A Letter To My Friend D by Foursay

[raw]
made by Foursay for Ludum Dare 53 (JAM)

A Letter To My Friend D

Use Arrow Keys to move. Simple visual novel. Thanks to my carrying teammates!

Snipaste<em>2023-05-01</em>18-22-39.png

Dear D,

I have been hesitant to reach out to you...

..as it has been some time since we last spoke.

But I want to let you know that I found a drifting bottle today.

and after reading its message, I decided to throw it back into the sea.

Ratings

Overall 700th 3.476⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1148th 2.61⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 619th 3.305⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Theme 351th 4.134⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 377th 4⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Audio 53th 4.244⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Humor 1035th 2⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Mood 66th 4.286⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Given 75🗳️ 113🗨️

Feedback

CharlesE
02. May 2023 · 01:08 UTC
The art work is nice.
sweltj
02. May 2023 · 01:23 UTC
Art and story are phenomenal! I am really amazed by the talent here.
Barry zhang
02. May 2023 · 01:37 UTC
love it, it is really bring my same memary
Barry zhang
02. May 2023 · 01:45 UTC
amazing visual effect, touching story
whywhy
02. May 2023 · 02:14 UTC
cant chose anything in the main Menu... mouse, keys or controller do not work. How can I fix it?
vtranr
02. May 2023 · 02:14 UTC
Gorgeous, and very cohesive style. Great work!
didi Liu
02. May 2023 · 02:14 UTC
This might be the best game I've experienced in LD game jam! The subtitles remind me of the memory of Edith Finch, and the visual transition from the ocean to the universe made me exclaim and quickly understand the author's intention. Please continue making such good and unique games! I really like the literature in the message in a bottle
I wrote it myself
02. May 2023 · 02:14 UTC
I love this! The story, visuals, and music work together perfectly to create a wonderful atmosphere; I just wish there was a bit more gameplay to it, but still wonderful, Great Job!
matthewrf
02. May 2023 · 02:15 UTC
I always love seeing music synced up with intense gameplay/visual effects, and you delivered on that here. The music is touching and the letter is very heartwarming. My only complaint is that the text can be hard to read sometimes since the color clashses with the blue background, but for the most part I liked what I saw.

Art and music were great! Well done.
🎤 Foursay
02. May 2023 · 05:04 UTC
@whywhy You can use your Left and Right arrow keys to control the bottle's drifting direction, and simply make the bottl drift to the left to start the game at the main menu!
Yossarian
02. May 2023 · 05:35 UTC
Say hi to Trish for me! This was a nice experience- thanks for the submission.

Really cool effect when the bottle went under the water.
whywhy
02. May 2023 · 07:29 UTC
Oh cool! gothca! the bottle was mooooving very slow, i didnt notice :)

very beautiful and gentle experience. Definitely made me sit in awe when the bottle fell through the astroplane
whywhy
02. May 2023 · 07:30 UTC
btw the piano with whales are very touching too
Follett12
02. May 2023 · 08:50 UTC
Wow what a great little game and story. Amazing work guys. I have no real feedback, I think you absolutely nailed it.
LDJam user 360310
02. May 2023 · 10:00 UTC
First of all, thanks for a Mac build. It's rare to have one, and as a Mac owner I feel left out and I cannot play most of the games that are published. I appreciate it a lot. Second, your game made me emotional. It would probably be not correct to call it a game because there is barely interaction, it's more a personal experience. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Renneberg
02. May 2023 · 10:22 UTC
Haunting and beautiful. Really like your way of conveying a message
Kristallllllik
02. May 2023 · 11:38 UTC
Nice artwork !
Yoran den Heijer
02. May 2023 · 12:06 UTC
Very nice way of telling a story during a game. Very nice visuals! Would love to see this with more interactive gameplay.
niterich
02. May 2023 · 13:29 UTC
I've been doing Ludum Dare since 2018 and I can easily say this is one of the most cinematic jam games I've played! The music is stellar, the message is poignant, and the visuals perfectly complement the mood.

