Sunshine Trial by ardorugus
A tad kid on the trial for sunshine.
Did you know, there's a sport called - kiiking? Kiiking for sunshine!
To Start (when tired of listening to the rising tune) - press Space.
Then tap the tad (cursor changes, when clickable).
Controls:
space - start & move up (strive through the tides)
release space - move down (you can't move down on your own, only by the tides)
LR.arrows - turn (maze)
UD.arrows - tad around (abyss space)
L.click - wherever clickable (sun/kid)
This is a 9:16 concept with a no text narrative: an almost casual story driven maze-like trial.
We are 2 artists on the trial for tech...
Ardskape (gamedev)
[ardorugus] (music)
| tad trial (Web) | https://simmer.io/@ARDSKAPE/sunshinetrial |
| immersed (PC) | https://ardskape.itch.io/sunshinetrial |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/53/sunshine-trial |
Ratings
| Overall | 1161th | 2.767⭐ | 60🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 1210th | 2.19⭐ | 60🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 828th | 3.069⭐ | 60🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 1206th | 2.388⭐ | 60🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 531th | 3.776⭐ | 60🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 339th | 3.612⭐ | 60🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 533th | 3.603⭐ | 60🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 121🗳️ | 185🗨️ |
@asmadigames Aye, it's the fade of the story. You caught and befriended the sun, keep the sunshine.;)
@paul-avallone trippy vibe it is). As our artist says, this one is a haiku game. Thanks for having this trip!
@achila-eranga-mohottige well, there's kiiking, and chasing the sun through the astral, to put it short. But it's just one of the possible meanings...
@nrankin13 Thanks for playing! And listening to...
@quanta-studios we tell the story, you decide what the... experience you just had). Thanks, we try our best to get our art and music playable.
@blue-pin-studio wait whaat? Which language are we using here, like, now?
**Controls**: space - move up, arrows - turn, click - wherever clickable. *After tired of looking at the tad kid swing and listening to the tune* **Start with Space, then click** on the Kid, then Play through the Maze. Can't move down when in the maze, for you can only strive through the tides, not turn them backwards.
@teun-de-vries hope, the music in the maze and in the end were noticed also). The experience you play is the experience you choose to live through, so, the clue is up to you.
@jamesw you aimed to touch the sun, it ran, you followed to grab the sunshine, get the sun on your side. This is if put simple. But there's more to it. Thanks for playing and appreciating our art!
@smdaniels crazy but good, that defines it, thank you). Though, I played a baby with a scalpel here the day before, that was crazy for real.
@johnsensei Kid/Sun. Cursor changes, when clickable.
@kypello Thanks. The clue is inside you).
@thaprofesional many times in life we've no idea, that's ok. Thanks for playing!
@durkagames More sound work, normalized, less loud, better transitions, seamless if needed - aye, adding to the 2do list essentials, thanks! Love that our game made you think of flowers, especially. Such a peaceful vision...
@marcodeevil not smooth enough, I get it, will be working on that, thanks. We have some interesting thoughts on the maze levels now... Strange circle is the black sun (eclipse, eaten by a moth...). Shows when clickable. In this kind of narrative it would be a crime to tell what the story is. Some even saw a coitus in there, why the heck not. Thanks!
@indigoninja I vaguely described the connection in the 1st devlog. We wouldn't release this little game like this, if it had no sense as the whole story. Deliverance and transformation are the key words here. Thanks for playing!
At first I thought that some assets were missing. Still managed to figure out how to solve some of the level though.
Good one
I guess you were trying to tell a big or emotional story, but when you decide to let the story be the main focus, you'll need to be sure that the gameplay is simple to understand.
Now you just press a few buttons in order to let something happen.
The gameplay is simple, but I did like the invisible maze mechanics-wise. The whole experience is definitely unique - a piece of interactive art. Thank you for this :smiley_cat:
Overall a really cool game, what I managed to experience was good, just wish it was a bit more polished.
I had two hands on the keyboard (arrow and space bar) and there I was supposed to use the mouse too. It was not comfortable and I did not even know if the mouse was doing something or not. I am confused
But graphics and audio are great.
@blazerdom it's over, if you feel it's over. I really wasn't expecting the symbolism of this game to come out that complicated... but that's the fruit to chew through, analyze, etc. Thanks for playing anyway!
@skel3ton wait why? The description of the game doesn't tell you to prepare extra hand and erratically click wherever capable, rather tells in a kinda specific way the clickable areas (sun/kid) which only appear on the story screens. We wouldn't really make such terrible controls, although it seems, we did, at least when we deciced to narrate them, not just tell straightforward, what to do. Anyway, at least you managed to like something we did, thanks!
@pegasys so, the blank grid... with Space you move through Tides. Tides make you move backwards (it's actually falling there) in the maze. If the grid is blank, use space to get back and continue. First you encounter the abyss (mini-game), then you can avoid it later. The black screen with white is final. Same as the first one, you can listen to the music, click, when tired and decided, that's enough with this haiku game. We mindfully connected all the parts, this game is as it should be, however, we're thinking of developing a mobile maze-like game based on the overall idea of this one, and we're listening to all the players to get more approachable.
@ominusgalaxy44 funny thing, we tried to be as simple as we could, but it seems, even if we don't use deep text narrative it still comes out as a complicated trial. Thanks for playing!
@barce mildly esoterical with this one... But we set the mood, hooray!
@the-martijn we could make a quite basic narrative story with the visuals of the story screens (ones with the kid and sun in this one), but that was not our goal. Working as narrative designer in gamedev, I try to think of different ways of telling the story without text, using level design, mechanics, even the controls, to get the overall mood and the flow of the story. We designed this game the way it is thoughtfully. We may change or add something, if we're to develop it into a mobile game, but the idea here is not the big story of our own, but the even bigger story of whatever you get while playing. A little while ago we released a 30-min narrative story with similar art style [(check, if interested)](https://ardskape.itch.io/7deeps), so we really didn't want to repeat ourselves. Sunshine Trial is actually a test of our skills, before we venture into the professional development.
@vantos3001 thank you!
@frozenfire92 light objects hint the way. Anyway, thanks for playing! We're developing more games (and big ones) right now;).
@hotaloca this time we wanted to present a transforming narrative, for the game would carry a different idea (and a different LD theme maybe) if we'd worked only with the kind of swing art. We had the maze in mind, but not just any maze, so we used the thing of kiiking, which we discovered while developing the story of our previous game (7 Deeps on itch.io). You know, I never thought of these walls as invisible, for I made the labyrinth quite visible the first time, then it changed to fit the narrative. If I realized that these walls would feel invisible to players, I'd think of a way to tell it's not exactly like this. But it seems, there's still to learn to switch from narrative design to game design faster). I think you have a good point on controls, however - trying to think fast at the face of the deadline - I found no better solution than to use mouse clicks in the kid/swing/sun scenes, bearing in mind the desire to let players get as much image and music, as they wish, until the game transitions into mazes. Thanks for playing our game!
@praccen finally, the mazes, thank you! Alas, we had no time to add more challenges to mazes, but it seems that they were challenging enough. We have some interesting puzzle mechs in mind, which might use if we develop something maze-like further. Thanks for having these minutes with us!
@vidarn this kind of movement is based on the idea of tides, which flow through the maze. At first there was a threat that you had to pass down by balancing, which reminded of the way you swing (on the swings), but we caught a bug. I'd definitely give that Spacebar more showtime... well, time we lacked. Still, there's a haiku). Thank you for your good words, we're getting better with this friendly attitude!