Samsara
The wheel of samsara is ever-turning
A young monk is searching for the greater truth. What he cannot learn in this life, perhaps he can gain in another. Die and get resurrected into different forms to solve puzzles and reach enlightenment.
Made for Bigmode Game Jam 2023 (theme: Mode) over the course of two weeks.
Music by Clement Panchout 🎵
Controls
- Arrow keys — movement
- Z — jump / confirm / other
- X — push
- C — depends on the form
About FeatureKreep
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Development log
- Samsara is out!Dec 15, 2023
Comments
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goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood game
I'm very, very impressed! Gorgeous graphics that bring you into the game's world and leave you invested, an engaging, sensitive story, challenging and interesting gameplay that immerses the player in the story's themes, with the novelty of freedoms and the new forms, followed by them becoming routine.... and you said this was made in two weeks? Kudos, my man.
I couldn't help but wish there were more, even though the game didn't feel like it needed any more time to tell its story- I simply liked it enough to not wish for it to end. The irony was not lost on me, given the fact that this is a game about coming to peace with impermanence, humility, and the suffering that comes from greed.
Thank you so much for the kind words! I think I'm going to return to this project at some point in the future as I still have some unrealized ideas.
Fantastic game! I love the concept! I did have an issue when turning into the snake where it didn't appear and I would have to restart the level.
When i am a monk and i need to pass time, the game lags so badly that it doesnt move for minutes,
Hmm, very strange, I can't replicate this. I'll take a look at the code, maybe I can find what the issue is.
Yeah what information do you need? im using the firefox browser on windows10, the lagging point is when the feature was first introduced,
I have also tested this on chrome and i had the same issue so this isnt browser based,
It starts out fine but the more i keep the button going the more it starts to lag till it just doesnt work anymore.
The only solution i found is to press the button in very short bursts which seem to somehow fix or not let the problem develop enough that it crashes the game.
let me know if you need any other info
This is a master piece! But, I think that it should end with all the wheel complete (all the 8
formstransformations)!!!I played the whole thing on Poki - amazing work <3
Thank you for making it!
Samsara Walkthrough
was he a monk that became a bird or a bird that became a monk? Lobotomy kaisen memes have destroyed my humor
Beautiful concept! I understand that it was done for a game jam, and therefore time was limited. But in my opinion, it's something that could be expanded into a full-fledged game with puzzle games that require different and new transformations. I discovered you by chance on Twitter or X, whatever you want to call it, thanks to this game. I look forward to playing more of your creations.
I'm getting a bug where every level when I become a snake for the first time, it doesn't appear. I have to reset the level and then it works. It did work on the double crate level though. My guess is if you hold any direction key while it spawns, it freaks out. I came to this assumption because it happened after resetting on one level.
Another bug was dark crates bouncing for some reason. I think it happens if you manage to push it in mid-air.
I finished the game. It was enjoyable. I liked the graphics and how tight the controls were. I'm going to have to play it again because I cheated on one level with the bouncing dark crate....
Does the game just stay on a blue sky after "The End"?
Thanks for playing and finding these bugs! I'll update the game once the jam ends.
And yeah, the game ends on a blue sky.
this concept is sick
good game
When I push the crate down, it will bounce back and forth in the same spot.
Thanks for finding all these bugs! Once the jam ends and I'm able to edit the game files, I'll update it.
When choosing Snake, there's a certain probability of getting stuck (player not showing).
Great game, i really enjoyed the chapter by chapter approach and the mechanic is incredibly creative, it reminded me of the game 400 years. I did get stuck on the level with the two dark boxes and the tree leading to spikes(I believe it was the third or fourth level in chap 2). PS minor bug report, when pushing boxes off a ledge hitting X twice in quick succession will push it midair and cause it to bounce on the ground, this can be stopped if another box lands on it.
The idea to meditate while time passes so trees can grows up was just too good and innovative. Great job
Fun game! Great job! Would be cool to see different seasons do different things as you wait as well. Even just background like trees bloom/lose leaves
Thanks! I had plans to introduce weather conditions as well as death from old age if you meditate too long, but that was a bit too ambitious for a two-week project.
Honestly, it was pretty strange to see the monk stay a young man no matter how long he waited for whole damn trees to grow.... but it was nowhere near as strange as the rest of the concept already was, so it honestly wasn't a problem. Although the waiting was interesting, its smaller role and simple mechanics helped keep the game focused on where it truly shined.
I adore the writing of this game and the theme- and the art too! I looked forward it when I saw it shared around the content-share channel and I'm excited to try it.
But the lag is getting a little unbearable in meditating state, I hardly can proccess whenever there's a puzzle with meditating is in there since I will be stuck for a good while waiting the game to proccess... I even tried to refrash the page once because I got really stuck in that meditating lag and discovered there's no way for the game to save your progress and had to start over.
I really enjoyed the game tho. The puzzle is fun, the mechanic is fun, I love the visuals and audio. Writing is the thing that captivate me the most.
When attempting to climb a tree, there is a certain probability of getting stuck.
Thanks for noticing!
Man, this is so well made, unbelievable talented :D
Nice game. Visuals were great, game was just the right amount of challenging for an early Saturday morning, and I liked the use of all the different forms to solve the puzzles. The tree climbing and the snake moving were a bit wonky, but otherwise very well done.
And BestPossibleGames, if you didn't figure it out yet, just answer the question "Which came first?"
Really fun! Lovely design. I got stuck on the screen that says "SNAKE can eat an EGG to grow longer", no egg in sight, unclear what to do.
Regardless, I became enlightened, thank you! Keep making awesome games.
You can lay an egg as a bird and then eat it as a snake. I now updated the game to spell it more clearly.