LudumData

Lucas and the House of Lost Souls by BinayaS

[raw]
made by BinayaS for Ludum Dare 54 (JAM)

!! FLASHING LIGHTS & LOUD SOUNDS WARNING !!

Do not play if you are sensitive to the above.

Solve puzzles to help Lucas escape the haunted house in this atmospheric spooky game.

Controls:

  • WASD to walk
  • J to interact with things
  • I to access inventory

Screenshot 2023-10-02 122509.png

HINTS

  • Not all 3 orbs need to be placed (colors are important).
  • There are 2 endings. One of them uses the newspaper/note in the forest.

Post Jam Thoughts:

Definitely over scoped for this jam. Creating a story is harder than it seems. Didn't end up getting the level of polish I would have liked for the story and puzzles.

Things that went well

  • Programming game systems did not take long since I kept things within my knowledge.
  • I'm fairly happy with the art considering I'm not an artist. Trying to keep things abstract and gamey helped a lot.
  • The idea of the game is okay, but could use more details as you can only do so much with one room.

Things that did not go well

  • I was trying to take inspiration from the game FAITH by imitating the rotoscoped style of it's death cutscenes. I however did not anticipate how hard it is to rotoscope by hand, so I scrapped that idea but it took a chunk out of my time.
  • I am not happy with the story telling. I planed to have more notes and things scattered around to give clues to what was happened in the house, but I ran out of time and energy.
  • I ended up working on art assets that I never used in the final export due to time and energy getting low which sucks since that wasted time and lowered my energy.

Things to take note for next time

  • Have your art pipeline tested and ready, otherwise look to simplify everything.
  • Story board early and do it before touching any code or art as it influences a lot of what you have to make.

    * You can do a lot in 2 days if you make things super simple. Find things that you can abstract and make gamey.

!! FLASHING LIGHTS & LOUD SOUNDS WARNING !!

Do not play if you are sensitive to the above.

Itch.io https://lateafcoffee.itch.io/lucas-and-the-house-of-lost-souls
Github https://github.com/BinayaS/Lucas-and-the-House-of-Lost-Souls
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/54/lucas-and-the-house-of-lost-souls

Ratings

Overall 621th 3.517⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Fun 947th 2.917⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 798th 3.067⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Theme 840th 3.217⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 738th 3.317⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Mood 91th 4.15⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Given 48🗳️ 45🗨️

Feedback

LDJam user 365791
03. Oct 2023 · 00:11 UTC
I actually really like the style. Gives me old Lucas Arts vibes. It did get a little confusing to know what I was supposed to do next, but that's the difficulty in doing both narrative and puzzles during a jam. You took on a lot but I would say you have an impressive achievement, especially for one person. Thank you!
LDJam user 0
03. Oct 2023 · 00:13 UTC
There's definitely some interesting points here, but I'm not sure it's being presented in an entirely appealing package. The bright lightning + thunder jumpscares are pretty unpleasant and disruptive. As far as I can tell, there isn't much in the way of direct instruction in regards to controls (J advances text, I opens inventory, but I had to fumble for a while to discover what key does what). Some more context would be nice - what are the colored orbs that we are collecting? Why is Lucas a green rectangle when the rest of the art is depicted more literally?

I was only able to play up to the "power outage" section - not sure at the moment how to progress the game further. Even so, an interesting and mysterious start to a story.
Sallya_YT
03. Oct 2023 · 00:26 UTC
Love the atmosphere! It is quiet and disturbing all the time in the dark. I got stuck in the three orb part: I placed all of them in and flipped the cross yet still couldn't get through, but I'm really curious about what could happen next :( Anyway, love it!
Nescre
03. Oct 2023 · 00:33 UTC
Pros:
* You nailed the atmosphere - consistently gave off the feeling that I was being watched
* Checking for changes every loop was a neat system; felt very unpredictable as to what would come next
* Sound design felt very solid and unintrusive
* Puzzles felt appropriate to the game's atmosphere; I personally don't think they need to be made harder

Cons:
* Felt there was a bit too much walking; in particular, getting a puzzle wrong then requiring a second loop around slowed things down considerably
* I was able to softlock the game by spamming the J button shortly after leaving a room that an orb was placed in (in this case it was the purple orb). This led to me picking up the purple orb and duplicating it, which then led to me being able to duplicate endless purple orbs by picking up & placing it.
* I feel that J should be rebound to Enter; that button would feel far more natural.

Overall a game with a solid atmosphere! You did well with the 3-day time limit.
LDJam user 378294
03. Oct 2023 · 12:20 UTC
A little pixel game, good interaction and text audio.
Retrisma
03. Oct 2023 · 16:26 UTC
Holy moly, I really felt the FAITH vibes from this one. You definitely nailed the atmosphere, even just walking through the house for the first time felt super tense. The secret ending was a really nice touch, too. I think the house was maybe slightly too open of a floor plan- some clutter or narrower hallways might have worked well. That's really just a nitpick, though, fantastic job! I'm rarely so scared by a jam game.
Sown
04. Oct 2023 · 05:41 UTC
I like the story, but the game feels choppy at times and i feel like more could be done for the atmosphere
LDJam user 374261
04. Oct 2023 · 14:07 UTC
Nice game!
Jens G
05. Oct 2023 · 16:15 UTC
Some nice atmosphere here. Like that the simplistic art style makes everything a bit abstract and Surreal. Would make the rooms a bit smaller or at least make sure that important items are closer to the center path so that you don't have to go back and forth with the light to find stuff.
JKazuk
05. Oct 2023 · 19:42 UTC
Fantastic atmosphere! Way spookier than it had any right to be. Puzzles were simple but solid and the looping concept was fun to explore.

Love it!
Ynnon
06. Oct 2023 · 13:55 UTC
good atmospheric puzzle game!
FernandaBatista
06. Oct 2023 · 20:53 UTC
The narrative and its execution were great. The gameplay on the other hand was a bit odd, there were no instructions on how to play so I had to literally go through my whole keyboard to figure out that 'J' passed the text and 'I' opened an inventory that I had no clue I had access to.

I spent a few times going around the house loop and in the beginning it was very intriguing and involved but as I kept walking with no other things happening other than eventually finding the orbs, which I had no clue what to do with them, I just got frustrated because I felt I was not making any progress and I WANTED to make progress because the beginning was promising. So I would suggest making sure that the player has enough feedback to know it is doing things right, even if it sounds or changes in the environment, exactly as in the start.
mcbombadev
06. Oct 2023 · 21:31 UTC
This does a great job of building up the mood and atmosphere throughout, which is impressive when the main character is a rectangle!

Some of the gameplay could be tightened up a bit in places, but this is a solid entry and one I really enjoyed.
chompdev
07. Oct 2023 · 23:58 UTC
Excellent mood and immersion in this one! The sound design works really well here, and the lightning flashes were a cool mixture of "that's convenient that I can see what's around me!" and "do i actually *want* to see what's around me?". The item descriptions help to accentuate the eerie setting, and I keep staring into the darkness and dreading what I might see next. Very well done, and I hope you continue working on a post-jam version and/or make more narrative puzzle games like this!
anirbas
08. Oct 2023 · 09:15 UTC
Very good use on the theme, and the atmosphere is so good. Nice work!
FunnyPumpkin
10. Oct 2023 · 21:05 UTC
Amazing game! Awesome visuals