LudumData

Embers by Barelos

[raw]
made by Barelos for Ludum Dare 46 (COMPO)

When you and your daughter start to hear about a safe haven up north you don't hesitate and immediately start packing your bag. Your sick daughter won't stay alive for long in this damp basement with so little food.

The journey however might be just as dangerous. The monsters that destroyed our society are still lurking in the night and the only thing that can stop them is the light and warmth of an open fire.

Collect wood, drive the monsters away with a torch and most importantly keep the fire and your daughter, alive.

Keep your camp fire alive for the duration of the night to keep you and your daughter safe, as long as the fire is burning you get to stay alive another day.

Control the character with WASD, use left mouse button to pick up items and press Q if you have a torch to light it and get a temporary shield.

view.png view2.png

Youtube https://github.com/Barelos/LD46
Youtube https://barelos.itch.io/embers-keep-them-alive
Youtube https://drive.google.com/open?id=1sMztEv5dX5w3z0AeIISzl4TA7UNDOU12
Youtube https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-bqs7zg3W8mLgEc61vXzctwfDlOdAdAm
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/embers-1

Ratings

Overall 674th 3.283⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Fun 745th 3.017⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 704th 3.067⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Theme 331th 3.867⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 616th 3.3⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Audio 657th 2.75⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Humor 673th 2.411⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Mood 338th 3.45⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Given 27🗳️ 33🗨️

Feedback

nicksmaddog
20. Apr 2020 · 03:04 UTC
Well done! I enjoyed the game. I would say the ground was a little on the busy side, which made it difficult to pick out the piles of wood at first, but that may have been intentional.
🎤 Barelos
20. Apr 2020 · 03:08 UTC
@nicksmaddog, It wasn't, thank you so much for the feedback. If I'll make some changes the first thing would be to add music, the second, make the pick able items more distinct.
JetTheSimon
20. Apr 2020 · 03:11 UTC
I had a lot more fun than I thought. I do wish it was a bit easier to pick up wood but once I got the enemies chasing me and not my daughter I had a good time defending.

Also thought it was quite funny when I would pick up a piece of wood and my character said that his daughter would "love this"!

