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@stenblood, @noisemaker, sorry, guys, I am an idiot as usual. It should be working now.

Everything works well for me. This is probably the best thing I've seen today. Very atmospheric and unique!

Working for me too. Lost all my dudes, enjoyed the setting and all the descriptions. And that ending song is rad!

@koro-games, Thank you, you are so kind, as usual the main thing for me was the atmosphere.

@caeonosphere, Thanks, don't want to spoil all of the mechanics this early in the jam, but, in general, this is how it's supposed to be played.

This was amazing. The mood and atmosphere worked perfectly with the graphics and music. There was also just something so evocative about the imagery. It reminded me a lot of DUSK, just in terms of the general feel of the environment.

Really great work all around!

Really atmospheric, the audio helped a lot with that. Only thing is, and it's probably just my monkey brain, I didn't really get how the game play worked. Other than that, a great submission!

Great job on the atmosphere! The art and sound are amazing! I was just a little bit confused about how to play, but that was a really great idea.

@skruffye, Thank you, for art I used a simply concept but with a goal that it will give the whole game unified and a bit claustrophobic look. And, as simple as these HTML games go, there were some groundbraking additions as gifs with noise for the camera visors)

@azara, Thanks, for the gameplay part, your main goal is to help characters leave this place, but in reality it's more like semi-interactive exploration. As gradually (by playing a game a few times) you visit different places with different characters, talk with them more and learn about the planet and their personalities.

@pequi, Thank you, as usual for me, the game came not very intuitive. Only when I draw the layout for the interface I thought about some changes which could have make selection of characters and overall navigation a bit more obvious.

Mood through the roof!

I frankly have no idea what I'm doing *but it scares me*.

I suspect being overly explicit with goals would ruin some of the mood, but you can usually give hints through storytelling. I did enjoy learning about my situation more, and the people I was stuck with; but it was less clear why the died; I wish sending others to those spots would give some exposition to their deaths.

Overall I really enjoyed it. Great work!

@fireslash, Thank you for your feedback. About the overall goal, again, not spoiling all of the details now, but I have a hint for you - read the information on the end screen and compare it with information which is given to you in the beginning. This should brush off some of the questions and create a tie in with this jam's theme.

My first playthrough I wasn't really aware of being able to pick my team to do something, so I repeatedly clicked "wait" and hoped one of the other options would eventually be unlocked, but the team simply died one by one. Then I played the game like 'intended', moved them around and... they still all died. I love this illusion of choice you so masterfully crafted again. Inspiring stuff!

@trexxak, Thank you, yes, the main flow of the game corresponds with the theme maybe even too much this time.

Artwork and mood are on point, the world feels gritty and desolate.
Controls feel a little overcomplicated, can't really tell the difference between 'observe' and 'report' commands, only that they do lead to different results.
Audio is good, helps setting the mood, maybe ending theme felt a little out of place to me, leaping from uncomfortable and sticky tone to a very energetic one.
Regardless, this was a very interesting and immersive experience, good job!

beautiful visual style, but I didn't understand how to play

@quadape, Thank you, sorry about the controls, as usual, my control mastery lead to the fact that even the controls with 4 buttons seem overcomplicated. As for the record, "observe" and "report" both mean interaction with the selected character. But when you ask a character to observe, he will share his thoughts about the location when he is currently stationed. And when he ask him to report, he will share his views on the current game's situation. These reports are unique for each turn, and I tried to tie them up with the game progression.

Agree about the ending theme, I got carried away a little, but it was mainly because I wanted to point out the twist which is revealed in the end.

@allax, Thanks, about the "how to play", what was the main difficulty? Was it about the main goal of the game or even simplier problems regarding how to control the characters and such?

The visuals of this game are incredible, and so is the soundtrack. Top marks for mood as well! I just got a bit confused if my actions could carry different results or not. I thought that I had to understand the provided information in order to "predict" where I should move my people to stall their death. (That was not the point, was it? haha)

Perhaps this is a personal issue since english is not my mother tongue, but I kept reading the info on the main screen and the ending one, and I'm not sure if I get the twist.

Kudos for the atmosphere!

I really enjoyed the art style, and I think it lent itself well to the overall mood. Great job!

How to play was a bit confusing to start with, I think its just because I don't play these style games so I didn't pick up on it fast. Great art and style, and a clever game!

@conradoclark, Thank you so much for a detailed feedback. I am glad that you enjoyed atmosphere that much and, no, there is no connection between the places which you visit and deaths of your characters (the order, in which they die, is actually random).

About the twist...

***--- SPOILER ALERT ---***

In-game situation is that your characters escaped their planet after the rebellion started. Then one of them betrayed them, stole the money, they crashlanded and so on... BUT... On the end screen it says that all of your characters were killed during they escape's attempt, and, in reality, they hadn't even left their home planet.
So, there can be multiple versions about the place where they are in the game, but the twist is that your characters are ALREADY DEAD. That's why there is no positive outcome and, if you perform more characters' interactions, there will be hints directing to the fact that what is happening isn't real.

