LudumData

For Whom The Bell Tolls by Diego Teran

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

You wake up in room and are told to pull a lever every 10 seconds. Unsure what else to do, you start pulling the lever and begin trying to figure out what’s going on.

GameGifSmall.gif

Note: Embedding on ldjam isn't working at the moment for us, but the game is playable on the itch page listed below on web and mobile. PLAY HERE

Controls:

Mouse to point and click

Credits

Programming by Diego Teran (https://clerium.itch.io) and Diego Gonzalez (https://drgvdg.itch.io)

Art by Natasha Kononenko

Game Design by Diego Gonzalez and Diego Teran (Twitter)

Writing by Diego Gonzalez

Additional Programming by Natasha Kononenko

Software

Programming: Godot

Art: Procreate

Screenshots |
:-------------------------:|:-------------------------: lever<em>small.png | egg</em>small.png flower<em>small.png | blood wall</em>small.png

Hints

Some hints can be found in the description of the itch.io page. It's not an exhaustive list, so feel free to ask for any other hints in the comments and we'll add them when we can :slight_smile:

Bug Fixes

We did a minor patch fixing some bugs with the original version, but the experience remains largely the same - Fixed bugs with completing the game and returning back to it from the menu - Fixed buggy mouse movement detection

Link https://drgvdg.itch.io/for-whom-the-bell-tolls
Link https://drgvdg.itch.io/for-whom-the-bell-tolls
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/for-whom-the-bell-tolls

Ratings

Overall 199th 3.893⭐ 63🧑‍⚖️
Fun 231th 3.787⭐ 63🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 192th 3.8⭐ 62🧑‍⚖️
Theme 161th 4.133⭐ 62🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 572th 3.639⭐ 63🧑‍⚖️
Humor 433th 3.109⭐ 48🧑‍⚖️
Mood 244th 3.82⭐ 63🧑‍⚖️
Given 43🗳️ 84🗨️

Feedback

Sofy
03. Oct 2022 · 22:46 UTC
Im a sucker for games like these. The art the sound everything is amazingly well done

Only feedback is keep making more you've gained a new fan :)
Tk_Dev
04. Oct 2022 · 02:07 UTC
Bit of a bug, the lever is able to be switched from any room. did you forget to make it only work when your in a certain room, or am I missing the idea. I do like the game though.

Edit: Fuck me.
Sorry
🎤 Diego Teran
04. Oct 2022 · 02:23 UTC
@tk-dev That is the *most* important feature of the game, not a bug. You can find out the reason explained in the lore.
LDJam user 301724
04. Oct 2022 · 02:46 UTC
Wow, this was a really unique and fun little game to play! Although a short experience, the game kept me interested the whole way through as I slowly figured out how to push my way past each of the walls it blocks my progress with. And each time I figure something out, I am rewarded with a new room to explore! I ended up playing all the way through. The story and idea are quite good, too. Very well done!
Birdy Games
04. Oct 2022 · 03:44 UTC
Wow, it's a very good experience. All the puzzles fit perfectly. Sometimes the mouse input is not taken correctly and parts of the game are difficult (like bell part). But this is one of the best games i play in this ludum. Congrats!
WetBurritoSupreme
04. Oct 2022 · 03:58 UTC
Great experience, and followed the theme! I am curious what my total lever pulls was:) great job!
CesarGary_
04. Oct 2022 · 04:37 UTC
Incredible game, it sure gives an outer wilds vibe but in a creatuve twist, love it
LDJam user 300745
04. Oct 2022 · 08:43 UTC
I like the recording voice with the instructions.
Great game!
MoebiusMeow
04. Oct 2022 · 10:23 UTC
I really like the innovative interaction as well as the story.

I was once confused for the first round, but then I went exploring and found out the solution to the broken lever. I was shock that I can use some movement patterns to pull the lever to be honest. The ending is quite surprising and also makes the story complete.

What a solid and polished entry! Nice job!
lunkums
04. Oct 2022 · 14:01 UTC
Great entry. Fun and simple game. Nice take on the theme.
omphh
04. Oct 2022 · 14:23 UTC
Good game. Story was interesting, same with the theme mechanic. Fits in well with the escape room genre!
Good job!!
dp3rucha
04. Oct 2022 · 15:05 UTC
Pretty good idea. The puzzles are good and it's a bit stressful. My only bad point is that the artwork is not very consistent with the theme and sometimes the action of pulling the lever does not work smoothly. Very good idea with the 10 seconds theme.
Sean Esopenko
04. Oct 2022 · 17:33 UTC
I wish I could move from room to room with the arrow keys. Other than that this is the best "exploration" style game thus far, because you have to get back in time to pull the lever every time. Good job!
kr4ft3r
04. Oct 2022 · 19:13 UTC
The graphics and idea are great and I wanted to get into it, but I had to give up due to bugs. Most notably, the lever pull doesn't work most of the time, sometimes even several times in a row (it gets all the way to the right and then I let it go but it doesn't register as being pulled). Often you would be short on time by the time you run back to reach the lever, and this should be the exciting part, but then it randomly fails to work which destroys the excitement and causes frustration instead. I'd be happy to try again with at least this particular big fixed, or perhaps an explanation if there is a way to prevent it from failing, do let me know.

