Good game!

Interactive Novels aren't really my stig, but it was a "fun" journey nevertheless. Managed to die to an avalanche, well, who would have thought, that a snowy mountain was dangerous to climb :D
Background music would have been great to assist the windy mood

:star:

Sorry but not my type of Game

Oh my, froze to death. I must admit I'm not in the right mindset to rate this. I've been thinking about gameplay/art etc... It's hard to switch to literary criticism :P Game Jams are tough like that. I've made some text heavy games in the past and they didn't go over very well. But as a writer I have to imagine this is a really good exercise so I hope you got what you wanted personally out of the experience of making this.

Hello.
Your certificate to dollarone.games expired yesterday.

I wouldn't say that it's "my type" of a game, but it clearly got my attention. I like the layout of the page and its look, despite its simplicity. A bit of background music would surely make the game more engaging and would help to set the right mood.
As for your writing, I really liked it, apart from some single moments - for example the word "obviously" triggered me a little for some reason. I think naming each of the Three Sisters would really help the immersion, instead of referring to them as "North Sister", "West Sister".
-**spoilers**-
I ended up freezing on the eastern peak, after getting excited about the city. Next time I got killed by the bear. Then died under an avalanche. Then found the frozen man and died beneath the north mountain. Then went to the man again and got eaten by wolves. Went to the man again, then frozen to death. Then tried climbing the east mountain again, didn't freeze this time, and found the ending!
So that makes me wonder what the man's note actually means.
-**end of spoilers**-
Most of the game seems to be just "where do you go next?", but the good design of the map and environment makes it very pleasant. I really didn't think I'll get so much sucked into the game. I'm happy I didn't give up after the first try. That's an amazing game you made.
And just a side note: your website seems to be insecure. In fact I shouldn't even have opened the link. I know having the site certified may be hard, but you should definitely think about it, or have your games hosted somewhere else.

For a non-native English speaker it's a bit tiring but I think you've done a great job. Simplicity is an asset but, as someone already said, to make the game more engaging you could integrate a bit of graphics and sound without distorting your game idea.

thanks for the feedback, folks! The SSL cert has been renewed. I agree that background music would have been nice, but it would need to be good enough not to become annoying :)

Nice! Narrative games are few and far between in JAMs like this, partly because playing those games is more time consuming, but also probably because creating this sort of branching narrative within such a short window of time can be quite tough. Game writing takes AGES. So well done! The inclusion of a map was also a nice touch, though I still got lost half the time anyway. :laughing:

I did feel like constantly having the the "sisters" framed with quote marks was unnecessary, as it's very clear what you're referencing each time, but overall everything was nicely written. Personally would have preferred more of a human element with the nameless followers (but again, those time constraints). The inclusion of followers/supplies was a nice aspect in general, though ideally it would be nice for more of the text choices to have outcomes that could influence the supplies. But as it stands it's a nice built in time management tool at the moment.

I felt like I explored all the available options, so I'm curious - was there anything that didn't end with your certain demise?

Also if you're looking for background music https://incompetech.filmmusic.io has a lot of really excellent free music of the non-annoying variety (you just need to credit the creator in your game). Though honestly just a free low-key sfx of a cold wind blowing would have done wonders for the mood.

Rating has slowed to a crawl by now, but if you want to garner some more views before the deadline then you should really try and rate/leave feedback on some other peoples games, or the sorting system won't prioritise you. Give and ye shall receive, such is the LDJAM way. Good luck!

It is very good but I wish you had put some animations or graphics of what happens, good job!

**Big heckin spoilers alert!**

Wow this is weird, I took one look at the map and knew to go to the west sister, because it had the only dead end on the entire map. I got there in six moves, and didn't encounter a single roadblock. It was an uneventful climb up the mountain to victory... Which is crazy cos it sounds like everyone else struggled. I'd better give the game another try and see these obstacles people are talking about.

So I'm back, and I've tried a few more paths (though not all of them, there's a lot there!) and wow was I lucky. But at the same time, the path I took felt very natural, the game mentioned bandits and stuff, so I thought it'd be best to stay hidden in the forest at every opportunity. Then when I reached the river, I followed it north and up the west mountain. The west mountain just seemed suspicious, being the only spot with a dead end, there'd surely be something interesting or useful there.

