LudumData

I've Been Busy Being Dead by instrex

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

The only way to escape is to enslave another.

Eh? Was that too dark? cough-cough Alright, control a cute ghost, haunt various objects to scare people to death, thus stealing their freedom! Just keep in mind that after that, there will be another ghost left to rot, and even though you have broken free of this curse for previous ghost, the other will remain trapped until you repeat it over and over again... Be sure to hide in the walls for them not to post your picture on Twitter, yeah, otherwise that will be gross.

Art by DoctorHummer, programming/music by instrex.

UPD: check out the devlog for some info on post-jam version!

jmNSWV.png transform.gif 3nyVlP.png

Youtube https://instrex.itch.io/ive-been-busy-being-dead
Youtube https://instrex.itch.io/ive-been-busy-being-dead
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/ive-been-busy-being-dead

Ratings

Overall 137th 4.078⭐ 104🧑‍⚖️
Fun 217th 3.892⭐ 104🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 466th 3.644⭐ 103🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1043th 3.374⭐ 101🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 38th 4.607⭐ 105🧑‍⚖️
Audio 89th 4.129⭐ 103🧑‍⚖️
Humor 64th 4.149⭐ 103🧑‍⚖️
Mood 193th 3.995⭐ 98🧑‍⚖️
Given 104🗳️ 93🗨️

Feedback

MikeSalyh
05. Oct 2020 · 21:59 UTC
Super crisp and fun graphics! I love all the animations, characters, and screen shake. The persistant corspes was a really nice touch too.

The gameplay started out a little slow, but as it went on, it got a more engaging. Do I lose points for letting the humans interact w/ the non haunted objects? I couldn't tell.
🎤 instrex
05. Oct 2020 · 22:03 UTC
Thank you for feedback, yes, they relieve their stress and lose fear points. You can tell how much they have by listening to dynamic music, which becomes progressively faster as their stress level grows.
PizzArt64
06. Oct 2020 · 07:32 UTC
Amazing sprites and animations! The game is pretty fun, though a bit difficult because of losing fear points described in another comment. Also has not a lot of characters, so I'm assuming the game would start being a bit repetitive (even though new objects are being added).