@drumgadget-433, Thank you!

@benmcnelly, Thank you, actually, I think that these diffuculties were again due to my interface designing skills. But I am glad that you persevered.

A small portrait of Hron.


Love the art style!

The visuals and audio were great, apart from that screech which genuinely hurt when I was playing this using headset.

The game's mood was definitely among the best in LD50. I just wished the game could be a bit more interactive or at least more descriptive as I didn't even realise why Seda died. :smile:

@aliiiii, Thank you, you are very kind.

@xedur, Thanks, sorry, I got a little carried away with the noises, but I wanted to use something which will enlarge the overall atmosphere.

I agree, as usual, the game is not very cooperative in the sense of explanations. But the main point was to play a few times, an as more other characters about their pieces of minds regarding different in-game situations. That way you will know them better and get some foreshadowing elements of the overall story.

Neat game! A short tutorial that highlighted the process for the first turn, or even just a little more visual feedback (like cursor changing icons) might have sped up my understanding. I really liked the visuals too.

@jelch, Thank you, yes, as usual, the game came out not very intuitive, I agree that I could have used the visuals more to highligh what is happening.

The atmosphere was very well crafted in this game. The art, the mysterious sounds, and the mysterious story all work together to create this very creepy and uncomfortable feeling. Really well done! I think the main problem with the game is clarity. It was not very clear to me what things were buttons, and what things were not. For example, the picture of the darkened ruler has exactly the same border as the agents you can control. So for me it felt like I should be able to press on him as well, but I could not.

I had a very similar first experience as @trexxak, where I would just click wait because I did not really know what to do. I think it would help a lot if there was some communication to the player what they can click on.

Anyway, really well done! Crafting a game with an atmosphere like this is really hard and I think you did it really well! Solid submission to the jam :D

Like the art and the mood! I was moving around the people, but felt bad since eventually they would get killed by something. I wondered if I was running away from something or if I could avoid it. I kind of wanted to read more of each place, but since moving takes a whole turn, I could only do it slowly and the people died before I could check out everything. I got the sense that I crashed landed somewhere during a war, but wasn't sure what my goal was after that other than to find shelter or something? I liked that I had to figure it out in the game, perhaps if the game could give some more hints though so more story can be found. nice job!

After some playthroughs I wasn't able to beat the game at all, nor have any different kind of outcome. Only after I read the comments here I realized I was never supposed to "beat the game" at all, is that it?

@wuppos, Thank you so much for the detailed feedback, I agree that the game lacks in terms of the intuitive gameplay, although, my main idea for the game was like an explaration experience without that obvious main goal, I could have indicated it better. As for the minor things, yes, I should have drawn Darkened Ruler in the same vague style as the cam screens of other characters.

I am glad that you liked the atmosphere, it was a main goal, the only bad thing here for me is that not all players understood the twist in the end, although, I tried to make it a clear message.

@aeveis, Thank you, I agree that AP management could have been reworked (like, for example, make all of the actions except Move, free), but it would have required more work with turns management (as I wrote unique phrases for each character and each turn), so I decided on this jagged scheme. About the main goal of the game, it was spelled out on the title screen together with some backstory. You need to find your money and escape from this place.

@lex, Yes, there is only one ending in this game and it's not a good one. It has this twist due to the overall concept and the theme of this LD. The main goal was to play a few times and talk more with the characters, to learn more about them and the situation.

I too very much like the mood of this one. These characters certainly seem like they'd have some interesting back stories. I'll have to run through a few more times later. Took me some experimentation to figure out how control/movement worked.

@epb9000, Thank you, yes, judging by all of the feedback, I really managed to make this simple controls not intuitive enough. I will try to improve on this, or, maybe just to stop being lazy and start writing some instructions here.

Love the atmosphere..love the art style and sound effect too!! I was first confused about the story as well but seems like I understand it correctly..(by looking at your replies to the others). The design of making people move around and showing different dialogues are great, I can see the potential of it becoming a really good detective game. Very great work!

@roccay, Thank you, I am really glad that the confusing controls didn't take that much from the overall impression. I agree that much more could have been done with this concept aside from the LD entry. But, as usual good and bad thing about LDs is that you encouraged to do every idea which comes to your mind here because of the small scope, but it's hard to get committed enough to proceed with this ideas in a standalone project.

Excellent game. The art in particular stands out but the audio and writing work well too.

Once again, amazing sound and music, and I love the artwork. It reminds me of the games you made before Ludum Dare 49. You are very good at storytelling and creating a mood. I'm not sure why, but I am reminded of the 1st edition of the old TSR game, Gamma World.

