Nice unexpected ending!

Thanks for playing it to the very end! :grinning: May i ask how long you were playing? A speedrun took me 2 minutes, but i know the map, of course.

I left a short comment on your game, too.

I didn't keep track of it. I guess I played between 5 and 10 minutes. I'm sure it wasn't longer than 15. I liked how I had to map the place in my head. I even tried my hardest to break the game and beat it in unintended ways, but it shows that you (probably) tried this as much as I did, since the game is solid in preventing abuse of the sloped decorations.

It might not seem like much, but in a game jam most of the players are also devs so we know where to look for flaws. I have found ways to get around gameplay mechanics in some LD games already, but yours is solid!

Initially the slopes could be bypassed but i reduced the player's velocity on jumping, which results in a weird jumping behaviour but stops unwanted shortcuts. Very rarely a bug occurs that misplaces the walls completely, but i had no time to hunt it. Thanks again! :slight_smile:

I'm a bit lost. Am I supposed to draw the map on paper as I play?
(That would be very cool)

I hoped the maze would be hard enough to push the player to do so, but it seems most players are able to work their way through without drawing a map (more trial and error).

Thanks for playing! I'll play and rate your game when i'm back at my PC as i'm currently on mobile on a train.:smiley:

Like the flat shading graphics and the mood. Keep on, next LD you'll have a solid base.

I got lost all the time. Was this intentional?

The low field of view made me dizzy, so I had to stop after activating 6 towers. However, the controls felt good.

Interesting game that I wish I could have played to the end.

Ok, initially I gave up and felt I didn't have the patience for this. But I gave it another shot and made an effort to map it out and I'm glad I did. Mapping things always seems like a chore but it's actually pretty fun and a lot less frustrating than not doing it and just trying to keep it all in your head. Point taken game, point taken :).

Great entry for LD!

I like the minimalism of the graphics and the short field of view is perfect to give an impression of claustrophobia and try to draw a map of the small world as the game title suggested ;)

I maybe tried a bit more than expected since I didn't have pen and paper beside me, so I tried to remember all the paths (even though at the end I went a bit random).

Great work!

I like the idea of your first person puzzle game. I think you have to be careful with your field of view, if it is too small it might cause motion sickness. Overall a nice project for your first time in Unity :upside_down:

@homineludens To be honest, i wanted flat shading but i wanted ambient occlusion, too, but i was not able to get it working in time. No idea, i thought it was just setting a tick in graphics settins somewhere. :D I'll likely start from scratch again the next jam, because i like the idea to create something from nothing in a limited time.

@for-science Getting lost is intended to encourage the player to draw a map, hence the title. The game is less trial and error with a pencil and paper and i hoped that the players get the idea behind the map and the arrangement of the towers. I'm sorry making you feel sick. By field of view you mean the camera setting or the fog? I did not switch camera settings afaik, but the fog is there for a reason. If you activated six towers, the game is almost over. It's a shame you were forced to miss the end. :(

@silkworm-sweatshop Hey, thanks for your patience. How is The Wizard And The Slug coming along? I did not know you are a LD veteran. See you over at TIGS. ;)

@matita Thank you for the nice words!

@arcticmattekar I did not think of motion sickness at all (i'm a long time Quake II and III player). Lesson learned. I'm planning to build a settings page for things like mouse sensitivity and sound volume (i hope my cousin will make some music for me) and i'll add a setting for FOV, too. But the fog can't be optional as removing the fog would break the game. It was not my first time using Unity but my biggest project so far and my first "finished" game.

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**Many many Thanks for playing and commenting, everyone!** I played, rated and left a comment on your games, too. Hopefully you can get something constructive out of it. :smiley:

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P.S.: The text field ate my comment and i had to type everything again. :((

That was really neat. I quite enjoy mazes, so it didn't take me too long to solve the puzzle, but I had a lot of fun exploring on the way! The ending was pretty great too. When I finally realized what happened I laughed pretty hard.

So you did all of this without understanding Unity programming *or* Blender just during the Jam? Holy smokes. That's impressive.

