LudumData

Stoked by Alexzoin

[raw]
made by Alexzoin for Ludum Dare 51 (JAM)

Unity_a9FP6Xv7sW.gif

🔥 Light the way for souls the world has lost. - The world has gone dark, lost to a deep evil, and you're one of few left alive. - Keep your fire lit or you, too, will be swallowed by the darkness. - Seekers will try to douse your fire. If they succeed or you forget to stoke your flame in time, it's game over. - Thousands have been lost to the darkness. But you can save their souls. - Enlist the help of gatherers, souldiers, and keepers to collect and protect lost souls.

🔥 Controls - Use your mouse to point and click. - Hover over the bottom of the screen to access the shop. - Press escape to pause.

🔥 Credits - Programming: Alex Cecrle - SFX: Alex Cecrle, Nicole Bonelli, DJ - VFX: Camden Cecrle - 2D Art: Nicole Bonelli - Color Palette: Toby Yasha

Link https://alexzoin.itch.io/stoked
Link https://github.com/Alexzoin/EternalFlame
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/stoked

Ratings

Overall 589th 3.5⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Fun 786th 3.154⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 347th 3.596⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Theme 493th 3.75⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 517th 3.722⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Audio 157th 3.904⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Humor 985th 1.75⭐ 18🧑‍⚖️
Mood 34th 4.346⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Given 24🗳️ 32🗨️

Feedback

nullval
03. Oct 2022 · 23:03 UTC
Really moody and atmospheric, the world gives me dark souls vibes. The graphics are really simple, but nice, especially the fire.
Tero Pulkkinen
04. Oct 2022 · 00:45 UTC
looks nice, but difficult to figure out how the gameplay works.
LDJam user 259831
04. Oct 2022 · 00:47 UTC
Love the atmosphere, the art style and music combined add a lot to the game. Love the fire crackling sounds as well, good job!
okshirl
04. Oct 2022 · 00:52 UTC
it was so calm and relaxing. It was a little confusing on the goal of the game and how the lost souls worked. Maybe the mechanic will be more challenging if it costed something to stoke the fire? ex. you have to collect a certain amount of souls for one reignition? I was so sad to have to let my fire die. I really liked the music.
supercannon
04. Oct 2022 · 00:53 UTC
Love the vibes! Was a little confused on what the seekers did at first, but I probably should have just read the description lol.
ComicSans
04. Oct 2022 · 00:54 UTC
Would love to get a better explanation of what the powerups do. The brief descriptions still didn't really clarify things for me.
WizZzLe
04. Oct 2022 · 00:56 UTC
If you figure it our its a fun little game, but a little bit slow in my opinion
BlackCat508
04. Oct 2022 · 00:56 UTC
I loved the campfire noises and atmosphere, but the gameplay took a while to pickup on, maybe a tutorial?
LDJam user 278918
04. Oct 2022 · 00:58 UTC
Beautiful game! I loved the different sounds the shapes made when you moved them, but I didn't realize that the blue squares reduced my time so I just kept feeding them in. :P Great entry!
LDJam user 268647
04. Oct 2022 · 00:58 UTC
I think there is a bug where my currency wouldn't get collected when hitting the bottom left and would bounce back and fourth really fast, made it tricky to get upgrades because I'd lose every second point and it would get stuck.
atill
04. Oct 2022 · 00:58 UTC
I faced a few quirks playing the html5 version but it was very somber and relaxing. You all did well to convey a particular mood and some unique mechanics and goals in this interesting game - thanks for making it and letting me play!
alec
04. Oct 2022 · 00:58 UTC
Surprisingly calming, given the frantic-ness of the gameplay. It was a little too hard for me to ever live long enough to buy a soldier. I also really liked the fire particle effect, and the color palette in general!
seanjordan
04. Oct 2022 · 00:59 UTC
This has been my favorite game so far. I love how hectic it gets while you're trying to balance protecting your gatherer, stoking your flame, and harvesting from the spirit wells
thedude3600
04. Oct 2022 · 01:01 UTC
Great take on the theme! As others have mentioned, great atmosphere! The music gave it a calming feeling even as I was frantically trying to move seekers aware from my fire. Was a small issue with souls being collected - it looked like they were trying to reach a specific point before being considered "collected" but would often not be able to reach that point and would end up bouncing back and forth preventing it from being counted. Overall, good job!
BeetleBox
04. Oct 2022 · 01:34 UTC
Absolutely lovely graphics! They were simple, but managed to convey a whole lot.
Karen Shum
04. Oct 2022 · 04:49 UTC
The mood was really well built. But I just can't figure how the gameplay works.
INKSUN
04. Oct 2022 · 05:01 UTC
Very poetic game! Both in terms of the concept of gameplay and in terms of art style!
pianoman373
04. Oct 2022 · 05:04 UTC
Very good atmosphere. The art, story, and sounds are all simple but effective. Gives me Journey/Monument Valley vibes!
🎤 Alexzoin
04. Oct 2022 · 05:49 UTC
@karen-shum It's not super well explained! You click and drag things from the shop and then drag your units and the enemies around! Thanks for trying it out.
sodium
04. Oct 2022 · 05:50 UTC
Love the art, lots of fun to play. Found a bug where if you pause and resume you lose all your currency (game restarts?)
🎤 Alexzoin
04. Oct 2022 · 05:50 UTC
@inksun Thank you very much! We were going for a contemplative tone. Moody but intense! Really glad you liked it.
🎤 Alexzoin
04. Oct 2022 · 06:34 UTC
@sodium Oh no! Thanks for the bug report! Did you press the "reignite" button? Or just press escape again to unpause?
DzejPi
04. Oct 2022 · 06:47 UTC
Beautiful, beautiful graphics! Found the gameplay very relaxing and meditative. Even help me with my headache! Didn’t notice the shop in the first gameplay (probably because the game on Itch.io is slightly bigger than my screen, haha). Thankfully, I read the description afterwards and checked it out again. Beautiful entry, definitely one of my favorite mood ones!
OgelGames
04. Oct 2022 · 06:52 UTC
Really nice game, you did an amazing job with the sounds and the atmosphere, the gameplay took a few tries to figure out, but it ended up being really fun! I'm probably going to play it again to see if I can get further :D
David Hampson
04. Oct 2022 · 15:09 UTC
Great ambiance!
sodium
04. Oct 2022 · 19:35 UTC
@alexzoin I pressed "reignite"
🎤 Alexzoin
04. Oct 2022 · 19:52 UTC
@sodium Ah, yep that will do it. That is meant to be a "reset" button! Again, not clear from the UI haha. Just hit escape to resume!
🎤 Alexzoin
04. Oct 2022 · 22:41 UTC
@ogelgames Thanks so much! I made all of the music and sounds myself over the course of the jam! Really glad you liked it.
jacobingalls
05. Oct 2022 · 06:32 UTC
Lovely art style, really felt like the minimal but polished forms, colors, and sounds worked really well together! I especially thought that the stoking sound felt right!

