LudumData

Mars Mystery by wolar

[raw]
made by wolar for LD 39 (JAM)

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Please turn on your sound before playing

Story:

You control a rover that is exploring the newly discovered cave on Mars. Discover Mars mysteries before your battery runs off. Follow the sonar sound to reach the goal. Moving costs you energy as well as having the systems on-line. You can turn off systems to save energy and recharge your rover on a sun.

Controls:

Q/A: Left Track

E/D: Right Track

Space: Lights

C: Sonar (gives you audio hint about goal distance)

Download:

Windows

macOS

Team:

Martin Novák - Coding, 2D Graphics, Audio

Ondřej Dovec - 3D models and textures

Wolar Games (Our company) - Web | Twitter | Facebook

Tools:

Unity, Blender, Photoshop, Audacity, TexturePacker, DoTween (Unity Plugin)

Notes:

We didn't want to participate in this LD at all but then we liked this theme so much we have decided to give it some time. We have worked from scratch in 2 people only saturday afternoon and sunday morning so in total one day. Also this is our first LD entry that we didn't overscope and were able to finish.

We did not create all the Audio (we have downloaded music and some sound effects) so we opt-out Audio category.

Windows https://www.dropbox.com/s/uqr3lef7gzlcwax/LD39-MarsMystery-Windows.zip?dl=0
macOS https://www.dropbox.com/s/36vv7ov18v4l91t/LD39-MarsMystery-macOS.zip?dl=0
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/mars-mystery

Ratings

Overall 186th 3.727⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Fun 268th 3.394⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 113th 3.697⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Theme 12th 4.394⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 308th 3.818⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Humor 597th 1.862⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Mood 56th 4.091⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Given 48🗳️ 9🗨️

Feedback

Flurrih
01. Aug 2017 · 22:03 UTC
Very fun game. I liked the movement of the vehicle! Keep it up
Lamm
01. Aug 2017 · 22:04 UTC
Good Job, i like the enviroment and the player controller
m.dam
01. Aug 2017 · 22:06 UTC
I liked the atmosphere that was created! However I have some problems with the gameplay. The unusual controls create tension but the nature of the game makes it easy to get lost. So if you get lost it's extremely frustrating since you can't really get anywhere due to the controls and you just run out of power and die. I would also have liked it if the light and sonar buttons were on the number keys above WASD. It was difficult to reach space and C in a pinch.
zgragselus
01. Aug 2017 · 22:08 UTC
Interesting game, although it tends to be very hard to control (or maybe the layout doesn't really fit me well, this might depend on the person who is playing it though).

The scenes tend to be very dark (some global illumination would be cool for such game).
Juin
01. Aug 2017 · 22:16 UTC
The Graphics and Atmosphere are really great, but the game seems very unforgiving even in just the second level i ran out of power really fast just scouting around. The unusual controls if found to be interesting.
Chris Coe
01. Aug 2017 · 22:17 UTC
Surprisingly intuitive movement. The darkness added a great mood to the whole setting. Turning off the light didn't seem very practical in most cases due to all the rocks. I got through the whole thing. Very interesting "discoveries" in the goal zones. :)
Bocodillo
01. Aug 2017 · 22:25 UTC
Great movement mechanics and the music & atmosphere helped really give a sense of unease. A good well made game!
widdershinscrustacean
01. Aug 2017 · 22:55 UTC
This is a good, solid game. Everything about it just *worked*. Special mention to having a good tutorial for introducing the mechanics. Although I tended to forget I even had sonar, so maybe that one system could be more useful? Giving directional hints?
Winterslice
02. Aug 2017 · 16:46 UTC
Nice, creative, good atmosphere. It was unreasonably difficult after level 2 so the shine wore off a bit, but that could be polished up. Keep at it.
ruba
02. Aug 2017 · 17:00 UTC
Nice ambient music and atmosphere overall! Controls are hard a bit. Solid entry overall.

