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A jam submission

ShutView game page

Are you a recluse? Or a vampire? Or just a regular introvert? This game is for you
Submitted by nenad2d — 1 day, 15 hours before the deadline
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Shut's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Overall#14.4004.400
Fun#14.3004.300
User Interface (UI/UX)#14.2004.200
Visuals(Graphics)#24.5004.500
Sound/Audio#23.9003.900

Ranked from 10 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

DevLog Link
https://nenad2d.itch.io/shut/devlog/1061258/major-improvements-to-a-hasty-jam-version

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

Should have read the description I guess =).
I had 3 attempts each with multiple tries

  1.  First time:
    Figuring things out, walk around opening doors. Found a black thing, I pressed on it.
    Time passes. I lost? 
    Tried I again same result the number of black things seems to increase... it was 5/8 now its 9/12 (or something like that)
    Thought the invisible parts of the black things where because of the sun.
    Few other attempts... nothing changed
    Think I died once in an attempt
  2.  Second time: 
    I watched the video, close blinds... i see. But why?
    Tried closing the blinds. The room goes green when I close them all. I guess I have to clear each room.
    Tried the tiny map, found 2 black things.  now what? mby the game doesn't have an ending?
  3.  Third time:
    I read the description.
    Found out that the invisible parts of the black things are because of the lack of sun...
    Completed the tiny map and small map.

I would have liked to have some music on the background in the game or something.
The inverted mouse setting. I didn't really understood why it is not off by default. I am glad there was a setting for it tho. Playing the game with the mouse inverted wouldn't have been pleasant... 

A story introduction inside the game is a necessary addition in the future (or at least I think so). 

Good job! Its a really nice game.

Developer

Thanks for playing and reporting the experience. Yeah, some story elements should be in the game, I'll see to that. I'm still focused on exploring possible mechanics extensions that utilize light/shadow dynamics. 

The objective is literally written at the start of the run, extending the title ;) But I think you picked everything up quite quickly. You need to shut yourself into the darkness. The game was done for a jam whose theme was Isolation. The ultimate why is left to player's interpretation. Perhaps you're a vampire and need to go to sleep :)

The inverted mouse is default simply because it's my personal preference. Since game still doesn't save any settings on the user side I just kept it inverted for easier testing. Will swap it to the standard non-inverted default.

Submitted(+1)

It took me some rounds before I figured out how to play. Got a bit scared when remnant took me. Creative game of using lights, blinds, time and remnants. 

Developer (1 edit)

Thanks for checking it out! The addition of some kind of tutorial would be in order I guess. The hints you get when you die should help you get going. All the in-game hints can also be found on the game page.

Submitted(+1)

Dude, it's atmospheric, but it's a little boring for me)

Developer

Can get tense. Did you manage to finish it?

Submitted(+1)

Really fun and intuitive game loop and excellent visuals and sound design. All the changes you made in the devlog added to the overall ambiance a lot, especially the visuals of the sun rays shining into the room. I liked having to learn the rules of the world myself without being spoon-fed information on what to do and found the helpful hints after losing to be a great way of bridging the knowledge gap without being too hand-holdy. Very engaging little experience, nice work dev!!

Developer(+1)

Thank you!

Submitted(+1)

an amazing game, took me a few tries to figure it out but its great.

Developer

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it.

Submitted(+1)

Had a few jump scares before I realized the Remnant only attacks when all the blinds in a room are closed. Thankfully, that tip was tucked into the menu hints, which I read after losing a bunch.

Lost several games on the medium map, but switching to the tiny map just to see what winning felt like was satisfying. I really appreciate the difficulty options.

The game is awesome. The sound effect of closing the venetian blinds is oddly satisfying, and the controls feel super fluid.

Developer (5 edits)

Thanks for playing!

I pasted all in-game hints into textual description on game's itch page. Reading them all up can help you play better. If I can give one additional strategic hint: Don't wait a lot. Better to move through the map, searching for dissolve opportunities that arise from "natural" slow shift of the light.

Submitted(+1)

I looked at the video demo of your game and it looks great. Unfortunately, when I downloaded it, my antivirus flagged it. Even if it's a false positive, I hope you can resolve it. I’d play, but I can’t in good conscience until my system gives the all-clear. Or maybe put up a web version?


Developer (4 edits)

Sorry to hear that. It's 100% false positive. Try to temporarily disable the windows defender real time protection just to download the zip, unpack the zip and scan the executable manually with an antivirus of your choice to make sure it's safe.

Looks like this is quite common with Godot 4 executables. I'll try this workaround asap: /t/3990804/tips-avoid-false-positives-with-anti-viruses-and-godot... 

