The Lighthouse

[Albin Bernhardsson]

A man tired of his commonday life heads for an autumn taking care of the lighthouse on the outmost island of the archipelago. But war breaks loose and, as he's afraid to return to the mainland, a single radio becomes his only connection with the outside world.

A tribute to Pappan och havet (Moominpappa at Sea) and Offret (The Sacrifice), in my opinion two of the greatest pieces of literature/cinema ever written/filmed.

Download (windows)

Made for the Rapid Development Contest, so if it seems unfinished/unpolished; it's because it is. (It was of course not appreciated over there, but I didn't make it to win.)
If you think the screen is too small, you can press F4, but 2x mode isn't really working all that well...

If anyone has Game Maker Mac Pro and is willing to convert it to Mac for me, I'd be very thankful.

[Michaël Samyn]

Thanks! I'll have a look next time I'm in Windows-land!

[Albin Bernhardsson]

Here's a playthrough-video I just posted on YouTube (since I've finally got a computer good enough to run Fraps).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfHq9c8yOlc

[Jeroen D. Stout]

I am not sure how I missed this game the first time around, but I finally managed to play it.

I quite liked how the actions started minimal; the scanning on the radio; but I felt afterwards it became a slideshow. The theme was interesting but I do not believe I was capable of doing anything that influenced anything in this second part. I could be wrong, but I felt that missed.

It has intrigued me as to the books, though

[Albin Bernhardsson]

Yeah, I wanted to add some more action near the end but, due to the short time span, didn't manage to. Another thing I wanted to fix (but was unsure of how) is that the scenes where the radio just spouts random war phrases doesn't feel very chaotic or effective. I was thinking of adding "manga action lines" but that might make it look more humoristic than serious. Any idéas on how to fix that?

I might port this to flash (as a Flashpunk-project) and revamp the radio scenes but I really don't know how to go about it (design-wise, that is).

You should really read Moominpappa at Sea and watch The Sacrifice. They're amazing.

[Jeroen D. Stout]

I think if you are conveying chaos and the desire to clear it up you might give the player the task of doing it... it might be interesting to do something similar with the prayer scenes as well.

I will see about those! I just started in The Last of the Mohicans so I may be very occupied for a long time!

[God at play]

Wow, I'm impressed that you can create this kind of atmosphere in 4 hours! This really deserves to be fleshed out more.

I somewhat agree with Jeroen, you need more progression for the interaction itself, and you should have used sound clips for the radio part instead of text. But I understand the time limit, you did great considering that. Did you consider going to archive.org to look through war reporting footage? That seems like a good source for the clips you need.