PS: I like noise post-process :)
kiyaha_jr
02. Aug 2017 · 17:16 UTC
Really nice one! Pretty graphics, great decision with tutorial,rover controls confused at start but then it was even fun to drive the rover. That alien from top down view looked like it was a pilot sitting in front of spaceship deck and first impression was "Wait whaaat?!", but then I realized what it was :scream::smile:
Tokatsu
02. Aug 2017 · 17:18 UTC
Really enteresting thing. Hope you`ll release it one day!
Librorumque64
02. Aug 2017 · 17:58 UTC
A neat little game that teaches us of the futile efforts and inevitable failure. "RC car" controls become a serious challenge when the lights are turned off. Atmosphere for some reason didn't hook me.
Aarneus
02. Aug 2017 · 19:05 UTC
Very nice atmosphere! I got lost once and I guess turned around bumping in the dark in the second level but didn't mind at all.
I can see how some people would find that and the controls frustrating but I liked that it forced me to pay attention to the level layout and the sonar.

Also, is the 2003 maximum energy level a reference to something?
🎤 wolar
02. Aug 2017 · 20:54 UTC
@aarneus It's 10 years before I have met my wife :D No in fact it was originally 2000 but I was lazy to write a code that sets it back to 2000 if it overshoots during the update function :D
hhsaez
02. Aug 2017 · 22:21 UTC
Great game! I agree that it has a great atmosphere. I reached the third level where you see the goal quite early but you can't reach it that easily.
Controls take a little time to get use to, but after a while they become really intuitive.
Good work!
Nick Rafalski
03. Aug 2017 · 02:12 UTC
Great game! Has the best mood of any game I've played so far.

I found the controls very intuitive and had no trouble with them at all.

The difficulty curve was pretty good. I beat the game without running out of power, but still had some very tense moments on level 3 when I got lost and had to shut down all systems and wander around blind, hoping to find a sun spot.

**Possible spoiler ahead, ignore if you haven't played the game yet**

My only negative critique of the whole thing is that the 'hole' you have to get through on level 3 is pretty non-obvious. It got stuck in it a few times, so initially I wrote it off as impassible, but eventually I came back to it. The camera also panned up high enough that I couldn't really see my rover at all in the hole, which added to the confusion.

Overall, a great take on the theme, and a very polished little game
🎤 wolar
03. Aug 2017 · 11:12 UTC
**Spoiler ahead!!!**

@nick-rafalski If you have managed to go through the wall right on the start on the right side in 3rd level where you can see the goal over that wall then we have a bug you have discovered :D It is not intended to go through that wall in this level :D
holypangolin
03. Aug 2017 · 12:36 UTC
Cool, I really liked the controls to move the little rover! I had fun moving him and I think it's a good idea for a game. However, when I found something, I didn't really get info what it was. Sound of the rover is too annoying for me (too high I think). I ended up dying in level 2 and honestly I'm not sure how much faster could I do it. Great idea! Thanks!
PS. Also couldn't find switch off button on a mac.
Sythgara
04. Aug 2017 · 18:11 UTC
It's a cool concept. I like the sound effects and graphics. Not keen on trying to turn right by pressing left side key : p
tBureck
05. Aug 2017 · 16:58 UTC
Very nice game! Although the controls are weird, I actually liked them a lot: driving a rover is different from the usual car after all. I found the rover's engine sound a little bit annoying, but that's pretty much everything. Liked the little tutorial very much.
HuvaaKoodia
05. Aug 2017 · 20:12 UTC
I love manually toggling systems and subsystems, be it in a sub, a mech or a mars rover. Having total control over a machine and knowing how to use it is a very nice thematic idea. I didn't even think of that in the jam, *the possibilities!*

Sure, it is just a maze under the hood, but the atmosphere and the controls really make it work.

Good job! :alien:
Split82
09. Aug 2017 · 14:17 UTC
Awesome! :)
Tommy
14. Aug 2017 · 15:08 UTC
Very nice game with a great atmosphere! You did a really good job with the theme.
abductedPlatypus
14. Aug 2017 · 17:02 UTC
I liked the controls. The sounds, lighting and ambience. I liked how the sonar misguides you in harder levels, forcing you to look around more. And, of course, the fact that you were looking for man reading a newspaper on the toilet. I didn't like the fact that running out of power required are full restart of the game. But a very Minor thing. great game!