LudumData

The Cold Loop by RAFFE

[raw]
made by RAFFE for Ludum Dare 47 (JAM)

The Cold Loop.png

"The Cold Loop" is a randomly generated murder mystery game set in an ever repeating timeloop. To break it, you must find out who was, is, and will be responsible for the killing of a certain penguin: yourself.

At the start of the "loop" (game), the murderer is chosen at random, along with clues towards finding him/her. To break the cycle of death, you must find the murder weapon and put the murderer to rest. But be sure to pick the right guy...

You'll get to see and hear a bunch of mysterious original characters, and have chats with each of them. (Professional voice acting heading straight your way)

About the process

  • As per usual, we got in a massive hurry heading to the end of the jam. We always tell each other, that "this LD we will make an easy simple polished game". ~~But we definetely made it simple this time (not).~~ Anyways, it was super fun and the last day was a crunch and a half, but somehow we managed to pull things off and make a game that we can be proud of! Due to lack of time, the game may appear unclear and kinda ridicilous. We can try our best to explain things to you, so if you want, just ask us how some things work.

Credits:

  • @JustMars with all the programming, and the voice of "Turry"

  • @raffe with all the artwork, sfx and the voice of "Leopardo" and "Pocket-Rat"

  • @HappyTomato as always with our wonderful music 🥰

  • @jokku with the main menu

*And a special shoutout to the one and only JustMars' sister, Veera, who did an incredible job with the voice of "Turtella". * 😸

Version 1.0.1 changelog: - Fixed volume sliders not working for effect sounds and voice lines - Added music to main menu to help in adjusting volume - Fixed a bug where Pocket-Rat becomes invisible when talking to him - Fixed return to main menu button not working - Fixed a certain voice line not playing with Leopardo - Reduced the delay of character death animations

Youtube https://justmars.itch.io/the-cold-loop
Youtube https://justmars.itch.io/the-cold-loop
Youtube https://justmars.itch.io/the-cold-loop
Youtube https://justmars.itch.io/the-cold-loop
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/the-cold-loop

Ratings

Overall 784th 3.5⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Fun 934th 3.239⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 895th 3.25⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Theme 696th 3.727⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 430th 3.957⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Audio 316th 3.761⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Humor 89th 4.043⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Mood 392th 3.773⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Given 27🗳️ 21🗨️

Feedback

Adil
06. Oct 2020 · 10:24 UTC
xD That game looks like someone's drugtrip, I absolutely love idea and artstyle of this game. Sounds are great too, love this voices and background music so relaxing. I don't like quests, but this project made me laugh, I believe that when you release it, you will make really cool quest-game
Gonzalol
06. Oct 2020 · 10:25 UTC
Good graphics, I had fun with the voices. I wasn't able to solve the mistery, I got killed every time.
LetterAfterZ
06. Oct 2020 · 10:36 UTC
Man I killed so many innocents haha. Could quite work out how to solve the case, but enjoyed the ride, very trippy game. Love your voiceovers, especially your sea lion guy.
William Overton
06. Oct 2020 · 10:39 UTC
I would recommend adding some screenshots to your page, it will get more traction that way :)
fabula_rasa
06. Oct 2020 · 10:43 UTC
I had fun with it! Played through 3 times and every time I did get a different culprit :). Voiceovers rock - especially Turtella! And the characters are just great - they look nice and are amusing.

Could not figure out the way to interact with the house with an eye but maybe you just can't interact with it. Also, all the items you find in the world (except for one, obviously ;)) seem useless? At least I could not find any use for them.

Found one mini-bug: after you finish the mystery, you are presented with end screen. The "Return to main menu" button on that screen doesn't work.

It's a nice piece of a jam game. Good work!
Gelgavish
06. Oct 2020 · 10:46 UTC
The game looks, sounds, and feels very good. I love the cute art style and the dialogs, there are two things that you might want to consider adding:
- Better game instructions, I couldn't understand how to make up my mind about who's the murderer based on the items and the dialogs
- Make fewer things to check

Overall, it's a solid and well-polished game, good job! :D
Julius Vander Arend
06. Oct 2020 · 10:50 UTC
OH MY GOD HE'S DEAD!! In all seriousness, cool game, I liked the art, good job.
kovalok
06. Oct 2020 · 11:07 UTC
By far the best looking game I have played in this jam. The characters and the world looked really beautiful. Voices were pretty cool too. I didn't find the killer even though I tried killing everyone. :thinking: There could also be less checking because sometimes finding the gun took just too long. Really nice job overall though. :smile:
JustMars
06. Oct 2020 · 11:19 UTC
@kovalok Thanks a lot for playing our game and giving great feedback! About not finding the killer tho, every time you get a "good" or "bad" ending the murderer will be picked again at random (for replay value), so that's most likely why you didn't catch him or her although you tried every character^

But when you get killed and sent back in time the murderer and item locations will always be same, so you can make progress each cycle. They will only change once the loop is broken.
chesschaser
06. Oct 2020 · 12:41 UTC
Great graphics. Well done!
Ovid
06. Oct 2020 · 13:41 UTC
Hey there,
I played the game, and it was fascinating!
The graphic looks beautiful.
I liked the music, it's relaxing, and if you add the fact that the murderer is among you, it balances the feeling.
The fact that it's not easy to find the murderer, makes all the challenge of the game, and that's one of the main reasons that I like the game!
The controls are very comfortable, you don't get to see a lot of point and click controls like that!