As with others here, it took me a while to figure out how to play the game. At first, I kept clicking on Wait. Then after quite some time I finally discovered that I can select characters as well. But maybe that's just me, I tend to be slow.

I love how the music, story, and map all fit together to create an eerie world, a world haunted by death, horror, and mystery. Well done my friend.

@harmadillo, Thank you!

@gamebuilder, I am very glad that you made it here. Thank you for the detailed feedback, sadly I don't know anything about TSR games, so can't fully check this comparison, but I am very glad that overall mood and story hit the mark here. As I mainly use this medium for storytelling purposes, these are the main things I try to achieve.

Sorry, I feel very stupid that I managed to goof-up such simple interface. I really didn't think that the "Wait" button, which looks like the only active button at the start of each turn, will be an issue, before the feedback on the game came. But I am glad that this distinctive "interface feel" didn't prevent you from enjoying the game.

As for the under the hood aspects, I am glad that the game looks solid in terms of unified style. Since the last game I've been trying to make interface one with the in-game graphics. I drew it by hand again, but this time, because of the more complicated interface, it was a pain aligning it to the CSS grid. To create this sepia colored world, I used minimalistic set of materials - only ink and graphite aquarelle pencil. As for the sound effects - there are multiple recordings of the electric guitar static noises, with wich I tried to simulate radio transmitions.

Also, I never did this before, but maybe it will be interesting to look at the original concept-art for the game.

Very interesting, especially your choice of tools — I think you put ink and graphite aquarelle pencil to good use. There is a kind of raw, edgy feel to the game that is unique; I haven't seen anything quite like it. And I like your idea of integrating the interface with the in-game graphics. Apart from the difficulty I had in learning how to use it, I think it works very well.

Thank you for posting the concept art. It is always good to see how game development unfolds, especially in this case. It’d be great if you could write a post-mortem — though I know it can be time consuming. Lord knows I haven't written one in some time. Even so, I think a lot of folks here would love to read something like that. Anyway, thanks for making another wonderful game.

@gamebuilder, Thank you again, I’ve never written post-mortems before, but I really can’t deny this request. Sorry for the improvised format, as I don’t really know how it should be done traditionally.

***- CROWS Post-Mortem PART I -***

***CREATION PROCESS***

Surprisingly, although the theme for this LD was the best in all of my time of participating, I had serious problems with it. It was hard to think about interesting process, and I spent a lot of time just doodling random ideas which went nowhere. Also, I really didn’t want to use my favorite shtick again (about a character who goes into a weird world and meets strange creatures), because “Heart of Music” and “Town of Monsters” were very similar in this sense. I would even say that “Town of Monsters” was a pale copy.

Then finally and idea came, recently I watched an old horror movie called “Scarecrows”. It is a very primitive B-movie, but with an interesting twist. It follows a group of armed mercenaries which try to get away from the authorities after the attack on the army base. They are flying on the plane and got a lot of money which they stole with them. Then one of them turns on the group and parachutes from the plane with the money. They survived the hand grenade which he threw and land on a creepy farm with the scarecrows. After that it’s a traditional slasher – scarecrows come to life and start killing the heroes one by one. As I said, the movie is very primitive, but it had a twist that all of the heroes were actually killed during their attack and are already in some kind of hell or limbo. Throughout the film there are different hints at this. But they are very sudden and can easily get lost, also the ending was shot in a very confusing way which, in my opinion contradicts the twist.

But I was really fascinated with this idea and, after I remembered it, I thought it will be a great base for the small LD game. I changed the setting a bit (with the former government officials instead of mercenaries and IN SPACE), wrote the ending twist so it would read better and increased the amount of hints about the current state of our heroes. About the Space thing, I really liked the idea to make something which will take place in space, but I was fearing that it will constrain some of my designs, so I was going to keep the surreal part. It should have been a space like in Little Prince but more with Alice in Wonderland game’s feel. Also, I have been toying with the idea of some game with indirect control for quite a long time. It’s very limited here, but I tried to re-create this feel with the fact that you have a limited control of the characters and have to perceive the world though their eyes.

After the main concept was ready, everything went much faster. I quickly created designs and main traits for 4 characters, the interesting wheels of every government machine: Berk (in general well-intended but cruel and one-headed Minister of Military), Seda (soft and good at heart Finance minister, who represents people who work for the oppressive regimes but try to distant themselves from the atrocities they commit), Feast (up-beat and cynical Head of the State Propaganda, for me he represents that “you got to be crazy” to do this work) and Hron (weak and uncaring minion who made his way to the Chief Executioner). This all looks kinda grim, I believe my dissatisfaction with the Russian government in general and recent events in Ukraine affected overall somber feel and tone of all of this. Still, while writing the dialogs for the game I tried to focus more on their personalities and dimensions of their characters, as, I believe, in their situation, WHO they are is more important than what they DID before.

