Narcosis by xen3x

[raw]
made by xen3x for Ludum Dare 57 (JAM)

Hey all! This is Narcosis, a platformer with a focus on exploration, fly and survive this perilous journey! Collect gems to demonstrate your knack for leaving no stone unturned!

I streamed Narcosis' entire development on Twitch and I stream everyday on Twitch. Leaving my socials below so you can check that out if you're interested.

Ratings

Overall 770th 2.974⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Fun 765th 2.763⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 854th 2.263⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Theme 551th 3.474⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 684th 3.026⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Audio 517th 2.778⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Humor 684th 1.969⭐ 18🧑‍⚖️
Mood 787th 2.833⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Given 19🗳️ 16🗨️

Feedback

DecadeDecaf
08. Apr 2025 · 07:29 UTC
The parallax background is sick, and I love the animation that plays when you explode a naval mine. I wish the music looped, because it fits the vibe super well. Great work! Lots of fun.

![narcosis.jpg](///raw/d0f/12/z/6b447.jpg)

I think the game remembered the emeralds I collected on past attempts—either that, or I'm just *that* good at finding emeralds!
🎤 xen3x
08. Apr 2025 · 15:37 UTC
@DecadeDecaf Yeah I tried looping the music and I have yet to figure out how to fix it hahaha. The emerald counter does not reset is what I noticed, if you do play through the game again it just adds onto the number. So you were right in thinking that's what was happening lolol. Thank you for playing!
GreenRadiation
08. Apr 2025 · 17:16 UTC
The parallax is very chaotic, it looks like you mixed up how it should work :)
But otherwise, great job!
Brian Russell
08. Apr 2025 · 18:16 UTC
Enjoyed the mood, music, and game! Ran into 2 big mines covering a path and it gave me a good laugh. How did you generate the level, manually drew it or through code? -Moo
🎤 xen3x
08. Apr 2025 · 19:41 UTC
@brian-russell I actually took a reference of a real cave layout and drew it so yeah haha. Now I know for next time I should have made it more clear but you can shoot them and break them lol. I'm glad you found the mines funny!
🎤 xen3x
08. Apr 2025 · 19:42 UTC
@greenradiation Um this might be because I didn't correctly tile the texture so that's why it might look a little jarring. Thank you for playing though!
Lyssa
11. Apr 2025 · 03:07 UTC
Suuuper loved the art style and color scheme of the game, its really nice to look at! Visually its wonderful albeit A bit jarring to have the background constantly following the player but you get used to it after a while
sleepyfikou
11. Apr 2025 · 04:51 UTC
I like the design of the player character, and the atmosphere is nice with the graphics and music (although it's a shame the music doesn't loop). The exploration aspect was interesting because the first attempt was pretty confusing, but for the second attempt I had sort of learned my way around the area and was able to manage my resources better as a result. Thanks for the game!
Trevor Lentz
11. Apr 2025 · 05:27 UTC
Really enjoyed the flow and atmosphere. The only thing I didn't like is how I felt pinned by enemies when they hit me. It would be cool if they knocked you back or something, at some point I was being dragged down with zero recourse. I still consider it a very fun entry though. Nice work.
FireSlash
11. Apr 2025 · 19:55 UTC
When getting hit, you lose control of the character for a moment, but the enemy continues to chase. I found sometimes I'd get hit multiple times because of this.

Without a way to locate pickups, I found it hard to progress past a certain point, as it seems like pure luck as to whether you find any or not. Might have been cool to have some kind of radar or guidance system to help steer the player.

The mine explosion animation was super satisfying, I could almost always avoid them but I'd make a point of shooting them anyway.

Nice work!
Jag
12. Apr 2025 · 02:54 UTC
I really like the parallax background effect, and the music had a nice deep sea vibe to it that made it feel kind of scary in a good way. I think the gameplay itself was a bit lacking, because there was no sense of direction and also no way to track if you've found all the gems or not. It didn't help that we had limited oxygen that made the game feel very urgent. I liked the idea that you only have one bullet shot so you have to make it count. I think we could have had more enemies/mechanics that made use of that. Thank you for the game!
Eugenik
15. Apr 2025 · 11:36 UTC
Very cool game! I had a blast playing :D.
Aurel300
15. Apr 2025 · 21:37 UTC
Cute.

As mentioned by others, the music should loop! Other than that, I wished for a minimap or radar or something, it was easy to get lost. I got 3 emeralds and found the goal, so I win I guess? The goal should be made a bit more clear to the player I think: just "go explore" is not great if you don't also provide smaller sub-goals or rewards. As it is, there are:

* the enemies and mines: I can shoot them for them to stop pestering me/to clear the way, but otherwise I get nothing out of this;
* the oxygen orbs and repair orbs: allows me to keep exploring;
* the emeralds: well, it's shiny?;
* the goal.

The controls are mostly tight enough and I was glad to see that the walls didn't cause contact damage, though making the player be stunned for a bit when they are hit is quite annoying! Oh and a small bug: when you shoot a mine, it explodes, but there is still a hitbox for it as it is exploding, so you can run into it and take damage even though you just shot it down.
JohneyD
23. Apr 2025 · 08:58 UTC
The game looks very atmospheric. Interesting mechanics, nice music. Great job!