To sum up, that game is great, and I enjoyed it!
Arad HamidSamiee
06. Oct 2020 · 17:00 UTC
Not a fan of click and move type of games but certainly loved the art style. Voice acting was a fun addition. Too bad I couldn't prevent the hunter from shooting me down. (is there a way to solve this?)
JustMars
07. Oct 2020 · 10:30 UTC
@arad-hamidsamiee There surely is! Your goal is to break the loop by finding the murder weapon, figuring out who the killer is/was, and putting them out of their misery. But yeah, the ingame instruction are quite unclear as we ran out of time, sorry about that :(

And thanks for your feedback, greatly appreciated
MrMaico
07. Oct 2020 · 17:29 UTC
Leopardo Dafishi?! Awesome. The Voice acting was strange but funny. I couldn't solve the game but still enjoyed it.
invader
07. Oct 2020 · 18:45 UTC
Interesting game! The visuals are hilarious and somewhat surreal. Voiceovers are also cool.

I guess collision boxes and interaction with environment can be improved for smoother gameplay.
Thought Reactor
07. Oct 2020 · 19:59 UTC
Loved the quirky characters and the voice acting was a totally unexpected and nice touch. Had a hard time figuring it out but I think that may just be me :laughing:.

The art, sound, and design aspects of the game were all really well done. Great entry!
Préda
09. Oct 2020 · 12:12 UTC
I loved it, I don't know why but still loud = funny to me in this case.
JUSTCAMH
09. Oct 2020 · 15:55 UTC
Hey, cool little game, though I had difficulty figuring out what to do. Wish you were on the stream to have helped... Anyways, I streamed it, here's the vid if you wanna watch it; https://www.twitch.tv/videos/765076622
Cerins
09. Oct 2020 · 16:53 UTC
Interesting use of the theme. The graphics and audio are great. After the victory screen it would be interesting to see what were the hints, that the selected character was the murderer. P.S. Is the look of the lion based on Max Stirner?
🎤 RAFFE
09. Oct 2020 · 17:22 UTC
@cerins Thanks for the feedback! :)
I definetely agree. There would have been so much to add, especially to make the game and everything inside it a lot clearer. Sadly just ran out of time as usually. ;D

And unfortunately it isn't, actually i was asking everyone for ideas to make the final character, and my dad proposed that we'd make a Leopard-Whale, that has suffered from climate change. =D
Shelvid
10. Oct 2020 · 00:48 UTC
Very fun game with charming visuals and 10/10 best voice acting i've ever heard in the jam. Well done on the entry!
LeReveur
13. Oct 2020 · 20:14 UTC
I did not understand how to confront someone as the killer. I found three objects so I guess the missing one can tell who is the killer, or maybe the one who tells me loving to eat exotic birds, but without knowing how to go then… :sweat_smile:
Appart that, nice graphics and sounds!

*edit : OK, I gave it more time and found both gun and killer :smile:*
TheWustache
14. Oct 2020 · 20:05 UTC
The art and music makes you think that this is a children's game, the fact that you literally *get shot* not so much ;) Honestly, the game has this weird but wonderful charm to it that I'm not sure I could replicate. And I like it! Luckily I found the gun pretty quickly, I could imagine that searching for it could get a little tedious otherwise
KaafiRookie
14. Oct 2020 · 21:33 UTC
Loved the voice acting and a cast of funky characters! A nice little game, maybe some tutorial would be nice, I was able to break the loop, It's hilariously easy to find the killer, somehow they all want to eat you if they're the killer XD

Sometimes it was hard to tell where we cloud calk and where we couldn't, Had to click multiple times to walk at times.

Congratulations to the entire team and all the best!
StinkyKitty
14. Oct 2020 · 22:29 UTC
Had a blast playing your game! The voice acting, multiple-choice dialogue, scrambling to find the gun before I got killed!.. it all came together to make a really cool game.

I'm still not sure how to progress through the game, (whether it depends on what evidence I hold during conversations or my responses) but I managed to find out who the murderer was in the end. (after killing the wrong people and needing to start over a couple times, haha :sweat_smile:) My killer was Pocket-Rat! :rat:

Overall it was a really fun and unique entry, you guys should be proud! :smile_cat:
🎤 RAFFE
15. Oct 2020 · 10:32 UTC
@thewustache
@kaafirookie
@stinkykitty

Ty for feedback c:
SaraFilipa
25. Oct 2020 · 17:23 UTC
This game is so good! Super fun and smart, I love the graphics / audio / voice acting and just how unique everything is. I also like the fact that you get thrown in without any explanation and that the mechanic of the game itself is really simple, it just makes you want to explore and meet the quirky cast. I will be honest that I didn't get super far, got killed evertime I tried but I enjoyed every second nonetheless. Still, I had a lot of fun and this is overall a solid and unique take on the theme. Well done. :)