Fall's Tome

zungryware 2023-01-10 10:44

Cute graphics with a fun premise. I liked the relaxing atmosphere of the cell-shaded art-style. Though I'm not sure if the corn was supposed to be translucent, or if the renderer just wasn't sorting the outlines properly.

I was trying to figure out what I need to do to get three stars on a photo. I centered the shot. I obeyed the rule of thirds. (As much as I could when the camera frame doesn't completely match the photo.) Turns out it's just how close you are. And with that in mind, I couldn't help but do stuff like this: pitchfork.png

Really brings back memories from Bioshock. Action Shot!.png

I wasn't sure how to find the "Inhabited Pumpkin", so I just kept taking smaller and smaller photos of the pumpkin patch, seeing which ones showed one-star vs zero-stars (essentially binary-searching) until I narrowed it down to the correct one.

A couple nitpicks: Holding left click and scrolling at the same time is awkward because I (and probably most people) use the same finger for both of those actions. The pages scroll really slowly, so it can be annoying to find the thing you want to take a photo of. When I was tabbing out to notepad to take notes, I accidentally hit Esc, which takes you back to the menu and deletes all your progress. It should at least ask for confirmation first.

But overall, I enjoyed. Nice work!

pepnou 2023-01-10 11:20

@zungryware Thanks for playing and for posting this great feedback comment!

The problem with object placed as detail on a unity terrain (like corn but also wheat, bushes, some trees, ...) is that they dont write their depth nor normal in the depthNormals texture, so you see the outlines based on depth & normals of the object behind. It's a bit weird to look at but i have no idea on how to fix it, sorry about that.

The rating of the photo is a dumb computation of the ratio of pixel of the object over the total pixel number XD, it depend on each object (3 stars for the watering can is between .05 & .1).

The inhabited pumpkin is the pumpkin with the worm on one of the screenshot. It's a bit tricky to see the worm color with the outline.

Glad you enjoyed our game :)

tayteus 2023-01-10 16:19

I love this type of game and the graphics are really cool. I really liked the atmosphere and the principle of the game. We almost had the same idea! :blush:

realtanhen 2023-01-10 16:42

Absolutely in love with the aesthetic and audio, such a relaxing game to roam around in! The controls weren't super intuitive at first but once I'd done everything a couple of times the simplicity of them really grew on me!

maximbegunov 2023-01-10 18:30

I really liked the vibe of the game, certainly made me relax for the time playing. Taking photos and getting a rating is a cool mechanic, much more interesting than just collecting a number of items.

lila-pause 2023-01-10 21:20

I love this. The game is very cute and relaxing but still a lot of fun. The one thing I had an issue with was the notebook and camera controls, but it's possible that the problem was due to my mouse or the slight lag of the web version.

hawkin 2023-01-11 03:36

What a beautiful and relaxing experience. The art style definitely had a lot to do with that! It was a very charming landscape to explore. I wanted to capture all my photos to share with you, but sadly I accidentally exited the game! Instead, I'll share the one I managed to save :)

Untitled.png

Maybe you could provide the player with a single summary of all their photos at the end?

Also, I had to Google what a "nenuphar" was in English :D

pepnou 2023-01-11 09:14

@hawkin Thanks! We considered a final presentation of all the photo taken but there was so many other thing with a higher priority to do. If (big if) we continue this game, we'll add this feature.

Sorry about the nenuphar (which exist, but seems to be the technical term used by biologist), waterlily would've been better.

konrad 2023-01-11 18:30

Really nice looking walking simulator :) The objective of taking photos was a good way of giving incentive to explore the world. I'm really impressed by the graphics but I think some sound design like some wind, rattling of the wind pump, ocean waves etc. would've added a lot. The music on the other hand was so cheesy that I had to mute it (no offense, just not a stock acoustic guitar music kinda guy). Also I'm not sure if it's intentional but seeing the outlines of some objects through other objects seemed weird to me. Other than that I had a lot of fun, I really like simple visual exploration games like this and it seemed like all placement positions and the composition of the level was handpicked and not just randomly scattered to give a stronger feeling of individual explorative experiences you make with the game. Well done :)

pepnou 2023-01-12 13:25

@konrad Thanks for the feedback! More ambiant sounds is a great idea, we didn't thought about it at all, even though it would be simple to add. Seeing outlines throught some object isn't intentionnal, i just didn't managed to fix it (and i still dont know how i could). Glad you enjoyed the game and the level design, we tried to place each object logically and in places where you could make some good photos (though the shovel and pitchfork arent great).

