Nights in the cozy shack by Gastar

[raw]
made by Gastar for Ludum Dare 56 (JAM)

Survive a week in a house under siege by dangerous mimics. These creatures can transform into any object in the house.

Each night, you have only a few matches to briefly light up your shack, and a couple of bullets to shoot a mimic disguised as an object. Conserve your resources to survive the week.

To identify the mimic, carefully observe the objects. A mimic can reveal itself by moving its object or by making a slight change in its appearance but it only acts in complete darkness!

The items in the room are arranged randomly every night. One of the items is a mimic. The mimic moves or changes its appearance when a match goes out. That is, if you see an object moved or changed in some other way during one night, it is a mimic!

Controls: - WASD to walk - Mouse to look around - Left Mouse Button to shoot - Right Mouse Button to light a match

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Ratings

Overall 337th 3.75⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Fun 426th 3.545⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 207th 3.727⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Theme 917th 3.045⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Mood 161th 4.023⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Given 37🗳️ 21🗨️

Feedback

tinykidtoo
07. Oct 2024 · 23:58 UTC
Not sure how to figure out which object is a mimic, kinda feels like Russian roulette. Really great atmosphere though!
purplexy
08. Oct 2024 · 00:08 UTC
I really like the menu and the animation that follows after you click start game! I definitely got a bit inspired by it, will probably have this idea in mind for my future games, haha

It took me a few tries to tune my hearing skills. A pretty nice entry overall, good job!
HardyTryer
08. Oct 2024 · 12:01 UTC
Great menu and game atmosphere. Interesting concept, but I didn't get how to figure out which object is mimic. Any tips?)
GodDoesPlayDice
08. Oct 2024 · 13:09 UTC
@hardytryer Thanks for checking out our game! The items in the room are arranged randomly every night. One of the items is a mimic. The mimic moves or changes its appearance when a match goes out. That is, if you see an object moved or changed in some other way during one night, it is a mimic!
Nikolas van Rus
09. Oct 2024 · 12:56 UTC
A fun game, cool UX solutions, with the possible exception of exiting the menu to “Q”, this got in the way more than once at the most critical moments. Otherwise great job!
splittheatom
10. Oct 2024 · 12:33 UTC
Great job! Just the menu is impressive. Cool take on the find the difference genre and I could see it get explored further, great job!
wisstopher
11. Oct 2024 · 22:05 UTC
Really interesting entry, for a jam i think its the perfect amount of game. I would love to see this grown into something bigger with more interaction, bigger levels and more mimics to find. The art was really good and the entry was really well polished also. Great jam!
bacalear
12. Oct 2024 · 11:15 UTC
WOW! Entry, design and atmosphere are super cool.
Vary
13. Oct 2024 · 17:30 UTC
Ohhh I like this a lot. The graphics are spot on for a game like this, along with the lighting and audio. Once I figured out that the mimic can only be the objects highlighted (I was originally looking at the furniture as well haha) it was very fun memorizing what objects were where with every match life. Nicely done!
CindySheep
14. Oct 2024 · 03:46 UTC
The game is soooo cool! Every thing is well designed and the mechanism is interesting and exciting when you realize you only have limited number of matches. You want to find the creatures ASA possible to survive. The only thing I'm not satisfied with is the level is to less and the scene never changed, but I can understand this because three day development limited. I love this game.
t-pirozzini
14. Oct 2024 · 07:32 UTC
This one deserves some more ratings! Really interesting and spooky game! I think the amount of bullets was a bit bugged out? I kept thinking I only had one shot, but it wasn't the case. Thanks for the submission!
MistaGiggles
15. Oct 2024 · 17:19 UTC
Fantastic concept, and very well executed. Great creepy vibes and moments of panic when you run out of light before surveying everything. Really good entry!

![Untitled.png](///raw/547/14/z/68dd0.png)

Mimic gave itself away once either due to moving with the white outline over it!
Torami
16. Oct 2024 · 00:43 UTC
Wooow I adored the atmosphere of this game, very spooky:), the first time I ran out of matches I geniuenly got scared. I would have loved some more content but three days are three days so amazing work nonetheless.
kokostyrko
17. Oct 2024 · 11:04 UTC
The game creates a great atmosphere with an intriguing concept, though identifying the mimic can feel like a challenge.
LDJam user 248799
17. Oct 2024 · 16:50 UTC
Great entry! Spooky atmosphere, I love the effect of a micmic object dying.
LDJam user 221561
18. Oct 2024 · 01:47 UTC
Even more terrifying with headphones! Really good idea and well made, congrats! :) Plays right into the hands of our primal fear of the dark, and keeping bad things away with fire & light. I've played this quite a few times, will mention it to some friends.
ArtAllester
18. Oct 2024 · 17:31 UTC
good game, great aesthetic, overall fun experience!
Hawkin
20. Oct 2024 · 10:36 UTC
This was really satisfying to play through! The final night was definitely tough :D

![Untitled.png](///raw/319/53/z/68fb7.png)

It all felt complete! I think you planned the scope well, which gave you time to focus on player experience. The title screen was very well done and an awesome introduction to the mood. The lighting and the sounds helped maintain the mood throughout the game.

My only feedback is small. The start of the game could use just a touch more of help, like some text that explains what left and right click do. Without any other guidance, my first instinct is to left-click, which already uses a bullet. If you have time for others to playtest, it is really valuable to see how someone new interacts with your game (their assumptions and experiments). But this is really small feedback, because it was easy enough to reload the game once I learned the controls :)
GodDoesPlayDice
21. Oct 2024 · 11:02 UTC
Thanks a lot everyone for playing and for the feedback!
@hawkin, yeah, as usual we didn't have time to add help to the game itself, that's our problem in every LD :)
Hawkin
21. Oct 2024 · 13:24 UTC
@goddoesplaydice oh, I have the same problem. But fortunately I think a tutorial is not really critical, especially when there is a game page :D
Do3naut
21. Oct 2024 · 20:34 UTC
The atmosphere is really good! The game felt very complete especially for a jam :)
Tannimun
21. Oct 2024 · 20:39 UTC
Took a few tries but then I got it! Had to go back to the page and read the instructions to know what was going on.
The game looks good and has a nice mood to it! Very nice entry!