To Die by North Chu

[raw]
made by North Chu for LD 43 (JAM)

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Every one hundred years, a party of four is chosen. To make the sacred journey to save the village from destruction and death. You are the leader. Your party trusts you. A choice must be made. Their lives are in your hands.

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This is a narrative based game, it's a first for us because our other games are generally gameplay focused or arcade styled. So this is a very exciting project to work on. This game features a fully fleshed out storyline with multiple endings. Some might notice that we have hidden a secret ending in there with a special something at the end.

Here's a pretty nifty gameplay video! C: https://youtu.be/FwpXaN09PLI

You will only need your mouse to play this game. Enjoy!

Ratings

Overall 516th 3.429⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Fun 894th 2.69⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 850th 2.725⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Theme 212th 3.929⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 534th 3.476⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Mood 169th 3.775⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Given 25🗳️ 18🗨️

Feedback

izi
04. Dec 2018 · 05:53 UTC
Were you influenced by the animé "Death Note" at all? I just couldn't help but think of this from the artwork and the game in general. Anyway, nice game! I hope you guys had a great game jam! Keep up the good work. Well, until next time... (:
DeadPotato
04. Dec 2018 · 06:07 UTC
@izi To be really honest, we weren't thinking about Death Note at all while making this! Thanks for playing! There's a hidden ending in the game, if you can find it C:
burnedkirby
04. Dec 2018 · 06:29 UTC
Unfortunately the game crashes on my computer when I try to run it. I open it, it starts a fullscreen app with a black background, then it just closes with no notification and the mouse moved to the top left corner of the screen.
DeadPotato
04. Dec 2018 · 06:37 UTC
@burnedkirby I'll look into it. What are your system specs?
Mitch Cutler
04. Dec 2018 · 07:25 UTC
Damn, super sad and awesome. Excellent.
tinykidtoo
04. Dec 2018 · 07:31 UTC
I really liked this grim story. The artwork is fantastic and the choices always have a serious weight to them. I wish there was a greater variety in the choices being made. Other things that might cause issues on the journey, like food, water, or places to camp.
DeadPotato
04. Dec 2018 · 07:47 UTC
@mitch-cutler @tinykidtoo Thanks for playing! We might expand on this game with more scenes and improved art (illustrated monsters and event specific art). Follow us on itch.io or Gamejolt to keep up with the development!
burnedkirby
04. Dec 2018 · 08:03 UTC
@deadpotato Its a Lenovo ThinkPad without a graphics card, so it uses Intel graphics. Maybe its because the max resolution on the laptop is 1366x768? Not high end, but not too potato.
DeadPotato
04. Dec 2018 · 08:21 UTC
@burnedkirby Thanks for the follow-up. We'll upload a different version later, hopefully it can run on your PC. We'll put up a couple of versions. Those versions will be uploaded a few hours later. C:
DeadPotato
04. Dec 2018 · 10:32 UTC
@burnedkirby The extra versions are uploaded and running! Check it out!
DWaM
04. Dec 2018 · 11:50 UTC
Choosing to do a visual novel, in an engine that's not really ideal for it, while adding extra 3d effects (namely the horse carriage), all in such a short amount of time is pretty commendable. And I think you did a good job!

The writing is a bit rough around the edges, admittedly. Lots of typos that increase in severity the closer one gets to the end. Still, it didn't stop me from enjoying the art and the overall atmosphere. I also appreciated the more interesting approaches the story in general took. (Most notably the player being pointed out as selfish for trying to play the hero, and the hidden ending.)

It's just short enough to where replaying and trying different option combinations to get the hidden ending wasn't too tedious.

The graphics were nice, as well.

I would've appreciated a bit more variety in music, but even some music is better than none at all.

Overall, I liked it.
DeadPotato
04. Dec 2018 · 15:41 UTC
@dwam I really appreciate the in-depth critique. C:
As for the game engine, well let's just say my buddy's trying out something new and this seems like a perfect opportunity.
As for the writing and quality of writing, yeah I'll have to admit that it has a lot of room for improvement. It's kinda a 'get better as you go along' kinda thing.

If you liked this game. I would've appreciated a follow on itch.io or gamejolt. :D I'm really looking forward to read about how you think about our future games.

Thanks for playing!
Catalyyst
04. Dec 2018 · 17:39 UTC
First I had fun running through the game. Some situations surprised me in the narrative and in the health bar mechanic. I understand that it is a challenge to make characters interesting in a so short experience (and dev time :p ). However I think the carriage animation is off topic (though neat) as all the rest of the game is 2D drawings, and it must have been quite some work to get done, time that might be allocated to making different emotions on the portraits during dialog phases.
I'll be sure to try different endings ^^
Good work !
DeadPotato
04. Dec 2018 · 17:53 UTC
@catalyyst I'm glad you you liked it (I think you did? Maybe maybe not?) Haha
Yeah the horse/carriage animation part, it was originally planned to be represented with a 2D screen (very much like The Oregon Trail) and sprites. So I do understand why it felt jarring from the rest of the experience.

I'll be checking out your game (and your profile >:D) later when I wake up (it's about 2am where I am now).

If you liked this game. I would really appreciate a follow on our itch.io.

We're planning to rework (revisit is a more suiting term) the game and making it a more complete experience.

Anyways, thanks for playing! :D
Caveman54
05. Dec 2018 · 00:35 UTC
Very good character development very fun game
Maruki
05. Dec 2018 · 01:32 UTC
Such a dark tale in an unforgiving world/setting. I feel so sorry for all the characters! Maybe a few passages could use more work concerning continuity (such as fixing parts where character that's already dead is being called by the others). I wish there was more variety in music, but it's understandable given the short amount of time,
DeadPotato
05. Dec 2018 · 03:15 UTC
@maruki Thanks for playing! :D
I wished there was more music variety too! That's probably the first thing to get implemented in our next version of the game.
Catalyyst
05. Dec 2018 · 19:43 UTC
@deadpotato I did like your game, really, I was discussing on how it could have been better ^^. I know many things can happen during a game jam and accurate time management is impossible, that's why I think you did a great job even if some details seems out of the place ^^.
I'll be sure to look a the rest of your work.
Have a nice day/evening ^^
HayArt
05. Dec 2018 · 20:08 UTC
Very good game, history is a work of art huh, I liked the system of choices that matches the theme, I would like to see this game finalized with more implementations of choices, arts and music, but for now, congratulations !!!
DeadPotato
06. Dec 2018 · 05:18 UTC
@catalyyst haha thanks for the follow up! C:
DeadPotato
06. Dec 2018 · 05:20 UTC
@hayart Thanks for playing! C: