Oh yes, Ludum Dare 27 has just ended, and as I already did with the previous one, I’m going to be picking the most appealing entries that would roughly fit our area of interest for the next few days. Or in other words, expect to see a never ending trail of games that are going to have in common the same theme, which this time was “10 seconds”. Can’t really deny the sadness to have all these games to play right a week before a big exam, but I’m anyway going to put twice the effort to get my coverage going without affecting too much my studies. And in fact, I can’t imagine a better start than spending a few words about Nik Sudan’s Lokopolis.
The game is a procedurally generated top-down game that reached a level of refinement quite out of the ordinary considering that it has been built in less than 48 hours. Although I wasn’t really foreseeing anything completely unworthy, somehow he always manages to go well beyond my expectations. The way he dealt with the theme is remarkable, and like if that wasn’t already enough, the game shows off a great dynamic light system that makes it look astoundingly good to the eyes of a mere gamer like I am.
Lokopolis makes you play as the new generation Indiana Jones that’s moved entirely by the will of acquiring more treasures scattered around this ever-changing ruin – do I see a Spelunky reference here? The reward is high, but the risk is even higher. Even the presence of unforgiving traps and the mighty cyclops that should guard the ancient building don’t prevent your greed to take over the control of your body; all you need is gold, and gold you shall have! There will be one treasure at a time which can be found by following the sort of compass that will be displayed as an arrow on the edge of the character’s outline, picking one up will freeze the bloodthirsty creature for 10 seconds, though it never felt enough to me. Traps are hard to notice – I mean EXTREMELY HARD – and I liked how the game wants you to take things slow in order to avoid the structural dangers while at the same time it imposes to run due to the cyclops chasing you. Oh dear, I got up to 3 treasures once, most of my attempts resulted in an instant death though.
Lokopolis can be downloaded either on its Ludum Dare page, or on Gamejolt , where he also promised to add an online scoreboard. Guess I’ll end up playing until I get at least the whopping score of 5 now.
SOURCE: Creepy Gaming – Read entire story here.
