The Stanley Enigma by nddrylliog

[raw]
made by nddrylliog for LD29 (JAM)
A young woman dreams about the murder of her friend and roommate, Stanley.
Is this dream a warning?
Is Stanley in danger?

There's only one way to find out...

# HOW TO PLAY

Make sure you have time ahead of you. There's 1K+ lines of dialogue, so you can't play that in a rush.

Showing to different places at different times with a different history yields different results.

Don't try to win, just consider this entry a non-game and enjoy the ambience/characters.

# CREDITS:

Story: Amandine Bru (NimToasterGirl)
Code: Amos Wenger (nddrylliog)

Music: ccmixter members grapes, 7OOP3D, flatwound, _ghost, stefsax,
cf. https://gist.github.com/nddrylliog/07c1fd0bcb2e297a91f6
Sound effects: freesound.org members

# TECH

The web version is JavaScript+WebGL, was tested under Chrome on Linux, Mac, and OSX. See: http://get.webgl.org/

The desktop version is a .jar file, you'll need a recent Java runtime environment to run it.

# UPDATE

There used to a few game-breaking bugs, those were addressed (specifically, picking up the toy).

Also, PLEASE no more feedback about why this or that part of the game doesn't seem to have any purpose.

We had fun, we're not in it for the ratings. Thanks!

Ratings

Coolness 71% 3
Overall(Jam) 3.48 191
Audio(Jam) 3.89 62
Fun(Jam) 2.93 414
Graphics(Jam) 2.59 644
Humor(Jam) 2.46 410
Innovation(Jam) 3.70 92
Mood(Jam) 4.27 18
Theme(Jam) 3.20 351

Feedback

Wertle
29. Apr 2014 · 02:51 UTC
Great atmosphere. The controls were disorienting and made me uneasy, which I suppose was the point :)
plash
29. Apr 2014 · 03:43 UTC
Page went black after picking up the child's toy in the abandoned house. Not sure what happened, exactly. Sound is still playing in the background, but input seems to do nothing. (And it did this a second time when I restarted.)

I like the environment, and the controls are nicely tuned. I saw a few places where the dialogue made it sound like Kate was leaving (e.g., Sam's Hideout, and Robert's house), but then you can only sleep there. Seems inconsistent. Also, I haven't been able to figure out what kind of era/setting this is. (Maybe intentional?) People sleep at campfires (Melissa) or hunt (Asha), so it seems non-modern, but I still get different vibes from it by the dialogue (Stanley is "on business"?).
mrexcessive
29. Apr 2014 · 04:00 UTC
Love the background sound - first thing I noticed during the intro, great timing tied to text. Like the control system and map presentation. Only have 10 minutes before leaving for work, will come back to here to complete another day.
LandoSystems
29. Apr 2014 · 04:01 UTC
Glad to see more libgdx games out here. Fun little game, must have been time consuming thinking up all of that dialogue.
leafo
29. Apr 2014 · 04:04 UTC
Awesome music, interesting story. Still playing through it.
🎤 nddrylliog
29. Apr 2014 · 04:10 UTC
> must have been time consuming thinking up all of that dialogue.

