FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD33 → The Monster Files

The Monster Files

By literal_games

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CategoryRankScoreCount
Coolness1100
Overall374.10
Mood434.11
Humor623.95
Fun703.85
Audio903.80
Innovation1213.66
Graphics1224.26
Theme4883.51

Comments

fanatrick 2015-08-25 02:56

Holy crap this is polished! The motion and feel is perfect for a detective game. If it followed the theme better this would get straight 5s all across the board from me :)

demetz 2015-08-25 03:02

Oh wow! this is so awesome! the movement is amazing, the sound is dramatic and the overall feel of the game is pretty darn fantastic, congratulations!

fortressaustria 2015-08-25 03:02

nice solution for the movement of the characters ;)

I love the style and the choosen colors^^ (we have chosen the same color palette ;) )

COOL STORY! Really enjoyed playing it, it really got me! ;)

teamcosmitronique 2015-08-25 03:06

This was a great entry. Another one I was looking forward to play as I watched its development.
Great overall. Was not expecting it to morph into a fighting game.

lissar 2015-08-25 03:08

I enjoyed the mystery solving, not so much the fighting! That took me by surprise.

vividhelix 2015-08-25 03:11

omg this was so fun. first solving the murder, then a dark-souls-esque (stretching it a bit) boss fight. the mood is the best i've seen in all the entries I've tried, very well done! cover art very interesting, it's what drew me in!

jofra 2015-08-25 03:16

Great game! :)

rotpar 2015-08-25 03:18

Beautiful game.

stanleys_stoop 2015-08-25 03:19

Though I liked the fighting sequences the real meat of the game is the interrogation mechanic. The animations were well done and the dialog was humorous. Great job!

mrcdk 2015-08-25 03:20

Loved it, funny cases and lovely graphics and music!

The second part of the cases rekt'd me ;-;

I had some problems, like more dialog options than space though. I can't remember how I ended there and I can't reproduce it anymore.

tmpxyz 2015-08-25 03:23

a fighting game + a detective game, hmm, it's new.

judasbenhur 2015-08-25 05:31

Great job! The title animation looks like the guy is jerking off. :D Having the text read out faster or be there instantly would've made this more enjoyable to play.

karai17 2015-08-25 08:58

Great game, I liked the genre mixing. :)

acerio 2015-08-25 08:58

That was a cool game. Great audio. Funny too :D

folex70 2015-08-25 13:28

congratulations for this game, i very impressed! maked only in 72 hoours!!

nikteddy92 2015-08-25 14:38

Omg this is great!!! Super Amazing!
The best case was the first one with The MONSTER CLOWN.
EPIC
WELL DONE!

bakpakin 2015-08-25 14:38

I am very impressed. I expect this to do verrry well.

kakureta 2015-08-25 14:49

I loved the art, the sound, the mood this game gave off. It was really fun to solve those cases. The only problem is it doesn't really follow the theme until the fight with a monster. It was fun!

rattower 2015-08-25 15:53

Those are some high production values for 72 hours. Very nice game!

coruja 2015-08-25 16:05

Wonderful game! I liked so much the mix of styles! Great job!

pusty 2015-08-25 16:21

Hahaha! Awesome work! Love the graphics!

s0rax 2015-08-25 16:48

Good game, nice graphics and sound. But the battle sequence is so hard and useless for me

gnuwilliam 2015-08-25 17:31

Very well done game! Love the art

grabengroup 2015-08-25 17:33

Pretty neato! No loose ends in Gameplay, no bugs. Very polished and fun to play.

jakob37 2015-08-25 18:30

Nice, incredible that you managed to pull of this in such short time span! I played through the first case, a lot of fun. Well done :)

hippolyta 2015-08-25 19:08

Wow, this game is really well done! Great cases, good audio, nice pixel-graphics and it looks very polished.
Are you planning to release this game? I hope so :-)

Superb job!

omarshehta 2015-08-25 19:09

Just finished all 3 cases, fantastic game! I absolutely loved how the instructions actually like, and it turning into an action fighting game all of a sudden was a pleasant surprise! The humor was great too!

richardjs 2015-08-25 22:53

Great idea for the theme; not only is it original, it gives you a whole framework for setting up these detective stories. The art was great, and I particularly liked the protagonist design.

The fights were frustrating at first, but after I approached it as solving the puzzle of their movement patterns vs. viewing it as a pure action sequence, I enjoyed them more.

