Afraid by Renge

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

The windows version is recommended as it looks better.

This is a game about mental illness. It centers around a person with a troubled past who has an acute fear of crowds and some locations in his town.

The goal of the game is to tend to your physical needs (hunger, hygiene, health, etc.) while also taking care of your anxiety. You will accompany him on his journey via journal entries that are revealed as time passes.

Screenshot 2023-10-02 211522.png

Tutorial:

Move with W/A/S/D interact with E. You can also sprint and jump with Shift and Space respectively. Look by moving the mouse (Click the screen to make sure the mouse is captured).

There is no in-game tutorial other than hints given in journal entries. You can find locations by exploring... (They have massive signs indicating their purpose and are visible from almost anywhere)

Other than that here's a graphic tutorial:

Screenshot 2023-10-02 210655.png

Energy: Replenished by sleeping, decreases more rapidly when other values are low

Health: Replenished by sleeping, exercising(bike), and a small amount from other activities

Mental Health: Replenished by sleeping and therapy (costs 100), decreases extremely quickly when near a group of people or a trigger zone

Hunger: Replenished by eating in the kitchen

Hygiene: Take a bath

Alcohol: drink alcohol on the table next to the kitchen

Addiction: decreases when alcohol is at 0, increases otherwise

Money: Work (gives 200)

Food: Buy at Super Mart (costs 100)

Alcohol: Buy at Super Mart (costs 20)

If you don't have enough energy or health for a task you will not be able to do it, which means you need to sleep to the next day.

Update 1: Balancing

Ratings

Overall 555th 3.58⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Fun 934th 2.94⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 551th 3.38⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Theme 766th 3.34⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Mood 328th 3.8⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Given 46🗳️ 12🗨️

Feedback

AdamsMcCall
02. Oct 2023 · 23:25 UTC
This was an interesting experience. It wasn't really fun, but so is living with a mental illness so its on point. Sadly I couldn't get very far because the bars decrease quite rapidly, but the narration through journal entries acts as a good motivation to keep going through the struggles of the everyday routine. An interesting take on the theme, well done :thumbsup:
🎤 Renge
03. Oct 2023 · 07:30 UTC
@adamsmccall thank you for the feedback! Was there anything stopping you from refilling the bars?
AdamsMcCall
03. Oct 2023 · 08:06 UTC
@renge Well it was mostly my own fault I think, on the second day I thought I could just do whatever I wanted so I went to work, realized I couldn't, then went back home which depleted my bars by quite a lot. The day after I think I ate all my food already and didn't think of drinking alcohol before going to work lol
Jacinto Mba
03. Oct 2023 · 09:36 UTC
Very nice concept, good job!
Soul Grinder
03. Oct 2023 · 09:45 UTC
Nice idea for the theme, I had fun playing this and quite a lot of details for a 72hr project. I didn't find any bugs and it ran as smooth as butter. Good game.
Vincent7
04. Oct 2023 · 00:30 UTC
Interesting idea. I really liked the intro and the narration in general. Also the big sign indicating where is what were very useful. Feeling a bit moody now lol, but I guess that's the point.
Thenerdster
04. Oct 2023 · 00:37 UTC
Easy to understand even though you built in a lot of detail. Gameplay was smooth, I enjoyed it. I too thought I could just do whatever I want quickly learned I need a strategy. Nice entry
Raaph
04. Oct 2023 · 15:18 UTC
Big scope, great execution.
🎤 Renge
04. Oct 2023 · 15:22 UTC
@jacinto-mba @soul-grinder @vincent7 @thenerdster @raaph

Thank you so much for playing, and thank you for your kind words!
Arthur Othy-Gares
04. Oct 2023 · 18:00 UTC
I love this !
It is quite attractive, the musics are really good.
I didn't see so much the theme in the game aside the crowd you have to avoid.
It would be perfect with a better ui and more feedbacks, but it is great in 3 days !
merdeboi
06. Oct 2023 · 07:33 UTC
Pretty big idea to make a whole town for the ludum :smile: Great artwork, nice sounds. It's a neat idea reminds me very much of a life sim, but I guess with the added difficulty of the mental illness. Enjoyable experience, but maybe a little bit too much running around.
Decipator
07. Oct 2023 · 12:28 UTC
The narrative is very present, it really feels like the life of a lot of people nowadays. It caused me to reflect a bit.

Anyway, being honest I wonder if the game would benefit from a 2D side scrolling perspective a bit more then 3D third person. I recall The End of the World, which is a good thing, and maybe a great reference.

Since it is clear that the Journal is a big part of the narrative, wandering around too much felt a bit overwhelming. Maybe with a little bit less map to worry about the UX could have benefited from a review. Feels to me that not all information was necessary on every interaction. Also it was not clear what was indeed interactable or not, which can be a bit frustrating at times.

I get that the relation with the theme is being limited by anxiety and fear of people, a good abstraction of the theme.

Overall its a good idea that I can clearly see being fully developed into a product, so great job!
ruddgasm
08. Oct 2023 · 19:52 UTC
Initially I thought the game was fairly simple and easy to get through the days, but then I got more and more invested in the journal entries and had to see it to the end. The story had a realistic honesty to it that made it feel believable. The mood was spot on as the first time I stepped outside, I felt uncomfortable which played into the social anxiety of the character. Well done!
Agraffs
14. Oct 2023 · 09:49 UTC
The project is very interesting ! There was a lot to learn while playing it as the days went on and the journal entries followed one another. Fairly simple on the first days but it did get harder to manage everything with time, also becoming personally more anxious little by little... The game is really on point. Very well done ! Very instructive !

I have only one thing that could be nice to as would be a little map in the comments, it took me some time to know were I had to go the first day and eventually had to start over again so I could start the game without having depleted my bars.