Avalanche by JulienLussiez
The game
You are the only survivor of an avalanche. Use your detector and listen to the signals to find the 12 members of your crew.
Instructions
Use "arrow keys" to move. Use your headphones to listen to signals and find members of your crew.
Use "Spacebar" to jump.
Post-Mortem
For the first time since a while, I had an idea in the first hours of the jam. It changed everything because I had the time to add more assets and polish the whole entry. The last jam I did, the game needed the player to hold his breath, now the player needs to use his ears. I think I like immersion. I used Godot, I didn't manage to use the engine efficiently, I tried to create a tiny world but I put all the assets by hand with rotation, it took so much time. I also struggled with the camera, I tried many camera positions, rotations, multiple cameras but eventualy, just a fixed camera was enough. At first members of the crew were a bit visible under the snow but after some playtesting, it cleary shows that it was not as fun as using only ears to listen to the signals and find the bodies. It's always suprises me how gameplay can improve with just some little tweaks.
Things I would like to improve
After reading all the comments, I would like to improve the controls. I went for a retro control system and it seemed better at the time because it was always aligned with the isometric world but I can understand why it's weird. I experimented with 8-direction movement, it doesn't add to the game but maybe it's a little less weird.
I also would like to add more stuff to see and listen into the world, more mysteries, secrets or curiosities and a bit of narration about life and death or absurd humoristic things to make exploring more entertaining. It was clearly the vision I had but I didn't have time. I want to keep the contemplative vibe of the game and I think it's cool sometimes to play something slow, but it can be slow without being boring and that's the aim, that's why adding life to the world and narration could improve it.
Also, it needs a lot of polish on the controls, the audio, the animation and everything.
Thank you all for your feedback!
I hope you'll enjoy this little game!
| HTML5 (Web) | https://julienlussiez.itch.io/avalanche |
| Source Code | (Coming) |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/avalanche |
Ratings
| Overall | 39th | 3.938⭐ | 66🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 110th | 3.492⭐ | 66🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 164th | 3.302⭐ | 65🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 25th | 4.32⭐ | 66🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 11th | 4.43⭐ | 66🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 27th | 4.031⭐ | 67🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 7th | 4.289⭐ | 66🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 28🗳️ | 41🗨️ |
I _KNEW_ someone was gonna be up here, lol!
The concept is really neat, and you executed it well. The atmosphere, graphics, and sound effects really go good together as well. An extra juice would be some flowing snow particles in the wind!
I do think one thing is that it gets a bit repetitive after a while. I'm not sure what else you could add gameplay-wise, but it does feel like its missing a bit on the progression front.
Really great job overall on this.
Anyways this was a pretty neat experience. It was a little tedious by the end when you had to scour the map for the last few guys, but I still liked it a lot. I kind of wish it made use of the climbing more. The added verticality really makes the isometric art shine. When I was just walking around the flat parts, it felt pretty barren.
The only thing is I had a bug: I walked into the mountain and could not come back, so I had to restart.
Good job!
Little secrets to discover when you're tracking back and forth to add to the gameplay would also be the cherry on top but overall I'm very glad I played and got to immerse myself in this little world for a bit.
Great entry :)
I think the pinging sound could have been "less annoying" on the ears as the games general atmosphere was otherwise so relaxed. The controls did feel like they could have worked a bit differently, but overall it was a great experience.
Now I hear beeps all the time :smile:
Nice entry! I really liked the game, the graphics, the mood! Good use of the signal theme! I had a lot of fun climbing up the highest mountain in the game and then doing the leap of faith thing :D The exploration is getting quite boring - maybe adding some secrets would add some spice to the game? Overall, I had a good time playing it! Good job!
Great game!
Nice little game, I liked the animals around the map, especially the two wolfs!
The only con - no source code =(
Very well polished game :clap:
It didn't take long to get used to the isometric controls, and I thought they worked just fine (I played it on a controller d-pad). The four-directional movement forces you to move across the map in horizontal and vertical lines, which could be a good or bad thing depending on the game. But I think it was a positive thing here; you have to be more methodical about the search, and it slowed me down in a way that made the world feel just a bit larger than it would have otherwise.
Figuring out you could climb up the mountain was a cool moment. The stereo audio was telling me I had to go right (even though there was obviously a wall blocking my way), so I just held right and I started climbing.
I like all the little touches, like the snow telling you where you've already explored, or the animal sounds muffling how well you can hear your detector. I went up real close to the wolves to hear them howl, felt like I got to join their pack for a moment. I wonder if the snow tracks were a too low contrast though; I only saw them if I was looking specifically for them, and someone with a worse monitor (or in bright light) might not be able to see them at all.
The coolest moment was the very last guy I found at the really tall pillar. Losing sight of the ground, with the wind bellowing, and nothing to see but me, the wall, and the sky. You lose any sense of scale or direction, and it gives the feeling like there's this infinite expanse between you and the ground below.
All that to say, I thought the game was awesome, and thanks for making it!
The world is huge and the art style is cool; even the trees somehow reminded me of when I used to play with Lego :D
The atmosphere is very fitting.
The lonely atmosphere really makes every sign of life feel exciting to find!
Exploring was fun, although trying to find the last person got a little trying because I had no idea where to go, feeling like I had checked everywhere already.
8-direction movement would have definitely made the character control a bit less weird.
Also, I didn't find it lonely at all...at least, not in an undeserved way. Like I said, super moody, super delightful.
(i finished the game but I upload this screenshot because I prefer it.)
I wish the spatial audio was a little more obvious - only found 2, as I wasn't sure what I was listening for - but I really enjoyed just exploring!
Can't believe you managed to add ambient wildlife in a compo game!
I love the controls! Jams are exactly the place you want to try tweaked little control schemes. I found it very charming!
Great work!
The rabbit was a nice touch, I diverted myself a bit by chasing him right when I hit a lull. The graphics and the space and the free-flowing movement left me feeling fine about the simplicity of the challenge. The trails I left behind started as a nice visual element but became a very useful search aid toward the end.
How did you create such true-to-life sound effects? They are very nice. The wind blowing, the sheep, the howl of the wolf. I've tinkered with lots of ways of creating sfx but I wouldn't know where to begin with making sounds like that. Did you synthesize them somehow?
Anyway, very nice entry! I enjoyed.
Oh - don't really care and won't change my rating, but I do think a compo entry should have code included.
It has a lot of great moments that look good in screenshots
Good atmosphere. I suppose a game about avalanches could've gone in a more dire direction too, but not having to stress out is nice, and I think this works better here since the overall style is more cartoony. Must've been one heck of an avalanche, getting people up to those pillars! Good thing these people have bones of unbreakium and can leap all the way down safely.
Looks and sounds nice. I like the low framerate of the animations. It was cool hearing things besides the signal. It took me a couple of minutes before I heard any of the animals and it was very faint so I got confused, unsure whether the baas were coming from the game, and then I found the goats. I will say that a mellower sound for the signal itself would've been nice, since you have to listen to a lot of it.
Short but sweet. Felt polished and well presented. The extra ideas you mention on this page would've definitely added to it, but I liked it this way too!