Cryoloop by Freya C

You are a Chrono Agent, dispatched across space and time on sensitive missions to alter the course of history. You have arrived on board an abandoned spaceship, the only living crewmember preserved in a cryo-stasis pod, with 59 seconds until the reactor surges and fries the pod.
You have already failed twice.
Your operator resets you back to the anchor point, and you try again. And again. And again.

Made for Ludum Dare 46 on the theme of "Keep It Alive", using twine 1.4 and bitsy-3d, plus hacks and html/css fun. Somewhat of a homage to mid-90s adventure games.
*edit to clarify controls: Arrows or WASD to move, Spacebar to Start and to exit the Pod close-up passages. Move into things (Pods & Reactor Computer) to interact.
| Youtube | https://communistsister.itch.io/cryoloop |
| Youtube | https://communistsister.itch.io/cryoloop |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/cryoloop |
Ratings
| Overall | 556th | 3.398⭐ | 46🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 775th | 2.965⭐ | 45🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 337th | 3.523⭐ | 46🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 837th | 3.256⭐ | 45🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 257th | 3.807⭐ | 46🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 166th | 3.698⭐ | 45🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 26🗳️ | 21🗨️ |
Graphics are very nice, and reminds me the graphics of the first Doom but more polished of course
Great job !
Like the banter with the operator.
Controls are a bit wonky :( I got stuck in the textures couple times.
I think I found the reactor, but didn't understand what to do next.
Also, got stuck on this screen with no way out.
It's a bit short and the movement is wonky. As if key repeat was on slow and even stuck sometimes. With a little bit of background music the mood would be great!
Unique and I enjoyed it.
Also, man, that ending.
But the controlls arn't very responsive - I kept geting stuck randomly. Also found the reactor but wasn't sure what to do next.
Overall a fair effort.
My brain got really focused-in on the 3d screen and I could've maybe been helped with an unsubtle visual (or audio) cue to let me know me when the line of dialogue changes - I felt like I missed a fair chunk of it, even after playing through twice.
Like other folks above I also was confused by the doors, especially as there seems to be an unopenable door that doesn't look different to the others. I really liked the effect of the door opening once I worked it out, though! Proper spooky space vibes.
I would also recommend not letting the player look at the 45 degree angles if you aren't allowed to walk in them. It makes navigation difficult :)
I liked the banter between the operator and the time agent!
My first loop was spent listening to the banter instead of doing my actual job, which probably pissed off my operator/partner. But hey... I assume time loops are on the client's dime, not ours. With more time, would've been neat to have their conversation change between loops, in a way that maybe characterized the player's character and/or the operator (depending on who all retains memories/information between time-loops!) Also left me wondering if the CRT effect is meant to imply we're viewing a video log of time-loops... perhaps we're an investigator later on, considering the footage of the strange Space Mystery that resulted... hmm! Really piqued my curiosity, so good work crafting a bite sized narrative that left me wanting more!
Like some folks said I appreciated the 45-degree-angle view, even if part of me wishes I could move diagonally too. Makes me want to look into modifying Bitsy's movement code to support that now! Also, more stuff to examine and distract you from actually doing your job would've been fun too, given more time. It created a neat sort of tension between farting around because I technically had all the time in the world, while also being pressured to solve a very time-is-of-the-essence problem. A classic sorta sci-fi "What If...", rendered into a simulation. Cool stuff!