Hi all!

It has been a few days now and I feel I have enough perspective and feedback to write this now.

In short, everyone loves the look, sound and feel of the games atmosphere, but the gameplay is just too frustrating due to the handling and physics of the batteries.

I intend to overhaul this system and make a post jam version, but for now, here are my thoughts on the game. IF you would like to play my game, please find it here - https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/escape-from-solar-sea-fortress

Audio Importance I am really happy with the audio I managed to make in the time I had. I visited my parents who are an hour away to see my sister who lives far away and doesn't get to come visit us enough. On the way there and back in the car I was able to compose music and sleep so I wasn't burning too much time and there was another benefit. My parents live near Penton Hook Lock, so we went for a walk and I was able to record rushing water and wind ambiance for the top and bottom of the tower. I used the washing machine at our house, a creaky drum stool and some latches on doors to make the rest of the effects. I was really happy with the creaking of the hanging boat and the unfolding of the solar blades. I did the solar blades by stroking a knife across a surface and then layering it and reversing it.

Physics issues The big downer on the game was the handling of the physics. I had two options to fix an issue with the game. The player could push the batteries through walls and lose them forever and get stuck in the game. I either let them clip through walls OR have them drop when they collide in the players hand. The second option allowed the game to be at least 100% completed and not cause any blocking issues, so I chose that. I later discovered that people on slower machines would have even more issues as just simply moving was triggering collisions on frame-out somehow. Good to know for future, but not soon enough to save this.

Empty floors As I ran out of time, the last two floors were empty. I hoped they would feel like a pre-cursor to the escape and almost book-end the experience, but a few players commented on their barren nature so I think I failed there. In hindsight, if I had made the floors all the same size OR had made them square, I would have saved so much time. As it stood, I needed to place each wall individually and each panel and pillar. The last two floors I actually deleted and copy and pasted the above floors below. This gave the tower a bit more of an interesting shape as initially the lower floors were all large and shrinking up to the top.

Darkness/puzzles The initial concept for me was about trading light for progress. The batteries light the way but must be used up to move forward. This fell apart in the closing stages of the jam but I think it was at least a good direction to try. My big set piece puzzle was abandoned in the closing stages. There were supposed to be a circular maze of concentric walls with sections that rotated to allow you through. Placing batteries through this maze would activate the rotation of individual sections so you could reach the end and release the boat. Ran out of time to make this work OR fun and in my initial tests found it was too easy to get stuck and lose a battery. Ended up walling it off and placing all three batteries outside and then hiding the boat switch PAST the batteries. It was OK but not what I had hoped for.

Shadow of light I was very happy with the shapes of the shadows coming from the battery. I actually made it randomly set the rotation when you picked up the battery so that the shadows would vary each time. I really like it when the battery moves in the holder or rolls on the floor as the shapes really bring the environment to life.

Base Pieces The tower was made out of very few pieces. 1 Set of stairs 1 Floor (cut and scaled) 1 Arch 1 Pillar 2 Panels with shapes cut through 1 Filler block

I scaled, rotated and flipped the panels to create variety and build each floor by hand, copying and pasting each element. This gave the tower a wonky/individual feel that I like, but the effort may not have been worth the effect.

Circular theme The reason I stuck so closely to the circular tower was that it was an image in my head that I could not shake. It also seemed to fit with the flow of a circular theme. The sun, solar panels, round batteries and round tower. Plus the cyclic nature of the story/ending and the feeling of going around and being trapped really solidified it together for me. As I played the final version through after submission, I found bugs that were quick fixes etc, but my biggest discovery was all the subliminal themes that came to mind as I finished the game. I thought of Bioshock and the Truman show and being trapped in a surreal metaphor mind state and realised that keeping the game fairly sparse and without putting in specific narrative text or hints allowed the game to really breathe and be open for interpretation. The name was the final point on this. Calling it "Escape from Solar Sea Fortress" really spelled out to the player what the game was without needing intro text or objectives. Escape - Obviously you need to get out. That is your goal. Maybe you are trapped? maybe you are in danger? Solar - Calling out that the charging system in the game used the sun Sea - At the beginning you might not notice where the tower is located due to the fogging (needed for the end sequence) so this set the scene Fortress - This was a late addition and only came to mind when I saw the tower standing. I called it a tower for the majority of development but in speaking to friends, we came up with a silly name, "the fortress or solartude" which made me laugh, but also stuck the term fortress in my head.

Final thoughts In closing, I am glad everyone likes the style and atmosphere, am frustrated I couldn't fix the batteries in time and will definitely be making a post-jam fixed version. Actually started recommending that people watch the walkthrough video if they get too frustrated, rather than pushing on.. as it only gets worse!

That link again IS - https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/escape-from-solar-sea-fortress ;)

Thank you everyone for the feedback and support. See you next time! I am off to play and rate some games

• G @xopsx