LudumData

Stator Chronicle by Sergey Mohov

[raw]
made by Sergey Mohov for LD27 (COMPO)
Stator Chronicle is a ridiculously honest video game about wizardry and the sensation of being lost. A linear storytelling/procedural gameplay crossover experiment, it combines skill-based gameplay with encouragement through curiosity of the player.

The world is procedurally generated. There are no pre-designed level sequences, so no repetitiveness, everything is done with maths. Think Minecraft, not Spelunky.

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IMPORTANT: THE FARTHER YOU GET INTO THE FOREST, THE MORE ROTORS YOU WILL FIND

Controls: move with arrow keys or WASD/ZQSD, perform actions with other keys (as specified per action).

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Soundtrack is available here: https://soundcloud.com/sergey-mohov/neon-swink

YouTube gameplay video (sorry about the quality, some text may be unreadable): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2Bj0gmDMIs

Hi, I'm @krides.
Windows http://www.mediafire.com/?7wwx17btk4ysyz8
OS/X http://www.mediafire.com/?9f3c1bu5n6u73al
Linux Universal http://www.mediafire.com/?0bjx1c5qd70zw2p
Web (Kongregate) http://www.kongregate.com/games/sergeymohov/stator-chronicle
Source (Bitbucket) https://bitbucket.org/sergeymohov/ld27
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=9963

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall 3.41 239
Audio 3.43 110
Fun 2.68 766
Graphics 3.75 136
Humor 2.30 503
Innovation 3.39 265
Mood 3.68 63
Theme 3.26 479

Feedback

lcarpentier
26. Aug 2013 · 07:57 UTC
Awesome little game, well done sir.
Hypnohustla
26. Aug 2013 · 09:19 UTC
Oozing with style. Music fitted the game well and the overall mood was just mesmerizing.
Andrewves
26. Aug 2013 · 09:24 UTC
Interesting concept. The music and visuals created a good atmosphere but the gameplay felt a little lacking. I really like how the screen changes color to indicate the players status.
nitrocrime
26. Aug 2013 · 10:01 UTC
Not my game, It took about 2-3 minutes before I found my first rotor and by that time I was pretty much in frostbite already..
Grafter
26. Aug 2013 · 10:03 UTC
cool world!
Xatulu
26. Aug 2013 · 10:06 UTC
Awesome little game, thou it took me quite some while to find the rotor, love the tint you give it for frostbite
Terrabyte
26. Aug 2013 · 10:07 UTC
This is the best interpretation of the theme yet! The graphics and music are amazing too :)
Nizan
26. Aug 2013 · 10:11 UTC
Nice and moody, though wasn't sure on my overall objective (or how much longer I had to go...). What would have helped in the beginning was having a rotor right outside the house so you knew what you were looking for/doing. I found one eventually, but when I got to the point I have to collect 4 - I got a bit bored. Also not sure what it was being 'painfully honest' about? :/
leedo
26. Aug 2013 · 10:29 UTC
It's really a nice game.
wind feel a bit buggy sometimes, but it work great.
🎤 Sergey Mohov
26. Aug 2013 · 10:31 UTC
Why, it is painfully honest about wizardry of course.
recursor
26. Aug 2013 · 11:19 UTC
Nice art style
EggDestroyer
26. Aug 2013 · 11:39 UTC
Nice atmosphere, feedbacks, mood. Got bored after 2-3mn tho.
josefnpat
26. Aug 2013 · 12:10 UTC
This is a fantastic game! I love the dynamic generation of the landscape, and the purpose to collect the rotors. I'd go so far as to say, I love the rotors. Will they marry me?
🎤 Sergey Mohov
26. Aug 2013 · 12:58 UTC
They will! They will! :3
nicotuason
26. Aug 2013 · 13:24 UTC
Very stylish! The story seemed interesting and I wanted to follow it but the rotors are just too far apart. and it got boring searching for them.
ellipticaldoor
26. Aug 2013 · 13:59 UTC
I love procedural worlds, an awesome way of making level desing.
Split82
26. Aug 2013 · 15:17 UTC
I love the style and visuals.
timtipgames
26. Aug 2013 · 15:38 UTC
Great game, awesome atmosphere. Love the idea to split exploration and story telling.
smotko
26. Aug 2013 · 16:19 UTC
Awesome! I loved exploring the generated world. And I loved the humor. The only problem is that the camera gets a bit annoying from time to time, but apart from that it's a fun game!
Pierrec
26. Aug 2013 · 17:47 UTC
Very stylish! The graphics, the music, the color change...all this gives the game a really great atmosphere. Exploring the game can get a bit boring after a while, but I played for 15 minutes and really enjoyed it.
Lustdante
27. Aug 2013 · 00:18 UTC
Feel so alone playing this game. Mood is perfectly synthesized.
archaeometrician
27. Aug 2013 · 07:08 UTC
Nice game I love it !
Badger
27. Aug 2013 · 08:26 UTC
really fun!! great job!
Alexander Ponomariov
27. Aug 2013 · 08:27 UTC
Mine gosh! That awesome invoation in graphics, the mood is also 5/5!
LittleThor
27. Aug 2013 · 08:29 UTC
Interesting idea and very good athmosphere. Just need a little more things to do, or a more "active" environment.
matthias_zarzecki
27. Aug 2013 · 08:31 UTC
This is lovely. Nice artstyle, and the opening-gag is great :)
ratalaika
27. Aug 2013 · 08:41 UTC
Nice work :) Good mood.
🎤 Sergey Mohov
27. Aug 2013 · 08:45 UTC
Thanks for the comments, everyone, I appreciate it a lot!
01101101
27. Aug 2013 · 10:09 UTC
Glad you finally got back in! :) I like it, although I don't have time to play more right now, but I will continue later so I can find out about that story ^^
Lidfrid
27. Aug 2013 · 10:44 UTC
After i get to the sixth part of the story i was a bit bored to continue.. i think you could change the parts to find accordingly to the story... like Rotors, and other stuff. good job on the graphics, and congratulation for the number of gameobject :)
Oxydam
27. Aug 2013 · 14:23 UTC
My favorite entry so far. Great ambiance and a cool gameplay mechanic.
flamecow
27. Aug 2013 · 15:33 UTC
What a neat idea for a game, wow!
Szedouu
27. Aug 2013 · 17:48 UTC
Well done, I enjoyed your game. Its clean and nice.
deepnight
27. Aug 2013 · 21:25 UTC
Very interesting experiment, I especially liked the mood and the visuals. However, the random part makes the actual level design really boring most of the time. The frostbite system is strange but leads to some interesting situations (small bug: if you walk against a rotor, timer won't decrease, allowing unlimited immobility).
iterative deepening
27. Aug 2013 · 22:16 UTC
Great entry, nice concept and atmosphere.

