FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD45 → While you're here

While you're here

By dinorex and daria-toni

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall5043.5080
Fun9212.8078
Innovation8112.8578
Theme3443.6379
Graphics4793.6680
Mood1083.9980

Comments

baturinsky 2019-10-07 16:16

Can't unpack rar. You sure it should be only 21.8MB big?

daria-toni 2019-10-07 16:22

@baturinsky we checked on two computers and everything is fine. Maybe you have an old version of WinRar? And yeah, the pack is ~21mb, but unpacked game is ~70mb.

baturinsky 2019-10-07 16:30

I tried unpacking with 7z. Not everyone has WinRAR, maybe you use another packer, or make it self-extracting?

dinorex 2019-10-07 17:08

@baturinsky Special for you, we added unpacked folder to googleDrive:)

baturinsky 2019-10-07 17:16

Not working for me too, google drive stuck at "preparing zip file". Can't you just add a zip on itch? Zip is guaranteed to be openable pretty much everywhere.

Update: google drive version finally loaded, but it's still better to have zip version. Because "бойся не того кто не подумавши скажет а того кто не сказавши подумает", i.e. if I'm only one that said it, it does not mean I'm only one having this problem.

baturinsky 2019-10-07 18:12

Well, played it to the end. Pretty good graphics, especially for 20mb. I like the storytelling, though it's pretty predictable. I expected some twist.

daria-toni 2019-10-07 18:24

@baturinsky We added 7z archive to itch.io anyway :) Thank you for your feedback! We decided to make this type of story not for the sake of a twist, but in order to raise a certain topic.

attala 2019-10-07 19:12

Nice way of telling a story. Some puzzle elements would have madee the game more interesting. For instance if the letters/notes were hidden. Also, there could be som audible hint that a door/new area has opened. Other than that, great graphics and sound. You really got the mood of this right. Well done.

kenarf 2019-10-07 19:14

Very nice, it has its remarkable mood and has great potential for some storytelling. Bravo!

givit-game-studios 2019-10-07 19:15

This is a interesting game. I have read all of the clicables but couldn't manage to get out of the first room. Maybe add a way to re-read the notes that you have left. BUt still a great effort.

trito 2019-10-07 19:29

Wow! Really great game with a nice story! I actually got touched by it. The game felt stable with nice graphic and autio! Great work!

mazen-morgan 2019-10-07 20:35

Very very very great game and super nice story, fits the theme perfectly. well done !

daria-toni 2019-10-07 21:18

@attala thank you for your nice comment! We chose a simple search game so that more people could finish it and see our idea. But I like puzzles suggestion! About doors - actually there is a sound of a click of a door, it's not so loud, most likely it was muffled by sounds of an interaction with object.

@kenarf thanks for your comment! I'm glad you like it :)

@givit-game-studios oh, I'll give you a hint, there're 9 objects in the first room, these are photos and letters. Maybe you'll look on the shelves and... in the boxes :) Then the door should open, I promise. We wanted to make it possible to re-read things, but disabled it in the process. Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed the effort :)

@trito we're very happy that you're touched by our story, this is what we hoped for :) Thanks!

@mazen-morgan hey, thanks for playing the game! It's so great that you like it.

kushimoto 2019-10-07 23:57

Great story. Thank you for such a heartfelt contribution to the jam. Well done!

jk5000 2019-10-08 10:12

This is overall a pretty interesting little game with a pretty interesting story. But for me the story was also a bit messy and I found the chosen font to be a bit difficult to read. Overall is this a good jam game. Well done.

designernap 2019-10-08 16:57

Very smooth audio and visuals! Greak work. I did not manage to leave the first room but the atmosphere was lovely.

dwam 2019-10-08 17:18

This was a neat little game! I caught onto what was going on fairly early on, but it didn't hurt my enjoyment of the story. Really cool you guys managed to build all those rooms in such a short amount of time. My one complaint would be with the presentation of the text. For example, the font (at least the one used in the English version) makes the letter 'r' difficult to read.

Also, I would suggest maybe visually separating the protagonist's thoughts from the letters? I know the text of the letters of is in brackets, but it would've made more sense to have the text of the letters be on the sheet of paper, and the narrator's thoughts be somewhere else on the screen. It might also be worthwhile to have three fonts - one for the letters, one for the narrator's thoughts, and one for the user interface.