Keep up the great work!

@chronosv2 Thanks for playing it to the end. The maze is not that hard, there are only few things which can go wrong. In those cases it should be easy to find known terrain again, so the punishment for not making a map is more walking. It took me some time to create the (spontaneous) ending, so i'm glad you enjoyed it. :) I made some really small prototypes in Unity before, mostly trying to build a control scheme for something. I used Blender to build very basic models, but i'm pretty limited in both programs and it's the first time i imported Blender models in Unity. This way i learned the update behaviour of the imported models i used in prefabs, which is pretty unpredictable, imho (and nested prefabs don't seem to be supported?). I'm happy how the game turned out using tools i'm not comfortable with. I'll go playing your game now. :)

Simple but complete puzzle with an ending. Good work, especially considering you didn't have experience with the tools. I would have liked a faster walking speed, since a "walking simulator" usually has a lot of detail to look at while you're walking. :wink: I spent maybe five minutes, mostly just wandering, and then in the last couple minutes getting serious in the business of maze running.

*Yay, I've ascended into particle physics!*

Cool little game! It didn't take long to figure out the goal of the game, which is hard to do without just spelling it out, so you did a really good job making it evident from the graphics and gameplay. Also, even though it's pretty minimalist the game looks good! Impressive job!

This is a really good game concept! Would be awesome if you would provide a 'paper' canvas for us to draw on while walking around!
Later on you could collect the maps everyone drew. :D

Really fun game! Thank you for that! :-)

After resisting the urge to stop playing it at first, I discovered the puzzle and actually enjoyed playing it. The atmosphere is great, and a little music would've improved the experience greatly.
The controls feel great and the visuals are nice as well.

@scriptorum, @joseph-matson, @evogengames, @marccio-silva Thanks for your constructive feedback. I can't play your games now, but i'll play them later this evening when i have the time for commenting, too.

Great work, especially for the time allowed and your inexperience with the tools! You have skills! I got all the colors and finished. One little glitch. If you enter and then exit full screen mode, the mouse cursor appears and you can no longer spin in a full 360.

Enjoyed the maze aspect to this and how the title was a big clue on how to approach the game by mapping out your playthrough, nicely done. The art worked well and the design of even the title page made this feel like a polished complete little piece.
Impressed what you were able to achieve in such a short time with not much experience in either blender or unity. Would love to do the same one jam and this is definitely inspiration for me to attempt it.

@joseph-matson Do you have a game?

@scriptorum, @evogengames, @marccio-silva, @howardcs and @franklins-ghost I already played your games and will write some comments, soon.

There's a mood here! Really too bad that you didn't have time for some fitting audio. Would've been really nice, I think. The game gave off a mysterious feeling, and some eerie music could've amplified that for sure.

It's self-explanatory enough, so the lack of text works just fine, and again, I think this adds to the mysteriousness in a good way. The ending fit in really well too, but it could've been a bit more clear (again, probably something that sound could've helped with), because it took me a few moments to realise I was actually floating up into the air and before I saw the flying saucer.

I did notice the symbols, and see now that they were added for people with colour vision deficiencies. Nice! Tho of course I didn't know that when I started playing, and began pondering what they could mean, haha.

Nice job!

@ava-skoog And did you discover the meaning of the symbols? They are attached to a corresponding color, but have an additional meaning, too. :)

@scriptorum The "walking simulator" is meant to be ironic. It's a flaw in the concept for the game. SPOILERS AHEAD: It is made of tiles and the fog radius is exactly one tile length. For the current algorithm it's crucial that you can't see two towers at the same time. So there have to be two empty tiles between two towers. Which results in a lot of "useless" walking (what players don't like about walking simulators). The walking distances do not convey "Small World" very well, either. I originally planned to add some statues between the towers to discover, but i underestimaed the time i would have to spend in Blender.

