Need help with polishing Mini Ludum Dare entry

[Rxanadu]

I'm trying to flesh out a game I submitted for the latest Mini Ludum Dare that [technically] ended last week (and is still going on until the end of this week).  I have a basic concept going on at the moment: basically, you start in a bizarre environment reminiscent of a dream in which you can walk through and explore.  By holding down a button, you can "wake up" from the dream, bringing you back to the character's bedroom.  In the bedroom, all you can do at the moment it walk through the door on the other side of the room and exit the game.

 

I've boiled down my main concerns to two major deviations: I could either make multiple dream sequences (i.e. multiple stages); or I could make one long dream (i.e. one stage).  They both have their advantages and disadvantages, however.  For example, the "multiple dreams" decision allows for more diverse scenarios within the game but will require me to make completely different assets for each level.  Meanwhile, the "single dream" scenario will allow me to focus one one art style for all of the environments; however, I could run into the problem of having too little to entice the player to continue playing (i.e. more diverse objectives) due to the environmental restraints.  

 

However, a larger concern than both of those is my dilemma over creating a pause function within the game.  I've thought about the it, and the ability to pause a dream doesn't seem natural.  Whenever I dream, the scenario never stops or waits for me to catch up; it just kind of goes, with or without my consent.  I also wanted to ensure that immersion wasn't broken by having something that would allow them to stop.  This concern also feeds into my aforementioned problem with having too little to entice the player when they play the game.

 

 

I'm still not sure what to do at the moment, so I wanted to bring it back to the people here to help me with what I would be more suited doing.

 

My game is called "In a Dream"; you can play it online or download a stand-alone version on the Ludum Dare site.  Check it out and tell me what you think of it in its current state.

[Noyb]

Good start! I like the music. Sound integration could be a little smoother (your triggers restart a piece even when it's already playing, and I expected the alarm to still be blaring when I woke up).

 

I also couldn't figure out how to open the door. E did nothing, although the WebPlayer didn't grab my mouse so I might not have been aiming where I intended.

 

I don't really understand the concern about pausing. Like, you might think it's ideal for a player to play through the game in one sitting, but there's a whole host of external things like phone calls that can interrupt a player. Which would be more immersion breaking: an interrupted player that is able to pause and return where she left off, or an interrupted player that steps away and returns to an entirely different scene or the end of the game and must repeat what she's already played to get back to the same spot? This is just a hypothetical, because nothing in your current mellow exploration design seems to reflect your stated goal of having the player swept away by events; a stationary player is basically paused anyway.

 

I also don't see how a single, long dream needs to have the environmental constraints you describe? It's a dream, some places might have jarring transitions, ground might collapse to reveal another island structure beneath the first one, maybe walking inside a building changes what's outside while you're not looking or triggers a 30 Flights of Loving-style jump cut, etc. I don't think there's a right answer to this question: I'd say go with whatever you feel comfortable making and decide just how much internal consistency you want an abstract dream to have.

[Rxanadu]

I'm glad you liked the current state of it so far.  I fixed the audio issue you were talking about; now the currently playing song will continue even when you cross the same trigger that caused it to play in the first place.  If you were wondering about where the music came from, it's from an obscure anime called KAIBA.  I just put the songs in there because they fit the vibe I wanted to convey at the moment.   

 

As for the door: it was more for getting people out of the stand-alone version of the game than for the web player version.  Maybe I'll just make the screen fade to black when you open the door and reload the initial level.  It's very interesting trying to make a game on the web player, where you can't exit the game the same way as in stand-alone games.

 

As you could probably tell, the game was rushed out the door.  This was due to me mistaking the deadline for entry as Sunday of last week, resulting in me cobbling together what little I had created within 48 hours.  I hope to make a better game by the end of this week, though.  I'll see if I can put some of your suggestions into practice.