LudumData

Styx by TolMera

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made by TolMera for Ludum Dare 45 (COMPO)

You start out with nothing, like... Well nothing nothing. You don't even have a body!

Welcome to Styx,

You're a ghost, a spirit or a will-of-the-wisp. A trapped soul who can't cross the river styx to reach the underworld. Fortunately there's a village nearby, I'm sure there's some nice friendly people in the village who would be willing to help a ghost out. I'm in fact sure they would be screaming with delight at the sight of a spirit in need.

It might take a little work to find someone who can see and interact with you, but it's worth it if you want to reach the afterlife.

Point and Click adventure game

  • Honestly, I fell kinda flat when it came to the storyline, I don't like spooky or spirits or ghosts. Check the game out for it's mechanics, and my first time doing real art for a game! Woohoo.

  • You may need to resize your browser (adjust window size/shape) to fit the game. It's designed to be A4 1:1.49 (I did my art on A4 paper)

  • I highly recommend doing this in Chrome since I developed it on Chrome.
  • Should be suitable for play on a touch screen device. (Just tested it :) It works on the IPad, though the sounds are super slow to come through...)

I think the best play experience will come from downloading the source code, and running the index file located inside the Dist folder. That way all the audio will be right there on your computer, and you won't have to wait for it to download before it start playing.

I hope you all enjoy, the "game" is pretty basic and blah, but the mechanics I think are solid!

Youtube https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yGcY7u36Zw-eC_1Uf2VwnMhStRLY8cbJ/view?usp=sharing
Youtube https://ld45.s3.amazonaws.com/index.htm
Youtube https://ld45.s3.amazonaws.com/source.zip
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/styx

Ratings

Overall 462th 2.775⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Fun 500th 2.175⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 299th 3.1⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Theme 193th 3.575⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 211th 3.425⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Audio 307th 2.75⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Humor 205th 2.694⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Mood 331th 2.947⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Given 16🗳️ 14🗨️

Feedback

bjeaurn
06. Oct 2019 · 22:22 UTC
Please post an update when you have it uploaded somewhere, need help; ping me on Twitter (same name). Looking forward to your game!
🎤 TolMera
07. Oct 2019 · 10:30 UTC
@bjeaurn - I've updated the links :) a few hours sleep did wonders. Hosting from AWS S3 (something I have not tried before) as far as I can test, it's working nicely, but if you have any trouble please let me know :)
Attala
07. Oct 2019 · 12:03 UTC
Visually a very interesting game. Never played on/with an actual painting before :) I also liked the humor on the gravestones. At first it was confusing where to click to go up or down, but I got it after a while.
🎤 TolMera
07. Oct 2019 · 12:11 UTC
@attala - Thank you! I love that you found the grave stones funny! :) I don't think my story is that great, but I do like the grave stones :)
bjeaurn
07. Oct 2019 · 13:35 UTC
The controls were a bit weird at the start for me, but once I got the hang of it it actually played pretty nicely. Point'n'click style. The sound freaked me out when I heard it for the first, so I guess that's a great mood setter for the rest of the game. The art style is really interesting, very creatively done! Big points for that. Good job!
GuitarBro
08. Oct 2019 · 00:08 UTC
Very unique visual style! Also the fact that it's a pure HTML/js is pretty cool. It is a bit slow going from scene to scene with the long transitions, but you could make the argument that it's an aesthetic. Personally, I'd prefer them to be a bit faster (and perhaps remove a couple of the scenes which didn't do much other than bridge two other scene) but it's not a dealbreaker. On the plus side, it definitely fits the "start with nothing" theme. Ya don't get to take anything to the afterlife, after all. :wink:
LeReveur
08. Oct 2019 · 01:47 UTC
Real paint is a surprising art choice, and the theme is totaly fulfilled. The transition effect is innovative too. And if the code could be improved (I tried to redim my windows but it didn't make a lot of difference, the controls were a little random), I managed to finish the game, so it works enough, I guess. ;)
Jupiter_Hadley
10. Oct 2019 · 10:49 UTC
Interesting graphics, but I couldn't figure out where to go. I included it in my Ludum Dare 45 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look :) https://youtu.be/VLDt7yHE5-M
🎤 TolMera
10. Oct 2019 · 10:57 UTC
Thanks @jupiter-hadley - I gave it a quick watch. You unfortunately had the screen-size issue. Joy of playing on real art with an aspect ratio I guess.

