LudumData

Lapis Vitae (Point&Click Adventure) by MelekTaus

[raw]
made by MelekTaus for Ludum Dare 49 (JAM)

Point and Click through a dungeon, "help" NPCs, so you can "borrow" their stuff. Find your way out of an unstable cave, which is about to collapse.

PLEASE tell us in your comment if you made it to the end. (and your playtime if possible)

The game was made by Erik, John and Sepp.

Erik: Level Layout, Level Design, Lightning, story design, dialogue writing

John: Code (puzzles, UI, player, AI, dialogue), puzzle design, story design, dialogue writing

Sepp: VFX, SFX, Particles, Item Setup, additional Code, UX/UI Design, Game-Feel Design

All Code written from scratch (except minor helpers like the [ReadOnly] Attribute from our Toolbox).

About Audio and Graphics: We didn't made the assets ourselves but we spent a lot of time on composition, lightning and so on.

This game was a real challenge, we had to sacrifice quite a bit of sleep to get it done in time. Fun Fact: the whole dialogue system was written 3h before the deadline xD

Controls: - Left Mouse: Move, Interact, Talk, Pick, Advance Dialogue - WASD/ArrowKeys: Move - Right Mouse: Inspect, Deselect Item - ESC: Skip Dialogue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0Gys6qYN7w

Link https://leorid.itch.io/lapis-vitae
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/49/lapis-vitae

Ratings

Overall 508th 3.698⭐ 60🧑‍⚖️
Fun 860th 3.325⭐ 59🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 1226th 2.825⭐ 59🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1256th 2.921⭐ 59🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 295th 4.125⭐ 14🧑‍⚖️
Humor 489th 3.352⭐ 56🧑‍⚖️
Mood 286th 3.853⭐ 60🧑‍⚖️
Given 104🗳️ 81🗨️

Feedback

Danyclockworker
04. Oct 2021 · 23:23 UTC
Nice graphic!
Krozertrak
05. Oct 2021 · 00:07 UTC
Vibe Diablo/Path of exile i love it !
peterfiftyfour
05. Oct 2021 · 11:23 UTC
Very impressive amount of work here! Even though you didn't make all the assets the levels were nicely put together. I love how we were basically evil and got people killed/stole shit/poisoned a guy haha. The cursor having the two things for left and right click was kinda confusing - since it appears on the left or right it feels like you are not clicking on it fully. I have been thinking of a good way to do this for a while but haven't been able to solve it :( You could have 3 cursors, one for look only, one for interact only and one for both? But yeah it's a bit tricky. Oh I didn't take note of my play time but I guess it was like 10-15 mins?
BJakubowski
05. Oct 2021 · 11:41 UTC
I like this game very much. It's overall fun to play and very pretty. I see some great work here!
LDJam user 269161
05. Oct 2021 · 12:20 UTC
Very good submission for the game jam! well done!
Lucy Lu
05. Oct 2021 · 16:19 UTC
I love the lightning and the mood created. Good playing experience ♥
madjackmcmad
05. Oct 2021 · 16:43 UTC
Great series of puzzles, logical and sensible throughout. Don't want to spoil anything but I certainly have FEELINGS about some of what transpired :D great job.
Becky Rayner
05. Oct 2021 · 18:56 UTC
Amazing! Love the use of visuals and the mood lighting gives it a very atmospheric feel! Very well put together
Nebrazif
06. Oct 2021 · 07:07 UTC
It's a pretty good entry in such a short amout of time, you did a really good job ! I want a full game release now 😄
Rengo
06. Oct 2021 · 07:46 UTC
Amazing graphics and sound!
CloudLunar
06. Oct 2021 · 08:40 UTC
I can't believe it was made in such a short time. It's a very complete puzzle game, and the graphics are great. Nice job
Lex
06. Oct 2021 · 11:47 UTC
Nice point and click game!
PartTimeIndie
06. Oct 2021 · 13:24 UTC
I had a good time with this.
leokrechmer
06. Oct 2021 · 13:35 UTC
Nice submission, even though made with assets, everything complimenting each other, nice mood.
Roelosaurus
06. Oct 2021 · 14:01 UTC
These dudes just made a mini Diablo Disco Elysium in 72hrs! 😮
(Finished it in 15min)
Préda
06. Oct 2021 · 17:17 UTC
I really like the graphics and all that, but I'm not sure what I should rate it based on you using assets, since I enjoyed the graphics and the sounds mostly. The mood and everything is really really well done, the level design as well is pretty good. I guess I'm sort of overlooking all the work that went into lighting and properly using the assets given
🎤 MelekTaus
06. Oct 2021 · 18:34 UTC
@preda Thanks for playing :v: As you realize, our focus was definitely:
- a gameplay/genre that we've never done before
- built a world that makes sense (somehow)
- writing a matching story
- push it to the limits by using random but suitable assets
- setup the lighting to create a coherent atmosphere
- "glue" them together by using custom shaders and post processing
- hoping it works in the released build XD
- and finally went to a confortable sleep after this hard but very welding-together-as-a-team-time