A short finale sequence after solving all three cases would have been a nice capstone.

glimaleite 2015-08-26 00:48

The visual brought me back to the time when I still had my Game Boy! I really enjoyed the detective parts, but I had a rough time with the fighting mode. Great job, guys!

mventurelli 2015-08-26 03:04

Wow this is amazing :O

I also made a story game, maybe you'll like it

crefossus 2015-08-26 11:54

gj

mantis 2015-08-26 11:55

Great job!

crucknuk 2015-08-26 17:37

Nice stories and really good graphics and music!

dkoding 2015-08-26 18:50

I enjoyed the investigative part. The fighting felt out of place, it was just a strange mix of concepts. Good game though!

lazypenguin 2015-08-26 19:26

This was great!!

mar3k 2015-08-26 19:27

Simply AMAZING!

rocketship 2015-08-26 21:08

Loved the story parts, they reminded me of Phoenix Wright games. I wished the cases would've been more problem solving and less fighting as I think the fighting was the weakest part of the game. Loved the atmosphere, story and graphics though. Good job!

lucienpro 2015-08-27 06:16

Watched your awesome Twitch stream and you cam out with an awesome game, great job!

crucknuk 2015-08-27 17:34

It's a very good game, I liked it! Graphics are good especially monsters sprites. The three stories are fun and the game is very polished. This is a great entry, good job!

vladirien 2015-08-27 17:43

One of the best games I played so far! Reminds me a lot of ace attorney games. The game is really polished, good job!

dikkop 2015-08-28 13:56

Cool game! Like the humour!

maniulo 2015-08-28 16:12

Holy sh~t, first boss fight was really unexpeceted! Awesome game, one of the best I've played so far.

theholychicken 2015-08-28 19:53

Totally engaging through the entire length of the gameplay! The writing is dynamic and funny in each case, the boss fights are spectacular. Enjoyed it very much! Great work!

stending 2015-08-28 21:45

Amazing! Best game I played this LD! Congratulation :)

digiman572 2015-08-29 17:42

I love the noir art style! Solving cases is a blast, and I liked the mini fighting sequence. :D

shawn42 2015-08-30 02:01

I like it! You basically wrote two games.. the detective game and the fighting.. nice!

teesquared 2015-08-30 04:55

Nice combo of mystery and fighting game. I had a hard time with the fighting but it kept trying over and over. Very complete and polished game.

aevek 2015-08-30 08:34

Super cool game! A really well-implemented mystery interrogation game followed by an acceptable fighting thingy. And three whole cases! Thats a lot of content for 72 hours. Awesome job.

francismoy 2015-08-30 11:47

Cool story!

alxr 2015-08-30 14:30

Lovely style! Congrats!

thomcc 2015-08-30 16:21

love this entry. extremely well done. great art, writing (those puns...), and audio. lots of content too! seriously great submission.

bit bummed that i was never the monster though.

ulydev 2015-08-30 17:05

Really, really great entry. An insane amount of polish!

roaringcatgames 2015-08-30 20:47

Great visual and audio. This creates for a great mood!

-Loi LeMix

randoman 2015-08-30 21:13

Really liked the case solving but the fighting was a bit down to me.

minibobbo 2015-08-31 03:02

This was fun. I like how the accusation is the theme. Refreshing change from the player actually being the monster.

I definitely felt the beat-em-up sections at the end were the weakest part. But they were still plenty fun and each monster made me laugh.

insality 2015-08-31 19:05

oh shi~, how many time i spended?
Great entry, now words. Its brilliant polished game. All is done perfectly

dianouille 2015-08-31 19:15

I love that you mixed a mystery solving game with a fighting game. Nice graphics, cool stories...It's really an awesome entry !

f1ak3r 2015-08-31 19:26

First of all, really nice polish and effort on display here. Loved the art and the quirky little stories.

The gameplay I wasn't totally happy with. The adventure part kind of has that all-too-typical adventure game story/puzzle disconnect where your character is a detective who solves mysteries but all you actually do is complete errands for people and rub objects on each other until something happens. But the stories were all pretty silly, so in that way it didn't really matter as much.

The boss fights kinda came outta nowhere with no fore-warning and I found them more irritating than fun. A boss battle is to a game level as a final exam is to the term's coursework, so this was like if I spent a term studying underwater basket weaving and then got to the exam and it asked me to write an essay on Shakespeare.

