Sailing through life by Chase of Bass

An introspective narrative experimental thing I guess
Theme: the story moves forward every 10 seconds
Bugs: Some weird bug that is making music not loop properly or even stop completely.
Instructions:
Left and Right Arrows or A/D or clicking on the left or right side of screen
Tools:
GMS 2, Pyxel Edit, Nano Studio
Art, Music, Programming by Chase of Bass Made in approx 1.5 days for Ludum Dare 51
Warning: Possible Motion sickness
| Link | https://chase-of-bass.itch.io/sailing-through-life |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/sailing-through-life |
Ratings
| Overall | 671th | 3.438⭐ | 67🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 1042th | 2.82⭐ | 66🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 320th | 3.619⭐ | 65🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 1184th | 2.461⭐ | 66🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 543th | 3.685⭐ | 64🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 440th | 3.405⭐ | 65🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 226th | 3.847⭐ | 64🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 54🗳️ | 90🗨️ |
Audio wise there's room for improvement, you could make sure the music loops perfectly, as through a the course of a full playthrough the music restarts 4 or so times and it's quite an audible restart.
You could also normalize it so it sits lower in teh overall mix, the SndFX get a bit drowned in the music sadly.
Overall really cool game, great writing!
Interesting story too!
@marjagil Thank you so much! And I have no idea why the audio started doing that but it only does it when it's run in browser.
@tobias-froihofer Thank you so much and the story moves forward every 10 seconds but always room to improve ofc ^_^
@cdmaniac Thank you so much -and am already planning a full game around that gameplay mechanic!
@sacha-soul Thank you!!
@jonrei lmfaooooo xD
PS: I randomly stumbled onto this game, but used to follow you on twitter years ago. Glad to see you're still making cool stuff! :D
@nataku92 ^_^ thank you so much!!
@auxc thank you so much for your kind words and glad you're still making cool stuff too!! :D
Good game overall, I got 1490 in the end, which I assume is my high score
Congratulations for the unique movement system.
@kizilejderha I would say that's a fairly accurate analysis ^_^ and yes, that's the score and thank you so much!! :D
@hulien22 lol xD And thank you!!
@adriczero Will add a motion sickness warning to the page -hope it didn't give you motion sickness! Also thank you!
@gonzalol Thank you so much!! :D
@chilleh Awwww thank you so much for your amazing comment -that just made my day! ^_^
@glaikunt That's awesome to hear -thank you so much!! :D
Think I completed it:

Audio was fine for me too - music and sfx were great.
Music is beautiful and fitting too, even though it felt more optimistic than the overall theme. Anyway, really loved this! Easily one of my favorite entries I played this jam; you don’t see many games that would focus more on the storytelling, so I really enjoyed it. And I too hope we will all be together again, one day.
Got 1150. :)

The music was nice (is there a bit of microtonal in there?) although it got a bit repetitive after a while -- I'd suggest building a few calmer bits into the song to pad it out :)
Great innovative little game.

