dongle 2018-08-14 00:26
This was absolutely depressing but beautifully told. It was pretty captivating. Great job.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD42 → Unfamiliar
By kovakomes, Mister_Kweh, SBX5, CaryStringfield and Laurim
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 21 | 4.20 | 81 | |
| Fun | 775 | 3.04 | 75 | |
| Innovation | 369 | 3.39 | 80 | |
| Theme | 704 | 3.36 | 82 | |
| Graphics | 85 | 4.34 | 83 | |
| Audio | 32 | 4.12 | 79 | |
| Mood | 2 | 4.58 | 84 |
This was absolutely depressing but beautifully told. It was pretty captivating. Great job.
@dongle Thanks for playing!
Wow. I cried, obviously. Damn, it's beautiful.
@thecommonthug thank you very much! We tried to make it as heartfelt as we could
Nice story and drawings here !
Wow. Absolutely shed a tear for me. Couldn't help it. Great audio, graphics, and the mood is very depressing. 4.5 / 5, couldn't link the game to the theme.
Beautiful foreshadowing, and gut-wrenchingly tragic. I love the art style. An epic length for a game jam entry, but definitely worth it.
That was a great story, it was so emotional. The music was fitting and the mood was perfect. This is a great game!
@znw As far as the link to the theme, we were thinking "running out of space in your brain" which is a stretch, but it's alright. We just wanted to get something out there!
@didactylos @corgiram Thanks for playing! We were going to have some other features in the game but ran out of time, glad you liked it. Sorry it's so sad though :sob:
Just a suggestion: maybe include a screenshot and a short description here. I was initially reluctant to click the link without knowing what I was getting myself into. Boy, how wrong I was.
I loved everything about the game: the story, the art and music, and the writing all came together beatifully. I'm now depressed for at least the remainder of the day, but that's just testimony to how powerful a game it is. Thank you!
Really nice game! Great graphics, audio and writing. Though I would have wished for an vegan food option in the beginning but oh well. Great job!
@senokos We will, we all kinda passed out lol. Focused on the Itch description more lol. Thanks for the feedback!
@nessa It's actually funny you say that because the guy who came up with the story is a vegetarian lol Thanks for playing!
Oh cool now I'm sad. Only feedback I can give is maybe add some more spacing with that font for a smoother read.
@iloveyourface Sorry we made you sad. Thanks for playing though! Go have some ice cream and cheer up!
Wow, what a powerful experience. Atmospherically it was perfect. Good job!
really nice point and click game. The visuals were amazing, the music was stunning and both set the mood just right for the story. Job well done! I was amazed to only catch one type too.
Thanks for playing our game everybody.
Wow. GREAT art style! Gripping, heartfelt story too! Absolutely amazing work guys! <3
I don't understand how this fits the theme but I don't care. This was obviously a work of love and should exist. I'm glad I got to experience it.
This was a really heartfelt visual novel. Everyone on the team did a really awesome job, it was a really cool experience.
That was so beautiful.
I like how much you captured an illness in a way that makes it relatable to anyone who has a heartbeat.
WOW. Just... wow. Thanks for sharing that.
@kapiteinkoekwous @netguy204 @thesomeonexd @saoi-games @rexpeppers
Thank you all for playing and leaving your feedback! We're glad you enjoyed it.
And netguy- After LD41, we had discussed possibly doing a serious game for this one. When the theme was announced and we were brainstorming ideas, we thought of doing something related to "running out of space in your mind." None of us had much knowledge of dementia, but we thought that may be a way of looking it, albeit vastly oversimplified. After doing some research and discussing with people we know who have first-hand experience with the disease, we believed it would fit the theme and allow us to challenge ourselves with the topic. Sorry for the long-winded answer, but that's kind of how we came up with the idea based on the theme. We should probably explain this somewhere, because you're right. It's definitely not an obvious connection.
@laurim this is one of those works that just *should* exist and who cares on the theme. Well done. But, I agree: It does fit from that perspective.
Absolutely stunning. And direct, which's incredibly important in my opinion - game development as an art form evolves all the time and we're slowly getting there, but there's an ongoing trend of going in roundabout ways to deliver some thought-inducing experiences. You know, as if denying the actual *fun* would be equal to creating a bad experience for the players.
One thing I can tell you is that I've sent a link to your project to my friend who skipped this LD, which's quite a rare thing for me to do - while there're always lots of gems in the game jams, games that people just *have* to see are still pretty rare. Yours is like that though.
Thank you.
