Dream Avatar by ynneblack
A surreal dream sim with a hidden objective! :star2:
Select your traits before you enter a dream and watch things change. It is entirely up to you whether you actively search for three hidden scenarios, or casually explore the options presented to you!
Playing the game
- It has the form of interactive visual novel.
- You only need a mouse.
- If you can, play it with sound! It is meant to be part of the experience. :)
- "Skip" button speeds through the dialogue you already saw. "Back" allows you to choose differently or replay dialogue.
- Watch out for clues (there are 3 and there is a pop-up when you find them).
- You can see what you unlocked in Extra screen.
- If you run out of patience but want to see most of the content anyways, here is a guide for all unlockable extras. I only recommend it if you cannot reach them on your own, or if searching for them gets frustrating! (There is an ending/a goal. At minimum, it'd probably take 2-3 avatars to get there.)
- You cannot access all options (and hidden scenarios) through only one playthrough. Options will be un/locked and scenarios will change based on your avatar's characteristics, which is why you are encouraged to make a few!
Web version
At the moment it seems to be very slow to load and the music kind of comes and goes. You can let it load and see if it will run smoothly for you, but if it doesn't, please, use the download links instead! Another option: make the text as fast as possible (in settings). It might make it a little smoother!
Behind the scenes
- Time: 2–2.5 days
- Tools: Ren'Py, Notepad++, Photoshop
- Wordcount: around 2.500w (without code) / 3.200w (with code)
- Credits for music and photos are on the itch.io page.
- Changelog is here.
Me and my better half brainstormed, planned and wrote the game together. Then I coded it (and learnt a whole lot about variables, conditions and loops), edited the photos, created GUI elements, combined the music and sounds and inserted & timed all assets.
It is my second game (I'm a newbie not only to LD, but also to game dev and coding in general) and I am be very interested in feedback! ♥ One feature I regret not having time for is adding sprites for NPCs; but if people would want those, I could add them in extended version. I wanted to focus on making the dream avatar maker work & on the complex variables/conditions system, so art assets had to be sacrificed.
| Youtube | http://ynne.itch.io/dream-avatar |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/dream-avatar |
Ratings
| Overall | 638th | 3.38⭐ | 48🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 735th | 3.056⭐ | 47🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 634th | 3.089⭐ | 47🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 717th | 3.13⭐ | 48🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 640th | 3.389⭐ | 47🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 294th | 3.25⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 153th | 3.891⭐ | 48🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 40🗳️ | 47🗨️ |
Things I loved:
- The peaceful, dreamlike music
- Crisp and intentional visual style
- The unlockables and the impact of your avatar on your choices
- Seeing how many things were left to unlock in the Extras menu
Things that might be improved:
- Story felt a little bit random. It wasn't entirely clear what the point of the story is.
- Story is a bit short.
Very nice, and well polished experience for a jam game!
@brokenmirrormedia Thank you for giving it a try & leaving feedback! ♥ It sounds like you didn't unlock the first "extra" option (or didn't get all 3 clues to be able to get the cat scene), but besides that, there are only the bus stop and inside bus interactions. :) So you probably got to a big part of the content, or at least some variant of it! All interactions/scenes have 2+ (or 5+, sometimes) versions so there are only a few of them.
@ninjacatz Your message matches your name! Thanks so much for the positive feedback. :)
@ladypossum My favorite review so far. I'm really glad you got to that part! ♥
@kurrik Thank you for bringing that bug to my atention! I think I know why the new background didn't show up (not sure why the old one didn't hide, though), it's a shame because it's actually animated, but I guess I'll have to sacrifice it for the web version (~~not like anyone downloads it, anyways~~) to work properly. And thank you for the rest of your feedback, too! The last extra is just one specific trait+attribute combination that adds one new scene. :)
can you post a spoiler to help my dumb ass find the other extras?
i am now also getting the bug kurrik mentioned, but it honestly adds to the surrealism and i liked it.
I'll be uploading a new version without the bug in just a few minutes, but as for the extras: you aren't dumb at all, they are just really specific!