@joseph-matson I'm happy how it turned out. Until the third day, only the tower activation mechanic was in place. When i added the stone circle, the only idea was to show the the player his progress. The first tower was intended as a tutorial as it's no challenge, but you learn to use the jump pads and hopefully have another look at the stone circle so he gets the progress bar behaviour, before moving on. The chances are high that you see the circle again because every path leads back there.

@evogengames A paper canvas in the game is a great idea, but toally beyond my abilities. Thanks for that idea. The title of the game was added at the very end, just before the final compiling. I was brainstorming what the game i made was about and when i googled "mapping" i stumbled across the title and just had to take it because there was no time left.

@marccio-silva Thanks for resisting the urge to stop playing. At the end of the jam i was pretty sure to annoy some players with the long walking distances. But i could not do much about it at that point. that's why i put "walking simulator" in the description. It definitely takes some patience. I underestimated the distances and when i realized it, i had no time to rewrite everything. It's a flaw created very early on the first day.

@howardcs Oh, did not notice this one. A mouseclick somewhere on the game screen should lock it again. I'm happy that players invest the time to finish the game and hope they like the ending i put in (last but not least to appreciate their spended time).

@franklins-ghost Thank you for the kind words! The title was not planned, see above. I used the jam to approach unknown terrain and it could totally have gone wrong. It was a great (but exhausting) experience, and showed me i should take more risks and leave my comfort zone more often.

@ava-skoog Yes, i underestimated audio. I was not sure if i would participate. I could have asked my cousin, who makes synth jams on YouTube, it would have been a good match, i guess, but i did not want to ask him without any notice in advance. It's on my list for a post-jam-version (along with other ideas), but at the moment i'm not sure if i want or can afford to invest the time.

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**Thank you for the feedback!** :smiley:
If you stopped playing or want to revisit the game again ...
[SPOILER] [C] activates a cheat mode which disables the ground check, so you can jump in the air infinitely. :wink: [/SPOILER]

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Very atmospheric game! The puzzle is easy (beat in < 10 min) but the mood is immersive. Thought something gonna chase me at first.

Nice work! Love the theme.

The tilebased level-generator is really amazing, also you don't need to understand the whole levelstructure to beat the game. Since the walls under the towers reduce your possible passages and leave only few ways open, you can find and activate at least the first four towers just by trying every possible direction. Anyway the mechanics are astounding and the 3D-graphics are great. It's definitely worth a try.

i enjoy it very much! i like the idea of dense black fog and the sense of lost the game transmit. As be a beginner in unity myself I'm fascinated by what you did

Cartography is *a first person puzzle (plus walking simulator) game*. When you make something you should call/label it using the most specific terms possible. I was rather intrigued by that description, but what I ended up trudging through was a *first person maze*.

I'm not a fan of mazes. It is the one puzzle genre that I really dislike. The reason? Mazes are mostly an exercise in patience, memorization and very little deduction. They don't tax the logic part of my brain much at all, which makes them boring (*to me*).

In other words I'm just going to talk about the rest of it. The graphics and mood are rather nice. The colored fog is a neat touch. The structure itself is needlessly big and you cannot sprint. There should also be some other sights to see I reckon, the dull grey corridors get dull indeed.

Taking your inexperience with the tools into account this is a solid entry.

I like this! You worked out how to tech the player about mechanics in the beginning without worded explanation. When the machanic speaks for itself, it's good design. Example playthrough:

"Ok, so we have a small circle of columns, and a wall. What's that yellow circle-cross'y thing? Oh, jump platform. Ok, I'm higher, I see another jump platform and a red stone, I bet that does something. Jump higher, touch the stone, oh, it lit up and one of the columns lit up also - that means I'm supposed to do that. And there should be more stones.

But how am I supposed to remember what is where when the fog is so close?

I better scribble down some map...
oh, *that's* why it's called *Cartography*"

That's simply good design.

As for the rest of the game, It's very solid (I couldn't find any glitches to take a shortcut, you took care to add symbols to colours, movement and feedback is good).

What this game could use is some moody music, and something to add to the overall experience - scattered notes to collect for example, something apart from the main puzzle that would make the player strive to reach the end.

