Monolith by William Corrin

You were working for the International Space Force when your rocket malfunctioned and crash landed on a remote planet.
Activate the Monolith in the distance at all costs - its the only chance you have to try and phone home to get rescued.

Beware of hostile local geological lifeforms that aren't taking kindly to your presence.

### NO AI WAS USED IN THE CREATION OF THIS GAME
Tools: - Unity - Visual Studio - Blender - paint.NET - Mixcraft 10 Pro Studio - u-he Diva Virtual Synthesizer
Made in 48 hours for the Compo. There were many features I wanted to add but didn't get to...but overall I'm pretty happy with how much I got done!
Post-Release Changelog can be found in the build on the main menu to distinguish what was added post-release.
| GitHub | https://github.com/williamdewaynecorrin/LudumDare-59.git |
| HTML5 (Itch) | https://wdc.itch.io/monlith |
| Windows (Itch) | https://wdc.itch.io/monlith |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/monolith |
Ratings
| Overall | 71th | 3.75⭐ | 38🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 59th | 3.722⭐ | 38🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 277th | 2.514⭐ | 37🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 257th | 2.7⭐ | 37🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 85th | 3.792⭐ | 38🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 42th | 3.861⭐ | 38🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 76th | 3.764⭐ | 38🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 49🗳️ | 53🗨️ |
Awesome shooter—there are really a lot of levels, and I had to go back for a spare part because I didn’t read the objectives carefully. Great job!
P.S. Your Steam game looks amazing too!
The backtracking is kind of annoying, the map is a bit big. I wanted to add objective markers to more things but didn't have enough time.
Thank you for the Steam comment as well :grin:
I actually added a sensitivity slider after your comment (but I noted it was post-release in a changelog). Thats a great point, I have super high sensitivity lol.
And yeah another great point about running around, I wanted to add some POI/Objective markers to the stone areas to inform players that is where things happen but didn't have enough time...
Thanks again!
Also good eye, FOV is on the lower end at around 65 I think. I wanted to add a slider for that as well but alas...
Good job!
The bad news - I didn't at all think through any of the answers to those questions lol
Yeah for sure, there is a lot of little issues here and there. The combat in general could use some work...I didnt get it to a great spot due to the time rush.
Thanks again!
The feeling you're getting from the Monolith in the distance is awesome though, that was one of the things i wanted to invoke in people is this massive structure kind of calling to you and driving you forward. Cool that it got through!
And @julienlussiez I was absolutely inspired by Halo lol, the huge structure was an homage to playing the original Halo for the first time and looking up and seeing the ring.
@metalgear yeah, the backtracking is a bit of a problem lol you're not the first person to have to do that - I wanted to have a better POI/Objective system but it didnt happen haha. Thanks also for leaving the feedback and playing!
Working likea charm on my ultra-wide video. I can see a lot of experience, even the 'lights' indicator from meteor to point me what super nice touch.
sadly I couldn't find last of 5 group enemies :(
congratulations!
Appreciate the feedback. Yeah, i wanted to add objective indicators to the battle zones but didnt have time...it was probably the one thats up over the hill, not the best place to put it lol. Thanks!
Character control was immediately considered. Sprinting away from rocks turned out to be a mega life hack:)
There are no empty spaces in the game, which creates a special integrity on the jam
I really wanted to have an intro scene of the ship crashing onto the planet, and a final scene of some friends at home noticing the signal or something. But i definitely wasted some time redoing the music and SFX multiple times, and slept in a bit too much the first day lol.
@tanjou I love synthwave too! I've been making synthwave music on and off for like 8 years now
@frowsyfrog lol, the spikes are _not_ communicated well. I left a heart by the first spikes in an attempt to just show the player "these things damage you" since they didn't telegraph that well at all :laughing:
@dywanix thank you! its my (6th?) compo and ive done countless games jams, and have worked in the industry for a decade now. I still never feel satisfied though, theres so much more i could have done and i think the Signal theming could have been played upon a bit more...
@avhatar lol yes destroy those geological lifeforms! I would have loved to have another gun or a grenade or just an upgrade for your current gun, but ran out of time :(
thanks all -
The player didn't control great, and the shooting took a second to get used to.
When the first battle started, I got jump scared haha, I wasn't expecting that at all.
I love that you can see your bullets left on your gun, and the tension after I realized health was super limited was palpable.
Good job!
I thought this big open area at the right was going to be some sort of Serious Sam secret large battle. But it was just there for exploring.
Great music and atmosphere.
Thanks for the feedback 😁
Appreciate the feedback and thanks for playing!
The combat arenas reminded me a bit of the evergaol's in Elden Ring. I feel like there's a lot you could do with enemy mechanics and gun customization with this. You could even fit a risk-of-rain esque roguelike experience over top, clearing monoliths to strengthen the signal home.
I'm super impressed with the level of combat polish given the time limit. So stoked to see the stuff you're working on and your skills!!
Its cool you caught on trying to separate out combat / exploring. Unfortunately there wasn't a ton to explore, I would have loved to expand on a bit of a story more but i ran out of time...I feel its lacking a lot in that department and solely relying on speculation.
Your ideas are also great - if my current Steam game fails, I guess I know what to work on next lol :wink:
Thanks dude!
@paroxysmal sorry, I didn't get that setting in :sob:
Sounds were really good, and it's impressive that you have also managed to add aiming with iron sights, reloading animation was awesome and you don't see animated ending sequences very often. However, what blew my mind the most was the fact that you created an animated 3D body model you can see when you look down; it is always a nice touch in FPS game, but I can't imagine commiting to that for compo; I wouldn't even dare to think about that, haha.
I would say enemies were relatively easy once you figure them out, but still pretty fun. I think that the gun could have some extra weight to it, and I didn't like the grass pop-in very much, but that's splitting hair. Seriously impressive job here, well done!
Lol, I actually think that ended up being a mistake, as i know its cool to see the model, but I was going to potentially do a 3rd person game first. I could have done a lot more if I hadn't spent those couple hours at the beginning doing the model...thanks for the ambition compliment though lol!
You're right about the enemies, and same with the gun and pop-in. Lots of stuff that could be better, I think my time management wasn't the best this time around...
Thanks for playing and leaving great feedback!
The dome dropping for combat was a nice touch. If I try to critique I'd say that a bit too much of the combat was backwards fleeing while a stack of rocks followed me. I felt like the controls were tight enough to create more interesting combat situations than the enemy AI provided.
I wanted to finish but it was pretty disheartening to lose in like the 4th fight and have to go back to the start, so I eventually wimped out. Sorry :*( I felt like the game deserved more from me.
But such an impressive entry all around! Well done.
Maybe one day I'll nail the time management aspect of the Compo. Probably not though.
Cheers!
When I needed a manual reload, I found it where you'd expect it. When I needed a sprint to search for the last crystal (had failed to pick one up on the way), I found it instantly. Nice!
Very juicy graphics, sound and gameplay - thank you for sharing!
You're one of the only people to comment on the heart next to the spikes. I'm glad someone noticed it :laughing:
Fall damage is not a thing, but mostly because I didn't have time to add it, I would have liked to get it in. I could have managed my time much better this LD.
Thanks for playing!