devesh-sharma 2020-04-21 16:37
Dude real nice convept and good game.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD46 → Distant Messages
By wrimo
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 980 | 2.82 | 25 | |
| Fun | 1048 | 2.28 | 25 | |
| Innovation | 657 | 3.13 | 25 | |
| Theme | 647 | 3.54 | 24 | |
| Graphics | 1042 | 2.00 | 25 | |
| Audio | 783 | 1.88 | 23 | |
| Mood | 520 | 3.21 | 25 |
Dude real nice convept and good game.
Dude real nice concept and good game.
Dude real nice concept and good game.
Dude real nice concept and good game.
This is a really cool idea! I think it's a really cool concept for a game and there's a lot of potential here. It might have been nice to give us some backstory as to who we are or what the relationship has looked like in the past, so you have some context for the messages you choose to send. Also, sometimes the messages I sent or received didn't seem to totally line up with each other - like you have the option to say both "sorry I missed your call" and "why didn't you call", but the game seems to assume that Mark just didn't call, regardless of what you said, so that seemed a bit off. But this is a cool entry, and I think something that has potential!
Pretty depressing... Like real life ;)
I really liked the infinite loop at the end.
@joe-bustamante Backstory could be interesting. I personally sort of like the fact that they aren't super set characters. I'll have to think about that more. I'm glad you brought the up contradictory messages. What I wanted was the player to be able to lie to Mark as roleplaying option to see if he would admit to not calling. The problem emerges from the fact that the way it's presented it's not to the player that one option is a lie and the other is the truth. One should probably just be marked (Lie) or something. Thank you for comment, I found it very helpful!
I like the loop as well! I wish there was more of the story :)
The sound the texts make when they send/receive is so satisfying! It's the little things like that I love! Great job! :)
Well done, I liked the loop to add to the realism. I would of liked a bit more information at the start to allow me to understand my role in the game
Interesting concept. The sound was nice, but the graphics were kinda glitchy every now and then. I only got 3-4 messages from him before the game just suddenly ended in that infinite loop. It also felt weird that the messages were ALL over the place, like completely contradicting each other... When I think about it, it kinda felt like a gamified version of the "crazy girlfriend" stereotype, which I donno, I guess to me it made it feel it wasn't a genuine conversation.
@stefanie-leitch Thanks so much for your comment! There definitely are some paths that are shorter than others and would give less overall story. I would have loved to fixed these, but I just ran out of time. The textboxes are 100% bugged and stretch beyond the message bounds, I'm surprised no one else has mentioned it yet. Messages can contradict each. The idea was you were given the apparently to lie, but the game completely fails to communicate this which leads to a lot of confusion. It is interesting that you described it as a gamified version of the crazy girlfriend stereotype (you're not the first person to mention that), because that's not the emotion I intend. I do like the fact you can read the game that way, but I don't want too many people feeling that way. I wanted it more to be about her boyfriend legitimately abandoning her and her continuing to attempt keep their relationship alive and maybe some people think she's crazy, but I think my hasty writing fails to convey this. Anyways, thanks for your comment, you got me thinking.
this leaves me in question, probably just as it was intended. the loop fits, though it's definitely not the most comfortable feeling. would have been there an option to keep the chat alive or would it lead to the loop nonetheless?
@awruh No, you can't prevent it. To be honest with you, most agency in this game is a lie. Almost everything that happens is inevitable. All the prompts eventually loop back to the same path. Really the other change you actually make in the whole game is changing the text from "Saturday" to "Wednesday" when transitioning to the second scene. If I ever worked on this, which is unlikely, I would like meaningful choices.
Cool concept. I definitely felt like the crazy girlfriend. I guess that's what the other side feels like when you ignore them. I would have liked a longer interaction with Mark but i guess this current iteration was intended. I played through a few times to try to get a different outcome but I'm assuming it will always end the same. Music would have given the game more of an emotional impact. Good game though.
I though i was going to see something like this with the "Turn a violent genre non-violent" and was kinda surprised seeing with the Keep it Alive theme but it sure does fit the theme.
While the concept and implementation of the text mechanic are neat, i think a bit polishing on the UI would turn the game more interesting. Also, i miss a background track of some sort. I guess the time spend writting the many possible lines would not really left any time avaiable for that.
@milano23 Thanks for playing my game! I wanted to make the interactions longer, but I decided to keep the scope small for the jam. And yeah, agency is a complete lie. There are parts of that I'm fine with. I like the idea that the relationship falling apart is inevitable, but the way it currently is your choice don't really matter at all. I want to change that in some way or at least have more conversation paths you can fall into. And I would have loved to have added music, but I knowledge of music doesn't go much beyond messing around in Bosca Ceoil.
@derek-volker I am surprised you're the first person to mention the UI not looking great. I honestly think it's pretty ugly. Music would have been great, but I know almost nothing about music composition. I guess that's a goal for the next jam. Thanks for you feedback!
I think the idea and the dev are well, but some colors and music will be good. Also, I can't read well the messengers for him... The camera don't render the first parts. I like the ramifications you used to develop the conversation. The rough person, the beloved abandons her, was a nice touch.
@cadstor Thanks so much for the feedback. That sounds really weird about the camera not showing the first part of his messages. Are you in fullscreen mode? Do you have a screenshot of that?
@wrimo yup, i'm in full screen mode on a 16 'macbook ... possibly that's it ... lookCaptura de Pantalla 2020-04-26 a la(s) 2.21.55 p. m..png
Super intriguing premise.... though it still felt a bit too slow burn for my liking.
@cadstor Sorry about that. I have no idea how to help you, maybe it just the fact you're using a Mac, but that shouldn't impact the web build. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
Interesting concept and depressing.Nice job!