HARST by bradu

made by bradu for Ludum Dare 52 (JAM)

Earth has been decimated by a deadly alien-virus ... Our last hope ? The H.A.R.S.T. Protocol. (Made with Unreal 5.1)

Controls

A, D to move
Space to jump
Shift to sprint

Features

🔭 Explore what's left of Aurora-Rangi station
🔬 Atmospheric authentic sci-fi
🏃‍♂️ Conserve your sprinting and jumping for when it counts
👩‍🔬 Some degree of randomization
🥚 Easter-eggs

Known Issues

Sounds can get stuck in some states
Can scan without really scanning if you not in contact with a body (you're close to the body, but not close enough to trigger the popup)
Some texts ('s grammar) isn't properly written in English
NOTE: H to disable (or re-enable) camera shaking (in case it's too heavy).

Done with assets from

Freesound.org for sounds / music
Free Asset Packs from the Epic Marketplace for meshes / textures
Mixamo for animations

Build Download	https://drive.google.com/file/d/12fpgQJYKNol_cz5q2hnl-YkvhSDLvlB7/view?usp=share_link
Itch.io Page	https://bradu.itch.io/harst
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/52/harst

Ratings

Overall	760^th	2.761⭐	25🧑‍⚖️
Fun	747^th	2.568⭐	24🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	682^th	2.795⭐	24🧑‍⚖️
Theme	659^th	3.19⭐	23🧑‍⚖️
Humor	634^th	2.175⭐	22🧑‍⚖️
Mood	508^th	3.283⭐	25🧑‍⚖️
Given		15🗳️	23🗨️

Feedback

Christian Zommerfelds

10. Jan 2023 · 22:31 UTC

The game looks impressive, but unfortunately my machine isn't strong enough to play at a good frame rate (it also crashed at some point).

But congrats on the nice graphics! BTW, I didn't understand what "improper harvest" meant. Was it just bad luck?

Evo_W

10. Jan 2023 · 22:52 UTC

Various placeholder models, but overall looks quite good!
As for gameplay, there doesn't seem to be much, unless I have missed something?

exofrenon

10. Jan 2023 · 22:54 UTC

Good job on what I assume is your first LD entry. Quite polished overall. I loved the intro sequence, with the images and the text. Reminded me of resident evil for some reason. Solid graphics, nice atmosphere.

It took me a while to figure out what I had to do. I died 4-5 times, getting to the right end of the stage to those last two bodies until I collected 4 of them to get the message to go back, but I never had enough health to do it. I though that it would have multiple stages and that the first one was way too hard, but it turns out you just need to go left to collect +1 body so that you don't need to go the right end at all.

As I said, multiple stages would suit well this game, with each one trying to solve a small puzzle on how to do it with the minimum amount of movement.

LDJam user 277835

11. Jan 2023 · 00:03 UTC

Ran this game, and the fans on my computer lifted it off the ground. It would be helpful to have the controls written in the game, I only found out you could sprint after quitting. Cool graphics, what is the Mech? I recognize the legs but then I'm not sure whats in the middle of it.

Hawkin

11. Jan 2023 · 02:39 UTC

Well done! Unreal seems like a pretty powerful engine, and the visuals and the sound design were pretty good. I liked the backstory, too!

The basic mechanics were a good design: you have to balance speed with caution. Two times I made it back to the door with 1 second left, but just missed the cut-off -- maybe a little bit of grace (an extra, secret second) would have been nice! Instead, I realized that if I made it to the _end_ of the hallway first, and then waited to harvest the last body, I had plenty of time to escape :)

![congrats.png](///raw/319/53/z/560bc.png)

Torban

12. Jan 2023 · 00:59 UTC

Very unique gameplay design. This was really challenging and fun. Nice work!

Bloodfin

12. Jan 2023 · 01:01 UTC

Took a little bit to find out the controls, but was able to eventually get it all and succeeded in beating the game. The controls where a little floaty but the game had a really good vibe and mood to it. The look was nice feeling very dark and eerie. I think a little more guidance in the game about what you're doing could be helpful but good job getting this finished in time!

smashcrate

15. Jan 2023 · 14:25 UTC

Thanks to you played the first Unreal 5.1 game on my machine lol. It is a short nice game. Nice gameplay mech to balance walking/running with ship's condition. The visuals on the background looks really cool. Overall really enjoyed :smiley: .

Zyper

15. Jan 2023 · 21:35 UTC

Very nice graphics, atmosphere and sound design! Also the game is very immersive! Well done :)

dod108

19. Jan 2023 · 13:06 UTC

To be honest not much fun. First of all, everything is so dark that I barely can see anything and it adds difficulty in a very not fun way. Same with the slow, sluggish movement. The sprinting speed should be the default walk speed, such a slow movement is not fun at all in such a game, at least in it's current state. Control scheme is weird, if you use keyboard only, then I'd like to use both hands, eq. JKL instead of QEF. I have no idea, when the harvest is improper. Btw, what's the limitation of sprinting? The ship integrity decreases faster when you sprint or what?

It's nice that you used highlight for interactive elements, that's always appreciated.

I hope my feedback is helpful and not too harsh.

DFaouaz

25. Jan 2023 · 00:41 UTC

I think you really did a great job! Nicely done! Congrats :)