LudumData

Bebop's Breakout! by don.shinski

[raw]
made by don.shinski for LD 41 (JAM)

Game Description

Bebop the cat loves jazz and hates pop, too bad his owner took him to world-famous music festival, Floatchella! Help Bebop escape using your thumbs in this point-and-click text adventure!

In this first version, you'll only have to solve one puzzle to win, but the idea is to ultimately build out a grand adventure. https://donshinski.itch.io/bebops-breakout

The Idea

This was an experiment in exploring how narrative storytelling and game design structures can be impacted by conflicting themes. We are particularly interested in a user's experience on the other side of the screen- both as a player and from the entertainment standpoint.

Incompatible Genres

  • pop / jazz
  • point-and-click adventure / text adventure
  • cats / music festivals, obviously.

To start, we decided to run full-throttle with the theme - and using it to add an element of the game that would not only be completely non-sensical, but also challenge the user's patience. A point-and-click text adventure introduced an interesting problem - how do we get players to stay engaged when presented with absurd gameplay?

Enter: worlds cutest cat.

bebop.png

The Gameplay

A screenshot from the first playable scene shows the terminal and keyboard.

screenshot1.jpeg

The Art and the Narrative

Bebop and the art is part of the allure of the game - it not only helps to reinforce the scene, but doubly increases the absurdity.

Team

@soylalluvia - Game Design, Story, Art, Sound, Unity @alexis-vana - Art @don-shinski - Coding, Unity, Sound

Music

Not made by us, but go check it out!

Track: I dunno Source: ccMixter Author: Grapes

Track: Wall Source: ccMixter Author: Jahzzar

Track: Siesta Source: ccMixter Author: Jahzzar

HTML5 (web) https://donshinski.itch.io/bebops-breakout
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/bebops-breakout

Ratings

Overall 966th 3.031⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1086th 2.609⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 793th 3.113⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Theme 800th 3.297⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 825th 3.065⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Humor 253th 3.516⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Mood 676th 3.183⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Given 22🗳️ 31🗨️

Feedback

dlowe
24. Apr 2018 · 07:25 UTC
I love the absurdity of playing a text game through a point&click interface (and with voice acting! Ha!) Nice :)

I got stuck really quickly, unfortunately, so I don't know how many more silly/absurd jokes I missed.

Thanks for the game!
marioman68
24. Apr 2018 · 19:00 UTC
The talking was really funny and looks to be pretty fun. i am just really bad at these types of games so didn't get to far. Good job on what i did see.
Maytch
24. Apr 2018 · 19:06 UTC
Not sure if it was just me but I couldn't get the keyboard to work.
Scrumplesplunge
24. Apr 2018 · 19:16 UTC
I think I must be missing something since I couldn't figure out how to leave the first room. I managed to pick up some pills but didn't seem to be able to do anything with them. Anyway, neat idea, although I'd love a backspace button since I can't type at all with the mouse :P
soylalluvia
24. Apr 2018 · 20:27 UTC
@dlowe Thanks for the feedback and glad you appreciate the absurdity! It definitely has some tricks to it to increase the difficulty.
soylalluvia
24. Apr 2018 · 20:30 UTC
@Scrumplesplunge Thank you for playing! I can say, as a hint, the trick to the room is in the list if you tap out help, but might not be clear from first glance. We definitely wanted to add a layer of complexity. The backspace button is something we took out on purpose for absurdity, but totally appreciate the feedback. If built out further out we'll definitely want to add it back in - it'd be tiring to keep up over time.
soylalluvia
24. Apr 2018 · 20:31 UTC
@marioman68 Thank you for checking it out! It's definitely a polarizing game type but glad to hear it was fun and enjoyable to listen to as well.
soylalluvia
24. Apr 2018 · 20:33 UTC
@Maytch Thanks for letting us know - it's the first we'd heard of it but seems to be working elsewhere. We'll dig in either way. Thanks!
Gonz0
24. Apr 2018 · 23:45 UTC
Haha I'd say the voice acting was fun, nice job. tis a shame the keyboard won't input. tricky enough.

if you'd care to try mine https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/spacescape
Mau
24. Apr 2018 · 23:59 UTC
Wasn't easier to place buttons with the commands instead of a keyboard?
soylalluvia
25. Apr 2018 · 00:07 UTC
@Gonz0 Interesting - it seems to be working for most - we'll dig in a bit more on that- appreciate it! Make sure to give it a good click to get the keyboard working. Thanks!
TheCrittersCove
25. Apr 2018 · 00:11 UTC
The audio was fun, but I couldn't get far with the gameplay. Having to click the keys and being unable to backspace is really cumbersome. Like other people, I got stuck in the first room. I tried every interaction I was aware of by the pills and the girl. I grabbed the pills, she dropped her drink and that was it. It's an interesting idea, but still needs some work.
soylalluvia
25. Apr 2018 · 00:17 UTC
@Mau Ah, that would defeat the purpose of the game - the point was to be more absurdist! From a future game/evolution perspective though, it would be a possibility!