sans undertale in the tv
Bicheste
06. Oct 2020 · 07:55 UTC
I quite dont see the theme... "so, what about it", this game is too much fun! Lost it at the "old maze video" + Sans = True combo. Love how she is spooked by the WC, but completely ignores the corpse. Fun stuff.
Mr.developer
06. Oct 2020 · 08:54 UTC
This game is absolutely amazing, I enjoyed it a lot, idk, was the idea that I kill everyone with the fridge), but that vas very fun and interesting experience! Graphics and audio are on a point. Great job, you regret 5 starts!
Christoph Kolb
06. Oct 2020 · 08:56 UTC
Super cool game!
Though it may not be 100% adherent to the theme, the gameplay is nice and snappy, the graphics are gorgeous and all in all this just feels really polished.
Fantastic work, guys!
toxs1ck
06. Oct 2020 · 08:56 UTC
It already looks like a cool game, I really like the art in it. I would love to see it being developed further. But great submission to the jam.
karreg
06. Oct 2020 · 09:05 UTC
Wow, graphics, sounds, and the game feel are amazing !
Notwithstanding the absence of the theme, it's the best game I played so far !
DavidPeterWorks
06. Oct 2020 · 09:40 UTC
It is a game. I loved the visuals and the gameplay. Aminations are super. You add new items after some kills, that is also good touch.
Animaster
06. Oct 2020 · 13:31 UTC
Amazing art, and pretty fun game, i really liked it. Great job!
Kaganobik
06. Oct 2020 · 16:55 UTC
Everthing was on point. I really love it. I'm speechless. Good job! (btw I love the TV one haha!)
Jag
06. Oct 2020 · 17:23 UTC
I love this game!! The artwork is charming and the sound effects and music are hilarious. Its a fun gameplay loop going around cursing objects. Is there a way to finish the game? Or it that part of the loop theme
bigwhiteshogun
07. Oct 2020 · 06:50 UTC
Alright this is my favourite so far. Amazing art, great sound and fun gameplay! I loved playing it so much in fact I manage at one go get to 8 people scared!![21a187e672a6bc27d0be4072cdd62282.png](///raw/b60/42/z/395c0.png) 5/5!
No Grapes Games
07. Oct 2020 · 08:58 UTC
Nice idea and great presentation. The animations, and the sfx are excellent. Didn't enjoy the lack of visibility and slow pace. It wasn't really fun to me but I can see a lot of creativity went into this. May not be my kind of game but beautiful nonetheless. Good job.
GaLou
07. Oct 2020 · 18:06 UTC
Great game, with a cute little ghost. I love the sprites and the animations ! Nice job !
Tekses
07. Oct 2020 · 19:21 UTC
I love our style and worldbuilding. The game has a very streamlined appearance. Gameplay is not that flexible but i really loved to explore the place and characters/ animations.
Purrseus
07. Oct 2020 · 19:34 UTC
The whole game just ooooozes style! Graphics and sound are top notch and come really well together with the gameplay. Gameplay was a little bit slow and a bit to passive for me personally, but great nonetheless, it plays really smoothly. Very well done! :)
Kolkav
08. Oct 2020 · 04:16 UTC
Holy Molly! DoctorHummer, your art style makes me speechless! From my experience, most of the beautiful ld jam games are boring to play, but not this one! My only criticism is that the game is too scary!
ubershmekel
08. Oct 2020 · 06:01 UTC
The visual art was fantastic, the characters are really cute and wacky. I wish the game mechanics had more of a risk-reward trade-off. The fact that I can always hide under floor made it so I didn't have strategic decisions or resource decisions to make. It was too easy. But the concept of haunting and hiding is cool, and this game felt like it could have a lot more depth added to it and it has potential to be even cooler. Thank you for the game!
Celes
09. Oct 2020 · 02:47 UTC
Awesome gameplay! Cute and kind of messed up at the same time since we need to haunt things even though the ghost looks like it doesn't want to but we need to anyways lol. I like the spooky concept, especially since it's October now. I really love the art, and the music was good too.
Codeman1010
09. Oct 2020 · 03:44 UTC
The artwork is incredible!
Kamuniaft
09. Oct 2020 · 04:11 UTC
Awesome work! Solid artstyle, smooth controls and engaging gameplay. Made it to 6 and it was really fun (with a bit of sadness, i'm playing ghost after all (: ). At some point, when gameplay speeds up enough, feels unfair that animation of "human interacting with object" breaks your input, making it almost imposible to charge an object.
Préda
09. Oct 2020 · 12:18 UTC
I really like this game, its really smooth and I love the soundeffects also, sometimes quite funny. The tv reference I also like a lot!
DOME
09. Oct 2020 · 18:41 UTC
The art and animations were fantastic, and the sound effects and background music added a lot to the overall atmosphere of the game. Great work!
Dizzy
09. Oct 2020 · 18:47 UTC
This is so much like SNES games, i really really enjoy this game. Omg, good job guys!
mar3k
09. Oct 2020 · 18:50 UTC
Very nice and original game and the animations and art is just superb and put the good sound design and music on top of that that you have and this is very good entry. Well done!
PashaLoban
09. Oct 2020 · 18:52 UTC
My game have almost same graphics
Ariya Reddy
09. Oct 2020 · 18:54 UTC
I really liked the music and the art!
MeowMeowLitClub
09. Oct 2020 · 19:10 UTC
This is the game I spend longest time. It's challengable and charming! Make me want paly again and again and see what will change next. The animation, character, music are awesome! Good job!
etrealjunior
10. Oct 2020 · 06:01 UTC
I really liked the game, the art and animation are very well done, in general a very fun game to play, it reminded me of the classic 16bit gennesis called "Haunting Starring Polterguy", congratulations to the team, if you can also give your feedback on my game I will be very grateful, a big hug.
Roikku
11. Oct 2020 · 17:35 UTC
A little repetitive, but cool :)
elysiagriffin
12. Oct 2020 · 02:19 UTC
Saw this game featured on HonestDanGame's stream today! Loved the artstyle, nice music, and thought it was a fun take on the theme. I do feel that after a few rounds it becomes a bit monotonous since you can "queue" up all the haunts and then I endeded up following around the victims, waiting for them to say 2SPOOPY4ME. Was also hoping that theyd react to the bodies they encountered lol
Honest Dan
12. Oct 2020 · 13:23 UTC
Really nice mood to the game - the audio and visuals really matched and set the mood you wanted to convey. Had hints of the old school games like Day of the Tentacle or Manic Mansion. As I said on stream, the main criticism would be that there only seemed to be a static subset of points of interest, and only one way you can really interact with them. As a result it felt like it was a case of just activating all the items and lurking in the walls. Perhaps if there were some expire on how long it remains haunted, or perhaps some bonus for staying close to a haunt victim.
Artyom Volkov
12. Oct 2020 · 16:09 UTC
A pretty interesting idea with fine art and sounds.
blobo
12. Oct 2020 · 16:17 UTC
Wow, I love all the little animations! Every character has so much going on, and the pieces around the house, like the tv or the phonograph, all have some adorable cutscenes! The music is a lot of fun, and I love the little noises the characters make when inspecting an object (or being killed by it) Magnificent work all around!

