planetary 2026-10-19 20:15 ♥ 1
Well... that's something new for me. I like this interactive story, showed on a TV, literally. š Great game!
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD60 → Now Showing a Stranger
š¤ AI-Assisted
| Percentile | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | LD60 | Ever | |
| Overall | 48 | |||||
| Fun | 48 | |||||
| Innovation | 47 | |||||
| Theme | 48 | |||||
| Graphics | 49 | |||||
| Audio | 41 | |||||
| Mood | 48 | |||||
Well... that's something new for me. I like this interactive story, showed on a TV, literally. š Great game!
I really like the old TV framing, especially the chunky knobs and the note stuck to it. The simple grey scenes suit the story well too. Adapting The Stranger with different choices and endings is an interesting idea for a jam!
I want to apologize in advance for any harshness. I liked the concept overall, but Iād like to write a fairly detailed review of this game.
The art style and graphics are very well done; itās a pleasure to look at and play. Among other games, this one stands out for its appealing style.
The narrative starts off well. Weāre shown a simple life, a funeral, and all sorts of things. The problem here is how this is portrayed in the game.
The trial is strangely done. Why are we being judged based on whether or not we took a cigarette? They could have phrased it something like, āThe defendant exhibited signs of antisocial behavior,ā for example. The dialogue is written too simply.
I like how the ābe normalā options force the player to take some kind of active action, as if they're pushing themselves beyond their limits. It's a really good narrative element.
The sound design is great. The silence doesnāt feel empty.
Maybe I'm wrong. In any case, that's how it seemed to me, just as I described it.
The idea the game sets out to convey is really good. It turned out pretty well for a jamāI'm glad I got to play it. Iād love to see a post-jam version of the game where the flaws mentioned above are fixed.
Thank you!
@sasik no worries about harshness I do agree with what you said. I did rush the trial, I was running out of time and well yeah. I couldn't put my finger on exactly what was wrong with the trial in my script so I just couldn't figure out how to fix it. Thank you for pointing it out! I think what happened is my brain tried to be too faithful to the original trials conduct despite the game being compressed and lacking background and scenes that the book would offer. If I do make a post-jam version I will be sure to fix it. Thanks for the praise on the other aspects too.
@thanatosisanoob Good luck!
@planetary Thank you! I appreciate it!
@avi thank you! thats what I was going for and I'm glad it came across :>
I haven't read the original work, but this game does a good job of expressing a certain idea. In reality, not all people are emotional. Everyone has different views on death, and the person who cries the loudest at the funeral is not necessarily the one who loves them the most on a daily basis. In society, those who hold the power to speak are not reluctant to demand that others do what they consider to be a matter of course. They label those who refuse to cooperate as "beasts".
@peng665 you really should read Camus' original work its amazing. Theres just so much to unpack and read into deeper despite the book being a under 200 pages. Society does have a tendency to ostracize those who don't fit in perfectly (unfortunately).
Really interesting interactive narrative. I don't know the source material, but I feel like overall presentation was well done. You did a great job of using primitives to build out the scenes and content. The sequencing worked really well too. Great job!
Nice work! Really fun core loop and a great take on the theme. Had a good time playing it! Left full ratings. Cheers from the Meow Bomb team, feel free to drop by our page if you're looking for more games to rate!
I love this way of combining literature and games! It's really cool to see it at a game jam!
Wow! Impressive work using AI only as a coding assistant! Great graphics and atmosphere, and the old-TV staging fits the theme. Congrats!
I love the way you use the old television to present the game, and also it's interesting and thought-provoking to think about balancing the "social wanted people" and the "true self" for a person like the main character. Good game!
I love this game. Honestly, it was so good, i've rebeaten it like 4 times. The final judgement scene is strange though. Like, what does watching comedy even do with murder? It's a way of coping. Same with smoking, although i can kinda see it being strange.
Really interesting interactive narrative.
@amema I'm glad you found it that good :D
My main idea with the comedy is that a "normal" person would be far more shocked after murdering another. It'd be difficult for most people to just up and start watching TV minutes after murdering someone, though I admit I didn't convey timeframes well in my game. (If I make a post-jam version I'll be sure to do that).