I did have trouble initially running the game because the default size of the unity player was taller than my browser window full screened (on a 16:9 monitor), so the bottom of the screen was cut off so I didn't see the store, perhaps making that more prominent would help.

Also, I don't really know what the seekers do, and they hurt the flame :(. That's what killed me, a flame that needed a click every 0-ish seconds.

Fun!
exilegl
05. Oct 2022 · 13:32 UTC
Very pretty ambient game! Good mood/atmosphere, and the sfx/simple bg music work well with that. I think the soldiers should be cheaper though, at least initially, so its easier to get one before you get overwhelmed.

Here's my best try so far:
![Screenshot_2022-10-05 Stoked by Alexzoin.png](///raw/3f2/z/52513.png)
🎤 Alexzoin
05. Oct 2022 · 15:37 UTC
@jacobingalls Thanks so much for playing and the feedback! I adjusted the resolution. I have a 1440p monitor so I didn't realize it was getting cut off on others. Thank you!

I really appreciate the feedback. ♥ The fire sounds were super fun to make.
🎤 Alexzoin
05. Oct 2022 · 15:38 UTC
@exilegl Thank you! Yes, making them cheaper might work. It is way too hard initially. Thank you for playing. I had a lot of fun making all of the audio!
ryusui
06. Oct 2022 · 01:20 UTC
Having trouble running the game. The left and right edges of the screen are cut off.

I'd download the game and run it locally, but there doesn't seem to be a download link for the game anywhere.

![chrome_2022-10-05_18-18-27.png](///raw/1f3/1/z/5273b.png)
🎤 Alexzoin
06. Oct 2022 · 14:56 UTC
@ryusui Interesting I have not seen that issue before! What resolution display do you have?
ryusui
06. Oct 2022 · 15:00 UTC
@alexzoin 1920x1080, and I'm running Chrome. I tried Edge in case it was a browser issue, but the same thing happened there.
Fribolin
07. Oct 2022 · 08:56 UTC
@ryusui I encountered the same problem. Firefox on Windows in my case.
The graphics were looking good, but I couldn't access the shop or anything. And the seekers kept my flame up, I don't know if that is intended
yoko-san
08. Oct 2022 · 05:07 UTC
unfortunately, the main menu is cut off and I can't see the shop you mentioned :(

but, what I saw looked interesting and somehow relaxing :)
🎤 Alexzoin
08. Oct 2022 · 20:37 UTC
@ryusui Thank you for the info and the reply! I have changed the page back to being a 1920 x 1200 frame. When I build the game I set the build to be 1920 x 1080 and I think that may have been a mistake. I will go back and change that after voting ends. It should be working now if you can scroll down to the bottom right and hit the full screen button.
🎤 Alexzoin
08. Oct 2022 · 20:37 UTC
@yoko-san Hey! Thanks for trying to play. If you want to try again it should be working. I had the view port set too small on itch before.
ryusui
08. Oct 2022 · 22:05 UTC
Thanks for the fix; it's playable for me now!

Aesthetically, I love it, but it seems very frustrating and opaque to actually play. ^_^; The only working strategy seems to be to divide time between stoking the fire and keeping the Seekers away from it (and your Gatherers), but eventually I'm overwhelmed by Seekers long before I have enough Souls to recruit a single Souldier. Is there some mechanic I'm missing? Lost Souls don't seem to spawn fast enough for more than a single Gatherer to be worthwhile, and I'm reluctant to buy more than one Energy Well with Souldiers being so expensive.
🎤 Alexzoin
09. Oct 2022 · 18:56 UTC
@ryusui Thanks so much for coming back to play! Yes, the difficulty is just too high. There have been a few people that are able to get to a stasis point by having a Souldier but it's too hard to get there honestly. You do have the strategy down though, it's all about micro control of your units to stay alive.

And you're right about the lost souls not spawning fast enough. There is a small bug I missed where the timer is way off.

Thanks for playing and for your feedback.
Senover Games
19. Oct 2022 · 21:52 UTC
I had problems with the player window being too big (I only have 1920x1080 monitors). I scrolled to the lower left part of the player so I could play the game. It was fun nevertheless, and I like the overall mood and the audio! :)