That is the thing I/we love about LD :heart:
Préda
06. Oct 2021 · 20:13 UTC
@melektaus No, I definitely understand that, and towards the end of my review I sort of realized that. I'm sorry if it came off the bad way. I totally understand if it was still just as much work as any other game. It's still a really well made game and everyone flows together really well
Puebebe
06. Oct 2021 · 20:54 UTC
Guys, you did really well!

When I saw it is point&click dungeon game, I expected quite boring and a bit pointless walking for one location to another, like in hack&slashes, but...
But gameplay was surprisingly involving with witty story (never used ESC to skip). Everything is deliberate and interconnected. Nice :)
I enjoyed solving puzzles.
Pleasant to look at particles and whole composition. Good job.

I played for about half an hour.

PS I made it :P

![ludumdare325.png](///raw/aa2/21/z/4791d.png)
LDJam user 233347
06. Oct 2021 · 21:34 UTC
Fun game, very nice graphics and matching mood.

Couldn't get past the shovel quiz... couldn't break the stairs / get the key
leorid
06. Oct 2021 · 21:42 UTC
@xparker Just to understand better: did you inspect the Goblin?
xsangyhix
06. Oct 2021 · 22:36 UTC
A lovely game. The story was written with good humor and made sense (for the most part). I would say that there were points (lever) where the solution was not obvious and I really could not understand why items disappear, work it into the story or leave and just check that they are 'used'.
potkirland
07. Oct 2021 · 00:09 UTC
good game nice to play through good puzzles nice models and visual :clap: :clap:
DGSpitzer
07. Oct 2021 · 01:56 UTC
Very fun game! The made of "heal" potion is hilarious lol
Shaolin Dave
07. Oct 2021 · 04:33 UTC
Can't play because I don't have Windows but I'll have to check it out sometime.

I did attempt a point-and-click adventure once, and maybe I'll try again someday, but mine was nowhere near as good as this one looks. Based on the YouTube video, you got the mechanics down good. The graphics I'm guessing are premade assets?
LDJam user 233347
07. Oct 2021 · 06:14 UTC
@leorid I think I did, the one blocking the path...

But I was also tired, maybe that had something to do with it :smile:
Duskel
07. Oct 2021 · 19:16 UTC
Graphics are amazing :0 and the game is super fun !
Tardif Adrian
07. Oct 2021 · 19:19 UTC
Graphics are very nice ! the puzzles and story are great too
g5-leonardo
07. Oct 2021 · 21:24 UTC
Guys, you drove me crazy!! I haven't play the game yet but this is awesome! You 3 rocks! You have done a huge work in so small time. Happy to see game like this. There is even the tutorial! Great job :smile:

