Eldritch Engines by CameronPenner

[raw]
made by CameronPenner for LD 41 (JAM)

Welcome to H.P. Lovecrafts worst nightmare, having to play... a kart racing game.

To fit the theme, we mashed together Lovecraftian horror, and go kart racing! (and it's a contest of elimination???) We hope you enjoy this ridiculous conglomeration!

Dive deep within Lovecraft's nightmares and be the one to escape his dreams. Pilot that accursed mechanical device of antidiluvian evil (the... the kart) and race your way to victory. However, it is not enough that you should succeed. OTHERS MUST FAIL. Push them off! Collect the necronomicon to cast eldritch invocations unto your foes! You succeed only when all others lay weeping at your feet, cast unto the despairing void!

Controls: - WASD or arrow keys to move - Mouse1 or Space to shoot

How to play: - Destroy all the other karts to win! - Collect necronomicons (the red face books) so you can shoot (if you have green particles, you have a shot you can fire) - Shots fired destroy other karts (or yours if you're not careful!) - Enemies can shoot too! So be careful! - Also, don't fall off the map, lest ye be doomed to the endless torments of the treacherous void.

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Ratings

Overall 436th 3.577⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Fun 444th 3.444⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 915th 2.944⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Theme 682th 3.481⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 236th 4.037⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Audio 205th 3.692⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Humor 367th 3.273⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Mood 120th 3.923⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Given 19🗳️ 26🗨️

Feedback

Bradalli
24. Apr 2018 · 19:32 UTC
I loved the theme and mood, and the controls felt great! However I didn't feel the need to be first as I wanted to destroy the other karts.
Sun Parlor Studios
24. Apr 2018 · 19:38 UTC
Like the game a lot man! The mood is really chilling. Great game, would love to see it worked out a lil more!
Vovin
24. Apr 2018 · 19:46 UTC
Cool narration, great graphics and the controls feel very polished. Collisions feel a bit weird though.
David Hunter
24. Apr 2018 · 19:50 UTC
Mighty
Bhavin
24. Apr 2018 · 19:51 UTC
The narration was really amazing and it actually gave me a feeling of horror game in my mind!! Great work with the graphics and game!!
meskaline
24. Apr 2018 · 19:54 UTC
Coll game, man. Nice mood. :D
theArtifacts
24. Apr 2018 · 19:57 UTC
I thought your graphics were great and the vehicle handling was pretty good but ran into a couple problems. I couldn't end the game. I ended up being the only kart left but the counter still had 2 carts on it. Would have been good to implement some sort of laps-system. Also, didn't find that it matched the LD Jam theme very well. Regardless, good work! Might make for a good racing game down the road (pun intended). Would you mind reviewing mine? https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/ld41-jam-game
zaguer
24. Apr 2018 · 20:02 UTC
Very pretty game and models. Loved that beautiful cave and the glowing shots.
Emmitt
24. Apr 2018 · 21:03 UTC
Honestly, I have never seen in my life a car racing game with such Lovecreaft style mood. The feeling is really great, music and design really put you in the right mood.
I could not reach the aim of racing, though. The car number was stuck at 3 for a long time and when a found a different racer it appered to difficult to push him off the track.
In every other way, it was a great experience!
ultrarat
25. Apr 2018 · 03:42 UTC
The concept and audio made me laugh out loud on just the title screen. This is one of the few games that hits the "mood" and "humor category. Although it would have felt better with controller analog support though.
🎤 CameronPenner
25. Apr 2018 · 14:58 UTC
@bradalli I agree the need to be first is not there, we discussed a lot of ways to encourage going fast and being first, but didn't manage to get it done in time. We scoped way big on this one!

Thanks for the feedback @sun-parlor-studios! We had a ton of fun working on this, and there's lots more we'd like to do. We're definitely talking about doing a post-jam version.

@vovin, thanks! @pickens-inc did the narration, so props to him for killing it on that. Collisions were a result of manually overriding a lot of the physics to polish things. Unfortunately that ended up meaning that some velocities got overwritten so collisions weren't quite right. I've never written a racing system quite like this before, there's definitely a lot I would do different next time!

@david-hunter Huzzah!

