Heaven Denied by Dingbat


Heaven Denied is a dark comedic judgment simulator where you decide the fate of the recently deceased. Interview saints, sinners, and total odd balls. Weigh their sins and their good deeds to decide where they will spend eternity. But be careful, some decisions make come back to bite you.
There are 4 total days as well as 2 endings to the game... can you discover them?
For the best experience: Play the downloadable version.
Controls: W, A, S, D - Move Mouse - Aim Left Mouse Button - Interact
| Link | https://d1ngbat.itch.io/heaven-denied |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/heaven-denied |
Ratings
| Overall | 102th | 3.615⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 150th | 3.308⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 165th | 3.231⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 159th | 3.5⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 85th | 3.808⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 69th | 3.673⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 20th | 3.84⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 38th | 4⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 20🗳️ | 31🗨️ |
great game with great story and atmosphere. especially for a game jam!
loved the ending I got especially (will not reveal what it was in case anyone else is reading this before playing)
might go back to see if I can find the other one^^
I enjoyed the game and variety of people, all the little touches you had from the train to the dialogue over their heads, and the accompanying audio, as well as all the information you had for each person on the different screens. Very nice compo submission.
(and I should add, the failure was me testing the system at first, then agreeing to make the wrong choice for the guy who asked, then being lazy when it came to a tough choice and getting it wrong... so I deserved it lol)
Who would have thought it's so exciting to be the judge at the gates of heaven/hell ? :angel: :key2:
The only thing that is a bit annoying is having the UI in the 3D space, having to turn your head all around to get the informations and click buttons, it would have work just fine with a 2D interface and fixed point of view I believe.
If you make it 2d and more interface based like Papers Please, I think it could honestly make a quite successful Steam game. Please develop it, I would definitly play that :smile:
I think this game would have some potential if it was a full game. Papers Please judgment narrative.
The thought experiment was interesting. The takeaway wasn't "what does this person deserve" but more "what do I think the devil who hired me thinks this person deserves", since he's the one hiring and firing me (and I'd otherwise disagree with the devil here over a lot of it). It's a lot like Paper's Please in that regard (in a good way).
Main change I'd suggest is letting the player restart later in the run. I got fired at the end of day three, and it takes a while to get back to where you were.
The secret ending was pretty great :)
Overall great work! A fun little game with awesome vibes.
Great work getting everything working so well, and great use of colors to emphasis mood and theme!
Is there anything you didn't finish that you wish you had more time for?
But I think that's exactly were the lost opportunity was here - the fact the the game consider some choices wrong, mean I can't really express the what I think is right. And it's not like papers please where it's obvious what the rules are, and you can choose to oppose them for your own values..
I also think the text was a little hard to read, and was sometimes obstructed by the cabine or people. Frankly there was too much of it with nothing to do in between, and when I got fired I choose not to continue
BTW the only reason that I sound a little harsh maybe it that this game idea and characters really worked for me on an emotional level, which is something that almost didn't happen on other games I tried on the jam. It doesn't take away the fantastic writing, sound and mood - very well done!
"Socks with sandals" -> HELL :nerd:
The buttons could have been larger, and also I live in France, so I have an AZERTY-based keyboard. Maybe consider to map input with key codes instead of key values? (I don't know how it's made in Unity)
Really nice entry for a COMPO! :clap:
As already mentionned in previous comments, sometimes it didn't feel right that you would consider my choice wrong while we simply think differently. Or maybe there should be a clear set of guidelines we have to follow. In that setup it felt that I had to use my own morale to answer, so it sounds weird that I could be "wrong".
The mood is quite cool, with the characters arriving each day by bus. In the end that part took a bit too much time and I would have skipped if given the possibility.
I loved the visual style, just downloaded the source code to understand how you handled it. The sounds are nice and the far screamings sounds really add a lot!
I liked the ending, I wish there were more story elements like this one, or connections between characters.
Great game!
Great job for the numerous (funny) dialogues and situations ! very surprised by their number !
Awesome 3d visual ! Good audio !
Well done !!