Yawning Fathoms by primitive-concept

[raw]
made by primitive-concept for Ludum Dare 48 (JAM)

You're a former employee of a massive Bioinformatics corporation, stuck inside their headquarters after a global disaster. And now you want to leave, but the only way out is through a series of underground tunnels.

Basically an Oregon Trail clone, but traveling deeper and deeper underground.

Instead of a wagon and oxen, however, you need to maintain your light source.

Instead of hunting, you scavenge (which is more fruitful the more people are still alive in your party).

There is no weather, so you don't need to worry about keeping extra sets of clothing, but... instead of river crossing, you sometimes have to make your way past crowds. Extra sneakers (or ammunition) can help you get by these easier.

General tips: - Talk to people every chance you get. Multiple times. Especially at the start, as that's where you'll learn about various game mechanics. - If you've played Oregon Trail before: Bulbs = Oxen, Fuses/Light Arrays/Batteries = Spare Wagon Parts. Bare minimum, you need at least 1 bulb to be able to travel. - Sneakers help you sneak past fights. Having fewer sneakers than you have party members imposes a penalty, however. - Ammunition helps you fight your way through crowds. You don't necessarily need ammo to get through, but it does reduce the amount of damage you'll take. - Failing to sneak forces you to fight, and the fight will be twice as hard. - Trying to sneak past crowds larger than 100 people is basically suicide. If you have food to spare, try waiting a few times to see if the crowd size reduces. Or just fight them if you have a lot of ammo.

Starting Jobs: - Senior Vice-President: Easy mode, but calls a lot of meetings. - R&D Lab Technician: A more traditional Oregon Trail experience. Can grow food. - QA Tester: Useful, but often undervalued. Great at breaking things. Reality in particular.


KNOWN ISSUES: - "Fathoms" in title, but we're not traveling under water. (By Design - Will Not Fix)


BUG FIXES: - 04/30/2021: "Encounters" removed from the "talk to people" mechanic, as it was resulting in null ref exceptions. Moved to take place during travel, instead, with the other random encounters. - 04/30/2021: Reaching the end either resulted in soft locks, or the game restarting before final game text. Fixed. - 04/30/2021: Fixed item check for one of the end-game locations. - 04/30/2021: Fixed encounter weights that resulted in numerous entries never proc'ing. - 05/01/2021: Removed null entry in Ant Colony "other gossip" field causing soft lock.


Ratings

Overall 527th 3.75⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Fun 504th 3.625⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 638th 3.45⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Theme 337th 4.05⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Humor 126th 3.95⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Mood 663th 3.675⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Given 42🗳️ 8🗨️

Feedback

Tarcisiotm
28. Apr 2021 · 15:40 UTC
Now this was a nice surprise! Really clever approach to text adventures. I appreciate how different/experimental this entry was. With a bit more polishing, fix some of the null references in some of the scenes, this could definitely be published.

As for some more practical feedback:
- I played for a LOT of days until game over, and I didn't understand most of the items / economy of the game
- Does the initial choice change anything?
- Some null refs on dialogues
- "Press ESC to continue" might be a bit counter-intuitive

Good job on making this solid entry!
Studio Gomp
02. May 2021 · 02:44 UTC
This is really cool, but I tried to talk to people at the Ant Colony and it seemed to soft-lock me :(. Also, the only supply I ever seemed to use was food. What's the point of the other things?
James Macgill
02. May 2021 · 03:31 UTC
I only bought the one megaluma bulb.. triped and broke it on the first step! I'll try again now that I have a better idea of what to buy up front.
matthewi
03. May 2021 · 02:32 UTC
This game was super fun! A bit difficult but there was really really funny dialogue.
Lisichka
05. May 2021 · 08:55 UTC
It was fun, especially the guy who comes to us (I don't envy him with that name)
Nick Howard
10. May 2021 · 13:02 UTC
I really enjoyed this! I've always enjoyed text based adventures and this was super nice. Like others have said, I feel like some of the other items really needed some more purpose, but overall was enjoyable!
Francesco
16. May 2021 · 07:17 UTC
Nice idea, I'd like to see more entries that are "terminal based" ! I found the event windows were disappearing quite fast, it was sometimes hard to get everything. I did not make it to the end though, the gameplay got a bit repetitive for me (not sure what some items are about). So I suggest working on that, for example a soundtrack could make the experience more immersive.
NuclearChair
18. May 2021 · 03:35 UTC
peperony and chease
LDJam user 238528
18. May 2021 · 03:59 UTC
died because i didnt have drip :pensive:

Good game tho. Simple, but dialog was great. Had a fun time with it, and hey - text-based adventures still work.