Caveat Exemplum Optimus by Jason Shapiro

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

A grotesque dystopian body horror game built in Twine.

Ratings

Overall 1031th 2.95⭐ 42🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1069th 2.592⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 997th 2.711⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1078th 2.632⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 997th 2.044⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Humor 673th 2.676⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Mood 752th 3.3⭐ 42🧑‍⚖️
Given 29🗳️ 58🗨️

Feedback

HangoverGames
02. Oct 2023 · 18:19 UTC
TL DR but kinda fun
Some graphics wouldn't hurt tho
September-XYZX
02. Oct 2023 · 18:29 UTC
The depiction of the narrator and the father is very good, but the caricatures in the board room honestly came off as a little mean-spirited in some cases. Not that I think any of those people need defending, but the stuff being exaggerated just felt kind of shallow and superficial.

The stuff with the heart was good, both thematically and mechanically, but the length of the staircase made the margin of error a bit too small. Not that there's much punishment for dying anyway, of course. I also thought maybe there'd be some alternative way to feed outside (some kind of labour exploitation allegory?) or at home, but I couldn't find anything to do at those spaces.
Panda king 976
02. Oct 2023 · 19:01 UTC
Very weird opening and overall uninteresting to me but the unusual medium is cool.
JOZGames
03. Oct 2023 · 17:39 UTC
Queria jogar mas essa parede de texto me desanimou, hehe. Quem sabe quando meu inglês estiver melhor.
TheMixedMaster
04. Oct 2023 · 04:02 UTC
I'm not too interested in overly narrative games, but I played for a few minutes. The links to different choices being within the text rather than after it is cool. I don't know if that's something other games do, but if it's not I'd say that's pretty innovative.
GreenPig
04. Oct 2023 · 05:10 UTC
Oooooh i fricking love page-turner rpgs and this one was very interesting, this isn't much of a game rather than just a good story but i loved it, great work.
Utopia
05. Oct 2023 · 04:29 UTC
The story is good but it is too long to read to be honest, adding some graphics to help!
IrinaM
05. Oct 2023 · 18:28 UTC
Fun game. Very simple and pleasant graphics.
LDJam user 374809
07. Oct 2023 · 10:47 UTC
Liked what you were going for with the prose, but it stayed at full throttle weirdness the whole time and lost some of its impact. Moments of horror sprinkled into normalcy makes the strange things happening really stand out.
Natano
07. Oct 2023 · 10:51 UTC
I confess that I was surprised to see a game in this style. Normally we expect graphics, mechanics or something like that. But a good story like this is also captivating and entertaining. I think some sounds would be cool, to give more ambience to the story, other than that the game fulfills the idea of being an interactive text. Very good.
kanity
07. Oct 2023 · 13:21 UTC
I knew from the description it will be hard for me to read as I am quite squeamish. I gave it a try carefully.

The first scene was disgusting, so good job (I mean you probably were going for that feeling and I def got it)
While I was chillin around looking at the portraits in the Board Room my character got too hungry and died ig xD
I wondered if sth special would happen when I feed on that twisted deity of sorts (?) but it seems I got away with it ^^' Then I wandered around all the places and eventually came back to feed again, and "You know you have all the metal discs and green sheets you can ever use, but the screaming desire for more grows louder and louder, finally overwhelming you. You collapse lifelessly to the floor."

I assume you spent all the active jam phase time on text, but if you at least added a background for the game it could give an impression of illustration, and maybe also give the text a more specific colour (maybe red text on black BG or something along these lines to go with the story).
NewVid
08. Oct 2023 · 09:33 UTC
I loved this. The constant need to feed is a great and irritating mechanic, as it should be. Also loved all the
bilionare pricks thinly veiled names.
Polite Stories
08. Oct 2023 · 18:48 UTC
You have made a really intense and frightening atmosphere here, the constant need to eat and consume is a always overshadowing you and you have some really easy to read writing, nothing too wordy or obtuse that it's difficult to read in one sitting. I liked what I personally took away to be the overall message too, that those who feed off of human suffering and exploit those under them with greed will never truly be satisfied and they comparable to monsters.

I am also really happy to see someone else who created a whole narrative experience, I do genuinely love games like this and it's really sad that sometimes the feedback we get aren't really helpful for the kinds of games we create such as "too many words" or "where are the graphics" or, my absolute least favourite "TLDR" it just plain sucks, game jams at platforms for improvement and... those things are just not that. Please keep on doing this kind of thing, it makes ludum dare a much more interesting and diverse place!
justking144
08. Oct 2023 · 19:25 UTC
Always interesting and unexpected to see a full text-based game in a jam but this one was pretty interesting.

I'd say my one complaint was that you started too strong with needing to suckle your father. I get the metaphor here, but it's hard to keep up a creepy atmosphere when it starts out that way and I don't think anything else in the game felt that creepy. Maybe a scene of being called to the office could've helped build up the tension, having the protagonist walk down a creepy hall before the reveal of the father.
Tero Pulkkinen
09. Oct 2023 · 01:37 UTC
html links would have been original game mechanic, if we were in 1970s and 2 billion web sites are not yet existing. in 2023, its kinda boring design that we've seen billions of times. This game really need to compete against pong and donkey kong, not mario bros movie...
LDJam user 300020
18. Oct 2023 · 17:49 UTC
I was genuinely taken aback by this game. It is made by words!wow! Its compelling narrative was equally enthralling, I like the gameplay design also. I concur with the previous comments. It would be nice if there were some sound effects for tapping the word. 💗You can try my game if you like puzzle.
EX3D0
18. Oct 2023 · 22:25 UTC
Text adventures are always a rare sight and are definitely super hard to pull off well so I have to start off by applauding you for that. That being said, I don't feel like this was it, I can get what you were going for but the story was a bit *too* outlandish and on the nose to draw me into it.