Keyfumbler
A short, horror themed game.
Some time ago we were discussing a game on the DGC chat when an idea of boiling down a game to collecting keys and opening doors came up.
This kajam is a great oportunity to try and build it so I hope I'll be able to finish it.
For now the performance is quite abysmal but I do want to have dynamic lightning in the game, including on the floors.
It's all written in love2d. It's been fun rediscovering Lua after several years of not writing a line in it.
Comments (10)
I've uploaded a new version (same link) which is a bit more optimized (hopefully), seems like decal rendering is the worst culprit. This one also adds keys 9 = show fps, -/= = increase/decrease quality (only levels 7-10 change anything, but the impact is pretty slim, both visually and performance wise)
It's my party and I'll step on the tables if I want to! :-) Haha, I thought it was a rendering glitch at first, but no, it's a feature of sorts!
Anayway, nice! I especially like the window effect this has going on just before the wine-cellar. In addition to the detailed lighting-levels of course.
The story element is also quite cool. It really helps set the atmosphere, as well as help with the tutorialization. On the one hand, the key system also helps with that, on the other, I found it quite cumbersome at times.
I got to the crate you have to push out the way, then thought, 'well let's first check the other nook' … and then I was dead. I felt that there was too little warning at that point.
Nice to see LÖVE still chugging along as well, always one or two people still playing around with it, always a slightly newer version whenever I have to download it. My first jam-game was in the language, so I have a bit of a soft spot for it :-)
Spoiler Warning:
When you first see the monster and the lights go out, you are working on a timer. The monster follows a path and "taints" regions which become black, if you enter a black region, it's game over. The idea is to hurry and find a way out. Of course in my testing I knew what to do and got quite skilled at fumbling with the keys so maybe the timing is quite off.
I managed to beat it on my third attempt :)
The atmosphere and sound effects are well done, and build up a really creepy mood. Entering the cellar into the dark, getting the loud metallic sound when fetching the bottle, then seeing the heavy door shut behind us are really well done moments. The dialogue (…more like monologue) was good too.
The only slightly underwhelming part of an otherwise 100% working horror game is showing the monster clearly, walking slowly towards us. I would have preferred something more mysterious, like ceiling lights turning off in succession, each one of them triggering some kind of sound. With that sound thing you could even give the player a vague idea of where the enemy is, as the sound of lights turning off gets triggered closer.
The keyring manipulation is slightly complicated, and I only got really used to the controls on my last attempt, but I feel it's part of the mechanic to simulate messing with the keys while running away, so nothing to complain about! With more time to create assets it could have been more fun by having each key and lock different, so you could give us a huge keyring with enough hints to let us find the right combination without trial and error.
Great work, and of course nice job for the dynamic lighting, the game had good framerates most of the time on my average setup.
@Wan congratulations! Thanks for persevering :)
Originally I have planned blurring and distorting the screen the closer the monster gets, with a visible keyhole form and a minigame where you have to actually put the key in the hole. That turned out to be too ambitious.
The key generator actually has features for having other key types but in the end I've never implemented them.
No link yet? :-(
The screenshot looks intregueing at least! Both in the technical sense (dynamic lighting is always fun, also, I wonder about those artifacts on the floor and ceiling), as in the artistic sense of 'it looks like exploring an abstract liminal space' which I like very much.