The camera view can be a bit frustrating sometimes (we would like to have a bigger depth of field), but overall I really enjoyed the game.
Khopa
27. Aug 2013 · 22:29 UTC
Great ambiance, loved the colors, the shadows and the soundtrack. Very good entry !
Nerlin
27. Aug 2013 · 22:37 UTC
Like art style and game idea!
jay griffin
28. Aug 2013 · 00:23 UTC
Great sense of atmosphere, it looks and sounds amazing. Just a really polished piece of work all over. This is great stuff.
SaintHeiser
28. Aug 2013 · 02:35 UTC
Not bad.
Like minimalistic design =)
CoffeeOnimal
28. Aug 2013 · 08:47 UTC
Minimalism and Ten seconds, two themes for the price of one.
Nice execution.
🎤 Sergey Mohov
28. Aug 2013 · 09:31 UTC
@CoffeeOnimal Well, I did miss Ludum Dare 26, got to make up for it somehow, right? :-)
Reaperguy
28. Aug 2013 · 11:24 UTC
Very nice, really liked the graphics and the mood they created.
Danex317
29. Aug 2013 · 02:58 UTC
Great Job. Only problem I had was that the music was a bit too loud. it was hard to hear the rotors until you were right on top of them.
[-BipolarDesign+]
29. Aug 2013 · 15:31 UTC
Great visuals and music, and I liked exploring the randomly generated world. Didn't get too far into the story, collecting rotors got a bit repetitive after a while tbh.

