LudumData

Nightwatch by Neon

[raw]
made by Neon for Ludum Dare 46 (JAM)

Nightwatch is a relaxed camping game where your sole goal is to keep the fire alive and burning while the others sleep, by feeding it sticks by your camp, or finding them in the woods. Who knows, maybe by searching the woods you might find something else as well!

Controls: - Movement with WASD or Left stick on your gamepad. - Look around with Mouse or Right stick on your gamepad. - Grab/throw with Left click or A on your gamepad. - Ignite a stick with another burning stick (or the campfire) with Right click or B on your gamepad. - Pause the game and open the options menu with Escape.

Credits: - Directing, Art, Voice acting, and Story - Tea - Programming and Gameplay - Neon

External assets (keep this in mind for the Audio category!): - Footsteps by revolt2564 - Campfire, owl, radio fx, and bird takeoff sounds by Yle

The voice acting is original however, which is why we didn't opt out of the Audio category.

Bugfixes: - Fix stick and casette spawners not registering already spawned casettes - Fix wrong tooltip when looking at campfire - Fix carried sticks being dropped when casettes are picked up

Low-detail edition changes (so the game runs on older computers): - Remove TAA and MSAA (don't ask why the original has both) - Fix a bug in the LOD system (less objects to render) - Remove bloom and vignette - Decrease shadow resolution and remove cascades - Add render scale option in the pause menu - Misc. changes Unity's Low preset has compared to the Ultra one

Screenshot01.png Screenshot02.png Screenshot03.png

Youtube https://neontea.itch.io/nightwatch
Youtube https://neontea.itch.io/nightwatch
Youtube https://neontea.itch.io/nightwatch
Youtube https://git.teascade.net/saltosion/campfire
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/nightwatch

Ratings

Overall 1397th 3.422⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1589th 3.141⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 2143th 2.766⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Theme 773th 3.859⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 755th 3.938⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Audio 759th 3.452⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Humor 1517th 2.586⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Mood 225th 4.031⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Given 19🗳️ 34🗨️

Feedback

PythooonUser
21. Apr 2020 · 16:23 UTC
Liking the art style and atmosphere a lot! Finding these diary entries made me just grab a bunch of sticks and wander out into the world. Nicely done!
HuddyBuddyGreatness
21. Apr 2020 · 17:16 UTC
Very nice feel to the game, Though my computer can barely run it lol. I love the visuals though, and I am sure it would be nicer if I had some frames
🎤 Neon
21. Apr 2020 · 21:16 UTC
@pythooonuser You can thank @tea for that one, she came up with the idea of even having a story, and executed it really well :sweat_smile:

@huddybuddygreatness Thanks, and sorry! I forgot TAA and all the effects on, I had planned on adding those as options in the pause menu, but ran out of time.
WhyNotYT
24. Apr 2020 · 17:10 UTC
Great Game Dude, Having the diary tapes really added a lot and I really Appreciate having the Low Detail version.
BauBau
24. Apr 2020 · 17:23 UTC
Thanks for adding the extra sticks near the campfire! Did not venture far, started to hear some strange noises. Decided to head back to camp and throw some of the sticks at the tent, hoping that one of those sleeping bastards would wake up :smile: Enjoyed the game.
dodormeur
24. Apr 2020 · 17:37 UTC
Really cool atmosphere !

I could not find more diary after a few one (the last one I found is the one where she wants to go in the other direction next), I tried looking for the one near the place with no success, then I tried going the other direction, still no success. Nevertheless, the mood is really cool, a bit creepy while not being too dark, even if the darkness does not hurt you ^^ (I tried walking out without light, expecting a game over, but nope).

Really cool entry, I really liked the mood, the graphics and the audio ! (if I could just have a map or an indication of where is the next diary, that would be awesome :D )
nsadie
24. Apr 2020 · 17:47 UTC
Very nice atmosphere.
Tea
24. Apr 2020 · 17:50 UTC
@dodormeur Thanks a lot for the thorough review :smile: :green_heart: The diaries spawn at random, which in retrospect is a little dumb. I did have a better solution for them earlier, but didn't exactly have time to implement anything more sophisticated, since I ended up implementing the story in general in the last 3 hours :sweat_smile:
dodormeur
24. Apr 2020 · 18:15 UTC
@tea good to know ! But don't worry, even without the diary the game is really cool ;)

I was wondering if the game is vr-compatible? I don't have a VR headset but some of my friends do, and I think it would be a really cool immersive experience in vr :) (and my friends are always looking for interesting vr-experience ^^ )
Tea
24. Apr 2020 · 18:17 UTC
@dodormeur Ah that's a good point. Somehow it didn't even cross our minds during the making of this, but maybe after the ratings done (And adding new features is allowed) we'll add that in, Thanks for the idea, it shouldn't be very hard to implement!
IceGod
25. Apr 2020 · 00:15 UTC
This was truely an audio experience. The atmosphere was amazing and it was a really good. Also a nice use of the theme as we are trying to keep the campfire alive to keep the torch alive to keep ourselves alive.
rodel77
25. Apr 2020 · 00:56 UTC
At first I tought it was an horror game and felt very unsafe in the darkness, then I read that it is a relaxed game so I calmed haha. After a while wandering with a torch it felt very nice, loved the sounds and I think that the voice notes where very sweet :smile:
Linus
25. Apr 2020 · 16:03 UTC
I like the concept of course since I had a similar idea, I guess my game wasn't unique lol

The feel of the game is very nice and you used the audio assets very well to create a nice atmosphere. The diaries were quite humorous and made the gameplay more engaging. I also think this game would be really cool in VR, it's something I wanted to do but didn't have time, since you are using Unity it should be quite simple to add the SteamVR Unity Plugin.