Furthermore, I've never received fan art of anything before, so I had to return the favor for your piece on my character!

![LDFan.png](///raw/b02/2/z/3a0f3.png)
DoctorHummer
12. Oct 2020 · 16:31 UTC
@blobo Oh, that looks awesome, thank you very much!
Coding4rtist
12. Oct 2020 · 17:25 UTC
After seeing your doodles, I immediately wanted to try your game. And I was not disappointed. One of the best graphics games I've seen, loved that animations! The music is also cool and creates a nice scary mood. The game concept is simple but funny. Congrats!

Hilarious how the characters were more afraid of a middle finger coming out of a vase than the old visitor's dead body on the floor XD.
Peter Jonsson
12. Oct 2020 · 19:39 UTC
A very neat game with a lot of polish. Well done!
SimplePotential
12. Oct 2020 · 19:50 UTC
Lol, that was a great! Art is well done but the animations were even better. I really liked this entry!
Samdwester
12. Oct 2020 · 20:10 UTC
Great game! Loved the art and the mood.
JRevel
12. Oct 2020 · 20:14 UTC
Great job ! The idea is great and totally fits the theme, and the animation works so well ! I just wish there was a bit more gameplay, I did not find it that interesting, you just have haunt every object you can until the enemy dies, it lacked something to give it a bit more strategy.
Shaolin Dave
12. Oct 2020 · 20:20 UTC
This is great. Sounds are good. Gameplay is nice (esp when new items start getting added). There were a few times I got "caught" and it seemed unfair, like the detection was off. I think it could be helped with multiple collisions for the humans or sensitivity to distance (if they see you, but you're just at the edge of their view, then they'll be unsure and come closer to investigate). But overall it's really good. I especially loved the character design and animation.
Misterm
12. Oct 2020 · 20:38 UTC
Cool game, I really enjoy it.. You did a really good art and the sound it is also great. Good Job..
Trexxak
12. Oct 2020 · 20:49 UTC
There’s little left to say that wasn’t praised already! Stunningly polished game, incredibly cute artstyle, smooth animations, fitting dynamic score… man, you really sold this game!
The gameplay remains interesting even after the first few introductory levels. Pretty sure this will rank highly across the board! Thank you for bringing this gem <3
GaryS
12. Oct 2020 · 20:51 UTC
This was super impressive... I love the art and animation, great music, interesting gameplay mechanic... I loved it. I'd love to see it expanded, but this is a really solid entry. Well done!
mlkvr
12. Oct 2020 · 21:00 UTC
Man that art and animations remind me the good old casper games, great one!
F1Krazy
12. Oct 2020 · 21:03 UTC
This is so clever! There are so many little touches here: the animations, the ghostly whispering in the background, the gradual addition of new objects, the way the music changes depending how scared or comforted the current visitor is... this is really well-polished for a Jam game. Very well done!
thingus
12. Oct 2020 · 21:10 UTC
Yeah, what they all said. This is really good! Did the characters all have 'personalities' (bucket hat goes to fridge, hairdo goes to TV first, ect)?
Also, that layered soundtrack kept me going :notes:
Ryan Paton
12. Oct 2020 · 21:10 UTC
Great game, I liked how it got harder and more objects got added as you scared more people to death
ondy1985
12. Oct 2020 · 21:11 UTC
This game is great. Can't believe you were able to do all the art and animation in 3 days. Just amazing! Have 5/5 from me in all categories man.
dhavavamba
12. Oct 2020 · 21:24 UTC
It looks good graphically but tired after a while. The theme seems to me to have been explored a little.
Leonardo Coyado
12. Oct 2020 · 22:05 UTC
I LOVE THIS GAME <3
Patsui
13. Oct 2020 · 08:13 UTC
+Some of the best art & animation in the jam!

