The Turmeric Jam Jar's Only Game. by local minimum

[raw]
made by local minimum for LD28 (JAM)
We went all out on lush assets in this puzzle platformer. You play the spare-part mechanized doll with a sole purpose in life: To get a friend. But the only inhabitants you meet are quite dull or frankly not that interested in you.

You decide to redeem the hopeless situation with constructing a golem made out of bits and pieces that you find on your journey.


The instructions are minimal in the game, but here's a reiteration of the controls:

Arrows navigate you, mostly left and right. On a very special occasion you will use up.

Space is there for jumpy fun and Alt to interact with the world.


As promised, the game contains No Violence, No Sexism and No Cats (almost).
We also hear that we needed a frog in the game to make it whole. So since we did put a frog in it, we expect you to be happy!

The people who made it in order of IRL appearance:

Martin, Hanne, Anna-Maja, Björn, Skyman, Jenny.

--- EDIT ---

Post-Jam version uploaded that fixes issues with character control in original entry and adds tons of sounds, animations, and some particle systems. This is more or less how we hoped it would be!

Of course, if you are rating, you should play the original version.

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall(Jam) 3.09 269
Audio(Jam) 2.69 319
Fun(Jam) 2.49 408
Graphics(Jam) 3.98 105
Humor(Jam) 2.49 232
Innovation(Jam) 3.28 125
Mood(Jam) 3.57 70
Theme(Jam) 2.45 369

Feedback

Masadow
17. Dec 2013 · 01:22 UTC
This game is completly mindfuck and scary ! This is actually a compliment ^^
dark_hunter
17. Dec 2013 · 18:02 UTC
This...is weird... in a good way. Graphics are very nice, but animations seems buggy (example - when you're on a high ground).
Hyoga-3D
17. Dec 2013 · 18:13 UTC
I think i won't sleep tonight :/

Good choice of art, I made a game with collage before, but it was not this scary, good entry.
ALobker
17. Dec 2013 · 18:26 UTC
I'm at a loss for words... Just, wow.
skysthelimit
17. Dec 2013 · 19:51 UTC
Jan Svankmajer anyone? Great idea, not so greatly executed unfortunately. I kept getting stuck on the terrain, and it could have done with an animation for picking up the objects. Also I didnt really know how to achieve the goals, lack of info perhaps? I might be a bit biased towards this because I dont like 2d side-scrollers. Still I loved the concept but could definitely do with some polishing up, but isnt that the nature of most of the results of game jams?
🎤 local minimum
17. Dec 2013 · 20:06 UTC
@skysthelimit Yeah we had to scrap working on the controller and camera, forgot some animations that we actually had and never got around to give the character some assisting thought-bubbles. The deadline was really hard on us... we're collecting a list of easy improvements that we probably will fix later on...
Those 30 Ninjas
17. Dec 2013 · 20:28 UTC
Interesting art style.
Christian S.
17. Dec 2013 · 20:30 UTC
Disturbing. Well done!
psychomonster
17. Dec 2013 · 20:38 UTC
This is creepy :D Very unique style... Good Idea to use realistic looking things to create a fantastic enviroment. The controls are smooth. Good job. The Level needs some polishing at some places because i get stuck often ^^ Good Job
acp_ld
17. Dec 2013 · 20:46 UTC
great entry, im not sure how it fits the theme though, Art style is pretty brilliant
Jago
17. Dec 2013 · 20:46 UTC
That doll is seriously disturbing! Great job!
JayProg
17. Dec 2013 · 20:53 UTC
Awesome art!
srimech
17. Dec 2013 · 20:57 UTC
Excellent. It's got a really good nightmarish Terry Gilliam style to it. The photographic sprites blend in really well. Jumping around on the terrain is a bit frustrating but that's not a big issue.

