A Shot in the Dark by thecatspajamas

[raw]
made by thecatspajamas for LD34 (JAM)
Theme -- Two Button Controls
Find your way, lit only by your magic crossbow bolts.
Click to move or shoot, right-click to change modes. Beware that the menu takes 2 seconds to load, and we don't know why...

(Update)
By Popular demand, we now have a zip file download!

(Update 2)
Made file size smaller for faster downloads and faster start of game load time.


Design:
Paul Schwarzwalder
Phoenix Smith

Programming:
Paul Schwarzwalder
Phoenix Smith

Art and Animation:
Lynne Startup

Level Design:
Jami Schwarzwalder
Phoenix Smith

Music:
Coldharvest I by Ethan Helfrich of Rest You Sleeping Giant (Free Music Archive)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Sound Effects:
Archery arrow release - AM (AudioMicro)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Footsteps by InspectorJ (freesound.org)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Ringing Ambient Background (YouTube Audio Library)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Water dripping in cave by lebcraftlp (freesound.org)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

cave waterdrops by voltae(freesound.org)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Several other clips from YouTube Audio Library, free sound & AudioMicro

Ratings

Coolness 93% 2
Overall(Jam) 3.55 292
Fun(Jam) 3.36 355
Graphics(Jam) 3.55 468
Innovation(Jam) 3.79 106
Mood(Jam) 3.90 90
Theme(Jam) 3.72 475

Feedback

tweedle
15. Dec 2015 · 04:51 UTC
Nice mood and use of the two button control theme.
Monochrome Bears
15. Dec 2015 · 05:15 UTC
Sorry can't check it on my mac :(
Jebby
15. Dec 2015 · 05:20 UTC
I enjoyed the concept! The couple levels that I played were fun and puzzling.
Epicruins195
15. Dec 2015 · 05:43 UTC
What I liked:
- Very effective visuals that tie in with game play.
- Combination of audio and visuals creates a nice mood.
- Innovative mechanics.
- Runs well.

Things that could be improved (IMO):
- Camera movement in first person is too loose.
- Ends abruptly.

Excellent work.
SSJMetroid
15. Dec 2015 · 06:59 UTC
An installer??? Man... no thnx :| (yep, I'm that kind of guy... but come on, it's a game jam, not a bloody commercial product)
Bloodyaugust
15. Dec 2015 · 07:13 UTC
Sorry, but I'm not going to run an installer for an LDJAM game. Please zip the game and distribute that way. :)
victorfisac
15. Dec 2015 · 07:50 UTC
You could improve the graphics...
Bogden
15. Dec 2015 · 08:19 UTC
Awesome game! Very innovative. Loved the atmosphere.
Hjalte500
15. Dec 2015 · 08:21 UTC
I like the feeling and look that you were going for. It works but I wished you had used navmesh or something since I kept clicking somewhere and the character would take the direct route which resulted in jumping of the edge. Anyways pretty good puzzles, visuals and use of theme. So all in all pretty good.
Ildfuglen
15. Dec 2015 · 11:40 UTC
This is a very pleasing game aesthetically, the gameplay is simple yet it feels like there's some kind of meaning to it, which is a big plus in my book.

I feel the graphical style, albeit stylish and simplistic was a bit ruined by the gradual mixing of colours, the initial black white green was great (less so the green), but when purple, red and blue started being thrown in the mix that threw the style off a lot for me.

(Also the crosshair when you click is red, and the platforms you walk on are green, this is a bad design decision)

The game fits well to the theme, using right/left click to play, I've never played a game quite like this one, so for me it's innovative.

The mood is great, it really feels as if there's some kind of meaning to the game, and overall the game is solid.

Now onto issues I had with the game:

For me, right click wouldn't work most of the time, this was very frustrating for me. I would spam right click to bring my crossbow up, but it would only react 1/20 times.

I have ignored this bug for the sake of my review, under the premise and hope that you'll be implementing a fix for this.

