Wow, this was so immersive! I'm usually not really into folder-based games like this, but something about how you organized the folders made the horrid Windows UI melt away and I just felt like I was reading a book.

I loved reading everything, and felt a real sense of progression when I completed a goal. Replacing the music file was a brilliant idea, and it felt almost like starting a new chapter or something.

Being able to complete goals out of order was also very nice, it let me work at my own pace and still make progress when I needed to. The IF vs WHEN system was very intuitive.

My only complaint is that sometimes the music faded out so smoothly that I almost didn't realize it had stopped. I would have liked a loud knocking sound at the end of the music, or perhaps a loud scream or car crash.

Oh and I loved all the artwork!

The art and the content are really nice and rich. All so the voice actor.

This was a cool experience. The rules implementation is really well thought, and the real-time aspect of it adds a lot of tension.

The art is super nice and the music is great! Really interesting idea to design a game with directories and files!

This was a really interesting game. I've never seen or heard of anything like it. There's so much to explore here, I really like this idea. Right now you're leaving me inspired to think about what more can be created with this format. Works on my Mac :)

Excellent use of depth. I want to play this in a printed paper form now!

Like the Idea. Good Metagame.

This is a really interesting game! Love the music. Love the voice acting.

I'm really impressed with how much writing content you guys managed to create.

From a user experience standpoint, I wish this was playable in a format of a more standard choose-your-own adventure in a conventional game engine, but I really admire the design work that went into this.

wow, I hadn't even considered this avenue for making a game, really innovative. It's like a low tech version of a digital tabletop rpg :D

Very interesting concept! I've never played a folder-based game like this before, but as soon as it told me to start renaming things and moving them around everything really clicked. Very cool alternative to the code-based games normally seen on LD. Congrats on completing an awesome entry!

@alchemic Thank you so much for this review! It makes me sooooo happy to know you enjoyed the game like that! I love the artwork too! Oh my, a knocking sound is a great idea, but a car crash or a scream, oh nooo! I sure hope none of this is happening every 2 minutes in Alex's street!

@andyzyz Thank you very much! The voice clips make me so happy, I'm glad you enjoyed the VAs work!

@fedora Sweet! I'm glad you think so, I was slightly unsure if the tension wasn't gonna clash with the core of reading the game has, but playtests seemed to show it was fine? Cool if it worked for you!

@mavvy The folder game idea kind of came from having no dev to work with, but I'm really happy how the medium we chose influenced the mechanics!

@david-york Awh shucks, you! If it inspires you anything, I definitely want to play it! I'm not sure how I'd go to make something similar in paper form. I'd use envelopes maybe? But that doesn't seem very print and play friendly. Maybe printing on both sides of paper with opening instructions and stuff like that on the back of the paper, like a weird bootleg legacy thing?

@tsugumi Thank you!

@silas-reinagel Thank you so much! It was easy to write a lot, because I was mostly riffing off of what the others made, especially the 2D artist. Once he had painted a view of the room, the words just flowed from there! And he just kept making artwork, and music started coming in, and so the words kept flowing. I went a little insane inside the laundry pit, I hope you enjoyed it ^^

@nullval YES! I'm so glad you picked up on that, it's kind of where I was coming from :smile:

@joe-cowman Thank you sooooooo so much for your comment!!! I really had fun trying to exploit the fact I was working with files and folders and stuff, and everyone in the team kept having great ideas! We didn't have a dev, so we didn't really have a choice being creative about it, but it's also very much up my alley to use "non-standard game engines" (another way to say "bootleg code-light game-dev solutions"), so I regret nothing!

Have a great day everyone!! :heart:

Super creative project! I hadn't fully read this page before I downloaded the game so I was very surprised when I opened the folder and there was no .exe to see! I was a little apprehensive while reading through the rules but once I dove in and started looking around the 'room' it started to make sense. The dimensional backpack was a cool mechanic, even though I threw almost everything I could in there in case it was useful later (just like in regular videogames!) The most interesting part was getting to a scene with a lot of 'IF' files and finding out my previous exploration had/hadn't paid off. The small pieces of audio and art add a lot to a project like this, so they were appreciated. The only critique I would make could be having less files of individual items and more general descriptions of each room/area? Just so there are less text files to open, skim through a line then close. Definitely the most creative game I've played so far in the jam, great work to all involved :)

Oh my god, wow, what a creative idea! Seriously, this is going to be in the top games for Innovation, guaranteed (or any category for that matter). The artwork is so comfortable looking. The soft colors and the vector graphics are fantastic! ahhh! It's so easy to lose yourself (in a good way) in the folders just staring in awe at how much content there is in this game. How in the world, this is so good. The music is great, but the voice acting is the icing on the cake! I mean, every aspect of this game is top quality, and it's not even a .exe file, it's a series of files and folders! So unbelievably creative. How did you think of this? I'm definitely sharing this with my friends. Bravo.

ohhh we had a similar idea, only in mine you have to look for excuses to save yourself from your mother xP
It's very entertaining! I liked the art and the concept too! Great job!