Thanks!
Gonz0
25. Apr 2018 · 00:37 UTC
@soylalluvia Sorry I meant physical keyboard but that's the whole point of it I guess, sorry I have no love for touch screen keys at all but that's just me.
folex70
25. Apr 2018 · 01:28 UTC
very funny game! congrats
soylalluvia
25. Apr 2018 · 17:59 UTC
@TheCrittersCove The next puzzle is tricky, 100%, and the difficulty in clicking is something we specifically implemented to push the absurdist theme. Thanks for giving it a shot!
soylalluvia
25. Apr 2018 · 18:02 UTC
@Gonz0 Ah, yeah absolutely - if the theme hadn't pushed us to bring two completely incompatible ideas together I would fully agree - then just a a point/click or keyboard would be ideal from a playability standpoint ha.
soylalluvia
25. Apr 2018 · 18:02 UTC
@folex70 Thanks for playing! Glad it gave you some laughs!
candlesan
29. Apr 2018 · 06:23 UTC
Really great art. Liked the voicing. The setting is great too. The cat is unbelievably cute.
The mechanic of having to type out with the mouse made it really hard to play. Would have liked to be able to point and click to move around or to use the keyboard to type.
Reddogstone
29. Apr 2018 · 07:39 UTC
Obviously, pretty hard to play like this. But everything else is amazing. Especially: that VOICE xD
Juutis
29. Apr 2018 · 10:24 UTC
Wow, that was awkward. I had to actually check the solution for the final puzzle from the source code. What a wonderfully incompatible set of genres you got there. :D I really hated it (in a good way). Nice work!
acotis
29. Apr 2018 · 10:54 UTC
I played it on desktop and would have like to use my normal keyboard instead of the onscreen one -- in fact, I ended up getting impatient with typing in commands with my trackpad mouse and gave up in the first room. But I've always been terrible at escape-the-room games, so that probably says more about me than it does about your game.

The audio was pretty good, I especially like the sound effect of floating around! I might also suggest adding a small "clicking" sound when a key is pressed (as a form of feedback for the player) and maybe a baskspace key as well :P Very neat idea!
pogo
29. Apr 2018 · 15:16 UTC
Love the cats voice, but the entire game is an exercise in frustration. I ended up checking the source code to find out that you need to type "interact [object]" and "look [object]", which isn't listed in the help text
soylalluvia
30. Apr 2018 · 18:34 UTC
@candlesan Thank you for playing - so glad you had fun with it. We were hoping the cat and the art kept the players in through the absurd gameplay of a point and click keyboard. 100% would like to make it either text or keyboard for playability post LD41.
soylalluvia
30. Apr 2018 · 18:35 UTC
@Reddogstone Haha it is a hilariously absurd concept - glad the voice made it worth it!
soylalluvia
30. Apr 2018 · 18:37 UTC
@Juutis Thanks for playing though our hilariously awkward game! Definitely appreciate you sticking through it!
soylalluvia
30. Apr 2018 · 18:39 UTC
@acotis Thank you for the feedback - a clicking sound would be a good addition, great idea! Maybe it would make the feeling of moving around and clicking on a keyboard 1% less frustrating. The backspace key we removed for frustration points, but 100% will add back in post LD41 :D

And thank you for liking the float sound!
soylalluvia
30. Apr 2018 · 18:43 UTC
@pogo I love that "an exercise in frustration" - we designed it with that in mind but I didn't have a name for it. The hope was if something was truly incompatible, it should be just completely ridiculous. You can imagine what testing it was like, ha.

It's super subtle but the [modifier] in the text was the clue, but totally understand if it's not clear. We mildly considered adding a voice clue to help but ran out of time. Thanks for playing (and putting up with it :D).
🎤 don.shinski
01. May 2018 · 01:06 UTC
you’re all so great! really love the comments @pogo @juutis glad you had enough patience to find the answer in the source, haha ... I apologize for making it so aggravating! sorry, not sorry. @candlesan @reddogstone @acotis Thanks so much for playing and all the great feedback
Rolle
03. May 2018 · 20:52 UTC
Oh, finally, a classic point&click text adventure! Wait, wat!?
Yepp, this was a nerve wrecking, but somehow I had difficulty giving up. Hey, it's a cat with Scottish (?) accent. Difficult to give up. But I never want to play it again. Well, maybe just once more... :scream:
Ratherjolly
04. May 2018 · 02:55 UTC
"Ahh Bebop. You made me drop my Kombucha." Well done xD
Also, I will never take my keyboard for granted again. Ever.
PonchoGuy
14. May 2018 · 23:50 UTC
I played this on stream! Was great fun :yum:

Honestly loved the SFX - Top notch and the using the text adventure part was interesting :yum:

One thing I would add is a backspace for the ingame keyboard, I messed up spelling so much in the game and having to completely redo and clear it was a pain :sob:

Other than that, honestly has potential and I was pretty invested to carry on! Keep up the development! :smile:
🎤 don.shinski
21. May 2018 · 00:08 UTC
@PonchoGuy appreciate the great feedback. It was a lot of fun to watch your recorded stream while you played it, you were soooo close! Thanks for sharing your playthrough!