Another issue is that if you're in the crossbow view and you open the ESC menu, you don't have a cursor, so you can't change your settings.

Also, you can get stuck in the level if you run across a gap, where you were supposed to fall down.

Thank you for a great entry and a great experience, I hope to see your games in the future as well, and I hope that you continue to develop and polish this game further, because I would play it. :)
redmassacre
15. Dec 2015 · 12:12 UTC
My daughter really enjoyed this game
Five flash arrows from five)
Polith Games
15. Dec 2015 · 18:22 UTC
Good job!
Berserker_Chris
15. Dec 2015 · 19:56 UTC
Nice Game, really cool idea
rjhelms
15. Dec 2015 · 21:27 UTC
Great entry. I really like the concept here and it's well executed. Good puzzle design.

I had a bit of jankiness with right-click detection, sometimes I had to press it a few times to switch modes. But nothing game-breaking.
MintArcade
15. Dec 2015 · 23:49 UTC
Great fun. Graphic need some improvement, other than that, it's a cool game idea.
alvarop
16. Dec 2015 · 04:34 UTC
YES. The atmosphere in this game, as well as the mechanics were awesome. Besides some technical issues, I think this game has all its ideas in its right places.

A bit of polish, maybe some more levels and more clarity regarding some of the mechanics - the different "height" in levels isn't very clear atm - would make this a great game.

I loved it. One of my personal favorites so far!
MiggyGMan
16. Dec 2015 · 04:56 UTC
I really loved the graphics and the music in this!! Really well put together
LxStudio
16. Dec 2015 · 07:32 UTC
Very nice concept and style. Really enjoyed playing it.
candlesan
16. Dec 2015 · 07:35 UTC
Very moody - cool shot mechanic - lots of potential if this were fleshed out into a full game. Don't like that there's a delay on drawing the arrow, never really felt the need to shoot short range arrows and found myself waiting to draw the drawstring a lot.
kirbytails7
16. Dec 2015 · 09:46 UTC
Nice! I'm not 100% on all of the mechanics (elevators? especially illuminated ones), but it's solid. I like the reflectivity of the surfaces so even if I miss, I still get information.
YinYin
16. Dec 2015 · 10:25 UTC
I really like this. The controls were a bit clunky, but I really like the character model/animation and concept.
It just needed to be a bit more snappy, faster swap between perspectives and a less agonizingly long and not immediately visible arrow charge (lerp it so the initial backwards movement is quick, but a full charge still takes some time!). Metroid Other M comes to mind as a good example of snappy perspective change like that (this could be great on a WiiU with the remote really).

You could also add more conventional wasd/analogue stick controls for movement in the future without the theme restrictions, but pointing where to go did work well enough.


The shadows being far off from her feet at some point were a bit weird (they seem to work right in the last level).

Sound or animation (even just a colour change) was really missing on the buttons.
Robber
16. Dec 2015 · 17:55 UTC
Wow this game is great, so original. I like the graphical style very much, it could use little polish but you should stay true to this style, the mood is great and the scream is the icing on the game-cake..I think it could use a little more tension in the gameplay, perhaps less ammo, because when you die because you are out of ammo, the next time you replay the level you will know where to go, or maybe some tension because of a monster or something, like something is haunting you, the game could be more scary, but that's just some ideas. when you select the bow, you hear the sound of an arrow, i instantly felt i was losing an arrow, but it was just the sound..anyway really excellent job, enjoyed it alot!
Archonthewizard
16. Dec 2015 · 22:39 UTC
Really cool art style. I like the concept of switching views and lighting your path. It was a bit brutal to work through tho.
SiENcE
16. Dec 2015 · 23:37 UTC
Carefully choosen colors. A white character is also a nice choice. Great overall design.