@gil4 Thank you very much! Glad to know that we left such an impression! It's really satisfying to know that people enjoyed our game :smile:
... this game has practically left me speechless. I started to tear up towards the end, I seriously wish I could give this more than 5 stars. While there are a couple of minor grammatical errors ("George always fills *your* with your favorite treats..."), the game is pretty much perfect. My favorite game I've played so far. 😢 If I had to complain about something, I would say the story is predictable; but I think that just made the game even "better" (more tragic).
Brilliant, bringing this kind of experience and story to an event like Ludum Dare is is truely amazing.
Thank you so much.
Well, that hit hard. Can't say I wasn't warned though.
Pretty good entry. It is hard portait such a serious issue in a way that is somewhat realistic. But you folks did a great job. Well done.
I'm not sure if I wanted to play it, it's fucking sad.
I'm not sure if this is a realistic portrait, but looks like so. Hope I don't find any relatives in this situation.
I think it has nothing to do with the theme, but this game is perfect in everything else. Thanks for this, I just want to go hug my mother now.
That was heartbreaking to go through. That's all I can say, really
This is gorgeous. I caught a different typo than the one about the stocking: "One of the patron's liked George's music." Re: the entree options at the beginning. I chose turkey because I think it takes the longest (having never cooked any big meat), and then I realized that ham was on the shopping list from yesterday. Oops. Never mind the tenuous connection to the theme; you were inspired to make something meaningful, and you executed it beautifully. I'd like to see what else your team makes.
Oh, but I really didn't like that font. It was hard to read. I don't feel mean in saying that because everything else was so lovely.
I cried SOOOOOOO MUCHHHHHH. this is such a beautiful game, and i love the art and the music. my own grandmother suffers from dementia, and she has had multiple open heart surgeries, and can't move part of her body (completely bed ridden). It's so painful to not only see utter confusion and fear on her face, but her children losing hope every day. This is truly an important game. The animation was well done. The only comments I really have are the grammar and the text speed (I felt it was a little slow), but otherwise phenomenal. Such a great narrative. Thank you so much for making this game and thank you for rating my game as well <3
This game totally slayed me! It was soooo hard to read the last scene's text out loud. Thank you so much for sharing it with my stream! The artwork was outstanding and the writing was superb. I've shared this game with some friends and they all agree this game is a work of art! I would love to see this expanded a bit and released as a full game.
@ursagames Thank you so much for playing it! Watching your play-through on stream was really encouraging, and it was the first time I really felt like we had achieved the reactions we were striving for. I've actually watched your play-through now three times (watched the VOD with my roommate @kovakomes, who was sleeping at the time, and again with the other two group members when we all met up on Wednesday). We really appreciate the feedback and being able to see your reaction.
Btw, your stream is great! Everyone was really cool. I'll definitely try and hang out in there sometime!
Wow. First off, this was so emotional and raw, and it hits you like a sack of bricks after you start realizing what's going on. You try and fail to keep things on track. I worry a lot about this kind of thing, always having issues with memory in weird ways. It's terrifying.
This game is doing things I'd love to see in more games. The interaction was great. It really felt like I was engaged in the story, embodying the main character and fighting against her own struggles. There are so many little details and fine touches to this game that just pulls the whole experience together. The art is amazing, kudos to Virgil. The music was exactly what I needed for this experience. The writing was so so good. It was short, but not too short. I would have loved to be able to learn more about Charles, but it's clear that this story is focused on Sarah and Abigail, and how they react to your difficulties. I really just want more from this experience, but I think that it stands on its own as it is.
Wasn't prepared for the emotional sucker punch but this got to me! The artstyle was also appropriately emotional and the music was great in enhancing the mood. Could see how the theme was worked into it. The font could be improved for readability though. That ending!
Thank you so much for sharing your game with me. As you know, I played as the last night on my stream tonight at https://www.twitch.tv/saoigames
I have rated your game, but all of my feedback was captured in the stream.
You can hear my comments in the archive at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/298728142
I am serious, I really do hope you find a way to release this to a wider audience.
@saoi-games I just finished watching the video of your play-through.
Thank you so much for playing our game! It really is a beautiful feeling for all us to hear your response.
I think you honestly described our game better than we could have at the end - the shift from knowing nothing while the character knows everything to the player knowing everything and the character nothing. I had never thought of it that way, but it really is a perfect description of the story.
Thank you again.
It was a very fascinating and well-written story. I like it. I didn't get emotional, but it is very well-crafted, and I am rather stoic. Honestly, I'm only 17 years old and yet I'm wondering if maybe I'm also at risk for alzheimer's later in life given how forgetful I can be, and how cloudy my head can be sometimes.
This is the highest I've rated a game yet. It was just fantastic in every way. Thank you.
