Spooble: A Search Engine Story by allthebees

[raw]
made by allthebees for Ludum Dare 46 (JAM)

spooble cover image.png

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Made in around 8 hours on a nice sunny Saturday :)

This is a short (~1 minute) piece of interactive fiction.

Hope you enjoy, leave a comment if you have any thoughts.

If you're unsure what to do, just have to type your answers ;)

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Ratings

Overall 1135th 3.535⭐ 116🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1029th 3.416⭐ 115🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 261th 3.852⭐ 117🧑‍⚖️
Theme 2145th 3.08⭐ 115🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1703th 3.255⭐ 110🧑‍⚖️
Audio 1417th 2.728⭐ 103🧑‍⚖️
Humor 68th 4.184⭐ 116🧑‍⚖️
Mood 953th 3.528⭐ 111🧑‍⚖️
Given 12🗳️ 11🗨️

Feedback

Arcus
18. Apr 2020 · 19:45 UTC
This is great! I love the hilarious story. I think a little [?] box at the top that tells you to type on the keyboard may make you realise that you don't actualy have to type the story out.
This fits with the theme suprisingly well, with an amazing 'demonic baby' twist. 5/5!
Slothtimistic
19. Apr 2020 · 02:33 UTC
Really cute, actually had me feeling a bit spooked!
CharlieGray
19. Apr 2020 · 14:21 UTC
Very funny. Had me surprised and laughing at several search queries. And the name of the search engine alone is great!
axeltherabbit
19. Apr 2020 · 15:05 UTC
really original
C. Ryder
19. Apr 2020 · 15:56 UTC
Had feeling a bit scared there lmao
The searches were funny and I enjoyed every part of it
19. Apr 2020 · 18:49 UTC
very funny
SirTyler
20. Apr 2020 · 05:56 UTC
Was really confused at first because I started typing with "how do" so didn't quite get the game for the first couple seconds. Fun little game! Would be nice if a little bit of text saying to type in order to play would show and fade out once you start, or just have it type by itself after a few seconds if the player doesn't do anything.

Overall I think its a nice short little story and would love to see it (and its interactivity) expanded upon, maybe even include fake IM messages, webcam, or image searches?
Prackli
20. Apr 2020 · 11:32 UTC
It gave me a good laugh
Sarrixx
20. Apr 2020 · 16:40 UTC
Hahahaha duuude this is so good! Kudos on creating a hilarious little experience!
fakefrogsonly
20. Apr 2020 · 20:02 UTC
Great narrative with a well thought-out and polished presentation. The only thing that could have made this better is some typing sounds when entering stuff into the search engine. Keep up the good work! :D
Lars-Erik
20. Apr 2020 · 20:03 UTC
LOL. Got a few flashbacks there. 😆
Would wish for some way to play without bashing asdf. No really good suggestions, tho. GJ!
SSStormy
20. Apr 2020 · 20:46 UTC
Unsure if I got the intended idea, but it reminded me of how dependant on search engines we are nowadays. That and how much information we divulge to them about our lives.

Great game!

My only gripe would be the interaction method. Typing random letters in wasn't very fun or interesting :(
MickGerritsen
20. Apr 2020 · 22:49 UTC
Really cool entry. Nice concept. I laughed and got confused at the beginning when I started typing
Sebby Webby
20. Apr 2020 · 23:03 UTC
Nice Game! good game for mashing your keyboard
Rednaxelus
20. Apr 2020 · 23:33 UTC
Too be honest it´s kind of annoying to need to mash your keys so much
cjgammon
21. Apr 2020 · 00:38 UTC
i feel like for erasing your search for the next one you shouldn't have to delete each character, it should just clear. this would save some key presses for the user, of which there are a lot. the concept is really neat and well executed. it ends rather abruptly. i feel like this could be an interesting part of something bigger. really clever.
daichifob
21. Apr 2020 · 01:10 UTC
A really smart take on a text adventure genre. The theme is perfectly fitting too. I wish I had the brains to come up with some innovative ideas like this!
tri11paragon
21. Apr 2020 · 02:27 UTC
such a smart take on the theme!
synoxgames
21. Apr 2020 · 04:03 UTC
Awesome game, a really interesting way to take the theme and really funny! Keep it up man, good game!
Witdarkstar
21. Apr 2020 · 04:24 UTC
haha the story took a few turn I wasn't expecting. It was funny. I do feel like the key could have come a little faster when mashing the keyboard.
Sid Fish Games
21. Apr 2020 · 06:08 UTC
Very innovative and original but constant typing got a bit repetitive after a while.
arzi
21. Apr 2020 · 09:16 UTC
At first I wasn't impressed but now I'm glad I played it through!
Andret0701
21. Apr 2020 · 12:20 UTC
The im felling lucky button... I LOVE IT! ^^
DuzzOnDrums
21. Apr 2020 · 12:28 UTC
Brilliant and hilarious. As a parent I can relate, those unexpected extra knees can be really concerning!
AlexVoxel
21. Apr 2020 · 12:43 UTC
Awesome idea and cool story!
Generic Games
21. Apr 2020 · 13:24 UTC
Hahaha this is so great! Awesome take on the theme, made me laugh when I started typing. If each keypress would type/delete a few letters in a row, that could save on the key mashing - but to be fair, the frantic typing makes it more comic :)
Bonyok77
21. Apr 2020 · 14:15 UTC
Haha this game is super hilarious!
Motley
21. Apr 2020 · 15:08 UTC
Nice concept.

