Tale of the Descendant by glerikud

made by glerikud for LD33 (JAM)

UPDATE: Since a lot of players had problems with the web version we decided to remove it from the uploads. Please try the desktop version, which (based on the comments and our testing) works fine.
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Hey everybody! Our very first Ludum Dare game is ready to play!
This is a text based game with some horror-fantasy twists on traditional fairy-tales. You are a prince on a quest to save the princess. How could you be the monster? Well, you’ll have to find that out on your own!

Branching storyline, three different endings (the best one’s pretty hard to get).

We recommend playing the Windows version. Linux and OSX versions were not tested. If any of the main links don't work, you can get the game from these mirrors:
Windows: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16623848/Megoszt/AS/tod/tod_win32.zip
OSX: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16623848/Megoszt/AS/tod/tod_osx32.zip
Linux: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16623848/Megoszt/AS/tod/tod_linux32.zip

There is a link to a guide to all the endings in the comment section. I won't give you the link here, so you don't get too tempted. :)

We used Construct 2 as our engine, and some pencil and paper for the art, with the help of Paint.net and Gimp. The music was created in Dronefx.

We welcome any criticism! Thank you for playing, and have a good time!

Windows (recommended)	http://minecraftblog.hu/attentionstudios/taleofdescendant/tod_win32.zip
OS/X	http://minecraftblog.hu/attentionstudios/taleofdescendant/tod_osx32.zip
Linux	http://minecraftblog.hu/attentionstudios/taleofdescendant/tod_linux32.zip
Original URL	https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-33/?action=preview&uid=55555

Ratings

Coolness	100%	1
Overall(Jam)	3.02	709

Audio(Jam)	3.24	331
Fun(Jam)	2.67	808
Graphics(Jam)	3.09	657
Innovation(Jam)	2.72	753
Mood(Jam)	3.52	234
Theme(Jam)	3.45	529

Feedback

nanna_dashwood

24. Aug 2015 · 23:53 UTC

It was a good game, a really had fun with it. Thank! :D

BoskoSokolov

25. Aug 2015 · 00:44 UTC

frozen on loading? good art btw

liquidmedia

25. Aug 2015 · 00:46 UTC

The game loaded and I could start the game, but then just got another loading text in the game, that never went to the next screen.

retrogradeorbit

25. Aug 2015 · 01:05 UTC

When I get to "The prince is confident and he is fine", It loads forever, displaying "Loading..." Good graphical style. Sad I cant play it.

MarekkPie

25. Aug 2015 · 01:08 UTC

I am getting the same stuck at loading error. Wondering if nanna_dashwood even played it :)

Saphyre

25. Aug 2015 · 01:18 UTC

Sorry, I got stuck on the loading page. That's not fun...

JamesTanm

25. Aug 2015 · 01:20 UTC

Got to the "The prince is confident and he is fine" loading section and couldnt make it past

LandoSystems

25. Aug 2015 · 01:23 UTC

Can not get past loading

felipeberquo

25. Aug 2015 · 01:26 UTC

Unfortunately, the game always get stuck at the loading screen (played the web version)...
But I liked the music and the art

SecularBaron

25. Aug 2015 · 01:26 UTC

I think I may of had an error where the text doesn't fully load in the web player. The .exe worked fine. I liked the writing, everything tried to kill me. Truly we are the monsters.

Flaid

25. Aug 2015 · 01:38 UTC

I had the same problem as the others when trying to play the web version, getting stuck on the loading screen. However, if you look at the description it says "We recommend playing the Windows version"

Mood was the best part of this game. The music, story, and art fit perfectly into a sense of eeriness. To be honest, I wasn't sure why the prince was confident -- I was not!

Overall, the story felt innovate and somewhat exciting at first, but seemed forced and somewhat repetitive in the later chapters. It fit the theme of the competition, and it wasn't something I've yet seen in the games I've played for this competition.

Slashee the Cow

25. Aug 2015 · 01:43 UTC

Good writing, and the art was great! Music got a little grating by the time I got to the end, but I'm not sure I've heard anything on repeat for that long and not gotten sick of it, so don't take it personally.

kfarwell

25. Aug 2015 · 01:52 UTC

Pretty sure I got the worst ending.

These text-based games usually aren't my sort of thing, but this one has a pretty good story. It meets the creators' promise of being creepy and twisted very well. The art style is also very good.

cebollinos

25. Aug 2015 · 08:45 UTC

The game kept loading, never could play it

🎤 glerikud

25. Aug 2015 · 12:20 UTC

Thank you for the responses. It seems that for some reason the servers does not complete the ajax requests for the text to load. Because of this we removed the web version from the list and also updated the description accordingly.

PizzaPortal

25. Aug 2015 · 13:13 UTC

Hey I can't play this game on OS X, I get a popup that says "Safari can't open this file because there isn't a program to open it"

Electron

25. Aug 2015 · 14:02 UTC

Good game , but sometimes stuck at loading

fdslk

25. Aug 2015 · 14:26 UTC

nice game, good setting. It's been a while I enjoyed a text adventure.

gnuwilliam

25. Aug 2015 · 18:04 UTC

Nice game!

danidre14

25. Aug 2015 · 21:15 UTC

For a text adventure, it wasn't bad. Nice entry.

raducumiczzz

25. Aug 2015 · 21:46 UTC

Great story, great writing. Congratulations

Sergi Montaner

25. Aug 2015 · 22:17 UTC

I liked the detail of always knowing the status of the prince and how it is affected by decisions, it made the experience feel more game-ish.
Nice first entry, congrats!

