Sonar by Andrew Roulst

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

Explore a vast maze of handmade underwater tunnels with nothing but your sonar to guide you. p+Kg21.png

Avoid dangerous wildlife that listens for your presence. Screenshot (18).png

Reach the end to restart with new rules and systems. Screenshot (22).png

https://youtu.be/70GewSWr7sM

Epilepsy Warning - This game contains flashing lights and images that could cause discomfort or seizures.

Ratings

Overall 351th 3.842⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Fun 772th 3.368⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 123th 4⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1432th 2.842⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 270th 4.158⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Given 31🗳️ 10🗨️

Feedback

mikelovesrobots
05. Oct 2020 · 05:24 UTC
I didn't really get the theme or why it sometimes sent out a larger ping vs. a smaller one, but I appreciated the graphics. That intro screen was something!
Xasey
05. Oct 2020 · 05:29 UTC
@mikelovesrobots The reason the ping is sometimes smaller or larger is based on if you are holding the Left mouse button or not. You get a smaller ping if you are not pressing or holding the LMB and you get a larger ping if you hold it.
Maxwell3000
05. Oct 2020 · 05:49 UTC
I really liked this game. The idea that you can only see what is in the range of your sonar is really fun to play with. The only issue I came into was that I didn't feel like there was a point in collecting and returning the gold. I feel like there could be a bit more explanation as to what is going on.
FlashCash0402
05. Oct 2020 · 06:03 UTC
Its really nice, but I don't understand the theme much. Nevertheless it would make a great .io game
Henrik Ganard
05. Oct 2020 · 06:29 UTC
I really liked this. Nice to just play in the sonar image. I did not understand the smaller red dot´s, I thought they were some kind of enemy but I did not see anything about that. Otherwise, great game with goog tutorial. Quick to get started. I would have oloved a webGL version of this.
Vollfeiw
05. Oct 2020 · 07:04 UTC
Really impressive, and there's only dots ^^
Enemies don't leave enough trace I think, i often feel like they are teleporting. And i don't even know if shooting actually kill them or not, but it's a greate job overall !
Hydrasil
05. Oct 2020 · 10:04 UTC
For me, the Mac App just shows a fullscreen grey background with a mouse cursor and nothing else.
Might try on another OS later
Flopo
05. Oct 2020 · 10:42 UTC
It is a very interesting concept, the visuals look very cool. A couple things were missing in your game.
1. Showing how many coins you have collected
2. Music and sound effects
I hope this can help you.
Manspider
05. Oct 2020 · 13:54 UTC
The graphics are quite to my taste. Not very intuitive though. But overall it's a very intriguing and well made game.
Sininenblue
05. Oct 2020 · 14:16 UTC
Very very interesting, surprisingly scary and very pretty, though I'd like more sounds
Xasey
05. Oct 2020 · 17:14 UTC
@maxwell3000 The way to get the “end” of the game is to collect sixteen orbs and bring them to the door, this then unlocks the middle of the map where you receive a tool which will help in your collection of orbs. Also in the middle of the map is another collecter which when filled with another sixteen orbs will restart the game or looping back to the beginning with new rules.

@flashcash0402 The theme takes a bit of time to understand since you kind of have to finish the game by collect thirty-two orbs, but I can give a short explanation. Once you have collected 32 orbs the game will restart, or loop, back to the start of the game. This time there are new rules to the game. If you collect 32 orbs after the first restart it will restart again continuing the loop.

@henrik-ganard The red dots are the enemies, if they get too close to you they will set you back to the start. However, you do not lose any progress in dying and you can outrun the enemies if you don’t hit any walls or take sharp turns.

@vollfeiw The enemies do teleport closer and closer to the player's waves when they sense them, The reason they sometimes don’t appear or leave a trace is that they might have been in mid teleport when your ping went out. Also Shooting the fish(enemies) does kill them, but it might be difficult hitting the fish directly if you shoot a wall near them however it will also kill them.

@hydrasil We were having a few issues with the mac application due to certain things losing support from Apple. The game when it starts should have a dark grey background with a little pulsing dot in the middle. It seemed to work fine on my mac, but maybe try the source code if it does not open correctly.

@flopo We didn’t add a coin counter on the screen to minimize any distractions, but I can see how it would be helpful. The door has a bar on it that fills up when filled with the gold orbs. The counter goes up to sixteen orbs, and that’s the same for any counter in the game. About music and sounds, we are still trying to find a good program that we can use to make sound effects and music, also both the dev and I are not very good at making either. Hopefully, future games will have music and sound

@sininenblue Both the developer and I are not very good at making sound effects or music, we are still looking for a good program that can help us with that. Hopefully, future games we produce will have sound and music.
SpaceGuy99
05. Oct 2020 · 18:59 UTC
Beautiful game and a very effective horror game considering its 2d. Aesthetics are top notch IMO.
Vadzim
05. Oct 2020 · 23:33 UTC
Very unusual, scary and mystery atmosphere
noxymu5
06. Oct 2020 · 21:04 UTC
Visuals are great, but in my opinion game lacks propgression or at least sense of progression.
noahw
09. Oct 2020 · 03:39 UTC
Really unique and striking visuals, very enjoyable game. One small note- holding down LMB to ping continuously is a bit of a chore, I would have preferred it to be automatic.
aCuriosity
09. Oct 2020 · 19:12 UTC
Love the sonar effect, lots of potential.
The sonar effect is awesome, and the art style works well. There are lots of little things could elevate this game a lot.

Movement could be a lot more fun if there was some sort of thruster, or tail, to reinforce the direction of travel. Currently since I have so little information on where to go, I really want to know what direction I am traveling in. A tadpole style tail would work well. But even a trail would be great/help with spatial awareness. A long trail would help a lot with navigating, but if you are a stickler for limiting visibility, a short trail would reinforce the movement.

Better feedback on the collectables, I want to go out and get them, but currently, when I collide with them, I am not certain I really did, which when I am being chased, creates uncertainty, Rick hates uncertainty. a sound effect for collecting would make a huge difference. Next up play the effect of the collecting particles, scale them big(Lerp it like a pro) and fade em out, exaggerate it.

I want to know how many particles I have collected, and on my person. I dig the minimalist-ness of the current graphics, so in lieu of a text display, having the particles I collected orbit me or something to that effect would be nice. Its not clear that I retain them through death, this would fix that, as well as make collecting them further rewarding.

I don't think the enemy's should teleport, its confusing, by making them move normally the player can track their movements and better predict them.

Sound effects for everything, including music or some ambient loop.

Overall Well Done! I played it through to the second camera perspective.
Very cool game!
sunnray
10. Oct 2020 · 18:08 UTC
The enemies were a bit hard to avoid. It seemed like once they are onto you, you can't really escape. Overall, really interesting idea for a game.
Lone_Wolf
11. Oct 2020 · 15:27 UTC
This is a neat idea. Would be nice with sound effects but it's still fun