Thank you.
Simon Rahnasto
10. Oct 2019 · 17:13 UTC
.
velvetlobster
13. Oct 2019 · 18:59 UTC
it has a Proteus vibe (if you havent, check that game because it may be a very nice reference) ... the "voices" add a creepy vibe to it, together with this kind of art makes it like a much creepier approach to the philosophical Proteus, which would be something at least "new", and a very challenging creation... it feels new and different, which is awesome, it just does not feel hmmm ... polished ... which is expected for a LD game, I would encourage you to keep working on it to find where this idea can go
🎤 TolMera
16. Oct 2019 · 09:18 UTC
@velvetlobster Thanks for the feedback :) I'm going to have to go and read more about Proteus.
When I knocked the game together I didn't have (I still don't have) a stylus for my tablet, so the art style arose by my fat finger painting (finger painting over A4 sketches that I scanned into my PC). It's really blown me away to see how people like it, and especially in your comment :) thank you.
🎤 TolMera
16. Oct 2019 · 09:20 UTC
@simon-rahnasto Are you sure you played my game? Haha :) It almost sounds like you player my "Dwarven Dungeon Defense" from a previous LD.
If you missed playing this game, please give it a shot :) I think you'll love it :)
Simon Rahnasto
16. Oct 2019 · 10:19 UTC
@tolmera Really strange, I must have mixed up what page I was on, its not your old game but another entry, must have downloaded and come back to rate and comment on the wrong link. Super sorry about this, when I get back home I will play, rate and comment YOUR game haha. Thank you for letting me know!
Mad Brokli
16. Oct 2019 · 10:26 UTC
The art style is quite unique, did not come across anything like it yet. Couldnt get the controls at first. Cool game dude :)
sillyman987
16. Oct 2019 · 10:29 UTC
Super awesome!
dcrdro
16. Oct 2019 · 10:53 UTC
Cool concept! But I'm not sure I understand how to play properly ;\
Cool graphics and atmospheric sounds ;P
Simon Rahnasto
16. Oct 2019 · 14:08 UTC
Well now I have finally played the right game :smile:

I liked it, it took me quite a long time to figure out what to do, but I finally bothered the shaman enough to win the game ![16ec4e4564aa0ed5ed14be2a601e2c03.png](///raw/db1/6/z/29a58.png)

I really enjoyed the strange trippy effect that you created with the ground, it almost felt like 3d. I have never seen that before. Any entry that has voice acting gets a huger + in my book, specially a compo game. All of the sounds and voiceacting was really well done as well.
🎤 TolMera
17. Oct 2019 · 04:40 UTC
@simon-rahnasto Thank you :) I'm glad you also enjoyed me game haha :)

That 3D effect you mention, I didn't expect it at the time either, I was wanting to implement parallax originally, but the idea morphed and changed as I began the implementation.

I'm glad you mention "bothering" the Shaeman, that is exactly what I had in mind, the Shaeman is a lazy thief, and he won't send you to the after life until you annoy him enough.

In the original plan, I wanted the Shaeman to have stolen the coins from your grave, which is why you could not cross on the ferry (the guys above the chief talk about the shaeman stealing coins). Then I was going to get the Shaeman to take the bag of silvers from the chief, drop two on each grave, then you would be able to cross over. Later (prologue) you would see the Shaeman picking the coins back up to steal them, something would happen (lightening probably) and the Shaeman would become a trapped spirit as well.

Anyway, thanks for playing the game :)
Derek Volker
21. Oct 2019 · 17:08 UTC
The https://ld45.s3.amazonaws.com/index.htm didnt really work for me. It kept rescaling the background up and down and i couldnt go anywhere.
🎤 TolMera
21. Oct 2019 · 23:46 UTC
@derek-volker

It depends on your screen size. But try opening the web browser. Wait for the game to load, then resize it horizontally to half your screen. Give it a minute to settle, and you should have the game ready to play. Sorry I tried to put this in the game notes, but didn't seem to communicate it well. Would really love it if you could give it another try, and hopefully get it working if for nothing other than the screen transitions which I think are really good.

Thank you for the feedback though.
Derek Volker
22. Oct 2019 · 11:36 UTC
@tolmera it kinda worked until i talked to the shaman and it began walking up and down, left and right going back and forth some scenes and the game didnt go any further. The graphic choice of the game is a bit unusual, but with some polishment the scenarios would become really nice. The mechanics and controls, well, i dont exactly know what you wanted to achieve but it felt very clunky to me. Maybe limiting the screen size or define it to a fixed size would help with the visualization issues but again, i dont know what you wanted to achieve.

Anyway, good job on finishing a game within the compo timeframe!
fabula_rasa
22. Oct 2019 · 18:21 UTC
I liked the humorous inscriptions on the graves (although it felt a bit strange that they were not "fixed" to the grave but chosen randomly, so every time I clicked on the same grave I got a different epitaph... spooky!).

I did not like the mechanics of travel, it felt very volatile - sometimes I would change areas even though all I wanted to do is click on something to interact with it. I also encountered some visual bugs (like there was no NPC were there should be one, there were 10 NPC just standing around on the starting screen, there was also an uninteractable child following me on some screens). I was only able to travel south-north, not sure if that was the intention.

Impressive solo work within two days!