The Mask of Us by KirbiKaka

[raw]
made by KirbiKaka for LD29 (JAM)
My solo-jam entry. A story-driven game about a town of people who all wear masks. With your unique ability to change peoples' perceptions of you, explore the many responses of the townsfolk who often view you not by the content of your character, but by the masks we wear.

Ratings

Coolness 71% 3
Overall(Jam) 3.79 59
Audio(Jam) 3.03 385
Fun(Jam) 3.16 274
Graphics(Jam) 3.85 187
Humor(Jam) 3.53 86
Innovation(Jam) 3.76 74
Mood(Jam) 3.67 121
Theme(Jam) 4.31 1

Feedback

edibletoaster
29. Apr 2014 · 06:18 UTC
Pretty cool. I laughed at myself at the end because I didn't... Let me not give anything away.
hyouko
29. Apr 2014 · 06:19 UTC
...

...

Well played, sir.
yo_milo
29. Apr 2014 · 06:25 UTC
This reminds me of an idea a friend of mine had, after I told him I wanted to make a game to convey a message... about how we just follow rules, and the only mechanic was walking forward; of course, the concept had way more involved than just walking forward, but it was a great idea...

Nevertheless, a week after, my friend told me about making a game about how everyone wears masks, and everyone is a hypocrite...

This is this game...

I like it... It is a little bit text heavy... I would have tried to make it convey the message in a different manner, but, it is amazing... nope... Outstanding for a 72 hours game jam game.
Robinerd
29. Apr 2014 · 06:27 UTC
Nice one! I love the message you send with this game, very beautiful. Easy to get into, had me stuck til the final twist when I finally realized your second interpretation of the theme - much more unique than the "surf ace" interpretation :D Only minus is the repetitive music, feels a bit rough. Other than that, great work!!
Diptoman
29. Apr 2014 · 06:36 UTC
One of the most meaningful game I've played in all these Ludum Dares. Honestly.
Loved the use of theme, specifically at the ending! Simply brilliant!

There is one thing I'd like to complain about though: The music. It was kind of ruining the mood.

Now go play some other games to get this thing more visibility! It deserves it.
Dreii
29. Apr 2014 · 07:24 UTC
crashed when i pressed space or enter to start
:( looked fun
dsoft20
29. Apr 2014 · 07:25 UTC
Good take on the theme!
TheLastBanana
29. Apr 2014 · 08:09 UTC
The movement speed seemed a little high, and for me, the camera scrolled really, really slowly, so I had to wait about 45 seconds before the square-head house came into view.

I liked it, though! Nice spin on the theme.
frankbsad
29. Apr 2014 · 08:25 UTC
Nice take on the theme but I don't think you explored the idea enough.
I liked the pun too.
SunShiranui
29. Apr 2014 · 08:28 UTC
The end was hilarious! Well done!
Crowbeak
29. Apr 2014 · 08:37 UTC
*slow clap* I don't care if you win Ludum Dare or not... you just won Ludum Dare. Brilliant, both with the ending and the overall message of the game. Bravo. Bra-vo.
caryoscelus
29. Apr 2014 · 08:58 UTC
Cool!

Note that the game won't run properly on most filesystems due to UI/ directory being referred as ui/.

Dreii, most likely you had this problem. If so, you can just rename assets/UI to assets/ui and it will work.
Aomeas
29. Apr 2014 · 08:58 UTC
The play on words made me smile, and the way you approached the theme reminds me of my game :3
But the game is a little bit short, and the gameplay could have been improved, maybe, to last longer.
🎤 KirbiKaka
29. Apr 2014 · 09:13 UTC
@caryoscelus Oh wow! I didn't even know I had done that! Thanks so much for the fix :D! I changed all the references of "ui" to "UI" and updated the download link! I hope this works for y'all :]!

And thank you all for the kind words and feedback, I really appreciate it :D!
euske
29. Apr 2014 · 09:57 UTC
The game itself is a bit clumsy, but its message makes it whole worth playing. Love it.
teambrookvale
29. Apr 2014 · 10:13 UTC
Really good approach on the theme! Nice!
nonentheless
29. Apr 2014 · 11:14 UTC
The idea looks great, but it seems I cannot move away from the first screen :| Is it a bug or am I a moron? (both may be equally correct...) the music is indeed pretty heavy on the ears :)
PaperBlurt
29. Apr 2014 · 16:05 UTC
Kinda Majora's Mask inspired.
Good game!
Lolshouse Dev Team
29. Apr 2014 · 17:22 UTC
I liked this game! I think that the mask mechanic could've been explored a bit more, but I really dug the aesthetics. Nice job!
~funkeh.

