n 0 m i n a l by 0x0961h

[raw]
made by 0x0961h for Ludum Dare 59 (JAM)

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short horror game made for ludum dare #59 within 48 hours (my first attempt at anything narrative)

``` Title: [!] New Task From: taskmanager@local.net

It's been a week since a signal from a scientific base
in deep space was lost. We sent our best available
android to investigate and send our messages and report.
However those messages for some reason were corrupted. 
Probably because of the negligence of proper maintenance
of the communication hardware by the staff of the station.

Untangle the signal and report what happened.

Glory to progress!

```

game design, programming, audio design, main menu music: 0x0961h

additional sounds: Microsoft SAM TTS, ichitaraaa, nickrandomsounds, MLaudio, Fission9, DMDoom, illud, Andreas.Mustola, MATUSTRM, marlonnnnnn (freesounds.org)

how to play: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LightsOut(game)

extra knowledge:

  • alt-enter to go fullscreen
  • R during gameplay to restart

scr1.png

scr2.jpg

Ratings

Overall 302th 3.75⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Fun 438th 3.357⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 673th 2.932⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Theme 388th 3.818⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 477th 3.659⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Audio 199th 3.818⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Humor 154th 3.65⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Mood 248th 3.932⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Given 45🗳️ 20🗨️

Feedback

qwesasuke
Apr 20th · 15:13 UTC
Very cool atmosphere. Random words on the left reminded me of the terminals of zi fallout. I felt like a hacker for a while. Ambient is simply gorgeous. It turned out very cool! Bravo!
KeySole
Apr 20th · 16:45 UTC
It was fun reading "insightful" observations of the dumbest robot in existence!
LukasT
Apr 20th · 17:05 UTC
Very normal and completely sane space station. I am not too amused over the lack of discipline of the stations crew.
ugly_robot
Apr 20th · 17:09 UTC
Oh my god, I loved this one!
I don't know how I've never seen this puzzle before - it feels timeless like sliding squares or jigsaws. In fact, in some ways, it even surpasses those. Perhaps it is a known thing, and I've just missed it so far - but it was a joy to master.

Fantastic writing (which can be quite rare under a time pressure). And the theming was delectable - I'm a sucker for this cassette-future low-tech-sci-fi, and this game nailed it perfectly.
The 'paint' comment is chilling...
The vermis-style dark dithered title screen is wonderful.

If I could, I would put a box-set of this game's floppies on my bookshelf!


Anyways, I'm sure it's just 'Mr. Beans'. Glory to progress!
Fantastic work.
OnlinE_Play
Apr 20th · 21:26 UTC
Simple gameplay, but it fits the theme really well. Not gonna lie, I was pretty bad at it. Aside from that, I really liked the story.

Good job as always, that’s why I follow you. For the past couple of years, your games are always the first ones I try out.
Ulziton
Apr 20th · 23:22 UTC
Very cool one, greate take on theme
mantaraii
Apr 20th · 23:27 UTC
I totally agree with everyone praising the game’s sense of timing and atmosphere, I absolutely love this kind of minimalist text-based experience—it really lets my imagination take the lead T T... And TBH this is my first time encountering this specific machinism (though I may have seen variations or simpler versions in other games), and I think it fits the theme and overall style perfectly!
anku
Apr 21st · 06:09 UTC
Great vibe and atmosphere.
🎤 0x0961h
Apr 21st · 11:18 UTC
@qwesasuke Thank you! I had this scramble text effect in my to-do list since the last 7DRL. Sadly, I did manage to make a game to use it back then, but at least now I could utilize it to the fullest. :grin:

@keysole I know, right? They really should update its firmware. :joy:

@lukast Completely nothing wrong with that, apart from the team members who absolutely neglect any kind of rules. They should be punished for that somehow! :laughing:

@ugly-robot Oh yeah, that's quite an old game. I think I first played it when Flash was a dominant platform to make web games. THAT's how old it is. And thank you very much! I really wanted to make this kind of "don't tell, don't show" kind of horror when a lot of horror itself lays on the shoulders of a reader and their imagination.

You can give Mr. Beans headpads, you know. :rofl:

@online-play Thank you kindly for your words. It's heartwarming to know that someone follows my works. :blush:
And yeah, don't worry, I am also not very good at this game. :laughing:

@ulziton Thank you!

@mantaraii Thank you very much! Yeah, I kind of wanted to focus more on narrative this time instead of paying a lot of attention to gameplay, because usually I completely neglect everything BUT the gameplay and my jam games usually end up being very "shallow". This time I decided to flip it all other way around: gameplay is very simplistic, but I tried to pay a lot of attention to the story and to the way I present the story to the player.


@anku Thank you!
JustinMullin
Apr 21st · 23:11 UTC
Very cool. I am terrible at lights out, so probably spent more time on some of the puzzles than I would have liked, but they were small enough that I kept cruising through the game. The writing was fun and the ambience was great. I especially liked the title screen. Nice work!
Gecko64
Apr 22nd · 05:26 UTC
I love clicking on the squares randomly hoping i get it correct and then feeling like a genius when i do! The games atmosphere is great and the terminal feels SO satisfying to use and sounds super nice. A good game!
draki
Apr 22nd · 08:56 UTC
This isn't usually my favorite kind of gameplay, and yet, it's so worth it! The plot is hilarious and the audio is perfect, it made me want to dive back into an old-school Alien movie right now!
Tkap1
Apr 22nd · 13:23 UTC
My brain too small
Luka420
Apr 23rd · 17:29 UTC
I was SO bad at this game but it was worth it hahaha A very underrated entry!!
pres2300
Apr 23rd · 22:22 UTC
Haha, as some others have said, I was BAD at this! It was really well implemented and had a great ambience to it, though. Good story telling as well. Nice work!
FadingDreamStories
Apr 24th · 06:40 UTC
Interesting idea, and very nice work with all of the lore associated. It's an interesting set of events that took place, and definitely sounds like someone didn't hire a janitor to clean up after all the birthday parties and painting! At least that guy stopped snoring though.
Pavel Goncharov
Apr 25th · 11:41 UTC
I like this "terminal" - style graphics, but I didn’t quite get the main idea of decrypting the message. I just click on random rectangles and it seems to work — should it be more of a challenge or something?