Overall, though, it's a neat experience with a heartwarming message!

daria-toni 2019-10-08 18:04

@kushimoto thank you! I'm really happy that you like it :)

@jk5000 thanks a lot :) We broke the story as a mosaic for a reason, to assemble it in your mind. But I can imagine it can be difficult to keep all the information in your head. And it's sad that font seemed complicated to read for you. I'll consider this remark for the future.

@designernap you need to find interactible objects, after 9 things in the first room the door will open. But I'm glad you like it anyway, thank you!

@dwam wow, such a big comment :) Your words about font are very useful, we'll take it for the future. I can imagine the separation that you talking about. It might look very neat. I always take style comments as an experience for the next projects. And I'll take your compliment to the rooms as personal one, because I created them, thanks a lot :)

a-french-canadian-studios 2019-10-08 20:13

Enjoyed the story and atmosphere!

daria-toni 2019-10-08 20:33

@a-french-canadian-studios thank you! I enjoyed your story too :)

smackmet 2019-10-08 20:46

Great game ! The different approach to the theme and the seriousness took me by suprise but it was most definitly interesting. RIP Rowdy forever a goodboy

daitse 2019-10-08 20:54

The feels man ! I was very touched by the story ! Audio matches the game quite well. At first I thought the moving speed was slow but it is justified so it's not a problem ^^ Narration was good but I'm not a fan a the font you used. Overall quite a good game !

brokenmirrormedia 2019-10-08 21:20

Really heartfelt game. Some text issues but that's totally understandable, though I did find the font a bit hard to read. I had some issues getting out of the first room, and the crosshair is so small I thought it was some dust on my screen haha. Maybe it should be bigger or there should be some other indicator of when you're looking at something you can interact with (ie. it starts to glow). Having a restart button seems odd in a narrative game, and I accidentally hit it, resetting my progress. In terms of the story it's really well done, and is a fantastic take on the theme. Very emotional and impactful, I'm incredibly impressed. The music is great, and it tells so much in a short period of time. It reminds me of Gone Home in the mood and environment, great job!

greendinogames 2019-10-08 23:16

Great story and interpretation of the theme! Good job!

nachtwitch 2019-10-08 23:18

Nice game and story, but could use a bit extra polishing post LD

theog 2019-10-08 23:38

Feelings... I almost cried... Congrats for the message you're sharing with this game.

I'll not repeat the font issue, I think you got it.

I'm going to reconsider my whole life and family now, bye!

scott-steffes 2019-10-09 00:15

Very polished game. I really enjoyed exploring and piecing the story together, but I did find it a bit frustrating at times that doors wouldn't open up until you found every item in every room. Overall a very fun and thought-provoking game.

thatmalzan 2019-10-09 06:15

You get a five on theme, my friend. This works so well...

danilo-freire 2019-10-09 13:04

If you can generate a mac or web build it would be great! : D

whatnamegames 2019-10-09 14:07

Wow, really good job, whilst it was a little obvious what was going on, it was still effective and you've done a great job with this.

loudlout 2019-10-09 16:01

БРАВО, Парни! (И девушки, возможно?) Мега крутая тема, мега крутое соответствие основной теме джема. Ну, как саунддизайнер могу придраться к некоторым моментам по саунддизайну, но это все меркнет перед качеством оптимизации и , блин, очень круто придумали тему. Ещё раз браво. Ах да, спасибо за локализацию, конечно же! :D

rrawrr 2019-10-09 16:16

Спасибо за русский язык, лично мне его гораздо приятнее воспринимать:) Интересно, что сначала мы не знаем кто есть главный герой, затем из фото в молодоисти мы узнаем что он молодой мужчина с замечательной женой, а затем внезапно узнаем, что он уже стар и к тому же еще болен. Эти "открытия" для меня и составили главный интерес в игре. Надеюсь дочь забрала его в Австралию)

dinorex 2019-10-09 17:42

@loudlout Спасибо, рады что Вам понравилось! В плане саунддизайна согласен: некоторые звуки можно было бы отрегулировать по громкости, некоторые обрезать ровнее, да и по частотам отстроить не помешало бы) Но мы потратили на звук мало времени, в сравнении со сценарной частью и визуальной составляющей.