I got as far as assembling all the body parts and getting carried away by an origami bird - after that I couldn't figure out what to do and had to stop there. I still really enjoyed it.
stvr
17. Dec 2013 · 21:28 UTC
This game has a strange, wonderful internal logic and, as you understand it, you are able to progress. This is a great thing! So many games have to tell you everything, this game lets you figure it out. That said, I bumped a pitcher to the edge of a ledge as I was jumping down, effectively blocking me from going back up ever again, so I was stuck. :(
Tex Killer
17. Dec 2013 · 23:50 UTC
Soo crazy and scared! Good work.
van noctar
18. Dec 2013 · 21:30 UTC
Strange!! I like it! But semone bugs in moves!
WhoaConstrictor
18. Dec 2013 · 22:03 UTC
Unsettling environment/visuals. Jumping was a bit unresponsive at times, but a minor issue. Very interesting atmosphere.
javifugitivo
18. Dec 2013 · 23:44 UTC
Woaaah! Nice collage!5 for graphics!
TeamFlare
19. Dec 2013 · 21:43 UTC
so different.. i love it :)
🎤 local minimum
19. Dec 2013 · 22:17 UTC
We're going to take all the "strange" and "unsettling" (though we never aimed for the latter) as encouragements. And as this was in part an experiment to see if I could get my friends to join me in making a game, I think I've got'em hooked. Judging by the comments so far, I think what you like is their oddity-contribution. So next time we might actually actively aim to do something disturbing, odd and... and beware!
LukuluK
19. Dec 2013 · 22:46 UTC
The visual style is really intriguing and immersive, and there is funny contextual interactions, but the controls are painful !
ParaPup
19. Dec 2013 · 23:29 UTC
I'm so lost in the game but in a good way that it was fun and just blow my mind ;3
DustyStylus
20. Dec 2013 · 15:35 UTC
Beautiful style, but I kept getting stuck a lot. (literally, in the scenery) I love the whole aesthetic though.
mcapraro
20. Dec 2013 · 22:41 UTC
wow, really great art direction on this, i love that you used photos for all the textures - totally feels unique and original.
Christina Antoinette Neofotistou
22. Dec 2013 · 15:43 UTC
Thank you SO much for no violence and no sexism. You're the first LD to specifically mention no sexism, which is awesome. This is quirky and fun!!
BradleySmith
26. Dec 2013 · 16:44 UTC
This felt like an acid trip, a good undefined one.
occash
26. Dec 2013 · 19:44 UTC
Nice idea! I like the environment!
But it was fearfully for me)
thebrainfuse
26. Dec 2013 · 21:16 UTC
awesomely unique graphics, quirky gameplay... i can't for the life of me find out where to get the spanner and stuff, but damn it i will!
jerombd
26. Dec 2013 · 23:34 UTC
Very nice graphics who create a intense dreamlike, surrealistic atmosphere!
lasergans
27. Dec 2013 · 15:35 UTC
Oh, so so scary! Liked the mood and art style
ViliX
27. Dec 2013 · 16:43 UTC
Had fun playing it! Seriously, great game!
postmodestie
27. Dec 2013 · 17:35 UTC
Wow!
Atmospherium
27. Dec 2013 · 18:36 UTC
I absolutely love this art style, and I think it really fit the concept of building a friend out of real items. Gameplay could be smoothed out a bit (which you know) and the puzzles could be a bit clearer. I like the abstract "figure-it-out-as-you-go" approach (and it worked for the most part), but the wisemen puzzle felt like it was just arbitrarily trying different combinations. But, on the whole, really good game.
🎤 local minimum
27. Dec 2013 · 19:56 UTC
@Atmospherium I finally got a bit better after a long harsh cold and started by having the wise men animate and play the instrument they like as they get it. I hope that will make it feel less of just trying around. Other than that, I'm not sure how to improve on that puzzle.

To everyone so far, thanks for all the nice comments.
Sebastian
28. Dec 2013 · 13:08 UTC
Love the main character design.
Atridas
01. Jan 2014 · 16:30 UTC
Creepy as hell, I only played the "original" version and I don't know if everything got fixed, but I have to say that the parallax feels wrong. The background goes faster when it should go slower, I think...
Macroz
01. Jan 2014 · 17:46 UTC
Weird but nice visuals. The controls could use a bit of improvement but I see you already improved some for the post-jam version.
loxo
01. Jan 2014 · 20:57 UTC
Game with great atmosphere and unusual graphics. The audio is great too. I tried the original version, but got frustrated by the often not responding controls. So I switched to the post compo version and which works really great. I found all the parts, but some things are still unclear to me. One thing might even be a bug. Is the teapot supposed to fall from the platform? I had an object with me and could push the teapot with it.
FrederickK
01. Jan 2014 · 22:33 UTC
I liked the idea and the art style, but I think it is a little confusing.
GarethIW
02. Jan 2014 · 13:11 UTC
It really does have a nice aesthetic to it, after getting a few pieces of my friend however, I couldn't work out if the idea to get to higher platforms was to stack the random items scattered around or if they all combined or worked with each other in some way.
Jod
02. Jan 2014 · 14:59 UTC
Okay, that made me laugh. Loved the way you used pictures. Also the main character scared me, in a good way. Animation was fine for me. Had a bit of trouble jumping sometimes.
hadesfury
03. Jan 2014 · 14:57 UTC
Nice just a little annoying thing ( key press on down )
anvoz
03. Jan 2014 · 17:06 UTC
The artwork was really interesting. The control was quite hard for me. Maybe you should use up arrow for jumping and down arrow for interacting.
🎤 local minimum
03. Jan 2014 · 23:25 UTC
For those of you commenting on the controls, I agree completely. The originally submitted version had really crappy controls. A lot of that is solved in the updated post-jam. The key-mappings were, I suppose partly based planned to fit my left-handedness but as it is unity, if you play any of the platform specific versions you can remap any keys before launching the game at the screen resolution dialogue.
archaeometrician
04. Jan 2014 · 05:16 UTC
Very interesting idea, the weird atmosphere is really intriguing and scary. The graphics are great, high quality pictures. It's a very special entry, I'm glad to have tried it!
ShellfishGames
04. Jan 2014 · 17:36 UTC
Really creepy. Had a few problems with the controls, but graphics and atmosphere were great nonetheless.