Ah, there are just about a thousand lines of dialogue! Didn't take more than 72 hours :)
yo_milo
29. Apr 2014 · 04:25 UTC
Amazing mood..But I had the pick-up the toy bug too... I do not why that happens :(
InfectionTeam
29. Apr 2014 · 04:33 UTC
That was interesting, it's too late here and too tired but will definitely revisit this later to see more of the story.
🎤 nddrylliog
29. Apr 2014 · 05:05 UTC
Fixes are coming for the toy bug and for quick-restarting the game!
Team-KwaKwa
29. Apr 2014 · 09:46 UTC
At first, I was like what is this 3d mesh, then I understood it was the village map.
It is a good way how to use the map, maybe seeing some characters would have given more life, and the story is well written.
SirJson
29. Apr 2014 · 12:53 UTC
The motivation of the main character isn't quite clear though I think the atmosphere and the use of audio is well done.
theengineers
29. Apr 2014 · 13:46 UTC
Amazing atmposphere. Incredibly Disorienting controls. Well done.
ninjacharlie
29. Apr 2014 · 15:02 UTC
I really liked the story and the gameplay, but I don't think the graphics helped add anything. I think it would have been better to do something like "A Dark Room" and sticking to pure ASCII, or a really minimal map. Other than that, I had a lot of fun. Good job :)
Magdev
29. Apr 2014 · 17:37 UTC
I like the movement system thing
illugion
29. Apr 2014 · 19:51 UTC
You're really good at telling stories ! I got really into it for some time but i wasn't sure if i was progressing and i don't know when her birthday is D: haha Great job with the game !
whilefun
30. Apr 2014 · 01:31 UTC
Neat game! Had a nice creepy feel. Great audio, too. The butcher shop had the best music!
renegadeninjanl
01. May 2014 · 11:58 UTC
Brilliant game. Not many Ludum Dare games I played focused on dialogue. I like it. Good job.
fullmontis
01. May 2014 · 12:00 UTC
Ok first a couple of suggestions. Since this is a text heavy gama, i would use a bigger portion of the screen for the text, use a slightly bigger font and use a serif font which is easier on the eyes for long texts. That's my personal preference at least.

Apart from that, the writing is excellent! Well rounded characters and interesting story. The graphics are a bit dull after a while and it's difficult to distinguish between the various buildings. Also I don't think that grey map really fits with the colourful writing. I would add a little bit of colour here and there to break the monotony.

Overall it is a great experience and I really enjoyed it! Sound and atmosphere are just amazing, good job.
PapyGaragos
01. May 2014 · 12:22 UTC
I don't really know what part of the story made my feel unconfortable, but something does. Good job with that
TobiasW
01. May 2014 · 18:06 UTC
I came for the title and stayed for the writing. Woah. This is a great, great entry, and even though I don't feel like I'm any closer to solving the Stanley Enigma, I enjoyed my three runs so far a lot. (Or was it four? Might be four. I lost track a bit.)

At first I thought that the map with its lack of landmarks and labels and houses which are all in the same grey would confuse me, but I got the hang of the layout surprisingly quickly. Moving this way gets old after a while though when you know where you want to go - quick movement between the houses you can reach would've been awesome!

The ambience sounds are a great way of setting the mood. My favourite so far are the wolves in the forst!

All in all, this is a superb entry!

PS: Your game reminds me of another one I've played once - sadly I don't remember the name. You're dying and getting weaker each day, but you can still walk around and talk to people, which will lead to different outcomes. Maybe you know which game I'm talking about?
Meedoc
01. May 2014 · 19:12 UTC
Nice game, really good narrative. However, it was hard to guess how many day I had before the day D. And it's sad to be able to only visit one location per day.
xhunterko
02. May 2014 · 04:28 UTC
You nailed the mood. Bashing the nails in the coffin nailed it. It either was slow, or felt rather slow. Which did not feel good to play. Coupled with the fact that I don't like creepy games, I won't be playing it again to find a different ending. But that mood? NAILED it completely.
Balloonsfor600
03. May 2014 · 18:55 UTC
The music is well done and I like the story. Cool entry.
Penguincat
05. May 2014 · 20:11 UTC
Some of the writing felt a bit heavy-handed to me, but the plot was intriguing, and the awesome soundtrack really added to the mood. Couldn't unravel the mystery on my first try but I'll have to play again. It would've been helpful if the houses had been slightly different shapes or shades to distinguish them, and if I'd known how many days I had 'til Kate's birthday (maybe if the "day" counter in the upper right were a countdown). Other than that, I'm impressed by how much writing you put into the game in 72 hours!
XenosNS
07. May 2014 · 01:26 UTC
Wow, complex story. Didn't solve it on the first play through but will try again.
Cirrial
09. May 2014 · 01:18 UTC
I can't put my finger on why but I get some serious Kentucky Route Zero vibes from this entry. Probably the navigation and weird surreal atmosphere to how things are presented. Love the way the game is put together. Incredible depth of content. Outstanding.
Nanolotl
17. May 2014 · 12:46 UTC
Really great overall atmosphere, especially with the music. I really liked the movement system too. Gave it a really unique feeling.
Striwx
17. May 2014 · 15:09 UTC
Omg very cool mood and story. The narration of the game is excellent !!