LudumData

ECHO by MartianSteve

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

KEEP THE UNIVERSE ALIVE BY FEEDING MUSIC AND SOUND

PLAY HERE: http://stephenholly.com/ld46/echo.htm

ECHO keeps the universe alive by looping music notes and sounds.

ECHO will follow you.

  • Make sure you have your speakers/headphones on but check volume first. The sounds can be loud.
  • You'll need to play on desktop with your browser maximized as I didn't have time to figure out canvas scaling etc.
  • Tested on Chrome & Firefox, Chrome is the quickest.

HINTS - If you find ECHO overshoots you, try to follow it and align your position/speed first, then guide it from there. - When you press UP the ship shuts down to generate its own sound, but ECHO will NOT be able to see you and follow you when this is held. It's unlikely you would need this in the first level.

With more time I would have liked to work more with the music/audio side, as the sounds are fairly basic at the moment, but I ended up spending too much time on completing the game mechanics.

Hope you enjoy, all feedback welcome!

Screenshot 2020-04-19 at 22.26.42.png

Screenshot 2020-04-19 at 22.41.28.png

Youtube http://stephenholly.com/ld46/echo%20source%20files.zip
Youtube http://stephenholly.com/ld46/echo.htm
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/echo

Ratings

Overall 286th 3.684⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Fun 720th 3.048⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 124th 3.905⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Theme 527th 3.667⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 230th 3.857⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Audio 11th 4.275⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Humor 809th 2.031⭐ 18🧑‍⚖️
Mood 43th 4.119⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Given 26🗳️ 31🗨️

Feedback

Dandala88
20. Apr 2020 · 08:57 UTC
I really like what you were going for here. Unfortunately I could not manage to get past the second level. Maybe I was doing something wrong but I kept trying to feed it with the walls but couldn't ever get enough to continue to the end. The art style and sounds were invoking a nice atmosphere and I wanted to stay in the world but there were times it started to make me feel a little motion sick. Nice entry.
Jelle Vermandere
20. Apr 2020 · 09:02 UTC
It's a fun idea, but the movement feels a bit slow, especially when you are trying to change directions. Also I would have liked to always know where the big green box was, maybe with some sort of indicator. Right now, when he goes off screen, I am kind of lost.
The Audio mechanics where very nice though. The echo effect works great
MisterKeefe
20. Apr 2020 · 09:13 UTC
The audio on this is great, I put on my big headphones and just zoned out playing it. I had a great time but didn't beat level one, so maybe the problem is me.

Again, not sure if me, but I found it quite hard to get the echo to actually follow me -- past a certain point it always seemed to overshoot and get lost. This made it quite hard to feed it delicious sounds.
Weirdybeardyman
20. Apr 2020 · 09:15 UTC
Sounds great, it's very chilled, and I like the minimalistic art style, but the spaceship and cube are a little hard to control.
🎤 MartianSteve
20. Apr 2020 · 09:39 UTC
Thanks all for feedback, much appreciated. It's definitely too hard and the follow mechanism could be improved, especially when it overshoots. @jelle-vermandere an indicator was on my todo list, alas not enough time.

For future players, I found the best technique was to first align my speed/direction with ECHO, then guide it from there, this avoids it running off. You can also use UP to create sound, which is explained in Level 3 if anybody manages to get there ;-)
munmungames
20. Apr 2020 · 12:02 UTC
Nice concept, but hard to control ! I like how things are getting blurry when you don't collect enough items. Good audio work !
bongo227
20. Apr 2020 · 14:10 UTC
The atmosphere is great, and the graphical effects are really neat.

I did spend a while wondering what I was doing before I realized you had written some hints :sweat_smile:
justalocalhero
20. Apr 2020 · 14:27 UTC
Beautiful. Immersive. Sounds great. Parallaxing stars are gorgeous.

It took me so long to figure out how to accomplish anything. Holding up makes you stop and making noise prevents your sound eating friend from finding you. Controlling your speed in general is tough to get used to.

I still don't really know how to advance. I assume collecting some set number of shapes does it?

