A Forgotten Pulse by Retrisma

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

You are a rat, exploring a ruined world.

image<em>2022-10-03</em>180415820.png

You stumble across an enormous, mysterious figure. From within can be heard a steady beating. What could it be?

Controls: ← → : Move

↑ : Hold to climb

Z : Wall Jump

X : Activate objects around you

Ratings

Overall 466th 3.625⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Fun 334th 3.65⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 511th 3.4⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Theme 799th 3.425⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 188th 4.211⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Audio 95th 4.025⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Humor 849th 2.333⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Mood 130th 4.025⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Given 14🗳️ 15🗨️

Feedback

PhoenixofForce
04. Oct 2022 · 14:46 UTC
Very chill game. I like the graphics a lot but didnt know what the 10s-feature was. Nice game :)
oolimry
05. Oct 2022 · 04:52 UTC
First off I really like the art of the game, the flash of red and the infestation spreading every 10 seconds gave me a sense of dread, and the music and art look really bleak. It was a nice part

Gameplay wise, I felt the movement was abit clunky. The slow pace exploration does fit the melancholy theme but I feel some sections could be more lenient (and also you would clip through platforms sometimes for some reason). Because of that I kind of quit early cause some parts were too precise for me.

Other than that I can't really comment much more since I couldn't finish it or find out where that 10s pulse is coming from. Still, I liked the overall mood of it, thanks for the game!
Taximan981
07. Oct 2022 · 23:23 UTC
Wow, just wow. The atmosphere in this game, the graphics and polish. It looks and feels like is was made over the course of weeks compared to 3 days, brilliant job!
goldenXD
07. Oct 2022 · 23:57 UTC
Graphics are really cool, interesting idea.
PureImprov
08. Oct 2022 · 00:40 UTC
Very cute! I wish I could show this to the rats in my garden (:
Brainloaf Studio
08. Oct 2022 · 00:54 UTC
I'm a really big fan of the unique movement mechanics here, climbing on walls and through small gaps is pretty cool. The pixel art and overall mood is also really nice! I do feel like some sections got a bit clunky/frustrating, but to me the unique movement system and platforming concepts mostly makes up for that. Well done!
Chartle
08. Oct 2022 · 01:02 UTC
Lovely atmosphere, took me little to realize that the 10s was the stuff activating, that combined with the manual activating gave a great opportunity for your puzzles. The music was nice, but you probably could have gotten away with only playing a sound once if multiple of the same machine were turning on a the same time, it got a little grating with the multiple ventilator things. I do wish getting off of walls was a little less clunky, walljump made me expect a little push off the wall, but it was just kind of falling off. Otherwise very well done!
crysopraise
08. Oct 2022 · 04:05 UTC
Love a game about a rat and scurrying and climbing around everywhre, really good vibes for this one. The platforming challenges didn't do too much for me, being able to trigger machines outside of the 10 second pulse defeated it a bit, however there were one or two places where you had to combine the two and I liked that. Sound effects were a bit harsh but the music was lovely. Overall I liked it quite a bit :)
Sk Katea
08. Oct 2022 · 20:09 UTC
Very cool idea... and the art, i like it
Joror
08. Oct 2022 · 20:22 UTC
Interesting puzzle mechanic - wallclimbing!
Could not get past the 3-elevator part, unsure what the solution was there.
Would have loved a few more mechanics with activation perhaps?
Rolly
08. Oct 2022 · 23:45 UTC
I loved the idea of controlling a rat, even though I'm not sure I fully understood the story (I made it to the end but the last "cinematic" was not clear :p)

There are some cool mechanics, I think the wall climbing and jumping felt really smooth. It took me a while to figure out the 3rd type of obstacles (the doors). The thing to activate was just seemless in the background image, and I only found it by randomly spamming the X key.

I'm not sure about the usage of the theme - was the auto-activation happening every 10 seconds? The fact that you can also activate the mechanisms by pressing a key make it more like "Every 10 seconds or whenever you want" :p

Good visuals and music!

Nice entry!
AugustCoder
09. Oct 2022 · 00:16 UTC
Nice little game :)
Only major issue I had was that the rat (that's what it is, right?) kept clipping through the platforms that move up and down. I feel like the 10 second theme could be used a little better, but I at least recognized it.
Mickxe
16. Oct 2022 · 17:22 UTC
Nice job! The wall climbing made it more interesting than a "regular" platformer/sidescroller. :thumbsup:
3ncryp73d
17. Oct 2022 · 20:56 UTC
Nice worldbuilding! The visual artstyle and audio felt really consistent and made the environment feel very real.

I liked the way you built a platformer around the wall-climbing motion, sadly the z key is really hard to reach with a german keyboard layout which made it a bit hard to play for me (but not sure that's something you could have seen). If you want to keep working on it, it might be worth changing that to something like spacebar.
Rincs
20. Oct 2022 · 03:25 UTC
That was a lovely experience! I liked the platforming and that felt solid! I didn't quite understand the ending sequence there, but I guess we went INSIDE the figure and then out? Either way, well done!
ManchmalScott
20. Oct 2022 · 03:39 UTC
Loved the vibes and the art style, the controls were a little bit of an adjustment, but I had a good time playing your game!