LudumData

The Ferryman by Lomby

[raw]
made by Lomby for Ludum Dare 53 (JAM)

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🎮 Play on Itch!

Embark on a chilling adventure into the unknown in this haunting point-and-click adventure game. You find yourself awakening as a lost soul, shrouded in darkness with no memory of your past life. Traverse through the mysterious realms of the underworld, to deliver your soul to it's final resting place.

Controls:

Mouse only (points you can move / interact with change your cursor colour).

Note: There is audio, but it's just a background hum on the first scene which you might have to turn up your volume to hear! Unfortunately due to running out of time, there's only the entrance and exit points to the Docks scene.

Also to save you looking around for ages, I'll put a few spoilers in a comment below.

Retro Dev Log:

Unfortunately started late on this due to other commitments, so struggled with scope again. (Seems to be a recurring theme for me in LD!) Actually managed to include audio and sfx this time, the artwork is kinda all over the place as I only really had time for rough drafts, but I'm pretty happy with the direction of some of it.

Would love to have actually included all the NPCs I had planned, and do another pass over most of the pixelart, but had to cut a load to get it finished. (Sorry that the 2nd scene, the Acheron River, is so long - there was meant to be a few interact points to go back and forward.)

First time doing real animations, lighting, environments, and a completely new control scheme type for me, so overall pretty happy with the result.

Sound effects obtained from https://www.zapsplat.com

Itch https://lombygg.itch.io/the-ferryman
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/53/the-ferryman

Ratings

Overall 842th 3.333⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Fun 909th 3.06⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 778th 3.119⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1078th 3.179⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 702th 3.536⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Humor 976th 2.324⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Mood 127th 4.131⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Given 44🗳️ 72🗨️

Feedback

🎤 Lomby
02. May 2023 · 21:12 UTC
Spoilers: There's only 2 NPCs in this version (pink & blue), and only 2 active interaction points (where text is shown to you when clicking on it). More were planned but ran out of time! Hope you enjoy playing!
Exilon
03. May 2023 · 16:03 UTC
The sound design and mood are really good in this game. Honestly, this is the only jam game so far that has managed to unsettle me. I really dig the pixel art and the sound design. I also really like the point and click style because I've genuinely never seen one in a game jam, ever. The only problem I had is the controls being a little jank like me not being able to stop in the river to talk to blue but otherwise, the mood is great!
SvenErik
03. May 2023 · 16:10 UTC
Like previously mentioned - the sound design & mood are really spot on this, though I do wish the background wasn't anti-aliased for the coherent look. I can see it being a really really nice little point & click game when refined and specially with your fabulous pixel art! Some glitchiness needs to be fixed too, but considering you got into it late and that always stresses things up, good job on it!
fabula_rasa
04. May 2023 · 12:35 UTC
That was pretty cool. Very moody. The minimal SFX and no music is really a perfect choice for the setting here. Art and color work is indeed a bit all over the place, but lighting is nice, and I really liked the ferryman.

I missed the coin on my first try, but found it on my second. Overall, it was a pleasant experience and did incentivize me to replay :grin:
bart_diepvries
04. May 2023 · 12:52 UTC
Very moody submission! Would have been cool if there were more rooms and more things to do! Did love that there were multiple endings!
Igor Minenko
04. May 2023 · 14:56 UTC
Hey, I would say it's a good game and you did well, because you drew a lot of locations, thought out the idea, a good game!
ZenBreaker
04. May 2023 · 16:14 UTC
Weird game at the start, not sure what to do. But after I got on the ferry once and actually read, that the cursor changes colour on interaction I made it to all? 4 endings. Mood is great. Nice game if you stick to it <3
zimny11
04. May 2023 · 16:27 UTC
Great mood in the game! Really enjoyed it! Small feedback (a bit of a spoiler): the coin stuck in the tree should disappear after collecting it, I know there is text, but I was still not sure if I pick it up or not. Anyway, good job!
Scooters
04. May 2023 · 23:22 UTC
The mood was amazing in this game! The sfx were very unsettling (in a good way). One issue I had was that the coin in the tree would not disappear no matter how many times I collected it. Overall though, this was fun!
LDJam user 303624
04. May 2023 · 23:32 UTC
The art was so good! Agree with everyone on the mood being great.
Though even after playing through it multiple times - still not sure what the timing was on the bat creatures, haha.
Great entry!!
jitspoe
05. May 2023 · 00:33 UTC
Clever take on the theme, delivering yourself. I got 3 endings. Not sure if there's a way to get the coin without stealing it.
🎤 Lomby
05. May 2023 · 01:48 UTC
Thanks all for the awesome feedback!

Definitely some janky interaction points in the first two scenes sorry @exilon! Ran out of time and just had to drop some prefab versions in to give some interaction options, and unfortunately didn't hook it up to remove the sprite after you collect the coin (if the dialogue says you take it, then it moves into your 'inventory') @zimny11 @scooters

With the flying creatures, you have to click on the ground underneath them to move to be close enough, then click them to shoo away. They were all added in like the last 2 hours so it was just whatever worked at the time :sweat_smile:

Hopefully going to be able to tidy up some of the animations and controls in a post jam version, but not sure when I'm going to get the time for it!