It's like everything I'm trying to do is wrong but the atmosphere of being adrift and out of control is so enjoyable somehow.
🎤 MartianSteve
20. Apr 2020 · 16:07 UTC
Thanks all. @justalocalhero on the first level, you just have to get ECHO to collect all the small rectangles/sounds (which wrap over the sides, so should always be on screen). But good you enjoyed being adrift anyway ;D
JonathanJoseph
20. Apr 2020 · 18:02 UTC
Nice concept, it took me so long to figure out how to accomplish anything.
Dimling
21. Apr 2020 · 07:13 UTC
Really liked the concept, sound and style of the game. Found it a bit hard to understand what to do on level two?
Emmanuel Gaillot
23. Apr 2020 · 21:00 UTC
I like the originality and abstractness of the game. The combination of speed and directional sounds makes a very interesting ambiance. I had difficulties at first to understand how to manoeuver ECHO, but it eventually made sense. Interestingly enough, even when it was NOT making sense yet, it was still interesting to watch and play :)
omaskery
23. Apr 2020 · 21:26 UTC
Really nice game, the first level really confused me - I found it hard to make the ECHO go where I wanted, like the "gravity" was too weak? But level 2 onward it seemed to work better (or perhaps I just got good at the game, idk!) nice :)
randomnine
24. Apr 2020 · 23:17 UTC
Neat aesthetic. I really like how you can bounce off walls and make noise particles for ECHO to eat. Sadly I couldn't keep ECHO nearby - it kept shooting off screen and then I couldn't get back into guiding it.
SoMall_dumpling
25. Apr 2020 · 02:03 UTC
OMG, I make it to L31! But it seems like there are infinite levels... It's not easy, and I like the music, but late game is boring. Can you tell me how many levels are there in the game?![Ludum Dare 46 ECHO L31.PNG](///raw/263/b2/z/33200.png)
Somniac
25. Apr 2020 · 04:43 UTC
Fun to play once I got the hang of the controls. Great graphics and sound, good atmosphere. Feeding ECHO in level 2 was mildly frustrating as I felt I needed to stop moving down the track but it was fun to try to go fast and keep ECHO nearby.
kevinworkman
25. Apr 2020 · 04:55 UTC
I really like the idea here. It took me a few tries to understand the controls- I kept holding up trying to accelerate, not realizing you accelerated by default. But after I realized how it worked, it felt pretty smooth. Like others, I'm not sure how to get through level 2, but I enjoyed just playing around with the visualizations and the sounds. I like that you did something a little different than most people. Nice work.
🎤 MartianSteve
25. Apr 2020 · 09:16 UTC
Thanks all for feedback. @somall-dumpling that's amazing you got to level 31, i'm impressed! Yes, the levels are randomly generated after a certain point, sorry about that. With the limited time I had left this was the best way to lengthen the game. I think I set it to generate 100 levels, and I think it would actually crash if you got through them all... but that's likely nigh-impossible as ECHO loses sound more quickly at each level progression. I officially confirm that for all intents and purposes you have completed the game ;)
SoMall_dumpling
25. Apr 2020 · 10:13 UTC
@martiansteve Thanks for taking the time to reply. I think L2 is the hardest level (most of the above players stuck there) in the first 33 levels, for the track is too wide to control ECHO vertically, my own speed is too low, noisy walls are scattered, and most of the players don't know how to feed ECHO with their own sound. I spent 20 minutes on L2.

Hope you can get a great score! The game is good, absolutely.
seano
25. Apr 2020 · 18:39 UTC
Very creative and innovative! The sounds and mood are great too. Great entry!
Suchista
26. Apr 2020 · 13:51 UTC
I love the mood of this game! Feels calming and mysterious. Control of the ECHO felt a bit out of hand, but it was quite fun nonetheless. Great job!
knason
11. May 2020 · 18:17 UTC
wow! what a nice entry, I love the mood in the game. I spent a lot of time in it but I did find it hard to keep nereby in the beginning but after a while I got the hang of it. I made it to level 2 but never beyond. Good job with the mood it was great!. Overall good job!