The main menu in my game is the best looking piece so far lol I haven't even had time to balance the game properly. But here it is. I've never published my games before and never finished any. But with this project it's finally going to change.

In Comms you play as the only crewman of an outpost orbiting an alien planet. You're haunted by an invisible monster, that always stays in the dark and only reacts to light. To survive, you have to preserve power, distribute it wisely between lights and transmitters (which you need to send an SOS message in order to get rescued), and carefully go through environment, listening closely to the monster's footsteps and watching motion of props that it pushes around. Being patient and not rushing is the only way to survive.

What I aim for is an experiment. If you can't see the monster, your mind should tailor the scariest one for you. If you barely know where it is, your mind should inevitably suggest it's close. If you can't see how it kills you, you think of the worst way possible. But none of this would work without a proper atmosphere... Which frankly, this game has very little so far. I could only do so much work on sound and environments in the time frame of the contest, but I'm hoping to get it as close to my vision as possible in the near future.

Windows: https://biocrust.itch.io/comms

Yesterday I finished a big update on graphics in my game, and it fees much more atmospheric and immersive now! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/comms

It's very lonely and dark in space

All of the projects I previously started were never finished. Not from the lack of resources or skills, but from just how insanely high I used to set the bar. It was always my mind, nothing else, keeping me from finishing. To be fair, even for this project (https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/comms), I set the goal a little bit above my reach: somewhat AAA look, VO, high quality sound effects, etc. I'm yet to get a voice actor.

The lit interiors look cozy and safe... ...Contrasting with uncomfortably dense darkness

One important thing I learned is to prioritize getting the project released over hitting overly high quality standards ("overly high" for an one-person developer). This means that some things have to be replaced or removed, e.g. I had to replace VO with text boxes that narrate what's happening in the game. I think it doesn't break the immersion as much as mute subtitles would, and it doesn't leave player wondering what's going on.

The story is explained through text boxes

Now I'm getting back to some of my previous projects, and my mind now seems to be able to draw a development path that has an actual end, and considers solutions that get the thing done timely, instead of doing something overly ambitious that takes indefinitely long (e.g. writing a level generator for a game, going crazy with features for it, never finishing it, forgetting there even was a game in the first place).

That said, do I consider Comms finished-finished? No. I'll keep adding more to it, take it to Steam, and hopefully start making money. But besides Comms, I've a lot of projects to get back to and finish.

Follow me on twitter (@biocrust) for updates!

I've finally found a voice actor for my game, and will soon update it with a VO pass! Comms is a small experimental horror game where you're one to one with an invisible demon on an isolated space station. Stay in the light to survive, and watch out for an eclipse!

Link: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/comms