Esophagus' inCRYPTion by Baconeta

[raw]
made by Baconeta for Ludum Dare 48 (JAM)

Step through the journey deeper and deeper into Esophagus's pyramid so her inCRYPTion is complete, and she can rest in peace. pic4.png pic3.png pic1.png

Well, you had a good run as a Pharaoh, Esophagus. You were benevolent, your people loved you, and you lived a rich and powerful life. But all things must come to an end one day... Unless you can access eternal peace?

For that, you will have to go deeper and deeper and... well, deeper. Your sarcophagus is waiting for you... But be quick! Explorers are on their way and Osiris is waiting for your offerings!

Known bugs 🕷️ * On rare occasions you may encounter an incompletable puzzle or you won't be able to continue through the pyramid. * Mute button is not perfect behaviour. * Collectable objects reappear if you reload the level * Replaying introduces a "skip level" bug when going down stairs. * There's a bonus fun bug for speedrunners to find.. good luck!

Ratings

Overall 1297th 3.293⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1547th 2.879⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 1140th 3.052⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1039th 3.552⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 624th 3.914⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Audio 643th 3.5⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Humor 732th 2.904⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Mood 746th 3.611⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Given 21🗳️ 37🗨️

Feedback

carolinewang
27. Apr 2021 · 02:59 UTC
your main character reminds me of amumu from LoL! this was a nice play with a cute character, good job!
Webox
27. Apr 2021 · 03:06 UTC
hey! Game's not loading for me, it stays in "Loading" forever, I see some errors on the console:

Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 403 (Forbidden)
loading.js:27 Crafty Load Error Object

assets/sounds/scroll.mp3:1 Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 403 (Forbidden)
loading.js:27 Crafty Load Error Object

assets/sounds/key.mp3:1 Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 403 (Forbidden)
loading.js:27 Crafty Load Error Object

Not sure what can it be! :/

EDIT: It loaded now! It just took a lot of time
morcado
27. Apr 2021 · 03:08 UTC
great little game, it was very good. and hilarious.
One note I didn't notice where were the offerings or which was the thing i needed, but mechanics are very good
FlyingKiwi
27. Apr 2021 · 03:43 UTC
@carolinewang they both share common ancestry?!

@webox yeah theres a couple of hefty resources in there, so it takes a little to load! But thats the fun of new teams working together!

@morcado Thanks! We did flounder a little on what a good goal/story was with the mechanics we had; I think with more time we'd sort out the puzzle-flow a bit better.
Dimonoider
27. Apr 2021 · 08:49 UTC
Nice job! Camera movement make some discomfort, you need to make it smoother. Very cute art style and sounds :)
blob
27. Apr 2021 · 08:59 UTC
Nice lil game with a fun theme. It was a bit hard to see the collectibles hidden by pots, reached the end without noticing any then backtracked to the beginning and scanned through each levels again to spot them.
crowvax
27. Apr 2021 · 09:04 UTC
Great job on the art and music! Also, the movement is a little abrupt and is distracting, it's very snappy and everything is moving in a single frame, it took a moment for me to get used to it though. And a little indication/tip that you need the things in the top left corner would help. I was lost for a little while on what the objective was. Good job to everybody in the team for participating in the jam!
LDJam user 93368
27. Apr 2021 · 09:24 UTC
Nice game! Really good take on the theme. That the mazes are getting bigger and bigger the deeper you are in the Pyramid is great. I completely did not realize there was something hidden that you eventually need to rest in peace ;)

As @dimonoider mentioned having a smoother camera or maybe movement without the camera moving would make the gameplay feel much better. All in all a really good submission.
feor
27. Apr 2021 · 09:29 UTC
Cute game! I was stuck at an impossible level on my first playthrough which was a bit frustrating, but the second playthrough went smoothly. I agree with other commenters that the one thing I'd change is making the camera movement smoother because it's hard to get used to. The art looked nice and the soundtrack was very relaxing and enjoyable. Cool take on the theme, well done!
Lajbert
27. Apr 2021 · 09:29 UTC
Nice game, but makes my eyes fuzzy after a while of playing, it would have much smoother and calming for the eyes if you'd just linearly move the camera instead of the immediate jump/cut effect, but it's still a nice game. I wish I was able to play it longer :)
Unbansheee
27. Apr 2021 · 09:34 UTC
Cute little game. The movement is quite jarring, but I got used to it eventually. I didn't realise the offerings were required until I reached the point when I needed them and had to go back.
The sound is awesome, I'm a big fan of the ambient track - I think it fits well into the game.
Well done :)
FlyingKiwi
27. Apr 2021 · 10:52 UTC
Thankyou all for playing out game! @unbansheee @lajbert @feor @zolar @crowvax @blob @dimonoider!

Well noted the camera is quite hard on the user, we were wanting to make the player tween between the positions, however didnt get to that; as the camera is bound to the player the movement is also not smooth, like it would be if the player was.

