LudumData

Apollo's Gift by dikkop

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

Screenshot.png

Dear son,

you may wonder why I sent you down to earth. Well, Pythia needed a holiday and you were just being boring again, so here we are.

Let me explain the gig: you are Apollo, god of the sun, prophecy and music. The people want your blessing, but to receive it, they need to play a fine tune, with their bugles. Look closely at them and listen (Right Click).

IF they play the correct tune, they may receive your blessing! Just look at the sun and do your left clicky thing and Helios will help you out. Make sure to aim it right yeah?

On the other hand, if they try to deceive you by playing the wrong tune... Well I left a thunder cloud for you to play with.

Careful though, if your judgment is wrong, their vengeful spirits will catch up with you in the form of a red rider which cannot be killed or judged (sadly)!

I left some hints at the Tower to figure out the correct tune, good luck!

Zeus

Controls: Move: WASD
Zoom/Listen: Right Click
Select/Cast: Left Click (Select from thunder cloud or sun and to cast)
Menu: Escape

Apollo_Lightning.gif

Note: Windows build has better performance and graphics than WebGL. Embedded build does not seem to work, try another link at the bottom.

WebGL https://huntedwumpus.nl/Apollo_Gift/
Itch https://dikkop.itch.io/apollos-gift
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/the-last-beat

Ratings

Overall 717th 3.091⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Fun 644th 3⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 227th 3.705⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Theme 525th 3.545⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 556th 3.477⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Humor 162th 3.625⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Mood 689th 3.091⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Given 19🗳️ 1🗨️

Feedback

GideonGriebenow
Apr 21st · 19:28 UTC
Error messages on start, and I could only move, didn't see any other impact, although there were sounds when I clicked.
ExciteMike
Apr 22nd · 00:31 UTC
![errormsg.png](///raw/8ab/8/z/722e8.png)

Seems to somewhat work, though.
🎤 dikkop
May 02nd · 05:41 UTC
Fixed a bug which prevented the game from running properly, should be good now.
Zettelkasten
May 04th · 19:12 UTC
I tried to play this but I can't seem to figure it out!
I right-clicked on the stones, and it zooms in, but I can't hear anything.
How do I know which stones are the correct ones to bless or curse? Would love to know and I'll give it another shot! The concept looks pretty fun so far!
LDJam user 430897
May 04th · 20:05 UTC
I managed to play and bless the knights by playing the music, but when I get to the halfway point of the game, it doesn't progress any further; there must be some bug preventing other horns from shining. There might also be a bug when using the cloud thunder, because I couldn't defeat the great red knight.

And there's another problem: why do I only encounter knights that can be blessed? There should be another type that I need to check to see if they are genuine or not.

There's also a bug with the mouse sensitivity; it's extremely low and I can't change it in the game.

If you have a moment to rate my game, I would appreciate it.

![Screenshot_16.png](///raw/133/96/z/73183.png)![Screenshot_13.png](///raw/133/96/z/73184.png)
Tetracold
May 04th · 20:24 UTC
it took me a sec to understand the core mechanic but once I did it was actually pretty enjoyable and I thought understanding the melodies to identify the impostor was cool, tho I wish there was some sort of escalation in difficulty as the game is pretty simple
🎤 dikkop
May 04th · 20:36 UTC
@zettelkasten Right click makes you zoom in, you have to look at the riders to actually hear their tune. The stones are just a hint for the direction they come from. First try to analyse their pattern, then figure out if they play a correct tune. Let me know if you need more hints.