Only handling could be improved.
martincohen
17. Dec 2015 · 04:02 UTC
I liked the mechanics and the idea. I'd love to feel more in control of the crossbow, especially when setting the force to shoot. Maybe it'll be better to just use an angle and a ballistic curve (would be also more intuitive). Good job guys!
LukeZaz
17. Dec 2015 · 05:23 UTC
Very interesting and fun game! Loved the perspective you had when not aiming. Would've liked to be able to hold left mouse to keep moving, and might've preferred being able to shoot at a specific spot from the non-aiming view, but the game was still fantastic in almost all regards!
brainstorm
17. Dec 2015 · 19:04 UTC
Awesome game! I loved it. Good use of the theme and amazing mood.

5/5
Imagos Softworks
18. Dec 2015 · 04:23 UTC
The FOV was way too wide for me and a little disorienting. The graphics were top notch. Really loved the style.
Kenneth Ng
18. Dec 2015 · 04:58 UTC
Mood was great. The sound volume was a too low. Very interesting mechanic of switching between 3rd person and 1st person. Good pace of teaching mechanics.
siege
18. Dec 2015 · 05:16 UTC
Interesting mechanic! Liked the idea, controls were solid!
the-arrival
18. Dec 2015 · 12:11 UTC
Really neat Idea and execution! I love it
inbetweengames
19. Dec 2015 · 15:44 UTC
Cool entry - quite original, atmospheric, enjoyable experience.

The only thing which seemed a little bit off was 1st person FOV - it seemed that the distance to objects in FPP mode was way higher than in TPP mode (ojbects in FPP seemed to be further away than in TPP).
batmanasb
19. Dec 2015 · 20:35 UTC
The concept is innovative and the mood is great. Although I feel like the crossbow aim tries to pull down, which is a little annoying and makes it hard to aim. (Which might just be a WINE bug :P) Also, I think this game would work a lot better if it was in first person all the time, instead of switching to isometric. So you could move and shoot like in an FPS.
Tapehead
19. Dec 2015 · 21:39 UTC
very cool idea, good chosen artstyle and it makes fun! the only thing that could be better is the fov of the fps view
Kuality Games
19. Dec 2015 · 22:06 UTC
Nice game! Enjoyed playing it, I'll have to finish the rest of the levels once I'm done streaming. Needs a bit of polish.
roaringcatgames
20. Dec 2015 · 03:00 UTC
This is a great concept. I loved mechanic. The puzzles could have been a bit tougher towards the end as they were a little predictable, but for 72 hours, I can't say too much bad about them. I hope you keep working on this and expand it to a full game. Great entry.
Null DIES
24. Dec 2015 · 21:18 UTC
This is the first game I give 5 stars for innovation!
I love everything about it, just put some nice music and add more complicated levels and it'll be perfect :)
How can I follow up on what you guys are doing? Twitter maybe? :)
broknecho
29. Dec 2015 · 05:51 UTC
Really nice Atmosphere. Concept was solid. I think it could be a lot more with more than 2 buttons.

Great entry!
Instant Noodles
03. Jan 2016 · 16:00 UTC
Great mood and ambiance. :)
Nice mechanics, I liked how it evolve within the levels.
Nice work.

(Ps : I get some performances issues with the last level)
Omiya Games
03. Jan 2016 · 17:48 UTC
Not a fan of the wonky camera in both perspectives, as well as the need to hold down the left-mouse button to shoot. I would have liked it better if it stayed in orthographic camera and the character would fire at the location you right-clicked on the level.

It's an interesting concept, to be fair, but I'm not a fan of the trial-and-error gameplay.
Molpe
04. Jan 2016 · 22:54 UTC
This is awesome! And addictive! The graphics are beautiful!

I've made a let's play video if you want to check it out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhaSv2QOzpI
Jupiter_Hadley
27. Mar 2016 · 23:34 UTC
Awesome concept, love the light effects! I included it in my Ludum Dare 34 compilation video series, if you’d like to check it out :) https://youtu.be/kf34--PMGMs