Project R.O.O.M by Arad HamidSamiee
Project R.O.O.M is an experimental game originally made for Ludum Dare 47 in two days, early October 2020. The Theme for Ludum Dare 47 was "Stuck in a Loop" and I took it the literal way. The game is designed to leave the player feeling uneasy and helpless.
* For a more immersive experience, don't forget to wear headphones. *
Also this is the first jam I am participating.
Some (relatively) cool features: - The game contains no light sources. It's all emissive material. - I drew every texture (literally all of them) by hand. - [SPOILERS] : I have created portals that work seamlessly, guarantied. - Source Code is available in my github, so make sure to check it out if you are curious about how it works.
Key Bindings: - W A S D - roam around - Mouse - look around - Hold Shift - walk slower - Hold Control - crouch - Space - jump - K to kys/reload
GUIDE: * if you don't want your experience to be ruined, don't read this part * { It appears to me that some player are having difficulty interacting with the game and gameplay, So I'm going to explain a little bit and share hints. 1. Give the monitor more attention 2. yes the camera follows the player 3. The red button means no 4. EVERYTHING is set the way they are INTENTIONALLY }
Thanks for playing the game
Ratings
| Overall | 778th | 3.518⭐ | 85🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 1226th | 2.97⭐ | 85🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 812th | 3.327⭐ | 86🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 424th | 3.94⭐ | 86🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 702th | 3.669⭐ | 88🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 409th | 3.631⭐ | 86🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 77th | 4.235⭐ | 85🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 109🗳️ | 245🗨️ |
p.s: jumpscares occur on certain questions, questions that address the room itself.
also, thanks for playing.
I was picking up a kind of SCP-meets-Portal vibe from this; you nailed the creepy mood! Good job!
I'm sorry for wasting your time :laughing: It's just a never ending loop Lol (with seamless teleportation system). The same happened to me with some of other games in this jam, too. be prepared.
Really well graphically polished and the retro pixel style fits very well, but the performance leaves something to be desired, with occasional slowdowns (I think I got dips under 30 fps on occasion). The bane of Godot until 4.0 arrives I suppose :P
Anyway thank you for playing the game. I did my best to keep it light but unfortunately people are having performance issues (which leaves me helpless), still **_waiting for godot_** 4.0
After about 30 questions I realized I went over the ten questions mark and started moving around.
Linux build, yey
You captured a rare and pretty complex feeling with this game! Some of those questions were pretty fucked up man, and I love the game for it :D The inevitable "search for the "real game"" also made me smile and just fitted so perfectly into the point you were trying to make! Thank you so much for this experience!
@gonzalol Unfortunately the questions are limited but They are in a loop too so they won't come to an end. There is no _End Condition_ in the game. I'm glad you liked it, tnx for playing.
@tommy glad to here that.
@offlebaggins It's funny our designs are similar (I'm glad I played yours), The looping effect took time but at least it's seamless now.
@eptwalabha
Thank you for the feedback.
@trexxak
Wow I'm speechless. Hope you had fun!
@thought-reactor
Oops.. I opt-out _Humor_ out of ratings cause I thought nobody would find it humorous. Glad you liked it.
@tauheed-game-dev
Thanks for playing with heaphones, I care about sound effects. I like the idea of making it into a full game and appreciate the plot you suggested. Glad you liked it.
I was hoping the game would have a "final message" if you got all the questions right, but after digging through the code I found it was just random correct or false.
Very cool game nonetheless!
I would love to play an extended version where something actually happens. You know, classic horror story where you play a sick survival game with an evil monitor :slight_smile:
Great job!
Thanks for the complement.
@ikelucas I plan to go further soon enough, Tnx for playing the game.
@mvasko2 Sure thing, Glad you liked the atmosphere.
Anyway, really good job.
@bot12313 I hope you are not an actual bot :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: yeah it weirdely has performance issues and I don't know why. thank you for suggesting to add more events, I will in the future builds. Glad you liked it.
**Here is my feedback:**
**What I liked?**
- The main menu. Decent!
- I liked the mechanics.
- Nice SFX.
- I liked the visuals.
**What I disliked?**
- The cursor. It doesn't look good vertically.
- The SFX when moving over the red or green cube.
- Is this how the main menu should be? It is off. [1]
- It shows [LETTER(S)] above the question I thought they are buttons to click at first.
- I didn't enjoy playing.
---
(Stopped playing when I saw the question that asks if there is someone else on the room, because I am sure I will have a nightmare if I continued)
I don't play horror games, but with somehow didn't read the tags.
--
Sorry for the unfinished feedback.
--
**Endnotes:**
[1]
your dislikes explained:
1 - Sure thing, it will change how the cursor looks
2 - It is intentional that the screen gets darker near the buttons, thanks for the feedback, I can remove this effect.
3 - Is this picture how the menu is shown for you?
this is how it must be shown:
4 - About the letters I have to admit that many players thought they are keys but they are actually hand-made codes to categorize the questions.
5 - too bad you didn't see the _THING_ in the corner :wink:
I don't know if there was more after the questions, I stopped at 30. Some of them are cool and improve the mood.
There was too much lag tho, it helped disorientating, so it helped somehow the mood, but it is also annoying, can't say for certain it was intended.
The black shadow in the corner could have also made better, it appear for just a frame and it seems more of a glitch than something else. I mean, it is intended to be something like "Have I seen something?" but it could be done better.
It was a nice experience, keep going!
