Hopes by VainCil

[raw]
made by VainCil for Ludum Dare 50 (COMPO)

Just try to survive as long as you can! Arrow keys to move, Space to start/try again.

Made with Elm, SVG/CSS, and a mandolin.

It’s the first time I manage to make some music for a Ludum Dare submission. Really happy about that, but sadly wiring things up took more time than anticipated, and I missed some time for fixing/tweaking some gameplay aspects. Hope you’ll like this still!

screenshot.jpg

Ratings

Overall 496th 3.075⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Fun 493th 2.875⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 245th 3.45⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Theme 308th 3.65⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 419th 3.15⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Audio 267th 3.289⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Humor 469th 1.9⭐ 17🧑‍⚖️
Mood 459th 2.895⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Given 12🗳️ 10🗨️

Feedback

aasimow
05. Apr 2022 · 22:51 UTC
Really clever use of scale, and a nice take on the theme! Quite a fun base idea for a game -- could easily be expanded on if you want to take it further. An easy improvement would be showing some sort of score on the game over screen, as well as some indication of how close the wall is. Nice job!
ambrits
05. Apr 2022 · 22:54 UTC
My biggest issue is that the camera can not follow me fast enough, I was able to leave the screen. It's really hard to see the death lines this way and dying to them this was not great.
🎤 VainCil
05. Apr 2022 · 22:56 UTC
@aasimow Thanks! Yes I might actually do a post-compo version for once, already working on a couple of those things!
🎤 VainCil
05. Apr 2022 · 22:56 UTC
@ambrits Yeah the more you zoom in, the more it’s either not fast enough or too fast and stuck to the player, it seems. This whole zooming mechanism made many things more complicated than they should have been…
Starlight Glimmer is best poney
05. Apr 2022 · 23:04 UTC
I don't really understand how turning smaller is supposed to delay death? Seems like the difference is a split second which can easily be offset by green dots just randomly relocating on top of you (if you're standing constantly in the middle).

> as well as some indication of how close the wall is

@aasimow There is an indicator. The edge of the screen glows up.
unpronounceable
05. Apr 2022 · 23:13 UTC
The borders glowing as the box closed in on you was a nice touch. The visual effect for shrinking was rather nice. It looked like the background was glitching out as squares kept appearing and disappearing. The music was a bit quite and I had to turn up my volume a lot to hear it, but once I had done so it sounded good and helped with the atmosphere.
Woetnie
05. Apr 2022 · 23:31 UTC
Really missing a score in the game, I've got no way of telling if I improved over my last run other than keeping score myself.
Overall a fun little game.
Tristian Tee
07. Apr 2022 · 11:29 UTC
Would rather it was slightly easier. Maybe make the player coordinates easier to see and balance the movement a little.

Very awesome idea though. Kind of want to steal it :3
🎤 VainCil
07. Apr 2022 · 13:35 UTC
@tristian-tee I’m working on it! Thanks! Feel free to steal it :)
Stuntcomposer
11. Apr 2022 · 06:35 UTC
I love this game - the simple idea is just what I like. IMHO the theme is implemented perfectly. Only complaint is the camera not keeping up with the speed at times. Also I might be missing something but the smaller background "dots" sometimes disappear in somw "zones" making me feel a bit disoriented - might be som intention I just didn't understand?

Oh, and the music is really fitting the game.

All in all a great concept and very nicely implemented!
🎤 VainCil
11. Apr 2022 · 07:58 UTC
@stuntcomposer Thanks a lot! Yes the main two flaws that you noted are things I wasn’t able to fix in time. Working on it these days for a postcompo version!
LMB
17. Apr 2022 · 22:12 UTC
The game looks great in all its simplicity, and the music helps to create a nice atmosphere. But to be honest I was quite confused while playing. As I get smaller after eating each green dot, I lose all situation awareness. Where do I go next? And why? Why does the scale sometimes changes at random moments? Is there a way to win?
🎤 VainCil
17. Apr 2022 · 23:42 UTC
@lmb Thanks for your comments! It is indeed quite unfinished. I’m glad you liked the looks and music! There is no way to win, you can only delay the moment of your death. I’m working on a postcompo version where you have a score (how long you survived), some help as to where are the green dots, and hopefully with a fixed background and camera :/
LMB
18. Apr 2022 · 00:10 UTC
Cool! Good look with the postcompo version!
kjscott
18. Apr 2022 · 09:46 UTC
Cool concept, I loved how each time you got a pill you became smaller and smaller. That was both the great aspect of it and also one of a few niggling issues of the experience. I think the same green pills were shared between the different levels and occasionally respawned. If you had different pills for each level (say blue for one size down, purple for next size down) and kept the original green ones but scaled up it would have added to the immersion sense of scale you created. Music was really cool.

I did encounter the odd bug with sometimes being off screen then jumping back to off center.
potkirland
18. Apr 2022 · 20:33 UTC
omg very intriguing and promising concept! i wish this had a leaderboard and i wish you really balanced the mechanic a bit better since this whole idea is really interesting and fitting the theme in such an original manner! really i ran out of pickups after 3 or 4 pickups in each playthrough i tried to find a way of not running out but that wasnt possible! i believe if you balance the spawns this would get much more playable and pretty competitive also! all in all loved it! very original :thumbsup: