Trials of the Vapor Lattice by oxysoft

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

vapor.png

SYNOPSIS

The Vapor Lattice, an abstract materialization of the horizon within one's mind.

A stagnating lagoon inhabited by the Spirit of the Lake is a shell of what it used to be. The spirit will not live for much longer without a stronger energy reserve. Thus, you shall guide it in its journey, but beware, one must tread carefully when navigating the fields of the Vapor Lattice...

COMMENTS

Combat is a bit sloppy, not entirely what I had in mind but it's still sort of neat, it's a bit more about dodging and positioning than it is about aiming.

P.S. you can skip the cutscene at the start by holding X if you want to replay it faster, which you might want to do in case you miss the easter egg...

UPDATES

I spent about 20 minutes today (day after the jam ended) just to do the following which I felt was necessary for future players.

  • Added a sound effect on death to make it more clear.
  • Fixed lasers killing you through solid walls. (Had & instead of |, a one character fix...)

Nothing else was added to the game

CREDITS

  • Oxysoft - Programming, Graphics, Sound Effects
  • Neonlare - Music

Ratings

Overall 66th 4⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Fun 333th 3.286⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 368th 3.143⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Theme 777th 2.667⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 20th 4.667⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Audio 10th 4.381⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Mood 5th 4.476⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Given 15🗳️ 12🗨️

Feedback

Rionisse
01. Aug 2017 · 07:27 UTC
Your music is stunning!
thomz12
01. Aug 2017 · 07:27 UTC
I love the old PS1 graphics style! Really great job on that! The combat lacks some feedback I think, because I kept wondering why I couldn't move. Great job anyway!
CaptainDreamcast
01. Aug 2017 · 07:47 UTC
Oh God, I caused the Lord of the Lake to suffer a fate worse than death in the ending?!

Either way, you will probably get this a trillion times but the game is really A E S T H E T I C. Amazing what you managed to put out in only 72 hours!
Turncoda
01. Aug 2017 · 08:31 UTC
The a e s t h e t i c of the game is very cool. I love the color/texture/model-minimalism (I suppose it does remind me of PS1 games @thomz12). I do wish the interactivity of the game was more... nuanced. I found myself mashing the shoot button mindlessly. I felt the need to dodge, and I felt like I was mostly successful, but I had no idea if my technique was effective. The fact that I could only sustain 1 hit was a little frustrating, it felt random whether or not I survived an encounter.
Zirrrus
01. Aug 2017 · 09:01 UTC
Nice job pulling off the old-school graphics style!
The combat was okay, I mostly just mashed the shoot button as quickly as possible while moving around. You could try adding enemies that force you to switch the target, like an enemy that shields other ones from damage, something that requires you to use some strategy.

A problem I ran into was with the first head enemy. I tried hiding behind the tree at first because it seemed to block the beams(at least visually) but kept dying. Seems you can pass trough the beams without getting hurt, you just have to avoid their place of impact? That felt a bit weird.

That easter egg..."Whoa!" indeed.
Dege
01. Aug 2017 · 10:25 UTC
This game is overall totally awesome!
Here are some of my thoughts that I got while playing

Pros:

* The graphic is amazing: the textures, the modeling, the animations and all of the shaders give it a distinct and a really cool look
* The music is really perfect and work well with the theme of the game and with the sounds
* The story is nice, and have a really nice camera movement to watch wile reading
* The final dialogue is really funny
* The level of polishness of the game is really nice
* (Loved the Easter egg)

Cons:

* The spirit often get stuck in small obstacles (that I was expecting to hover on)
* Combat is just pressing x constantly and walking back (or walking around the lasers for the big heads)
* At the starting puddle you can walk over the edges and skip half of the game or fall off the map
* ~~The starting text is not skippable, while replaying for the Easter egg it could be not so much fun~~ edit: I noticed now that is indeed skippable with X, doh!
* Controller support would have been cool

I must stress that I liked a lot the game, great work, please keep creating awesome experiences like this!

PS: how have you made the effect on the floor where the lines animate?
boaheck-artgent
01. Aug 2017 · 16:02 UTC
Had a great time with this. I love the style, in fact it's sort of similar to my games style just mine is more grimy. The audio was great and the theme was interpreted in a unique and refreshing way. I love the idea of an ancient being running out of power. The only things I have issues with are that combat is basically just a how fast can you tap x while moving back and forth test and the text disappears before you can read it sometimes.