***- CROWS Post-Mortem PART II -***

***GAME STRUCTURE***

After fleshing out the main idea, I decided on the core mechanic. It should be a turn-based game with the main goal of exploration and character study. Each turn every character can either observe the place he is currently at, talk about his overview of the current situation or move to a different location. This is a very crude way of AP realization, but, as I said here previously, this seemed like the best solution from the story management. I wrote unique phrases for each character for every location and every turn. And decided on which turn there will be deaths of characters. So, the turn with deaths are constant, but the characters die in a random order.

As for the locations, it was mostly a play of my imagination. The main goal was so every one of them will have some kind of menacing feel and will resonate more with some characters than with the others. Some of them, like running car with no engine, are hommages to “Scarecrows” movie. This should’ve ideally create a motivation for player to try this game a few times and visit different places with different characters. Also, the replies about the locations also serve as a mean to dig deeper into the characters and their view of the world. For example, judging by Berk’s replies you can get a hint of the oppressive nature of the former government’s regime, Seda will show her soft and carrying nature, Feast will be forcefully optimistic but will break at the Laughing Well, Hrom will show his weak and scared nature.

As for the dialogs, each of the character has a progression towards the end. The main idea was that this place drives every one of them insane during the course of the game and they redirect their attention from the initial goal (of finding money and getting off the planet) to their inner self-search. Berk will stick with his beliefs to the end and die saying that he did everything right, Seda will come a realization that all of her life she was doing things which actually brought her no joy, Feast will deny all of his former beliefs and condemn his former leader, Hron will learn an ugly truth of his life and won’t be able to face because of how weak he is.

As for the killing force, I liked to keep it just something unknown, in such weird place not-knowing is more effective than the scarecrows which came to life. There are some hints at the masters of this place like place for rituals or scary shack with different ugly weapons, but I wanted this place to be more mentally creepy with the symbols not actual enemies and monsters.

***- CROWS Post-Mortem PART III -***

***GOOD THINGS***

***Feel and look.*** I am satisfied with how the game looks and sounds. Taking into account my very limited programming skills and tools which I am using, it really went well. The main achievement is that the game really looks very unified and whole. I was afraid that because of the limited art tools it will look more doodly and raw, but, judging by all of the feedback, it wasn’t like this.

***It works.*** In my opinion, when you know basic things about the game and had overcome the main interface issues, it actually plays quite nicely. When I finally finished programming and played it first time when everything was working, I was kinda surprised at how it went. Even some questionable decisions like the noises as sound effects, layered over the music organically when performing actions.

***BAD THINGS***

***Interface and explanations.*** Main thing that have been addressed many times, interface came out as very counter-intuitive, I really didn’t spend too much time testing it, and overlooked many things which seemed obvious to me as a developer. Also, I think even more damaging is that game doesn’t communicate much, and many of it’s good aspects (like custom location descriptions or dialog progressions) are remained hidden to the average player. The game seems much less than it really is, which is very harming for a small and simple game to begin with.

***Time management.*** Due to my struggles with the theme, I spent most of the first day unproductively. This really harmed the game, as this time could’ve been spent on polishing the interface or writing more dialogs, etc. Also, because if this, I didn’t manage to finish it by the Compo deadline which is also sad, as by all definitions it’s strictly a Compo content.

Thank you all for playing the game again!

That is truly amazing — I didn't expect such a detailed report. I'll be happy to post a link to it on the main blog page, if you're interested — I think it deserves a wider readership. As it stands I fear not many will see it.

**"The game seems much less than it really is..."**

These words hit home for me. I think it's true for so many games. And it's true for much of what we do in the outside world as well. Sometimes even just a few words seem much less than they really are. The key is to know the true value of what you do, regardless of what other people think (or don't think). I am trying not to forget this.

I'm curious to know if you chose the names — Berk, Seda, Feast, Hron — by design. Do the names mean anything, or were they chosen at random?

@gamebuilder, I am glad that you liked this autopsy, yes, I think it will be nice to make a post linking to this post-mortem, maybe more people will read it.

Wow, I honestly didn't mean it to be that deep, but it's always not what something is, but what others can gather from it. And, in case of this game, I think less lazy and artistic approach (like at least writing an instruction on the game's page here) could have helped with this issue at hand.

As for the names, in most cases I just picked names which in my head were in harmony with characters' traits. Only Feast has a kinda pun-name, this was because I wanted to highlight his extravagant and hedonistic personality. Also, I thought that it will help the overall surreal atmosphere that one of the characters is named in a different fashion than the rest.

Will do Chief!

привет, можешь написать мне в телеграмме? Есть небольшое предложение - https://t.me/KenShigoto

@lesinvisible привет, можешь написать мне в телеграмме? Есть небольшое предложение - https://t.me/KenShigoto