{"id":2174,"edition":12,"categories":1,"features":0,"size":13303,"name":"13th Floor","authors":[{"name":"Rob Louie","url":"roblouie.com","twitter":"rob_louie","login":"roblouie","gh":5448110}],"description":"

13th Floor is a stealth horror game requiring you to stay vigilant and stay in the shadows.

\n

You receive a strange invitation to a party celebrating the 13th JS13k gaming competition. The party is on the 13th floor where there are 13 rooms, what could go wrong?

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Instructions

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You arrive at the 13th floor with a Key. Go to the room number you have the key for. Inside that room, another key will be hidden. Find it and go to the next room and repeat until you find the key to Room 1313.

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Use your Flashlight (F) to find the rooms and search for items.

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Some rooms will start unlocked. They have Health Packs hidden in them. Use them to restore health.

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When It arrives, don’t let It see you. You can see It coming by watching for It’s light.

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If It sees you, run and hide.

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Controls

\n\n","source":"roblouie/js13k-2024","stars":51,"dc":"https://roblouie.com/13th-floor-dc/","yt":"eF0seNiHA-Y","post":"https://roblouie.com/article/1219/the-making-of-the-13th-floor-js13k-2024/","comments":[{"at":378855438,"author":"Feenposhleen","login":"Feenposhleen","gh":7203381,"text":"

Impressive on a technical level, and scary on a psychological one. Lighting effects are great, and it really has that scary ambience of horror games like Phasmophobia. It gets a bit repetitive after a while though, and the AI of “It” is a bit jank at times. I got stuck when “It” was just moving back and forth outside the room I was hiding in with very little HP.

\n","games":["SUB13"]},{"typ":1,"at":378878439,"re":378855438,"author":"Rob Louie","login":"roblouie","gh":5448110,"url":"roblouie.com","twitter":"rob_louie","text":"

Hey, thanks for giving the game a try and for the kind words! Regarding the repetition, I see your point, with 13kb though, I think almost every game is a bit repetitive, only so much I can do :). Regarding the AI, ya, with 13kb the creature can only be so smart, sometimes that can happen. If you’re willing to give it another go, there are rooms with health packs you can use to refill your health, and while they are semi randomly placed, they tend to be in the center hallway due to the algorithm used to spread out keys. If you grab one or two of those, you should be able to make it to the end easily. You were probably close as there are 8 keys to grab to the end.

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Either way, really appreciate you taking the time to check out the game and leave feedback, good luck in the competition!

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Thanks,\nRob

\n"},{"at":378905857,"author":"Cliff Earl","login":"Antix-Development","gh":17822130,"text":"

Nice. Love the technology! It’s not great on my potato laptop but very cool.

\n","games":["Badluck Butter Chicken Goes To Outer Space","Badluck Butter Chicken Flies The Unfriendly Skies"]},{"at":378935491,"author":"Javi Agenjo","login":"jagenjo","gh":393515,"url":"http://tamats.com","twitter":"tamat","text":"

Amazing game. Love the shadows and how you manage to cramp all that geometry in 13KBs. Very inspiring. I really got nervous playing it!!.

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My only recomendation would had been to render all geometry twice but scaling by (1,1,-1) and making the elevator floor alpha 0.5. That would had given and extra shininess. :D

\n","games":["Deep13"]},{"at":378941480,"author":"Christoph Schansky","login":"DerBenniBanni","gh":5499976,"text":"

Amazing game!

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I wonder if i will fall asleep tonight… the goosebumps are only slowly going away…

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Very good gfx, and sfx.

\n","games":["Aargh! Triskaideka attacks!"]},{"at":379007746,"author":"Cody Ebberson","login":"codyebberson","gh":749094,"url":"https://cody.ebberson.com","twitter":"codyebberson","text":"

Amazing work, as always. This is a technical masterpiece. Great lighting, great textures, great level design, intricate details. Fantastic 👍

\n","games":["Phantomicus"]},{"at":379034696,"author":"xem","login":"xem","gh":1225909,"text":"

Incredible graphics and ambiance. “it” made me chilly!