**Vague spoilers**: for 1st one, you need to have seen all 3 clues (one happens at the bus stop, one when entering the bus, one in the bus) and select the traits that were hinted at. What do they say about the driver? Combine that with newly unlocked "Fastidious". To see if you got it right, enter the dream; the very first sentence will be different!
For 2nd one, it's a person that loves coffee, they have to talk to the stranger at the bus stop, and their alternative scene happens after they sit down in the bus. Specific trait combination is necessary.
Alternatively, here's a [detailed guide](https://justpaste.it/7rozx)!
@kevin-mooney Could you tell me more about the bug, please? Was it the web version? And could you have clicked on "skip" or "auto" or are you sure it happened on its own? Thank you for playing it and leaving a feedback, though!!
I wish I could have seen a list of the "clues" I had unlocked. If such a list did exist, I wasn't able to find it. :( Still I love the personality of this one, nice job!
Some quality of life features would be nice, like having a list of clues available, but it doesn't detract from the game as it's quite short.
@annie-owl Thanks so much for coming back to become a cat! I really appreciate you taking the time & I'm glad you had fun c:
@coleslaughter & @hajden Thank you both! The clue list is a great idea, it doesn't exist at the moment but it would make a lot of sense!
@daniiln @nurkkacthulhu @kr0s @ohsqueezy Thank you for playing the game & leaving a comment!
I like how you "hacked" the visual novel mechanisms by setting up the game as a dream!
Funness was achieved :smile_cat: Nice work!
Now excuse me, I have to get some coffee :coffee: :coffee: :coffee:
Overall, well done (:
@smbe19 Thank you for playing it even though it was confusing for you! I'm used to choice-based games so I didn't count on this being confusing to others, sorry. But yes, it's intentional! The point is that you make your choice as you create your avatar, and it unlocks/locks some options (therefore needing more playthroughs to see all content). If you are, for example, outgoing (all characteristics are taken to an extreme), and you want to ask a stranger something, you have to ask them. Without the options greyed out, you wouldn't really know what changed. So next time around, you can clearly see that you unlocked a new option!
I think the hints in the game were good but perhaps too subtle, maybe if there was some text that talked about how you feel can change a person, or since it's a dream perhaps you could change who you are, etc, to nudge/push a person to see the hints a bit more obviously. I liked how some options were disabled because you selected a certain trait, though it could be explained with more narrative where even if you do select it, you back out because the trait doesn't let you (though that might make it harder to figure out which options you haven't tried yet).
I think you scoped well with the art, though in future projects certain imagery could be fun to see (like a cat driving a bus). Keep up the good work!
I'll admit I could not figure out the true ending because I thought I had tried every combo, but once I came back to the comments section I saw the walkthrough and was able to complete it. Great twist and it made everything else make sense afterwards. Excellent execution and bold to have confidence in your writing ability like that. I actually had some dialogue in my game for an iteration but I didn't think I could pull off good dialogue in time. I now have a bigger appreciation for LD games like yours.
@heyycap Thank you! We didn't have time to write any more content, this was already *really* pushing it, but I agree more story to explore would be great!
@aeveis Thanks so much for the detailed feedback! I admit the work option might have felt a bit random/too hidden, but it wasn't crucial to progress so we were hoping that's not an issue, it's more like a fun (hopefully!!) bonus. Still, I'm trying to think of some way to hint at it, for an updated version. :0 And I like all of your ideas for better clues, it would be better if people could figure it all out in-game and not by reading the game description. Thanks again, feedback like this is extremely helpful!
@peachtreeoath First of all, thank you for writing such thoughtful feedback, but also, for appreciating the writing aspect! I know it ends up relatively short to "read" but oh, it almost took more time than all art assets and coding combined, so it's really nice that someone can appreciate the effort that goes into it. ♥ And thank you for sharing your experience, there seems to be an issue with the true ending being too hidden/unclear in-game, when I'm revisiting it, it's definitely something I'll try to improve/hint at better. Thanks again!