LudumData

Aeternia by VPro

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

Aeternia-TitleScreen.png

As a reknown exozoologist, you're sent to Aeternia to catalogue its strange and diverse fauna. But beware, the planet may not be as friendly as it looks...

  • Use your scan-cam to catalogue all of Aeternia's fauna
  • Discover and approach the various species
  • Upload your findings to earn some red opals
  • Meet with the settlers team to learn more about the planet

A game that tries to blend Caves of Qud with Pokemon Snap...

screenshots.png

I ran short of time as the initial project scope was too ambitious and I couldn't develop the mechanics as far as I wanted.

But I think it's still a decent experience with some cool gameplay twists to uncover (hint: scanning certain zones of the map will give you directions wink wink on how to meditate)...

Note on the save system

The save system only stores Aeternia's fauna encyclopedia, your money and purchases are lost when dying or restarting the game, as you're supposed to embody a new exozoologist sent to Aeternia every time the previous one died.

Controls (keyboard)

  • Arrows: Move / Interact / Attack
  • Z (HOLD): Take scan-cam
  • X:
    • PRESS: Skip turn / Scan (while holding Z)
    • HOLD + Arrows: Meditate
  • Enter: Scan-cam memory

Controls (controller)

  • DPad: Move / Interact / Attack
  • A button (HOLD): Take scan-cam
  • B button:
    • PRESS: Skip turn / Scan (while holding A)
    • HOLD + DPad: Meditate
  • Start: Scan-cam memory

Credits

  • ​Design/Code/Art/Music/Sounds: RenD
  • Fonts by Chevy Ray
  • Color palette: Indecision
Link https://oddly-shaped-pixels.itch.io/aeternia
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/aeternia

Ratings

Overall 314th 3.617⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Fun 374th 3.367⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 190th 3.603⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Theme 307th 3.8⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 218th 4.067⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Audio 278th 3.463⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Mood 177th 3.9⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Given 26🗳️ 35🗨️

Feedback

caeonosphere
Oct 07th · 03:09 UTC
Hmmm... I'm stuck! The only areas I've managed to find are ones to the west, east, and north, and I'm still missing two species. I also can't figure out how to turn this dang flashlight on...

I do like the pixel art! If you were going for the Qud aesthetic, I'd say you nailed it.
Radjax
Oct 07th · 03:23 UTC
Really rad idea and nailed the vibes of Qud. It felt really crisp and well designed throughout, the snaps were a cool way to do research. I lost all my money after I died the first time with no way to get it back, so I wonder if I missed something, but still loved it. Great work!
TomPendergrass
Oct 07th · 04:10 UTC
The sound design pulled everything together for me and kept me intrigued to keep exploring. Nice tough having a scanner with small memory. Reminds me of early digital cameras before cell phones
🎤 VPro
Oct 07th · 13:30 UTC
@caeonosphere Sorry for the issue, there was indeed a bug with a certain type of animal that was preventing it from being scanned... as for the south part, you may be missing to access it. I added screenshots on itch.io, maybe it can hint you. As for the flash light I wasnt able to repro the issue
🎤 VPro
Oct 07th · 13:31 UTC
@radjax Thanks a lot for your comment, if you digged the Qud vibes then my work is done here :D
🎤 VPro
Oct 07th · 13:32 UTC
@tompendergrass Thanks for your comment, I did spend quite some time on the audio, it helps forget the minimalist aesthetics indeed
zexurge
Oct 07th · 14:12 UTC
loving the retro vibes, does have caves of qud vibes to it, but also kinda reminds me of GB version of 007 😆
raysplaceinspace
Oct 07th · 22:03 UTC
Great game! I like how the game feels intuitive and drives you to the next goal. Like when your SD card gets full so you return, and then it shows you which ones you haven't snapped yet so you want to keep going to fill out your card. It was also good seeing the better flashlight before I could afford it to give me a goal to work towards. I also think it was intuitive that you would interact with things by just walking into them rather than having a dedicated button. Well done!
Ciphereo
Oct 08th · 07:15 UTC
I particularly like this pixelated art style of the picture. The color scheme of the picture makes it very comfortable to view, it's a great idea!
Wuppos
Oct 08th · 17:32 UTC
I really enjoyed exploring the landscape and meeting the other people in this game. Unfortunately I could not find the last couple creatures to scan, so unfortunately I was not able to finish it :( I guess there was something to do with the meditation, but I could not figure it out. The art was really well done and I liked how intuitive the controls were. One small bug/issue I ran into was that the save file did not save the amount of money I had, or which items (such as the flashlight) I had already collected. Luckily that was not a big issue though :)

This was a great retro-feeling submission! Really well done :D
🎤 VPro
Oct 08th · 19:22 UTC
@zexurge thanks for the comment and the recommendation! I didnt know they made a James Bond game for GB, I looked it up and it looks super original, I'll definitely try and play it on an emulator

@raysplaceinspace thanks for playing the game and for your kind comment

@ciphereo thanks, I found it easier to draw pixel art fast with a limited palette. I added the link to it on the itch page

@wuppos yrah, the meditation thing is definitely too cryptic. I wanted something hidden but not that hidden. I think nobody has found it yet, and it's the only way to access the south area. And saves only story the encyclopedia so that's not a bug sadly. Thanks for playing the game and your constructive comment!
kuggenhoffen
Oct 08th · 20:28 UTC
Awesome submission, very nice graphics and great atmosphere. The game mechanics work well and there is enough to get a decent game play experience. I might have managed to make the meditation do something (stealth) but just by accident, not sure if there is some discovery mechanism for that? Great work on the game!
feor
Oct 08th · 23:28 UTC
Engaging little adventure. It took me a little while but I completed the game and found 3 spells along the way (I think that's all of them? Don't wanna give away too much).

