Deep down the Abyss by Kyrios
Greetings Ludum Dare friends!
Welcome to « Deep down the Abyss »
Disclaimer : The file is a bit large because the animation take a lot of space but if you manage to go past that you're in for a treat !
Your goal is to destroy old gods and dive further into the abyss of the mind.
This is a turn-based game with many different actions available to you, but with your lack of experience and understanding of theses old gods, you don't really know if your actions will have any effect. Each of these actions have a different effect but they will depend on the foes you encounter. A little tip from us, the action of focusing will affect your next action. Your sanity is what keeps you alive and well, be careful about what you do. There is at the moment 2 gods you can try to defeat, but you will need to slay the first to reach the second.
We tried investing most of the work in the ambiance and feelings around a dark world, so the lack of informations is a purpose, we wanted the player to think about his actions and try to create a strategy, we also wanted to add more visible animations but the lack of time and the excitement about our ideas got the better of us. Sorry for that !
Don't be afraid to post your approach in the comments, so we will be able to balance a bit more the fights so the game is more enjoyable overall.
Edit :Since we most people feel the lack of information is a problem here is some hints for better understandings :
The orb on the UI is your Sanity, you need to preserve it.
The first one is pretty simple since the animation on the tentacle is not working and we don't want to edit it to stay fair to others.
The red actions can be done at a cost of some sanity, and the run away action will never be affected by it. (second monster only)
Sometimes the second monster will make a different sound and your next actions will have some effect.
Having too much red actions can be dangerous.
I hope your immersion will be complete as you start diving into the abyss !
Big thanks to the audio team working with us : - Loic Lachiver – Music - Ulysse Delhaye - Music - David Boulle – Sound FX
Programming : - Cyril Monty (Kyrios)
Art & Animation : - Thibaud Lacoste (Nomus) - Artstation : https://www.artstation.com/nomus
| Link | https://mrkyrios.itch.io/deep-down-the-abyss |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/deep-down-the-abyss |
Ratings
| Overall | 1589th | 3.059⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 1845th | 2.368⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 1017th | 3.129⭐ | 37🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 1445th | 3.186⭐ | 37🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 51th | 4.597⭐ | 38🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 67th | 4.25⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 270th | 4.043⭐ | 37🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 33🗳️ | 6🗨️ |
Overall great job :D
But gameplay wise - I couldn't really understand what I was doing, the UI was unclear to me, I didn't really understand what my choices did and how they mattered, the whole experience was quite confusing unfortunatly
despite wanting to keep it more mysterious, i feel like at least some instruction (in the game) for players would go a long way!
I hope you can focus a bit more on the gameplay aspect in the future, but keep up the good job on the the art!
Also where is my hug the eldritch monster option. > : o
I kinda like the idea that the gameplay is a mystery where you learn how the mechanics work yourself, however I think the lack of information in some places, not all mechanics can be reasonably learned without outside help.
random suggestion: Make the focus action have a visible effect on the UI/world the next turn, ie - make the buttons glow gold or something to show that they are powered up.
All in all, this is fantastic. :)
Loved the music.
Loved your take on the theme.
Did not loved the overall gameplay.
If you want some feedback, I did not fully understand what was goin on since the monster had no healtbar and the player attacks didn't show any damage number or similar feature.
I guess you didn't manage to fit in this type of things because of the few timespan.
Overall, nice eldritch game.
Also, is the video you use not compressed?
But I agree with some comment. Zero feedback make the game frustrating.
I tried meany combination without to know if it's interesting or not...
At this end, I took random actions... and preyed that it's help defeating old god.
So my question is, how the player is supposes to find a strategy? Without informations except the visual of god and name of actions... it's hard.
Must we know the old gold lore to find a way to defeat them?
I think your concept of "lack of informations" is nice idea but it's need to be more mature.
For example, you could add a description of the monsters to give hints? Like escape game? Or add an information of the life monster?
Nevertheless, the game gives a very good feeling to play an epic scene. Good job :)