The Well by sbeif

[raw]
made by sbeif for Ludum Dare 57 (JAM)

Inside the well is too dark to see anything. Escape using only your hearing. Beware of what lurks in the darkness.

Screenshot 2025-04-08 020740.png

Screenshot 2025-04-08 020802.png (Actual in-game footage)

AUDIO REQUIRED
Headphones recommended

CONTROLS:
Walk: Right arrow / D
Crouch: Down arrow / S
Jump / Slow down fall: Up arrow / W

ACCESSIBILITY
The game is suitable for visually impaired people.

Hint: Don't get too much speed when falling, you don't know where the end is.

Credits:
Sbeif - Programming, Sound design
Amedea - Sound design, Graphics

Ratings

Overall 195th 3.854⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Fun 392th 3.44⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 13th 4.34⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Theme 291th 3.917⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Audio 5th 4.52⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Mood 44th 4.313⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Given 29🗳️ 26🗨️

Feedback

mgear
08. Apr 2025 · 11:41 UTC
nice one! (best graphics with imagination)
also imagine this game in VR? : D
sofia.miglan
08. Apr 2025 · 11:41 UTC
The game looks strange and mysterious on the website, I just have a black screen, but the sound effects made me shudder.
🎤 sbeif
08. Apr 2025 · 11:46 UTC
@sofia-miglan No bug there, the game is all played on a black screen through sound. The idea is to use the sounds that you hear to navigate inside the game as if you were really inside a well where no light can reach you.
FoxEcho
08. Apr 2025 · 11:49 UTC
Really original concept—relying entirely on audio without visuals is a bold move. The horror atmosphere came through well. Interesting experience, nice game!
angelalb
08. Apr 2025 · 11:51 UTC
Interesting game! I could see a more complete version of this, with some kind of pinging noise to tell the player which direction to go, or how far from the objective they are.
As it is, it was an interesting experience, but after a minute or two, I wasn't sure if there was no ending, or I was just repeatedly dying when the zombie sounds increased and repeating the first few seconds of the game. I would have liked a clearer "you died" sound, with a pause afterwards. Maybe a sound that is only played at the start of the game, so that restarting is clearer? (If I was actually dying... maybe I was always having narrow escapes).
HowToBeHayes
08. Apr 2025 · 11:55 UTC
I love the idea that you only have to pay attention to the sounds and nothing else! Super game
sofia.miglan
08. Apr 2025 · 12:01 UTC
I suspected that the black screen was originally designed that way. I played the game again. The sound effects are amazing. This is a very cool idea.
🎤 sbeif
08. Apr 2025 · 12:05 UTC
@sofia-miglan Thank you so much for giving it a second try :)
Indiealesha
08. Apr 2025 · 12:07 UTC
The sounds at the start are just as sharp and loud as in my game, lol. It actually startled me! :)
🎤 sbeif
08. Apr 2025 · 12:08 UTC
@angelalb If you hear the "blaargh" sound you've been eaten and the game restarts (same as if you hear the crushing sound after falling). We wanted to add also a "Try again" voice to suggest that the level restarted but in the end we missed it in the rush to deliver.

BTW there is an end, I didn't time it but I think the game only takes a couple of minutes from start to end.
fusionnist
08. Apr 2025 · 14:05 UTC
Impressive game! I know only a handful of sound-based games, but I suspect it isn't very easy to make in a jam. Also... your have a beautiful voice ;)
Norabacu
10. Apr 2025 · 21:31 UTC
What a unique idea! Also the voice acting makes it perfect. "run" as a hint bevor the monster was amazing. I was confused if tehre is an end you can reach. Also the dying was not clear for me.