It seems to me that in your work the gameplay exists separately from the story. No matter what I do, the story will go on by itself. Games where the player contemplates rather than acts exist. However, in this case it is necessary to give more content that works according to the laws of cinema or painting. That is, there are more animations, sounds, visual development – like in a cartoon. In your case, it could be not only the appearance of boats, but also, for example, a change in the weather and the state of the sea.
Sometimes your gameplay and story interfere with each other. For example, when I played for the first time, I did not read the beginning of the text, because I was impressed by the rotares of the sea and it was interesting to collect stars. Then I restarted the game and started reading.
I understood your idea that you control the ship and read at the same time, but specifically your mechanics make player concentrate and "aim". It distracts from the text. (Distracts some of the players, at least). Usually, in games with simultaneous actions, an important narrative is not put in parallel. For example, in "Brutal Legend" during an intense chase on the bridge at the beginning of the game, where you need to concentrate, the characters say information that is additional. The player will not miss anything important without it. (This is done because there are a lot of actions: drive the car with maneuvering, attack, dodge enemy attacks.) And in the game "Psychonauts 2" in interactive cut scenes, where information is IMPORTANT, the player is left with very, very simple actions (jumps and move) and does not give a goal at all ... And in both cases the story is told in parallel with the actions through audio.
In your case, the game would be improved by replacing text with audio. Listening and acting is much easier than acting and reading.
Or the second option is to visually include the text in the level design. I.e., for example, player float along the level from left to right and see lines of text.
It would also be very cool if the player's actions developed the plot. You can make it so that by collecting stars, you open new replicas and move further along the story. So mechanics and history would become one.
Unfortunately, it is difficult for me to fully experience the story due to the language barrier (I use automatic translators). But I really liked the theme.
And also you have absolutely charming art and music.
The work itself is poetic and really is a work of art. 💚
I really wished that you could turn the ship around, like under the sea. So that when I tilt the sea to 90°, something magical could happen.
Idk, don't listen to me, I just enjoyed it :)
The movement gave me a little nausea though. It is hard to do rotating movements without someone getting nausea so I would not blame the game for this.
As for the story, it was a bit hard for me to focus on the progressing story and collect those stars at the same time. So I think the game lost a bit of its magic by combining these two things and it was hard to focus neither of them.
But overall, I really like the innovative ideas in this game. Great work!
I love the last sentence very much:
> Most importantly, keep making new ones.
@amarokczukay thank you -I love trying to come up with new mechanics!
@exilegl Thank you! and thanks for sharing your score -nice!! :D
@ggross I wanted to do stuff like that but didn't have the time lol and thank you so much! :D
@megafocus Thank you and it says in the desciption Theme: the story moves forward every 10 seconds
@cope thanks!
@theheheo thank you so much! And I was kinda going for a weird bittersweet sailing vibe with the music -kinda part happy and part sad -but I'm sure given more time it could be improved and fit better
@dzejpi So sorry you had a horrible year. Loss really, really sucks. I hope things get better for you soon! And you are correct about the story coming from a very personal place. Have experienced a lot of loss of loved ones -too many. Anyway, thank you so much for your kind words, sincerely appreciated! (Also awesome score!) ^_^
@leekanarchism Thank you and microtonal -yes, kind of -the actual note is on key but the synth instrument itself kind of drifts to give it that almost off key dream like quality. I agree it did get a bit repetitive and would have definitely done more but I was very short on time on this jam -in fact I spent the first day and a half making a different game lol -Anyway thank you for the kind words! :D
@choo Was definitely going for a chill experience -thank you so much! :D and nice score! :D
@shumarie Thank you for your detailed criticism! I did actually make it start storming a little bit in the middle -light rain and bigger clouds but it wasn't very dramatic and easy to miss. . I actually would have loved to do a lot of what you described, but I simply did not have enough time. I was actually making an entirely different game and started over in the middle of day 2 to make this game -but I might polish this one up after the jam and do a lot of what you described! Thank you for sharing all your insights and really appreciate your kind words! :D
@merlinperlin I am definitely going to explore this further and would like to make a spin off smart phone game from this! And thank you for the kind words! :D
@paul-avallone I wondered if anyone would notice that the ghost ships had no reflections -good observation! ^_^ And you might be right about the music -may have to go back and experiment with it more! Thank you so much for your feedback and kinds words and also woooah i think that is the highest score! nice! :o
@fribolin Dude! I actually made a fork of this project with something like that -it kind of let you play upside down in the water -defintely something I'm planning on going back and experimenting with! And thank you glad you enjoyed it!! :D
@nash Thank you so much! Sorry about the nausea though! And you might be right -given more time there is a lot I would have done differently. Really proud/happy with the gameplay mechanic and planning to explore it more- so means a lot for you to say all that -thank you! :D
@wizcas ^_^ that is a really awesome comment -meant a lot to read that! -thank you so much!
@langotriel Solid comment! Sincerely, thank you!! :D
@nardandas Thank you! Thought it would be kind of cool being able to also have them act like a bonus to get extra stars for a few seconds. ^_^
@pixelydian Thank you so much for your kind words!! :D
@itooh Funny you say that -originally I had it so you had to avoid the stars and it was much more fun to me that way -but wanted to make it a more chill experience. However, am already messing with a spin off sort of game that is a more arcadey -game play focused use of this mechanic. The narration felt slow to me too -especially on the shorter parts but was trying to stick to the ten second theme there -probably should have approached it different but ya know how game jams are lol Anyway thank you so much! :D
Such a sweet message! Have you played Spiritfarer before? The gameplay is very different, but the narrative message is right on par with this game. The dialogue here + the ending was so touching! ToT
My score was 1120, and I continued collecting stars for several minutes after the end of the story before realizing my score wasn't going up any higher haha. I think one thing this game would benefit from would be additional obstacles. I actually thought there would be some sort of penalty if my boat went off the edge of the screen, which made for slightly higher stakes in the star collection, but my playstyle changed after I realized otherwise.
Additional suggestions unrelated to gameplay - I think it'd be so cool if the sky scenery at the end changed and sunlight came out! But I totally get if the scenery stayed the same while all of the boats were out because it's still sends a message like your loved ones are helping you through hard times.
Overall, the gameplay was intuitive and easy to pick up! Great concept, and congratulations on your game!
nice game!
Played on my stream: www.twitch.tv/zedkraze
I got 1230
Overall, well done!