But I had fun with it nonetheless. :)

hippolyta 2015-08-31 20:05

Good one!

unclechris 2015-08-31 20:28

I really liked it, and very well done and very innovative. The graphics are very well done. And the surprise case endings was perfectly unexpected! Keep up the awesome work.

axoona 2015-08-31 21:04

This is a great game, nice approach of the theme, the dialogs are funny and I truly enjoyed solving the cases (but I must admit that although I find it innovative, I really hated the fighting... I just refreshed the game to solve each case from the start...)

joshyoshkenoshi 2015-08-31 21:13

This game is great! I love the original concept, the artwork, and the humour. I feel that the fight scenes were a little restricted, but I still think it's cool that each was different.

happyhour 2015-09-01 02:24

Definitely one of the funniest ones I've played so far. The sudden boss fight completely caught me off guard. Great work!

leafthief 2015-09-01 07:32

Well done. Good and moody entry and SO MUCH content. Really impressive for 72h!

daydreamcorgigames 2015-09-01 09:37

Awesome game! Love the humour.

gamepopper 2015-09-01 19:01

Quite funny point 'n' click detective game, which actually had some pretty good twists. Plus I love the animation
The fighting parts were a bit weak however, you can easily beat all three monsters with just one technique over and over again.

hthomson 2015-09-02 15:49

A refreshingly original take on the theme. Brilliant mood, straight off the bat I was engrossed in your sepia-tinted world of mystery and intrigue, the title music was the perfect opening and immediately set the tone for the rest of the game.

The dialog system was smooth and being able to skip text once you've finished reading prevented any frustration or unnecessary waiting around.

My only harsh critique is that the fight scene feels quite out of place and detracts from the main strength of the game which is the dialogue and story.

However, other than that, fantastic game! 5/5

dickpoelen 2015-09-02 15:55

Great clown monster (wasn't expecting a (rather difficult) fight).

hitchh1k3r 2015-09-02 16:34

I always like when a game subverts expectations. When I first got into the combat part though I found the controls (mostly hit detection) to be off putting, I think it's important to have a well polished second part when you pull a switcheroo like that. ^_^ Once I got the hang of it though, I finished all three chapters fairly easily. Nice work on this.

crafteverywhere 2015-09-02 16:52

Very impressed. Good job! The stories are very fun.

dunin 2015-09-02 18:03

nice packaged game!
funny and good graphics..
the point'n click part is maybe too linear but there are three cases: impressive work!

togie 2015-09-02 18:21

First boss was easy stuff... after learning to jump with him not away :P Fun though! the blinks should be faster and not as long though... there were a couple time i had no clue where my guy was lol

keddelzz 2015-09-02 18:29

Well executed! Fancy graphics and matching audio!

diningphilosopher 2015-09-02 19:12

Very nice entry!
The cases were interesting. The fighting was a bit less fun, since the movement was not so smooth. The music is good. I like the art style. Well done!

kles4enko 2015-09-03 07:43

nice!

chrismcmath 2015-09-03 09:39

Nice detective game! So rare to see something like this in LD.

I think I would have preferred a shorter, more compact experience to the amount of content you managed to make here. Sequences like the fight (which is blocking but results in no penalty but a time drain) were exciting but I feel could have been achieved using less intrusive designs (for instance, a short mini game that uses the mouse).

Otherwise great writing, art and ideas. Good stuff!

wizzardmaker 2015-09-04 13:35

Great game, nice story but the boss fights where a bit to hard, there should be a "no boss fight" mode

xanjos 2015-09-04 15:40

Found a bug where if you get a double KO in the fighting part, you still get a win but the battle music doesn't stop. Other than that, absolutely loved the storytelling plus the parts where you accuse the suspect of being the monster reminds me so much of the Ace Attorney games.

drauthius 2015-09-04 19:20

Nice entry. I really liked the story, depth and different characters. The graphics (outside of fights) were very nice. The fights were funny, but not that fun.

pirate_shell 2015-09-04 21:54

I really like the narritive, music and graphics. Point and clicks as a genre rely majorly on content and having lots of it so I don't think it's the best choic for a jam. That said, with the limited amount of time what you managed to create was impressive and well done. The fighting mechanics were quite clunky but that's understandable. Overall, great entry!

mustaine 2015-09-04 22:27

Brilliant. 5 stars.

euske 2015-09-05 02:36

This is how video games are supposed to be.

walsh9 2015-09-05 05:04

Great writing. Loved the art. Feels super polished. What a great game!

hexagore 2015-09-05 09:48

Really enjoyed solving the cases. Nice mechanic there, great art, it was wonderful. I found your use of the theme pretty refreshing too. I must admit I didn't enjoy the switch to a fighting game. It felt unnecessary for me. The case solving was more than enough (maybe if I didn't find it impossible to beat the monster I'd feel differently though).

