Awww it made me sad, very touching...

Thank you, @shadowcast , for the story you delivered.

Also I'm wondering how did you achieve that beautiful pixel-art in a 3D game, that's awesome.

@lighty-the-light Use a fragment shader to calculate pixel color distance from a predefined palette and map them to the closest color on the palette :smile:

@shadowcast Thank you!

This was really, really touching. Thanks you for sharing this experience. A precious little chunk of time.

Devastating. Lovely. A game that ropes you in with its wonderful color palette and asks you to stay a while.

@beefsock Thanks! I extracted the color palette from a camp fire photo I googled. Learned that trick from A Short Hike GDC talk.

(Also I just realized I finished your game seconds ago before seeing this comment. What are the odds :O)

Really lovely, everything tied together so well, I'm really impressed at how understated and effective the writing and mood were.

Okay I accidentally changed it into Extra and can not change it back HELP ME :cry:

Why I am crying? Great story...

Good experience! I give it 5-star in Mood!

I love the visuals, great mood :)

In my opinion, it's quite difficult to make narrative games during jams. And I must say that you've nailed it, great mood, great writing. The story was nice to follow even if I wanted, deep in my heart, to finish on a warmer note. Good job (and nice pixel shader!)

great visuals, the fire effect is looking great! Also very astonishing that you put a small novel together in that timeframe.

Visuals were nice, impressive that there is as much writing - Great job on submitting

Wonderful story, art, ambience, everything. The story was so moving and got me thinking about relationships in my own life. Amazing job. ♥

Good Graphics ! Maybe a little music ^^

It is the most touching game I have ever played in any Ludum Dare games before - This game is an absolute treat.

The fun fact is that I happen to know you, and I kind of know what's going on between these dialogues because they look so familiar. It reminds me of the old days when you talk about any unfinished piece, death, existentialism, and other stuff. Time keeps on marching forwards, dude.

It is good to see you have finished such a piece in 3 days, with all the fragment shaders, details for the lamp, and the plotted starry sky. I would like to know and listen more about any craft you have made if I had a chance.

It's too bad that people don't talk about how they feel before it is already too late. I hope you have a clear idea about how great this game is by reading this. I hope this is not too late.

And I hope you are safe and sound somewhere, somehow.

Interesting entry, graphics & sound design is pretty cool. It felt cosy :blush:

Of all of the things I expected to feel from a game jam game, I never expected to actually cry. My parents are both the better part of their 60s and I worry about this all the time. Thank you for the wonderful story.

As for the game, obviously it was very simplistic gameplay, but given that it was just the medium for a very artful story, I think it worked well. I absolutely loved the graphical style you went with here, It felt very appropriate. Excellent entry.

This was such a sweet and touching experience, the story is very well written and emotional and I like how you showed why talking about stuff like this is important. The graphics were also really pretty, I liked the pixelated 3D shader you used for this, it adds a lot of style to it and it fits it very well. The audio was simple but good, it makes you focus mostly on the experience without distractions. Great mood and writing, overall a really lovely and touching experience, thank you for making it!

Beautiful art, audio and narrative. I really enjoyed it. Well done!

Mark read my email and moved the game back to Jam let's gooo

Beautiful writing and atmosphere. The dialogue really carries the experience. Also a lovely metaphor that fits the theme well. Thank you for this wonderful piece! :star:

To be honest, I hate commenting on such games. It is deeply rooted in the author's personality, it is evident. This is why anything I will say is almost meaningless, as the experience was an authentic look of one person. This is where the brilliance of the game comes from. I enjoyed the whole experience and can say that it is GREAT work. Visuals, text and general mood, the whole package is amazing, touching. The only criticism of @shadowcast, which I think he probably should wholeheartedly ignore, is that the dialogue feels just a little rushed, hopping from point to point and the metaphors are just a little clumsy. I love what you did, I feel like you found your game design style and it is wonderful. I wish all the best in refining it to perfection, as I see amazing talent behind this game.
P.S. If you feel like talking about game design, art or anything else, I would be delighted to have a conversation.

Seems like a lot of people went for melancholic but I guess the theme will do that, you nailed it with the subject matter and the mechanic—I thought it was done pretty well to break up the pacing and telegraph scene breaks.

The narrative was well written too, with you revealing information about the characters over the course of the conversation. Sometimes it's done poorly when it seems like the writing is hiding information for no reason, but the progression felt deserved in this game.

@alexhonor Ah shit I got busted. Turns out people does notice when I rush my work, big suprise to me :laughing:

I think my critical mistake was trying too hard to adhere to the mini 3 act structure, putting twists at proper locations and all, which caused (in conjunction with my incapability) the narrative to feel shattered and inorganic. The metaphor was *very* cringe worthy, indeed. It was my futile attempt at ludonarrative harmony and it failed grandly lmao, I think it would be better to just leave it out all together.

@kekondev You are absolutely correct.

I went for the "fish'em in with interesting content and explain why later" thing but the execution was hardly thought through. I tried to give progression to the conversation but kinda left out the source of conflict (the reason why they are here) to act 2 and wandered off. I was originally going to give more tension to their conversation in the beginning, which might help the problem, but decided I wanted a chill vibe. I hope this is the same info-holding you mentioned? :smile:

The graphics were amazing, but I can't agree with the choice of low framerate (or maybe it was just my PC and not a choice by the dev), it only made the movement feel choppy and unresponsive.

The audio was pretty good as well.

I rate this 5/5 in mood.

As a game, it was too uninteractive for me, I only had to go get wood 3 times and it ended already.

I wouldn't call this entry a game. This is an experience, a very carefully and lovingly crafted and beautifully looking one. This was a nice change of pace from other Ludum games, I really enjoyed it.

I wish there was more choice in dialog, like in the beginning. It was a bit weird it was introduced and then dropped altogether. I suspect you wanted to make dialogue more interactive, but just didn't have enough time to implement it?

@renrok I chopped off 2 whole sections which depending on your choice would replace part 2&3. Didn't have the time :(

Nice take on the theme, and a very unique visual style. I was expecting some kind of bad ending given the theme, good thing it didn't come to that.

A wonderful short experience. It's well-written and looks great; the jam theme is a core part of the game's make-up. The campfire is an amazing way to pace the dialogue and separate topics, not to mention functioning as an effective metaphor, even if not particularly subtle (it doesn't always have to be!). Definitely one of the games I'll have the fondest memories of from this jam -- great work for a game with such a tight schedule!

Aww, I knew this jam would probably have some sad games, but still :s. Great story and metaphor, starting and passing dialogs by clicking would have been more intuitive I think (would have prevented me from exiting the game to figure out how to start it anyway)

[Thanks for submitting your game to stream!](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1457327946?t=02h22m42s)

Sorry we were goofing around for a lot of it :sweat_smile: This was a very somber game, I liked it! The visuals were also top-notch as well. Crazy to think you did this by yourself!