reivilibre 2023-05-01 22:21
Very well polished; very well done.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD53 → No Matter the Cost
By jaco-van-hemert and SkyyStorm
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 569 | 3.59 | 28 | |
| Fun | 741 | 3.26 | 28 | |
| Innovation | 859 | 3.03 | 28 | |
| Theme | 633 | 3.88 | 28 | |
| Graphics | 732 | 3.46 | 28 | |
| Audio | 402 | 3.50 | 28 | |
| Mood | 319 | 3.82 | 28 |
Very well polished; very well done.
Nice entry, well done
Overall a good, adventurous game! I loved to see how much effort you put in the storytelling. Also the music and the change in the mood, for example when you enter the dark lands, is done very nicely.
Very well polished game
An interesting twist of the Choose Your Own Adventure style. The art and music are decent as well.
cool story and concept, maybe having some choices with the exact cost hidden (not always but sometimes) could make it more challenging, but really nice game
I loved it. It's like "The Banner Saga" without the fighting parts :smile:
The writing is nice, as is the illustration art. The story drew me in and kept my interest. I failed my quest and felt the weight of that. I ran out of supplies.
I think the decisions would feel more impactful if there wasn't a possibility of backing out after you chose one of the options. And it would be nice if you would not see actual numbers in the cost but maybe only + or -. When you see all the cost and additionally can back up, players can just make decisions based purely on numbers, ignoring the story they could tell.
@fabula-rasa / @artatruc I wanted to avoid the kind of "gotcha"-feeling situations that could arise (e.g. send soldiers to build a bridge? A wolf appears behind you and eats your scholars) while having the sort of random tragedies that a journey like this could bring. Showing only some of the costs, or just showing + or - are great ideas. I like the idea of the narrative choice being the key determiner, rather than the mechanical one. Thanks for playing and for the feedback!
Nice little narrative game with an epic story that was interesting to follow and really well written. Gave me some Banner Saga Flashbacks :) The music felt a little repetitive for me though. Good game none the lesse
It is an interesting concept with good atmosphere. A bit retro . Horse is a big plus indeed :)
Great job! I don't typically enjoy choose your own adventure setups but having to manage the supplies of the units was a good touch. I didn't know how it would end but figured time was the most precious resource. Made it to the end!
The game is really well made, the art is nice, the text is intriguing and the resource management style could become something really interesting but right now, the gameplay is just mostly reading text and managing resources, which is fine for a set of people. Still, the game is well made and thats what I care about more (for a game jam) so it still gets a high rating from me :)
I don't like selective games much, but this adds a different style. I really liked it and thought about it while choosing it. It's a good game. Good luck !
I really liked this game! It reminded me of the traveling in Banner Saga, with Warcraft 3 musical vibes. The story was nice, and had a good cadence to it. I enjoyed being able to open the map often. It helped me while I was making my choices and trying to predict how much time I had left, or how many resources I could spare. Having hidden costs would definitely increase the storytelling, but I had a very good time nonetheless.
Very nice work!
Wow! Beautiful game, great story! :)
Thanks for that, I enjoyed myself, and completed my quest! Brought back nostalgic memories of playing/reading the "Lone Wolf" gamebooks as a kid :)
Nicely polished, art and writing are great, music gets a bit repetitive but is passable!
It would be great if your current position (and your destination) was marked on the map. I just had a vague feeling that i had to head east, but didn't have a clear idea of how close i was to the goal.
Was not initially clear what exactly the icons next to the choices mean. Would it cost those resources? or was it an opportunity to gain them? or both? (it's both, right?)
I think I hit some bugs where a decision would do nothing, and I would be frozen at that place (specifically, heading for the wise men in the promenade, and choosing between the left/right fork in the darkling passage)
I think the resources were balanced nicely, I started running out of certain things towards the end, and the last few clicks were a bit tense, I wasn't sure if I was going to make it. SPOILER AHEAD the option to refuel at the elf kingdom felt like it came just in time, which added nicely to the immersion.
Great interpretation of the theme, well done.
That was interesting. The art, sound and story was great. I think showing the resource impact takes a little away from the story. Instead of thinking about the best possible choice from a story perspective, I just choose the best option based on the resources. I would consider removing the the resource indicator or just say +/- the resource but not the quantity. But then you need to make sure the story choices align well with the results which can be challenging. I think adding a morale resource could also add some weight to the choices.
I liked it! I managed to reach the end with 3 days left in very dire straits!
Very nice art and writing!
As some others mentioned, if we could see our position on the map or even the route that was taken it would help orientate us a little better. It would be cool to show at the end some statistics like number of people lost and gained, resources used etc.
@andre-sadie Yeah, the +/- system (or a some, but not others) approach would have been better for sure. As for morality, we did originally plan to have some flags that we could use at the end to do a Fallout-esque ending montage of the "cost" of saving the world, but didn't get time to implement, unfortunately. (You can see the remnants of it with some immoral choices just being straight up better than more moral ones.)
@nsadie Map-wise, I liked the idea of it feeling like those fantasy novels with a map in the front, where you follow the journey by finding the landmarks on the map. But I also really like the idea of showing the route you've taken so far. As far the end statistics, that was something I very vaguely considered at some point before being inundated with too many things to do before the end. There's a bit of niggles with it, in that each event would need to have its own counter, since sometimes you just send people home or leave them behind, so it wouldn't necessarily be part of a "cost" was paid for winning. But I like the idea; maybe even showing your journey on the map after you're done, with your gains and losses on the way. That would have been cool!
Thanks for playing and for the feedback!
Very interesting! I'll have to revisit it to try to actually succeed :sweat_smile: This felt like a fantasy Oregon Trail in a very satisfying way! I personally liked the static map and tracking the party's location myself, but I can understand why others would like to see what their route looked like
i loved how you created and illustrated the map and the various points of interests! nice writing, nice concept, good game overall, hats off!