played through it once because the sound was really grating for me, but as a concept I love that the mazes regenerate procedurally. Impressive for a jam! I liked shaking off the enemies and appreciate the ez-mode feature where beacons healed me.

Jajo

Apr 24th · 12:56 UTC

The lighting and sound were really effective in my opinion, especially in creating a sort of tight corridor feeling. I found the enemies a little bit frustrating, which is ok for a challenge, but when they're the only hazard that can be less fun. That being said, the context switching between fleeing enemies and seeking beacons did create a good flow.

kremlebot

Apr 24th · 22:43 UTC

Not bad game, but the overall goal isn't very clear. I eventually finished it, but the whole game left me confused about what I was supposed to do.

commanderstitch

Apr 25th · 18:10 UTC

Decent audio! I've always wanted to test out panning on my sound making localized sound a part of the game. Haven't done that yet. Liked the moody feel and guidance by sound. Mazes are frustrating, dudes wanted to kill me, but touching them was a sound experience.

atmospherium

Apr 27th · 16:33 UTC

I'm a sucker for spatial audio, and you did a great job of integrating it as core gameplay, not just a gimmick. Nice lighting effects as well, everything felt really moody and oppressive (in a good way). Procedural generation is also super impressive for a compo entry. I could have done with some tweak to enemy aggression or maybe make them shy away from the light, but it provided a good contrast between search mode and run away mode.

Nice work.

MizAless

Apr 27th · 17:59 UTC

An interesting game with a tense atmosphere. I even flinched a couple of times from fear. Good job!

Disvent

May 01st · 19:49 UTC

Cool sounds and visuals! They are creating really creepy atmosphere. Good job!

zhangzhimu

May 05th · 07:29 UTC

This setting is simply amazing. The
combination of the lighting and sound effects is superb, and the atmosphere is also very well created, being quite tense. A delightful game.