\n","games":["O HIII BAD SKATEPARK","EMOJIPHOBIA","GREAT PLUMBER 65"]},{"at":379059006,"author":"Jerome Lecomte","login":"herebefrogs","gh":1383818,"url":"herebefrogs.com","text":"

I was already panicking just from reading your game’s description! I had to confront it during the first play-through to be able to continue the game with a decent heartbeat, so I could rate it objectively!!!

\n","games":["SUP3RFR1GHT VR"]},{"at":379121200,"author":"Gauthier Billot","login":"gogoprog","gh":1249453,"url":"http://gogopr.org","twitter":"gogoprog","text":"

Awesome entry, lot of different stuff in here.\nSpecial mention to the 3d engine.

\n","games":["Mini13 : A very minimal fps"]},{"at":379224344,"author":"Hogia","login":"Hogia","gh":2686337,"text":"

Amazing!!! I love all of it the sound graphics, the horror theme, and the lightning behind the NPC are a nice touch, very well done! And the fact that all of these fit in a 13kb it’s insane. GG

\n","games":["13 Seconds To Midnight"]},{"at":379456447,"author":"Stanisław Małolepszy","login":"stasm","gh":265818,"url":"https://piesku.com","twitter":"stas","text":"

The amount of details is insane – the shower curtains, the bathroom tiling, the pillows, the wallpaper! Combined with lighting, this is Left4Dead-level of graphics :) An amazing achievement.

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I’m usually not a fan of horror games (nor movies), but I enjoyed the thrill and the mystery. At some point It started chasing right after me and I got goosebumps when I saw a shadow on the wall in front of me. Such a great effect.

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I was getting a bit lost running through the corridors, so the plan for my next playthrough is to bring pen and paper and map the floor. Unless the room numbers are procedural?

\n","games":["Millennials"]},{"typ":1,"at":379469177,"re":379456447,"author":"Rob Louie","login":"roblouie","gh":5448110,"url":"roblouie.com","twitter":"rob_louie","text":"

Yes! I’m so happy you said that about the shadow on the wall in front of you! That was one of the visions I had of the game in my mind at the very start, but it can of course only happen in certain circumstances, so very happy to hear someone experienced that!

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But ya please give it another shot, there is a fun surprise at the end! And don’t forget about the health packs. You should be able to make it to the end pretty easily with one or two health packs.

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The room numbers aren’t procedural, only the placement of the keys. Facing out of the elevator at the start, the layout is: Left hallway has rooms 1-3, center hallway has rooms on each side and so has rooms 4 - 9, right hallway has rooms 10-12. This image from my post mortem explaining pathfinding has an overhead view you can reference: https://roblouie.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/pathfinding.png

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Even knowing this, sometimes you can get disoriented, but if you go to the center hallway and look for elevator doors you can reorient yourself.

\n"},{"at":379504328,"author":"Ryan Tyler","login":"tyler6699","gh":50468,"url":"https://carelesslabs.co.uk","text":"

Really nice 3D work, Blows my mind how people mamage 3D so well in so little space.

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Lots of attention to detail!

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Never thought a JS13k game would spook me, I hate the anticipation of scary games even though I enjoy lots of horror genre movies!

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The thought of jump scares is the worse.

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Also; enjoyed reading your post-mortem!

\n","games":["The Fear Factory"]},{"at":379540916,"author":"Jonathan Vallet","login":"jonathan-vallet","gh":5329099,"text":"

I didn’t finish the game, I’m sorry… But i don’t like horror games…\nWhich make your game incredibly cool! The ambiance is really excellent and scary, gameplay, sound design and 3d graphics work really well!\nPerfect game for the jam!

