paracatgames 2017-07-28 13:18
Testing out blog feature.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD39 → Soporific: A Bedtime Story
By paracatgames, Stephen Meyer and Karlyn Meyer
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 364 | 3.45 | 33 | |
| Fun | 660 | 2.77 | 33 | |
| Innovation | 283 | 3.31 | 34 | |
| Theme | 749 | 2.80 | 33 | |
| Graphics | 312 | 3.81 | 34 | |
| Audio | 177 | 3.58 | 33 | |
| Humor | 208 | 3.00 | 32 | |
| Mood | 224 | 3.58 | 33 |
Testing out blog feature.
Hi ! Nice little game, the sounds are a bit buggy (sometimes the child did not talk or started talking but it is not what the transcript says). I don't really see how it relates to the theme though ?
I appreciate the twist in the theme, and I really love the voices. Our game is storytelling type, you should try it.
I love this entry. It has a beautiful charm to it, and some very interesting feedback. I tried to be a bit of a dick and just pick all the most stupid options, and the game scolded me for it, in a very satisfying way. I am curious about your writing process; I imagine you reading out the various stories to G. and just recording her response, though I imagine she was a bit more active in their creation. Either way, you came out with a great little gem. Thanks for your work :)
Oh, and congrats on the impressive amount of art and content you managed to create while taking care of a 3 year old.
This was adorable. The kid's reactions were just so genuine and funny in a truly childlike way, I guess that's what happens when the game is inspired by a real kid :)
Like amras0000, I tried picking all the strange options and it was really funny to hear G shut me down. Loved the artwork. Repusv pointed out the audio was a little buggy. I was also having trouble with it. But the visuals made up for it! Great job.
@repusv - Our take on the theme is that you're running out of energy (power) while trying to put your child to sleep.
@amras0000 - Thanks so much! @karlyn-meyer is our main writer so I'll let her respond about her process!
For those that mentioned audio (@repusv and @kapricorn-media)—the recordings of G. weren't intended to be full voice acting; it's more like G. riffs off the ideas. So they may not match 100% but the content should be basically the same. If you found bugs that aren't explained by that, please let us know specifics!
Thanks everyone for the comments and ratings! I'm working on playing your games and commenting back right now!
Thank you for the feedback and kind words! Yes @amras0000 -- this is scripted from real conversations with G., and her ideas and impressions based on the prompts given. The audio reflects those impressions as well, though she checked out a bit as the game jam went on. So in addition to what @paracatgames mentioned about riffs v. voice acting (@repusv, @kapricorn-media), we recorded only as much audio as G. was interested in providing, which left us with some gaps in coverage (e.g., the supervillain storyline). To be fair, it's her first game jam. :)
Hey @kapricorn-media. I've seen a couple hundred jam games over the years and Saito's Transgression is the prettiest one I've ever laid eyes on. You complimenting the artwork means a lot. Thanks for the feedback!
Cute!
Amazing art. The game hasn't done anything when I press the go to sleep button. Other than that if voiced and better stories are added could be made an app for toddlers being a new form of choose your adventure.
Wow, a text based game! That's very interesting. I loved the fact that the game has voices. I've tried to implement voice dubbing in my game, but I'd no time for it :/. Good job! :D
Very cute. Love the stories and the complimenting art work. After playing all these action filled games it was a very nice break to experience something so genuine and down to earth. The everyday struggles of tired parents, running out of power, while trying to get the child to run out of power, was communicated very well. Nice work!
Very nice game! I liked the graphics, it fit very well with the story. The fade-in transitions also fit very well with the beautiful art style and mood of the game. I liked how you reward the player for winning the game, it was very cute. Great job!
Great game! Really enjoyed the voice performance. Get that three year old an agent! Cute take on the theme. I don't really have much constructive criticism to give. I guess I could say that I liked the music at the start and I wish music had kept playing through (at a lower volume to not drown out the voice performance of course). Overall, one of the best submissions I've seen from Ludum Dare! Awesome work!