@bhavin thank you so much! Your encouraging words mean a lot to all of us. :)

@meskaline thanks! I was definitely not expecting to do another mood focused game, but when @p0urqu0i mentioned Lovecraftian Kart racing, we couldn't not do it.

@theArtifacts thanks for the honest feedback. We actually do have a laps system being counted internally, but when we turned the game into an elimination game we found out that was not super useful. We thought of giving weapons only at certain checkpoints, or on lap completion, or killing karts that get lapped, but the scope was already really big, and we didn't have time to really solve that issue. I know a lot of people interpreted the theme as 2 game mechanics genres, but I like to think that the themes are more open than that. I'll definitely check out your game yet!

@zaguer Thank you! The volumetric lights are definitely very performance intensive and pretty!

@Emmitt There's definitely a lot more polish we could do, and maybe better explanations of what's even going on. I find a fault of many LD games is that the creators assume the player knows what the rules are. I'll try to find time to explain them better for the next wave of people trying out the game.

@ultrarat I was hoping to get the game to work with controllers yet. Though with unity's input, I would guess it actually does? I didn't get a chance to try it though. The system is made to handle analog input. I'll look into that. Thanks for the feedback!
Shelvid
25. Apr 2018 · 17:21 UTC
Awesome "battle royale" racing! well done people.
dnich013
25. Apr 2018 · 22:30 UTC
I really love the graphics & atmosphere of the game. The lighting effects are awesome as well. Really well done, great to explore the world when you're driving about. The game has a lot of potential.
🎤 CameronPenner
26. Apr 2018 · 01:35 UTC
Thanks @Shelvid! Glad you liked it :)

@dnich013 Thank you! We had a lot of fun with the lighting on this one. And @p0urqu0i killed it with the level design!
BlakeMcDeezy
26. Apr 2018 · 06:23 UTC
I struggled a lot with the bridge section, but still had a lot of fun - nicely done! Great mood!
Iluvatar
26. Apr 2018 · 12:35 UTC
As a Lovecraft maniac, I really loved your entry. The mood is very well made and gameplay itself is enjoyable. I don't like race games at all but put Lovecraft in the title and I'll play the hell out of it. Good job :)
🎤 CameronPenner
26. Apr 2018 · 15:04 UTC
@BlakeMcDeezy if you try v1.2 the bridge bit is lit a bit better. (tongue twister not intended). Also, it's pretty hard if your framerates are low. or if you haven't spent all weekend testing it :P Thanks for the feedback though!

@Iluvatar Thank you! I'm also not a fan of racing games, but I always thought that Lovecraftian content had a fascinating charm to it. I like to think that as ridiculous as this combination is, we at least gave it a decent nod. Thanks for playing :)
Gonz0
26. Apr 2018 · 15:15 UTC
Nice Atmosphere! presentation was great. I felt the level was a bit too dark especially in the tunel I could'nt see anything and kept going straight into the lava. the particles were broken too maybe it was on my end. Good job overall!
Rebecca Kremer
27. Apr 2018 · 00:36 UTC
Tons of fun first of all! The voice acting was hilarious and the art and lighting were killer. :D Sometimes there were moments where the voice acting overlapped and it might have been nice to get some more variety, but in a way the fact that it was the same overdramatic death message over and over again made it much better. ;P
The mood was maybe a little less-spooky than intended but I like that kind of cheesy horror so you get a double thumbs-up from me hehe. :D
F1Krazy
14. May 2018 · 18:44 UTC
This was really fun! Very atmospheric, and I loved the cheesy Lovecraftian voice lines. As the others have said, the tunnel entrance is a bit tricky, but I think that's to do with the track design as much as the lighting: it's a blind crest, so you can't really see where the bend is until you're already going round it. The frame rate drop when playing on High graphics didn't help either: I didn't have a problem with it after I switched to Low (although I had played it a few times by then).

I also like how your own attacks can ricochet back and kill you if you're not careful. I did that once.

One gameplay aspect I'm not sure about is that there doesn't seem to be an incentive to actually race, especially since you have to be *behind* an opponent to shoot at them (I know you changed that for v1.3 but you said not to rate that version :P ) I'll have to try it, but it's probably possible to win the game by doing absolutely nothing, sitting at the start line, and waiting for your opponents to kill each other or fall off the track.

Nice game, though! Good graphics, good gameplay, great atmosphere. Well done!