LudumData

Project Achelois by DzejPi

[raw]
made by DzejPi for Ludum Dare 48 (COMPO)

Project Achelois was the secret government project in 1985. Its purpose was to explore the Europa and find whether it hosts any life. This is what actually happened that day.

Cover<em>LD</em>Website.png

How to play

Since I did not have enough time to implement tooltips properly, this is how you can play:

Descend level

  • Drilling - Space.

Underwater level

  • Movement - WSAD/arrows.
  • De/Activate weapons - space.
  • Switch between weapons - control/shift.
  • Fire - left mouse (weapons must be active).

The arrow at the top shows you the direction for your objective. You can shoot creatures and some of them turn hostile, but I did not really have enough time to implement their attacks properly, so you would have to really try to get destroyed by them. If you do get destroyed though, that’s game over.

Tools used

You can find the whole project here - https://github.com/dzejpi/project-achelois. If you want to play with the project, you will need these tools:

  • Game Maker (2.3.2.560 w/ runtime 2.3.2.426) for the game project.
  • Aseprite (v1.2.27) for the game assets.
  • FL Studio (Producer Edition v20.8.3) for the sound assets with these VSTs:
    • Kairatune.
    • VST Speek 3.
    • Fruity DrumSynth Live.
GitHub Repo https://github.com/dzejpi/project-achelois
HTML5 https://dzejpi.itch.io/project-achelois
Windows https://dzejpi.itch.io/project-achelois
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/project-achelois

Ratings

Overall 742th 3⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Fun 889th 2.056⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 719th 2.722⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Theme 187th 3.972⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 486th 3.389⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Audio 235th 3.528⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Mood 105th 3.889⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Given 24🗳️ 21🗨️

Feedback

Loig
26. Apr 2021 · 08:39 UTC
The atmosphere of this game is really nice, everything fits together: the graphics, the sounds, the synthetic voice. I liked it.

Maybe the submarine is a bit slow? It fits the theme, but after some time it becomes a bit annoying.
ZevsEHG
26. Apr 2021 · 08:45 UTC
Cool graphics and audio!
Douwe_Ravers
26. Apr 2021 · 08:46 UTC
I have been sailing for 10 minutes and still haven't seen any creatures. Is that normal? I already passed two objective places but could find the third (I looked like it was under the bottom of the sea.)
The1
26. Apr 2021 · 08:50 UTC
Really nice atmosphere! Especially the voice sfx was cool. Good job!
🎤 DzejPi
26. Apr 2021 · 08:54 UTC
Hey @douwe-ravers! Creatures are deeper, around 12th dialog when SAM confirms the life. But I could have definitely made it more lively. :) When it comes to the objective - there should be some crevice that should let you go deeper, even though I should have made the caves less restrictive and give more points of access.
badpaul34
26. Apr 2021 · 08:56 UTC
The submarine is soooo slow! The atmoshpere is really nice though.
bw_devel
26. Apr 2021 · 09:12 UTC
Things I liked:
- great atmosphere
- love the voice synth
- good story to start
- graphics really fit the tone of the game
- story/cutscene


Improvements:
- a way to skip the intro for 2nd play-through (maybe it's there but it wasn't obvious to me)
- I had no sense of movement if a wall wasn't near
- it wasn't exactly clear what my goal was other than going to way-points (I went to 3 before giving up)
- there's nothing wrong with an ambient slow game, but there needs to be a bit more reward in the beginning to get the player to invest; I found myself wandering around a bit but really had no idea what the game was about other than following way-points
- weapon collision with the rock would give meaningful feedback to the player
- some form of sense of movement when there's no terrain on screen (bubbles/turbulence from propulsion); otherwise I had no idea if I was moving.
- perhaps I didn't make it far enough, but the spotlight should also have a purpose like finding hidden items etc.