PS. to make this game work on case-sensitive file systems, change the assets/UI folder to assets/ui.
🎤 KirbiKaka
29. Apr 2014 · 20:09 UTC
@Lolshouse Dev Team / funkeh
Oh man, I totally thought I had fixed that :S! I changed the UI folder to ui and reuploaded it. (And made sure the code only references assets/ui). Hopefully everything works now D:! Thanks so much for pointing it out!
KyleDAudio
29. Apr 2014 · 23:51 UTC
I really liked this game! The story was really nice and I loved the graphics style and the funny characters. Really original! :D
Solifuge
30. Apr 2014 · 08:24 UTC
Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account)

This was a pretty well put-together experience all around! I can see that you've already gotten lots of reviews, so I'll keep it short and simple: your interpretation of the theme was the best part of this game. I laughed at the end and enjoyed a lot of the dialogue... the graphics were cute, too.

I guess what I'd ask is, given the number of mask-switching games following a generally similar mechanical idea, do you think you could challenge yourself to turn this concept into an interactive game with win and loss conditions? Clearly the rest of your approach is pretty good, so it seems like a strong next step.

Thanks for the experience! I enjoyed myself.
wilpel1234
30. Apr 2014 · 08:31 UTC
This game was cool, the art is awesome (reminds me of little big planet somehow).
🎤 KirbiKaka
30. Apr 2014 · 09:10 UTC
@Solifuge / Vector
I'm glad you enjoyed it! Actually, the initial idea was to have a bit of a puzzle game going on. I hinted at it with the VERY simple puzzle of the bully blocking your way. You must have the Botch-Face mask on in order to intimidate him to let you through. The game was supposed to be a sort of puzzle adventure with the mask mechanic added in. Unfortunately, I ended up running out of time and just barely being able to finish the bare-bones story that you see here. I weighed between making more puzzles and finishing a story, and decided that, in the end, the message was more important.

TL;DR Ran low on time, as is the case with a lot of Ludum Dare games :b

Thanks for the question, I appreciate your interest :D!
Kragnir
01. May 2014 · 10:07 UTC
Nice story, would be nice with a bit more gameplay. Don't know how to feel about that ending.
Nichii
01. May 2014 · 10:13 UTC
I loved the way you used the theme with the idea of social masks. Loved it but it was hard to know where i am because of the plain black background i got somehow >.>. I think i installed it wrong or something but i managed to get around :D
Wir
01. May 2014 · 11:14 UTC
I love the idea and the critism to our community, to judge only what you see..
I have answered your statement pls come again and check out it could help us alot (your the first to say you couldnt see your resources and we want to fix it)
Ludipe
01. May 2014 · 15:09 UTC
Great interpretation of the game! and the art is pretty cool too!
Cake&Code
01. May 2014 · 20:43 UTC
I finally got to play it!! I really loved it, and the way you tutorialed everything was really seamless and nice. Dialogue was really fun to explore and look into, and of course...the ending was great. :)
🎤 KirbiKaka
02. May 2014 · 00:50 UTC
Reuploaded to fix an audio issue, the audio file is now set to stream instead of load all at the beginning. :]
jsspiegel
02. May 2014 · 02:07 UTC
Really great social commentary and writing! Great to see games that push the envelope on what it means to be a game :)
SnoringFrog
03. May 2014 · 07:23 UTC
If you hadn't repeated the final line again on the last screen, the pun would've missed me entirely lol.
SnoringFrog
03. May 2014 · 07:25 UTC
Oh, and in response to your comment on my game: I actually thought I'd put button explanations in-game too. Apparently I forgot most of those, sorry about that!

And I had a feeling I might not have made the breakable rocks distinct enough. That's why I added the 'rockslide' upon collecting the pickaxe to ensure that the player realized they could break those kinds of blocks, but they probably should have been more distinct nonetheless.
trueyomic
03. May 2014 · 20:11 UTC
Clever... Very clever. Haha
TheStrawHatBerry
08. Jun 2014 · 10:11 UTC
I made a video of the game here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxXhur5JtTA&list=UUYY8Ps6rzoZpWDRIQSy363A