@rrawrr Спасибо) Именно так мы всё и задумывали, рады что вы правильно поняли наш месседж)

tommyflower 2019-10-09 17:55

You created a rich environment full of details. I loved the story. I only had some trouble interacting with object at first and then it was not clear when a door was open. Well crafted entry, very moody!

nsadie 2019-10-09 18:18

Well done, nice story and a good way of telling it!

raivk 2019-10-09 18:41

Really incredible mood you have here. The story is really well written. It's quite impressive, well done !

daria-toni 2019-10-09 19:02

@smackmet yeah, we haven't tried anything humorous yet, so I'm glad you like the seriousness of our game. Thanks! P.S. Rowdy is such a good boy, we love him too, R.I.P.

@daitse well, there's not much room to run around in the apartment too :) And yes, font, that's a popular remark. Maybe we'll make a different PostLD version with different font... We'll see. Appreciate your opinion!

@brokenmirrormedia thanks a lot for your comment! Your suggestions are very fair, we'll use this experience in the future (or in another version?...). If there're grammatical mistakes in the text - I'm sorry, English isn't our native language, we tried. And we're very happy that you like our story and mood! Your comparison to "Gone Home" is a huge compliment for me personally, because it's one of my sources of inspiration regarding the narrative and mood.

@greendinogames thank you! :)

@nachtwitch thanks a lot! We're discussing an update in the future.

@theog oh, geez, I'm sorry that you almost cried... on the other hand, it was our goal :) I'm glad to hear it made you emotional, so we did everything right. Thank you!

@scott-steffes Thank you for your comment! Сlosed doors were a conscious decision to call player's curiosity and break the story on aparts.

@thatmalzan happy to hear it, thank you :)

@danilo-freire we'll talk about it, but no promises for now.

@whatnamegames thank you! This time we decided to focus on a good clean narrative and ruled out unexpected twists. I'm glad the simplicity didn't spoil the experience for you :)

@tommyflower rich environment was my personal goal, i'm glad i nailed it for you! Appreciate your opinion and remarks, thank you!

@nsadie i'm glad you like it, thanks!

@raivk thanks a lot! I'm happy that you like our story and mood for this game :)

local-minimum 2019-10-09 19:12

I enjoyed walking around and discovering the story of the main character. The house felt very real, as it might have been someone's and that is quite a feat for the time that LD affords. I almost gave up on the game on the first inspection because using right mouse button as only way to get out of the inspection seems very unusual. I would suggest a hint in game on that or allowing revisiting inspections and having any button exit inspection. Well made game!

amastryukov 2019-10-10 11:55

Very sad, but I enjoyed it.

My only issue was with the FOV being way too narrow, felt like I was looking through a zoomed-in lens, and the fact that I couldn't re-read letters.

I think you nailed the atmosphere and set the perfect mood, good work!

ashashza 2019-10-10 16:47

This was such a nice narrative experience. I've recently helped my grandmother move into an old age home so it was really interesting to play this from the old persons perspective.

yomissmar 2019-10-10 18:05

Nice mood and atmosphere. I feel like some puzzle elements would work nicely between rooms, just so you have time to assimilate everything that you've read. Well done!

ayxs 2019-10-10 19:29

The atmosphere of the game was set really well and I enjoy the story, there are a few notes and hints I have for you that might be able to help you in future games. I'll talk about those in a bit.

I really loved how you play from the perspective of someone with this condition, the way the game is played is very nice and the story is really great. You wrote this very well!

The music was fitting and made the game more sad, the only thing I would have changed probaly is increasing the loop lenght, I noticed the loop a few times and that became annoying.

I really like the style of finding out what happend based on reading letters and other papers throughout the game world, yet it was a bit offsetting for me that all the sheets where the same line-paper sheets. It felt really weird. Also the comments from the main character are written directly under the letter while the letter is between some kind of symbol (<>). I would have probably done this differently and showed the comments after the letter was dismissed. That way it makes more sense I think.

