LudumData

Gecko's Cabinet by JustMars

[raw]
made by JustMars for Ludum Dare 45 (JAM)

A surreal experience depicting the life of Gecko, a troubled young man on a journey to pay his debts. What happens is determined by the choices you make.

The game features over a dozen different cutscenes/events, which are determined by your decisions. There are also multiple alternative endings, which should grant some replay value.

Inspired by genre defining titles such as Bandersnatch, Reigns and sakarin villapaitapeli.

You can try the WebGL on your mobile phone as well! It should work perfectly there :slight_smile:

(Just remember to enable desktop view on your browser)

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Made in under 20 hours since unlucky timings with a trip from Finland to Greece, and school. LD45 was a tough one, and you can probably see it by the game feeling sort of random and disconnected, since we didn't have the time to make more scenes and make the story actually connecting in all ways. Either way, hope you can enjoy it!

I (@raffe) had to buy a 9$ mouse here in Greece and do the graphics here on my laptop with the mouse, which was also kind of sloppy. Thank goodness I had @JustMars in Finland still active when he wasn't at school and he put in the time to make everything work :D

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  • Coding and animations: @JustMars

  • Graphics, art direction and SFX: @raffe

  • Music: @HappyTomato (https://soundcloud.com/itshrme)

Youtube https://justmars.itch.io/geckos-cabinet
Youtube https://justmars.itch.io/geckos-cabinet
Youtube https://justmars.itch.io/geckos-cabinet
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/geckos-cabinet

Ratings

Overall 577th 3.435⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Fun 680th 3.125⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 658th 3.063⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Theme 684th 3.161⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 617th 3.438⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Audio 502th 3.1⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Humor 629th 2.558⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Mood 247th 3.758⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Given 26🗳️ 29🗨️

Feedback

Studio RTV
07. Oct 2019 · 23:14 UTC
I liked the mysterious mood of the game between the art style and music! The fact that the game had multiple endings was pretty neat, but the story beats felt a little disconnected/random to me? It was still fun to play through multiple times to see what all the scenarios could be though!
07. Oct 2019 · 23:31 UTC
nice little choose your own adventure-- i can appreciate the little animations and stuff that you've got in here, especially given the unusually short timespan you said you had to work on this in your blog post
hwaet
08. Oct 2019 · 00:40 UTC
It's a cute design and fun to play through a couple of times to see where it goes. It would be great to have a quit button in the main menu.
Joseph Yannessa
08. Oct 2019 · 00:40 UTC
Loved Reigns, and definitely getting vibes like that. Everything feels very polished, and the character styles work well with the game. Would be nice to go through the choices a little faster since that's the main mechanic :)
Collin Thompson
08. Oct 2019 · 00:45 UTC
Great job! I like choose your own adventure type stuff and the graphics and mood of the game are cool too! Well made, especially considering the time frame you made it in, and with a $9 mouse LOL. Anyway, great job again!
Eryph
08. Oct 2019 · 10:51 UTC
That was one of our ideas, but we didn't knew how to make it interesting. you did it !
Just a little downside, i wish the texts lasts longer or i could choose when to discard them between cards.
themarioga
08. Oct 2019 · 11:01 UTC
The mood was really good, looks cute. Really balanced game, if texts last long it would be perfect. Great job!
palinalif
08. Oct 2019 · 14:35 UTC
I like the graphics style, and those cutscenes must have taken a while to do! The multiple endings are also cool!
Ninnec
08. Oct 2019 · 14:39 UTC
I really like the art work and the story style!
Hadi Danial
08. Oct 2019 · 14:43 UTC
I liked the different ways the story could go! Though that one option with the dog was... unexpected xD
JoelLikesPigs
08. Oct 2019 · 15:01 UTC
Interesting concept - I played through it a few times trying to see different endings, was the "good" ending paying your debts though? I felt because it said I was lucky that perhaps I missed an option but most of the others resulted in me dying of depression or selling my soul.

Still had fun playing with it though and considering the time you had to make it its very impressive. Well done! The music really nailed the atmosphere too, nice work.
Yohsk13
08. Oct 2019 · 15:02 UTC
Yay, a story game :)
I liked it, even if, as you said, it would really benefit from having more scenes :p. I do like the art, and the music fit the mood.
And yeah... that option for the dog ^^". I had to click on it after some tries just to see what would happen, but hum, the fact that choice was possible was indeed unecpected.
KP_CFTSZ
08. Oct 2019 · 15:25 UTC
Very nice. I'm curious what the reversed audio says tho :thinking:
RAFFE
08. Oct 2019 · 15:56 UTC
@kp-cftsz Might be my sister speaking a completely random Finnish sentence.. :thinking:
gamefive
08. Oct 2019 · 17:56 UTC
@raffe Is it about human nature?
RAFFE
08. Oct 2019 · 21:28 UTC
@gamefive Some of it can totally relate to human nature, and it was one of the main things behind the game. Except for eating a dog of course.
miu
08. Oct 2019 · 22:33 UTC
I like how different the choices are
Cybikitty
09. Oct 2019 · 14:48 UTC
This is a really great game - it's wonderful to see cutscenes and multiple endings in a jam game! Great job ^^
zanzavar
09. Oct 2019 · 16:55 UTC
I paid my debt and received freedom, hope that is a good ending? :D :D Very nice concept, simple mechanics and UI. I really like experiential games like this one, you don't often see them in game jams. Great use of the theme as well, a very nice entry overall :)
Lars-Erik
09. Oct 2019 · 21:41 UTC
Very nice atmosphere, and ambitious take on branching stories. Loved the ambient music. :)
I got rich, paid'em off and pissed off fairly quick, but might just return for another go.
Well done!
Rodrigo Denúbila
10. Oct 2019 · 11:47 UTC
Very interesting game and a nice take on the theme. Good job!
Demuss
17. Oct 2019 · 15:18 UTC
I loved the mood of this game! i have explored few paths and even it's super short story i loved it! my decisions had surprisingly more impact than i expected... good take on theme, music was nice, art and animation fit great with gameplay... overall nice entry!
sver
17. Oct 2019 · 16:56 UTC
The atmosphere is sooooooo good! Totally liked your game!
U-Tsang Clan
17. Oct 2019 · 18:27 UTC
The story felt more like a series of events than a real narrative. In my first couple play throughs I had thought I incurred the debts somehow and I was trying to figure out how. It took me a while to realize the character had the debts already when the game started. If you are continuing work on this I think it would be a nice idea to try and connect the events a little more.
selkkie
26. Oct 2019 · 21:36 UTC
Neat game! Although the moral eluded me, ahah. In one playthrough I was a greedy stickler which gives me a good end, but in another where I'm selfless I end up losing my soul.
The soul debt thing also sort of comes out of left field, I think an intro sequence showing how I got in this debt (and that I was even in debt at all) would lead me to make more informed decisions later on in the game.

I enjoyed the animations, they were nicely polished for a game made in such a short time frame, and the floating cards in the menu were also cool!
elysiagriffin
30. Oct 2019 · 02:22 UTC
Thanks for submitting your game for me to play on my livestream! I played it today in the last few hours of voting :)

If you’d like to rewatch the playthrough, you can find it here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/501424047?t=0h49m19s

Hope you got some valuable feedback on your game and looking forward to seeing you next LD jam if I dont catch you before then! :D

💜 Elysia Griffin AKA Button Feedback Lady

https://www.twitch.tv/elysiagriffin