climbing-dolphin 2023-01-12 17:17

It is such a splendid art! Congrats, honestly. It's quite cool although certain things felt a bit glitchy: the camera and the water. Other than that it's a nice game, nothing much to say it works well and is well designed. Not my favorite genre but still enjoyable. It took me a while to find the shovel, well hidden. Good job!

mololo 2023-01-12 20:48

I just fell in love with the game, 11/10 for me. I couldn't stop playing even if I had to, because the game is so gorgeous. It felt very calm and relaxing, just what I needed without knowing I needed that.

I just love how you managed to create this mini world, how every piece was put there for a reason and everything fits perfectly. So much attention to detail. The only thing missing was maybe some more things in the barn, it felt just a bit empty. I liked the fact that you guys had both 3d and 2d assets. I noticed the visual bug with the 2d assets but found it cool instead of annoying :smile:. I just wonder how you guys managed to achieve this outline look, it looks fantastic.

As for the gameplay, I loved the idea of taking photos and having ratings for them. And I love that each item could be found in different locations on the map, not just one(I'm not sure about the inhabited pumpkin, that was the hardest to find until I remembered I saw a picture of a pumpkin with a worm in it (on this page) and it just clicked for me :)). Can't complain too much about the accuracy of the photos on giving 3 stars, since I managed to achieve it with good-looking pictures of the whole thing. Also, I love the animations of the camera and notebook, it added a lot for me, so much better than if you just opened it instantly and switched pages instantly. I love details and this was just a perfect addition.

I loved the music choice, I didn't even realize there were no ambient sounds (as someone commented), it felt that they were there.

Overall you guys did an exceptional job and Thank you for this experience.

I wish you would continue this game or make another one in the future with this art style. I would love to play more.

I'm running out of compliments and I have to save some for other wonderful devs :smile:.

Btw I have never written such long feedback for a game :))

koboldskeep 2023-01-13 01:32

Wow, that's something you don't usually see at a game jam! Nice work, I like it. Would be nice if I could frame composition closer to the edges of the shot without losing stars.

thomasward 2023-01-13 13:27

I got three stars for photos of everything but the bee hive, which I couldn't locate. Where is it? :D Anyway, nice, chill and relaxing game. The artworks definately stands out.

pepnou 2023-01-13 14:23

@mololo wow thanks, i wasnt expecting so much compliments in a comment :flushed:

I totally agree the barn is a bit empty, but it would have required more assets to populate it and as always in a jam, you never have enough time. Sorry for the outlines bug , i just managed to find a possible solution, but it would require to change the unity version of the game. If you're interrested the youtube channel "Ned makes Games" covers lots of topics on shading (including outlines & toon shading).

Glad you enjoyed the game, these 3 days of nightmare were worth it :)

pepnou 2023-01-13 14:29

@koboldskeep Thanks! You can frame the object on the border of the screen, the only element to decide the rating of the picture is the ratio of pixel of the object on the screen over the total pixel number.

@thomasward There are 3 in total all of them in trees: one between the pumpkins & the windmill, one between the house & the scarecrow with a bucket, one near the pond. Glad you enjoyed the game ^^

hoichael 2023-01-14 00:45

Very impressive. Aesthetically, this game is absolutely top notch and in addition to that it's also a beautiful showcase of minimalist game design. The most important aspect of designing a jam game obviously is thinking economically, and having the gameplay systems build directly on the well realized visuals is a very elegant approach to that.

Great level design, too. Nice prop composition that further enables the photography mechanic in addition to the rendering, lush foliage, natural/tame elevation, fairly big map and despite all that super easy to navigate/keep track of where you are and what lies where - great use of landmarks and a well designed initial spawn point.

On a smaller note, I appreciate that there's a jump - many walking sims feel rather rigid and are littered with invisible walls - ironically I feel like that walking sims in particular really profit from a high degree of freedom in traversal. The jumping also works well in tandem with the accurate collisions of environment props - really adds to the immersion.