Was definitely trying more for an unsettling feel and mood to this game, so I'm so glad to hear that it seems to have come across! Thanks for the kind words @alec-cunningham @fabula-rasa @igor-minenko

@svenerik - wasn't the intention to have any anti-aliasing, must have been a setting somewhere when I imported the pixelart! Will sort soon!

@zenbreaker @jitspoe 4 endings in this version, gonna be more at some point hopefully!

@bart-diepvries more scenes were planned, but had to cut the scope!
LDJam user 317992
05. May 2023 · 07:53 UTC
I'm little bit lost in this game, the mood is very important in this game !
Nice job
Fupi
05. May 2023 · 15:10 UTC
Very moody and nice looking game, I like the dialogue, visuals and audio. Only thing is that I have no idea how to get an ending other than the thief and the no-pass ones x) I feel like I ran out of options and could still just do those two endings. Perhaps some better guidance would have helped here
Rincs
06. May 2023 · 15:54 UTC
Got two endings, the one where you head to Elysium and the one where we wander the Lethe forever. I liked the premise, and I wish you were able to fully realize the things you wanted to. Maybe a post-jam update? I liked the design you gave Charon, quite monstrous! I was confused as to what the brown thing holding the lamp was, tho.

I hope you update!
JosephGallear
06. May 2023 · 20:21 UTC
Great atmospheric game, the story elements were really interesting too. I played through twice; the first time I searched the body but then got the good ending on my second try.

Like you already said, it would be good to have a few more things to interact with and some backtracking; hopefully you keep working on it!
HexStart
06. May 2023 · 21:37 UTC
Definitely liked the ferryman character. Luckily, looking for interaction points wasn't that difficult due to the art style, as they do stand out from areas of solid color.
JUSTCAMH
07. May 2023 · 14:59 UTC
Neat little point and click game, thanks for submitting to the stream! Here's the vod if you'd like to rewatch;

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1813689516
Honest Dan
08. May 2023 · 07:04 UTC
A good atmospheric point and click game. A good idea to have multiple endings, but without too much dialogue / interaction options, it made playing it through more than twice a bit of a stretch. It was cool that you sped up the walk speed on successive play throughs though, for sure!

I liked the lore, the story telling, the animations, and that sense of mystery and unknown.
TTU_HASAN
08. May 2023 · 16:38 UTC
i loved the game .the overall mood of game is very good;
RogueBrain
08. May 2023 · 20:59 UTC
Very bold doing a point-and-click adventure for a jam, and this manages to evoke a lot of mood and atmosphere with what is available. As you said it's a shame you didn't get to implement more, as what you have is pretty cool so far. I didn't love that the game ended when I got to the ferryman without the coin, it felt like the kind of thing I should have just been able to keep looking for after meeting him.
Wendel Scardua
09. May 2023 · 03:07 UTC
If you ever get to make a post-jam version (judging by the comments here), a few things I'd suggest are:

- a larger area for clicks (at first it took me a while to find where to click on the docks)
- a tracker of which endings where obtained (I like that you numbered them but my memory is bad - I think I got them all, though)


One question: the person who took your coin is one that ended up being not included on this version, right? Because at first I thought it could be the person on the first area but in hindsight they don't seem tall or gray enough 😅
frosty
10. May 2023 · 05:02 UTC
You said you were short on time, but I'm impressed with what you came up with here. The animations and sound all added to the mood, and I really liked the final boatman scene.

I didn't explore more than one ending, but the short experience I had was cool and unique. Nice work!
jackypark9852
15. May 2023 · 04:22 UTC
Interesting game. the idea was unique and a fresh divergence from all the package delivery games. I did not expect a game with multiple endings in a game jam. Impressive work. I liked the sound effect and the graphics. I didn't notice the cursor changed colors on interactive elements until later, so it would have been nicer to have clearer indication. great work overall.
3079
17. May 2023 · 20:59 UTC
Interesting spin on the delivery idea! Loved the pixel art and sfx, wish there was more though.
axelrinaldo
19. May 2023 · 15:29 UTC
I love this take on the theme and the general mood of this game, too bad you ran out of time though, I wanted to experience *more* of it. :pensive:
BlueDandelion
19. May 2023 · 19:13 UTC
Very unique twist on the theme, I really loved the mood and atmosphere of the game, one critique I have is that I would have preferred a larger area for clicks, and maybe some kind of an indicator since I had no Idea how to go right in the second scene. But nevertheless, this was a good game!
Ty Victorson
19. May 2023 · 19:40 UTC
The UI could use a bit of work to make it a little easier to see since in some areas the arrows are easy to miss, however the mood and the art in this game are great some of the best I've seen so far! Great job wish you had the chance to finish everything you had planned!
Paul Avallone
20. May 2023 · 14:39 UTC
Nice point in click adventure. The game is a little dark and the areas you can click should be a little more forgiving but it was still a good time. Very moody. Good job.