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A jam submission

THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPERView game page

A lighthouse keeper takes a mysterious graveyard shift, but what he doesn't know is he isn't the only one on the island
Submitted by thecyberden — 10 hours, 6 minutes before the deadline
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THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Theme#3453.3453.345
Audio#3613.2243.224
Game Design#4773.1383.138
Overall#5333.0573.057
Graphics#5563.2073.207
Innovation#6902.6722.672
Fun#7082.7592.759

Ranked from 58 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

How does your game fit the theme?
A violent storm washes up a creature from the deep depths of the ocean.

Did you write all the code and made all the assets from scratch?
Most of the assets were made by the team, some textures and sfx were used with the MIT license and credited.

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Comments

Viewing comments 20 to 1 of 50 · Previous page · First page
Submitted (1 edit)

Heya! Good job on the game, here's my feedback!

Game design feedback:

  • The character should be able to jump to navigate the terrain better as it's very bumpy and has hills everywhere. It also helps with moments where the character gets stuck or falls through terrain which happens frequently. Not being able to jump made terrain traversal options rather limiting.
  • There should be markers to tell you where to go next. Be it obvious guiding arrows, or just naturally-placed signboards on the terrain. I couldn't find the first destination despite wandering around for several minutes. Even if you want to keep the exploration aspect, you can make the markers appear after some time when the player has still yet to meet the objective, so it isn't confusing or frustrating for the player when they cannot find the shed after some time has passed.
  • Subtitles for the dialogs would be nice

Graphic feedback:

  • I found it quite dark overall, I think it could help with some contrast. For example, if the ground is dark, make the sky a bright grey so I can see the silhouette of the terrain. Or make the sky dark but have the ground be lit by occasional light sources such as lanterns and fireflies to illuminate the terrain. Currently, both the ground and the sky is black - although the rain helps to see the 'horizon line', the screen itself should never be pitch black outdoors. Even at night, there should still be some moonlight.
  • The stairs in the lighthouse are pitch black in some areas, but the walls are illuminated and sometimes it's the other way around. (Seems like a directional light is passing through and hitting areas it should not?) There were also moments where descending, the screen is just pitch black because I'm facing the wall or opposite of the directional light, which makes it difficult to orientate myself in such a narrow tight space.
  • I think the lighthouse could be the clear defining landmark. I expected it to be really easy to see and find no matter where I am, but because the fog distance is so short, I cannot see much further and couldn't find my way back to the lighthouse if I wanted to. I think the game would be better if you make it really tall and emit a bright light. If you don't want a minimap, make it very obvious where it is - so you can always orientate yourself and your relative position to it, and not get lost.

Technical feedback:

  • At the bottom of the lighthouse, there should be an actual wall instead of an invisible collider to tell you you cannot descend further. I thought it was a collider bug until I turned left and saw the door to indicate where I was supposed to go.
  • I fell through the ground very early on and it seems to happen occasionally and had to struggle getting back up.
  • The build is pretty big (700MB) for the content, I think it could be optimized better since it's a downloadable game, but this is a minor point.

Liked:

  • Atmosphere and mood was well established.
  • Rain sound effects really elevated the immersion.
  • Good job on the game - this was the first first-person controller game I played and I liked how you start off at the top of a lighthouse and you descend a stairs while sharing the dialog and story through the walkie-talkie. I liked how the game introduced the narrative that way.

Edit: Managed to find the shed at last, was a pretty short game but I liked how it got scarier when you flicked the switch and the rain instantly stops. Like woah. Nice little story too, I actually want to know more about what exactly is on that island! :)

Developer

First of all thank you so much for all the feedback this is incredibly helpful especially from an experienced developer.

About the jumping; it was something I considered at the start and I came to the conclusion that its more scary if you cant jump as you have less places to go (i don't know how to explain that). The terrain was a real problem especially considering godot is the best at 3d physics.

When i was playtesting the game with my friends some of them also couldnt find the shed but some of them found it instantly, so my solution was to remove some of the trees so you can see further. Markers is a great idea i just didn't think of that at the time sadly also considering the objective text was added last minute ; overall player game direction if definitely something i need to work on.

I was going to add subtitles and i had the text written out to do so but as with most game jams i just ran out of time and there was more important stuff to be dealt with. With the pitch black issue i had thought the torch fixed that and i never got any complaints  about that so i didnt fix it, the reason you couldnt see the light house stairs might have been because i didnt plan for the player to walk downstairs before the time skip. About the lighthouse i intended to make it so you could only see it once you turned it back on which worked  and the light house has a breaking down animation where the light turns of which means you can see it until you fix it.

The lighthouses invisible collider was added very last minute so i didnt have a lot of time to add a mesh and i js assumed you would be "hitting your head there" or something.

Godots 3D collisions are good but they most definitely need improving (I think its planned in the next version)

The file size was way to big for the content im aware but what it came down to in the end was textures and models which i could have fixed but i just didnt have time again, and i felt better after seeing one of the most popular games with a 2 gb download.

Thank you so much for this , this has made my day literally. I do think you would have changed a few points if you finished the game but thats my fault anyway but thank you for all the feedback i would be happy to give you more feedback on your game if you would like.