Great work otherwise, I see a lot of effort put in.
DGo
04. Oct 2022 · 19:22 UTC
@kr4ft3r Thanks for giving it a shot! The lever pulling can definitely be finicky, that's something we plan on addressing if we continue with this game after the jam. I will say that there's a way to avoid having to return to the lever which makes it much less frustrating, as a hint all I'll say is to take a closer look at the lever on the wall, there's something you can do with it other than just pull it :wink:
Zubi
04. Oct 2022 · 19:40 UTC
Oh my gosh, this gave me chills. It was so ominous and mysterious, you completely pulled me in with this! The voice coming from the speaker was really freaky, I felt like I was being watched the entire time. I was so ready for a jumpscare at any second. On a brighter note, I did feel very proud of myself after I completed a puzzle. I'm so glad my progress was saved in the book, I appreciate that feature. This way I don't have to resolve all the puzzles again. Thanks for adding that! I must agree with the other comments that this was not the ending I was expecting haha, but it was cool nonetheless (╹ڡ╹ )

I must say I recommend downloading it, it'll run way smoother without any lag. It's the best way to experience it in it's full glory. You three did very well, good job! ♪(^∇^*)
ZungryWare
04. Oct 2022 · 19:58 UTC
Really neat puzzles with an interesting premise! Reminds me of Submachine. Some of the puzzles were a bit too spelled-out I think. But maybe that's necessary for the jam format, where players will likely be impatient.
kr4ft3r
04. Oct 2022 · 20:15 UTC
Ah wow, ok completed it, it is much more than meets the eye, great job.
Tyrannas
04. Oct 2022 · 20:46 UTC
I'm a HUGE Outer Wilds fan. So seeing your post talk about Outer Wilds inspired game, I was really hyped and also a bit worried at the same time haha! But the game was great !! you really created a nice knowledgevania, I was so curious at first when I triggered the lever without knowing how, and I tried walking everywhere in cycle to try to reproduce and couldn't make it! Loved the gesture mechanic. Although it almost drove me mad to play the music cause some movements were not recognized properly and I had to start all over again a lot !
One of my favourites games of the Ludum for now !
dhim
04. Oct 2022 · 20:47 UTC
Very nice series of twists of the classical puzzle elements. I love how you departed from the "you die every ten seconds mechanism that forces the player to cram the correct sequences of moves" but kept the dying mechanism around!
I did not need the notebook as the story was really pleasant to read through, but it is a very nice addition to a competition puzzle game to ensure players will manage through your game!
The moving arrows could be a bit bigger, or a larger zone of the border could serve as the hitbox, It was a bit painful with the trackpad to hit that small target. (small target like screws are fine, but basic navigation should be easy in my opinion)

Is there a native shape recognizer in Godot or did you implement a $ recognizer yourself ?
🎤 Diego Teran
04. Oct 2022 · 21:43 UTC
@dhim for the movement, we have some better hints in the downloadable version, they just didnt work on html5.

For the pattern recognition, made it in a very hacky and simple way with just 4 areas and detecting the mouse entering the area. https://github.com/diegoteran/LudumDare51/blob/main/game/scenes/gameplay/mouse_layer/mouse_layer.gd
DGo
04. Oct 2022 · 21:53 UTC
@tyrannas Haha I love the term "knowledgevania". I'm glad that you liked it as another Outer Wilds fan. The three of us are huge fans of that game so it was a large motivator to try to make a game with knowledge being the only important state. I definitely appreciate their knowledge collection system way more after having to try to implement my own :sweat_smile:
Austin Sierra
04. Oct 2022 · 22:57 UTC
I really like point and click adventure games. This one works well. I think this one would have had a better aesthetic if the colors were a bit darker so it was a little scarier.
tinykidtoo
04. Oct 2022 · 23:08 UTC
Confused by the ending, but I really enjoyed the game. I love the puzzles they are well signposted and make the player feel smart as they are solving them. I did have some issues inputing the bell puzzle. Other than that I really enjoyed the whole theme and atmosphere of the game.
LDJam user 0
04. Oct 2022 · 23:16 UTC
Cool game! I really liked the story.