It is quite simple to setup locomotion: https://unity3d.college/2017/05/16/steamvr-locomotion-teleportation-movement/

The gameplay was a bit simplistic and I didn't understand what to do when I couldn't find any more twigs.

A solid entry with beautiful graphics. :smiley:
FPGames
26. Apr 2020 · 01:45 UTC
I love this game..It felt really nice wandering into the forest and playing voice notes..And yeah! when I got bored I just gathered more sticks :D .. Good job guys!
SaltFactory Studio
26. Apr 2020 · 02:00 UTC
Really cool visual and atmosphere you got here, despite this being a simple game. It does seem a bit creepy at first wandering into the dark, and I was worried not being able to find my way back in complete darkness. Nevertheless, keep up the great work!
Nathan Wiles
26. Apr 2020 · 02:18 UTC
The sound design and aesthetic were very nice and worked well together. The stick mechanics all felt very good too. I had a lot of trouble finding journal entries, though. I found about three journal entries but left them because I wanted to get back to feed the fire. I never was able to find them again and eventually the fire died. That may have just been bad luck on my part. Either way, very cool game. Thanks for sharing!
congusbongus
26. Apr 2020 · 02:23 UTC
Very atmospheric game. The diary could've been a bit louder, and the flame indication could be more obvious, and it's quite easy to get lost in the woods. Apart from that the mechanics work very well. The gameplay I'm not so sure about - having to worry about the flames going out adds stress to the game, but there's not much excitement apart from finding the odd diary. I feel as if this game would work better if you removed all stress, i.e. a walking simulator, or added more cool things to find or a clear goal to the game. Still, very well made game.
randomhuman
26. Apr 2020 · 09:03 UTC
Great atmosphere, it feels really spooky beyond the campsite, and the diary entries are really fun. I like the low-poly 3D art as well, it's a great style. All the interactions were very clear and explained well in-game. Good work!
🎤 Neon
26. Apr 2020 · 12:57 UTC
@congusbongus It should've been communicated better, but the campfire cannot actually go out if you're out in the woods: it only ticks down to a certain threshold, and then stops until the player returns to the camp. But I do definitely understand that the game mechanic creates this stress that shouldn't really be there, in an otherwise relaxed game. Thanks for the feedback!
n.feofentov
26. Apr 2020 · 14:03 UTC
Very nice experience! I felt totally lost when I missed the next cassette and started to walk around the forest. Actually, I like that the campfire keeps glowing in the distance so I could always find my way back. Good job!
JamieOK
26. Apr 2020 · 19:53 UTC
Damn, this is one of those games where I think 'Why didn't I come up with that. I love the whole atmospheric wander through the dark feeling to it. The tapes are a nice touch too. I lit my campfire super high and then went on a big wander, but couldn't find any more tapes :laughing: The audio is super well done to fit the mood. I noticed the interactions with the sticks could be a little buggy when igniting and picking up, but other than that, a super clean and awesome game. Really good job!
Madbarron
27. Apr 2020 · 00:06 UTC
It was nice to walk around, the torch mechanic works well and the distant firelight is great. I didn't really get what the endgame was supposed to be: will I win if I wait long enough? Is there something in the woods to find besides the collection of tapes? The darkness also didn't seem to kill me. But great job on the atmosphere!
Palvel
28. Apr 2020 · 10:02 UTC
Interesting concept, missing optimization
larsspawn
28. Apr 2020 · 14:55 UTC
The game is meant to be dark, but not too dark. I assume this game using direct and not indirect lighting, that's okay but somehow dark games are hard to play and usually darkness must be avoided in video games, the term darkness is referred to almost "pitch black". Others like theme, mechanics, graphics, etc. are fine. Overall a nice game!
Virtu
28. Apr 2020 · 15:28 UTC
Nice one. Works well with gamepad. Good job with the atmosphere. I don't know if there is a way to win the game. I've walked around the map for a few minutes but didn't really found anything except a few tapes near the camp. Anyway it was very pleasant experience.
🎤 Neon
28. Apr 2020 · 18:10 UTC
@palvel Yep, fair enough. The low-detail version has the low hanging fruit dealt with, optimization-wise, but I definitely ran out of time as far as major systematic optimizations go, rewriting the LOD system during the last hour :sweat_smile:
Gildar76
11. May 2020 · 01:29 UTC
A great looking game. I played around for a bit, but went exploring and forgot to feed the fire hehe.
dxk2294
11. May 2020 · 01:39 UTC
Beautiful game, and amazing atmosphere! I wish there was some indicator to the player that it's safe to leave the campfire for extended periods of time, because I kept rushing back after a bit to feed the fire, and it cut my exploration short. Still, a wonderful entry!