\n","games":["13 Steps to Escape"]},{"at":379578478,"author":"Homer Dilpleu","login":"HomerDilpleu","gh":66157330,"text":"

Fantastic game!\nThe 3D engine is incredible, materials are so sophisticated, and the atmosphere is really scary :)\nBesides 3D, what caught my attention is the spatial sound with the enemy steps turning around.\nGreat entry!

\n","games":["Unloved 13"]},{"typ":2,"at":379635357,"author":"Clément Pasteau","login":"ClementPasteau","gh":4895034,"twitter":"ClementPasteau","text":"

Spooky little game! Really well done.

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The 3D is simple yet very immersive.\nI would have gone even further in darkening the screen even more when the flashlight is not on.

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Sound effects top notch.\nThe actions are simple enough to not have to think too much how to play.

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Great game!

\n"},{"typ":1,"at":379841538,"re":379635357,"author":"Rob Louie","login":"roblouie","gh":5448110,"url":"roblouie.com","twitter":"rob_louie","text":"

Thank you so much for playing the game and the kind words! I don’t necessarily disagree with you on the darker screen outside the flashlight, but since I didn’t have room for a gamma or brightness slider, I decided to err slightly on the side of better visibility.

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And thank you for mentioning the sound effects, synthesizing those sounds was not easy, especially the elevator!

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Thanks again!

\n\n"},{"at":379641442,"author":"Benjamin Boyd Austin","login":"bbaustin","gh":18755168,"text":"

This is so good. This legitimately scared me multiple, haha, especially with the death animation.

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The sound is great; I love the minimal footstep sound effect, and then the music is really creepy when it kicks in. Maybe one nitpick is that the music could fade out (instead of just cutting out) once you are out of danger?

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Another thing I really liked were all of the textures: wood, textured wall, carpet, wallpaper… All looked nice!

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Just a couple of quality-of-life things I was wishing for while playing:

\n\n

But yeah, this was really fun. I’ll play again later to try and beat it!

\n","games":["PicoBuddy"]},{"at":379957265,"author":"Frank Force","login":"KilledByAPixel","gh":16227600,"url":"https://www.frankforce.com","twitter":"KilledByAPixel","text":"

Amazing work, the graphics and atmosphere are very well done. I was scared many times while playing. As fun as it is, this is also a very fun game to watch other people play which is a good thing to have in the days of twitch so I hope it gets a lot of play. I also read the postmortem and that was great too. Thanks so much, I really enjoyed this game.

\n","games":["DR1V3N WILD"]},{"typ":1,"at":380377473,"re":379957265,"author":"Rob Louie","login":"roblouie","gh":5448110,"url":"roblouie.com","twitter":"rob_louie","text":"

Hey thank you! Ya I got to watch two people play it on twitch and it was really fun to watch. Also watched some friends and family play. People really get scared, which is really rewarding. Glad you also enjoyed watching it. Obviously I like watching people play it because I made it, but to hear you liked watching people play it as well is really cool!

\n"},{"at":380096550,"author":"João Lopes","login":"lopis","gh":2715751,"url":"www.jlopes.dev","text":"

This is obviously one of the most impressive submissions this year. The complexity of the 3D level is beyond impressive. It looks amazing. The surround sound and the spooky music was really scary and fitting.

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The game doesn’t need long instructions. You’re dumped in a hotel floor and must escape. The rest, you are shown, so the gameplay is pretty simple but engaging. It does get perhaps a bit boring after a while of doing the same task over and over. I found the walking and camera movements a bit too sluggish.

\n","games":["Thirteen Terrible Stunts"]},{"at":380177466,"author":"Michael M.","login":"Schnark","gh":17846729,"url":"https://schnark.github.io","text":"

Unfortunately, I could not play the game: I have “search as you type” enabled in my browser, so when I try to move the browser search suddenly shows up. You should call .preventDefault() on all keyboard events to prevent this.

\n","games":["Lord Balsekil's Lairs of Bad Luck"]},{"at":380242055,"author":"Almar Suarez","login":"wololoa","gh":10622012,"twitter":"repunkgame","text":"

One of my top favorites this year, it does everything right. Great game!

