The Long Night of Augustus Brandicourt by Norah

- ### Update : Thank you for your feedback! The last download version of the game has got some improvements.
Jam Version: HTML and "Augustus_v2"
Post-jam version: "Augustus_v3" and Itch.io https://badroulboudour.itch.io/the-long-night-of-augustus-brandicourt
- ### We still recommend you to play the downloaded version. The HTML one has some minor graphic bugs Download "Augustusv2" for jam version or "Augustusv3" for post-jam version.
The Long Night of Augustus Brandicourt
Dying was not exactly on the carefully planned schedule of Mr. Augustus Brandicourt. Unfortunately, seems like the grim reaper cut to the chase on this very night. Now unable to rest in peace, his soul is condemned to wander around the endless corridors of his manor. Yet there seems to be a last unresolved task that bounds him to the world of the living...
Controls
WASD to move
E to interact
A game by :
:ghost: Nathalie Nguyen
:ghost: Sylvain Boisel
:ghost: Mathilde Durand
:ghost: Norah Fery
Localization by :
:ghost: Simon Tournel




| Itch.io | https://badroulboudour.itch.io/the-long-night-of-augustus-brandicourt |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/54/the-long-night-of-augustus-brandicourt |
Ratings
| Overall | 196th | 3.959⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 718th | 3.243⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 420th | 3.527⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 418th | 3.851⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 32th | 4.597⭐ | 38🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 183th | 3.829⭐ | 37🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 442th | 3.161⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 20th | 4.419⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 42🗳️ | 42🗨️ |
The downside is that the text is not very readable even on a large monitor screen. But these are just minor things.
You completely integrated the theme in the gameplay, and it's so satisfying.
Just a remark : I did not feel I was resolving a mistery, but I was told a (classic) story. I just wandered in circle waiting to see if an object highlighted.
Fittingly for a ghost, I wasn't quite sure what to do. I found
!> both sides of the old photograph, and the diaries/notes of the kids, even the stack of Edmund's paintings,
but what then?
For a minor improvement suggestion, I think movement should be blocked while you are interacting with something. A few times I wandered off in the background, and couldn't progress until I found my way back to interact again - which is tricky to do with the view blocked!
I recorded myself playing to provide extra feedback:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVdEEHQYhpA
Well done! You could very well expand this to a great adventure game!
I feel the game could be improved in many places! Some sound effects for interacting and animations could go a long way. I also notices some jitter when walking against the invisible wall. This could be prevented by clamping the position based on the radius which increases when interacting with more items, or by simply using interpolated rigidbody's.
Anyway, great entry! Good work!
The mood and theme of the game all worked out perfectly in the end. Had some graphical glitches when playing the web version and also ran into the mentioned bug with moving while interacting.
Ending was pretty touching, only thing I might suggest as an improvement to guide exploration is to prevent the player from moving through walls(just let them move through doors) so you can have more guided paths for exploration.
Small fix required is stopping movement while dialogue boxes are opened.
Anyway, 5/5, I want to see more of this.
I found the premise of walking around the house as a spirit discovering who I am, and what I meant to the people around me so captivating. I probably spend a bit too long finding the notes under the bed (I was also able to find the picture in the clock before I found the notes) so I probably spent a bit longer on this than most :smile:
We went and made a __post-jam final version (Augustus_v3)__ to download, with little improvements to make the game smoother to play:
- player movement is locked during interactions
- UI should be able to adapt to most screen sizes
- the restricted zone increases AFTER the item interaction, in order to make the goal of the game somewhat clearer
- game progression has been tweaked a bit, especially towards the end
- audio feedback when interacting with an item
The art is gorgeous! The models in the game itself look good too. Very atmospheric music.
Pressing E to interact felt pretty un-intuitive, would be nice to tell the controls in-game as well. I kinda pressed play right away and just found E by pressing on all the buttons, only then went back to this page to confirm the controls ^^' Yeah, the items are highlighted with "E", but at first, when you got a text box, you are at a loss.
I like how you executed the idea of "limited space", it feels like a very original take to me, while still staying true to the theme. And it is shown in the gameplay AND makes sense for the story, which is double great. Pretty funny how I got out of bounds though:

One of the portraits in the corridor showing a character from your previous game Becasse against the depths was a nice easter egg ^^
Overall: it was a beautiful short story, and I liked the way you gave the information, that felt natural and gave us pretty much all the info we needed. the ending is quite sweet as well, I really liked the kinda-animated CG there :) And a cute Ending screen as well, very satisfying. I wonder how the children are going to live now, as I don't think we made any changes to the will (maybe it's not even possible as we are a ghost) (and I tried interacting with the will again before I interacted with Edmund) but I guess the main thing is that we regret our actions and that we did give our son a blessing <3
+ There was less wandering around than in Becasse, and I liked the controls. The mechanic is also great, and I enjoyed slowly uncovering the rooms. The items are highlighted from far enough distance. I DID wander around a bit looking for new spaces BUT I am *very* directionally challenged and still it didn't take too long.
Thank you for the game, it was a great experience!! ^^
Yes, we thought maybe Augustus could change his will but we didn't do it in the end.
You're right for the "E" control, left click would have been a lot better.
Anyway, Thank you again !! :heart:
Your voice was perfect when you read Augustus thoughts :ghost: