The Depths of Despair by Michael Feldman

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

Play the part of an adventurous sailor cast ashore a mysterious island. Find your way through puzzles, adventure, and maybe treasure* *Definition of treasure is not limited to tangeable treasure and may include a more metaphorical context

Screenshots: island.png

puzzle.png

stairs.png

attack.png

Controls: move - wasd / left stick look - mouse / right stick action - left click / right trigger

Tool stack: tools.png All sound done in FL studio, modeling in Blender, Textures in paint.net, hand rig in makehuman

Ratings

Overall 173th 3.8⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Fun 277th 3.6⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 524th 3.08⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Theme 624th 3.3⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 37th 4.32⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Audio 77th 3.92⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Humor 593th 1.947⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Mood 149th 3.78⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Given 11🗳️ 6🗨️

Feedback

Scienitive
26. Apr 2021 · 15:11 UTC
Unique visual style, great music and sound effects, very atmospheric. My favorite game so far.
Pseudohausen
26. Apr 2021 · 17:37 UTC
That was really awesome! Great work. The only thing that I wish the game had was a jump on Spacebar instead of it being another input for shooting. But that's nitpicking. Great work.
John Gabriel
26. Apr 2021 · 17:55 UTC
The cell-shaded style and adaptive music were nice touches, but the theme felt a bit under-used; there's no sense of "going deeper" in the game mechanics, only in the map design. And that first puzzle had me scratching my head a little.
deepinthewoods
27. Apr 2021 · 02:58 UTC
Nice sound/general vibe. Loved it!
Hadi Jiwani
27. Apr 2021 · 06:33 UTC
great work acording for compo
TheGreenWorm
27. Apr 2021 · 08:28 UTC
Just killed the boss, here are my thoughts:
The overall atmosphere/sound design is great !
The cell shading looks great, but it often glitches, and makes ennemies hard too see when in pitch darkness
The first puzzle is quite cryptic, I kept shooting at the signs instead of the "braseros" above. Not that intuitive of a target.
Lacks a bit of an ending, it was quite abrupt.
Overall, I still enjoyed it, simple but efficient experience!
xmatos
27. Apr 2021 · 08:34 UTC
Almost quitted on the first puzzle.
The environment looks great, as does the shooting animation. Incredible that you made a whole (small) game from start to finish including a boss fight.
Good job and good luck!
LDJam user 127637
28. Apr 2021 · 13:12 UTC
Really great ambience, and nice graphics! Good work on the self shading. Puzzle was fun to discover, and some situations were well designed and put together!
Just one thing, after killing the boss I got automatically kicked out of the game. Overall really nice entry!
jitspoe
29. Apr 2021 · 08:06 UTC
Interesting style that reminds me of some retro 16-color art, but in 3D. Didn't really fit the theme. Props for adding a menu to adjust the mouse sensitivity and sound volume!
mahalis
01. May 2021 · 02:32 UTC
This is really impressive! The visual style is striking—I haven’t seen good cel-shading like this in a while—and I enjoyed unexpectedly getting fire hands. I fought a large ghost that I assumed I was only able to damage by getting underneath it; eventually I got a fade-to-black and the game exited, which… might have meant I won? Either way, I had fun. Music’s good—it’s pretty rare to see an LD game, let alone a compo one, that has different music for being in and out of combat. Well done.
bentglasstube
02. May 2021 · 06:39 UTC
Like others I was a big fan of the art style and the sound design. My biggest complaint was that it was over before I was ready for it to end. Great work.
Noteworthy
04. May 2021 · 06:35 UTC
Lovely looking game, I love the simple art and use of triangles, the lighting as well is quite nice.
Cool puzzles, not too difficult, the combat was effective, and the boss fight at the end was pretty cool.
Had a good time with this one, great job!
Frogman
16. May 2021 · 16:19 UTC
Amazing game! I loved the visuals, and the fireballs were incredibly fun to use! The game had a pretty huge amount of content, and I enjoyed every section. The glitchy lighting was a bit weird, but as someone who tried to incorporate cell-shading in Unity too, I know how annoying it is to set up properly. If I remember correctly, setting all environment objects to static and/or modifying the LightingData somehow fixed it. Other than that, incredible entry!
macaroni.dev
18. May 2021 · 06:47 UTC
A great feeling FPS. Loved the cel-shading & minimalist abstractions used for the effects - A

I think the sound effects/music were really charming and emphasized the feel of the overall game.
-M
txanevk
18. May 2021 · 19:19 UTC
Good graphics, nice music, a puzzle and a boss fight. Can i ask for more? Good Job!
niterich
18. May 2021 · 19:22 UTC
I really love the production values on this game! The cel shading, the animations on the character's hands, the particle effects, the adaptive soundtrack, everything came together to make a very impressive looking game.

Gameplay-wise, I thought it was okay. I enjoyed the variety, but nothing about it really stood out to me. The combat was decent, the puzzles were decent, the exploration was decent. But they were just decent, not extraordinary. Also, the first puzzle ended up being the hardest because I didn't know I could light the chandeliers.
Ghuyajil
18. May 2021 · 19:39 UTC
Great stuff! I hope you get that one more rating that you need! Loved the vibe, the music and the shader.
Villanelle
18. May 2021 · 19:42 UTC
The thing I enjoyed the most in this game was the lighting work. Really well done, consistent art style. There are one thing I'd suggest: to put some visual indicator of the side you're getting hit. And that's about it. Congratulations on your game, very good!