Mimic by Lizz
Dive into a fantasy text-adventure game compatible with touchscreens as well (Yay!). All that is required: - Internet; - Mouse or, if touchscreen, finger; - Ability to read.
Recommended is that you play the game a few times (assuming you do not get the longest routes), only then you potentially unravel more of the story details. Which endings do you find between the maze of the 'to be continued...' ones? You will need to restart the game to start a new story, for the reason why and more explanations see development..
Scroll down for the link (allows full screen)! And in advance... Thank you for playing! :blue_heart:

Optional sound
Since this game is only visual, I am opting out of the audio category. Not a must, but I recommend you put YouTube or Spotify on and play any 'fantasy music reading', 'fantasy music library' or 'fantasy music writing' on. Go for the calm, without vocals. Scroll down for my pick of music.
Completionist goals
Am I adding this? Yes I am. Just for fun. Maybe you are lucky and find some answers? - Find the nine names. Four are player nicknames, one is a name for a humanoid and then there are four other names left. - Find the two death endings. - Find the hidden end, extremely difficult on a touchscreen. - Who appears to be the BBEG? Why do you think so, what details have you found?

Development, personal
Let us go back to the beginnings. What were my major inspirations sources? - A picture from Pinterest; - The 'tiny' creature size category in D&D; - The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe.
This is my first solo game. Programming games, using Unity and all that is way out of my reach. I do not have the focus and energy to put into learning completely new skills and programs because of personal challenges. Still, I found my connection with the program Twine. It easy to understand, and its main focus is what I love: Storytelling.
Honestly, I had not calculated in how boring it can be to be hours, and hours, and hours focused on writing a story with branching paths! In-between for my health and alike I took big, effective breaks.
I did learn something interesting. At the start of the Gamejam, I was pro quantity. I can brush it up later anyhow! The more time ticked by however, the less paths but the higher quality it became. This I found out based on two observations in hindsight. I have a ton of options on the left side of my story map, as I worked from left to right it became less and less. The second observation was by grammar check, I had to do way more corrections at the earlier passages. That's how it felt at least.
English is not my native language, and guess who found out Twine has no spellcheck... That sucked. I found my way around it though, blessed with two screens. I wrote it in Dutch-like English style. :laughing:
I made with this game at the start two conscious decisions. First, black background be good, but I wanted the text to not be bright white. I wanted it kind to the eyes as this is a text adventure, you will be reading a lot if playing such game. Besides that, I removed the option to rewind choices freely. I wanted them to matter more, instead I give myself options to go another way instead now and then. Besides that, when you finish your story you need to restart the game, truly starting a new adventure so to speak.
| HTML5 (web) | https://lizz4.itch.io/mimic |
| Recommended ambiance | https: //youtu.be/Mi_wP6INf78?si=6hYgMnFvJqnIKdZS |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/mimic |
Ratings
| Overall | 833th | 3.24⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 954th | 2.8⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 936th | 2.72⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 793th | 3.34⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 963th | 1.958⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 350th | 3.391⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 876th | 3.083⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 15🗳️ | 29🗨️ |
Delightful storytelling! I tried to go through it methodically for completionism, but boy oh boy was the Blueberry path exhausting lol.
- :white_check_mark: Found all 9 names
- :question: I think I found the 2 death scenes? I dunno, I found a lot of ones that seemed to be deaths, only two actually said "death" and one of those two rewound time for a 2nd chance, so...
- :x: I have no idea where the secret ending is, I assume it's invisible text you have to highlight or regular text that only shows it's an option if you hover over it since it's "hard to get on touchscreen", but I haven't the foggiest which of the many paths it would be on, it's too exhausting to go back through again to look for it haha.
- :eye_in_speech_bubble: I think the BBEG is the king (always asking for stuff, sending thugs to capture us...), or maybe the BBEG was calories all along!
By the way, your link to the YouTube music seems to have a space breaking it. If that wasn't intentional I thought you should know!
The Blueberry path is the one with the biggest quantity and a lot of connections. I honestly find it the most difficult route myself and for the life of me do not remember how to navigate that one as well as the others.
You... Found all the names?! Heavens, either you've been playing for a long while or read quick. Congratz :smile:
The time one is not exactly counted as a true ending, since it forces you- if not closing the game- to go back if I remember right. However, I get where you are coming from. After these two weeks I'll find them myself, hopefully, and will place them here with the secret ending if not found yet.
Ahum, I don't think I will need to comment on your thoughts on the secret ending :blush: There are truly not many ways to put a secret in the simple format I use without playing with javascript.
:rofl: Thanks for playing!
As for the link, thats an oopsie. I'll leave it as it is and hopefully people realize it easily if they use it.
Thank you for playing!
I like how the narrator breaks the forth wall multiple times in my playthroughs. Also, the music really helps with creating the mood. I even think that different music tracks could make this text adventure feel different. Like horror, or corny. The theater of the mind can do lots of cool things!
Later-on I'll make sure to check out some other routes
I saw someone mentioning that the answers were difficult to distinguish and I agree with that. Some line-breaks could do magic there.
In any case well done! I think I got carried out by a bird, but it was a little unclear to me so I might have been eaten after all xD
Setting is quite good, and having the main character be a shapeshifter is both original and a good way to set up infinite possibilities of progressing the story. My feeling of the character throughout the game is with a bit of sadness and pity, I guess intended, it is a bottled little creature dependent on its master after all. The choice of music is perfect. I think that with IF it is not a mistake to make music an optional recommendation, some IF fans prefer to be given just text while retaining full control over what music (if any) to listen to. In any case, you made a solid start here, congrats!