Ashes to Ash by johnfn
You find a torn piece of paper with a poem on it:
Ashes to ash, dust to dust,
Eventually we all end up blind.
But when that time comes, no need to be afraid
'Cause I swear I won’t leave you behind.
Below the poem you see 5 signatures.
Ashes to Ash is a game about frogs.



Team Star Star:
- cnnmon - character art, code
- johnfn - organization, code, writing
- Gabby Delforge - background art, code
- Miyolophone - music, writing
- Oasiris - code, team name
All of the music, art, code, and level design was created by the team over the 72 hour compo period.
| Youtube | https://github.com/johnfn/ld45 |
| Youtube | https://johnfn.itch.io/ashes-to-ash |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/ashes-to-ash |
Ratings
| Overall | 330th | 3.658⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 801th | 2.974⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 841th | 2.816⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 274th | 3.722⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 73th | 4.342⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 6th | 4.368⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 201th | 3.5⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 78th | 4.053⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 5🗳️ | 7🗨️ |
The instructions for vine climbing state "W/A", but I'm sure you guys meant "W/S". The jumping felt a bit strange, but other than some small stuff, I was impressed!
Also I feel like I might have missed some secrets or something, I may come back to check it out again down the road.
There is a few confusing moments with the interactions. first one is when you've already spoken to Ash the "Press X to interact" sign stays enabled. The second one is lenses don't give feedback on what can or can't be interacted with. Oh and the last one, when you jump, camera goes too high and you can't really see where to land.
Other than that, great entry!
Also, aside from changing the music, which was a really nice touch, the lenses didn't really do much? At least, I didn't need them as far as I could tell.
The idea with the compassion and affection lens was clever and feels like "Nino kuni" ...
The metaphors about emotions being used as items is something with a lot of narrative potential, that in your game makes me thing of "Figment", which is a great game!
I found some bugs as in every ludum dare game, as it is to be expected, one of them made me go through a wall and I had to go all the way from the beginning ... as I was quite enjoying my experience so that was not a problem tbh
This wall was the culprit

folks this game is sweet, lovely, has one of the most incredible soundtracks and the most amazing characters


And overall it is so relaxing that I just want to chill, walk around this world and enjoy the music
I would really like to have a full version with the vibe I see in this one, so I just followed you on itch.io so I don't miss in case you decide to evolve on it
Congratulations for this work of art!