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A jam submission

AUDIO PHANTOMView game page

An echolocation horror game. Freeze when you hear a note.
Submitted by sillychampion — 8 hours, 44 minutes before the deadline
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AUDIO PHANTOM's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Art#34.3814.381
Originality#44.1434.143
Audio#83.5713.571
Overall#93.6483.648
Theme#173.5713.571
Fun#432.5712.571

Ranked from 21 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Did your team create most/all of the graphics yourselves?
Yes, except two of the npc models which are 3d people scans.

Did your team create most of/all the audio yourselves?
No. I used and modified freely available effects and music.

How did you incorporate the theme "FREEZE"?
The monster tries to echolocate you. If you freeze during it's call, it can't see you.

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Comments

Submitted

Wish I could play this, but I suffer from slight photosensitive in my eyes so I couldn’t keep playing. I can’t even look at the thumbnail gif for too long, lol.

Developer(+1)

I'm really sorry you couldn't play. Is there a term for your type of photosensitivity? I'm just curious to research what I could do in the future to accommodate it

Submitted

Hi, mine is like a pretty minor affliction (worst case, it could cause just a headache) but it’s under the same one that’s way extreme, called Photosensitivity epilepsy.

Usually the “Warning: This game may contain flashing lights” message is used to warn people who have it.

On ways to make the content itself accessible, I have only seen one example of this, in the game Subnautica, there you can turn on a checkbox and the flashing lights will appear in veeeeeeery slooooow motion. Helped a ton when I played it.

Developer(+1)

I had implemented a smoothing effect for the lighting, but it's disabled in the current build. I uploaded another build with it turned on. Also I turned off chromatic aberration and bloom as I saw people on social media saying that might help. I can't say for sure how well this will play or whether it will solve your issue,  but you're welcome to give it a shot. I understand if you don't want to risk it. The password is "freeze". https://sillychampion.itch.io/audio-phantom-photosensitive

Submitted

Hey, I tried it and I was able to play it with no complications!

I don’t know how visually different it is from the original but I really liked that star effect on the floor, pretty unique. (If I see a screenshot of that pattern elsewhere I would totally recognize it from this game)

I did run into some bugs though, don’t know if this modified version caused them or not. But losing a few times or pressing R moments before losing (idk what triggers it) makes you immortal, the phantom will scream at you but you can stil move, hence lighting the whole area with it. (couldn’t find the exit even then, sad)

I found the woman, but when I talked to her nothing showed up, but my movement was freezed as if a dialog was happening but there was nothing on screen (like with the first man), pressing R was the only thing that worked, but approaching her again did not prompted the [E] to interact message again.

I read your comments on the feedback given as being difficult to traverse, I want to give my 2 cents if you don’t mind. Yes, I find it quite difficult to see where to go in the dark but I think it was due to two main things:

  • The first thing I noticed was these focus light stands being placed on the center of a end path. In one way this could serve as an effective stopping wall and you know you reached a dead end, but with the ability to jump from one path to another, if you jump to this end path, then it is no longer and “end” path but a “start” path, and having a literal wall in the middle would cause you to bump into it and lead you straight to your dead, by walking off the edge.

  • The second thing I noticed was that due to the floor having these glowing dots, the further you look, the more defined the path you would see in the distance (because the dots would be closer to one another) but near to you, the dots are more scattered, making difficult to see the path clearly (there was no defining shape) leading you to take a step into the void.

That was one cent, the second cent is how I think you could resolve those problems but take it with a grain of salt of course.

For the first issue I mentioned, a solution could be to have this end path be higher, like the last block, where the focus light is standing, be one block higher than the path. So making it clear that you shouldn’t jump there cause there is no much room to jump to, and even if you do, you know you jumped into a block so you would know to watch your step when moving after landing.

For the second issue, a solution could be to have some “edges” on the path, like have some more dots near the edges so when the dots are lighted up near you, you would see a clear defined shape, giving you a clue as to what is path and what is void.

Althoug given your design vision for the game, that could break the design planned or be too easy to traverse, so one approach could be to only show these “edges” at certain times (when the echoe sound is played, for example) that could even be tied to the source of the audio or in random points on the map, expanding outwards from the center point, lasting what the sound lasts.

Oh boi, I did not expect this to be that long, anyways, cool visuals, nice mechanics and thanks for taking the trouble to add an accessibilty feature for me to play this game!

Developer(+1)

Thank you so much for this, it's super helpful. I had a few people get bugs around dialogue not working, but I think the way you described it I can understand why it happened now. And your two suggestions for the lights are great I think, especially the comment about the distant vs near visibility. It was no problem at all to upload an accessible build. You made it well worth it to me, thank you so much!

Submitted (2 edits)

One of my fav games in this jam! It is very expertly crafted. If I may, you should have focused less on platforming as the visuals had already made it a little difficult to see things. The monster evasion should have been the priority.

Also the first dialogue was a slog to sit through. 
Anyways, I'm giving it top points for originality and art, for sure!

Developer

Thank you! I think your feedback is right on. Platforming in the dark sounds a little silly in retrospect

Submitted

The beginning is really good to get you oriented because it can be a bit hard to find your way. The art style with the glowing "stars" in the walls and objects is quite unique and I really enjoyed it. It lends itself well to the genre and feel of the game, too.