i am going to recommend the Game to a nearly blind friEnd of mine. please keep working on games like this! Gaming should be for everyone.
marudziik
10. Apr 2025 · 23:49 UTC
I loved the idea, and the audio cues are great. I remember seeing audio-only games in LD before, but this case fits the theme quite well, and adds to the mood. I think being able to see actually makes the game more difficult, and it's also pretty scary experience. If others don't believe me - play with your monitor turned off, late at night, no bright lights. Super scary, and the atmosphere is chilling. Great work!
noagard
11. Apr 2025 · 09:48 UTC
Wow super cool idea! Best experience with closed eyes and headphones on! At the beginning it was hard to understand that the level had restarted, only the level not changing told me that I died, maybe some death scream could help. I am glad that I save now, thanks for game!
Flying Dog Fish
11. Apr 2025 · 17:40 UTC
Great idea and execution, but stumbling around in the dark get a bit boring after a while. This would probably work better if it was just a part of a larger game in which light only get turned off occasionally.
TimeLost
11. Apr 2025 · 18:34 UTC
It's a cool concept but it got boring after a little while. It was hard to tell if you died. The sound effects seem a bit too repetitive for this style of game. The sound effects themselves are great and so are the voice lines. Overall cool game for the theme and very innovative.
LDJam user 374028
11. Apr 2025 · 21:44 UTC
Amazing entry! I've always wondered how to make a game with complete blindness in mind and I had some ideas, but this is the first time I've seen (or rather heard) them put in practice. It was an amazing experience. Thank you for making this, it's so cool, really!! Great work, you get full marks from me! ;)
Borabee
11. Apr 2025 · 23:05 UTC
Really cool idea and great execution. We had a similar idea during our brainstorming (the player would loose the senses as they went deeper, until they ended in complete darkness), but thought it would be too difficult to make, so we went in a different direction entirely haha. But it's cool to see that that idea was made and in such a cool way!

The voice acting and sound design are on point here. Love the monster sounds and how they get louder! Very scary!

I'm curious... Did you actually design a physical level and just made it dark? Or are the events that create the sounds randomly generated?

Either way, awesome game!
Xivo
12. Apr 2025 · 00:15 UTC
Liked the idea very much, and it was well done! Very unique. The sounds were great, and man did I get nervous when the monster's noise kept getting louder hahaha. One thing I would point, though, is that I felt very confused when the monster got me and the level restarted whithout me knowing it. Other than that, nice entry!
🎤 sbeif
12. Apr 2025 · 08:43 UTC
@borabee I designed a physical level and used collisions to trigger the audio cues, It's probably less computationally efficient than say timing stuff, but it's way easier and intuitive to design the level this way.

@xivo @timelost Yeah most feedback included that the death/respawn is not very clear, we planned on adding a voiceover for that too but we feared it could get too repetitive and in the end we missed it in the rush to deliver
silkworm_sweatshop
14. Apr 2025 · 17:45 UTC
Cool! I've seen a couple audio only games before on LD and they're always interesting. Definitely gets a bit tense when you start to get chased not knowing exactly how close you are to getting caught. With just 3 actions and cues you have right now it's not too complex. It would be interesting to see what could be added to something more expanded.
Aleksey Salion
17. Apr 2025 · 19:24 UTC
wow cool idea! It was an interesting experience, love it!
MoonDweller
18. Apr 2025 · 19:31 UTC
Ah, yes, an asmr game :headphones: :heart:

Audio-only games are really rare and, of course, are very challenging to design.
Surprisingly, this one works really well! I nearly always knew what to do and what was happening in the game.
A great entry!

Since this time we did some experiments with web audio too, I'm very interested if you tried something to vary the spacing of the audio source?
For example, on my first playthrough, I died because I didn't understand whether a monster was in front of me or just behind.
The voice hint to run helped me on the second attempt anyway.
So, if the monster sound was positioned more to the left I guess I'd start running even without the hints :runner:
But I'm not sure if unity allows to do so in WebGL builds.
🎤 sbeif
23. Apr 2025 · 09:48 UTC
@moondweller I did try panning the monster so that the sound came from the left at first and became more centered as it came closer but apparently (and I'm only noticing now) it doesn't work with WebGL builds. In the editor it worked as expected by just modifying the StereoPan parameter of the AudioSource component.