Beyond the Fourth Wall by Gjarble

[raw]
made by Gjarble for LD21 (-)
It may have no sound whatsoever and be low on graphical detail, but it's high on weird!
...that's a good thing, right?
This is a very short point-and-click adventure game where you escape from a series of screens.

I expect the responses to this game to be... interesting. I had to cut pretty much all the non-placeholder graphics, animation, and sound for time, as well as the last level (which I thought to be the cleverest- maybe I'll expand on this idea later), but hopefully I got the idea across well enough. In place of all that stuff is a bizarre ending that I kinda had to think up on the spot.

I originally wanted a subtle, kinda artsy thing, but when I realized that I suck too much at art to do anything like that within the time constraints, I went in the complete opposite direction and abandoned all subtlety. I tried to go for funny in a "what the hell did I just play" sort of way... though I didn't have the time to put much thought into that aspect. Did I succeed at all?

Ratings

Coolness 6% 87
Overall 2.96 213
Audio 1.00 371
Community 1.80 399
Fun 2.92 164
Graphics 1.88 423
Humor 3.25 38
Innovation 3.64 57
Theme 3.80 39

Feedback

matthias_zarzecki
22. Aug 2011 · 17:55 UTC
Oh, artsy it is. I like the idea.
James Paige
23. Aug 2011 · 04:18 UTC
Even though the graphics were obviously rushed, they still had nice style. This works really well. I wish there were more screens to escape from.
JohanAR
23. Aug 2011 · 06:33 UTC
I listed your game as an example of how to get a good theme rating (from me) in a blog post I just wrote :)
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2011/08/22/how-i-rate-your-games-for-theme/
callidus
23. Aug 2011 · 11:02 UTC
nice, I liked the idea, not seen that before so full marks for innovation! graphics were rushed and no sound though ( at least for me? ). Good entry.
Andrew
25. Aug 2011 · 07:57 UTC
This is one of the more interesting ways to play with the theme. Well done.
wally2069
25. Aug 2011 · 18:56 UTC
A good series of mini puzzles that clearly involve escape in its most interesting form. A great job worth playing.
foobaz
27. Aug 2011 · 02:54 UTC
Despite what you said about sound and graphics, I quite like this one. Nice puzzles and some interesting story.
angrygeometry
29. Aug 2011 · 01:17 UTC
cool idea! took me a few tries to get past the scoreboard but yeah, nice idea done well.
Tulrath
30. Aug 2011 · 03:17 UTC
Very fun to play - I also like the odd ways of getting through each puzzle, the weirder the better :)
🎤 Gjarble
30. Aug 2011 · 18:03 UTC
Thanks to everyone for the kind words (and to JohanAR for the shoutout)! The response to my game so far has been far better than I expected- it's definitely given me enough confidence to expand on this game for a later time.
snesgaard
01. Sep 2011 · 11:11 UTC
A fun game with a nice dose of what the fuck! Really liked the score board puzzle once i figured it out :P
Maybe next time you can induce segmentation faults in a computer or something :P