Listening to Rama. A short game where you
re-assemble a machine,
and listen.

Game Theme

Delay the Inevitable (Ludam Dare 50)

Game premise

Players perform simple click-and-drag interaction, and gradually unfold a small story told by the coherent audio-visuals content, with minimal texts.

Demonstration Video

Documentation

A player can choose to drag the falling pieces to fix the gigantic machine which is apparently at the fringe of destruction. Mysterious sound files will played as more progress is made. Although the end is inevitable, you can choose to delay it.

There is a saying that your first ten games are going to be trash. This game is, among the first 3 trashy games I made, the first one that is complete and aesthetically more aligned to my judgement. While the mechanic is simple, we made the quick decision under the 48 hours’ pressure (the total jam time in Ludam Dare 50) that the story of the game shall leverage the minimalist gameplay.

My skills in user interface system design were transfered into asset management and design throughout the jam, which was certainly helpful when we are budgeting the time.





After setting up the design system in Figma, my role switch to a technical designer who monitored the gameplay while writing corresponding codes. In the second half of the jam, roles no longer matter. I coded up the pipeline for condition-specific sound triggering, particle effects, and the monologue panel UI. Benny was the main developer who wrote codes both for the scene transition and player control, and Dante helped find sound files for the game as well as writing particle effects.

I am grateful for this experience and the heartening feedbacks from both strangers on Ludum Dare and friends I know well.

2022

Team Project with Benny and Dante

Role: Technical designer
Tool: Unity; Figma

– PLAY THE GAME ON ITCH.IO
– VIEW RANKING ON Ludam Dare 50