LudumData

My grandma's stories by Aquillot

[raw]
made by Aquillot for Ludum Dare 54 (JAM)

DESCRIPTION

Discover the story of a grandmother through the drawings of her granddaughter where each scene is a little hand-drawn mini-game.

We have moved away from the theme​, here “limited space” was supposed to be the grandmother’s memory/life which is limited to our human life, our place on earth is limited​. Unfortunately, we were unable to really ​ represent it in the game.

CONTROLS

Arrows: move
Space bar: interact

If you are stuck:

As many have noted, some levels can be complicated to understand, to clarify:

All interactions are done with the space bar and arrows.
For the baby you have to shake the toy to make him happy (Left/rights arrows).
For the baptism you have to press space once and then take the baby out of the water in time.
For the ballet, the level being too hard we removed the possibility of losing, you had to jump at the right time.

We didn't want to display text to let the player feel a sense of discovery, but we didn't have enough time to properly design the levels to make this clear without explanations.

TEAM

Avventuriero Matéo | @mateo-avventuriero
Chrysanthou Athena (drawings)
Vaillant Hugo | @aquillot
With help of Mackow Anaïs (musics)

Music credits:
Open Those Bright Eyes - Kevin MacLeod
Tiny Fugue - Kevin MacLeod
Serenade for String in E, Op. 22, Tempo di valse - Antonín Dvořák
Trouble - Kevin MacLeod
Broken Reality - Kevin MacLeod
At Rest - Kevin MacLeod

2<em>background1.png6</em>background.png

Itch.io page https://mallok-studio.itch.io/my-grandmas-stories
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/54/my-grandmas-stories

Ratings

Overall 778th 3.357⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Fun 875th 3.025⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 220th 3.81⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1112th 2.35⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 279th 4.091⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Mood 165th 4.026⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Given 19🗳️ 15🗨️

Feedback

Taeghen
03. Oct 2023 · 21:07 UTC
The game is original, hand draw scene with movement on it is really well done. Some games are not easy to control/understand but I could finish the game so it's not that bad. Good job guys
AidanBacon
03. Oct 2023 · 21:09 UTC
Really like the idea and the artstyle is super cool, but I don't really understand what to do after the first couple levels - would love a little more information in the game about what to do lol. good luck on future projects!
Endocrine_BAMSc
03. Oct 2023 · 21:09 UTC
Top mood I really like the hand drawn aesthetic. Well done :)
I-IV-V-I
03. Oct 2023 · 21:11 UTC
Really enjoyed the wholesome mood of this storytelling experience. Although I didn't understand the whole plot and the connection to the theme I thoroughly enjoyed your entry.
RossK
03. Oct 2023 · 21:16 UTC
I like the art, and approach to storytelling! I did find myself a little confused at times, though-- I was never sure if the game was frozen, or if I just wasn't at an interactive part yet.
GumiBear
03. Oct 2023 · 21:16 UTC
very unique idea, i loved the way of conveying these stories through interactive drawings. some controls weren't very intuitive, a small "tutorial" for every scene would have been appreciated (i felt like completing the baptism through sheer luck haha) - at any rate this game gives me a feeling i can't put into words, the way it tells about bygone times is truly special. as you admitted, the theme wasn't entirely conveyed, but it was definitely going into the right direction.
sabasa
03. Oct 2023 · 21:17 UTC
Beautiful story and art. Good job
Robert Li
03. Oct 2023 · 21:18 UTC
Absolutely loved this game. You've made something really personal. I've always believed that making a game's narrative super personal would be difficult, difficult in terms of how the player's would perceive your game. But I think you've changed my mind. I felt connected to the personal stories your grandma told you. Each hand drawing pictures has simple but meaningful gameplay that ties to the narrative of each drawing, and they are wonderful. I honestly wish you could continue doing this, telling stories with no fancy graphics or complex game mechanics, but with honesty and simplicity. Love this game. Thank you!
RubyDaPrincess
03. Oct 2023 · 21:23 UTC
The drawings are really fun and make a great style and aestethic. However not sure how much of a "game" this is, it was a bit confusing in what to do in the beginning. Still fun to go trough the sotry tho, lot's of "ah-ha" moments!
ViktorTheGreat
03. Oct 2023 · 21:23 UTC
I absolutely love games with unique visual styles like this, it's one of my favorite things about indie games! I loved looking at the hand drawn pictures and being able to see all the lines of the pens and crayons. It felt so much more personal that way! I felt like I was being handed a sketchbook.

Unfortunately, I was completely unable to understand what to do during the baptism scene. I tried multiple things, like waiting for the music to be done before hitting space, hitting space and holding it, spamming the arrow keys, and doing some combination of those and other maneuvers. I even tried hitting other keys that weren't listed on the page! It really makes me sad that I was so stumped, because I wanted to experience more of this game. Textless games like this are very tricky, because in order to convey the goal/objective to the player, you have to be very masterful in your design, and that mark was missed here I fear.
Justine D
03. Oct 2023 · 21:25 UTC
Hum... wow. I wasn't expecting that when launching the game. Not sure I understood it all, but damn she had some rough moments. Very nice hommage to your grandmother

Gameplay wise, it's not always clear what to do. I especially struggled with the baptism, almost gave up. I still don't understand how I passed it.

I love the art style, and the sound design feels very polish, nice job
MikroPiru
08. Oct 2023 · 10:20 UTC
I pretty much agree with the things already said here. I also liked the original take, even though the connection to the theme didn't feel that strong. And yes, it was sometimes a bit hard to understand what to do but through trial and error I managed to finish it. The levels weren't long so starting over wasn't much of a bummer if I didn't grasp the idea immediately.

The atmosphere worked well, with the beautiful music and sometimes emotionally strong scenes.
Natano
08. Oct 2023 · 15:49 UTC
I really liked the idea of the paper drawings! That makes such a great atmosphere for the game! I finished it so fast! However, it's not so clear what you should do in each level/memory. But I still liked this game a lot. Congratulations for the creators!
Ayxs
08. Oct 2023 · 21:16 UTC
What an interesting game! You probably already know but the controls where very vague at times, maybe some kind of button prompting would have come a long way. But that probably also defeats the purpose of some of the minigames.

The game idea is very interesting though, I really like the variation of some simpler minigames and then suddenly a very dark one with little to no extra attention. Very well done, really gave me chills sometimes.

Keep up the good work!
yifengqing
13. Oct 2023 · 02:09 UTC
It's nice to see another hand-drawn style piece with a very unique understanding of the subject.
anaticula
13. Oct 2023 · 12:21 UTC
This project feels very personal and the way it is made using pencil graphics, particular music and several different mini-games makes it even more intimate. I may not have fully understand the story but it was interesting to reveal it through playing
Matt Green
13. Oct 2023 · 18:28 UTC
I don't even now what to say. The graphics style was super cool. But holy shit. That one level, I was just hitting spacebar and I did not feel good about it.

Well done overall. I'm gonna go sit down for a bit.
jk5000
14. Oct 2023 · 14:34 UTC
I overall liked it. The drawings is good. I liked the story. Gameplay is simple and pretty fun. Overall a good jam game. Well done.
Ntimi
14. Oct 2023 · 14:38 UTC
Really cool game. Like others already said, this felt like a really intimate story. Thanks for sharing it with us. The hand-drawn graphics fit the game really well.
The different mini games made the game more interesting and fun. I actually liked having to figure out how to control every different screen - it felt like exploring how to handle each part of the story.