Serum Run

Loved this! The different backgrounds for each event were great.

Wow, this is a really awesome text-based adventure, and the fact you were able to put in so many different scenarios was really awesome. A shame about the audio but the visuals changing throughout your adventure was awesome to see.

Solid! My party froze about 10 hours from the village but we did our best

I really loved the mood of this game.

Serum run was on my mind when thinking about the theme too, nice! This was well done; great choice of colors and great writing, which make this into quite an experience. Effects were great too! I think that I would like some house sprite when you arrive in the hideout, that would make this even better.

Very well done entry, I loved it and enjoyed it! Unfortunately, we died just a couple of hours away from the village. Arctic is indeed unforgiving!

I put on the recommended listening :) This is super cool. I love this kind of narrative game. Have you played Roadwarden? You should, it's a masterpiece. Also you could totally expand on this and release it. I'd buy it!

Such a beautiful little story you can be a part of. Not really a fan of visual novels, but this one got me engaged
so I kept playing. The mood and the writing was nice and enchanced the experience. Audio ofcourse would only helped this feeling. Managed to get to the end losing one member of the crue. Well done!)

Awesome game! I was very engaged by the visuals and the story.

What a great experience! When the aurora's were shown I was really hooked! Nothing much more to say other than that I loved it.

such a nice and polished game. I didn't make it, I have to let one die to a polar bear too... :D

this art is amazing! overall very fun, love this type of game

i wish the text was a bit bigger, and also for a non-native speaker many words are unfamiliar, i'd prefer not to google so very often what they mean...

Took me a second try to save the world! Only Gunnar was alive at the end, but that all the point of the game, about resource management. Cruel but that what's required to prevent an epidemic, isn't it?
I love the art (and the recommended listening), the tiny animations.
Good game!

I love these kind of games, that lets you choose your destiny. Very atmospheric, and the color palette is really fitting. Very well done! ^^

This, this game is really excellent! It obviously reminds me of Oregon Trail. I actually really like the tiny pixel artwork for your sled team. The weather effects were cool. I got really invested in my team and game. Sound would've been a good addition. Overall, a very good entry!

Gunnar, Bill and Jack perished, but well we are heroes. Neat little story. Failed on first attempt as I slept at every place xD Really cool. Imagine to make more such quests an be able to learn from your mistakes before doing that final mission would be cool. The recommended music doesnt totally fit, but it was nice anyway. Sweet game.

Died of dysentery. The music was a good recommendation and the mood was nice. Would like to see some graphics for the roadhouse, and the ground kept disheartening behind me, but the pixel art was pretty.

I lost twice. Think I spent too much time playing piano. Fuck that old guy and his cranky self. And thank you for reminding me of Baldo... Just what my Tuesday needed! :sob: But seriously, well done on this entry. A love letter to both a wonderful story, and a wonderful old game. I appreciate the love and care that went into this. Some music definitely is needed, if you pursue this past the jam. Thank you for the experience. :heart:

Love it, one of my favourite entries so far. Great take on the theme. Very nice writing and art. Really moody. From a gameplay standpoint, I think the only thing missing is a progress/distance indicator. I felt a bit cheated heading out to the final stretch of the road with 7 hours left, since every previous leg of the journey had been 6 hours.

Thanks for the Stan Rogers recommendation for background music! Perfect fit.

@pdotjpg You're right, without knowing how far you have to go it's impossible to make informed decisions about how much time you can afford to spend. Sorry about that. A map with distances marked on it was the first thing on my roadmap that had to be cut due to lack of time.

That being said, the last stretch is deliberately supposed to feel harder/more grueling.

My dogs are starving, i lost my bedroll and thousands perished, but atleast i still have my saucepan :)

Fun narrative adventure! Getting rid of all the statuses simultaneously with carefully-timed decision making is really satisfying.

got my coffee i grew up behind me and watched this amazing CHILL adventure

Loved the skylight graphics! And the storytelling, one of the

Minimalism works cool here, but it would be great to see time left somewhere on the screen.
And was missing an ability to increase font size :)

Well polished little game. The description of unforgiving artic nature is great and really adds to the mood. It would be better if there is some background music but it is already good enough.

The art style is simple but brilliant. It was touching to see the charming aurora while thousands at stake and my team was suffering.

Nice work!

Beautiful and chill game. I love the style and vibe that gives the game.

You must take some hard decision though. But as long as I have my saucepan, i'm happy :laughing:
Like others have said, having something that tell the time left would be amazing.

Anyway, the game is well polished and you are one of my favorite entries so far, well done :thumbsup:

Fun idea for a game like book where you are the hero. Great art ! Obviously a bit of audio would greatly improve the game. But so much work for the story already in so little time. Great job

Love Oregon Trail-ish game. Replayed two times, very comfy visuals. I wish this have a soundtrack for the mood.

Loved the art and execution of the theme, would have liked some background soundtrack for better mood/vibes

The real friends were the corpses we made along the way
(my entire party died but I saved the world, so that's good)

This is probably the first time I played a game like this. I couldn't reach the end before it's too late, but I really like the different things you can do.

There isn't any audio, but I think it works here a bit for the tone. But something I really don't get was the "Humor" rating. I mean, the story looks really serious.

That was fun. Great graphics. I would have liked some sound, but I understand it's a jam game. From my relatively short play time it seems quite balanced, meaning failing if you are too cautious. I really enjoyed playing.

