LudumData

Zen Master by Onat Saygı

[raw]
made by Onat Saygı for Ludum Dare 45 (JAM)

A meditation simulator made by two students.

Hello I'm Onat the designer and programmer. In some of the recent game jams I've done I had some trouble with overaiming on game design. So this time I went for a super simple concept. As we first planned the game would be a tiny bit challenging but we had a bug on a feature so our vision changed to a more relaxing theme. We adjusted the balance of the game to be very easy. The only way a player could lose takes at least 10 seconds of inattention. However not losing requires constant attention to your breath, just like real life :). Hope you enjoy a couple moment of relaxation.

Hi, I'm Berkay, the digital artist. You can play the game by different mindsets, you can just play to have fun, or feel the ambiance and try to meditate with the character and notice 'your own thoughts'. I had so much fun while drawing the sprites, icons particularly. In this project I've improved my layering and workflow skills. For the future projects I'm planning to focus on more shader-like graphics and animation. However It was an opportunity to amuse people with simple sketches. And it was so pleasant to know your game being played by random people in the world.

Controls: Hold space to inhale, Release to exhale.

Tools used: Godot Engine, Krita, Audacity.

2019-10-09 Updated for minor input and animation bugs

ZenMaster.PNG

Youtube https://nostrimo.itch.io/zen-master
Youtube https://nostrimo.itch.io/zen-master
Youtube https://nostrimo.itch.io/zen-master
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/zen-master

Ratings

Overall 880th 3.098⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1083th 2.372⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 637th 3.088⭐ 42🧑‍⚖️
Theme 908th 2.795⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 672th 3.333⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Humor 625th 2.571⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Mood 93th 4.037⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Given 26🗳️ 27🗨️

Feedback

ukirain
07. Oct 2019 · 23:44 UTC
really liked this game.
AndyP
08. Oct 2019 · 00:31 UTC
Boring to play, but I really loved the mood. Best game about breathing I've seen.
masterkrepta
08. Oct 2019 · 01:14 UTC
Its not the most action packed game. But thats the whole point.
Compasslg
08. Oct 2019 · 02:24 UTC
The game is so chill. Both music and graphics are great. Sadly not much to do, but still, good job
PeachTreeOath
08. Oct 2019 · 02:27 UTC
I haven't seen a breath mechanic used for balancing stuff, what was the original concept? irl meditation itself is the hardest game. It's like a bullet hell of thoughts sometimes...

I do admire you setting a goal and executing on it. It can be pretty hard not to feature creep so hopefully you felt like you broke your curse of overaiming :)
Slitcher
08. Oct 2019 · 02:34 UTC
Uow, nice work.

Good job on the illustration.

It really captures the flow of thought that we always have to control be careful to not get overwhelmed.

