The Fifth Ritual This Week by Jonathan Fischer

[raw]
made by Jonathan Fischer for Ludum Dare 55 (JAM)

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Alas, it has happened again. It is time to perform the ritual once more. Can you find the secret room and all of the items to summon the wretched beast?

Controls: (supports controller during gameplay)

WASD/Left Stick to move

Mouse/Right Stick to look

F/Left Face Button to interact

Esc to close the game

Please note that picking up an item will not prevent you from interacting with things that are needed to progress; you do not need to put an item down to open doors, etc.

There is an ending, so please stick around until the credits! Thanks for playing!

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Made in under 72 hours for Ludum Dare 55, April 12th-15th, 2024

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Ratings

Overall 409th 3.72⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Fun 629th 3.4⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 928th 2.98⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Theme 328th 3.981⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 274th 4.167⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Audio 160th 3.929⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Humor 327th 3.481⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Mood 172th 4.038⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Given 68🗳️ 34🗨️

Feedback

m0zrat
16. Apr 2024 · 02:29 UTC
This looks amazing.
kot9
16. Apr 2024 · 03:16 UTC
wow, too atmospheric
James Greenleaf
16. Apr 2024 · 03:28 UTC
Nice hidden object game. Great atmosphere and graphics, and funny ending! It was a little hard to figure out what to do at first... you have to look around carefully.
Fenix131113
16. Apr 2024 · 12:36 UTC
Amazing graphics, sounds and atmosphere. But in the beginning it is not clear what needs to be done, and it takes a long time to think to find the lever.🐻
Melissa Stodolnik
16. Apr 2024 · 12:40 UTC
it's a bit inconvenient that if you take an object in your hands before opening the cupboard, you can't put the object next to it and open the cupboard. you have to look for the place where the object was taken from, which you can forget at first, because you don't think about it.
very atmospheric, very cosy lighting, cute cats, really enjoyed the game.ᓚᘏᗢ
AlezJL
18. Apr 2024 · 09:48 UTC
I love the modeling in this game; I wouldn't be able to do it so well in such a short time.
Rowdy3
21. Apr 2024 · 11:17 UTC
Stunning visuals and mood and you really hit the theme well. It was trick to find everything, but not too tricky. Well done!
ilbini
23. Apr 2024 · 00:19 UTC
Great work, the visuals are great and the audio is well polished too. I had some troubles to understand what i had to do until i read something about a cupboard. Also there were one item that was quite hidden too that cost me some time to find but anyway it felt good to discover those things. I think the biggest problem was grabbing and placing objects as i had to drop them on the spot and it wasn't easy sometimes. But good job overall, i had fun playing it!
someone
23. Apr 2024 · 00:29 UTC
Lovely atmosphere.
I did get a bit stuck at the start not knowing what to do. I picked up the eyeball then it was impossible to do anything else. Figured out eventually I could put it back again, though that is one of the trickier items to drop.
shadowbrain
24. Apr 2024 · 11:25 UTC
Nice atmosphere for sure, as everyone has said.

The actual gameplay is a glorified fetch quest, you can get through it by spamming F on everything you see basically, could use a bit more direction I guess?

I didn't see the actual summoning instructional paper until I had already grabbed everything blindly, which should tell you the paper should be clearly visible somewhere obvious way sooner...

Also the mouse smoothing feels a bit off-putting and extreme, if you're smoothing out the mouse you should make the default setting fairly subtle I feel like.
🎤 Jonathan Fischer
24. Apr 2024 · 16:14 UTC
Thank you to all of you who left comments! I'm still learning and am grateful for all of the feedback!

@m0zrat
Thanks!

@kot9
Thank you!

@james-greenleaf
Thanks for commenting, I'm glad you liked it!

@fenix131113
Thanks! I had (ambitious) plans for some clues, puzzles, and decor around the room that would guide you towards the secret room but ran out of time towards the end.

@melissa-stodolnik
Thank you for the comment! I had some issues with the item system towards the end of the jam and wasn't able to get it working, but you shouldn't need to put anything down to open up the bookshelf. I'm glad you enjoyed it anyway, I had fun making it!

@alezjl
Thank you for the kind words!

@rowdy3
Thanks! I'm really glad you enjoyed it!

@ilbini
I really wish I could have had more time to add more clues to the game and polish up the item pickup system so it would be a more fluid experience, but the never-ending battle against scope creep is a tough one. :smiley: Thank you for playing, I'm glad you had fun!

@someone
Thanks for the comment!

@shadowbrain
Thank you for the feedback, it's greatly appreciated! I agree, it definitely is more of a fetch quest than I would have liked. I did most of this on my own (with some much-appreciated help from my wife) and had hoped to do a lot more with it, but really wanted to focus on improving my modeling/animation skills, so admittedly the majority of my time went towards that. :slight_smile: I'm always looking to improve, so I'm grateful for your thoughts!

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Again, thanks to all of you for taking the time to leave a comment, it really means a lot!
anaastaska
26. Apr 2024 · 12:47 UTC
wow, graphics is very cute! I feel this atmosphere in the game.
AmunOnra
26. Apr 2024 · 13:06 UTC
This was amazing. Awesome graphics for a LD Jam Game. Best game I played so far on this jam. And what a cute and nice ending you put in there. Fantastic job!
🎤 Jonathan Fischer
26. Apr 2024 · 17:29 UTC
@anaastaska
Thank you!

@amunonra
Thanks, I'm glad you liked it!
Ty Victorson
01. May 2024 · 08:23 UTC
Like others have said, the modeling work and atmosphere is amazing! I did enjoy the game but, apparently I'm too unobservant to do anything without directions, after picking up all of the objects I had to come back here to figure out what to do lol.

other than lack of direction I enjoyed the game a lot, nice work!
LDJam user 385017
02. May 2024 · 19:23 UTC
This game looks amazing! Thank you for such fantastic job!