Sticks and Stones by harark
Content warning: abusive language, suicide
Join the adorable little bubble gum person on a walk through the fragile psyche. Control using W, A, S, D or arrow keys and see if you can help to keep this most intimate of all spaces safe and tidy.



| HTML5 (web) | https://andersfranklin.net/games/Sticks%20And%20Stones/index.html |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/sticks-and-stones |
Ratings
| Overall | 516th | 3.452⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 1074th | 2.7⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 463th | 3.306⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 623th | 3.468⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 956th | 2.871⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 272th | 3.448⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 83th | 3.933⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 41🗳️ | 4🗨️ |
I was expecting a different ending, but hey! Nice job!
I like how you just walk around and mind your own business and then you can see in the middle how the word is slowly growing, at first you hardly notice it, but then it grows bigger, and you try to ignore it until finally you have to actively avoid it, until it eventually crashes...
Some ideas for added game play could be that the player would heal broken hearts in phase two if you walk over them, but then the enemies would go more aggressive. With some enemy types that for example would charge in a static angle towards the player, would bounce on walls or split into smaller words when then collide with other phrases. But the game expresses its theme well as it is right now. Great job!
This is the great example how you can tell a story with a very few instruments
That's a really good idea! We still want there to be an air of inevitability in the game, but collecting the hearts to decrease the size of the text could actually strengthen that feeling if balanced correctly. Thanks!
this game is so beautiful! thank you for sharing it with us
Would have been more powerful if you didn't give the whole away with the warning and disguised it more as a game. So maybe stretch the beginning bit more, introduce the text elements as just UI elements that would maybe help to get to know the character a bit (which would also help the player care more about the coming story development) more and would lull the player into a false sense of security. That way the first red text wouldn't be as new and weird and obviously something bad.
The look was pretty great. Nice cute graphics with a quite dark story, I like the contrast. One thing I wasn't a huge fan was the first big text font. The later texts seemed to be a more pixelated font which suited the other graphics better. The music was sweet and the few sound effects were ok. I guess it could have used a bit more of them and maybe some ambience so it wouldn't be completely silent at points.
It would also be cool if the beginning and middle "stages" could be winnable. Obviously they should be hard to do so the main story would still be the main story. So something like you have to outlast the big text until it hits the wall and to do that you'd have to bob and weave between the letters (which I tried to do on my first run, but I guess the text hitbox is just a rectangle and there is pretty much just a time limit there too). And the middle stage could be pretty much the same as it is in the last one but with those things following you making it harder.
Anyways, good job! It's good to see someone try deliver a message in a jam game...
I felt some imersion and really like this game.
Glad you do it!
Congrats!