This game is probably most on point about the theme of the jam than any other I've seen. The having to freeze is quite fun and tense as you don't know where the monster is coming from. After a while it also led to me freezing before I hear anything because my reaction speed was too slow so I was "expecting" a note soon and froze pre-emptively. It makes you quite tense and paranoid as to when that note is gonna come and it feels very fitting that you get scared in advance and just stop and listen.

However, the fullscreen didn't work for me and it was very hard to find my way around the maze, I didn't know where I had to go either (where exactly is the center? Do I have to go up or down or what?) It is fun that you can jump over many gaps but it was too hard to find out where I was going after a while, and after I dropped into a hole after getting very far, I gave up.

Overall, a super great game idea and great fit for the theme!

Developer

Thank you so much for the kind words. I'm really happy with the artstyle as well. I was thinking how can I make the best looking realtime lighting on the browser and it was sort of a happy accident from there. I'm glad you enjoyed the gameplay. I was worried people wouldn't see the connection to the theme. I'm really flattered you kept playing even with the fullscreen bug

Submitted

The look of this game makes a really strong impression, and combined with the audio effects it makes for an intriguing environment. I was in the mood to explore, then got stuck in a conversation that took too long to get through IMO, so I'd my feedback would be A) trim the dialogue and B) speed up the load bar at least 5x so the player has the freedom to skim-read through it. Also, whilst the gameplay makes sense for this theme, if you were to expand on this project I'd suggest focusing on the player's freedom to explore and interact, because it's currently an intriguing world that you can't explore without a phantom  jumping you after a few seconds!  Great project though, very interesting!

Developer(+1)

Thank you! A dialogue skip feature was high on my backlog but I didn't get around to it. Regardless, I'm really happy you found it interesting. I would love to make a more exploratory visual game in the future.

Submitted

Very very pretty game, both looks and sounds very cool. But it's just way too hard to see where you're going, man. When I'm not falling off of things, I'm getting tripped up because the only time I get good enough visibility is when I'm not allowed to move. I see that there's a little bit more light each time the charterer takes a step, but that little bit of light doesn't really help if that step sends to plunging into the dark abyss. And sometimes it's very hard to have the patience to wait for the last of the little sound to fade away when your only little bit of light is fading with it. Still, very artistic and pleasant on the eyes and ears. I especially love how the face of the characters' portraits would light up on each note as the world did while you spoke to them.

Developer(+1)

Thank you! I'm sorry you had a hard time seeing. That's something I struggled with a lot as the amount of light is dependent on your movement and playstyle. Looking back now I think I should have prioritized a creative solution to this. I'm glad you found the art style interesting though! I'm glad you noticed the portraits. That's something I was really happy with as well.

Submitted

I like mazes, and the art style was very interesting!  Was risky to start moving again because the lights would dim, so I wasn't sure how close I was to a ledge, but that just added to the suspense!

Developer

Thank you! Glad you found it somewhat interesting. Hope you didn't fall too many times!

Submitted

the art design is so good here not that you can't just see it you can also experience it along with the gameplay, props to that! 

Developer

Thank you Cedric! That means a lot coming from you

Submitted

goood game!

Developer

Thank you!

Submitted

Unfortunatly i couldnt realy finish the game,but i can still appreciate the narrative and artistic nature of it,quite brave to attempts such a unique idea and end up witha good excution,and i respect that!

Developer(+1)

Thank you! Don't feel bad about not finishing

Submitted

You're welcome! It would be nice to know what you think of my game If you got time to check it out!

Submitted

I am not quite sure what my end goal was for this game, I got to a point where I could no longer move because it just kept the the audio flash/bombing effect. It seemed like a maze type game with a chaser monster. The visuals and audio were very unique! I just wish I understood the gameplay a bit better.

Developer(+1)

Thank you for giving it a shot! Sorry you weren't able to progress more :(

Submitted

That's okay, jam games are expected to have some rough edges! lol It was just a minor bug and I was able to experience what seemed to be majority of the game, so it didn't hurt anything.

Submitted

Visually striking game, make me feel in a limbo sort of. I liked how mysterious everything was. I would've enjoyed more a clearer place because it was hard for me to know where the walls and floor were, especially at first. Overall, a creative and special entry. PD: Since the man didn't want to give me his name I called him Charlie xd :D.

Developer(+1)

Thank you so much! I wish I could have come up with a better solution for guiding the players. As the lights are tied to audio and movement I struggled with the fact that certain playstyles would end up getting lost more. I'm sorry I couldn't balance it for you. I like the name Charlie, that can be his official name :).

Submitted

Those visuals are amazing!

Developer

Thank you!

Submitted

Amazing visuals, love them. Interesting gameplay and theme, I was able to make it to the end of the maze seemingly and also find the woman, but whether bug or design, neither seemed to offer anything. Still great though, thoroughly enjoyed, good job!

Developer(+1)

That's very kind. You should have been able to have some dialogue at those segments, so that sounds like a bug. But I'm glad you still found something about it enjoyable

Submitted

Yeah, no worries, legitimately beautiful! Love the vibe, would love to see it explored more.

Submitted

Really cool visual style. Normally I am not really into horror games but this one is pretty cool. One critique I have is that I don't really have a reference point of where I should go to. I came quite far but I had no clue where to go. Overall cool game and I could see fans of the genre really like this.

Developer

Thank you for playing! Horror also isn't my favorite genre, but I'm glad you found something enjoyable