Ex Aeternum by John Gabriel

A point-and-click puzzle game in the style of Myst. I wasn't quite able to finish it properly, so it's more of a proof-of-concept than a game in-and-of-itself.

Ratings
| Overall | 377th | 3.304⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 462th | 2.929⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 449th | 2.964⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 605th | 2.315⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 17th | 4.393⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 160th | 3.482⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 56th | 3.875⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 27🗳️ | 30🗨️ |
Very nicely done :thumbsup:
Absolutely jaw-dropping art and atmosphere on this!
It's a shame that your time was cut short, and I totally understand with compo and all... but what is here, I'm 100% on board with.
My primary complaint is that despite these amazing backgrounds, you don't really apply them into gameplay at all. I would love some animated objects, changing frames, and so on. The line puzzles just kind of existed, but I would have liked to see these actually appear in the environment in some way. Perhaps the lines could have been objects on the wall that illuminate with baked glowing effects or particles when connected?
I wish there'd been a bit of music, but the ambience more than makes up for any shortcomings here. It has a muffled feel that really gets the feeling of some greater mechanical system around you. I also don't know if the water was supposed to be used in any way, as I feel like I skipped right past it. To your credit though, it was some very nice pre-rendered water.
This is nitpicking to the highest degree for a compo game, but I would have liked a higher-quality render for HD resolutions beyond 720p. All that artifacting and compression just gets in the way of some great looking renders.
Props to you for really going out on a limb with this entry. It might not have entirely worked out, but aside from a commendable effort, there's some genuinely solid ideas I'd love to see more of here.