I think the graphics in this game where okay, everything was understandable but it's nothing too pritty. A great way to make graphics seam more interesting is to create Normal Maps on your textures (there are some amaizing tools a search query away). I also noticed some issues here and there where I could look through the gap of unopened doors.

Overall a pritty great entry though. Keep up the good work!

sir-galloy-de-fierpate 2019-10-10 19:43

Well done ! Love the rooms that are unlocked after you progress. I was like "What next ? What next ?" all the time. Touching story too. Gj

esben-jensen 2019-10-10 20:14

That was a very touching experience, and surprising too I didn't expect such a serious theme at first. Really good pacing of the storytelling. I like that you kept the mechanics simple.

geoff-nagy 2019-10-11 02:29

This game had an excellent mood. The music was slightly suspenseful yet sad, and fit the theme of the story being told quite well. Movement mechanics were also solid and as I pieced the story elements together I became more and more curious! Well done.

zimennik 2019-10-11 10:38

Депрессивная игра. Как такового, геймплея нет, это чисто наратив, но подано исключительно хорошо. Огромный респект Вам, господа, за проделанный труд.

daria-toni 2019-10-11 19:33

@local-minimum thanks for your comment! Especially about the fact that house felt very real, that was my goal, but at the same time I tried to stylize everything (one of the sources of inspiration was the game "The Long Dark"). About right mouse button - I'm not sure how unusual it is, but fun fact - @dinorex started playing "Layers of Fear" today for the first time and there's literally the same mouse controls x) I'm glad you enjoyed our game anyway :)

@amastryukov hey, I'm happy you like it! Yes, I agree that it would be cool to re-read everything, but this time we had to leave it like that.

@ashashza I'm glad it was an interesting experience for you, I'm connected to the story too, in a way. Thanks for your words.

@yomissmar thanks a lot for your comment, I'm glad you like our game :)

@ayxs wow, thanks for your big comment! And for your open opinion, we'll take note of it. The only thing I wanted to clarify - I consciously didn't use Normal Maps, it was a stylistic move. But I appreciate your opininon :) Thanks for playing our game.

@sir-galloy-de-fierpate thank you for your words! It's good that we get opposing opinions about closed doors. And you liked it :)

@esben-jensen we consciously made such a serious story and then decided to make an explanatory afterword, so that the whole experience wasn't unfinished. Glad you like it and simple mechanics too :)

@geoff-nagy In the beginning there was another music track, but at the early stage of testing we were already sick of it. I'm glad @dinorex changed it :) I'm happy you like our little game!

@zimennik спасибо за комментарий! Подобного рода геймплей был осознанным выбором, мы хотели сделать чистый сторителлинг) Рада, что понравилось!

dock-frankenstein 2019-10-11 19:35

If only I could change the fov. I'm feeling like I'm sniffing all walls (btw. that's what I've been doing in this game)

daria-toni 2019-10-11 19:59

@franciszek-pyrc haha and why exactly were you sniffing the walls? :)

dock-frankenstein 2019-10-11 20:04

They smelled nice.

daria-toni 2019-10-11 20:15

@franciszek-pyrc I'm glad to hear it!

dane-tesla 2019-10-12 21:22

A really interesting and definitely unique Ludum Dare entry. The story you told within it is really suerious but I think you nailed it with great mood and storybuilding. It could use a bit more of environment storytelling of course and maybe some less obvious gameplay (even something like opening shelves or something) but it's still impressive for a work of two people. Great work!

Also what really triggered me was that one un-textured lamp part xD

james-dunlap 2019-10-13 16:58

This is a different style of game than most of the entries that I have played. You did a great job in bringing all of these elements together in telling an emotional story. The graphics were great and the music definitely added to the feel and mood of the game.

solah 2019-10-13 20:07

Really touching story serving the mood of the game. Well done!

ahistyap 2019-10-14 02:54

I got anxiety playing this game, because I expected to get spooked :sweat_smile: Very touching story, and the graphics really improved the experience. Great job!

hcursino 2019-10-14 18:04

"I can't remember anything! Here, let me tell you all about this stuff around the room" :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: It was a quite sad and heavy atmosphere. The music, the stories and the room fit perfectly together creating a dense filled with feelings environment. Good job!

daria-toni 2019-10-14 18:54

@dane-tesla I wish I could do opening cabinets and boxes, but not this time. Somehow initially we decided that it would be photos on the walls and letters around. The main character packed things and in the process re-read the letters and forgot them there. That's the explanation :) And thank you for your comment! And about the lamp... believe it or not, it is how the texture looks like ha-ha. I didn't notice until you told me. And there are three :)

@james-dunlap I'm glad we gave you some diversity. Thanks a lot for your words!