Still a great entry though, no question :)

xvw 2015-09-05 12:06

Your work is awesome!
Love how you turned the theme!

I can't believe that you could do all that in so little time... this is... monstrous! :D

rxi 2015-09-05 15:09

Every part of this entry just *worked* together, the pixel art, the low-colour palette, the tweening motion, the beautiful sound effects, the music, the gameplay, the humour, the weird combination of game genres. Every part had its place and worked to make an excellent and enjoyable whole.

A really fresh entry! Nice work.

crazyminnowstudio 2015-09-05 17:48

Great sound and a nice look. It delivered a fun flowing story. If you decide to take this further, the monster fights seem a little out of genre and might be jarring to fans of this slower paced style of game. Nice job!

kerotan24 2015-09-07 16:03

Funny cases but the fighting feels unnecessary for a mistery.

maesk 2015-09-07 18:45

Great game! And you guys even did three cases! Excellent work. Sprites are really good, specially when they move and rotate just like Paper Mario.

hotboxgames 2015-09-07 19:08

Awesome entry! a lot of content for just 3 days! Loved all 3 of the cases and the art was superb, good job!

ddrkirbyisq 2015-09-07 21:08

Amazing! Not only did you manage a polished detective-style game, but when the fight scene started I was like omg, this is like Nightshade!!!

To be honest the fight scene was probably a bit unnecessary but I guess it works well enough. Art style really works well here, good job with the palette and I think the manipulation of the sprites works well. Great job guys, looking forward to reading your blog posts!

bender 2015-09-09 11:43

Great game and it's actually pretty long. The fighting seems weird, but everything else is perfect!

nassi 2015-09-10 13:38

I liked the investigation parts but the fight parts, not so much. @richardjs already mentioned the puzzle approach and I think that the fights could've been a better fit to the game if they were less action oriented and even more puzzle like. Like having to figure out the monsters weakness and then defeating it with a single move or something. As is I just don't feel the fight scenes really added to the game.

bombjack 2015-09-10 19:04

nice game. I wasn't expected the fight :) good job!

landosystems 2015-09-11 00:47

Very fun game, good art style, good humor, serious plot twists, unexpected horror... great work!

patomkin 2015-09-11 16:18

Fantastic style! :)

kizler 2015-09-12 03:29

That was awesome!

erkberg 2015-09-12 16:50

Wow, that was amazing! Great visuals and gameplay. Those battles were a really nice change of pace. The humor was also great, probably the funniest game I played this LD. I really enjoyed this a lot, good job!

peterthehe 2015-09-13 12:27

So incredibly polished. Loved the puns :P

ovidios 2015-09-13 13:01

Awesome! The first case's monster seemed a little too hard to beat though, considering I had no problem at all beating the other ones!

pavel_insight 2015-09-13 21:51

GREAT and simple. And also very funny.
Love to see a point&click adventure on LD!
Solved all three cases. 8)

superfreak 2015-09-14 09:53

Brilliant artwork and a super polished piece - truly impressive effort!

eemmbbeerr 2015-09-14 20:59

A wonderful entry all together!
The fights were hard to figure out because they are a bit unresponsive and it's hard to judge exactly what will land and what won't, thereby ending up in a bunch of restarts, at which point I have to listen to the instructions again. A faster retry would make fighting a lot more enjoyable.

That had to be described in a long text but it is an extremely minor complaint in an awesome entry. Well done!

tselmek 2015-09-14 21:10

Really great and polished game. I don't know what else to say but congratulations for the exceptionnal job you've done. The humour is great, the art is awesome, the sounds superb, everything is perfect. Might have liked something like a stamp thing when a case was done and this'll get you only 1/5.. Just kidding ;) here's your A+ sirs.

andyman404 2015-09-14 21:54

Lovely graphics and polish! Well done!

warlorddreadful 2015-09-15 00:09

Loved the writing and art style! Great job.