Deity Hook-Up (Not A Romance) by ynneblack
You are a witchling and there are very important exams ahead of you.
Will you be able to convince a Deity to help you out?
First-person visual novel where each choice matters.
- Concept, Writing: mehtoh & ynneblack
- Code, Art, Design: ynneblack
- Sound effects: Freesound.org (detailed credits in game's "About"!)
- Time: +- 24 h 50 min
- Software: Ren'Py (code), Notepad++ (code), Photoshop (art + design), SketchUp (perspective)
This is my first LD challenge + first game ever! It was really challenging and most of it was trial-and-error, but I hope it's playable and maybe even a little bit fun. I would be really glad for any feedback to learn from this experience as much as I can. I did imagine it scalable (making the game longer) from the very start, so I'm hoping to make an expanded version later, but first I would like to make sure the version for LD works as intended!
2018/12/05: I added an "Extra" screen to show unlocked endings. For anyone interested, they are in an updated version of the game (different download file with "_extra" at the end). The only difference from the jam file is the "Extra" screen, though!
| Windows | https://ynneblack.itch.io/deity-hookup |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/a-deity-hook-up-not-a-romance |
Ratings
| Overall | 578th | 3.368⭐ | 40🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 698th | 3.026⭐ | 40🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 586th | 3.066⭐ | 40🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 437th | 3.592⭐ | 40🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 245th | 4.025⭐ | 42🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 193th | 3.554⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 234th | 3.671⭐ | 40🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 39🗳️ | 39🗨️ |
the palette and graphics were pretty cool as well, giving a datesim vibe despite it being far from it.
wish there was more to this game but i guess thats to be expected from a gamejam.
***And even if you didn't comment, thank you for testing our game.***
@unplugred Thank you so much!
I did originally imagine it as 3x3 choices + 3 endings and expanding if there's time left, and yet in the end I even had to shorten the last choice. It seems the length is a common "complaint", but in a way I'm glad, if it was a terrible game, I guess people would be happy it's over.
@thecritterscove Thank you! And you chose very well, then. c:
Like, goodness gracious I LOVE the washed out beige-y pinks with the rich purples. Gorgeous color palette.
The good ending feels a bit too narrow to get to, but its a jam game, so thats forgiveable.
Really liked your take on the theme.
very cool.
As for the good ending, do you mean it was unnecessarily hard to achieve? I would be interested in hearing more about your choices that lead/didn't lead to it, as to me – as the creator – the paths and point system are really hard to evaluate from outside perspective! And the game may not be completely transparent in showing what's the best choice each time... anyways, thanks again!
@maruki Thank you! :) I'm glad you were happy with it, you did well, after all!
*
On a side note, neither of us is a native speaker; we *were* worried people would yell at us over some glaring mistakes. As long as it didn't distract from the experience, it should be okay... but **if anyone spots some mistake** (awkward wording, grammar, typos... anything), please do feel free to point it out, it would help us a lot!
The graphic is well made and the game let you choose a good amount of different option.
Texts are well written and I think the game fits the theme 100%. So very nice work guys, keep it up! :)
Nice job!
This is pretty nice, though! Doing a visual novel for a game jam seems pretty ambitious, but I liked the style you went for with the writing.
After sacrificing keys:
> ...Why did you do that?
Hilarious.
It would have been nice to know the tangible consequences to each of the actions I took though. Currently it just felt kind of arbitrary. I got the "Blessed" ending on my first try, but the only thing that the deity reacted to was the fidget spinner I put down at the very end. Upon experimenting with other stuff, I found multiple things that could be "vanished" by the deity, and still ended by putting the fidget spinner down, but then that time I got a "you tried" ending and didn't understand why. :(
Still though, this was a funny concept, and I liked the style of the art as well. Great job here!
We tried to hint through the messages what was well received, but I did not want to make it as a "visible score". If I imagine myself in the situation, it felt like there should be some guessing involved. If you don't mind me spoiling it, each choice gave you (or took away) points; the main 3-choice offerings had one great (+2), one good (+1) and one bad (-2) choice. That's why most not-quite-good but not-outright-rude choices would lead to the "neutral" ending. :)
There was also another score the game kept track of, so if you chose the wrong option x times, you would get locked out of the best ending. That seemed fair; it was a choice the Deity outright disliked, so they would not want to reward you.
I hope it makes a little more sense now!
@ghost-in-the-toast @dreafskii Thank you!
I played through a couple times and got the failed, tried, and good endings. For me, I guess the deity really needed a spoon and fidget spinner haha. Some interesting thoughts - if you know what pleases the deity - does that mean life will be easier (not having to study, etc). But if the situation arises where someone asks you about that subject, and you don't actually know because you relied on the deity, than what happens? And if multiple people rely on different deities to get what they want, but don't actually know how to do things, then how does society function? Anyway, nice job, keep up the good work!
These are interesting thoughts indeed. You could say that if you are making a request like this, it's entirely your responsibility to ask well; so for example, the thing you mentioned is an obvious downside and the teacher asking about something later could ruin the whole plan. But if you asked for whispered hints until you passed all of your classes, maybe it would work better! So it's up to the person to word it carefully and really think through the possible outcomes, perhaps.