Backpack Quest by polyducks

[raw]
made by polyducks for LD 42 (JAM)

Backpack Quest is the result of being the artist on another jam entry, then having a spare moment at the end of the jam. I made Backpack Quest in a very stressful six hours, making sure to cram in as many coding bad practices as possible.

Credit to Jupiter Hadley for her fantastic font 'Larua', available here: https://jupiter_hadley.itch.io/larua-font

All other content made specifically for the jam.!

preview.png

Ratings

Overall 149th 3.857⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Fun 50th 3.982⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 289th 3.5⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Theme 894th 3.107⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 735th 3.232⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Humor 5th 4.5⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Mood 129th 3.769⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Given 15🗳️ 10🗨️

Feedback

nerdysl0th
14. Aug 2018 · 18:23 UTC
Neat, original concept. I love your quirky writing.
Alfie275
14. Aug 2018 · 18:32 UTC
A fun little game, reminds me of a text based version of the EYEZMAZE "GROW" series of flash games. If you added branching paths as well as varying responses to the objects used it you could fit a lot of writing in here and it'd be quite engaging (maybe add a tree showing the possible paths you can take, with untaken paths greyed out?).
ChaosTheLegend
14. Aug 2018 · 18:39 UTC
now I know how to pick up girls, just show them your troll head
DriagonV
15. Aug 2018 · 09:31 UTC
Nice game, Nice writing, loved exploring the possibilities. Also pretty humorous!
starhacker
15. Aug 2018 · 17:48 UTC
This game is a little gem. Im a fan of Earthbound so I loved the quirkiness in Backpack Quest. The minimal art style is nice and fitting. The story narrative is fun to explore. My highest score: 435
My Sweet Whomp
20. Aug 2018 · 19:53 UTC
I had a nice moment playing your game. Unfortunately there's not much to say about it...
It is well written and restarting over and over again to try and get a higher score / read other possibilities gives a nice value to the game.
Maybe the interface could be a little more elaborated (instead of just stacking the paragraphs one onto the other).
Anyway, kudos!
Ogma
20. Aug 2018 · 20:56 UTC
Well, I went from -575 to 350 but couldn't go above that, I'm not a good adventurer. :(

Anyway, nice sprites, the text presentation is simple but well thought and clear.

I didn't encounter any bug / problem (Mozilla Firefox, up to date).

As for the writing, good job! It's pretty funny and there are many possible outcomes.

Since it's a bit short, you can retry a lot of times without it getting boring, in this kind of game it's a good thing. (well, to be honest, with this writing, I could play longer runs with no problem^^).
ctrble
21. Aug 2018 · 03:33 UTC
I really liked this, might be my favorite so far. I loved the writing and had a good time experimenting with different outcomes for each situation. I think you had just the right number of items to take with you, it felt challenging but manageable. Good work!
Ayushman
22. Aug 2018 · 18:57 UTC
A fun little game to play and the story line is really great. Would like to see the story expand more.
dietzribi
22. Aug 2018 · 21:08 UTC
Awesome, tried it a few times, really funny! The only thing that could be improved is that when you choose an item, you start reading and then the box jumps below! You could just add another click to show the next step in the adventure so you can read the consequence of your silly choice without it jumping out of your sight mid-sentence :) good job!
madsj
22. Aug 2018 · 21:59 UTC
It was interesting to think about how to "solve" the story. A downside is that it's primarily text. My best score is 520
Coda Highland
23. Aug 2018 · 03:15 UTC
I know the feeling! I got called into work during LD41 and the rest of my team gave up. When I finally got out of work I just about gave up myself out of despair because there was so little time remaining... but then I had a brilliant idea and hacked together a game in the last three hours.

I agree with dietzribi's comment about improving how the content scrolls to make it easier to read, but it was fun to discover what everything did.
Barrier
23. Aug 2018 · 18:07 UTC
This is great!
I like how many possibilities there are.
neipo13
23. Aug 2018 · 18:23 UTC
Super fun, got to 600 as a score ($$$) and -800 as a low (don't steal princesses & murder is bad). Didn't know what to expect at first but now I find myself going through and trying out all the possibilities!

Edit: I've updated this about 10 times because I'm having so much fun going for the highest and lowest possible scores
Tattomoosa
23. Aug 2018 · 19:02 UTC
Too bad the spare moment wasn't at the start to compete in the compo, I think it would be a strong contender in that category. A lot of content for 6 hours of development, and the humor is good. My highest score was 475, lowest -700. I agree with earlier comments that the scrolling is confusing at first.
Nam Nguyen
23. Aug 2018 · 21:47 UTC
Hahahahaha this is such a fun game, I literally stared at the key hahah. I really like both the idea and the execution of the game. Some music would be great, otherwise I think the UI fits the vibe of the game. I did feel like my decision has some weight to the story rather than following a scripted visual novel, though I think it pretty much was. That is hands down one of the best game of this kind I played in this LD. Well done!

PS. I couldnt help myself but try to find the best solution. Ended up getting 335 points, is that the highest score? Idk. Im sure having global leader board for this game would do wonder!!
Jeremy Ryan
23. Aug 2018 · 23:11 UTC
**Hello, princess. My name is protagonist. I have a gift for you.**

"Um, that's a key."

**Yes. It is for you. Wed me.**

"No."
lekkel124
24. Aug 2018 · 23:11 UTC
Really hilarious. I loved the writing, and akward moments ! *wink*

If I remember correctly, I managed to hit 600 points. Best ending ?

Good work !
Albin
25. Aug 2018 · 13:09 UTC
This is probably the game is spent the most time playing this ludum dare. It was really fun to try to get the highest score and the best ending possible. Picking the worst options was hilarious too :D Good job!
Andrei9
03. Sep 2018 · 13:11 UTC
I liked the Graphics, and the Gameplay was fun, Nice Game. :thumbsup: