This is my submission for the 2024 Luanti Game Jam. Enjoy! :-)
Plot
After years of experimentation, the Cult of Oculon has finally managed to open the portal to the Realm of Eyes, where floating eyeballs, both good and evil, live.
You’re the Chosen One. You must venture deep into the Realm of Eyes to uncover its deepest secrets.
This realm is governed by one simple rule: The Unseen are lost. Only those who are seen by the eyeballs will be able to move on.
Objective / Gameplay
You start in the headquarters of the cult. Stand on the magic portal in the main hall to enter the Realm of Eyes. The eyeballs are your friends … well, most of them.
From now on, you have to be seen by at least one friendly eyeball at all times. As long you are seen, you are safe. However, if not, then the Thing will snatch you!
The objective is to find and stand on the portal in each location.
On-screen indicators
The counter at the bottom of the screen shows how many eyeballs are seeing you right now.
If you’re not seen by the friendly eyeballs, a danger bar will appear that rapidly fills up. Once it’s full, you will be taken by the Thing and you have to try the level again.
Interesting idea, but a bit too slow and punishing
The concept is interesting and the author knows what they're doing. The whole game revolves around one simple mechanic, which makes it very easy to grasp, in a series of levels that are not really ordered by difficulty, but rather by author experiments. Audio is well refined (one the few games of this jam actually featuring a soundtrack) and graphics are as well, so nothing to say - I'm not a fan of the round shaped eyes but in this case it's really not that important.
Gameplay-wise, however, the game felt kind of heavy at times, not as smooth as I'd like. The worst case was when the level involved a lot of walking and you failed right at the end (e.g. the halls with pillars and light switches), not really involving me to try again (I went on for a few levels more). This ruined the experience of something that could have been pretty fun if well dosed, as the annoyance surpassed the curiosity. I'd score it a 6.5 out of 10, which is closer to the neutral vote
Hard, a little devious, but an absolutely solid experience
The atmosphere, the worldbuilding and the mechanics are on point. Seriously impressive. The mechanics themselves are super fun, because they're predictable yet varied and challenging. The music is good, the atmosphere is great, you feel like you want to know more about the world just by being in it. The difficulty is probably a little high overall, but it's much better than most would do for a puzzle game and that is commendable. There were some visual bugs like the glass textures but other than that it was (so far, I got stuck) a super solid experience.
Mild spoilers: The dark sphere level (9) is absolutely cruel and unusual punishment. Like, that's just... ouch. I got stuck on the tower unfortunately, and couldnt find a way to activate the eyes on the top floor, so I gave up after searching for quite some time.
Eye See You! 👁
A fun twist on the "stealth" genre: Not only are there evil eyes which must not see you; most of the time the challenge is to stay within the field of view of at least one good eye: "The Unseen are lost!"
The game further gains a bit of a puzzle game note by having buttons you have to press to make new paths accessible. These can be hard to find at times, but it is never wrong to press them. Hence the winning strategy essentially is to scour the levels for buttons, pressing all of them (and memorizing their positions and a sensible order to press them in for future attempts in case you fail), though this is in practice much harder to do than it sounds. Some buttons are definitely deviously placed :)
The graphics, music, and overall atmosphere are all consistent and nicely done.
Overall, a good two to three hours of fun.
Not all eyes are equal
I don't know if this was intentional as the game never really specified, but I found some eyes to not rotate to follow the player. The worst part was I couldn't determine which eys would and which wouldn't until I had been taken by the evil eyes. Even then sometimes I had to loose a level a few times just to figure out which eyes rotate and which don't. Aside from that it was relatively enjoyable.
Unforgiving
Eyeballs is puzzle platformer with a slight horror theme.
Ambiance is immaculate and great care has been put into creating a cohesive experience,
The music and sound design is also impeccable, feels kind of nostalgic in some way.
A well rounded experience, gameplay and mechanics are thought out and polished. Mistakes are unforgiving and will set you back to the beggining of the level. Oddly, the gameplay became more enjoyable in third person. I have to admit it's very hard and I didn't get that far.
It is a very safe game, does not bring anything particularly novel to the table, but everything is done very well.
Good game, interesting concept, a bit bugged.
This game was fairly enjoyable. I'm not very good at parkour, but I like the unique eyeball game mechanics. Unfortunately, I didn't get very far in the game. In the level with all the columns and the light switches, I would respawn in complete and utter darkness, with no way of knowing where I was. The textures and sounds are pretty good, and fit well together. I don't know anyone else who came across the same issue as I did, so I might retry it and see how far I can get.
Great game
Another great game by Wuzzy ! This game is really cool, but some of the levels are hard, like the room where you have to turn on lights. I think that the timer when you're not seen by the eyes is a little too short, sometimes I go in an area where eyes cant see me and I don't have enough time to go back.
Great Idea
The idea alone is worth a price! Together with the music it has a mildly scary atmosphere, I like it. Nice level design, too. Found no bugs so far. But I'm far from having completed it. Haven't seen any gore so far, eyeballs or blood-red writing doesn't count :-P I wonder from where Wuzzy takes the time for all this. Must be a fulltime Luantiveloper. Good stuff.
'Brilliant' Puzzle
Eye am going to be making a lot of eye-related puns and jokes for this review. One might say this puzzle is brilliant, illuminating, eye-opening, even. The mechanics are solid, and the atmosphere is done well, both with the audio and the textures - it is almost liminal. I did not, however, finish all the levels yet. Ironically, this is not a game for those with low vision or other visual impairments.
Enchanting puzzle, but way overboard on the creepypasta
This is a super difficult puzzle (at least it was for me), the beginning levels are easy to train you, and then it gets harder from there - fast. The final levels are combinations of mazes, parkour, and discovery, all while making sure you don't get out of range of a good eye. You have infinite time and lives to complete a puzzle, so you just need to figure out the path and combination of buttons that will get you to the portal. Look around everywhere for hints and be very cautious - if you're quick about it, you can make a move forward and then backward to 'see' if you can proceed any further, without resetting. In some cases it's just quicker and easier to run around like a madman though, especially near the beginning of a puzzle. I really like the concept of this game, the last level with the tower was my favorite.
However, I think this game went too overboard on the creepypasta element: it's a lot like the backrooms in several levels, and the writing on the walls in various levels appear to be written in blood. Most rooms are very dark and combined with the music and the eyes, it's completely terrifying. It's flagged as "Gore" which I definitely think is appropriate but this still caught me by surprise. If that's your thing, this game is for you, I guess, but I turned off my music and adjusted my contrast to try to alleviate the mood immediately. Awesome puzzle though, recommended if you're not affected by creepypasta.
My Review
A nice puzzle game with unique game mechanics, the game is a little bit long, which can be a good thing. some of the puzzles were a bit tough, (I had to cheat with /grantme for 1-2 of the levels) Overall a great game of great quality.
Delightfully creepy puzzle, a real classic from Wuzzy.
Wuzzy's style shows through every facet of this puzzling game, which makes it all the more fun. Creepy, intense and realaxing all at the same time. The perfect puzzle to keep you up at night...