![NARCO[SCHLEPTIC]](https://files.gm48.net/games/1678/media/2740/conversions/icon-1678-480x320-1595269095-small.png?v=1682273748){kind=icon}
This game is a pretty linear adventure-y game. It really only has one proper large exploration area.
I set off with the goal of making a 3D exploration game in 48 hours, start to finish. And not like Wolfenstein-esque 3D, where it's super fake. I wanted at least "3D-ish". So I settled on kind of a mishmash of ideas from Doom and Wolfenstein.
I worked on this for about 38 hours, created everything from scratch (except some public domain art/sounds).
If you want to change FOV/Sensitivity, you can do-so in the settings.ini located inside the settings folder.
Some neato things:
- Sector based collision for environments, meaning it runs pretty darn fast.
- Made a custom area editor/exporter that stores levels in buffers. Theoretically this means modding is very possible with this framework.
- VQ3 Movement, with the addition of Quake 4 crouchsliding in the dreamworld. Yes this is ridiculous but I have a condition that requires me to implement strafejumping/bunnyhopping in everything I touch.
Apologies if some stuff doesn't work, I was solo on this, so playtesting was at an extreme minimum.
Controls:
- WASD - Movement
- Spacebar - Jump
- Control - Crouch
- Left Click - Interact
attribution:
Skyboxes generated with SpaceEngine
Submarine Diving Alarm - Daniel Simion
Other Sound effects by https://picturetosound.com
-
PatronI was so into the atmosphere it took me a while to realize where the theme was. Not that it's a bad interpretation or anything, I just forgot about it :D
I must say I really liked how you did the cars! There's some jank that's unavoidable for a 3D game in GM48, like the chairs in the wall, or the fact that you can go through some parts of the cars, but nothing that really hurts the experience.
The thing that does hurt a little is the alarm sound, it's really loud compared to the rest of the game, and having it on a loop while you fall a few time in that last level was right on the limit of how frustrating a jam game can be for me 😅 A little more and I might have gave up.
Also of note, maybe, when respawning the cursor shows up on the screen, and at the end the only way to quit is to alt-F4. Not important but that's the kind of detail that can go a long way!
And finally, not really a feedback, but idk if you knew, this jam has some pretty strict rules on assets use: assets are only allowed if they're free on the marketplace. Even if you have the rights to use something and it's available to everyone on the internet, it's not allowed in this jam, with I believe an exeption for derivative work.
SubmittedThe Inverted Castle
-
Lv. 2
Thank you for the feedback!
Yeah, sprite stacking is horribly inefficient in 3D but it looks kinda neat and is much much faster for me to do than individually plot out points and draw polys, and time sinks are a nono, especially as this was my first jam ever.
Alarm sound is probably too loud, though it was loud intentionally so. Bigger issue is no volume controls/not having a checkpoint closer I think.
The cursor shows up on screen because the player state machine only grabs the cursor when you're in the exploration sate, but respawning is cutscene state. Probably should've just made it apply to both but even exploration had the cursor on screen until right up until the end just due to forgetting about it.
Yeah, I quite literally ran out of time otherwise I would've added a menu with an option to quit and a main menu etc. I was working on that ending area until minutes before the deadline.
I guess I misinterpreted the rules upon first reading, and that is actually very frustrating. The rules as they are written seem extremely (and unnecessarily) hostile towards solo/single member entrants like myself. I don't think I'm going to place high enough for it to matter, but if my extremely limited use of 2 sound effects and some public domain textures were to disqualify me, I would find that rather absurd. Especially as my skybox would not break those rules because it was made with a 'generator', which while free to download is not public domain or even open source, meanwhile the handful of textures which are completely for public usage is breaking the rules? Also the fact that they would be alright if they were uploaded to the gamemaker marketplace? I can't see a valid reason for this besides YoYo being a bit heavy handed in their support of this jam.
Seems rather silly, but I wasn't entering to win or place anyway, just to make a 3D game in 48 hours.
-
Patron
Yeah I agree that the rules are pretty strict especially for solo devs, and can be confusing since most jams don't do that. I think the reasoning behind the marketplace thing is to make sure that everyone could access and find the assets easily.
