LudumData

Infrequency by Caer

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

Tune into the frequency of the earth, casting your signal to reshape mountains on your path to the beacon.

final.png

This is my third Game Jam, and my third game. For this jam, my goal was to stretch my isometric engine into a 3rd dimension--and to create every asset from the ground up. I'm excited to hear what you think of it!

Changelog

Note: These changes only apply to the post-jam web version.

0.2.1

  • Fixed a bug that caused background tiles to render on top of the player.
  • Reorganized the HUD, adding movement keybindings and version info.
  • Overhauled the isometric engine to use depth-sorted rendering, making the player properly render "behind" beacon towers.
  • Implemented occlusion culling of contour lines via PNPOLY, causing lower contours to be properly hidden "behind" higher contours.
  • Refined player collider to use an internal quantized height map, making collisions more closely map the visual contour lines, and thus much more lenient.

Made With

  • Rust
  • aer for generating color palettes.
  • A heavily modified version of my Recollect engine from Ludum Dare #58, which was built on Macroquad
Post-Jam Web Version http://www.withcaer.com/app/ld59
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/infrequency

Ratings

Overall 334th 3.696⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Fun 537th 3.227⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 21th 4.326⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Theme 102th 4.283⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 127th 4.348⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Audio 84th 4.109⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Mood 191th 4.022⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Given 16🗳️ 21🗨️

Feedback

oxnh
Apr 21st · 04:16 UTC
This game looks and sounds great, the drone sound and the sounds when you broadcast and change frequency sound great together. The music writes itself in a sense. I like the feeling of being a 2d character exploring a 3d world, but it makes for some confusing gameplay. It definitely took me a while to figure out how to reach the goal after this first level, I think I eventually figured it out because I was able to finish quite a few levels.
Rhookx
Apr 21st · 12:01 UTC
such a cool concept ! i've had some (minor) trouble figuring out the gameloop but after I got it it was a treat ! unique concept, the theme is on point with the jam and I really enjoyd the ambiance ! good job :)
🎤 Caer
Apr 21st · 14:40 UTC
Amazing early feedback--thank you @oxnh and @rhookx! I'm so glad the audio and ambience hit the mark.

I do agree the early gameplay is a little...unconstrained. I like to teach gameplay through the environment instead of through explicit tutorials, but I think this entry might've benefited from some stronger guidance in the first few levels. I have some post-jam thinking to do...
acd
Apr 22nd · 08:07 UTC
love the sound and graphics! very dreamy and beautiful!
Tymus
Apr 22nd · 08:38 UTC
looks really nice, I'm not sure if I understood precisely why I could or could not walk through certain lines.
but the vibes are great, almost makes me feel bad to have to destroy the environment to explore it
RenD
Apr 22nd · 12:11 UTC
I made it to map 6 but still don't if I'm scanning the terrain or shaping it. Figuring out the gameplay is addictive and I'll come back to it, see if I find the "solution". The mood is incredible, both the sounds and the visuals contribute to a unique and mesmerizing experience. One of the most innovative game I've seen in a while!
atmospherium
Apr 23rd · 00:03 UTC
I'm still not understanding exactly what I'm doing or how to strategize my way to success, but I honestly don't care. The terrain responds to me and I can brute force my way through. The mood hits hard. The graphics are distinct. The sounds are right on target. Great use of the theme and your engine.
🎤 Caer
Apr 23rd · 14:36 UTC
@acd @tymus @rend @atmospherium I'm so happy all of you enjoyed the vibes and the atmosphere! It was a fun challenge seeing how far I could push my 2D engine into 3D space, while building a rather literal take on the signal theme.

A common point of feedback I'm seeing is definitely around the intuitiveness/accessibility of the core game loop--I'm thinking of ways to tighten it up in the next version so that it's a bit clearer...
a333
Apr 23rd · 18:06 UTC
You know, this is a solid and pretty damn nice renderer. Things like these are great foundation for unique games. But you got to invest the same amount of work or even more into gameplay loop. You have great potential here, make sure to use it =)
Lisieshy
Apr 23rd · 18:19 UTC
Visually, it's one of the most stunning game I tried, amazingly done!

I had a bit of trouble figuring out what I was supposed to do, and I'm still unsure as to what the broadcast button actually does? Might need a bit of explanation/minimal tutorial, otherwise, pretty good!
INORO
Apr 23rd · 18:31 UTC
I really loved the concept! Nice audio feedback, nice vybe
Wouter52
Apr 23rd · 19:58 UTC
Your games are getting better and better! I like how you build on top of the games / knowlegde you gathered the last couple of jams. Last time your game felt more like an experience to me. This time it feels like a real game. Great job! :smile:
OttoBroccoli
Apr 24th · 13:48 UTC
A very cool concept. I didn’t fully understand how the terrain changes, but I still enjoyed the experience. Great job!
LDJam user 384191
Apr 24th · 20:12 UTC
I love the visuals and sound effects! I managed to get through the first couple of levels, but I got stuck on map 4. I couldn't really wrap my head around the mechanics, so I feel like a bit more feedback would help make things clearer. Nice entry!
Shiiro 10psi
Apr 25th · 23:34 UTC
Great graphics and audio. Made it to map 14 having no idea what I was doing.
frozenfire92
Apr 25th · 23:58 UTC
The graphics were really cool, and I loved the tones as you shifted the frequency! The gameplay itself of raising/lowering the mountains was cool in concept, but really difficult to understand how it works and ultimately led to randomly trying things until you get a bit further. I made it to map 6. Keep on making games!
Soothsayer
Apr 26th · 04:49 UTC
Loved the presentation, audio and visuals were great. Don't think I understood what I was doing, but cleared a few levels anyways.
LDJam user 280189
Apr 28th · 16:17 UTC
Finished all the maps, I have to admit like other people it felt a bit unintuitive and I ended up just changing frequency back and forth and spamming broadcast until the mountain ended up making a hole I could go through and then spamming broadcast some more would push me to the other side. What really dragged my attention to this game and kept me playing was the amazing and simple graphics and audio, truly well done!
Sarah
May 08th · 14:53 UTC
This is super cool, I like the visuals and sounds of it! I wish there was a bit more direction on how the mechanics affected the world but overall really well done!
🎤 Caer
May 16th · 21:30 UTC
I'm so glad you all enjoyed the visuals and audio so much--I always try my hardest to turn my titles into interactive art.

@wouter52 : It means so much to have other devs following along on my baby gamedev journey. :sob: I'll do my best to keep improving!

@a333 @lisieshy @ottobroccoli @ghettobastler @shiiro-10psi @frozenfire92 @soothsayer @kazuren @Sarah : Thank you all for the fantastic critical feedback. I think this title may have had my most confusing gameplay mechanic yet. We'll see if I can learn from this experience and create more intuitive gameplay for Ludum Dare #60 later this year. :see_no_evil:

While I often get distracted from making (m)any post-jam improvements, I started writing some of the possibilities up in my just-published behind-the-scenes article: https://www.withcaer.com/logs/infrequency/

Thank you all again for playing! :heart: