ETERNARC by Talops

made by Talops for Ludum Dare 51 (COMPO)

ETERNALLY NARCOLEPTIC

ETERNARC is a strategic survival-adventure game in which you guide Nar, an amnesic and narcoleptic opossum, through an eerie and ever-changing cave system.

Despite her condition and lack of memories, she dreams of escaping this cursed place. Will you be able to grant her freedom? The map changes as you fall asleep, every 10 seconds, and is procedurally generated.

Windows, Mac OS and Linux builds, as well as the source code, are available >HERE<

How to play

Left mouse click to wake Nar up, she will then follow your pointer when you hold the button. While she sleeps, take your time to observe your surroundings and plan out an optimal path.

She cannot stay awake for more than 10 seconds. Make every decision count! Dig walls by "pushing" through them. The harder the wall, the longer it takes to break it down, and the walls get sturdier every few days.

You must survive for long enough to collect 10 tablets.

You consume 1 Satiety unit every night, and replenish these by eating corn cobs that can be found in bags lying on the ground, or sold by the merchant.

Speaking of which, this cunning fox peddler's shop opens up at random spots 7 days a week. He sells a random selection of food, hearts and tablets.

You can also buy a pickaxe upgrade from him, which permanently increases your digging speed and stacks up to 3 times.

These goods however, are not for free. You must exchange them with red ore. Veins can be found across the cave system every day, sometimes in clusters.

This maze is also home to many blood-sucking bats, which are attracted to your smell. Collide with one and you lose a heart. Be careful, as a single bat can hit you multiple times.

If you sleep with no satiety or if your hearts reach 0, you know what awaits you...

Development

ETERNARC is a LD51 Compo (Solo 48hrs) game made by Talops, a Belgian game designer, developer and technical artist.

Tools used: - Engine: Unity, with Feel and DoozyUI - Sprites: Aseprite - Audio: Bfxr + Audacity - Music: Reaper + Chipsynth PortaFM (OPLL FM style) - Preprod: Notion - Font: Lanapixel

Screenshots

Windows & Linux builds	https://talops.itch.io/eternarc
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/eternarc

Ratings

Overall	16^th	4.125⭐	22🧑‍⚖️
Fun	8^th	4.289⭐	21🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	94^th	3.737⭐	21🧑‍⚖️
Theme	23^th	4.275⭐	22🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	102^th	3.875⭐	22🧑‍⚖️
Audio	327^th	2.775⭐	22🧑‍⚖️
Mood	71^th	3.763⭐	21🧑‍⚖️
Given		24🗳️	20🗨️

Feedback

LDJam user 196403

03. Oct 2022 · 20:22 UTC

The aesthetic was really solid, the sense of mood was very good, I was compelled to want to know what was going on - I don't know necessarily whether I super was into its implementation of the theme but in fairness the game is well designed so that's perhaps less important

Cogent.Invalid

03. Oct 2022 · 20:42 UTC

Really fun game, I liked the time management and having to balance between collecting the different types of resources.

LDJam user 242971

11. Oct 2022 · 01:55 UTC

Well done game. I had a lot of fun with this one.

monika

11. Oct 2022 · 07:28 UTC

This is absolutely charming! You packed a lot of personality into the little sprites and blurbs of text. Really good job!

Stratcat66

11. Oct 2022 · 19:03 UTC

This is a really good and fun little game. Well done!

EtherianX

11. Oct 2022 · 20:46 UTC

Really nice game ! I like the balance between progressing in the game and managing the other resources. Also how the timer can both be a constraint and help you avoid enemies. Really fun and well balanced, well done !

Quinn_Patrick

11. Oct 2022 · 20:50 UTC

This is a fun, challenging, well designed, and polished game. A very solid compo entry that makes good use of the theme. My biggest complaint is that the bats are absolutely oppressive, to the point of feeling unfair. I never finished the game because, the one time I managed to get all of the tablets, the transporter was in a rectangular room with a bat in it. No way in without getting hit, and I was down to one heart! One idea that I had is to get rid of the hearts entirely, and make it so that hitting a bat just puts you to sleep early, costing you the corn. The health system just feels a bit redundant in a game that already has a resource management survival aspect. Making the bats slower and less common, or having them not start tracking the player until they have clear line of sight would also be good changes.

Platyp

11. Oct 2022 · 21:01 UTC

Absolutely fab game, the ending allowing you to go infinite is a nice touch

SheldonZS

12. Oct 2022 · 00:41 UTC

Really cute game! Fun gameplay loop, great use of the theme! The opossum is super cute and the gameplay is solid. Great entry!

chitoyuu

12. Oct 2022 · 06:41 UTC

Really nice game! Overall it feels very solid, without any apparent weaknesses apart from the lack of music in the Compo version. It's fun, and it did very well to produce the mood it tries to invoke. The "message of the day" especially gives weight to what's otherwise just a bunch of icons that you quickly get desensitized to in the ever-so-vast swathes of survival games. I liked it a lot!

Also, it's a nice touch that you left a Compo mode toggle on your web build despite updating it after the jam. That really helps giving the game a fair rating! I wish everyone who updated their games did this.

TinySalad

12. Oct 2022 · 23:39 UTC

A fun gameplay loop. I barely managed to get out before starving, and then presumably starving on the beach. I like it, well done!

LDJam user 285197

13. Oct 2022 · 04:47 UTC

Took me awhile to learn but good job on making this in just two days!

automatonvx

14. Oct 2022 · 00:08 UTC

My favourite game I have played so far, i'm a sucker for some cute pixel art and a sort of depressing narrative so the aesthetic sucked me right in. Really neatly designed, the art style works perfectly, the little lines of narrative pull your emotional heart strings and the balance is just right for making you want to keep coming back. I didn't manage to collect all the tablets, i'm assuming that was the way out, although I did keep me trying for a good while. Personally I would have preffered movement with the keyboard instead of mouse and some ambient music would have been nice, and it took me a while to realize what the currency pickups were, but really great work. :tophat:'s off to you sir.

justking144

14. Oct 2022 · 21:02 UTC

Really appreciate the difficulty setting because I am not good at games, and I really wanted to see how it ended!