And yeah, generators are allowed, same as creating assets with paid software and stuff like that, so there will always be some kind of inequality in the end, especially when you count teams and previous experience. But I also get that not allowing free assets simplifies the judging process too.
Anyways, I also think it doesn't really change anything for your game, but I wanted to warn you, at least for potential future GM48 :)
-
-
-
Lv. 15
Cool to see a 3D game attempt :) I think I found all the notes? Those alarms should die. :P
SubmittedSlime Well
-
Lv. 15
Really enjoyed this. It was a cool experience. I liked piecing together the surreal imagery. In some ways, reminded me a little of playing Myst. One issue I had was that there was a part I was struggling at and the alarm sound kept going on. Made it a little frustrating. Cool surreal experience!
SubmittedAfter School Afterlife
-
Lv. 21
Was this a fever dream?
Seriously though, on a technical level this was really impressive. The surrealist nature of the world and story is bizarre and really interesting. The biggest issue I have is that with how difficult the platforming can be, particularly without clear direction as to where you should be trying to go, respawn locations are far too sparse. Trying to jump over to the house when the alarm was blaring in my ear was really frustrating, and made worse by having to run half way across the map to get back after falling off the edge.
SubmittedDeck Deployment
-
Lv. 2
Thanks for the feedback
Yeah, the whole last section was done in a couple hours at the very end of the jam. I could've added another checkpoint there, but just ran out of time. It would quite literally take one minute or less to do haha.
The platforming is definitely more interesting if you understand the movement mechanics more and how to maneuver in the air, but I didn't include any explanation of that so it's kind of a moot point.
-
-
Lv. 3
I really enjoyed this. I think realising that crouch jumping was a thing early on gave me extra apprecciation, though it would have been cool for a note or something to be somewhere you could only crouch jump to read (maybe there was and I still didn't find it O.O) It was very surreal and quite dark at some points but I ended up empathising more with the character than I would have expected. It was longer than I was expecting for a game jam but I would have been happy to play more. Well done!
SubmittedBeat Flip
-
Lv. 2
Really glad to hear you enjoyed it!
I probably should've mentioned crouch jumping as well as the strafejumping in the description, but there wasn't really anywhere it was necessary to progress so I didn't bother. I honestly think that making a longer form version of this game, with a speedrun mode, would be interesting.
Also glad to hear you thought it had a decent amount of content, I guess I grossly overestimated what was expected length-wise out of a gamejam. I was convinced it was super bare-bones.
-
-
Lv. 16
This was both fun and creepy.
Some things had the feel they had been done in that mindset where you are extremely tired and everything is hilarious. I loved it.
Alongside the pleasant surrealist feeling the gameplay worked well. The movement was smooth: I didn’t feel frustrated in anytime even though I managed to push my workmate inside the wall (or was it a feature? hmm).
There was more content I expected from your description but it’s still a shame the game didn’t have more finished ending.
Good execution, thanks for the surrealist experience!
Ps. I like your listing of things you’re proud of in your game. Helps you to appreciate them while playing especially when they’re features you have no personal experience developing. Should be more common in game descriptions.
SubmittedDr. Rekoil and the Last Judgement
-
Lv. 2
Thank you so much for the feedback!
Yeah, the chairs are just a single point in 3d space, because at 5AM when I was on my 16th straight hour working on it, I thought to myself: It's so inefficient to calculate collisions for 4 different points, so I'll just do 1. Because optimization is super important in a game jam clearly >.>
Honestly the easiest solution would be to always draw the chair slightly towards the camera, because it isn't technically inside the wall its just on the same coordinate as the wall, but meh it works well enough.
Definitely was all done in that mindset where everything was funny, completely exhausted and just giggling. Was definitely a joy to work on all the stupid set piece bits.
This was my first ever game jam, so I thought it would have very little content compared to the other entries, but honestly I think it compares to most of them which was kind of a shock. But now I know :D
EDIT: Also I'm glad you liked the movement! That is by far the most important aspect in games for me. Fun is really restricted if it doesn't feel good to merely exist let alone use other game mechanics.
I figured since it's mostly developers looking at these, mentioning all the neat things I included (even if you can't notice them playing) is a nice thing to do. I definitely want to do a post-mortem on this because I think it could be pretty educational
-
