Mimic by Lizz

[raw]
made by Lizz for Ludum Dare 56 (JAM)

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:

icon Mimic.png

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?

Mimic game.png

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.

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🗨️

Feedback

LDJam user 262142
08. Oct 2024 · 08:44 UTC
I liked it, some paths are TBCed but I enjoyed running around in the world and Minerva is gigachad. It's a good story when I don't like being mean to Minerva but you gotta check out the other timelines hehe. Completionist-wise I haven't found the hidden ending : ( but on the bright side I got the 2 death endings : 7
Papabirb
08. Oct 2024 · 09:44 UTC
![meme for lizz game comment.png](///raw/0af/e1/z/67cf5.png)


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!
🎤 Lizz
08. Oct 2024 · 15:49 UTC
@shreemp thank you! I myself disliked writing the more mean ones to Minerva :sweat_smile: Thank you for playing, as for the hidden ending... If I am correct there are at least 24 "endings" that are not a TBC, so thats absolutely no surprise. Likely, it will be up to luck if someone finds it.
🎤 Lizz
08. Oct 2024 · 15:59 UTC
@papabirb Oh jeez, yes the meme is fitting :rofl: I had not thought it through but it is deginetly staying as it is to make at least myself laugh~

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.
Papabirb
08. Oct 2024 · 18:20 UTC
@lizz A bit of both! I was playing for 2, maybe 2 and a half hours? I restarted the ambience music twice haha. But it's also easy to memorize a path to methodically read "what if I had picked this one?" recursively, and some choices were just slightly different flavortext, so it ups the speed reading element when the information isn't fresh lol.
🎤 Lizz
09. Oct 2024 · 02:27 UTC
@papabirb thats still a good while to do especially while rating games, I feel honoured! :smile:
Pachino55
09. Oct 2024 · 05:11 UTC
This game is very interesting, good job
Jonathan Vinesar
09. Oct 2024 · 05:19 UTC
unfortunately the music is bringing up a 404 error for me, but this took me back to when i would read so many choose your own adventure books. definitely would have loves some graphics or something to draw me deeper into the story, but it was still fun to try a few routes.
🎤 Lizz
09. Oct 2024 · 07:37 UTC
@jonathan-vinesar yeah the link for the music has a space in it :sweat_smile: I left it be for now, sorry for the inconvenience! As for graphics, I craved making them after so much writing but sadly I have yet to learn how to add anything other then text- the colors made me grumble already. :see_no_evil: :rofl: Graphics be the next step for a next time, assuming I be doing it without help again.

Thank you for playing!
🎤 Lizz
09. Oct 2024 · 07:40 UTC
@pachino55 nice~ Happy to hear. What of the story stuck the most with you?
oliver_day
10. Oct 2024 · 04:45 UTC
Interesting story but I found it a bit hard to distinguish the gap between different options. The story felt like I couldn't directly know what was going on (because it was just text) but it made me see more through the eyes of the creature and added to the feeling that I was missing something.
Martingonn
10. Oct 2024 · 04:51 UTC
Simple, but has a great feel, no matter what option you take. I ended up with “WORLD DOMINATION!!!”.
Pete Valeo
10. Oct 2024 · 05:21 UTC
Simple but effective! I don't think I'd have the patience to craft this much text for a jam game - truly a slog, even when it's enjoyable The different branching paths are all shockingly detailed - and the fact that you were able to pin it all together with Twine is really impressive. Excellent workaround to have the YouTube link for ambiance as well - nice touch!
Sviborg
10. Oct 2024 · 07:03 UTC
Delightful storytelling experience, truly reminiscent of classic "choose your own adventure" books. While the lack of visuals might detract from immersion for some, the creativity in writing compensates for it. It's an impressive piece for a game jam!
FuTaiBu
10. Oct 2024 · 12:05 UTC
It's a bit frustrating to not have pictures, but there's still something interesting about the way the text is written.
Wouter52
10. Oct 2024 · 17:32 UTC
I'm impressed with the detailed story telling you did in this game! I know about all the text-dnd, but actually reading this stuff makes me proud :smile:
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.
🎤 Lizz
10. Oct 2024 · 17:48 UTC
@oliver-day thank you for playing, in hindsight I have ideas for art that would not screw with the 'missing something' and now know art can be actually added to Twine. No clue how yet but definitely going to be part of the learning process, it definitely would add some fun for more kinds of players [and me, less writing, more different things]. Regarding the gap it is something I realized during the bit of time I used to learn to use the basic of the basics of the program, but totally forgot to fix during the Jam :sweat_smile:
🎤 Lizz
10. Oct 2024 · 17:50 UTC
I am guessing the TBC options are less attractive, but seeing with which end you ended up you went the way with the least TBC's @martingonn :smile: Thank you for playing!
🎤 Lizz
10. Oct 2024 · 17:51 UTC
Patience is virtue- but I definitely had times I just wanted to scream with all the typing @pete-valeo :rofl: Next time I will add the ambiance link to the game if I cannot figure out how to put sounds in by then at my own tempo. Thanks for playing~
🎤 Lizz
10. Oct 2024 · 17:58 UTC
@sviborg hiya, thank you for the impressive positive feedback. However, could you tell me if you chose the grape, kiwi, apple or mango path? I am very curious which path made you so positive :smile:
🎤 Lizz
10. Oct 2024 · 18:00 UTC
@futaibu thanks! And yeah, besides making the game and story better with adding art- which I learned is possible but not how to yet- I also would fix the hell it was to write hours over hours. Would make the story shorter likely, but would also increase the amount of players that would feel attracted to try and stick around a bit longer. Even if it be janky art :smile: Thank you for playing
🎤 Lizz
10. Oct 2024 · 18:02 UTC
@wouter52 Hiya sweetie :grin: Thanks for playing. The line breaks would certainly help, or any differentiating in colors. Either way I had realized the issue before the jam with my trial run but forgot to do something about it, oops :sweat_smile:
frozenfire92
10. Oct 2024 · 23:39 UTC
Great work on completing the jam solo! That story was a wild ride :smile: Keep on making games!
Mantsje
11. Oct 2024 · 10:12 UTC
this is so cool, I love a branching narrative. WE tried this in a game once but found it incredibly hard to properly program! Any tips on how to go about that? Especially when you have earlier choices locking or unlocking later ones it became quite a nightmare for us.

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
kr4ft3r
12. Oct 2024 · 20:50 UTC
Well, this is one good way to deal with branching narrative - clearly have playful fun with writing and put branches at almost every step. In which case you end up with too much work on your hands for one weekend and end up with TBCs, but short sessions are perfect for average attention span given to an LD game. A bit awkward that one can't replay the game without fully closing the tab and opening again from the link, but I'm not the type who replays obsessively to see all possible endings anyway, had three sessions in total (banana - taken away by owl / bluberries - squeezing under door / rolling down the desk). Though well writen in general, there were some more inventive descriptions where I had to put in much focus to understand what is going on, it could be just me being stupid at the time.

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!
ThatSommeS
14. Oct 2024 · 20:14 UTC
Wow, this is an undertaking, I get tired just thinking of writing all of the branches. Would love to see a version which continues the story and converges to just a few endings.