Extremely creative and enjoyable game! I initially thought it was gonna be a bit of a chore but man, I got so immersed in it all!

I was constantly rushing around my room to find things to stall my grandma and speed-reading txt files like never before. It felt almost real. Excellent entry! Top marks!

Brilliant game. Idea and execution at the highest level. Interestingly, with a few pictures and lovingly written descriptions, you can begin to imagine the room in real scale. This is definitely one of the most unusual gaming experiences.

Such a cool concept, I've never played a game of this style and had a blast. The art, writing and overall design are all pretty much perfect. I'll definitely keep exploring it.

This is a really cool idea. I've never played a game based on folders but it is a really cool concept.

I agree with a lot of the sentiment here. Usually the folder-based games follow a certain format so that's what I expected. You broke all those rules though and created something I haven't seen before.

It's not JUST that you're navigating files and reading things. It's that you are actually upgrading your inventory and even ability to delay time ever more. By far the coolest thing I saw was when you copy paste a new rule into your rule sheet. Not only was it brilliant but it gave me a sense of progression I wouldn't have felt from a videogame.

This gives me confidence in your team that even if you DID have a coder on hand, you would've blown us away with something just as well. Awesome job and thanks for trying something so new :)

@jamieok Thank you very much! Hehe, I'm happy if we could overcome the apprehension. It's definitely a little fiddly because we're asking the players to do all the work themselves. For the "more general descriptions", I thought about that, but I wanted to go more "show don't tell" and have the subfolders feel like an actual space in the room, and try to capture the physicality of that. So instead of describing what was there, I could just show what's there by making the items into individual files, and build the folder like a physical space in that way.

I understand that it's not the most ergonomic or efficient way to do it, so I hear your criticism, but I like the ludo-narrative consonance of "looking at part of the room" and "having to get closer to better see what's there" and having to really take the item and think about it, so open the .txt, to really examine it, and better take it in? It's like the folder *is* the description? That's what I was aiming for, it's probably a bit hit and miss though!

Also, all the general description you need is in the "look around" picture! But it's probably not super clear from a UX standpoint. I built the tiny world of Alex's room using that picture as reference, so if you keep it open it gives you an accurate description of everything you're seeing in the subfolders! Well, not the ones that are "closed spaces" like the chest or the dresser but I think that's consonant because you need to sift through what's in there IRL?

Also, and I know it goes against the grain of the player mind so it's kind of a bad idea on my part/counterintuitive, but I think about the content of the ITEM.txt as kind of fluff, but the actual item is the file, so you don't have to open it to know what it is, because of the name? But if you want to read it because you enjoy it, you can?

Sorry for the essay! But those are my thoughts about this issue!

@100th-coin Ooooooh thank you sooooo much :two_hearts: I'm almost certain our artist doesn't actually make vector art though! But I'm really glad you enjoyed their work!! They're awesome :heart: And I agree, the VAs and musician did a wonderful job as well! Your comment made me so happy, thank you for taking the time to write such a thoughtful and glowing feedback, this is the kind of reaction to my work that keeps me going whenever I'm down or in doubt. Thank you for enjoying our game, you made my day <3 And thank you so so much for sharing it with your friends, I hope they'll enjoy what we made as well!!

@naplz Sweet! I'll try to check it out! Thank you!

@langotriel Oh shoot, I'm gonna blush! Thank you so much, what a nice feedback!

@allax And you as well!! I'm so happy you felt it was immersive and we could help you live a morning as Alex! Though I definitely don't miss having to go to school!

@zirrrus Damn, I hope you find interesting and fun things while exploring further! Such high praise, to want to keep engaging with the game like that!

@rawb Neither have we! I'm glad if the idea piqued your interest.

@peachtreeoath I've never played a folder based game, and I don't think my teammates have either, so I have no idea what format you had been expecting! Which probably explains why we broke all the rules! Haha, I'm sooo glad you enjoyed engaging with the medium like that, I had fun designing for it as well! I was kind of channelling legacy tabletop games with the rules update thing, I'm so glad if you thought it was cool and it gave you a good time. You might want to try checking out stuff like Pandemic: Legacy if that's your jam! And thank you very very much for your kind comment, it makes me very happy to read that.

