ECHÆRA – The Silent Painter by Crowelian

[raw]
made by Crowelian for Ludum Dare 58 (JAM)

Story

You are a Weaver of Echoes, your sonar senses still cathces the faint threads, the fragments of nature, Harmony and Industry. The echoes drifting in the void. - This is cozy, relaxing, collecting game.

How to play

Press SPACE to send out a sonar pulse that reveals hidden fragments, the echoes of the old, COLLECT these echoes by walking into them. Each echo type (nature, industry music/harmony) paints the world with color.

Fullscreen version in itch.io in the Links. Headphones and fullscreen recommended

How this was made

Unity for Game Engine.

Photopea + Piskel for graphics.

Audacity for audio & music mixing, did all the sound fx.

Suno AI for music (DID NOT HAVE THE TIME TO MAKE MUSIC).

Ratings

Overall 171th 3.828⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Fun 353th 3.414⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 199th 3.586⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Theme 343th 3.741⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 245th 4.017⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Humor 595th 2.423⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Mood 38th 4.328⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Given 48🗳️ 35🗨️

Feedback

🎤 Crowelian
Oct 06th · 05:42 UTC
Wanted to make own music but ran out of time... Maybe next time?
🎤 Crowelian
Oct 06th · 15:52 UTC
I would love to hear some feedback from the players...
d-demetori
Oct 06th · 16:22 UTC
Nice vibes, not sure about spamming space button, maybe would be better to randomly spawn points and reveal them when player nearby, great job!
Theogen
Oct 06th · 16:27 UTC
Such a beautiful and relaxing experience! Love the way the story is presented as you make the world more and more colorful. And the music, despite being made by AI, is quite mesmerizing.

My only complaint is that some text fades too quickly, at some points I had to pause to actually read it. But I still enjoyed the game very much. Fantastic job!


![20251006_12h02m53s_grim.png](///raw/b34/43/z/6d6cf.png)
🎤 Crowelian
Oct 06th · 17:02 UTC
@d-demetori thank you for the review and good feedback. Next time I have to think this spamming space button and maybe have different powers that are on always, as you said. The spawn point are random already, maybe I have to do a refined version after Ludum Dare.
🎤 Crowelian
Oct 06th · 17:06 UTC
@theoratkin thank you! I am so happy that you found this a relaxing experience. The text should have been fixed but ran out of time.
Oxropy
Oct 07th · 01:04 UTC
I don't know what else I did besides trying to fill the square, but with the music it was somewhat hypnotizing
milq
Oct 07th · 08:00 UTC
Wow! What a great game! I truly love the art style, minimalist yet full of carefully chosen shapes and effects. The accompanying music is perfectly selected and makes the gameplay experience really enjoyable. What an amazing first entry in the Game Jam, congratulations!
CGraen
Oct 07th · 19:35 UTC
Its a really unique and interesting game, the boundaries felt a little restricting though. I think it would be really cool if the sounds also changed depending on which tiles you are going over at the moment.
kayrum
Oct 07th · 23:04 UTC
It was quite a challenge to not pain the word fully green. Greate atmosphere!
OldDog
Oct 08th · 13:57 UTC
The atmosphere, music, and sound effects of this game are the best I’ve experienced so far. I’ve spent a long time playing it, quietly reflecting on the meaning of life as I go. Unfortunately, the content is a bit limited — after nearly lighting up the entire map, there’s not much left to do. Adding some depth or strategic elements would make it perfect.
🎤 Crowelian
Oct 08th · 15:52 UTC
@olddog thank you. I had plans adding something more to do when the player had collected half of the echoes but ran out of time so did not want to add unfinished features... I noticed the same thing that at the end there was a need for something to happen.
Eugenik
Oct 09th · 09:07 UTC
haa thats hot.
PaDo
Oct 11th · 15:08 UTC
Cute and vibe game. I enjoyed controlling a piece of light and listening to music.

