Puzzled and Dating a Monster by John Darrington

[raw]
made by John Darrington for LD 41 (COMPO)

Robert or Melinda?

A horror dating simulator made in Vue.js

note: must be played in a desktop browser

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This was an absolute blast. This was my first Compo ever. I've learned a ton, first being how long I can actually function without sleep xD.

You might like to watch my Postmortem

The game should be pretty intuitive.

  • Select your date
  • Add small talk pieces
  • Try not to piss your date off

I made this game entirely in Vue.js with the Element ui library lending some small framework pieces. The music was made from scratch, using Sunvox. Pixel art was built using PixilArt and also made from scratch.

Ratings

Overall 297th 3.469⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Fun 235th 3.469⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 490th 3.065⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Theme 566th 3.065⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 255th 3.469⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Humor 39th 3.859⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Mood 178th 3.4⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Given 36🗳️ 30🗨️

Feedback

Alex Ferbrache
23. Apr 2018 · 03:34 UTC
Fun game! Exploring all of the options and seeing all the endings for each date is pretty satisfying
veztron
23. Apr 2018 · 03:37 UTC
Congrats on your first jam! I'm impressed by your use of vue for a game.

I got kind of bored since it's essentially a guessing game. The gameplay is lacking.

Your graphics are simple and nice, and make the actions clear and easy to use.

The alternate endings were pretty funny.


Good work!
Crown Games
23. Apr 2018 · 03:39 UTC
## Some great moments from this game
- Hair: FREAKING SNAKES
- "Korean letters" > "Woof"
- It will be a closed casket funeral, might be empty too.

Overall, this game was very fun to play. It was cool to see what combinations I could make to get different endings. The music also fits it VERY well. It also helps that the game is web-based. Web-based games always get points by my standards
ErikU
23. Apr 2018 · 03:40 UTC
Cute little game. Well done. Neat to see something done with Vue.js.
BlackAtlas
23. Apr 2018 · 04:20 UTC
I legitimately laughed out loud at a couple of those interacts, great work!
🎤 John Darrington
23. Apr 2018 · 04:23 UTC
@Crown Games that was a 2am addition. I wanted one more to make that initial screen square and it was all I could come up with. Glad you liked it :)
Fanttum
23. Apr 2018 · 04:34 UTC
Hard to tell where some of the phrases will go but guess that's part of the fun right? Or the Horror? Haha Didn't see it matching the theme very well but enjoyed it's atmosphere :)
Jole
23. Apr 2018 · 10:23 UTC
Fun game, hard to know what you will actually say but it only makes it more fun.
Tim Eriksen
23. Apr 2018 · 15:17 UTC
A game made in Vue.js? Cool :D The game was simple and easy to learn. I liked the graphics! Good job :)
Derek Volker
23. Apr 2018 · 18:40 UTC
Liked the dialogs but couldnt really understand the game, it was like lucky guesses and here we go.
quixatocs
23. Apr 2018 · 18:48 UTC
Really great first jam! I thought I was a stud getting the first three right but it went downhill from there after I mentioned my raiding days in the depths of Molten Core! Great work and thanks for playing my game too :)
zanhava
23. Apr 2018 · 21:20 UTC
interesting
Blinkenlights
23. Apr 2018 · 23:22 UTC
The title pretty much describes my experience. Admitted, it was much funnier than that.
Secretmapper
24. Apr 2018 · 05:05 UTC
Nice job, especially the fact that you made it in Vue :)
Chris Coe
24. Apr 2018 · 05:36 UTC
Pretty funny interactions. Played through several times to see what happens. Seems these aren't the, er, 'good' kind of monsters, haha. Neat music and graphics, but great writing.
Dumivid
24. Apr 2018 · 06:12 UTC
Nice job. The game it's easy to understand (which not happen very often on LD) and humor it's quite good.
DeltaNutmeg
24. Apr 2018 · 06:24 UTC
Good interactions, though I think the guessing is a little repetitive. Finished one of the characters completely. It's good for the design that you have.
🎤 John Darrington
24. Apr 2018 · 14:53 UTC
Thanks @Secretmapper - I looked for a tool I was extremely familiar with so that I could focus on the mechanics and assets. I think there is some power behind Vue.js for these types of games, puzzlers and interface games.

@Dumivid I'm glad you pointed out it's easy to understand - it was one of my bigger concerns so I tried to streamline as much as possible. Then I was freaking out because I wasn't sure if it was too simple. I'm glad I made a finished product though.

@DeltaNutmeg I can see where a repetitive part is - but could you explain what part the "guessing" is? That way I can tweak the game for when voting is over. Thanks for the compliment on the design.

@Chris Coe - the reason I focused on simplicity and a technology that's not normally used for games is so that I could focus more time on the assets like music and graphics (both of which I haven't tried my hand at for years) and leverage the things I feel I do very well at - like writing.
BoltKey
24. Apr 2018 · 20:55 UTC
Great job for the first game jam, hope it was a nice experience for you!

The game mood was quite fun, but low replay value and lack of actual gameplay is always a minus for me.

I disliked that I didn't find a way to skip the text writing. Especially since there was often repeating text. When you have this style of text presentation, you should always add a way to skip it.
🎤 John Darrington
24. Apr 2018 · 21:47 UTC
Good point @BoltKey - I was running close to the wire at the end :)
DeltaNutmeg
24. Apr 2018 · 22:48 UTC
@John Darrington For me, after picking the initial more obvious green picks (the ones that match up to the interests) I had to guess and check the rest of the choices if I wanted a full success. I was stuck on 6/7 green for one of the characters for a while.
🎤 John Darrington
25. Apr 2018 · 02:20 UTC
@DeltaNutmeg looking at the code.....I only have 6 positive choices total. Whoops :D
Carvster
25. Apr 2018 · 21:39 UTC
Nice first entry! I've been eaten and also divorced after getting married in vegas in the timespan of about 5 minutes!

Good humour and good quick fun, not too much replay-ability once you've played through it once and worked out the positive answers but a solid fairly polished experience!
🎤 John Darrington
25. Apr 2018 · 21:43 UTC
Thanks @Carvster glad you enjoyed it :) Something that's not readily apparent is that Robert and Melinda do give different answers. Not much more in replay-ability - but I figured a good, polished experience once was a good goal for a first jam.
T8kk
26. Apr 2018 · 13:04 UTC
Wow I'm ready for the world now haha. Fresh and funny idea john, I find social games are very unexplored territory and you had a cool idea to explore. Maybe next version can have some suggestions from the character you can pick up to make more accurate profile to not to make it too much of a guessing game? I don't know hehe. Small and fresh idea, good nice work John.
jshaffer94247
27. Apr 2018 · 04:19 UTC
It was fun. I agree with previous comment that having some clue as to what might go over well and what might not would make it feel like I had more skill to apply. As it is, it's pretty funny but it also feels very random / chance balanced. I got a number twice but I'm thinking it'll be that service that turns you down. That was one wacky date.
polegar
27. Apr 2018 · 09:08 UTC
Haha this is funny and this are some good assets ! I really liked the music, I will definitly use Sunvox for my next jam !

As the other said you should find something in the gameplay to give some little hint on which subject to choose.
Hilvon
27. Apr 2018 · 21:24 UTC
Got married in Vegas.

Guess I get along with monsters fairly well... :dragon_face:
MacDoom
29. Apr 2018 · 07:23 UTC
Funny game!
The small talk options compatibility is very well implemented! Funny results and hilarious sprites. A little more polish with the graphics would enhace the experience.
Looks like the dating sims are very popular these deys.
Keep on!