groovies got their groove on
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Lurking in the Dark's itch.io pageResults
Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
Design | #21 | 4.491 | 4.491 |
Overall | #43 | 4.400 | 4.400 |
Originality | #114 | 4.396 | 4.396 |
Adherence to the Theme | #293 | 4.314 | 4.314 |
Ranked from 159 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Comments
Hey, came here because you left a comment in my game: https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/461692. I managed to finish the game, and I must say that it's a pity that the game finishes in the 6th level, because in there is when I started to strategize with both moving in the dark and luring the enemies with the torch. It's a pretty simple but beautifully executed concept. Congrats to the team!
I love it! It's so tense and weird (in a good way), I got a couple of jumpscares on my playthrough.
The mechanics work in a lovely way, this definitely has the perfect balance between suspense and exploration. Definitely in my top 10 this jam.
The art is superb too. Colors are great, the screens look rich yet simple. It's a great art direction overall.
Just at the start the game grabs you, first the ambience then it tells you to press spacebar. You do it, and the light appears and the game is there. Man, that's such an elegant way to present the mechanic, seriously. And it extends to the art assets, and specially the level progress screen. So nice, compact, and elegant!
The artist side of me is appeased. The animator side of me would like the feel of the movement animations and direction change to be a little less sluggish, but the artstyle still carries it through with no problems!
The game can certainly catch you if you get too into it while running from a monster and fall into some spikes. The scream startled me, hahahah. Though i'm not the bravest person around, i do think it means the atmosphere is good, hahaha.
Also really liked how you implemented that the floor can have multiple monsters. Got trapped between those two.
Overall, outstanding!
One other small thing: I actually thought that when a level lighted up, it was because i was going into that level, not that it was done. Foolish of me in hindsight, but it does mean i ended up expecting one more level and felt a bit anticlimatic, hehe.
Looks and sounds great. Fun at first but the levels can get repetitive.
Spectacularly sharp, in its artistic design and implementation all around! I'd like to do the developers a service by pointing out what truly shines about this game, and why you should try it out!
-Clear communication of scope: with the first level being fairly short to complete, then showing one flame in the tower, the player can understand just how much time they're committing to! Short and satisfying!
- Lovely artistic choices! Being a bit of a puzzle/dungeon crawler hybrid that also hedges on wordless tutorials, it's clear how effective the imagery works when the gameplay components are so affordable!
- Healthy lenience in the gameplay keeps anxiety and intrigue in a playful balance! e.g. being able to spot the corners of tiles by rotating the light, flickering the light to gradually scour an unfamiliar area safely, quick respawns meant I could experiment with the game's silent rules with no frustration!
- The game takes its most basic concept and runs the full course: I can see exactly what I subjectively enjoy about this design, and I am ready to be excited for any extensions of it! I could say all of the points above with zero hesitation!
Whether this game continues to grow or remains a solid jam entry, it's a significant and memorable experience for me! Awesome job!
Truly unique and nice artstyle. I had fun playing it all the way through. You should definitely work this through and release it as a complete game, add different enemies, traps, mechanics. Nicely done!
Really well polished. I got scared a couple of time. The mechanic is interesting and works well.
I had only one technical hiccup, sometimes the movement and light jitter a lot.
I play on a recent Mac Mini. Here a video of the issue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztfvVE3pK3M&feature=youtu.be
Clever and fitting concept and the atmosphere was very well-made, those monsters creeped me out big time!
The screams scared the heck out of me! It looks awesome and plays awesome as well! I didn't feel like I needed to turn off the candle, except, in the tutorial. I had to run few levels multiple times, so I could beat them, so it was a bit changing also. I think this is a good, solid game!
My biggest surprise is not seeing only praise in the comments. Seriously, Amazing game! a simple concept, captures theme quite well, FUN, clever and even pretty and polished. I can see the argument that there wasn't that many level, but with the limited time, I much appreciate the complete & polished package you delivered.
Best one so far for me! Good job.
I did, Dodgeball Fantasy
https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/463874
Nothing like yours but I think its nice! Mine does have a bug, so I suggest the fix version (same game).
Thanks
Very nicely done! I like how you used dual-purpose design with the candle - it allows you to see, but also makes others see you (which you can use to lure them into traps).
Seeing in one direction isn't new, but seeing only one tile at a time is something I personally haven't seen, so very cool take on the jam's theme - it really engages the spacial orientation, and I think it can have a lot of potential in making the player feel completely lost if the levels get just a bit bigger. I could easily imagine having an intricate plan on how to lure a monster into spikes, only to accidentally encounter another, reach a dead end, then running into the spikes I wanted to lute the monster to in the first place! (On that note, bigger open spaces could make really great use of this mechanic after the more basic corridor levels)
Overall, great work! 5/5 on all counts.
Thank you for you feedback!
Those are great comments too! We wanted to make smaller levels so the jam version can be solid and polished, so we tried to avoid open spaces, but what you're saying is spot-on! If we do an expanded version then that's probably the first thing we'll be exploring.
Thanks again for you playing!
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