Mark Venturelli

25. Aug 2015 · 23:31 UTC

Nice story, wonder if there's a less horrifying ending?

I made a story game as well, you might want to check it out.

foxboard

26. Aug 2015 · 02:09 UTC

Great work. A bit too much reading for me, but the whole concept is great, mostly the different choices of stories. Looks like a huge amount of content for a game jam!

🎤 glerikud

26. Aug 2015 · 11:16 UTC

Thanks everybody for your comments!

Sadly we currently don't know what's wrong with the mac version.

Some of you wonder about the ending: if you feel like a bit too many people died... that's probably the evil one :)
If you want to get the (morally) best ending, I'm afraid you'll have to stay confident all the way, and look out in chapter 3.

BTW We're checking out your games too! Thanks again!

derr

26. Aug 2015 · 12:38 UTC

Very moody and good writing. The music is a bit repetitive after a while (I'm a slow reader). Overall very nice game. It reminded me a bit of the backstory from Leoric.

A Flat Miner Studios

26. Aug 2015 · 14:29 UTC

Very nice story. I hope I got the bad ending (either that or I don't want to see the bad ending). I like how you blatantly stuck in our face that there were better options but the prince just couldn't take them at the moment.

Mach60KAS

26. Aug 2015 · 16:11 UTC

Very atmospheric entry, I liked the illustrations in particular. Story was a little too edgy for my liking, and the choices in chapter 3 were a little unintuitive. Still, well produced on the whole - good job!

RHY3756547

26. Aug 2015 · 16:29 UTC

The prince is confident, and he is fiiine. ;) Forcing the player to kill a child is a little on the edgy side, and also made no sense cos it was like night? The kobold children looked like techies, so I couldn't really bring myself not to kill them anyways. Nice work.

Xanjos

26. Aug 2015 · 20:29 UTC

Absolutely loved the storytelling in this. I actually like each dialogue choice can affect the prince's sanity.

nihilaleph

26. Aug 2015 · 23:35 UTC

Sorry to bother you (I wish I could PM...), but I tried to fix the physics simulation slo-mo bug in my game! Would you like to try it again?

PS: I'll rate your game as soon as I can play it! xp

🎤 glerikud

26. Aug 2015 · 23:52 UTC

@nihilaleph Been there, done that! It's the controls feel better now, good job!

MinionStudios

27. Aug 2015 · 01:02 UTC

A moody and ambitious project! The writing is nice- tons of good stuff and very dark.

Ershany

27. Aug 2015 · 02:04 UTC

Great writing :) Also loved the graphics style and the simple UI!

zatyka

27. Aug 2015 · 02:21 UTC

I do like myself a text adventure. I found this one pretty engrossing. The music , and especially the art set the tone (the music did get a bit repetitive though). The writing quality was pretty good. I did notice a few errors, but that's mostly because I do a lot of writing/editing, and it didn't take away from my enjoyment. I especially liked how I felt like I was part of the prince's slow transition to madness. Played through it twice, got two different endings. Good stuff.

zatyka

27. Aug 2015 · 02:21 UTC

Oh, one more thing. I'm hoping you post a guide to get to the "best" ending.

Shugor

27. Aug 2015 · 05:22 UTC

I feel like narrative driven games aren't as common in LD, but this one feels really good and has a great mood despite the time constraints. The music in particular i thought helped make the experience more unsettling. Good job!

eemmbbeerr

27. Aug 2015 · 09:26 UTC

Guys, I found a mistake. When I choose I don't want to stab the prince's sword in the monster's neck he do stab it in. Otherwise it is awesome.

eemmbbeerr

27. Aug 2015 · 09:30 UTC

Guys, I think I found a mistake. When I choose I don't want to stab the Prince's sword in that neck he do stab in.. Otherwise it was a great reading.

eemmbbeerr

27. Aug 2015 · 09:32 UTC

Ups. I'm noob here, sorry for commenting twice. Now 3 times.

🎤 glerikud

27. Aug 2015 · 10:31 UTC

@zatyka Thanks! guide will be linked here in the comments!

@eemmbbeerr Thanks for calling that out, it seems to have slipped by us during playtesting!

congusbongus

27. Aug 2015 · 10:37 UTC

Immersive and atmospheric. Love the mood you've set here. Chapter 3 drags on for too long, but overall the writing is great.

🎤 glerikud

27. Aug 2015 · 12:15 UTC

Here is the guide if anyone would like to play again:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16623848/Megoszt/AS/tod/TotD_guide.txt

killersnoofie

28. Aug 2015 · 00:07 UTC

Great Art !

MrMordem

28. Aug 2015 · 14:51 UTC

Nice text based adventure, the illustrations fitted the mood, and the music was awesome, a nice twisting of the theme since here you are not always the monster, it depends on what you do :) well done for a first ludum

nihilaleph

29. Aug 2015 · 17:45 UTC

Great game! Loved the art work, and the music really gives a great mood! Also great twist on the theme!

/***** SPOILER ALERT *******/
I just didn't get the good ending... the princess is the witch? So leaving her free is a bad thing...? Right?

PS: Thank you for playing my game again! I'm glad it felt better!

Jupiter_Hadley

31. Aug 2015 · 17:51 UTC

Good writing style. I included it in part 12 of my Ludum Dare 33 Compilation video series, if you would like to take a look :) https://youtu.be/mbmK1PaRvAU

Raspadsistema

12. Sep 2015 · 11:44 UTC

Very atmospheric, and the storyline suits these times in which one can easily see monsters in faces of innocent civilians.

superfreak

14. Sep 2015 · 10:42 UTC

Great mood and writing - super ambitious amount for a jam! Great job :)