I loved the graphics, and felt like the branching story and graphics fading in and out gave a sense of what it would really be like to be in this situation. Very charming, put a big smile on my face
Definitely innovative. I don't think I've ever heard of a bedtime story game before.
This was super cute, and as others have said, the art, VO, and writing were all really good. The "plan the birthday" option felt a little out of place (although I don't have a kid, so maybe not?). I know you were doing the fade out and falling asleep thing to suit the theme, but it felt a little annoying more than anything towards the end. I think maybe making it a little quicker, or varying it with yawns or other things, would have made it less so.
Sorry for double posting but I'm back because I realized that this reminded me of something. It's a similar concept to some of the Hubleys' animated shorts like Moonbird: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPwph2upVDo
Amazing idea behind the theme! I love it how you managed to put this together and the expresions of the child. I believe that at least one of you is a parent, cause there are so many details that ara hard to know if you havn't been with a child. Her reactions were so natural.
I've played two times, the first telling a story about space (amazing), and then failing so hard trying to speak about a farm and a superhero. The game get stucked at "Let me tell you about..." at some point without any stories left to tell, so in my imagination she fell sleep, hehe.
Amazing art and so brave to do an idea like this, congratulations. Good luck!
Great game! I loved the voice acting. Such a pleasant surprise when it came on, and always adorable.
Improvement Suggestions. Maybe after the voice acting is recorded, go back and tweak some of the text a bit to match what was actually recorded. Also, since our heroic parent keeps falling asleep, maybe some different text each time they wake up, rather than the same thing. All in all, I had great fun! Especially the party "story." That was the best one.
This was SO ADORABLE! Oh goodness, screen transitions were so lovely because they were as slow as they are, so the painted backgrounds seemed to blend really well together for the fade. (And really nice backgrounds, too!) I enjoyed seeing the little details pop up as the stories went on.
Sound direction was SPOT ON. Give that kid a medal for best voice acting lines. :)
A negotiation game but then with hopefully not boring storylines. Great cohesion of art and voices and overall feel.
And to ask based on your input on my entry, you mentioned left and right stopped your motion, have not been able to replicate, if you have a chance, please let me know which browser/platform you used and if you have any special keyboard layout/config. Thanks! (Sorry to put this in my comment here, but this site will not notify you of mentions, so…)
Comment edited, @zenmumbler. Turns out the arrow keys and WASD act a little different. WASD feels great!
Cute game. The art is very nice and the voice recordings are cute. Sometimes the audio seemed to be played at the wrong time though. I especially liked how with every choice something more in the image was added.
The game crashed while we were falling asleep during the space story, which feels weirdly appropriate. If you're going to give us story options as the main premise of the game it'd be nice to at least let me decide that, actually, the astronaut DID spend seven years alone in that spaceship. She went mad, she started talking to a volleyball, these are the sacrifices we make for science my child. Give these kids some aesops with some teeth, son.
Mrs Columbo is sitting next to me saying, "the best part is the child!" I have to admit that the game does bring back memories of telling my daughter stories every night, each of which would contain interjections from her such as, "Dad! That's not what happened. You're telling it wrong!" Clearly my imagination can do no right.
The drawings were also very good and I'm being informed by Mrs Columbo that this game is her favourite so far. There are too many games that involve shooting, or violence, or batteries running down, so this was original and refreshing. She even called my not so little any more daughter into the room to play the game, and even she had a wry grin at the "oct oct here".
Lovely game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 39 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_RV8hzvGH4
It's like a breath of a fresh air in the current LD (all these batteries, progress bars and electricity). Cute and amusing. Here is another video of a playthrough: https://youtu.be/6m-FaA6c3Pk
Pretty cool! I'm not sure were the theme is. but this was a pretty normal game :)
What a very cute game! It didn't go very far in terms of gameplay, but the writing was surprising, when you start falling asleep or having the kid just yell at you for making "wrong" choices.
It was a refreshing experience after all the other more "classic use of the theme" games in LD !