Well done. You created a unique and genuinely enjoyable game and should be proud of yourself.
🎤 oxysoft
01. Aug 2017 · 16:37 UTC
@Dege you can in fact bind controller inputs if you press F1. The lines on the ground is all done in shader with maths and it draws on a plane, that's all there is to it. :P
rijnswand
01. Aug 2017 · 20:16 UTC
Not a fan of the colours, but the graphic style was really well done, also liked the music. Got killed by the first laser head and then got stuck in some bushes, seems like I respawned there.
a333
02. Aug 2017 · 09:32 UTC
The most atmospheric game I've seen so far. Nice work with the textures, audio, and overall feeling.
Also, thank you for the Easter egg tip =)
JuicyBrucey
02. Aug 2017 · 18:50 UTC
The overall mood and atmosphere in this was great, and I love the graphics. I can't put my finger on why but i thought the laser-head enemy was really cool. My biggest complaint is that the enemies who fire back, especially the hands presented an unreasonable challenge, in that 4/5 times they came to attack it turned into a spam-fest of shooting before getting shot myself. I don't know if i was just not agile enough but it was an unfortunate blemish on the otherwise near perfect feel of the game; though to counter this the checkpoints were a very nice addition. I replayed just to see the easter egg. Nice job!
impbox
03. Aug 2017 · 15:07 UTC
Cool atmosphere and graphics and sounds. Gameplay felt kind of generic and boring. I was interested until the combat happened. I think ditch the combat and make something more interesting with it.
🎤 oxysoft
03. Aug 2017 · 15:24 UTC
Thanks for playing. I agree, combat was a mistake. I think the heads work since they are stationary but the hands were too much.
frankiesmileshow
04. Aug 2017 · 05:02 UTC
This was really beautiful! The best looking game I played of this jam so far. I love the aesthetics here, the mood, its all great. The combat was maybe a bit awkward, could have maybe used some sort of regenerating health or something.
Also, woah
kr4ft3r
05. Aug 2017 · 21:15 UTC
"Do you not have anything better to do" hehe its nice how you knew someone might be staring at that pretty scene for a while. Very nice trip, wish it lasted longer.
Maldo19
06. Aug 2017 · 07:36 UTC
The graphics, audio and mood were superb, I really liked the text effect you used, and how the game looked. The combat in the other side it needs a little polish, I would have added something like a shield with limited energy to counter act the lasers and bullets that you really aren't able to dodge with the distance you are given. I don't think you should have the combat removed, I really liked it, the enemies were interesting and they really added to the mood of the game. Amazing job!
zenmumbler
07. Aug 2017 · 22:29 UTC
Those hands killed me right quick the first couple of times and then Andross and his cousins show up and things got out of hand from there. Did manage to get to the end and I was thankful that at least there wasn't just an untouchable toilet there. Nice retro+ visual style and audio. Well produced!
fangzhangmnm
08. Aug 2017 · 03:02 UTC
To simulate PS1 I chosen 640*480 resolution. However, the text goes beyond the edges.
Nice game. I love the colors and level geometries. The music is stylish too.
The game looks so complete. Congrats.
The drawback of your game is that there is little connection with the theme
Asofi
08. Aug 2017 · 07:14 UTC
It's freaking awesome!

Really love this graphic and audio) Thanks for it)
red-fan-games
08. Aug 2017 · 11:09 UTC
I fixed the issue you had with my game.https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/plasma-arena
Eremiell
08. Aug 2017 · 17:49 UTC
I really love the looks, the mood and everything, but I just keep dying, wasn't able to kill just a single hand. Still a nice game and I believe, many can enjoy it even more than me.
ProdigalSon
10. Aug 2017 · 04:27 UTC
Definitely an interesting take on the graphics and texture bringing back the retro computer graphics making this entry stand out thus far for me.
ViKingGames
14. Aug 2017 · 21:50 UTC
The graphics and audio fit perfectly together to give the game a fantastic, interesting mood. I'm curious to how the it might look if it had VR support, but I'm not knowledgeable enough about that sort of thing to even know if it would work. I liked the combat's aiming mechanics, but it would've been better with more well developed combat.

If I had to sum up my experience in one word, it would be woah!
Jupiter_Hadley
29. Aug 2017 · 14:32 UTC
Really interesting game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 39 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHHnWvZj4oQ