December 13th-16th 2013 :: Theme: You Only Get One
[ Real World Gatherings | Ludum Deals | Warmup Weekend ]
RETRIEVAL - a First Person Boomerang Puzzler
You Only Get One projectile, and you'll need it to help you solve puzzles, so make sure you retrieve it once you've thrown it!
HOW TO PLAY:
WASD to move
Mouse to look
Space to jump
Left click to interact
Right click to throw / retrieve your boomerang (when you get it).
NOTES:
The game is still quite buggy and super rough. But I hope you see the potential with this kind of idea. There were so many puzzle ideas I had, but alas most of my time was spent on simply getting the boomerang to even throw correctly!
Other ideas that I would have loved to flesh out:
-Player changing gravity, so you can walk on walls and the ceiling! This would go so well with the level and puzzle design.
-Dark levels. Use the boomerang as a light source.
-Using the boomerang as a stepping stone.
-Using the boomerang to help you retrieve items.
-More puzzles, basically.
EDIT:
Updated dead links (dropbox decided to not allow public downloading)
Downloads and Links
Ratings
 | Coolness | 85% |
| #142 | Innovation | 3.52 |
| #151 | Theme | 3.53 |
| #421 | Graphics | 3.07 |
| #515 | Fun | 2.84 |
| #523 | Mood | 2.71 |
| #539 | Overall | 2.96 |
| #767 | Humor | 1.50 |
| #798 | Audio | 1.24 |
Comments
I can see where you could've encountered the same challenges I did when making this game. Nice idea and I totally understand the buggy stuff, haha.
Runs horribly on my old laptop, but that's not exactly your fault; still, would be nice to have the option to download. Also, I tried to throw the boomerang and it disappeared. :(
Loved the aesthetic and it was fun figuring out the puzzles
I agree with the others about the buggy part. I also got stuck in the water room.
Basic audio would help immensely - ambient music, footsteps, boomerang swoosh etc.
Also, checkpoints! I really couldn't figure out what to do once I got the boomerang, and didn't want to replay the opening to get to there, since the opening was fairly empty.
But good job trying an innovative concept out that worked well with the theme.
Didn't run very well on my Macbook (maybe all those post effects and AO?) but from what I played it was fun.
Haha this is fantastic! Okay, so I didn't solve ANY of the challenges or puzzles...bUUUT I spammed jump ontop of the boomerang shooting it underneath me and went FLYING through the air and got all the challenges done that way. "Thanks for playing" thanks for making an amazing experience XD
Cool idea. There could definitely be interesting puzzles with this concept.
Awesome concept, I definitely see the potential. Unfortunately it runs super-slow on my laptop, probably because of all the fancy shaders.
This is great! Reminds me of Antichamber. The light source on the boomerang is a good touch. I was able to get out of the water eventually but no idea how I did it. With a bit of polish I think this has a lot of potential. The next LD theme should be boomerangs :)
If you want to expand on this, it really needs something to fill all the empty space/time - faster move speed, ambient sound, etc. Your list of things you wanted don't seem to align with what you have - changing gravity is cool, but if that is your mechanic, make it your mechanic. If your mechanic is that you have a boomerang, expand on that (like the stepping stone idea you mentioned, or timed skill shots, etc).
Has lots of potential and a great start. Reminded me of Portal (in a good way). Also the bright red buttons made it pretty clear to me what to do next. ;)
Possible improvements would be things others mentioned like sound effects (although not sure why others are getting confused by the water area -- I saw the red button across the way and hit it with the boomerang with no problem (although aim was slightly off)). Also would be better if the boomerang returned completely to your hand instead of landing in front of you then having to pick it up off the ground with another click. Nice work!
Would have been much comfortable if I could instantly pick up the boomerang by walking next to it...
@hazzen
To me that stuff is a given, so I didn't add it as list of things I wanted to do. *Of course* I want the game to look pretty, be dense with detail, have sound, and feel atmospheric. I couldn't get any of these things done in the time though, obviously. The level design suffered because of that (large empty spaces, basic uninteresting geometry).
As I was experimenting with the game, I thought of a multitude of ideas that I thought would enhance the experience and make it interesting. Gravity changing would enhance the puzzle solving, it's not about picking one mechanic or another.
Thanks for your feedback!
@Venturelli
Yes I absolutely agree. First thing would be to fix the crazy physics and make the controls much more comfortable. Apologies to everybody for the messy controls. I was really strapped for time :(
Really cool mechanic/idea, could be quite fun with a bit more polish/time.
The controls don't really work for me, but I like the concept.
I've really enjoyed solving the spiral stairs puzzle. Very nice concept!
@Dohan
Thank you! It was the very first puzzle I thought of when I thought of using a boomerang. I knew an important part of the game would be that your boomerang sticks to objects, even when they move. I thought the idea behind throwing it on a switch that then moved away from you would be interesting and cool.
Wish I could have made more puzzles, there just wasn't enough :<
Controls are a bit slow, boomerang doesn't fire to the crosshair and it's too easy to forget to pick up the boomerang after firing, but the core mechanic is nice and has potential.
Too buggy to be playable... Besides fixing the obvious bugs, maybe you could work on a more precise MouseLook? Maybe some anitaliasing? I like the portal-ish style!
It's irritating that after you get in the darker room there is the door which leads nowhere but this puzzle actually made me feel really smart xD
Sometimes I could throw the boomerang other times it would just drop at my feet. It made the first target very hard to hit. One of the puzzles towards the end I thought was very clever. I shall not ruin it for other players.
Completed it! Very glitchy but passable puzzler. This could make very interesting game if you kept polishing, adding content like the features you listed.
where is the soooound? =( And yes the idea was interesting you should make something shorter but more polished ;)
Good work. I liked the puzzles, the last one is a bit difficult but interesting, you should maybe add more lights. Some systems are not properly explain, like that you can retrieve the boomerang pretty easily. I love the rotating stair ^^
Loved the Mirrors Edge-esque simplicity of the visuals, and the puzzles were really interesting - would be interested to see where you could take this with more time. You might want to consider replacing the collider on the stairs with a ramp though - made me a little nauseous :P
@rogueNoodle
Heh you're absolutely right about the stairs. I've learned my lesson, don't worry :P thank you for the comment. I do plan to continually evolve this beyond LD :)
Nice game. The last puzzle with the door had me stumped for a few minutes but overall it was fun. The aiming of the boomerang at a long distance seemed off though.
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Good work! nice graphics!