My only complaint is that, like whywhy above, I was also confused on the title screen. I get that maybe in-game it makes sense to not have complete control of the bottle, but on the title screen it just felt like something was wrong
Obe Dot
02. May 2023 · 14:53 UTC
I like the story and graphics!
SquidGod
02. May 2023 · 15:44 UTC
The vibes were really really good - especially the music and how it was timed. The atmosphere was done really well to help the message sink in. Nice work!
SolidHinken
02. May 2023 · 19:40 UTC
Looks amazing! Got me chills
🎤 Foursay
02. May 2023 · 19:58 UTC
@solidhinken thank you! hope you enjoy the entire story there too!
ludev
02. May 2023 · 22:00 UTC
Lovely story-telling, audio and visuals. Thank you for the experience.
DzejPi
03. May 2023 · 06:56 UTC
Beautiful storytelling here and nice, warm graphics. I like this interpretation of the theme! Well done animations of scene transition. Only thing I found confusing was the start screen; took me a little bit to figure out that the bottle is actually moving. And other thing I encountered was dialogs drifting a little bit to the left sometimes, which made me not able to fully read few of them, but happened only with like 3 or so. Otherwise this is a great entry and I enjoyed playing it!
Rigel
03. May 2023 · 12:32 UTC
Such a touching story. I feel amazed when the water turns into a constellation of stars. You must be gentle persons.
LDJam user 298734
03. May 2023 · 14:45 UTC
漂流瓶主题哎,喜欢
Georgy
03. May 2023 · 15:30 UTC
This is one of the most addictive games I have ever played. The visual style in this game is really attractive and captivates with its colorful graphics.
Sheepolution
03. May 2023 · 16:22 UTC
That was very nice. Would've loved to have a bit more interaction, but it looked beautiful!
Batony Robson
04. May 2023 · 07:43 UTC
This game is more short film than actual game. But still i loved overall idea and the music. Timings of underwater part and music done great.
Bea
04. May 2023 · 16:20 UTC
This is a very pretty and vibey game! I had little bit of an issue where the text would pop away almost instantly, but otherwise felt the intended experience cam across quite well. I loved the water effect, very simple and very striking. GG
ElisaGonda
04. May 2023 · 18:09 UTC
this was a beautiful experience, loved the hole mood and the audio!
weeping-rupee
05. May 2023 · 17:12 UTC
Loved it. If you’re interested in my feedback here is a VOD of me playing it: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1811761064
GetSky
05. May 2023 · 20:09 UTC
A very soulful game.
Excellent graphics. Great sound.
Received aesthetic pleasure.

Thank you!
yellow
06. May 2023 · 06:42 UTC
好哥们!
chaoli
06. May 2023 · 14:27 UTC
美术很棒!一些小问题:文字有时会闪烁,有时候还没读完就漂出画面外了。总体来说氛围感非常好!
Cubellia
06. May 2023 · 20:19 UTC
Beautiful piece!

The only small nitpick I have is that the text is sometimes hard to read, since some elements in the background are white, I'd consider adding some drop shadow to the text or choosing a light blue for the water highlights.

The mood was fantastic, the sound worked very well and the transition to the stars was a wonderful 'woah' moment, lovely work!
Wuppos
08. May 2023 · 21:10 UTC
This was really a beautiful experience you crafted here, I absolutely loved it! It is a very inspiring way to interpret the them I thinke. I already read the letter in full on your itch page (which was good, since some sentences were impossible to read fully in the game because they were partially of-screen for me), so I already had an idea what to expect, but the music and visuals really enhance the message of the letter a lot. You did a very good job matching the tone and feeling of the letter with the visuals and music in the game. That moment the letter went into space was amazing and gave a lot of weight to the message. I also think your message is absolutely true and very important :)

All-in-all, you did something really amazing here! Amazingly well done :D