Now that I've seen some other paths though, I'd suggest giving the player some more agency. A lot of paths seem to just be death, like I went up the north sister and just... died. My dudes went to sleep and didn't wake up, but I didn't have any choice in that, and it felt cheap. The bear seemed cool in practice, but in reality there isn't any way to exit unscathed, when I picked that path I was just doomed to lose. Maybe you could've provided a conundrum; "There's a bear ahead but it's blocking the only path forwards, should we continue?" That way when I get mauled to death it's my fault. There should probably also be some extra steps to winning the game, like I found an old knife and there was the letter four carved on a tree. Perhaps make it so you can't just stumble on the victory, and instead you have to use some item or solve some code to win, to reduce the chance of winning first time? Although reading other comments, it sounds like there's multiple endings, which is pretty neat.

Regardless of all of that, I really liked the game! I love exploring nature, and am pretty good with maps. This reminds me of a hiking spot that I've been to a few times, with all these weird paths climbing up and around a set of mountains. I love adventure, and this sold that feeling, I liked how detailed the map was, you could always know where you were and what was ahead (other than the b.s. deaths). The writing was great and really set the scene, I was consistently curious what was around the next bend, which was an awesome feeling. I really appreciate the hard to reach areas like the lumber mill, that was a really cool discovery when I found it. Overall it was an awesome game, I love the sense of adventure! :heart: :heart: :heart:

EDIT: Oh wow, I kept playing and it turns out the win location is randomised! That's super cool! Although at the same time I could also imagine that being really hard to overcome. If I went to a particular spot and it was wrong, then I'm not going back to that spot, but because of the random goal, that spot *could* be the answer on a later run. I think there needs to be some extra design here for that mechanic to work perfectly, otherwise people may visit everywhere and never find victory.

Nice game! The writing style is great, and I like the different locations. Awesome story!

Hey, thanks for posting the game to my stream!

Interesting story, a really nice drawn map, and simple but effective controls for an interactive novel. Good job!

I haven't finished playing the game yet, but I find the intro of the game pretty interesting. Just to let you know I will replay it after this Jam. I'm having exams at class so :( not much time

Nice game! I like these kinds of text-adventures, the map tied in really well. Here's my playthrough of it: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/617130199

its cool:)

It was actually pretty interesting, I don't quite like those kinds of games but you kept me going. I died, well, but it was a surprise that actually made sense, I felt kind sad for the group, frozen to death... Interesting. I would love to see this with some sords of visuals and ambient sounds, it would make it more immersive. Good job, after all I like it.

Pretty fun entry!
At first, I almost didn't play it simply because I didn't feel like reading, but I buckled down and went for it.
The story overall is decent, there are a few typos here and there.

Overall, it feels mostly like a maze in novel form. Might have been nice with some puzzles or some decisions that weren't random guesses on what was the best option. I did find the hint at the lonely tree, which was a nice touch.
Food rations didn't seem to ever come into play for me, and instead I died (or finished) long before running out of food each time. I suppose running out of food is more just one of the endings rather than a resource to manage.

Neat game! It was difficult for me to dig into some reading but I think its really well done, and even more with twinery (using variable, having a map and all is cool)

This game has some potential. I liked the writing, especially the world-building of it. I also liked the inclusion of a map. It helped when making decisions. That being said, I wish there was more decision making instead of just "pick a direction." The map holds the best potential for this. Including interesting landmarks on the map, like the cave, or adding something like a hut in the forest would have better given me a goal to shoot for. (The opposite could also be said if there were hints of dangers alongside goals on the map like the bear so there's a risk-reward choice that the player has to make)

There also seems to be a resource management element since it counts your people and rations, but I didn't see any opportunities to use them or gain more. You could incorporate these into the decision making by making each choice present what resources are needed (like when you go into the cave, you send a guy, it would have been better if I knew that I would end up sending one guy, or have the choice to send someone or go myself).

The mood was setup well enough, but it maybe could have used some simple background music to really set the mood.

I went back to play it but I would like to add some animation.

Nice to see text based games. Ive always wanted to make one. Id maybe make the writing a bit snappier, since its a gamejam game. But otherwise thats fine. Maybe some visible food penalty on the choices you make too, depending on the distance and difficulty of travel. The danger value is fine to hide though, makes sense. Good work tho, and thanks for playing and rating my game, see you next jam!