@valb-soares The red knight actually means you were wrong in identifying their pattern. You cannot kill the red knight. Mouse sensitivity can be changed in the instructions menu (escape at the bottom).
🎤 dikkop
May 04th · 20:39 UTC
@tetracold Thanks for playing! In terms of difficulty, I considered multiple riders coming at you at the same time or increasing their speed, but felt like it would just make people panic instead of listening to the tunes of the riders. I'll consider uploading a version with higher difficulty.
SirRed
May 04th · 21:04 UTC
I had to change my dpi to make the game playable as the slider in game did not work. I was a bit confused by the large wall of soldiers as they did not play any music so i cursed them all. I think a visual for what music they were playing would have also been nice since sometimes it was hard to tell the difference between some of the melodies when chained together
🎤 dikkop
May 04th · 21:30 UTC
@sirred, Changing sensitivity can now be done in the intro menu, another UI element was blocking the sliders.
You can only hear their tune if you are zoomed in on them. If they spawn in large groups, try to spot the one with the bugle and Curse them (they are obviously lying because their group number exceeds 8).
Alexandr Gerya
May 04th · 23:01 UTC
took me a hot minute to realize i had to actually zoom in to hear the tunes lol once i got it calculating the melodies was super cool
zhangzhimu
May 05th · 07:50 UTC
This story and the character design are simply amazing! I enjoy conveying information through sound and music, and using this approach to express the theme is really great. It's a wonderful game.
jazzydingo
May 06th · 01:13 UTC
I definitely got jump scared when i did the first blessing, lol! took me a second to figure out how to listen and bless and stuff, cool mechanics! the escape button was a bit finnicky cause it was fighting with the fullscreen on webgl lol but i enjoyed finding the people and listening to them and trying to figure out the tune, great stuff! (i think i need more hints to how to figure out the right tune lol)
auxC
May 06th · 03:15 UTC
With a bit of trial and error I was able to figure out how to sus out the incorrect tunes. The game is pretty fun once it clicks. :-)

There is something nice about overlooking a realm from a central high point. The way the UI is embedded into the tower works well for immersion, though initially my instinct was to try and click at things in front of me, before looking up to find the interactions in the sky.

Overall I quite liked this entry. It's interesting and unusual, which feels at home in a game jam.

Also, the bless effect is hilarious, hahaha
Lenny Rudeberg
May 07th · 05:35 UTC
Very funny and it looks great too. I did beat the game but a lot of the time I was just guessing because I wasn't sure what was right or wrong melodywise (not 100% sure how I was supposed to interpret the musical notes on N,S,E,W, the equation in the middle of the platform and how that relates to what the NPC's were playing) That being said I still had fun and really loved the funny sound design too. GG!
Shernik
May 07th · 19:22 UTC
The game has a funny style, but I still didn't figure out how to play it correctly, I zoomed in on the camera and heard the melody, and still couldn't figure out how to make decisions not at random.
Laminariy
May 07th · 20:08 UTC
Funny lil game! Here is some feedback:

1) People are too small and it's hard to see them. Sometimes they hide behind the hills and you can only wait for them to get closer.
2) It would be nice to be able to hear the hint rocks themselves. Something like with the people - right-click on the rock and it plays the correct tune.
🎤 dikkop
May 07th · 20:11 UTC
The riders always play 6 patterns in sequence, a pattern consists of a low note or a high note followed by a long note (you can ignore the long notes). figure out the pattern and match with the hints on the stones on your tower. The goal is check if the pattern they play matches with the number of riders and the direction from which they come from. If they play correct patterns, you bless them, if they don't, you curse them.
gurkenlabs
May 07th · 20:46 UTC
I found it extremely hard to figure out how to judge the riders correctly. The music notes etched into the stones didn't reflect actual music notes but rather patterns across the entire bugle signal, which took me a while to figure out. And after three tries I still haven't understood what the numbers on the stone are supposed to mean.
So I guess I'm not good enough to finish this game, I can however say that I really enjoyed the environment art, the unique interaction with the world, and the way your judgements feel godlike and powerful.
RubixNoob13
May 07th · 23:22 UTC
So, I'm not very musically inclined at all. However, I had a lot of fun hitting people with lightning and watching them ragdoll.

Thanks for the laughs, it was pretty fun!
VenomousMouse
May 08th · 08:20 UTC
Very cool idea and mechanic. Needs a bit of time to learn the ropes. But in general a very solid game. Good job.