The gesture controls were a bit clunky, and it was hard to get it to recognize sometimes. The notebook clues were nice, but a bit _too_ direct in some cases. I would have like the opportunity to see hints only if I got stuck, but checking out the notebook kind of solved most of the game step by step for me. Maybe even just making it clear to the player that the notebook is more about just getting stuck or something?
DGo
04. Oct 2022 · 23:26 UTC
Definitely agree on the notebook making things a bit too obvious at points, we just had some early playtests with people that got stuck for a long time so we opted to make things too easy rather than too hard. Generally we learned that balancing a puzzle is difficult since everyone struggles with different things. Marking the notebook as hints is a good idea though, perhaps we could've implemented a hint system where it keeps track of clues but with optional hints attached to them. Thanks for the feedback!
Eugenik
05. Oct 2022 · 00:06 UTC
nice work. like a lot.
Dominic Graziano
05. Oct 2022 · 01:11 UTC
not bad, the lever wouldn't trigger a reset for me sometimes which was kinda frustrating.
sliphtrex
05. Oct 2022 · 01:36 UTC
OMG this is so good! This reminds me of the Rusty Lake series of which I am a big fan. I feel like I was expecting a jump scare at some point though. Thanks for not doing that. I really like how intuitive the mechanics all feel. It's a really well designed puzzle game. I find room escapes to often be too difficult and frustrating, but this one was just right for the tone. Well managed scope for a 3 day project. I'm definitely a fan!
Coderah
05. Oct 2022 · 06:07 UTC
Fantastic! well done, love depth achieved with something so simple!
LDJam user 301644
05. Oct 2022 · 09:56 UTC
i love gameplay. it reminds me of some other mystical point and click games.
one thing is assets :D I'd like to see them more matching the mood.
UkuleleFury
05. Oct 2022 · 16:01 UTC
:) Wow, this was very clever and a lot of fun! Really great dialog and an amazing story idea! Perfect fit to the theme. I liked this a lot!
theslate
06. Oct 2022 · 05:50 UTC
Great point and click game. I love the outlines around things you can interact with. I’ll definitely come back and finish it. Good work!
🎤 Diego Teran
06. Oct 2022 · 06:50 UTC
@theslate Thanks for trying it out! You'd enjoy the last few puzzles. Your stream was nice
F1Krazy
06. Oct 2022 · 19:45 UTC
Wow! I love a Ludum Dare game with a good story, and this is a doozy. I love that the trial-and-error aspect of some of the puzzles is incorporated into the story - you learn what to do by reading the journals of other operators, write things down in your own journal as you learn them, and when you inevitably get stuck and die, your successor picks up the slack.

The puzzles struck a nice balance: they were challenging enough to make me think, but not challenging enough that I couldn't work them out in the process. And it was worth it, as that was a heck of a twist at the end! Good job!
SnappyPath
07. Oct 2022 · 10:35 UTC
The art in the game is beautiful, everything is kept in its own style. The concept is interesting too. Good job!
Gn0cchi
08. Oct 2022 · 01:39 UTC
Maybe my favorite entry so far! The escape room flash game feel has me really nostalgic and I think the puzzle design is really engaging especially for a jam game. Still haven't finished it but already having a great time
LDJam user 262142
08. Oct 2022 · 02:36 UTC
bruh i kept waiting to find a screwdriver to unscrew the lever and then i accidentally finished the game :sob: :cold_sweat: :100: to be fair, it did make the plot reveals and twists much juicier tho. anyways GREAT experience loved the entire ride, good job team~
Papabirb
08. Oct 2022 · 02:39 UTC
That was pretty good! I had a great time, although I accidentally sequence broke the flower pot (not sure how tho) so I restarted to have a "clean" run. I had some difficulties where clicking on the journal would take input and put me in another room but that wasn't too bad. I had a really hard time with the final room's cursor tracking; I'd swipe down, it thinks I'm swiping right, etc. So, it took several tries to get the pattern right, and that was AFTER my initial confusion.

I also misunderstood that "explore the room safely" just meant my lever was coming with me... So I lost my first operator to letting the timer go out to find out, lol.

Great work!

Edit: I forgot to mention, we had some issues with LD embed for godot too. It should work by default in at least FireFox, but this guy found a way to hack the HTML5 build's JS to make it work on all browsers:

https://twitter.com/johnpennycook/status/1576756004061995009
Eezabra
08. Oct 2022 · 02:45 UTC
Lovely style with freedom to choose on where to explore first! I was abit confused at first because the arrows were only showing when my mouse gets near the edge. Other than that I think its a cute game ^.^
PenguinMunch
08. Oct 2022 · 03:04 UTC
This was such a fun puzzle game! The way the lore builds on itself was done so well. Great job!
tetrapteryx
08. Oct 2022 · 16:30 UTC
That was really fun to figure out! It had just enough clues to guide the process without feeling like too much handholding. The journal was a perfect way to summarize the notes so I dind't feel anxious about what to memorize. Really solid puzzle game.
k-s-raj
09. Oct 2022 · 07:41 UTC
great job. Cool idea
LDJam user 279622
09. Oct 2022 · 08:53 UTC
hey thanks for bringing this by on stream! [Here's a link to the VOD](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1619345236?t=1h16m40s)
Ehon
14. Oct 2022 · 00:01 UTC
Our game concepts are a little similar, so I wanted to try yours out as well and wow, that such a good game, a solid entry! I loved the whole concept and the puzzles - I rated 5/5 on everything :D Good job!