+Audio & music are pretty spot on as well

+the ghost controls well and the game works all around!

-gameplay is pretty simple, it could be improved with a few other mechanics.

-I didn't really get a feeling I was stuck in a loop.

Overall a superb jam entry, well done!
arron-fowler
13. Oct 2020 · 08:14 UTC
This is a class entry. Simple, well done. The sound and art are great. I really enjoyed getting my spook on
marvalgames
13. Oct 2020 · 09:49 UTC
Like a hilarious cartoon. Really talented. Theme?? Really fun
smiley405
13. Oct 2020 · 16:54 UTC
nice art work there
GuitarBro
14. Oct 2020 · 01:31 UTC
What the graphics lack in fidelity they make up for in charm. Really dig the art style. The audio was uh, kinda harsh on my ears, but definitely fit the mood. Oh, and the gameplay was pretty unique, so points for that. One thing that would have been really nice is something that explains the mechanics in a bit more detail, mainly the fact that you need the number of scares in the bottom right corner _in a row_ to advance the level and the fact that haunting an object takes longer the more you have at the same time. But overall, really nicely done.
Gonzalol
14. Oct 2020 · 16:48 UTC
Amazing game.
The art and graphics are awesome, the animations are smooth and great, very professional.
Mechanics are very original, simple but effective.
Good job!
Kaldrin
15. Oct 2020 · 11:16 UTC
I liked it! The gameplay loop is not incredible, it gets a little boring quite quickly but it really works well, I love the animations and the audio (And the Undertale references eheh), super neat and complete game! The loop theme usage is nice and it's soon Halloween so it's double theme fit!

Congrats!
Teto
15. Oct 2020 · 22:29 UTC
Really nicely polished game with awesome graphics and audio giving it a great atmosphere that's really dynamic and engaging! Would agree with some previous comments about clarity for the game mechanics though as I didn't know why it was taking me so long to haunt things! Really great, original idea though! Awesome job!
Peace Of Cake Games
16. Oct 2020 · 13:58 UTC
Very fun game! I was unsurprised that the art was so good when I saw who the artist is for this game.
Sprotex
19. Oct 2020 · 08:37 UTC
Fun little game you have here! Graphics are amazing, especially the animations! I liked that the objects added progressively.

Other than that, there is little content, I would love to see more of it. Also it gets difficult very fast. What is your high score? I only scared 6 people to death on my 3rd playthrough. :ghost:
Elcinkilic
20. Oct 2020 · 18:11 UTC
good job guys, ghost is so cute :D and I like all the drawings.
Tamail
23. Oct 2020 · 16:45 UTC
This was so much fun! I loved everything about it but I enjoyed the animations the most! Such a great entry with a great idea, great visuals, everything. Impressive job :)