You may play the game here https://ntzschbtzsch.itch.io/axe-and-roses.

I'm not a big dating sim fan, but this game's pretty cool.

Dude i wish this went on longer i think me and the rock would of lived a good life together

Sorry, there's an issue with Ratchet :/, we are fixing it now.

I started it, unaware that I would find true love... with a rock... But in all seriousness, this was hilarious due simply to Darock the immovable.

Ratchet is now fixed ;). Tell us if you find spelling errors or non working dialog links (We had to deal with a major issue with our dialogue engine, since some links were missing and we're not sure we found them all).

Yes I succeeded my dating with the rock !!!! How will be the night with him ?!

This game rocks.

great game, the text could be typed a little faster a thing, but everything else is great!

Very cool game. Presentation is top notch and I can see the love that was put into the dialog.

One thing I would fix is to try to show progress to the player. Now it just seems you are having a dialog but it is hard to track how you are progressing. Maybe more clear reactions from the date partner or something along those lines?

Overall, very enjoyable game and nice take on dating sim genre!

Nice fourth wall break there, and i romanced the dude! *fist pump* Also please take better care of that graphic designer because the game totally said so. I liked the story part of it, so much that i would have loved to see another character just tripping in on the date and lore bombing in a very interrupty way (obviously i only played one ending so this might very well happen :]), Fun game!

I like the juxtaposition between the romance story and all the heads on pikes. I succeeded in all three romances despite never actually figuring out the reaction indicators. The text speed is a bit on the slow side, and I was a little thrown off by the 'you're afraid/you're admirative' type choices where they described the player's reactions rather than statements. That got me in a little trouble with Agna when I thought I was calling her out and just ended up shaking in fear. The character portraits are sweet and the level of narrative content is exceptionally high for an LD game. Good work!

Writer here ! First of all thank you all for you sweet comments, that's so nice to have constructive feedback on our game ! I'll try to answer about the fixes I'll do for the dialogues when I'll have had some sleep and rest. The last hours of the jam got the better of me, it was insane.
@Nash We were so glad to hear that. You've warmed our stone cold hearts.
@Xephrys I absolutely love your idea, I may suggest the others in the team to work on it if you allow me to ;)
@piscythe I completely agree with you on that. In fact that's one of the main post-ludum fixes the writing team and I intend to upload. To tell you the truth, we had completely forgotten about the 'etiquettes' [that's how we non-english speakers called the choice boxes, I think it has a better name but can't remember it] and the dev team kindly reminded us of that huge detail a few hours before our submission... We're planning to work on better statements when we'll have found some neurones back !
I can't really answer about what concerns the development team, but I think we'll have a group talk in the following days to look at all the fixes that could make our game better.
Again, thank you all, it means a lot !

After Ratchet asked me how often I get to the cloud district I knew our relationship couldn't last, so I flipped through Tandaaarg looking for the perfect companion, and by chance I came across Darock the unmovable. Now usually when a Tendaaarg profile has a picture of someone with supple curves and a voluptuous physique they are quite disappointing to meet. But not Darock the unmovable, no, his body was as stiff and round as an anvil, his abs were rock hard oh, and the branch protruding from his stony flesh made it clear just how interested he was. I made him glow so bright the gods could have seen him a thousand grognak foots away. And then I bent forward and my lips made contact with the oozing paint that comprised Darock's succulent lips. Oh how warm and moist they were, I could suck the bitter paint right off of the curvature of his mouth. How could it have been so wrong... if it felt oh so right. Me and Darock have a passion for one another that no couple could match. The effervescent oder wafting from his toppled tankard only made me want him more. The warm glow of the tavern delighted my senses and made Darock's body even warmer to the touch. His eyes stared at me longingly, provoking desires in me I'd never thought possible. If only our time together could have lasted longer...

Hahaha, it was hilarious @Justintime4u2bu! Thanks for the story!

I wooed a rock.

Such a cool game! I really liked the idea of a dating sim for barbarians. My expectations were definetly different from what i got, the mix between really funny jokes and preetty good storytelling have been amazing.

awesome! very cool graphics

This title was absolutely hilarious. You nailed the aesthetic completely and your dialogue was well written! My only qualm is that there aren't really any sound effects to compliment things, some tavern ambience would have done some good I believe but all around this is a great game. Well done!

Holy hell. I honestly never wished there was more of something this simple. Honestly think if you did this thing episodically and with certain consistency it could turn into something great!

Witty dialogues, super cool setting, awesome title. The blend between barbarians and dating sim is actually hilarious and the way you guys have executed it is very neat. Good job! :)
As a side note, I'm not 100% sure about the font. I have the feeling that it's a bit difficult to read, specially when there is a lot of text together (it may be more suitable for titles and big letters?).

Love the presentation/art here. Wish the mashup went a little further than just visuals but it's still a really unique combination

I think I found true love.


Played a few times this game with all characters, and I'm impressed that such a basic concept had so much lore behind of it. I walked into this game thinking it'd be just some dating sim slapped with a barbarian theme, but even Darock the rock had so much insightful things to say.

While not the most outlandish game, it's certainly one of the funniest I've seen on this jam. Starting with the idea of barbarians having their own Tinder, and then a regular date session with an outlandishly track, I was grinning like a fool most of the time while playing this.

Perhaps a bit too easy and text heavy at times, but still, great spritework, music and story direction certainly made this game shine.

Excellent work there. [My team](twitter.com/whalesandgames) will look forward to seeing more games like this from you in the future. Keep up the good work! :whale:

The music, animated drink-chugging, and humor absolutely make this game.

Definitely a lot of text to get through, but that's in the typical vein of the VN/dating-sim genre. Would have liked a few more choices personally, but that's just my taste. I'm glad there were choices and an end result.

The font isn't great because the I sometimes looks like a J and it's hard to read quickly. Could maybe be a bit larger, too. Also, there are loads of grammatical and spelling errors, but since it's not in your first language, that's forgivable. :)

Gonna go back and try to woo that rock now...

Hilarious! Really enjoyed your game, but when I saw 'Darock' I was done :D Oh yeah, and not to forget, Love the ART. Great Entry! Thanks a lot!

I'm in love with a rock! How hilarious!

Thanks for this unique entry. The text is well written and funny. I also love the music, and the pixel graphics is great too (could have a few more animations, but you already included reasons why there are not any more in the text ;-)

Cute game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 41 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=157gFcDgY28

Good job! Cool game!

I left my rating of your game, if you can leave your feedback in our game, Witch's Escape.

I hope you continue with the project.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/witchs-escape