\n","games":["DECK 13"]},{"at":380245510,"author":"Michel Sabchuk","login":"michelts","gh":361492,"url":"http://turbosys.com.br","text":"

Impressive! Really scared me out!

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The 3D, textures and all the details are amazing. It is surprising how did you get all of that into 13kb. Really nice work!

\n","games":["Thirteen Truco"]},{"at":380248846,"author":"Igor Khotin","login":"invider","gh":5694089,"url":"http://www.ikhotin.com","twitter":"chaostarter","text":"

The scariest game of this year’s compo! And a perfect match for this year’s theme as well!

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Superb graphics, models, sound, and lights! Step sounds are especially cool and add a lot in the sense of imminent danger. Light is another crucial element and hiding in the closet while being searched for is so intense that I was trying to keep silent and not to give up my location. The music also very organically adds tension. The best immersion ever!

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It is a perfect 13k entry. I hardly see anything else that could be included or improved given the 13k limitation.

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We enjoyed playing your game on the Twitch stream with JetPakBoy and your hints were crucial to beating it. It would be nice to have a system to detect that you’re stuck and provide a hint like “look for a key” or “look for a health pack in one of the open rooms”. But I’m not sure if it’s even possible to squeeze that in. The game has a nice description though, so everything you need to know is already there. As with most of 13k games, you need to rely on a description and not the in-game tutorials.

\n","games":["Liminal Gap Runner"]},{"typ":1,"at":380377386,"re":380248846,"author":"Rob Louie","login":"roblouie","gh":5448110,"url":"roblouie.com","twitter":"rob_louie","text":"

Thank you! It was super fun watching you both play it, especially the comments from JetPakBoy, who said (and I’m paraphrasing), “It’s pretty traumatizing but it’s really good”. Thank you again for streaming it, it was awesome to watch!

\n"},{"at":380282063,"author":"Samuel van Egmond","login":"SamuelVanEgmond","gh":95985602,"text":"

This game really got me running scared!

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Great level, beds, wallpaper, bathrooms all looked great.

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VEry good use of shadows, especially when you are running and you see the shadow of It cast over you to the wall in front , brrr!

\n","games":["The King's Crowns"]},{"typ":1,"at":380377324,"re":380282063,"author":"Rob Louie","login":"roblouie","gh":5448110,"url":"roblouie.com","twitter":"rob_louie","text":"

Hey thank you so much! I’m glad you also experienced the shadow in front of you like that. That was one of the visions I had for the game when I first set out to make it, so really glad that came through!

\n"},{"at":380356831,"author":"Jack Le Hamster","login":"jacklehamster","gh":5171849,"url":"https://dobuki.net","twitter":"jacklehamster","text":"

The sound, the way you use the shadow, is perfect to create the scary atmosphere. But then I saw the face and kinda cracked up how silly it looked.\nThe gameplay was ok, but the experience was great!

\n"},{"at":380363858,"author":"Marcin Walczak","login":"wiserim","gh":18725798,"twitter":"wiserim_","text":"

Very atmospheric horror game.

\n

Impressive graphics (especially lighting and high res textures).\nGreat sound design that adds to the atmosphere.

\n

The details like sound of footsteps and the light casted by enemy when it’s chasing / looking for you give a sense of dread.

\n

The only negative thing I could think of would be that controls feels a little bit sluggish.

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Edit: I’ve checked the game on another machine and controls works fine.

\n","games":["Thirteen"]},{"typ":1,"at":380377159,"re":380363858,"author":"Rob Louie","login":"roblouie","gh":5448110,"url":"roblouie.com","twitter":"rob_louie","text":"

Hey, thank you so much for all the kind words!

\n

Ya, tuning the mouse sensitivity is tough when you don’t have room for a sensitivity slider! I think I have my mouse speed turned up slightly in windows as well so, probably a bit worse than intended.

\n"},{"at":380367392,"author":"Jasper Renow-Clarke","login":"picosonic","gh":26137750,"twitter":"femtosonic","text":"

Definite “The Shining” vibes.

\n

Very very atmospheric, really dark and foreboding.

\n

I had a good explore round, and at times it got a little laggy.

\n

The game was very dark, once I turned on the light it was very helpful :)

\n

I came across a lot of locked doors, but one that was open, I noticed when going in the bathroom that one of the options I could select was to hide. But hide from what exactly?

\n

Spine tingling, being on the height of alertness as I explored the creepy corridors.

\n

Was I able to run? I couldn’t find how.

\n

I did get to room 1313, but it was locked

\n","games":["rollermaze"]},{"typ":1,"at":380377282,"re":380367392,"author":"Rob Louie","login":"roblouie","gh":5448110,"url":"roblouie.com","twitter":"rob_louie","text":"

Hey thank you! The Shining was a big inspiration. Since you didn’t hide from anything, you must not have found the first key even. See the instructions section above where it says:

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You arrive at the 13th floor with a Key. Go to the room number you have the key for. Inside that room, another key will be hidden. Find it and go to the next room and repeat until you find the key to Room 1313.

\n

In the lower right corner you will see a key icon and a room number. Go to that room and unlock and open the door and somewhere in that room will be another key. Find it and go to the next room. Once you find the first key….there will be something to hide from.

\n"},{"at":380407500,"author":"Nik Lever","login":"NikLever","gh":47000827,"url":"http://niklever.com","text":"

Knocked out that you fit the environment and a 3d engine into a 13k limit. Respect.

\n","games":["Steamshot 13"]},{"at":380432170,"author":"Michał Chojnacki","login":"alcore","gh":13606783,"url":"https://muyo.io","text":"

Being chased by horrific things isn’t my personal idea of fun, but I can appreciate a horror game going for atmosphere instead of cheap jump scares that tire quickly. Solid all round and impressive as 3D-in-13K.

\n

My suggestion for something that could potentially still fit into 13KB after a bit massaging: make the flashlight a resource, not a button that you press once and forget about it. A limited battery (13Wh~) comes to mind immediately.

\n

After that? Alan Wake-like mechanic to interact with the creature (stop/push away?) when it’s within the flashlight’s radius. This would introduce both a non-obvious time limit (battery capacity), and a choice dilemma (use light to get out of a pickle, or conserve light for finding the keys).

\n"},{"at":380442814,"author":"Roman Miniv","login":"RomanMiniv","gh":50551993,"text":"

It’s scary! Age limit must be 18+.

\n","games":["How it started"]},{"at":380667746,"author":"Lewis Nakao","login":"lewdev","gh":1469960,"url":"https://lewdev.github.io","twitter":"lewdev","text":"

I don’t think I’ve been so freakin’ terrified in a game in a while. The music and odd thumping was just making me freak out. It’s actually scary to go play it again so I can see the ending.

\n","games":["13attle TanKs"]},{"at":380702088,"author":"Nick Shillingford","login":"nickshillingford","gh":25120298,"text":"

Brilliant!

\n

I was literally afraid while playing this. It took me a couple minutes to get the courage to even leave the first room after I picked the key up.

\n

The way you slowly start to hear those first footsteps….oh man, such good horror design.

\n

I’m not a fan of horror really, but I can appreciate anything that makes me feel an emotion. This definitely accomplished that. Great job.

\n","games":["F-Stop"]}],"results":{"theme":{"rank":1,"min":1,"score":4.2,"max":4.2},"innovation":{"rank":5,"min":1,"score":3.87,"max":4.47},"gameplay":{"rank":19,"min":1,"score":3.8,"max":4.29},"graphics":{"rank":3,"min":1,"score":4.7,"max":4.76},"audio":{"rank":3,"min":1,"score":4.13,"max":4.34},"controls":{"rank":12,"min":1,"score":3.77,"max":4.24},"primary":{"rank":1,"min":6,"score":24.47,"max":24.47},"label":"Overall"}}