Duely noted on the objective items being hard to find, and maybe not too clear on them being important we had plans to put a hovering arrow over them (maybe spinning!) to indicate where they were.
LDJam user 93368
27. Apr 2021 · 11:06 UTC
@flyingkiwi a hovering arrow over the items would be way too easy imho. In my case a more direct hint (like the pop-up text) in the beginning of the game that I have to look out for something would have been enough. Keep it up! :)
🎤 Baconeta
27. Apr 2021 · 12:30 UTC
@zolar agree with the arrow thing - it's why we dind't make it a priority... but the text is a good idea. The text notif system was built quite late so I didn't get to do everything with it that I wanted to do, sadly.
Sorry all for the bugs and jarring camera though... :D
113hz
27. Apr 2021 · 15:47 UTC
@carolinewang amumu is obv a fucc~~boi~~mummy paying alimonies for his accidental children 🤣
mujina
28. Apr 2021 · 10:39 UTC
Nice game. Quite relaxing since you cannot die (and it adheres to the theme of being a mummy!).

I love the character and the overall setting.

Perhaps one thing that could be done to improve it is to differentiate the values of the entities in the environment. I felt it was all a bit too light and within the same luminosity value, and this made visually reading the game slighlty harder.

I found the cat, but is that the end? Does it have an ending?
Likirus
28. Apr 2021 · 10:42 UTC
Very lovely game with great audio and visuals. The controls took a while to get used to though. Because of the 45 degree rotation I never knew whether the up arrow would move me top right or top left and similar with the other directions. A straight view would have been less confusing. Nevertheless, a great entry!
adele.illustration
28. Apr 2021 · 11:29 UTC
@mujina Thank you so much for your feedback! I agree that some of the objects were not contrasted enough and I could have varied lights & values more. It's good to have this sort of feedback from players so thank you! Room for improvement for the next one :)

As for the ending, if you have reached Osiris, you are now resting peacefully for eternity :)
Eugenik
28. Apr 2021 · 12:41 UTC
Good job on the game! Very good art style!.
AniMagik
28. Apr 2021 · 13:31 UTC
at first, it was a bit confusing to control the character, but I like this game. I like the setting of ancient Egypt.The graphics and audio is wery good)
foxy
28. Apr 2021 · 19:11 UTC
I adore the colorscheme! But I really didn't get what was the treasure, nothig on 5-6 level deep was interactable.. What did I do wrong? Music is so comforting tho, I'd have it in my player. Can I get it somewhere? :D
Tauheed Game Dev
28. Apr 2021 · 20:49 UTC
Nice game guys, I think you nailed the theme and the art style and music are done really well. I do thing the movement could be a little more fluid and maybe vary up the gameplay a little the deeper you go or add extra elements that weren't on the previous floors.
Incredible Potato Kids
02. May 2021 · 18:37 UTC
Nice little game, very pleasing graphics. I would say though the movement was a bit dizzying, other than that good effort!
nsadie
04. May 2021 · 19:01 UTC
Like others mentioned, the movement was a bit jerky and distracting, but otherwise very nice art and a clever take on the theme!

I love isometric games, but I always struggle with directional keys, it would be nice to have mouse click to move in there as well.

Design wise I think the levels are a little bit too large (especially at the end), as there is not any real "puzzle" element to it, you sort of just struggle through it until you find the exit.
gamebuilder
14. May 2021 · 13:07 UTC
The graphics and music in this game are top-notch. I made progress but in time I gave up, as I'm not very good at puzzle-games like this. I wish there were a way to get an overview (like a simple map) of an entire level, so I could see where everything is, like a chessboard. Just an idea. All in all, this is a good game.
NoNumbersGames
16. May 2021 · 16:44 UTC
Beautiful art, satisfying sounds and mystical, eerie music create a really immersive atmosphere.

Camera was a bit jarring and controls took a while to get used to - had to imagine I was looking at the game from the side. But then it clicked and became instinctual.

Still not sure how the plates affect the spikes, but was still interesting to find patterns that helped pass, even without understanding the underlying rules.

Items were hard to notice, but that actually made it engaging to look for them. Would have been nice to know if one was present in a level, just to know if I was looking in the right place - noticed cat in one level, key in next, naturally assumed the scroll was going to be in the next. Spend fifteen minutes scouring the big level without any luck, then found it in one of the first levels while backtracking. I am not amused... And then the game ended before I could finish reading the last lines... But then was rewarded with more beautiful art, so it was ok.

Overall, it was an engaging experience despite the minor issues.
jacke9708
05. Oct 2021 · 05:30 UTC
@foxy sorry for the super late reply, i havent checked in here in awhile, but you can download the tune here if you want! https://drive.google.com/file/d/11pePqBx7B9dsFyzQI3cP1BeZb3w97rNk/view?usp=sharing