Have a wonderful day everyone :heart:

@fae-pdf That's all totally fair! I hope my feedback didn't come off as complaining because I really enjoyed the project. Now that I think about it, your point about the 'look around' picture definitely solves one of the points I made, I think I opened that image in the middle of my playthrough and closed it soon after. Keeping it up to use as a general description of the areas would definitely have helped, whoops, my bad :D again, great project, have great day :)

First time I played a folder-based game with a real-time aspect and voice acting. 5/5 stars for innovation!

@jamieok No no no, it didn't come off as complaining! I was just pondering over what you said pretty hard, and it gave me some thoughts. I hope *I* didn't come off as defensive, I think I see what you meant, and I think it was good feedback! And if I had to make an update I think it would help me make the game better and more readable! Maybe I'd try to add something about the content of the ITEM.txt files in the rules, and add that the picture of the room can help guide you, and maybe add tiny .txt files that describe the spaces as a whole, even if I leave the individual items in.

@phoenix-fireflower Thank you so much!

Really cool! First time I played a folder based game but ended up playing through untill the end. The art was really nice, and I really liked the music aswell. Felt a bit overwhelmed and confused in the beginning and I probably didn't follow the rules to a 100% but I still had really fun. Just loved how there was so much depth to everything and so much detail, combined with the music, voice lines and pictures it made me feel very immersed. Overall great job, hope you had a fun jam :D

A really fun and complete game! Congrats! I love the little animation (ok, I only found one, but still) and the overall concept, even if it ask A LOT to set up correctly ; but it's really fun to organize like that and move the folder or txt in the backpack or else. And also, I kinda like the fact that everyone can adapt the game to their need because we follow the rules as we want. It really feel confortable and help when we mixed up the rules or wrongly understand sequence (ok, it only happen twice)

Else, the game is just fun to play and the mood and visual is really on point~ Congrats!

Ohhh, interesting. The "gameplay" is both cool and clunky at the same time, but it's fun regardless! This really makes me wonder what other things could be accomplished with this kind of thing, both by itself and when combined with actual game programs. I know OneShot, DDLC, and other games have explored a little in this vein but I'm not sure I have seen it pushed really far, most of it is more on a surface level. What you have here reveals some stronger possibilities, I feel like.

Wow, I already love this - can't wait to play this tomorrow as its already quiet late and this seems to need some time to be fully aprreciated :)

Excellent work, definitely the most innovative entry I've seen so far. I think that I'll try to give some time to explore the game in depth, as it really intrigues me. Bravo!

First time playing folder/file-based game here, it's a very nice mix between a digital game and a board/card game! The writing, graphics, voice acting - everything came together to form a magical experience that is relatable for anybody who had to go to school at some point ;)

Very innovative approach - surprised how digging trough the folders with the time passing is really relatable to the morning rush and trying to find your stuff in the mess!

The descriptions and key images work together with the music loop to create the room in one's imagination beautifully. When I think about it now, looks like this game could translate well into a fully paper-board-game experienca but also in a fully digital, interactive experience :thinking:

I have a Windows Explorer extension installed that allows for peeking inside image and .txt files when hovering (QTABBAR) so this really felt like hovering over item icons in some rpg for me ;)


Beautiful entry! This memory will stick with me for a long time :v:

@theheheo Thank you!! I'm so glad we managed to keep your attention this long! I love the art as well. It's ok, the rules are mostly a suggestion anyway, having fun is the most important!! I'm so happy you felt immersed! We did have a very fun jam, I hope you did too!

@ribout-horace Horace!!! Thank you so much!! There are 2 animations in the game I think? Yeah it does take a lot of setup, I know it's kind of clunky :thinking: I'm really happy that the game made you feel comfy, I think it's kind of the vibe I wanted even though there was that element of real-time pressure. It still had to feel like home somewhat.

@ddrkirbyisq Thank you so much!! Trying to innovate makes clunky stuff sometimes, until it can be refined further. But I'm so glad you thought it was cool and fun! And most of all, that it got your imagination running! I'm sure we could take it further, I'd love to keep experimenting with this format.

@angiemon I hope you had a good time with the game if you did play it!

@mrpouletbzh Thank you very much for your kind words :heart:

@aerloth Thank you so so much! Oh my gosh, this is such a kind comment!! :heart: :heart: Thank you for taking the time to write such a heartwarming review, this is the kind of comment that keeps me going as a designer! Now I want to experiment with tabletop versions of this kind of concept. Love that gif also, looks like a really cool way to play the game! It's so important to me to see that we could maybe touch at least one player and create something memorable!