Very solid idea, good take on the theme, well designed, and programmed with attention to detail. Minimalism is also a plus for me, so - very, very well done.

Leaving my rating, cheers!

@dgspitzer I never thought of chasing horror or jumpscares (i'd s*** my pants!). Originally all fog was white but when i changed it to black, i had a moonlight impression and did not change it back to white. Later i discovered i could change the fog color at runtime and added the colors which add up to white at the end.

@mikea Thanks! I enjoyed your game very much.

@slash_random Thank you! A big problem of the game is, that the mechanics in the background are barely visible to the player. I did not want to make a maze game, the maze should obscure the understanding of the game world.

@rixud High five! :smiley: I'll study your game, too.

@huvaakoodia Thank you for the detailed feedback! It's very valueable to know why the game does not work for you to improve it for everyone (if possible, it would likely need a complete rewrite).

At the beginning, my description included the word "maze" but i got some early feedback that i should remove it, because it spoiled the discovery of the task you have to perform to win the game. I'm sorry i lured you into playing a maze game you would not have played if you knew it was a maze.

Honestly, i hoped to tickle the logic part of the player's brain with the question about the nature of the game world. I did not want to make a maze game. But i failed to convey this bigger goal to the player, so at the end, it IS a maze game, sadly. If i wanted to make a maze from the start i would not have needed anything of the code i wrote the first day and could reduce the distances between towers drastically. I planned to add more stuff between the towers, but simply ran out of time. See the end of this post for further reading on this topic.

@takusan Thank you for the nice words. The first tower is indeed meant to be the tutorial. I'm happy it worked this well for you. I like games which teach you things through observation instead of words, also i'm not very good at writing. The title was a lucky accident, just before compiling and submitting. I totally agree on the lack of music and additional things to discover. Sound was a very optional thing from the start, because i'm not a music person (i wanted to ask my cousin to create the complete soundscape, eventually). I planned statues between the towers, but i wasted too much time on the first day so my time in Blender was cut short. I planned to make more graphic stuff.

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**Hey everyone! Thanks for your valueable feedback, it means a lot to me!** :smiley:

I have two questions:
- Did you figure out what the symbols mean?
- Did you notice that if you follow the walls, you arrive at the same tower you started, after one 90° turn each below two adjacent towers?

MASSIVE [SPOILER]The game was not planned to be a maze game from the start. The maze (and fog, and the long distances between towers) was put in to obscure the real goal i intended for the player: to understand the game world. I guess i was not able to convey this goal to the vast majority the players, so they did the obvious and just solved the maze. I cannot blame them for doing this. :slight_smile:

Here is a FULL MAP of the game, please DON'T LOOK AT IT, if you are still planning to figure it out for yourself: [cartography-map.png](https://i.imgur.com/0RFiBBq.png) [/SPOILER]

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Duuuude, this is sick :) I did notice it forms "triangles" instead of "rectangles" after a while. The world is really small and you hit the theme hard! I ended up drawing a map just like your spoiler. Epic congratulations to putting this together!

@pcmaster Thanks! :blush: I wrote a comment on your game, too. :rocket:

Wow, once I figured out that everything was in triangles it helped immensely, great use of colours to guide players to the right spots! Also nice to see another 3D game, it's not easy in such a short time is it!
### GOOD
-Atmosphere felt pretty dope, the colour changing fog was a highlight
-Once I figured out why it was called cartography I had a blast
### IMPROVEMENTS
-A little sound goes a long way, my first GGJ entry didn't have any so I made sure to include some this time, makes all the difference in a small title.
-I did quit and come back to this, having a way to sprint or a reason for being so slow would be benificial I'd say
-You seemed to slide slightly in the game
-The jump booster should give you a *little* more height, it took a while before I realised that you had to hold W if you wanted to get up onto the walls/gems.

Overall a good game, with sound and some more gameplay mechanics this could have been a winner!

