Tell Me About Your Childhood As A Nervous Goldfish by garygreen

[raw]
made by garygreen for LD29 (COMPO)
Why are you so nervous little goldfish? Lie down on the couch & let's see if we can get to the bottom of your deep rooted fears - fears that lie at the bottom of that dark cold ocean.

It's a game featuring cod-psychology and a bit of arcade dodging. To play use the mouse to move this fish and use the keyboard to respond to the questions.

It was written in Processing (my first complete game using Processing), with Caustic for the music & bfxr for sound fx.

Edit: Thanks to KevinWorkman (& his SVGExe software) I now have a self-executing Java/Jar file that anyone should be able to run regardless of system. :-) Link below.

Edit 2: The Processing source code is a combination of the TellMeAboutYour.pde file (in the "Source" folder), plus the media files in the "data" folder.

It's not as finished/polished as I'd like it to be. I had grand ideas, involving bubble guns & chase stages in later parts of the game to give it more variety, as well as your psychology decisions influencing later game play. Now I'm getting to grips with Processing (and enjoying it) hopefully those developments & more will appear in a later version.

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall 3.06 681
Audio 3.20 282
Fun 2.67 856
Graphics 3.04 630
Humor 3.31 145
Innovation 3.09 535
Mood 3.33 282
Theme 3.61 258

Feedback

dan.marchand
28. Apr 2014 路 04:23 UTC
No page to run this? Just see the .pde files
mrexcessive
28. Apr 2014 路 04:42 UTC
Hi! was expecting to see a web version not source repository...
PaperBlurt
28. Apr 2014 路 16:02 UTC
Ohh this was fun.
Kinda like Sopranos but with fish (I mean the therapy part).

Gary: this is good, and the graphics are, in a way interesting and simple.

Cudos!
馃帳 garygreen
28. Apr 2014 路 21:30 UTC
Sorry Dan & mrexcessive - I blame it on tiredness. I've put the link to the Windows executable file now in the entry.

Thanks for the comment Paperblurt - I've got ideas to improve it after the competition.
Hyoga-3D
28. Apr 2014 路 22:36 UTC
Nice graphics, simple and effective
colludium
28. Apr 2014 路 22:38 UTC
Couldn't get the windows version to run. Pity there's no web version to try.
Seraphina
28. Apr 2014 路 23:06 UTC
Very amusing, and mildly difficult, game you've got here. Good stuff.
Cosine
28. Apr 2014 路 23:08 UTC
Interesting game. I love Dr. Salmonfreud. :) I felt like questions should come more often, and there should be a death. It felt like I was just going... and going.
ashdnazg
29. Apr 2014 路 20:26 UTC
I think I owe the psychiatrist a kidney or two...
I liked the music, and the goldfish was also really cute.
The general premise is wacky, and I like that :)

The intro though, should be skippable (It might be that I just haven't found how) and the bouncing captions made me really dizzy, I believe text should be easily readable.
Cirrial
29. Apr 2014 路 21:03 UTC
Interesting game concept, lack of any sort of win or loss seemed strange but there we go. Nice music.
jacobrb95
29. Apr 2014 路 21:29 UTC
This blew my mind. Pretty good. But confusing.
elpaulo
29. Apr 2014 路 21:43 UTC
My first psychoanalyze in a game he he...
The game works well but I'm not sure to understand what to do.
Maybe you should had compress the sound because WAV is a little big.
KevinWorkman
30. Apr 2014 路 01:37 UTC
You might want to use SvgExe to convert your Processing sketch to a self-extracting runnable jar that everybody can run! http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2014/04/24/deploying-processing-use-svgexe/
Gwinnell
30. Apr 2014 路 18:43 UTC
Needs Java to run but it's an exe file. :(
Secret_Tunnel
30. Apr 2014 路 18:56 UTC
Haha, "Tell Me About Your Ex."
StoneMasters
30. Apr 2014 路 20:43 UTC
It sure made me feel like a nervous goldfish.
馃帳 garygreen
01. May 2014 路 07:32 UTC
Thanks for all the positive comments and feedback everyone, everyone. :-) I'm taking them on board for an updated version of the game.

