Syndrome by Anoarith

[raw]
made by Anoarith for LD29 (JAM)
So, here's our entry for this Ludum Dare :).

It's a game where you control a psychiatrist in an asylum and you have to find out patients' mental diseases by asking them questions.

We're not psychiatrist at all so it was hard to find cool (in term of game design) mental diseases x).

We don't know if there is spelling mistake (since we're french) and if the game is well-balanced but we hope you'll enjoy it :) !

@MCD_Artagnan & Eleonore Bernez
From Nice Penguins (http://nicepenguins.tumblr.com/)

If you want to see the ludum game of another member of Nice Penguins : http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-29/?action=preview&uid=29515

Ratings

Coolness 92% 2
Overall(Jam) 3.59 133
Audio(Jam) 2.85 463
Fun(Jam) 3.25 222
Graphics(Jam) 3.42 361
Humor(Jam) 3.21 146
Innovation(Jam) 3.85 43
Mood(Jam) 3.35 242
Theme(Jam) 3.83 67

Feedback

Ludipe
29. Apr 2014 · 19:49 UTC
Really cool concept with great art. I was surprised by the huge amount of choices available.
CaiusTSM
29. Apr 2014 · 19:55 UTC
Pretty fun game.
Moosefly
29. Apr 2014 · 20:00 UTC
Only got the first one right, I'm not much of a psychologist I guess :P. Did not see that ending coming either. The graphics are somewhat weird, but they work. Same thing with the audio. Pretty interesting little game.

Anssi@MooseflyGames
Martin_Monosys
29. Apr 2014 · 22:19 UTC
Cool game with lots of stuff going on, seems a much work went into this. It's just a bit hard to guess what's wrong with people when you really don't know about psychiatry at all! :)
Hippolyta
29. Apr 2014 · 22:21 UTC
Good concept and art!
But probably a little to overwhelming for a "normal" gamer (too many questions and disease choices from the beginning).
eerongal
29. Apr 2014 · 22:26 UTC
A bit tough to figure out some of these. Interesting game though, and I didn't see that ending coming.
praporomsk
29. Apr 2014 · 22:32 UTC
great! I wish I could understand psychologic terms but I still can enjoy this game!
🎤 Anoarith
29. Apr 2014 · 22:49 UTC
Thanks for all your feedbacks :) !

We don't know psychiatry either, that's why we put the short definitions for each disease. We didn't expect the game to be that hard x)
tchem
30. Apr 2014 · 02:07 UTC
Great idea and interpretation of theme... i love the artwork,,,
justinmchase
30. Apr 2014 · 02:43 UTC
It feels like work and is pretty serious. I would probably have to ask more questions to be able to analyze any successfully too.
Lissar
30. Apr 2014 · 02:47 UTC
This was an interesting idea, although I didn't get many of the answers right! I guess I'm not a psychiatrist.
hyouko
30. Apr 2014 · 02:48 UTC
It appears I wouldn't make a good psychologist - but talking to these folks was fascinating nonetheless.
ghostmaple
30. Apr 2014 · 02:52 UTC
Ooh, nice punchline. Good game all around.
mneubrand
30. Apr 2014 · 02:54 UTC
Fun idea. A bit difficult to figure out the right answers, but fun regardless. Loved the art work.
VictoryGarden
01. May 2014 · 05:17 UTC
... That was a nice twist, and helps explain my extreme incompetence in this game ._. I think you're fine in terms of typos, but there was a bit too much information to comb through, and none of it seemed to give me anything really meaningful--it was all surface questions and the things I would have liked to have probed deeper into could only be superficially addressed.

The audio was all right--a bit stale and wearing, and didn't quite seem to fit the subject. However, the graphics were very suitable and I enjoyed the characters' different personalities--I thought it was especially cute to have the characters represented by accessories.