 Unfortunately, as much as I'd like, I cannot make a web version easily. Game's visuals as well as the core light/shadow mechanic depend on advanced rendering features available only with Vulkan renderer while browser export can only use OpenGL.

Submitted(+1)

Thanks for the reply. If you do the workaround I'll write back.

Developer (1 edit)

Thank you. I will try several things. If you're willing to work with me and try to download them until this is weeded out - it'd be much appreciated. I'll ping you here.

If everything else fails, I'll have to host the game on Steam. Executables that come from there are always considered safe by windows.

Developer (1 edit)

I've changed the download to a single executable, as most of what that workaround suggested I actually did with the initial upload. 

Can you try downloading now?

Submitted(+1)

I was able to download shut.exe 👍

Gives me a "make sure you trust this" warning, but the virus scanner didn't delete the file.

Developer

Great! Thank you!

That's likely the standard message when downloading any executable.

Submitted(+1)

The game is very beautiful. It's easy to learn and fun to play almost immediately :-)

For what it's worth, I encountered a graphics bug in an (open) window on the ceiling: no light, orange dotted lines.

Developer(+1)

Thanks for trying it out!

This is a known bug with ceiling windows. The grills can get so thick that they cover almost the whole window (sometimes there aren't even dots visible). The window is normally functional though and can be "closed". So if you shut all the windows in a room and there is still some exposure, check for such blocked (but "open") ceiling window and just click on it to close it. This will be fixed in the next update.

(+1)

This game has such a unique gameplay, but it is easy to understand and fun to play at the same time. It took me one or two rounds to completely understand it and after that, shutting windows and doors quickly became addictive. The whole game feels super polished. The light (love the color and the god rays), the ambient background and the empty rooms all come together to create a very strange vibe which is great.

By replacing the "Karen" model in the latest update, you took away the last point I found to criticize :D The new tentacle remnant fits way better and the particles + sound effect feel very satisfying when you remove a remnant. However, I didn’t quite understand what the circular animation at the cursor represents when a remnant is removed. What does it indicate?

The room generation feels very varied and surprisingly natural. Sometimes I encountered very long rooms with just one window, where the god rays would not touch every corner of the room. Can remnants hide in areas not touched by sunlight? In my case, if there was a remnant in the room, it was always close to the window and I got it.

The game already feels complete in its current form, and I don’t think it needs any expansion. It stands well on its own. However If you plan to extend the gameplay, I could image a game mode where you clear multiple consecutive levels (like floors in a skyscraper). When you shut everything you can enter an elevator and go up to the next floor. Each floor could get bigger and introduce new gameplay elements over time.

Developer (9 edits) (+2)

Thanks for checking it out! Much appreciated.

The circular animation is the dissolve ability cooldown. In the published demo it has no much effect. However I'm prototyping additional types of enemies that can have hitpoints. You need to attack them several times, each time stripping one hitpoint. So there is a cooldown period before you can attack again. During that period, the sun may shift a bit and you need to reconsider your aim for the next hit. After a hit, those enemies may also back a bit or teleport to completely different spot in the room. It's a way to scale enemy difficulty within main mechanics constraints.

I may add smaller enemies as well, that are harder to spot but are not lethal. They just inflict some damage on you when the room is shut.

I'm testing boss remnants as well. They are not confined to a room but follow you around in real time and actually hurt you when close. The dissolve cooldown is a tactical consideration when going against them as well.

The last prototype has a key/lock system for doors and possibly windows. Some of them may initially be locked by spells and are unlocked with different "keys" obtained when killing specific remnants.

Regarding light reaching remnants: The remnant position within the room is currently completely random. I've implemented a check if a spot is reachable by light, but it's not yet applied to enemies. The light is always quite low and current remnants are rather big/tall. I've not yet encountered a situation that a remnants is not reachable. Even if it's positioned in a long corridor far from a single window, there are always doors to open and let the light from adjacent rooms do the job.

Yeah the general idea is to have a string of levels with increasing size/difficulty and maybe some bits of narrative that link them together.

(+1)

Cool! Glad to hear that you will continue to work on it. Those ideas sound great! I'm looking forward to the updates :)

Developer

Thanks! My main focus with the project is exploring this light mechanic more thoroughly, and see if it can be built upon enough for a full blown game. I'm trying to make sure it's not just a gimmick and that there actually is enough depth there. We'll se how it goes.

(+1)

Love it. I tried it first in another jam. The improvements you made are spot on. "God rays" really enhance the atmosphere.  Also, the texture on the floors helps to  remember where I was... Remnants behind the columns, not a fan :), but I think it's great for the game.  Keep up the good work!

Developer

Thank you!