Bugs:
- didn't notice any
🎤 DzejPi
26. Apr 2021 · 09:20 UTC
Thank you for an awesome feedback @bw-devel! I will keep it in mind for the next game/LD. And I can’t believe I forgot to add the collision of projectiles with the wall, such an obvious thing and would be just one line of code or something. No caffeinated vodka next LD. :)
nigeynige
26. Apr 2021 · 09:26 UTC
The atmosphere was excellent, and I was impressed with the polish of the cutscene and dialog system. My main issue was that the camera position didn't give you much vision of where you were going, and the submarine's spotlight didn't actually light thing up, it washed them out and made it harder to see. The audio and visuals were very good, though.
Fictions
26. Apr 2021 · 09:39 UTC
I love the voice over :laughing:
LDJam user 240168
26. Apr 2021 · 09:45 UTC
A nice concept! The start was a little confusing - e.g. initially I thought I should control the ship, and then when the nuclear drill was heating it looked like nothing was going on for a while, until I noticed the color change. Maybe add some progress bar indicator for drill startup, so that it's blindly obvious that stuff is happening?
I too was exploring for about 10 minutes and didn't find anything, the last objective was deep down & I couldn't make it there (maybe I just failed to find a passage?). Overall I'd say the game could be a little more dynamic. Anyways, good job!
axelrinaldo
26. Apr 2021 · 18:01 UTC
I made it to the end! I liked the voice and dialogue. I do think that the pacing would be a bit better if the enemies were present higher up in the level though. I also think you see things worse when you shine a spotlight on them? :P
rhoff95
26. Apr 2021 · 20:23 UTC
I like the mood/tone, but gameplay starts off way too slow and then I could not see anything when underwater. I would like to get straight into the gameplay and be able to see more. Would like to see what else you can do here!
EOShadows
01. May 2021 · 06:31 UTC
Good game! I liked the graphics and music, they were well done. The game could have had a bit more to entertain though as you go around finding the objectives. It's nice listening to the music, but eventually I'm just watching a screen where the only moving thing is the objective sign - as it gradually shows signs of getting closer to the objective. Perhaps you could have done something to provide an incentive to keep exploring - like more frequent indication that you are making progress, like the bubbles but bigger and more abundant, or more messages as you are traveling rather than just when you encounter the objectives. I was also wondering - how much does it take to kill the enemies, if you can? I sprayed bullets at some but they didn't seem to react at all. Anyways I still thought this was a good game, and I like how you were basing it off of an exploration on Europa. Really neat way to implement the theme! Overall, well done. I hope my feedback helps!
kfischer-okarin
01. May 2021 · 13:02 UTC
Interesting atmospheric setting. The gameplay was a bit too uneventful and unfortunately I somehow got stuck in the ground. Are the weapons actually able to defeat the enemies.

I really liked the robot voice-over :)
michaelyount
01. May 2021 · 13:04 UTC
The robotic voice was creepy, but fit very well. I love the art style and overall mood. Thanks for your work.
luthwyhn
01. May 2021 · 13:06 UTC
Fun game, I liked Sam's commentary. As others have mentioned, it was too dark and hard to tell if you were moving. I enjoyed the ending, and the fact that I could beat it without having to shoot anybody.
Rolle
01. May 2021 · 13:27 UTC
Really nice atmosphere and the feel of underwater! I liked the suspense of not knowing what was about the happen with that exciting music playing along...

...but unfortunately not much did happen, for me. After about objective 6-7 and about 10 minutes I gave up. Didn't get to fire any weapons or seeing any "enemies" only diving in the dark chasing objectives that didn't actually provide much.

I really liked the game though but it could need some more pace or some more actual action (like maybe you need to dig for some samples or something at each objective).

Well made in this short time and cool sounds!
Emiliabea
01. May 2021 · 23:34 UTC
I really wish everything was faster. I found like 4-5 targets but moved around for a long time and was kind of just hoping for something more to happen
LeviDSmith
02. May 2021 · 00:27 UTC
This game was weird but in a cool way. Takes a little while for things to get started. It took me a little while to figure out that the white thing at the top of the screen was an arrow telling me which way to go.