I just wanted to say its crazy how you got your game running in the browser with all the moving people and effects

Submitted (2 edits)

Just wanted to let you know I managed to finish the game. Actually I finished it earlier shortly after I wrote my feedback and I edited my comment and scoring to reflect that at that time. In fact not much needed to change as I had already given you full marks on the Graphics and Audio, which I thought was done really well to establish the mood and atmosphere of the game!

It is fully understandable that you had to prioritize on the things that matter. That's what is most important. Also a 2GB game for a jam doesn't sound right, so it might not be a good idea to compare to, unless it's like a really detailed high quality game but I don't know about it so I cannot comment. Regardless, good job with the game and the story, I really liked the eerieness and the conversation between the player character and the fellow at the other end of the walkie-talkie, and enjoyed being immersed in the island as well as the 'thing' which I hope gets explained in a Part 2 or follow up! :)

And sure please do feel free to share your thoughts and feedback on my game as I am also looking to learn and improve on it!

Developer(+1)

yeah I saw you edit after I sent the message, i super appreciate the full marks on graphics and audio despite the abismal performance.

I dont think i am going to make a follow up as there isnt much to follow up on but if you want to know the lore ; the fish creature is a deep sea creature that the storm washes up on the island during the storm and then eventually after the storm goes back to sea. The lighthouse keeper before you saw the monster and escaped it and asked the company about it and then the company painted him as crazy and fired him. So they get you to replace him for a day. (dont ask why the creature can breath on land)

I would be happy to give you more feedback on your game ; i may not be able to give you as much feedback as you gave me but il definitely try!


Submitted

Nice game, theres voice acting, the atmosphere is creepy, really like it, but its a bit laggy for me lol

Developer

thanks sorry for the lag, i hope it wasnt too hard to play

Submitted

Pretty solid game, there is that part of the map where you can fall through and get stuck but overall pretty good game :)

Developer

yeah the colision shapes were hard as they had to be good but also resource efficient

Submitted

it's incredible and that atmosphere... You surpassed yourself

Developer

haha tysm

Submitted

Really nice! Loved the atmosphere

Developer(+1)

Thanks <3

Submitted

Really Enjoyed It ! 

Developer

Thanks!

Submitted

Nice game.. overall fun.. but risky to only have download.. sometimes it will not be rated!

Developer

Thanks, I tried making it run in browser but it runs at 15 fps☠️

Submitted

Pretty cool! Lagged at some points, but was fun overall!

Developer

Thanks <3, sorry about the lag. 

Submitted

Great work! Especially for 3D with Godot, love to see it! 

Developer

Haha thanks godot can be a bit annoying at times but i still love it

Submitted

Really nice entry  and the first 3D game I have seen. Best of luck.

Developer

Thanks <3

Submitted

it is a noice game good graphics good audio great atmosphere!!!

Overall 7.5/10

Submitted

You could improve the experience by providing some captions to go with the audio dialogue.  It was really difficult to understand everything the voice actor was saying.  The physics is a bit buggy, and some of the edges of the navigable terrain have large visible gaps, but I didn't get stuck, so it's definitely forgivable. I enjoyed the game as a whole - it was short and creepy and fairly immersive.  :)

Developer

Yeah im sorry about the colision bugs i just didnt have time to get around to fixing them and godot isnt great with colisions. Thanks for playing

Submitted

Loved the spooky atmosphere! the game runs on very low fps tho but other than that cool game!

Developer(+1)

yes im sorry about the low fps its hard to optimise in godot, i loved your game aswell 

Submitted

I love the atmosphere you created with the sound and graphics; definitely scary.

Developer (1 edit)

Thanks, I loved your game aesthetic, it was worth the download

Submitted

well done on the graphics looks really good, liked the sounds and visuals. Rate mine?

Game Page: https://vilavlooi.itch.io/sheltertactics

Rate Page: https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-12/rate/2968432

Developer(+1)

Thanks, yours is fun but maybe consider adding more friction to the movement controller because I felt like I was sliding around

Submitted

spooky

Submitted

The game was nice but it's a little buggy (low frames per second)

Developer

Yeah the graphics were a real problem for some of the playtesters but i thought i had them all ironed out ; personally (on an rtx 3070 ) i was getting 200 fps uncapped. I mean with godot (the engine) it sometimes likes more computers than others weirdly

Submitted

Can't seem to start up the game sadly :( It gets stuck at opening.

Developer

Ah i was having some performance issues normally after a few seconds they go no chance you tried restarting it?

Submitted

It crashed with the message 'a very long game name.exe, which wasn't the name of what I clicked haha..., has stopped working' :/

Developer

damn im sorry i have no idea at all how to go about fixing that did it do that both times?

Submitted

Yes :(

Submitted

I'll rate it 3 overall. Not your fault my laptop is stupid.

Developer

Is it 3 bcs your couldnt play the game or cause its a bad game? I think it might be an issue to do with OpenGL rendering bcs godot doesnt have .exes like that.

Submitted(+1)

couldn't play, I don't know if it's a bad game. but i don't know if it's a good one either :p

Submitted

Nice game. A bit buggy though

Developer(+1)

Yeah sorry about that i was rushing yesterday to fix most of the hitboxes (if thats what you are talking about) and i just ran out of time.


It is a game jam gam though

Submitted

The Game idea is similar to Watch Fire game I loved that.

Developer(+1)

Haha thanks thats sort of what i was going for.

Viewing comments 20 to 1 of 50 · Previous page · First page