DreamLoom by lillatorp
You don't have to deliver anything today..
Lean in to an ancient art form that relaxes your mind and soothes your soul. Welcome to your new state of mind.
Weave away in this mobile-first web-game
DreamLoom, a weaving game for a meditative state of mind. Follow the patterns that the game generates for you, or create your own freely. Enjoy the colors, sounds, and textures of this ancient artform as you take a break from all today’s chores and distractions.
About the Team
@lillatorp Julia and @KlasW Klas are a sub-team duo representing Dubious Potions, a Swedish team of designers and coders that love making games and digital experiences. Together we explored the concept of a calmer gameplay, that you can play, leave and pick up at any time - without the need to compete or finish a certain goal. This game is all about relaxation and taking your time.
>>> Play here
What went well
- To work in a duo with design + code made the workflow really smooth and efficient without the need of aligning with a full team. We organized the work like a sprint and prioritized features together.
- Using Midjourney for background art speeded up the artwork process a lot
- 3D programming early took out the direction of the game and the rest of the design and art aligned to it.
- Using Three.js + Vue3 for game development.
What went...not so smooth
- It took some time to figure out the logics between how weaving is done in reality and what shortcuts we could take in a digital setting.
- It was difficult to create a gameplay that is at the right level of difficulty.
- We could maybe have re-visited the lower part of the UI, connecting buttons to threads. It could need some more thinking. Originally we wanted to use gyro but changed our minds, making it accessible on desktop.
Ideas that fell out of scope
- A really cool looking ending of the game loop, once the final pattern is woven.
- Weaving the pattern incorrectly could give better feedback than it currently does.
- Playing with shaders and textures on the yarn/threads.
- More patterns
- An about page
| Link | https://dream-loom.com/ |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/53/dreamloom |
Ratings
| Given | 36🗳️ | 41🗨️ |
There are some genius ideas in here:
* Offsetting the rows, as alternating patterns are common, and the buttons are closer together to press
* The oh-so satisfying click with every row
* the gentle, soaring audio
Love the generated backgrounds - fits the theme perfectly, very atmospheric, great choice.
I can't imagine how you coded the vertical strands - hats off to you, I know it had to be a mind-bender.
This game nestles into its niche so well, I could see it being an every-day relaxer for those who 'click' with it.
I couldn't believe you had made this so quickly - I looked it up to be certain! Highly impressive.
Incredibly well though out, and beautifully excecated.
You should be very proud!
Don't know how to really comment and critique the gameplay, it worked fine in my opinion. The colors and music really made this feel soothing and I can imagine some people could really like to play a game of this sort after a rough or busy day to just relax. So if that's what you guys were going for, then perfectly done! Very cool entry and congrats on making this! :star2:
I struggled with figuring out how to weave initially, but once I had figure that out, the gameplay felt natural, and relaxing!
Am I a terrible person if towards the end I started to speedrun the weaving? 😂
Beautiful entry, I can see this becoming a fully released mobile app for sure.
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The presentation of finished pattern in the end of the level feels really smooth and satisfying.
Sanna making AR stuff in gravity sketch. Wasn’t submitted but looked really cool!
I don't get it. Each step takes forever because you need to click, like, 5-7 buttons to advance. Looks too ugly for how pretentious it's trying to be - the threads look like plastic pipes. I can see it working for someone - assuming you make actually good visuals - but not for me and not in this state.
In the improvements that there could be in post-jam: a button to reset all threads to 0, it would save a little time ^^
Otherwise, the rest worked very well for me!
All in all quite meditative. Well done!
I like the overall mood/atmosphere, the graphics and the music. I first tried it on my laptop(with a trackpad), but I quickly switched to my phone.
I tried some of the patterns, but found it quite tedious. Then I tried the endless mode for a bit. When I returned to the home screen and came back to the game, I had to start from the first pattern again, which prompted me to stop playing. I think I would prefer real-life weaving more. :wink: