Deeper and Deeper in the Woods by Mizatorian
Help Luna find the castle deep in the woods by following the clues as she goes deeper and deeper into the woods. Listen to the clues!
Game was made in 72 hours, including assets.
- Game Engine: Godot
- Graphics: Created using PhotoFiltre & Photoshop
- Music: Wolfram Tunes for the base, and edited in Cakewalk
Sound FX: sfxr & my voice
Fonts: From fontlibrary.org (with Open SIL license)
Programming: Mizatorian
- Graphics by byeoljari98 (not registered on this site, see https://byeoljari98.wixsite.com/tanasia)
Bug Fixes: - V1 - Original submission to LD48 Jam - V1.1 - Fixed bug that people couldn't hear the audio cues when passing the gates. (made the player slower and adjusted collision area) - * HTML5 version is v1.1
Ratings
| Overall | 1873th | 2.5⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 1900th | 2.131⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 1798th | 2.381⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 1629th | 2.929⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 1685th | 2.631⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 1123th | 2.81⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 723th | 2.913⭐ | 42🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 1719th | 2.575⭐ | 42🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 46🗳️ | 67🗨️ |
Really cool, that you have made all the assets. Maybe game was a bit short, but it is a game nevertheless :)
I think it's definitely a nice start, yeah! The game seems to end rather quickly, but it's an accomplishment alone to get all of this done.
The concept is very endearing. I like the nice intro and outro the game has and the music is great too!
I think to take this game to the next level, there are two or three low hanging fruits you could add in:
1. A slightly longer game play loop (right now, it felt a tad jarring it was over in just one or two turns)
2. Right now, the game is simply two coin-flips and you win or lose. The mechanic for moving around the map is there- it has the opportunity to be developed more. What if there were things that made choosing between the left or the right more challenging and engaging? For example, a key you have to get to open a gate, or a pit that you can't fall into. These things would increase the engagement a lot
3. Juice! Giving moving some partical effects, or adding sounds for walking, or screenshake if you choose the wrong one. Something to enhance player feedback a little more for doing something - this goes a really long way for game development.
Really nice job :)
@britt-henderson Thanks for your feedback. Those were all things I wanted to do, but ran out of time. We had already designed the key assets and the flower was supposed to be interactable, but alas, not enough time.
1) My second game with Godot and I was a bit more ambitious. However my knowledge of the engine really let me down. I had to google a lot of things and mish-mash stuff together to work
2) The debugging was a nightmare. Not knowing why things weren't working was bad, plus I had weird glitches that I couldn't explain.
3) Sound as a game mechanic was suggested by my designer, The fallback was to show a correct/incorrect equation, which would have been a bit more lame
4) Game is super short due to all the debugging headaches, Originally intended for 5 levels, with keys to unlock the gate and flowers to collect for grandma.
I love the art in this one. That wolf is terrifying. Great jam, I hope you guys had as much fun making it as I did playing it.
@tetrapteryx Yeah, I will probably update this to include more stuff, suggestions from fellow LDers and my own wishlist
@andrewkennedy Oh, I'm not sure what happened there. Its supposed to slow down when you get near a gate and then play the sound. I find the sound in the Web version to be a bit choppy. The exe works better.
Best part of the game was when I heard the sound effects and went "That is that person's voice!" Hah.
Once you figure out you needed to wait at the gate to hear the sound effect the game became trivial, maybe think of some way to add some more difficulty.
Nice work!
If you took too long to pick flowers, the wolf might come to grans castle and eat her. So there's some balancing going on that I'd have to consider while playing.
Other than that tho, a lovely little project. The music is great :D
@jonathan-turner Yes, it needs more obstacles and a puzzle mechanic. Didnt have time to do it due to debugging the game. Maybe later
@pat-cleaver Good idea, i need more gates and in different positions too
@eryn Sorry, ran out of time, so have to make do with 4 levels for now. I plan on adding more levels and mechanics
@boxedmeatrevolution Thanks, I had fun making the game and the sfx
@samazki You go deeper and deeper into the forest? Was all i could think of (that i could possible make in a weekend) that wasn't a driller or a diver.
@damagefilter Thanks for the ideas, yes, there are a lot of ways to take this forward, and i do plan on completing this game a bit more (maybe 15 levels or so)
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1006003249
Congrats on finishing and submitting!
I've played your game here (as you asked). :)
I will make the full analysis soon.
https://youtu.be/lciF4F6MkJw
1 - Mechanics, Learning and Flow:
The mechanics is based on choosing between two exits, one that leads to the next stage and another that leads to the belly of the big bad wolf.
The audible hint on each exit gives you the right exit, so I suppose some element could be added to limit the character (such as possible enemies or time to complete). Currently the biggest challenge is to understand that the soundtrack exists (and to be able to hold on in relation to going too fast).
Another way to elevate the experience could be to give clues on the right path to follow with greater intensity, in such a way that, allied with the addition of other elements, the player's attention can be slightly divided between seeing clues and moving forward quickly, safe and tactical.
Learning how to play is simple, the controls are basic and just require some attention and a little patience.
The game flow is currently compromised because there is no real challenge (once the sound mechanics are understood).
2 - Graphics, Audio and Narrative:
The graphics are simple and clear (serving the purpose of showing the concept of the game).
The audio work was very interesting (despite what I mentioned earlier); this mechanic has the potential to be better explored in future projects (inclusive).
The narrative is simple and it is an excerpt from the story already known (I missed some change, not because it was necessary, but because I would like some kind of re-reading or humor derived from this type of thing).
3 - Culture:
The game is related to the story of "Little Red Riding Hood", which made me think of making new reinterpretations with other similar tales, exploring more narratives, each with the use of interesting (mechanical) elements.
4 - Monetization:
I suppose a franchise could be created, each game in the franchise could address several (perhaps a fixed number, for example 7, 10, 12 or 14) games from a particular country. In addition, polishing and improving the challenge could be interesting.
With a "multicultural" game at the franchise level and quite different at the level of each game, I believe it could be made available as a cultural piece (perhaps closing an agreement with an institution focused on the cultural strengthening of each country or region).
Thanks @jonrei, I had fun making the sfx
Game presentation I thought was fine and consistent. Controls were pretty good. I liked the nice touch of very slowly going through each gate, both allowing the player to hear the full sound effect, and making the choice a commitment. I just thought the "clue" to the right path was...really obvious. To a point where playing the game was really trivial.
It may also just be me, but I wonder how many people got "stuck" thinking the locked gates were impassable. While having gates are fine, it might have been a good idea to remove the lock visuals, or else it creates a seemingly impassable graphic.
I assume the game's small scope is due to the lack of time (which I'm guilty of as well), so it's quite understandable the game is a bit bare-bones right now. I personally would like to see more unique methods of trying to distinguish the right path for the game in the near future, to flesh out the game a bit more.