It was a while since I worked in care with some of the elderly being very close to what you managed to capture here. This was a very beautiful game, sad and beautiful. I cried a bit, which happens way to seldom playing LD games. The audio, graphics and the environmental story telling in the little bits lying around was really great. The only thing I can think of from my own experiences working with dementia is that what I saw then was more frustrated, violent and angry but in your game I also didn't explore selecting those answers so maybe the game had that involuntary darker loop in it too. Anyways, very happy to have played this.
Visual novel fan here.
Tackling Alzheimer's and other forms of memory anomalies is a good take on the theme. Running out of space in the brain can have disastrous circumstances.
Hey Really beautiful game here, I'm glad I played it. It's a very good story and the whole mood is incredibly well done ! I'm really curious about your idea behind the design of giving a choice of answer to the player.
I felt like this created another layer between the game, the character that we are playing, and the player, that forced us to think about how we are supposed to get under the skin of our character and how we can either help her or crush her life because of the choices we make. We obviously know something is wrong, but we can pretend everything is fine or just make the character "lose her mind".
I'll be glad to hear from you about the design idea around the game and choices ! Also, I'm very happy to see a team that worked on a textual/visual game. I'm not really into advertising and crap, but we worked on the same approach to the theme with my friend on our game, and I'd be glad to know what you think of it :)
This is a marvelous work on a very specific subject. I'm glad gamers and designers work on crucial problems like this. Please keep making games. Cheers !!
Fantastic entry. Had I not watched this on a stream, I would probably have teared up when I actually play it. Thank you for an unforgettable gaming experience. I appreciate the work you put in the game. I have recommended it to many people, really looking forward to a post-jam version if any. Well done!
Thank you very much for this entry. I had tears in my eyes. My Nany... This trully is a game about dementia and all the feelings and hopelessness and tears that come with it. Thank you :heart:
A great visual novel, it feels so depressing as you know what is happening at the end of the first scene. The narrative is just perfect, I'm not sure if the decisions you make turn into different consequences or endings. The only issue I had was with the music, after a while I feel it a little bit monotonous.
BTW, We also have an HTML5 entry if you want to play it and rate it.
I'm reminded of a Skype call a long time ago my sister made when she was visiting Japan. Reconnecting with her cousins, aunts, and uncle, she invited our grandmother to the call. What was striking was that after marveling at the technology that is video-chatting from overseas, our grandmother would ask my sister, "who are you?" Each time, my sister would reply, "your granddaughter, remember?" This was in a span of 30 minutes.
Back to the game, I'm pleasantly surprised at how well the narrative was written. It must have been quite a challenge to write from an Alzheimer's victim's perspective without sounding like there's a lot of gotchas (e.g. the frustration that the reader memorized something the lead character doesn't) and deux ex machinas from the reader's perspective. Having new, only-slightly-important details prop up later to re-contextualize the lead character's observations was a subtle, yet effective way to demonstrate her inability to retain memory. I did think the time skips were a bit sudden when the subtlety was lost in favor of the lead character being unable to distinguish past from present, but then again, I do understand that this is the natural conclusion of this disease developing. I sort of wished the transition was a little more smoother, like building on how our protagonist mistakenly identified her granddaughter as her adult daughter.
I also confess I wasn't a huge fan of the music lingering a little too long than I would have liked. There's a lot of dialog to go through, and since the music only changes on scene changes rather than key moments, it got repetitive after a while. I'm a huge fan of the art, however, and enjoyed using the point-and-click format to encourage the player to collect as many memories as possible before our lead loses them. Well done!
Reader, I cried. This was marvelous and painful and it touched a deep chord; I especially liked the narrative and how well it approached the idea. It's not easy to capture the idea of fading memories without coming across as kitsch, but you did it and in record time. o.o Well done.
I particularly loved being able to scan around different objects and let my mind wander like I do in real life. Especially in the doctor's office scene. that was so incredible immersive. I have a personal connection with this disease and appreciate your efforts to expose it more to the public. It was very difficult to stream. here is a link to the segment. I will export this as a standalone video soon for you all. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/299088812?t=03h35m51s I have also given your team the "Most Serious" award and this game now has a link on my channels main page in the hall of fame section.
I wanted to play this game because a lot of people from the community reccomended it.
Game is well executed from the very first minute to the last. It is a showcase of gorgeous art and brilliant literature. I also think the way the music shifted further into the game was excellent.
It obviously wasn't fun but its probably one of the most powerfully profound experiances from a video game.
... and the ending :cry:
@tigerj Thanks for streaming the game. We're very honored to receive your award for "Most Serious" LD42 game.
Sadly, I can't rate as I did not participate in this LD. Just... amazing.
The art... the music... the execution of the story... This game, made in 72h... I don't have words.
Keep it up.
Amazing game/story. It really resonated with me. One of my favorite entries this jam.