Now, if I was to be OVERLY critical, those would be my nitpicks:

Flipping through the book is very slow. A proper system using some form of input queuing would have been overkill for a jam game, but I feel like the animation itself could be played faster. The main reason the flipping anim feels slow / clunky is that (at least I would assume so) the pages turn all the way to the back of the book, but because of the perspective from which the book is viewed only the first half of the animation is actually visible - which feels like input is locked for a significant amount of time after the animation has "finished"

I would lower the near clipping planes of the camera (or maybe slightly increase the horizontal extents of the player collider?). Walking into solids regularly allows the cam to see through environment props which is probably not intended and would be very easy to fix.

Some additional sound effects would have been nice, like a page turning one for flipping through the book.

As others have already pointed out, binding quit to main (with losing progress) to tapping escape is a little dangerous :P A decent fix that's easy to implement would be binding it on hold instead of tap.

That's all :D Congrats on getting this amazing entry done in just 3 days.

jormarysky 2023-01-14 12:27

One of the strongest artstyles in jam, even with glitches and all. Gameplay is relaxing for sure, I do think it you achieved mood you were going very well.

Point system is now too simplistic, there is no really any purpose to take pleasing pictures. Getting rid of point system might make it better, as then there is reason to grind multiple pictures, but you are still encouraged to walk around. Other option is to implement some kind of chain of multipliers that looks for golden ratio, number of objects catch in the picture, amount of fore and background, amount of sky and clouds, etc in addition to basic amount of screen space used for object in question.

I also do think using notebook were bit cumbersome. It could be always open and then you choose which picture you take, or it could be like now and game recognizes what is most prominent object in the picture and assigns it for the right page.

All in all, enjoyable experience, with good music and graphics, smooth controls and relaxing mood.

big-cyckos 2023-01-14 17:16

The atmosphere and the graphics are very impressive. Flipping through the notebook wasn't that bad at all for me, it adds some immersion actually. The nenuphars were the hardest to locate as they are only in one location (at least I only found them near the silo), they weren't in the lake next to the "bench behind the lone tree", which made me think that this is some different kind of nenuphar I'm looking for, and thus was confused. Found them out in the end, so no problem, just took more time :) Also all these buildings tempt with low-positioned roofs and tractors near them allowing for a quick parkour action, yet they do not hide anything (at least i didn't find anything. Bear in mind that it isn't bad or anything, just saying :) ). Overall really nice game, the mood is top-notch.

amarokczukay 2023-01-14 23:10

i really really liked the thick outline art! this game is simple yet delicate.

i wonder what gives a picture 1 2 or 3 stars because you hurt my artistic feelings when i think "this is a good photography" and i got 1 star lol

the list of objects to photography was not super user-friendly to me.

pepnou 2023-01-15 09:22

@amarokczukay Thanks! The rating of a picture only depends on how much space the object cover on the screen, with min-max value for each rank. The evaluation of the picture is a complex problem as it's pretty much asking what is a good picture (or any other very subjective criteria). The rating of the photo isn't there to define what is (or isn't) a good picture , it only exists to guide the player a bit.

tildecat 2023-01-15 10:44

Game visuals are so beautiful! I like idea with exploration and gameplay based on photographing. There is some graphic glitch with outlines, which are visible through some object. But overall fantastic game!

amarokczukay 2023-01-15 10:46

@pepnou thanks, that's what i was thinking. that'd have been impossible to tell the machine what would be an objective good picture, because there is no objectivity in it anyway. No problem, i stayed with 1 or 2 stars pictures, because i prefered them hehe

thomasward 2023-01-20 21:52

Hey, a quick update. The game stuck in my mind and a couple of days ago I had to make an important presentation in one of the classes in my college. I could invent any topic I wanted (as long as it were in line with the course theme) and I spoke about "how environment is percieved in walking game simulators". I included your game among quite a lot of very well known and less know walking sims. :)

pepnou 2023-01-22 15:29

@thomasward haha nice 😂

What was the class and what did we help you illustrate (if you dont mind) ?

thomasward 2023-01-22 19:42

"Visual arts and environment"

It helped me illustrate that most of the walking simulators either portray the nature in utopian way (the motif of Arcadia -- this is your case) or uses it as a weird/unusual/odd background (The vanishing of Ethan Carter etc.).

kurakurture 2023-01-28 16:50

good job!