Bit bummed that I found out you could get items so late, as I found out about that screen last! Honestly not much else to say, it's just a cute self-contained bit of exploration, and the sound design really helps to sell it.

The only annoying bug I encountered is that sometimes when a Batrax was killed by another animal, it'd freeze the game. Mostly happened on the screen with Dr. Zaied. High marks otherwise.
🎤 VPro
Oct 09th · 09:27 UTC
@kuggenhoffen Thanks a lot for your kind comment! There are more powers to find, and they all can be discovered without guessing, there's indeed a mechanic to find and uncover each of them :smiley:

@feor Oh man thanks a lot! Somebody else mentioned but I couldn't repro and thanks to your comment, I was able to track down the softlock issue and fix it. Just so you know, there are 4 powers in total, but you just need one of them (that you found) to finish the game, the other 3 are just for convenience. Thanks again for playing the game and for your comment!
Ira Baciu
Oct 09th · 11:17 UTC
I'm stuck :((
![Screenshot 2025-10-09 141707.png](///raw/3cf/56/z/6f117.png)
🎤 VPro
Oct 09th · 11:52 UTC
@ira-baciu that's bad... Can you click on the menu and then try to press the arrow keys on your keyboard or Dpad on a controller? Same, try to press the Z key on your keyboard or A button on the controller. Can you hear the music play once you've clicked on the game window? The game is keyboard/controller only, so once you clicked on the game so that it's focused, the mouse is no longer needed.
Eugenik
Oct 09th · 16:19 UTC
Very impressive and well executed on all fronts!.
SirRed
Oct 09th · 22:26 UTC
Walking around and taking pictures felt really good and was super smooth. I found 3 of the meditation circles and tried all of them in various places and was not able to figure out how to get something to happen. I assume I needed to be in a certain spot when I did them, but was not able to find it. I did like figuring out them but a bit to cryptic I guess on where to actually input the code
Caer
Oct 09th · 22:41 UTC
I really loved the art style, worldbuilding, _and_ gameplay loop of this one!! It felt really peaceful, and it kept pulling me back in to seek out more fauna to capture. My only wish is that the keyboard controls were reflected in the game UI itself, instead of needing to refer back to the game page.
🎤 VPro
Oct 10th · 16:22 UTC
@sirred there are 4 meditation circles but the 4th one is a bit hard to find, as it's not made of green grass... You didn't need to be in a certain spots to use the power, there just some tools that can help you (and one is mandatory to access the south zone)
🎤 VPro
Oct 10th · 16:24 UTC
@caer totally agree with you, it was not a good design choice to put the controls for the controller as it's not the primary input the players use, I guess 90% of them play on keyboard. Thanks for your comment!
marks
Oct 14th · 00:40 UTC
Amazing! Had a blast exploring and piecing clues together, I really love games that use knowledge of the story as a way to solve puzzles, reminds me of Outer Wilds, maybe in form of Caves of Qud.

I loved the detail of seeing the photos you take and how that feature is used. It was cool to see animals interacting between each other, felt like the world was more dynamic. The audio for the meditation feature was a nice add as a hint that I was going in the right direction, a clever mechanic in general!

Issue-wise, I had some trouble at the start with no keyboard control hints but figured it out soon after. Felt like the scanning animation back at the computer got too repetitive after a few uses and wished I could skip it.

Overall, I was amazed by the amount of polish and work that you were able to put into a 3-day game jam, great work!
🎤 VPro
Oct 15th · 12:55 UTC
@marks I totally agree with the poor choice on the UI control hints, and I could have made the scanning progress skippable. Thanks for your super positive feedback!
F1Krazy
Oct 15th · 16:26 UTC
This is great! Very atmospheric, with very unique gameplay. I was able to figure out how the meditation mechanic worked, and found all but one of the species, but found it hard to progress after my first death (those damn skents!) because scanning new species is your main source of income, and if you've already scanned most of the creatures, it's hard to earn enough money to buy back the items, especially the axe.

I'll definitely come back to this and unravel its secrets later! I think I know how you get into that southern area to find the final species...
🎤 VPro
Oct 20th · 20:38 UTC
@f1krazy Thanks for your comment, I'm glad you liked it. I agree with the balancing of money not being optimal, but once you get all 4 meditations, money shouldnt be a problem anymore :D
Kalbshack
Oct 23rd · 08:56 UTC
Nice graphics. Also good job transferring the mood. Really liked it. Good work.
U-238
Oct 24th · 17:22 UTC
interesting game project! hope you update it to a full game and add all features you wanted. very good amount of work for such limited time!