Thanks to KevinWorkman & his SVGExe I now have a self-extracting Java version that everyone can run regardless of system. :-) Phew!
tomvert
01. May 2014 路 12:50 UTC
Interesting mix of gameplay, strange mood and art, nice little game :)
Colthor
01. May 2014 路 19:58 UTC
It would be easier to play if all the files were in a single archive.
jsspiegel
02. May 2014 路 18:01 UTC
Surprisingly deep and moody for a game about fish!
Jupiter_Hadley
02. May 2014 路 19:35 UTC
Nice story for a fish! I included it in part 9 of my Ludum Dare compilation video series if you'd like to take a look http://youtu.be/ln7f84GPnPg
SHAME
02. May 2014 路 20:10 UTC
Very nice and unique! Great graphics, one of my favourite games here!
kunzbe
02. May 2014 路 21:08 UTC
harhar, this was hillarious, thx. Good tunes, strange score numbers going upwards and downwards. I really enjoyed this :)
VictoryGarden
02. May 2014 路 21:42 UTC
"Let me tell you about my mother."

First off, I really like the graphics and collision detection for this. The graphics style is new and fresh, and the concept is a great interpretation of the theme--combining psychology and the sea, but from the sea's perspective rather than a human one? Really smart!

Like some other reviewers, the wavy/swimming text didn't work so well for me... maybe a smaller amplitude of oscillation would have given the desired effect without being quite so difficult to read. The water plants going by so fast in the background gave a feeling of frenetic high speed, which I wasn't sure I liked at first--but then I realized it was probably a pretty good representation of anxiety. I liked the four score counts at the top of the screen, too--based presumably on how the goldfish's self-esteem is feeling X3 (though my pseudo-fish [?] points leaped up past the fixed high amount pretty quickly).

As you continue to develop the concept, there's a game in a similar vein, which you might want to look at if you haven't already: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-29/?action=preview&uid=25325

Thanks for the game!
mjau
02. May 2014 路 22:39 UTC
I like the style =). Nice music.
馃帳 garygreen
03. May 2014 路 15:33 UTC
Thanks for the inclusion Jupiter_Hadley. Nice to see someone else playing it and their reactions - it'll help when I'm updating it.

VictoryGarden, I agree - I should have spent more time making the wavy text subtler. I'll also give the game you linked to a go. It looks interesting.

... and thanks to all of the further positive comments everyone has taken the time to post. It makes me feel as if I was heading in the right direction with this game. :-)
GreatBigJerk
03. May 2014 路 23:50 UTC
Completely bonkers. I love it! Good job mixing psychology AND underwater stuff to fit the them!
ChuiGum
04. May 2014 路 01:05 UTC
Love the innovation, music, art style, everything :D
Cake&Code
05. May 2014 路 01:31 UTC
Hmmm, I don't know exactly what just happened, but I did find out that when playing with a mouse controlled game it is possible to move it fast enough to pass through enemies and obstacles. If you do more interpolating or restrict the mouse you can really cut down on these cheats but it's just a remnant of the input device.
Chaoseed
05. May 2014 路 11:54 UTC
I haven't played it yet, I just want to say that I love the title.
kibertoad
06. May 2014 路 20:29 UTC
Mind - blown.
miwuc
06. May 2014 路 20:37 UTC
Very nice take on the theme! I really like the twitchy look of the fish, certainly seems traumatized :)
A bit disappointed that there's no real twist at the end but I'm sure you ran out of time.
hnjslater
06. May 2014 路 20:49 UTC
Great fun and amazing to look at but I agree with the other posters, it needed a win or a lose condition...
arrogant.gamer
07. May 2014 路 20:14 UTC
I feel like I'm the only one who didn't get what to do... I can dodge fish, but how do I answer questions? Hrm...

The tension and nervous looking fish were great, and I like the concept.
Ragzouken
08. May 2014 路 19:30 UTC
Really enjoyed this, it was a nice take on the theme and done in a very funny way! Also the audio and jittery graphics really suggested anxiety :p