I think that this game what I needed to relax after 48 hours of game jam... haha.
🎤 Onat Saygı
08. Oct 2019 · 02:56 UTC
@peachtreeoath We just had an idea (heh) to show the ideas as bubbles on screen. Then it occured to us to add physics to the bubbles. This jam I even had some time left to polish. I feel like a huge weight is lifted from my shoulders
🎤 Onat Saygı
08. Oct 2019 · 03:15 UTC
@slitcher As much as relaxing it is to play it was just as stessfull to develop for us. I'm glad you enjoyed it, cheers
GeneralBeans
08. Oct 2019 · 03:29 UTC
At first I was playing and thinking, 'Well this is very simple, and I will get over this very quickly'
But, as a person who submitted a "Game" this time around for LD, it was more of an experience than a game.
As I pressed the space bar, and noticed the thought bubbles, I began to think as well.
The thought bubbles encouraged me to think about my own troubles, opinions and feelings, and as the bubble disappeared and others began to form, I noticed more thoughts..more memories, and more emotions.
I started to naturally breathe with the monk that I was in control of, and my breath started to lengthen.
I appreciated this small moment of solace in the crazy days that I have had in this game jam.
Thanks for the experience! Got way more out of this than I had previously thought I would.
Z_Doctor
08. Oct 2019 · 06:57 UTC
Very chill game.
Tommyflower
08. Oct 2019 · 09:14 UTC
Nice one! The way you used the space bar is genius. You can't help breathing along with the monk. Some of the thought bubbles are hilarious. I've been thinking about a meditating game for a while and this one really makes sense. A nice concept that could be developed even more! My Mr Raccoon also tries to meditate :D if you want to come and play with him.
niterich
08. Oct 2019 · 17:12 UTC
Well, this is certainly a change of pace from all the 'super hard platformer' games I've played at jams before. It was very relaxing, and I found myself taking note of my own breathing and slowing down to match the pace of the game. If I had to give a critique, I'd say the monk looks too stressed out to be at peace. His eyes are all bugged out and his eyebrows make him look scared.
Emiliabea
08. Oct 2019 · 18:00 UTC
Pretty relaxing, I like the touch of the custom cursor, I haven't seen too many of those. I also like the idea, it's nice and meaningful
Susumu Asaga
08. Oct 2019 · 22:25 UTC
I don't know if I got the idea of the game right, but you just breath in and out like you would do in real life? It's a interesting game, but I didn't find it to much fun, but I don't like meditating nether XD
🎤 Onat Saygı
09. Oct 2019 · 00:10 UTC
@susumu-asaga You got it right, that was the idea we were going with. The monotone gameplay and expectation for stuff to happen, leads to a meditative state in real life
erebus
09. Oct 2019 · 02:15 UTC
Cute idea. I thought some of the icons were pretty funny. Nice job! Thanks for bringing it by the stream!
AdamCYounis
09. Oct 2019 · 03:29 UTC
I had a deep experience playing this game. Something about the interaction, sound and graphics all together really combined in a way that totally achieves what you were going for. Great work, even if the categories don't lend themselves to the kind of game you made. I had a good time, thank you :)
GuitarBro
09. Oct 2019 · 05:53 UTC
Even though the graphics may not be super impressive, they're very consistent in style and fit the mood nicely. The background music was a solid choice given the theme and it was a good idea to make it really easy so you could focus more on what the game was trying to accomplish (meditation). It's simple, but effective. It perhaps could use some actual end condition (if there was one, I never hit it) but otherwise not too bad at all.
Jake Marks
09. Oct 2019 · 05:54 UTC
I really liked the one thought. The Pringles(TM) one.
Jake Marks
09. Oct 2019 · 16:42 UTC
Played through this minimalist game on stream. It's somehow both relaxing and stress inducing haha! Here is the the video if you are interested:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/492218443
Paulsams
09. Oct 2019 · 16:59 UTC
Cool pictures selected. Unfortunately, the game is for one time, but everything is equally cute). Keep making games.
ColeSlaughter
09. Oct 2019 · 19:20 UTC
*Fist bump for also having a game about a monk meditating*

I like this concept a lot. It's simple, but it's a nice little tool to help focus on breathing. :) I can't even say for how long I played, because I spaced out several times and just mindlessly hit Space to the rhythm (which is like, the ideal meditative state), so nice job capturing that feeling!
🎤 Onat Saygı
09. Oct 2019 · 21:40 UTC
@coleslaughter Great minds think alike :)

We also planned a clicking mechanic but we had to cancel it and change our direction with the game. I'm glad you enjoyed ^-^
kuviman
10. Oct 2019 · 13:05 UTC
mediation successful
0x01F0
10. Oct 2019 · 18:06 UTC
Really liked it. Actually soothing to play as it is hard to not start thinking about your own breathing when you hear someone else take deep breaths ;D The art is great, the environment combined with the audio is relaxing.

I'm not ashamed to say I meditated for 312 seconds.

The thing I connect with the theme here is that you gain calmness, and he starts with nothing (no calmness!):

![calmness.png](///raw/2cf/z/29539.png)

That's not a calm face :D

Well done you two!
0x01F0
10. Oct 2019 · 18:14 UTC
By the way, I don't think your itch entry is linked to the ludum dare-tag!

You can add it by editing the game :)

![ld tag.png](///raw/2cf/z/29540.png)
DeathStorm
29. Oct 2019 · 20:02 UTC
This was a pretty nice experience and real meditating and chill Game. I Liked the visualisation of the Thoughts, even if they where a bit mixed up and sometimes they just not fit to each other. But that not a real "bad" point.
I liked to just concentrate on the sounds for inhale and exhale and liked to listen just to the nice background music which was really really nice.

Well Done. Really good Job
elysiagriffin
30. Oct 2019 · 01:53 UTC
Thanks for submitting your game for me to play on my livestream!

If you’d like to rewatch the playthrough, you can find it here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/494941552?t=1h37m16s

Hope you got some valuable feedback on your game and looking forward to seeing you next LD jam if I dont catch you before then! :D

💜 Elysia Griffin AKA Button Feedback Lady

https://www.twitch.tv/elysiagriffin