I would be glad if you could play our game.
Pacelin
Oct 11th · 15:11 UTC
This game is all about relaxation. You swim peacefully through this beautiful world while listening to calming music. The plot is presented through rather brief and concise text (but I didn't have time to read the first part; it disappeared too quickly).

I have one question: Why did the developer make the Unity camera viewport square?
🎤 Crowelian
Oct 11th · 16:05 UTC
@pacelin the square viewport was a preference because lately I've been experimenting with Pico-8 and loved the squareness of that. I do not have enough experience with Pico-8 yet so used Unity instead. I know the square is bad in itch or ldjam webgl / iframe. Next time pico-8 game or some other viewport size. 😅
Pacelin
Oct 11th · 16:07 UTC
@crowelian Oh, I see! That's cool. Thanks for game)
thaDev
Oct 11th · 17:29 UTC
The ambiance is set perfectly and with some more work i can see this becoming a full game, tho as an artist myself i would love to see instead of the current graphics, a type of map being revealed as you go that could also help set your story. Love it still!
🎤 Crowelian
Oct 11th · 18:09 UTC
@thadev thank you, and great idea!
atsh
Oct 11th · 18:19 UTC
Filling the board was satisfing - I do think the sonar should be automatic like other said - right now the balance between the zen like experience and franticly hitting space is a little jarring
Otherwise good game, weel done!
daupoh
Oct 11th · 18:55 UTC
the most poetic and beatifull "snake" game I ever played! :D
just chilling and listening swesome song, thank you for that! Nice!
Asieke
Oct 11th · 20:51 UTC
Beautiful game! Really appreciated how turning was implemented with it being rounded like it was.
b0guslaw
Oct 12th · 14:21 UTC
I mean, that was just beautiful and so well done. Bravo!
KafuuChino
Oct 15th · 19:56 UTC
Awesome atmosphere and experience. Love the BGM so much.
Koolruz
Oct 15th · 20:02 UTC
![balance-song.PNG](///raw/dec/c2/z/6f68b.png)

I *really* liked the vibes here - I just wanted to spend more time relaxing and unwinding here. Great job!

That said, I think the vibes could be kicked up to an even higher level if the gameplay encouraged more flow through the level, and naturally pushed you towards making sweeping loops, rather than encouraging you to stop moving andbacktrack as you revealed fragments. Oftentimes, I would send out a sonar pulse which revealed a fragment behind me, and the most efficient way to collect it would be to just stop on a dime, and immediately change direction on the spot. This took away from the serene feeling watching my mote swirl through the level with its slowly evaporating trail, and I think the movement would feel so much more free-flowing if the player were constantly moving forward, and could only change the direction that they were moving by rotating which direction "forward" is. This would naturally give the player smoothly curving loops of movement when they swing around backwards to collect a newly revealed fragment, and that would add so much to the already lovely aesthetic that you're building. I actually naturally started playing in this fashion after awhile, because it felt so much more relaxing to do so.

Please don't take this as me disliking the game in any way - I loved it, and that's why I wanted to pass along the feedback! You have such a great mood that you've set, and you should be very proud of your work :)
kaba
Oct 18th · 16:37 UTC
I was not exactly sure if I was supposed to just collect all the dots that appeared or if there was some strategy to choosing the correct ones but, as an audiovisual experience - wow, really impressive and immersive right from the start! Really enjoyable and made me think of Rez.
Kahztein
Oct 20th · 23:31 UTC
Quite a nice, chill game, definitely one of the more unique entries I've played from this jam. Great job!
LDJam user 235915
Oct 21st · 14:25 UTC
I really enjoy this relaxing game! And it's so satisfying to draw smooth lines)
FiveCyclops
Oct 21st · 23:26 UTC
@crowelian What was your prompt for getting this music on Suno? It's really cool.
Do you have a link to Suno so I can listen to it outside of the game?

In any case, the game was very enjoyable and relaxing to play.
🎤 Crowelian
Oct 23rd · 19:33 UTC
@fivecyclops the prompt was
"ambient beautiful serene atmospheric piece, with female vocalization background vocals no words just voice".