If I had to give you any suggestions, I think that I would have made each story element only cost 1 rotor, but make the player find their way back to the house themselves. That way you get a better sense of being lost and helpless the further out into the forest you go. Just my two cents :)
Yakka
30. Aug 2013 · 11:52 UTC
The price to get more of the story is too high >.< but I liked the mood :)
Almax27
30. Aug 2013 · 12:18 UTC
Awesome game. Loved the art, the grey with the accent colours. (I'm biased towards that ;)) The intro camera is great to, as is the little camera zoom when going though a tight spot between the gaps.

Cool!
Jesse Freeman
30. Aug 2013 · 13:10 UTC
Love the art style, really great look and feel to the game!
Travis Irby
30. Aug 2013 · 15:55 UTC
Very nicely done, I enjoyed the concept and look of the game. catchy tune too!
BenWhi
31. Aug 2013 · 01:27 UTC
Beautiful work! Loved the music as well!
panurge
31. Aug 2013 · 11:28 UTC
Gorgeous visuals and music. One of the most atmospheric games I've played so far by a long way. I also like the storytelling mechanic although I have to say that by the time I was looking for four rotors I needed a little more to keep me going - maybe some new gameplay elements as I got further into the 'forest.'
darkshadow
31. Aug 2013 · 20:07 UTC
The map is very pretty and the game very stylish, procedural generation certainly helped with that. Despite that the uniform generation away from the open area around the house didn't really incentivise me to explore more, though I guess it does add to the sensation of feeling lost when everything looks the same but isn't quite the same. Game-play was a bit lacking, and having to pay more and more for each line was a bit off-putting.
mrspeaker
31. Aug 2013 · 20:23 UTC
Aesthetically amazing - not sure why you were calling it "honest" - but that line certainly had me sticking around to try and figure out why. I failed, but was oddly happy to lost in the desolate landscape.
SpiralCodeStudio
31. Aug 2013 · 22:41 UTC
Great one! Babuska story telling system is cool!
Infernal
01. Sep 2013 · 02:27 UTC
Great job! Really enjoyed it until I had to go find 8, 9, 10 rotors. granted the farther you get, the rotor density shoots up but it becomes quite frustrating to have to venture way far out again to grab the TON of em you are going to need for the next few story bits.
🎤 Sergey Mohov
01. Sep 2013 · 12:55 UTC
Thank you for playing and commenting, everyone. Your feedback is really important to me! As a matter of fact, I'm gathering it all in a spreadsheet—this is how serious I am about your feedback :-)
Xgor
01. Sep 2013 · 13:06 UTC
It has a nice look and atmosphere to it, but a bit too eventless for me to truly enjoy it.

(Also if you truly want to give a sensation of getting lost, you should remove the home button)
Sense
04. Sep 2013 · 06:18 UTC
I collected only one rotor, maybe you should review your procedurally item generation. By the way, Nice graphics, audio, & I felt very lost, you made my day.
🎤 Sergey Mohov
04. Sep 2013 · 07:43 UTC
@Sense Rotors are definitely generated correctly, as confirmed by other people who left comments and myself. My bigger concern at the moment is the difficulty curve, however, and the overall level of motivation potentially inspired by the story. I'm working on those.
Crowbeak
04. Sep 2013 · 13:03 UTC
I tried to play it on my Mac (Mountain Lion) and it crashed before it opened. I can't play the web version because of a ridiculous bug that only affects Mac users with Japanese input.
🎤 Sergey Mohov
04. Sep 2013 · 19:51 UTC
@Crowbeak I'm terribly sorry to hear this. I'll see what I can do! Thank you for letting me know.
alwaysinbeta
05. Sep 2013 · 16:29 UTC
The procedurally generated world is really cool. I like the whole look and feel of the game too.
Pinktreeleaf
06. Sep 2013 · 15:28 UTC
very memory heavy on my browser, but I love this game. The having to keep moving part was a good idea it kept me playing and I learned a bit about work and payoff by your system. good job. also love how much content is in it even though its probably procedural.
bassarisse
09. Sep 2013 · 04:40 UTC
Loved the mood. Reminded me of Wall-e.
mortus
13. Sep 2013 · 08:10 UTC
I didn't manage to finish the game and read the whole story, but I think it's a story about Rotors enslaving People and I just break free of their slavery!

Cool concept and great mood though, I wish it were shorter so I could read the ending.