The Longest Way Down by fullmontis

[raw]
made by fullmontis for LD29 (COMPO)
A old style point-and-click adventure in an oniric world. Heavily inspired by the Dark Fall and Myst series. I highly encourage to use F11 to go to fullscreen mode. No sound cause I got lazy and didn't make it. I made a postcompo version with sounds and music and it's much better, check it out if you like the compo version.

TESTED ON IE 11, CHROME, FIREFOX. Use one of the mentioned browsers or there could be some visualization problems (for example on older IE versions). Cursors don't work on IE so Chrome or Firefox are the better choice.

30/04: Fixed a bug with the inventory
01/05: Added postcompo version (with music and sfx, yay!)

Ratings

Coolness 84% 2
Overall 3.29 447
Audio 1.53 1018
Fun 2.98 587
Graphics 3.88 158
Humor 2.00 849
Innovation 2.92 657
Mood 3.72 109
Theme 3.57 293

Feedback

raulincze
28. Apr 2014 · 10:33 UTC
Really nice and well crafted experience.
Baknik
28. Apr 2014 · 18:48 UTC
I'm a huge fan of vector graphics, and these were well done! Some background noise or music would definitely add to the mood.
Foofur
28. Apr 2014 · 19:06 UTC
I'm a great fan of these puzzle-y games. Love the mood as well. A bit of music would have made it even nicer
SmilingCat
28. Apr 2014 · 20:06 UTC
Very nice artwork. Great job!
morganbengtsson
28. Apr 2014 · 20:10 UTC
I like a good point and click game. Music would of course add to the experience.
zedutchgandalf
28. Apr 2014 · 20:22 UTC
This is great! But it would have been even better with a bit of music :)
ezombort
28. Apr 2014 · 21:03 UTC
Nice looking game. Fun with some point and click games :)
Snoother
28. Apr 2014 · 21:06 UTC
The graphics are gorgeous. And the whole thing feels quite polished for a compo game.

Would love to see music in a post-compo release.
kristof
28. Apr 2014 · 21:50 UTC
Very nice! It almost reminded me of the early Myst games at some points. Thanks for making this.
8BitPimp
29. Apr 2014 · 08:13 UTC
Nice graphics. Subtle movements or animations would have been very lifting for this game. Good job!
Garris
30. Apr 2014 · 05:01 UTC
Very well done. Good writing, and beautifully somber mood. I grew up on myst and riven, so this was like a bit of childhood for me. Good job.
Franklins Ghost
30. Apr 2014 · 09:25 UTC
Nice atmosphere and enjoyed the writing, also nice to see a point and click adventure game. Music would also help but liked the art.
Solifuge
30. Apr 2014 · 09:26 UTC
Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account)

Great graphics... I was surprised and impressed by how much the ending, well, surprised me. In a single moment I suddenly understood the entirety of the alien scene on the hill, which had previously seemed merely unusual. Though I read all of the texts and thought I had gotten a hold of the situation, it soon became clear that I truly hadn't understood them.

That said, in a post-compo version it would be wonderful to see a more polished game with failure states and the like. I'm not sure I'm in agreement with the other users that full sound is necessary, but maybe some sound effects would do it? I remember that the lack of music in Myst really enhanced the isolating effect.

Anyway, great game, and thanks for the polished experience.
Celt
30. Apr 2014 · 11:37 UTC
The somewhat clumsy presentation together with the occult theme/narrative made this one quite surprisingly interesting! Good one...
Dining Philosopher
30. Apr 2014 · 11:40 UTC
Nice work, I didn't spot any spelling errors that break the immersion in so many other text-using LD-games ;-)

The missing music is really a shame, that would have made it so much better! It would also be much better if the hitboxes were not selectable (and the selection even draggable), but maybe this is just a Firefox issue. Selecting the eye is also hard sometimes, since the interaction with the tree-hitbox seems to be undefined.
Crazi456
01. May 2014 · 17:23 UTC
Very nice visuals! Like others before me have said, it would be nice to have some audio. Great work!
Belvar
04. May 2014 · 21:41 UTC
Wow, this is really amazing. The atmosphere is great, and the drawings are beautiful. Short but intense.
The technical aspects are interesting too. Using html elements instead of canvas is unsual, but it's well made.
Post-compo version is even better, really good job.
Airwaffle
04. May 2014 · 21:47 UTC
A nicely told story. A bit on the easy side, but that is understandable concidering the short time frame. Good work.
FREEZX
04. May 2014 · 21:49 UTC
A really nice mood, a great experience.
Anoarith
06. May 2014 · 22:32 UTC
I loved the atmosphere *o*
TaoPhoenix
09. May 2014 · 07:42 UTC
I am stuck. What are you supposed to do once you have the stuff from the underground room?
TaoPhoenix
09. May 2014 · 07:43 UTC
The controls feel a bit off to me. To get to the secret chamber in the tree I click over an inch to the side?! Going down is not the stairs but another inch above it?!
🎤 fullmontis
09. May 2014 · 17:34 UTC
@TaoPhoenix What browser are you using?
Rabbits...
16. May 2014 · 22:03 UTC
confusing, but very interesting, I found it to be enjoyable.
mrjohnson22
18. May 2014 · 06:15 UTC
The atmosphere of this is really nice. It's impressive how much mood you managed to build without sound, but then again the creepy art style is really good and works wonders on this game.

However, I would have liked to have seen more on the puzzle/gameplay side of things. There are really only two "puzzles" in this game and neither are very difficult, but it looks like you were going for more of a storybook experience, which you succeeded at.

Speaking of story, reading through the scrolls & books was a bit too verbose for my tastes, and wasn't terribly engaging because of that. There was a lot of telling rather than showing. On the other hand, the setting and especially the ending do a great job of keeping things mysterious and subtle. I would have liked to have seen that degree of subtlety in the reading material, too, as I always prefer to be asking questions about a mysterious setting than having things told to me.

Still, great job overall! And nice job on the the post-compo version, too! The music and streamlined/improved graphics really do help.