I really love how you interpreted the theme! The game looks great, and the old TV effect gives it a really nice aesthetic. Having the current objective displayed at the top is super helpful, and highlighting the objects you can interact with makes everything feel intuitive. The sound effects are great, too!
The idea of representing anonymous faces with noise/static is brilliant. Although, I have to admit, approaching a gravestone in the cemetery and suddenly having someone stare back at me was genuinely creepy hahaha. Seriously impressive!
Honestly, I felt like I was interacting with a TV series I was watching. It's been a long time since I've been this hooked on a visual novel. I'm not sure if I got the bad ending, "Be Yourself", but I really enjoyed the dialogue. Not everything needs to make perfect sense, and I actually love the idea that something as simple as accepting or refusing a cigarette can influence your judgment.
Definitely one of my favorite games of this Ludum Dare! Congratulations on such an amazing experience! ā¤ļø
@strega @rachie @milq @ao-85 @nursultan thank u all for the praise :> Ive tried and played all of your games too and they were great.
The visual style perfectly captures that sense of detached indifference central to the story. It's fascinating how the simple nature of the game allows it to explore such heavy philosophical ideas about societal expectations and grief. Great work on this narrative project.
The retro TV aesthetic looks great and fits the narrative really well.
well, this escalated quickly, nice idea
adapting the stranger through an old tv set is such a smart idea, the chunky knobs and the note stuck to it sell the whole framing before you even start reading. the simple grey scenes fit the story really well too, it feels like a lost broadcast. was it hard to decide which parts of the book to turn into choices? really atmospheric work.
Adapting The Stranger as an interactive story on an old TV with chunky knobs is a really interesting idea, and the sound design gets great feedback. The trial section sounds like it could use more time, but a strong concept for a jam!
It's a nice game and I love it
@magicalberry @grateful-tomato @div00 @ralex-x thank you for the praise! Im glad you liked it. All your games were great too :>
This was awesome! Pacing was perfect, narrative kept me hooked. My ending made sense and I didn't run into any issues. Great job!
I like how aloof the game feels due to the art style and silence. very interesting making the "be yourself" ending the easiest to achieve by doing nothing. it feels like the main character might have Prosopagnosia. which could lead to slightly more inhumane ways of thinking. also this made me laugh a tonScreenshot 2026-10-21 222333.png Press E to think should be in every game.
@bigtex he actually has Alexithymia, which is a little different but enough for the idea to still be the same. The main idea I wanted was the mc just acts according to the way he thinks (at least on the yourself route) which is easy (why the yourself route is the easier one). The normal route requires the mc to pretend to do smthn he isn't which takes effort (and why its harder).
The Think button was a really last minute addition I'm glad it had an impact :)
Wow this was kinda wild. Needing to perform a minigame to make social effort is something I relate to a lot.
Pacing was totally fine.
The narrative was a bit straightforward, but it's a jam game after all. I still found myself very immersed in the world. I'm not familiar with the source material but I'd be interested to find out exactly how similar it is.
I got ending B? I didn't have any trouble understanding the ending, although it kind of stressed me out lol. Felt like a bad dream.
Definitely the most immersive game I've played so far, I feel like it'll stick with me for a while.
This was very interesting. I was wondering if you would let us make Meursault into a half-way functional person... turns out, no. š The art style was really interesting and suited the existential nature of the game and the general tone of The Stranger as a study of estrangement and indifference. Overall, I really liked it. Well done!
Adapting The Stranger through an old CRT with chunky knobs is such a smart framing. It sells the whole thing before you even start reading, and the grey primitive scenes really do feel like a lost broadcast. Making the "be yourself" route the easy one (just do nothing) while "be normal" forces you into active minigames is a brilliant mechanical translation of Meursault's alexithymia. That's the part that'll stick with me. The trial is the one weak spot. Judging a murder case on whether the defendant smoked a cigarette feels jarring, though your instinct about "exhibited antisocial behavior" legalese is right, a few lines like that could patch it. The silent sound design carries a lot too. Strong, atmospheric jam entry.