I would add a possibility to hold a button to write, as soon as I realized it is not writing what I type I just started clicking one button, which got frustrating.

Does the "I feel lucky" button do anything except for pop? I do feel lucky today so wanna know :)
🎤 allthebees
21. Apr 2020 · 15:36 UTC
@motley

Yeah I definitely should've sped up the typing, seems to be a common complaint

We added an I feel lucky button before figuring out what it was going to do, so unfortunately it only dispenses confetti for now :P
BoltKey
21. Apr 2020 · 17:24 UTC
I have one single question I would like to ask:

"what?"

Anyway, I liked it.
Game-mon
21. Apr 2020 · 17:33 UTC
What did I just play, haha :joy: Liked the idea, interesting how you used the theme. Liked the "I'm feeling lucky" button (would have loved to see even more easter eggs--or maybe I just haven't found them?). Overall nice entry! :)
yyam
21. Apr 2020 · 18:37 UTC
So clever, had me properly laughing multiple times
niceden
21. Apr 2020 · 20:33 UTC
Great game ! Very clever, congrats :)
CPTN-B
21. Apr 2020 · 20:53 UTC
I thought I had a creative twist on the theme XD this is awesome XD
Euler Moises
22. Apr 2020 · 03:53 UTC
I didn't understand much. I just understood that this family has a troubled baby.
saucygames
22. Apr 2020 · 06:58 UTC
had a good ole grin on my face
TheKingBarry
22. Apr 2020 · 13:15 UTC
for an 8hour game, not bad at all ! I felt that the story should have been more coherent but it already gives a sense of something freaky happening
Llewellyn and Michael
22. Apr 2020 · 13:33 UTC
Entertaining and funny, didn't really see a narrative, that would have been cool
unept
22. Apr 2020 · 14:14 UTC
This was soooooooo good.​ I snorted twice while playing it.
YorisFresh
22. Apr 2020 · 16:42 UTC
I loved the story and the way of telling it, would be interesting to play a longer version with more choices
Fat cat
22. Apr 2020 · 16:42 UTC
Funny and entertaining game! It was short yet it was able to build suspense well :)
JulienLussiez
23. Apr 2020 · 14:41 UTC
It's funny and original !
23. Apr 2020 · 16:52 UTC
Great way to tell a story! The game took for me longer than ~1 minute. I actually thought that somehow you got it linked up with Google, but when I tried typing in something it had a question about babies. Gave me a laugh. Good job, and keep it up!
syudzius
23. Apr 2020 · 17:19 UTC
Nice interactive story! Great idea, I had a good laugh :D Keeping babies alive sure is hard work!
I also loved the 'lucky' button. Windows XP music is also a nice touch :D
QYOUK
24. Apr 2020 · 21:06 UTC
Very smart game. Even with the simplicity of the interface, we go through different feeling during the gmae. Good job! Loved it <3
exilegl
24. Apr 2020 · 22:12 UTC
Cool concept. Would be nice to be able to hold down a key rather than needing to continuously tap, or at least a way to backspace the finished search query quicker.
G.A.GameStudio
25. Apr 2020 · 02:48 UTC
Good game, but typing needs to be faster and I don't really see how it fits into the theme. Overall it was good though and I enjoyed it.
BenG
25. Apr 2020 · 17:30 UTC
This made us laugh! Good work.
Oakwarrior
25. Apr 2020 · 19:31 UTC
Interesting take on google and.. well.. text based adventures aren't dead!
jaybaus
26. Apr 2020 · 13:37 UTC
A really interesting way to tell a story, it was very captivating. I played through a second time and hoped making different decisions would affect the outcome, the concept is already solid though so that would have just been the cherry on top for me :) Good job!

EDIT: Just noticed you made this in 8 hours which is really impressive
Drums
26. Apr 2020 · 18:48 UTC
Hilarious and fun to type! Can you please make Spooble a full search engine? I'd use it every day to solve my weird problems.
Thermacon
28. Apr 2020 · 02:06 UTC
This is absolutely hilarious. I loved all the random things that would come up. Great work!
Jupiter_Hadley
29. Apr 2020 · 14:32 UTC
Funny toy! I included it in my Ludum Dare 46 compilation video series, if you want to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/fsg5gDaiyQc