@solah I'm glad you enjoyed our story!

@ahistyap ha-ha, I'm sorry, but on the other hand I think it's not a bad really, it was a surprise for you in the end. I'm happy you liked it!

@hcursino yeah, now I can see it might look funny :) But the fact is that some brain diseases work in such a way that a person can confuse the past and the present and forget something or almost everything, but with triggers will accurately recall some specific things. That's what we were trying to show. But I am very happy that you enjoyed our game! Your words are really kind :)

linheha 2019-10-14 20:24

Who's choping onions ?

projectaroid 2019-10-14 21:43

Nice play on the jam theme and really nice storytelling. Enjoyable game.

rodrigo-denubila 2019-10-15 01:30

Great game and a great take on the theme. Despite the game doesn't have any challenge besides read things, the message is deep. Good job!

betelgeuseman 2019-10-15 19:30

Хорошая и очень трогательная история! Насчет самой игры мне кажется немного неправильным, что уже прочитанные письма нельзя прочитать повторно: если кто-нибудь случайно нажмет ПКМ сразу после открытия письма (хоть это и маловероятно) и не сможет его прочитать, то будет не очень хорошо. Но, в целом, это очень милая и красивая игра, которая заставляет задуматься и которая оставляет хорошие ВОСПОМИНАНИЯ :)

Хорошая работа!

mrstari 2019-10-15 21:40

Awesome Game :) :hearts: just the flickering of the shadow/light is a little bit annoying. :)

daria-toni 2019-10-17 12:49

@linheha believe it or not, someone was cutting onions when I translated all those letters, especially a letter from a friend's wife. I thought "Why did we decide to put our character through this stuff?" :)

@projectaroid thank you!

@rodrigo-denubila thanks a lot! We intentionally didn't do any additional mechanics to focus all jam time on other aspects. I'm glad it doesn't spoil the experience.

@betelgeuseman спасибо большое, такие комментарии очень ценны) Да, мы осознавали невозможность повторного интерактива с объектами, по некоторым причинам мы сделали так в этот раз. Я рада, что это не портит общего впечатления)

@mrstari thank you! Yeah, we know about shadow/light thing, it was impossible to find a solution to this problem at such a time, unfortunately.

eduardo-scheffler 2019-10-17 16:55

Nice job! Congrats for the dev team. I really enjoyed the graphics (:

bilalch213 2019-10-18 19:42

Really nice emotional game! Music and text did a great job. The game has decent graphics but there is odd flickering of shadows. The movement felt sluggish and odd to me. Other than that, solid entry!

asfdfdfd 2019-10-20 20:11

I love you story. BUT. Who opens the doors? There are nobody in my home. I'm afraid.

daria-toni 2019-10-21 16:58

@eduardo-scheffler thank you! I'm glay you enjoyed it :)

@bilalch213 thank you for your comment! Yeah, we know about light-shadow thing, we even know how to fix it, but it wasn't our number 1 priority tbh.

@asfdfdfd haha, well... let's pretend it's... not real doors, but... emotional blocks (I made it up right now). Seriously, I didn't even think about it until you told me. Funny!

captandrey 2019-10-23 21:22

нетипичный формат для LD, молодцы! Напомнило Firewatch. Немного не хватало возможности перечитывать сообщения, ждал какого-то поворота сюжета с открытием иного смысла старых текстов. Но в целом - круто, хоть и грустно.

daria-toni 2019-10-27 19:48

@captandrey большое спасибо за коммент! Да, мы не сделали возможность перечитывания текста, скажем так - это было осознанно в техническом плане в данном случае, но в идеале да, стоило бы так сделать. И да, Firewatch - это просто огромный комплимент для меня, спасибо))