@msiddeek Thanks for the feedback, There is no progress in the game, It's the experiences of being traped/stuck and helpless. The questions are supposed to never come to an end and It is intentional that the counter gets higher than the max questions so the player feels like there is no real end to them.
@darthone I'm glad about your feelings :D
The game was somewhat lagging for me (on a <1 year old machine, but still a laptop), which made standing on the platform challenging at times. I often jumped back just to immediately fall on the button on the other side, answering a question I hadn't had time to read. :P
Really wish there was a way to actually finish the game! I got to, like, question 40, and *won't dream ever again*.
Constructive feedback: I wish there was mouse sensitivity and y-axis invert options. Not really needed because aim isn't important, but still nice to have.
The stand-on-platform-then-land-on-a-button mechanic was a little weird. I was trying to press Q to answer. I eventually started to spam answers waiting for something to happen.
I wish there was some kind of ending, or something to let me know I completed the intended loop. I answered 40 questions and figured there was no end. I guess it plays into the "question my sanity" theme. :smile:
Good job on your game, and lowering all of our sanity along the way lol
I did think I saw some stuff in the corner as well :D
I didn't understand what the letter in between the [ ] mean though. At first I thought I had to press that E,Q, PH, But nothing.
Nice game overall
Well done
I also still wonder... where are the first two questions (as it starts with 3/10)? Did... did the shadow behind me eat them?
The game lags somewhat and the mouse felt too sensitive by default. But the environment looked nice indeed.
@greytyphoon Thanks for the feedback. I really should fix the lag somehow, almost everyone is experiencing it :( and Nope there is no end to the game, you are perpetually stuck. (don't worry, you will dream eventually, if you ever manage to get out of _the room_)
@ismael-rodriguez Appreciate your feedback. I will definitely add a mouse sensitivity setting, and the letters above the questions are meant to categorize the questions. I can also add a sign of completion on the monitor, good idea. Glad you played and liked my game.
@hakro Tnx for playing. The letters above the questions are codes to categorize those questions, and they mean something but I didn't properly describe what they are due to lack of time (don't tell anyone what they mean)
- Q is for questions that are meant to be asked by whatever organization is doing this to you.
- PH is somewhat related to mental sanity of every contestant.
- SYS is all the questions that the _SYSTEM ITSELF_ is curious about.
@fabula-rasa Thanks for the complement. The first two questions happen only once at the very beginning.
@abdul-zakkar I'm grateful for your interest. Thanks for playing.
Might have something to do with all those dots in the name. The pck file seems to exist under `Contents/Resources/Project R.O.O.M LD47 v0.4.pck` though... :thinking:
Too bad, managed to peak my interest with all the secrecy. :spy:
**edit:** Seems like my guess was correct. Got it working by renaming the following files to not have periods in the name.
Thought I found some pattern on the question labels (sys, ph, q, e) corresponding with the answers but after like a ten or so correct ones it was foiled too. Was I just supposed to memorize every answer and get the right flawlessly? I definitely got some repeat questions I got the correct sound que for on the previous round but the questions did not start from the start though.
Kinda bold statement to say that **everything** was intentional. Was the points where if you walked up the ramp after a question too fast and didn't get a new question before stepping down first intentional? What about the horrible framerate (didn't seem that graphically demanding)?
Also found it quite awkward how the answer buttons and the podium were setup. And most of the possible actions were completely pointless (to my best knowledge at least). The game didn't even bother teaching about majority of them.
The question stuff was fun but too much repetition. Like the first time when seeing the shadow figure in the corner when prompted about someone else being there in the room was cool as hell but getting it repeated several times before even looping was just lame. It actually would have been spookier if it didn't happen after seeing it for the first time. Same goes for the non yes/no questions. First one was funny but the second was just more of the same.
Game had some nice small touches. Like the real time clock. Those always impress me for some weird reason. But I'm in the analog clock camp a bit more, those really impress the heck out of me. :sweat_smile: Even though I can't think of a single other game with an analog real time clock besides Inside right now... :thinking:
But yeah, good job! :thumbsup:
I tried to write enough questions to make players feel like there are an infinite number of them but due to lack of time I couldn't add more questions, and they are just a mess, there's no real order between them. I also made this game to give the impression of being stuck, perpetually. That's why there is no ending to the game. The player is supposed to feel helpless and frustrated.
Question labels are explained in the last comment above yours. Also there is no real answer to any of the questions.
I don't really understand why the framerate is messed up, this is like the most optimized game I've ever made, I kinda suspect that I've messed something up in the export section or something.
The game only teachs about useful controls. I wanted to add vents so I added crouch but I couldn't get the vents ready in time, there are hidden mechanics like slow motion but they are all cut due to the limited time. (I started from day 2 - and this is my first jam)
And I'll make sure to add real time analog clocks in my next games. :D
Thanks for playing and the feedback.
(Also I really appreciate your comment, big love to finns and experienced game developers :black_heart: )
One last note: I always write down honest review, because everybody need that, not just nice craps with some bullshit, but sometime I will aperceite very good games. So if this review insult you, but use it well :) Anyway every game is counting so :)
After a while, it got annoying climbing the ramp. Maybe if there was a little more variation with the questions and how they are answered within the room.
@diego-escalante Thanks for playing :D Your reaction is much appreciated :ghost:
@coding4rtist Thanks you.
@jammygunns There is no exit Lol. I'm glad you got immersed in my game, tnx for the positive comment.
I feel like this game was the perfect experience for a group of friends to play together. We spent waaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy too long debating some of these questions. Hope you enjoy our tomfoolery!