@alchemic thank you for the praise! :>
@human-writes-code I was considering something like that for an Ending C but really had no idea how to do it and I had limited time.
@cahard thank you! About the trial ye. I wanted it to be jarring but at the same time didn't want to reveal the whole thing too early. I probably should've had more explanation for the smoking in the final speech though, or maybe an opening from the prosecutor.
Hey, he stole my TV, yet Iām the one who got judged for smoking at a funeralāand then watching a comedy to take my mind off things? What an incredibly unfair world. Anyway, the game is unique in terms of its visual and audio style; I enjoyed it.
It's supposed to be inane and hard to understand the logic, just imagine how the MC feels! It's an exaggeration of how we as people tend to judge those who are different from us. I'm glad you enjoyed it :)
somehow this reminds me more of Ozonās LāĆtranger (movie adaptation) than Camusā. I really enjoyed some of the little easter eggs, and how the TVās unsettling static unexpectedly echoes the feeling of oppressive, blinding sun. That said, Iām curious abt the thinking behind the narrative changes compared to the original. I think it could be even more interesting if the game found a way to bring Camusā original existential angst into conversation with a more distinctly modern form of anxiety, as suggested by the presence of the television.
Adapting literary classics into games is always tricky (it reminds me of Playing Kafka), but I think this is overall a really worthwhile attempt & cool game!
@dracco-0n thank you for the praise! I focused more on my own personal take from reading the book and playing Limbus Company's (my favorite game oat) adaption rather than Absurdism. The part that hit more home for me was the being branded different from society and judged harshly for it. I myself haven't really been on the receiving end of that judgement, but I've seen people and characters who were and that part js made the most sense for me. I wanted to convey that idea more than absurdism, both because it matters more to me and I feel absurdism is harder concept to convey and grasp (I myself still struggle to fully grasp it, I wasn't confident in conveying it well).
Also, I was just in the shower thinking about how nobody had mentioned the easter eggs in the gravestones lol. Im happy someone found em
I really really liked this, I think you should re create the game using 2d visuals, maybe hand drawn. You basically did a better version of all the crappy "onlie personality tests" so kudos for that!
Hey, thank you so much for your game, I loved the Stranger so I played just what Meursault would have done lol! Still fun nevertheless, it is very well executed, the pacing is really fine. I felt like everything was clear throughout the game. The only thing that troubled me was the conclusion the "Be Normal" ending as I feel like Meursault is nothing *but* normal, I feel like the "Yourself" formulation you used during the trial was far more coherent, but that's only my interpretation! Overall, a very very nice game š
@juanrod707 I'm not good at drawing or 2d art at all lol and idk anyone who would draw for me. Thats why the games 3d. I can't draw for my life, 3d js comes easier for me.
@lucaeas now as I think abt it replying to your comment, it is a bit incoherent. The idea I wanted to convey is mc puts so much effort acting normal it eventually becomes his default and he loses himself, but the ending cutscene doesnt rly convey that well when I think abt it. If I do a post jam version I'll be fixing that thx, I didn't notice it before.
Wow, very moody game. I like that with dialogue, these simplistic characters still transfer their feelings. Great concept, could see this becoming an even bigger game. Congrats on creating this during a jam :)
Beautiful story, doesn't look like it but I see the efforts and choices made for the design and visuals, it's overall an awesome entry. Congrats!
This was amazing. While at first the game seemed a bit strange, it all fits perfectly together. Very well done.
@robin-schmitz @pimeko @fraanns thank you all for the praise!
Also if you are waiting for me to review your game, your gonna have to wait a little longer sorry. I have a chem test coming up that im rly busy prepping for. It'll take me a few days to start reviewing games again but I'll get to em eventually before voting ends.
Really loved the story for this one, the twist in the trial as we slowly started to understand what we were on trial for was really good. Awesome way of framing the game too, all in all a solid entry for a game jam.
I've rated the games of everyone whos commented up to now as far as im aware!