Good job!
🎤 Barelos
20. Apr 2020 · 03:23 UTC
@jetthesimon Thank you so much for your input. I totally agree , it is not clear if the player is close enough to the wood and where exactly you should press to pick up.
FussenKuh
20. Apr 2020 · 04:21 UTC
Interesting concept. I enjoyed the game mechanic and some of the visual details like the shadows cast by the fire. I think it would be even better with some moody tunes to back up the creepy theme. Well done!
🎤 Barelos
20. Apr 2020 · 06:58 UTC
@fussenkuh I totaly agree, I kept saying: "Ill do the music at the end" :sweat_smile:
I think for the one in October I'll force myself to make something that would be very dependent on a good music.
Snory
20. Apr 2020 · 08:57 UTC
Thank you for your entry. I must admin I did enjoy it even thought I would not be afraid to make it harder. I loved the little talks in bubbles it had a nice touch. :)
🎤 Barelos
20. Apr 2020 · 09:23 UTC
@snory Thank you so much for you input. Yeah I also felt that the game was to easy but to be honest the enemy AI is so bad that I wasn't able to balance the game difficulty so I opted for variation in how they are distributed across the map.
Ben Taylor
20. Apr 2020 · 10:12 UTC
This was fun! Thanks. I loved that you managed to fit in stuff like dialog along with the sound, graphics, gameplay, levels, etc.
🎤 Barelos
20. Apr 2020 · 10:30 UTC
@ben-taylor Thank you very much for your input. I must admit that my biggest take back from this is that trying to fit levels+dialog+sound was a bad call. They all turned out so raw that I am not sure if they improve the game at all. Next jam is going to be all about simplicity and focus. And thank you again for your input.
MoebiusMeow
20. Apr 2020 · 11:25 UTC
I like the shadow effect, especially when the campfire is strong and gives out warm light, leaving shadow behind the daughter. Also the dialog makes the character much more lively. It feels great.
🎤 Barelos
20. Apr 2020 · 11:34 UTC
@moebiusmeow Thank you for playing and for your input, I appreciate it a lot.
ConnorThompson
20. Apr 2020 · 13:01 UTC
Like the lighting and the focus on key mechanics works really well! Good job
jeremyfa
20. Apr 2020 · 13:15 UTC
Ahah it's been the third ld46 game I try which is about keeping the fire running with harvested wood. Seems the idea was popular! Good job on such a little short timeframe!
Alexey Akulovich
20. Apr 2020 · 14:30 UTC
There are funny vampires and their voices.
Inventory management uncomfortable, difficult to use (
kjscott
20. Apr 2020 · 16:36 UTC
I loved how the moans of the undead things would fade off based on the distance, gave good non-visual feedback as to what was going on. The feedback from your daughter was helpful gauge of how much time I had left. I did find the controls non-intuitive to start off with so took a while before I was able to really sit down and play the game. Once I did it was pretty easy to manage everything even at the latest stage.
Weirdybeardyman
20. Apr 2020 · 17:10 UTC
Very nice, great atmosphere, I like the little touches like the dialogues that popup, the inventory system is a little clunky and the first level I was a bit confused before I found a torch but I really like it overall!
BinaryPrinciple
20. Apr 2020 · 20:01 UTC
I was about to develop this very theme and game.
I like the concept and the idea of keeping new goals every day.
🎤 Barelos
21. Apr 2020 · 07:53 UTC
@binaryprinciple Thank you very much for playing. I was really trying to give a feel of progression and there were suppose to be much more emphasis on the dialog and upgrades at the end of each day but I failed doing that. In October I am going to have an extra personal theme and it would be focus :-)
🎤 Barelos
21. Apr 2020 · 07:53 UTC
@binaryprinciple Thank you very much for playing. I was really trying to give a feel of progression and there were suppose to be much more emphasis on the dialog and upgrades at the end of each day but I failed doing that. In October I am going to have an extra personal theme and it would be focus :-)
Sergio Gonzalez
22. Apr 2020 · 21:10 UTC
Nice game! I liked that you added the human element. Good job managing to put in a lot of stuff into it
Nuanda79
22. Apr 2020 · 21:57 UTC
Not so bad! Nice idea and this is a good starting point for add new features and optimize graphics and sounds.
BinaryPrinciple
23. Apr 2020 · 03:56 UTC
@barelos I really like it, I understand that time is very short, but I can tell you have plans for this game.
Hope you can make it! Looking forward to it.
blobo
25. Apr 2020 · 20:15 UTC
Good use of the theme! I Think it's a bit too dark though.
MuchosWaffles
27. Apr 2020 · 02:53 UTC
Nice job! :D The gameplay was fun and the graphics were well done. I like the fact you added a story, too. tbh I was a bit confused about the torch until I figured out I had to pick it up, but after that, the mechanics were pretty straightforward.
Eduardo Yukio
28. Apr 2020 · 04:54 UTC
At the beginning there was too much text, functioning both for teaching and as narrative, and I think this is not very optimal. If you could teach the player gradually through experience it would be less overwhelming. The narrative is a nice touch though! The concept is very good, I felt like playing Don't Starve, having to collect things and come back to the fire at the same time that you fight monsters, it's a fun dynamic.

At the beginning too, a monster spawns too close to the girl too quickly. You punish new players too heavily. It would be nice if you let the player understand how to pick up items and put them on the firewood first, and then spawn a monster.

The shadow effects were very well made! Nice job!
🎤 Barelos
30. Apr 2020 · 17:58 UTC
@eduardo-yukio thank you very much for this very informative critic!
Pretzol
08. May 2020 · 22:43 UTC
Nice game! I was confused at first, but I got the hang of it quickly. Picking up the wood was tough though, since the hit-boxes were tiny. Other than that, it felt satisfying putting wood into the fire and watching it glow, and the characters and textures were well drawn. Also, there were a couple of typos through the story, but it isn't that big of a deal. Good work!
Tim Eriksen
12. May 2020 · 09:21 UTC
Wow, I am impressed! This feels like a finished game with solid gameplay and a meaningful story. Amazing that you managed to make this in just 48 hours. Really well done! After a couple of tries I figured out that you just needed to gather some wood and then wait the night out, but that could be fixed with some more balancing.
🎤 Barelos
12. May 2020 · 10:35 UTC
@pretzol, @tim-eriksen thank you for your kind words and inputs!