Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD48 → What Happened in Addison's Grotto
By junebug
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 605 | 3.69 | 30 | |
| Fun | 1340 | 3.05 | 30 | |
| Innovation | 231 | 3.89 | 30 | |
| Theme | 466 | 3.96 | 30 | |
| Graphics | 962 | 3.64 | 30 | |
| Audio | 91 | 4.18 | 29 | |
| Mood | 24 | 4.51 | 30 |
I can't believe no one's found this one yet; I get to be the first. How wonderful! It's amazing how a simple word association game can fill in so many blanks in your imagination. It's told like a well-done short horror story. Perhaps my only quibble is that it's unclear what happened at the end. For such a simple premise this is remarkably well-executed.
Picked some words and then got stuck on the same one over and over.
Pretty need concept. Felt her fear with this one. Like the previous comment I got stuck on one word at one point. Thanks for the game.
Awesome entry! The atmosphere was just perfect. It felt like Stories Untold, with a dash of Her Story because of the mechanics. I don't know if it was intended, but I managed to get stuck in a loop of the same words over and over. Nevertheless, this kind of atmosphere was not what I expected from the theme. The implications that the words themselves give the player are very impactful. The related words generation may need a little tweaking, but I find this idea immensely intriguing. Great work.
@ec2151 Thanks for playing! That I haven't had time to play and rate other games yet is probably contributing to you being the first. Thanks for the feedback!
@bamallama Whoops! There are still a few bugs and unintended word loops. Do you remember what word you got stuck on?
@trusty Thanks for the compliments! Do you remember what word you got stuck on?
@not-as-artistic Thanks! I haven't played Her Story but I am semi-familiar with the concept so it was a loose inspiration. I'm definitely looking to adjust the word generation to remove dead-ends and dead-end loops so if you remember what you got stuck in I'd be interested in finding out!
Looking forward to trying all your games as well!
@junebug I think the word was "travelling"
@junebug same for me. "Travelling" got me stuck with no other options
@bamallama @not-as-artistic Thanks for letting me know! I'll try to get it fixed soon.
The audio definitely set the right tone, at some points I wasn't sure if I was playing right or not. This genre isn't one I have played a lot, so this was a cool intro and I thought the interface was pretty neat. Good work!
Lvoe the idea! Was very spooky.
Creepy game with a nice atmosphere. Felt like I was going in loops over and over. Wasn't sure how to progress the game after Addison.
Oh my god this was incredible, I was terrified the whole time at what was going to happen. It had me in suspense the whole time. You did so well on this everything worked really well together, the visuals, voice acting, audio and music. Well done on this!
The storytelling here is great, I loved the free association and overall atmosphere. The scene was set up super well too, enough detail to be immersive yet not visually distracting. I'm not.. totally sure if I bet it or not though. I definitely got past some key events but I wasn't really sure if there was more I could do. loved it either way :D
@nethead Thanks for the compliments and the feedback! I agree with what you and others are saying, that it's hard to tell if you're progressing and if you're doing what you're supposed to. Excited to keep working on it for a post-jam version.
This was very cool :slight_smile: The atmosphere was creepy, the voice acting was very nicely done. I am just not sure about the story, I did found some information about the family members and I guess Anne is a friend (?) and I probably found the end, it just wasn't clear it is the end :smile: Overall, you did a great job :heart:
My LP :slight_smile: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKOjtQRJ-rg
extracted.png
This means that I won, yes? I extracted the [spoilers].
I loved all of this. Such an excellent and unique way of telling a story! Marvelous. 💯
@mattwoelk That's not actually the end. :cry: Once you've reached that part you can go back using the history on the right and then there's another path that opens up (look for "Beach"). Sorry it's not very intuitive. :sweat_smile:
I'm creeped out! In a good way! Great voice acting also.
*Spoilers ahead*
Had to look up what/who "Dagon" is. Now I know! Thanks for a great game and for broadening my knowledge. :)
So simple... and yet so effectively SCARY !!! Once I understood the mechanism, I loved the concept of gaining information by association of keywords. However IÂ found it a bit confusing to understand at first.
Well done !
Interesting and spooky with great atmosphere. I'll be honest I didn't totally figure it out and seemed to be stuck after about 30 words but you did a really good job of making the player come up with a story in their heads just through simple word association. Very interesting concept, loved the art and tone. I could use a larger font though! The intro did a great job of setting up a spooky encounter using very simple effects. Good job!
This game *oozes* style. The audiovisual aesthetic is worderful. I might just be dense, but I didn't understand at first that I needed to press the red button to submit my word selection. It was also unclear whether or not the voice over the speaker knew what word I was submitting (at first I thought yes, of course, but then when I selected Addison, she only asked him how he knew that word after he spoke it out loud, rather than when it appeared on screen. I'm assuming she wouldn't ask him how he knew the word if she had just given it to him. Maybe I'm overthinking this).
Like others have mentioned, I got into a loop right at the beginning (between truth, false, and lies). There was another word available to break the loop, I just didn't like it and was still trying to figure out how things work, so I went back and forth for a bit. But overall the word association thing was excellent. Most of the words are mundane, their connections obvious, and consequently I let my guard down. So discovering the juicier associations was very satisfying (shiver-inducing on a couple occasions with a few bruh moments on the side).
I don't think I finished the game as intended, but I kind of liked my non-ending. I kept clicking a certain word that rhymes with schmidle until the screen and history were both filled up. I think I clicked it around 40 times or so (because Undertale taught me to repeat the same thing until progress happens). Anyway, I checked for hints on the game page and tried to rewind the word associations, but it didn't work, so my adventure ended with a meditation on the nature of the schmidle (the flickery effect was very cool too).
It would be nice to submit a word by double clicking it rather than having to mouse over to the little red button every time.
Very cool game, I'm looking forward to seeing more of your work in future.
@lovewerk Thanks for the detailed feedback and your humorous account of how your play-session ended! I'm interested in continuing to polish this one, so the suggestions and thoughts are much appreciated.
This presents itself pretty nicely with the audio resembling old radio / audio, the intro to our computer screen, and the light in the background moving ever so slightly. Took a bit to understand what to do but once I understood that I could extract words and that I had to find the right thing to extract, I caught on pretty quickly!
Not sure what the black box that appeared during the cutscenes was but the screaming told me I got something right!
Only thing I wish there was was subtitles! Excellent work!
I usually don't play games terror/horror games because I really get anxious, but oh boy, couldn't resist trying this one (but no phones, not a fat chance of going this far xD). And really happy that I did. As per TIPS part, yes, it would be nice to have more of a guide on the start so we understand exactly what to do (specially with the blurred words and all), but otherwise I think I got the grip of it. And really, amazing idea, and what a fantastic work on the voice acting, really really impressive, and also on the background music/effects, perfect for the mood. Also, *SPOILERS IF YOU HAVE NOT PLAYED IT YET* I'm really happy that there was no jumpscare (beyond the screams, but there's a clear build up to them), as there was no real need for it. Fantastic job, 5/5, would not play again because I intend to sleep well tonight xD
The suspense mood is very well stablished in this game. I like the general idea, seems pretty interesting, but the lack of a tutorial section or instructions inside the game make it a little difficult to play. Loved the voice acting also. Nice entry!
WOW. I was blown away. The mood was absolutely _dripping_. It didn't go on too long to become tedious, and the story you were discovering piece by piece was so interesting!
Seriously, well done. Hail Dagon.
This waves of chills through me. Simple, minimalistic and well told.
Second time this jam I give 5/5 in all categories.