After this rushed comment, I will definitely play the game and try to give more interesting feedback
LDJam user 156819
08. Oct 2021 · 00:19 UTC
Really nice feel of the environment. I loved the game's self-aware humour and humorously blunt interactions. The controls and mechanics felt on point, and you did a really good job putting everything together. Can't say much about the assets, since they were pre-made, but I can see a lot of care went into making this a playable game.
Myles Doupe
08. Oct 2021 · 01:13 UTC
Great game. I made it out in about 10-15 minutes.
JaviCoder
08. Oct 2021 · 08:53 UTC
amazing :dizzy_face: the game has a lot of quality in all aspects. It doesn't look like a jam game, it has a lot of potential to do something great
Forik
08. Oct 2021 · 18:59 UTC
It really looks greate, but some things can be bettar:
1. Weak level design
2. Some narrative dissonance
3. No pause menu, settings, exit menu (ye its jam, but some ppl can rate lower)
4. Strange control. Id like to run WASD, but I want run with LMB without click spam - just hold and run.
Bajtix
08. Oct 2021 · 23:09 UTC
I struggled with it a bit, but it was a nice experience overall! Loved the graphics, you can see me be dumb here:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1171194872?t=00h07m31s
leorid
09. Oct 2021 · 06:51 UTC
@bajtix thank you so much for sharing your stream, I went over the part where the merchant got stuck about 30 times and was able to fix the bug. Big THANK YOU :D

And of course also thanks for playing ^^
Fersyvanderzee
09. Oct 2021 · 09:47 UTC
Really cool entry! I missed a pause button and an exit option. Apart from that, great job!
idan9000
09. Oct 2021 · 09:47 UTC
I'm not usually one for point and click puzzle games but I had a surprisingly great time with this one. For the most part I got the puzzles on my first or second try and felt pretty satisfied at the end. The writing is fun and the presentation is incredible. Even though the assets are store bough the composition feels like a genuine full priced steam game. I finished it on stream you can check the vod at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1171670613?t=02h34m13s Thank you for submitting the game, I had a fun time with it.
LDJam user 242787
09. Oct 2021 · 09:58 UTC
Great job with the level design and amount that you got done for this game. I liked the puzzles and thought that the progression through the level was interesting. The only thing that I would improve is the readability of some of the level elements, I didn't realized that some of the normal looking level objects which were not highlighted were important. Besides that, great job!
Dev Dennis
09. Oct 2021 · 10:05 UTC
My first impressive was that it's cool, but no way they made this in 72 hours. I then read the description, then it made sense. I mean I like the level design and the dialogue, I think you just needed to compress it a bit and make it smoother to walk, it sucks that you couldn't hold down the mouse button and had to keep clicking.

It's really hard to make a story driven puzzle game, and in that sense you did great. I wished you had made your own graphics, I'm also a sucker for those, even if it were ugly and boxy.
Erkberg
11. Oct 2021 · 13:50 UTC
Great game! It made it into the fourth part of my let's-play-series: https://youtu.be/7aO0Tm7Tgyw
Runuchok
13. Oct 2021 · 11:16 UTC
This game is just great! Story, humor, and visuals remind me simultaneously Divinity Original Sin and Fable. This story of selfish character make me laugh and feel cozy like from chaotic-evil D&D roleplay with friends)) Awesome job!
SleepyStudios
17. Oct 2021 · 15:23 UTC
That was so fun! The graphics and atmosphere were incredible and the spooky music looped helped too. I really liked the puzzles too, especially because they weren't totally linear, you had to keep going back and forward and think a bit creatively sometimes too. Well done!
Geckoo1337
17. Oct 2021 · 16:14 UTC
Great entry with an astonishing visual. I guess that you used many assets so as to create your game, but the aesthetic is impressive. All controls work well as expected. Mood is freaky - FX are impressive. The gameplay is not too linear. As a Point and Move game, it was a great experience. I had fun playing. At first, I thought that it was created using the Unreal Engine - and I was wrong. This is one of the most beautiful games which I saw under Unity. A solid entry ++