Good stuff :8ball:

Very interesting concept, I love it! It's nice to see a somehow RPG-ish game at this jam and you nailed it! Minor issue: If played on full screen, the text is a bit small, but this is really not much of a problem.:) Well done!

A Compo Oregon Trail-like? You kidding me???? This was so sick. I had a blast with it given that my chat and I had already established some character lore for our go-to Oregon Trail party. I wish I had time for more playthroughs, I didn't play conservatively enough so my party didn't get the serum to Nome on time (and poor Jzeekle died in vain) Also, for a second there I thought there might have been a cosmic horror thing going on, which would have been sick and even though it didn't happen the fact that the thought got put into my head was really cool.

Edit: Twitch VOD: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1810045623?t=03h38m05s

Really enjoyed this game, feel it has a really good balance between risk/reward. My first playthrough I played pretty safe and was no where near making it in time. My second playthrough I had to push pretty hard but managed to make it on the last day with my crew in pretty bad shape but alive.

I spent more time playing than I thought I would, good game xD It's cool to make several attempts until you succeed, it was one of the best implementations of the theme I've seen. I really liked the scenery changing according to the events, but I found some items better than others. For example, I found the gun much superior to the sleeping bag, and there was a lack of sound for atmosphere. But aside from that, I thought it was a really good game. Congratulations! :D

Wow I'm not really into text based games that much, but I definitely had fun playing this. Would have loved it more if it had a little bit of audio. But nevertheless a really good entry.

I really enjoyed this game, despite the lack of sound to complement the atmosphere and bring the environment to life (I played the suggested song Northwest Passage but unfortunately I didn't feel like it matched the gameplay._.), it managed to keep me hooked until the end. The narrative is engaging and interesting! The art is simple and minimalist, but I liked the animations and changes in the scenery according to what was being narrated. Congratulations on the great work and amazing game! ╰(*´︶`*)╯♡

This really was an experience! Even though it was missing the audio it really got you into a feeling of survival. The low pixel graphics look spot on while I'm still glad that you chose the font to be higher res. Would love to see this extended into a full game :)

RIP Gunnar & Wild Bill

The gameplay definitely got me hooked. I liked the difficulty and replay value; failed the first time but made my party members suffer a little more on the second run (RIP) to succeed, & tried out different item combos. The dimensions didn't seem quite right to me in full-screen, but the graphics look great in windowed mode. Would love to see some music added to it post-ludum, and I can see myself coming back to it to try out a few different approaches.
Congratulations on a really solid entry!

Heya!

I really enjoyed how simple this game was. The writing was very evocative and the graphics though simple were also super effective at conveying the mood, even without music. I did feel a bit lost in the game, as the values and breakpoints were more or less obscured from the player, though that's typical of this genre. I also had a few curveball events that triggered and resolved to the detriment of the party before I was given an opportunity to do anything about it. If little moments like this were ironed out (though again, totally understand this is mostly RNG and sometimes things like that happen), I would have enjoyed it that much more.

I appreciated the status log and other little touches like the weather effects.
(p.s. leonhard died twice in my game, once to the bear and once from a broken leg later)

Thanks for sharing!

That was cool! I didn't know about Oregon Trail but played a few textual or hybrid text/visual adventures like that... even after several tries, I didn't make it eventually even when I thought I did, as I calculated things to have exactly 10h for the last trip and somewhat still missed the deadline... Do I need 11h after the last house? I shouldn't have played the piano!

I'm not sure how some items like the lamp are useful. For the saucepan you can often cook anyway, but I suppose it unlocks cooking in some non-equipped places like the bedroll for sleeping? After some tries I always took the bedroll, and shotgun as dually useful vs wolves and to unlock the extra house... Throwing stuff at wolves works but it auto-chooses your first item, which is my case was the bedroll!! I suppose the trick is to pick the saucepan first... But then again, shotgun is better as not consumed.

In the end I just stopped looking at the cairns, and even speaking to people... Maybe you can get good items if you're lucky (and on the Miser's way it's not even based on luck) but I generally got a lamp, so again not sure what it was for (ah, it just occurred to me it may slow down cold between houses?)

Maybe trying a last run now. I shouldn't spend so much time on one jam game. But one of our team's ideas was sled dog delivery so the cover made me curious!

I was thinking this was a lil too easy but as the game went on it got worse and worse and then I ​​barely​​​ ran out of time... Which means this was really well balanced! I loved how tense it was and how ​it really felt like every choice mattered. You did a great job with the art and the text, it set the scene so well!

I loved seeing the aurora borealis, and then whatever that red sky was! And I'm still so curious about what some of the events were, but my people sure didn't enjoy seeing them as there was so much awfulness out there that they kept freaking out 🤣

All of that to say that I loved this, and it's one of my fav LD53 entries! Well done! 🧡

Out of all the games I've played so far this has to be my favorite. I never played Oregon Trail but this gave me Roadwarden vibes (I think the font?)

The graphics were great, although they break a bit on widescreen, so I had to play this game in the non-fullscreen res.

I like the strategy that the gambler stop gives, you can use one of your items there (if they're that kind of item), then attempt to gamble it, if you lose you'll probably be fine, as you've already used its effect once.

It was sorely missing music/sound effects, but I appreciate the more polished game that I got instead. Awesome job!