Have a great day everyone!! :two_hearts:

A really neat game, well executed with lots of good little story bits throughout. It fits well with the theme, scrambling to come up with any excuse to delay having to go to school.

[SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD]

I knew I had to play this the moment I saw who was involved in making it, SANCTITY Compliant Yggdrasil Worldship was one of my favorite entries last year that left me shook for a good while :D Happy to see more unconventional gameplay but this time in an extremely wholesome package, I was grinning from start to end with this one! The art is amazing and I love how the room overview contains the elements from the actual game. I was a bit suspicious of how a timer would work with a text-based game but it really did for me (nice to have the accessibility options though!). Every time I was able to use an excuse felt like an achievement from a gameplay standpoint and the voice acting and alternative music make it even better! The whole combination of music, art, and varied design (like finding an "VISIBLE ITEM.txt" vs finding "Discover something.txt" that turns into an item) got me more immersed than any traditional video game in a while, really a great experience!

I absolutely loved this. An incredible concept and executed very well. It had my attention from start to finish and was a delight to play. One of the most unique jam projects I've had the pleasure of experiencing, and one that left me craving for more of this kind of stuff in general. Really well done for a jam game -- it really shows how creativity can go a long way!

That is really creative appoach. Looks like the game can be played 'any platform'.

Actually, I got confused at first since it has lots of instructions and I'm not native english speaker. However that's acceptable for me.

Here's suggestion. The filename extionsion of the text file doesn't always have to be "txt":It's still readable by any text viewer. So it can be used to categorize the text files. For example, you can use filename extention 'doit' as instruction text and 'Dial' as dialogue message text.

Plus, you can use Batch File(Windows) or Shell Script(Linux) to pass by some tedious processes such as deleting a file. But that might ruin gameplay experience I think.

Looks like it wouldn't be easy to make make this since every files needs to be in correct order. Greak work!

That was soooo cool ✨

I don't know how you came up with so many great idea, I never played anything like this. That was awesome.

I needed a lot of energy at first to understand the rules, read all the text and make a few mistakes. But once everything clicked together in my brain, what a ride! I was immersed from start to finish, reorganizing my barricade frantically while playing xylophone to unimpressed pigeons with my super cool hoodie on.

Thanks for the game and huge congrats 🧙🪄

This game... is soo.... :sparkles: *Cool* :sparkles:

Played mostly in (G)Vim, so it was an interesting experience to say the least.

I really hope this spoiler free (Ping me if I should hide the image behind the link); just wanted to share my gameplay experience.

Amazing game! I was very impressed with, well, everything. The music, the humor, the voices and the idea itself. I couldn't fine the "marine" thing thou. Other than that, I think I got all of them. It's cool that the files and rules change through the game :) Really impressive.

@squidmobile Thanks a lot for playing our game! I'm so happy you enjoyed the story, I had fun writing it!

@bqq Oh my god bqq :heart: :heart: :heart: :heart: Thank you so much, your comment made me so happy! A dream of mine is to create fiction that stay with people for a while, and I don't know how to say it but your comment means so much to me and to what I'm trying to do with my life, and I kind of read it to so many of my loved ones because I was so elated?? Just because you remembered us and that made you want to play our game!! I am so so glad you liked it, I hope my friends and I can make many other games that you'll enjoy in the future! Seriously, you made my day! Also, congratulations, your game did so well, 30th overall, wow!

@cubanfrog Thank you so much for your extremely kind comment!

@dustya29 Oh no! I understand how the game can be a bit confusing yeah, there's a lot of text in there. What you're saying about .txt files is true, but I didn't want people to have to right click and open with notepad everything? Also, I kind of wanted the player to physically do the actions to interact with the files, because to me it was a way to represent the physicality of the actions within the world of the fiction. But I understand what you're saying! Obviously you're right though, a bit of code could have enhanced the UX of the game a lot, but maybe if we're going that way, we might as well just make a "regular" game?

@doot !!! Thank you soooo much, also huge congrats to you for the insane rankings!! I'm always so happy to read that someone felt like the game was immersive!!

@bloodycoin Dw dw, I don't mind at all! Lmao, that's a lot of salamander spit, all these laundry spell recipes! I guess Alex was doing their homework!! It looks pretty cool with (G)Vim, it's always fun to see how the game looks under different file explorers!

@labete Ooooh, that's so nice of you to say, thank youuuu! Marine is a space octopus plushie. You can see her tentacle coming out of the laundry pit on the general picture of the room! Have you looked inside?

Thank you so much to everyone who played and enjoyed our game, and thank you for making us 9th in the Innovation category!

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