Laboratory of Doom by Constance
Made under 72 hours by @constance
DESCRIPTION
You're a private detective who gets to investigate about an unknown substance being experimented on humans that turned them into atrocious monsters. Because of the urge to find the truth behind all of this and bring it to the light, you went to an abandoned laboratory in which the evidences led to. But little that you know, what's lurking behind the darkness is far more than you could imagine.
Come equipped with only a pistol, a flashlight, a tactical knife, and a couple of spare magazines at your disposal. Can you shift through the unbeknownst darkness and make your way out alive? And be careful, you only have a handful of pockets on your clothes, so be considered when picking and keeping stuff.
CONTROL
GAME:
- W, A, S, D: Move around
- Left Click: Attack
- E: Interact
- F: Flashlight
- R: Reload
- 1: Equip / Unequip the primary weapon
- 2: Equip / Unequip the secondary weapon
- Tab: Open / Close inventory
INVENTORY:
- Left Click: Pick items up / Put items down.
- Once picked up, items can be drag around freely.
- Left Control + Left Click: Drop items on the ground, or you can just drag it outside of the inventory and click.
- Right Click: Use consumable items.
TOOLS
- Unity
- Visual Studio
- Photoshop
- Bfxr
CHANGELOG
(11 October 2023): - Fix the bug where the end text doesn't show up once all enemies are killed. - Fix the bug where an item is being held by the player and they close the inventory, that said item doesn't get put back in its slot and hence the player can still drop it out of the inventory.
(05 October 2023): - Fix the bug where the Inventory can not be opened again after closing it with the button on the UI.
(05 October 2023): - Fix the issue where the player doesn't come equipped with a weapon at the start. - Fix the issue where the inventory sometimes bugged out and can not be open again with the Tab button. - Fix the issue where enemies can hurt you through some locked doors and thin walls. - Fix the issue with the knife that it can not deal damage to enemies properly at vertical directions.
(04 October 2023): - Fix the issue where the pistol doesn't deal damage to the enemies. - Fix the issue where the flashlight can not be turned on, as well as the weapons can not be equipped when the game starts.
INGAME CAPTURES
| Play on Browser | https://constance012.itch.io/laboratory-of-doom |
| Link | https://github.com/constance012/Laboratory_Of_Doom |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/54/laboratory-of-doom |
Ratings
| Overall | 548th | 3.588⭐ | 53🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 514th | 3.5⭐ | 53🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 804th | 3.059⭐ | 53🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 722th | 3.412⭐ | 53🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 531th | 3.676⭐ | 53🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 587th | 2.844⭐ | 47🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 435th | 3.676⭐ | 53🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 46🗳️ | 76🗨️ |
Good game, with a few frustrating points: you end up with a lot of items on the ground that you can't pick up because you have to keep the cards with you. So with this constraint, we might as well allow ourselves to consume the items that are directly on the ground, so as to avoid having to throw away a card, pick up the item, consume the item, pick up the card again!
Apart from that, I finished the game by taking advantage of the fact that mobs were getting stuck in wall corners, so I admit I don't deserve much credit :D
Well done for the game!
The next one when you run out of ammo, until you find out how to cheese zombies in horizontal areas. Approaching vertically is more problematic, as they even attack through doors (up), which is annoying.
Also, the inventory bugged out a few times, so I could not open it anymore.
I think it's a cool concept for a stand alone game, but too hard/complex for the usual game jam rater.
Thank you all for those very valuable feedbacks! I noted down all of the issues and bugs you guys were facing, especially the one that can not open the Inventory was a game-breaking problem. So I got to work and managed to fix them as fast as I can, you can check the changelog above for more detail.
The newest version are live now, at least those bugs won't remain a problem for future players.
Again, thank you all for playing and rating my game!
- On the downside, there are some unrealistic object placements, such as the excessive presence of bandages and proteins, which diminish the game's realism. It's challenging to keep track of the health bar; using a symbol like a heart instead of a numerical value would be more intuitive.
However, considering the limited time frame, you have done an excellent job. This is a fantastic game!
@laserpanzerwal @alanushke
Thank you for the feedbacks! I found out that the Inventory could not be opened again once you closed it with the button on the UI. I've just uploaded a quick fix and it should be gone now, sorry for the inconvenience. I wasn't descriptive enough in the control section that you can close the Inventory by pressing F again instead of clicking the UI button.
Overal the mood of the game was great and it really fit the theme. Looking forward to seeing a postjam version :v:
love
Really impressive for a one-person-show! Nicely done
Great upsides: quite solid game (bugs apart), lovely graphics and mood, clear instructions. Very good job overall!
- greater sound and animation environment:
Many times I came across a monster attacking me without knowing it, if it had animation and sound for it it would be very scary and would look really cool >:), tense music would also make the environment much more mysterious.
- weapons: I ended up running out of bullets very quickly, and I didn't find anything that would help me recover them, on the contrary, with the inventory full of cards and medical items, it might have been a good idea to put bullets more spread out across the map. As for the knife, normally in games where you change weapons, the knife does more damage since you expose yourself to causing damage, maybe it would be a good idea to increase the knife's damage, I practically started the game by discarding it and then picking it up. o when the gun was empty.
I really like the game, and best of all I think there is a lot of room for modifications and improvements, things that increase the life of the game. Great creation! From what I saw, did you do it alone? Wow, you are amazing!!
Juggling what to keep and what to discard is a good take on the theme, though I started using the floor as excess inventory by returning to heals when damaged and dropping stuff briefly while nomming on some bandaids before picking them up again. This didn't seem super reliable when my dropped flashlight disappeared, but that was the only item that ended up being lost to the void. The flashlight also didn't seem very necessary, there were no fully dark rooms, so the sacrifice wasn't an issue.
After I emptied my clip I was sure I'd die soon, but after two awkward and painful fights I discovered the right distance to keep while backing away from zombies and stabbing them when they got in range. From that point on it was pretty straightforward.
The arty is pretty good, though it did trigger my pet peeve against differently-scaled pixelart. But everything was visually clear. I felt I was missing some sounds such as reloading, footsteps, doors opening, item pickups/drops, etc.
All in all I enjoyed my little run to the exit. Nice one!
My first impression was that there were a lot of controls and mechanisms, and it took some time to get used to. It was simpler to keep the inventory always open. For a moment I didn't know how to change weapons, having forgotten the instructions, and I was furiously right-clicking on the knife.
Notes on the start menu: why the button "quit"? Also, small detail, but I like the fade transition on the buttons. It's small, but goes along this artstyle I would call "smooth pixels".
It's funny how in the graphism it's smooth on small details, but you didn't have the time to have animation, and also the character turning alongside the mouse and not his direction. For the sound, I don't know if it's better to have one sound (like here with the gunshot) or no sound at all. The gunshot is satisfying, but it feels like the other sounds are missing.
About the limited inventory: it did not feel like it, or at least not more than a usual game with an inventory. There was not really a challenge of picking what to pick, and the fact that monsters don't respawn mean you could drop some objects and safely go back to retrieve them.
I didn't understand how the bullets count worked. For a moment I thought there were infinite. I guess you meant "bullets you have/bullets you also have but waiting to be charged in", but it's a little bit confusing.
And the lamp. It plays on direct player perception... which means if you see contrast well (or change the luminosity contrast), you can even not use it. But even when you do, its battery decreases to slowly to be really worried about. It's the kind of game where you find objects to refill your supply (bullets and lamp), but I guess not the time.
My biggest ennemy was the HORIZONTAL CORRIDORS. Was it only me? To go through I have to place the character pixel-precisely, or else he's stuck.