LudumData

Ghosts by gamebuilder

[raw]
made by gamebuilder for Ludum Dare 54 (JAM)

A simple HTML adventure game.

As usual, thanks go to @KennyMacMusic for the amazing soundtrack and @genie for the artwork.

How to play:

Find five ghosts before nightfall. Use the map to find your way. Controls:

A,B,C: Move to an area

M: Show map

Your current area and level are shown at the top of the screen. Use the map to determine your location — each area connects to three other areas. Move to different areas using A,B,C. If you see a ghost, move to her area. Search all three levels until you find five ghosts before nightfall.

Play it here: http://www.pub22.net/game/ld54/

Credits:

@KennyMacMusic: music (3 tracks: “Eerie1,” “Eerie2,” “Upbeat”)

@genie: tree drawings

@gamebuilder: game design and coding

Ghosts are derivatives of The Veiled Woman by Rafaello Monti (1854) as shown here:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:TheVeiledWomanMET539.jpg

Tools:

HTML5 + jQuery

Krita

jsfxr

Pen and paper

ghosts-screenshot.png

Link http://www.pub22.net/game/ld54
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/54/ghosts

Ratings

Overall 1002th 3.018⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1031th 2.732⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 754th 3.125⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1044th 2.786⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Audio 203th 3.796⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Humor 902th 1.958⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Mood 504th 3.607⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Given 21🗳️ 38🗨️

Feedback

Daniel Grinshpon
03. Oct 2023 · 03:15 UTC
I didn't know how to "catch" a ghost at first but kinda my fault for not reading the how to play instructions carefully. The setting is pretty fitting for the start of October. The navigation felt a bit confusing, and the map only helped a little. Sound design was nice though
Fnkee
04. Oct 2023 · 21:52 UTC
Wow this felt weirdly nostalgic - love the rasterized graphics of realistic trees and ghosts, and the navigational mechanism combined with the map. Really enjoyable! The well composed music and the slowly darkening scene really set the mood. Excellent job
🎤 gamebuilder
06. Oct 2023 · 14:48 UTC
@daniel-grinshpon the map is supposed to help make navigation less confusing, but it is challenging nonetheless. Regardless I hope in future games to find a better way to integrate the map.

@fnkee thanks, glad you enjoyed the game. Interesting that it felt “weirdly nostalgic” — October and Halloween also summon the same feeling in me. No doubt that spilled over into the game. Good to see you found the map useful.
Ava Skoog
07. Oct 2023 · 12:40 UTC
Great music, especially after you win. Good atmosphere and nice art. The first time my win felt a bit random because I was stumbling around not recognising where I'd been, but on the second try I made sure to actually use the map properly and it felt a lot better. I like how the stars on the map match the night sky!
🎤 gamebuilder
07. Oct 2023 · 18:05 UTC
@ava-skoog good to see you again. Yes, that is one of the drawbacks of the game: too often you can win by wandering more or less randomly. That came up quite a bit during playtesting and I was hoping the nightfall deadline would prevent that. Perhaps next time I’ll have a larger map.

Your connection between the map and the stars in the night sky is brilliant — I had not noticed that myself. No doubt there is a meaning behind it but alas it escapes me at the moment. Anyway, an astute observation.
LeReveur
07. Oct 2023 · 23:02 UTC
I've lost myself a lot in this uncommon maze design. Fortunately, I managed to find all the ghosts soon enough to not starve to death somewhere in those weird woods.
aucguy
16. Oct 2023 · 22:29 UTC
It was fun to race against time to find all the ghosts. I also liked how the forest slowly got darker as night approached. I found it hard to keep track of where I was and navigating the maze. Marking where you are and where each button leads on the map would be helpful.

I also liked the music.
dougggggg
17. Oct 2023 · 00:17 UTC
Love the music and art! I found the game pretty easy--I just sort of wandered around looking for ghosts and found 5 pretty quickly. Maybe there could be a type of ghost that hurts you, or something?
NotSpaghettiGames
17. Oct 2023 · 00:20 UTC
Great job on the music! The game loop is difficult to understand if you go in blind, but eventually you figure it out. The race against time mechanic is fun and puts the pace in the players hands. I would recommend changing the inputs to something more normal for someone to engage with. It was fun making a mental map of where I had been and where I needed to go. Great work!
TheCaptainBuster
17. Oct 2023 · 03:14 UTC
Was a little confusing in the beginning but then when I started finding the ghosts, it seemed pretty easy. Found it satisfying with the sound effects. Was enjoyable!
pkenney
17. Oct 2023 · 03:22 UTC
I played this blind without reading instructions, which I prefer to do.

Nice job with the music and vibe. Leaving "upbeat" playing while I type comments. I lost the first run, it was a cool feeling to start to notice "wait a minute, is this screen getting dimmer? YEP!" So I started to perceive the risk, and then sure enough, game over.

On my second run I was more careful to keep my pace up and managed to get all of the ghosts.

This entry was simple in terms of the features presented, with just a few button presses and some basic traversal of space driving some variables, but the art music and vibe made a lot of what was there. Nice job!

Wait, reading the instructions now, I see there's a map? I didn't use it, I think I enjoyed the feeling of being lost and not being able to systematically explore that well.
LDJam user 265360
17. Oct 2023 · 04:23 UTC
misread the instructions and was avoiding ghosts at first, but it made a lot more sense once I got the hang of it. nice use of sound for atmosphere!
CataclysmicKnight
17. Oct 2023 · 05:02 UTC
That map layout is epic and especially awesome considering the theme of this game. I read the instructions and controls and still forgot that I could press M to check the map 🤣

This is a really clever take on ghosts in the woods, and you got a lot of scene/setting out of simply choosing one of three directions to go each turn. Plus the whole "fading to black" as nightfall closes in was super smart too!
aetup
17. Oct 2023 · 06:11 UTC
The atmosphere is great! I was honestly unsettled when I noticed the screen blacking out.

I didn't notice the map on my playthrough and only checked it out after reading the other comments, but those pentagrams would have added to the mood.
alexandrina
17. Oct 2023 · 07:02 UTC
the instructions made a lot of sense, somehow it wasn't really intuitive for me, but i liked the graphics of the game
kiv
17. Oct 2023 · 09:02 UTC
very stylish and moody game. i really enjoyed playing it, good job!
Kazuma
17. Oct 2023 · 19:47 UTC
Good game.
SaraMartins
18. Oct 2023 · 21:37 UTC
Your game has a really engaging puzzle and concept, and I felt very immersed in a retro-inspired environment. The map navigation added a cool dimension to the gameplay, contributing to the overall great atmosphere. All in all, I really enjoyed the whole vibe!
gizz1
21. Oct 2023 · 11:38 UTC
In love the bg music