Congratulations on your first Ludum Dare entry. Nice design, great graphics.

it's a very interesting game and the puzzle has the right amount of challenge. although I admit it took me a while to understand what I was supposed to do as I really just accidentaly walked on those jumpers ;)

the mood is excellent, but it really lacks sound. I think even just a few sfx would already add much. maybe next time!

anyway congrat's, it's quite impressive for a first Ludum Dare game! :)

Congratulations on completing your first LD! It's amazing how much work it takes to build even a small game, isn't it?

I like the overall design, even if it did feel a bit empty. A small bit of additional environment to look at (grass and trees, cryptic drawings on the walls, etc) would have gone a long way, as would some audio, but obviously there's a limit to how much time you have in a Jam.

Hope to see you again next time around!

@dink-dunk I had not planned the color changing but it turned out pretty well. i had some happy accidents while Ludum Dare. I thought i would spend more time stagnating and bug-hunting, everything went slower than expected but i was never really stuck, which was great. But i'll think about it twice before making another 3D game. Lesson learned. Your suggestions are totally valid. The walking speed between towers is already a little higher, but i had to avoid shortcut jumping at all costs, so you are stopped instantly at the moment you use a jumppad, for example. Music was impossible for me to do in the timeframe and i did not want to add a random track from the internet. Some generic bfxr sound effects would have been possible but i'm not sure if that would have been a big improvement without music. Thanks for the detailed feedback, all noted!

@ping78 Thank you!

@axoona Oh, did you walk through a door first? I hoped to draw players pretty fast towards the colored things like jumppads and crystals. Yes, the lack of sound is sad, but the time was over and i didnt't want to rush it. I'm sure my cousin could create a great soundscape, maybe for a post-jam-version. I should have asked him before. Maybe next time is the right spirit! :D

@philomory You bet, it's a lot of work. I planned more features but accomplished less (or added new things like the end sequence instead), but overall i'm happy with the result. The time management is harsh. But i need to put just a little bit more time in evaluating what's possible and planning my tasks next time, i guess. I want to participate again. :)

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**Thanks for playing and your comments!**

I'll play, rate and leave a comment on your games, too. :smiley:

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Congratulations!! Very cool 3d style.
Very nice to play / explore.

Reminds me of a modern minimalist Myst style game, loved the solving element of it, and yes jump behaviour is slightly off. Great game!

Oh My god That Is Amazing. I Lo The Walk Simulator Type Style First Person Puzzle And Got Me Intrigued For Ages!
:clap:
:thumbsup:
:ballot_box_with_check:

Well Done, Play and finish your game, I like this style! Congrats!

Really cool game! Kept playing till I finished it. Quite liked the minimalist style. Well done :)

Interesting game. Struggled initially with the map, found it nice and challenging and then started to work it out. Eerie, almost mystic kinda atmosphere which was both creepy and intriguing. Good job!

Really nice game. I liked the small field of view, even though it was a bit too small. Keep up the good work! :thumbsup:

This is super cool! I really enjoyed walking around solving this puzzle. It would be really cool if each section was decorated thematically, but obviously that would take time probably unavailable in the jam. Im curious if the markings have any significance other than just to differentiate them. I thought maybe they would be a counting system, but I didn't hit the pillars in any order that matched that theory.
The ending is pretty interesting too.

Nice job :grin:

@torcado Thanks! The markings have a meaning, i don't know if someone has interpreted the symbols correctly?

**MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD, don't click them before playing the game!**

The symbols:

!> A vertical stroke means one, a horizontal stroke means two. So they just build the numbers one to six:

!>| - + = ≠ ≡

The order of the symbols is not random:

!> Two symbols build a pair, there are three pairs with a sum of seven.

The game world actually is:

!> A "projection" of a cubic world onto a plane. The number symbols on the towers are arranged like on a normal D6 dice. Every side of the cube has a tower in the center and consists of nine tiles, imagine a Rubik's Cube. That's why it's possible to have internal courtyards building "triangular" shapes with three walls and only 90 degree corners.

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**Thank you very much for playing, rating, commenting and all the nice words! It means a lot to me!** :smiley:

I'm very interested if anybody found out all the 'secrets' in the spoilers.

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