There's another game in this vein which I think you might get something out of reviewing: http://jayisgames.com/archives/2004/07/the_asylum.php

It's a different approach, but has some similarities.
Melondonut
01. May 2014 · 07:25 UTC
COOL! I love the concept and the atmosphere!
🎤 Anoarith
01. May 2014 · 13:27 UTC
@VictoryGarden -> woaw we didn't know this game :o, looks cool ! Thanks for your very complete feedback :) !
tenpn
02. May 2014 · 21:20 UTC
Very clever use of the theme for psychiatry, but very difficult to pigeonhole people into illnesses without knowing what the illnesses are first, it made slightly more sense as it went along.
petey123567
04. May 2014 · 06:41 UTC
I'm a bad psychologist T__T
ThingoStudios
05. May 2014 · 22:28 UTC
I found it sort of funny that Stewart was seven, yet had a roommate. Definitely, DEFINITELY not a thing for armchair psychiatrists.
Andy Gainey
06. May 2014 · 23:29 UTC
Curious concept, but something rubbed me the wrong way about the script. It seems like a very difficult script to write without totally oversimplifying or stereotyping everything, even for a native speaker, and probably even for a professional psychiatrist.

I think it would also be useful to have a clearer sense of progress. In many cases, it felt like each question and answer was completely independent from the rest, regardless of order. I don't know what mechanics were *actually* occurring in the game code, but I didn't feel a strong connection between questions or from the order of questions.

The in-between conversations with the nurse were a nice touch, though.

The UI for guessing the disorder was a bit confusing. At first I thought the three columns of specific disorders somehow mapped to the three categories at the top, but it was actually just three separate sub-menus. To help with that, perhaps add something visual to indicate that the disorders currently visible on the screen all belonged only to the category that had most recently been selected.
🎤 Anoarith
07. May 2014 · 00:02 UTC
Andy Gainey -> Actually, the more you ask "kind" questions, the more the patient will gain "confidence points". When you ask an "intrusive" question, the patient won't answer positively if you don't have enough "confidence points". So you have to ask "not intrusive" questions first :).

Thanks for your feedback :) !
copain
07. May 2014 · 02:04 UTC
Très très sympa (je profite que vous soyez français). ça m'a rappelé theme hospital, d'ailleurs je pense que vous auriez pu prendre une direction plus humoristique pour éviter (ou se moquer) des stéréotypes.
Devoir juste trouver la maladie (et non pas un soin par exemple, ce qui serait intéressant à implémenter dans une version plus loufoque) m'a paru bizarre au début, mais la fin explique bien la chose...
🎤 Anoarith
07. May 2014 · 03:52 UTC
copain -> Ahah en effet, même si c'est aussi un choix de Gameplay plus qu'autre chose ^^ (et puis, restrictions de temps dû à la jam oblige, on a voulu faire simple)
rojo
07. May 2014 · 05:35 UTC
Great concept! The art was solid, and it was interesting talking to the patients while trying to guess what their problem was.
zebi24
07. May 2014 · 09:24 UTC
Really cool entry, I enjoyed it a lot. Nice use of theme and very interesting game to play!
BarkingCat
11. May 2014 · 19:45 UTC
"What do you see in this picture?" the most obnoxious question one can ask.
jorgemoag
14. May 2014 · 13:53 UTC
Hahaha very good entry! Please, keep working it's very promising

Thnx for making it!
kristof
14. May 2014 · 14:06 UTC
Very good interpretation of the theme! I really liked the wired looking characters. The music was a bit annoying after a while ;)
Nice work!
Mase
15. May 2014 · 03:22 UTC
Very interesting content. It's cool that asking less intrusive questions first actually has an impact, though I did not recognize this until after I played & read the comments.

The twist ending was unnecessary I thought.
Red Light Collective
15. May 2014 · 14:44 UTC
Hahahaha that kind of games are really cool, all the parts like match themselves making an atmosphera. Excelent.
kunzbe
15. May 2014 · 20:45 UTC
interesting, could be used as a learn game for fresh psychologie students harhar '^^
pinkmonkeyhead
16. May 2014 · 00:13 UTC
This was AWESOME!!! I couldnt be happier playing this. I think maybe I secretly want to be a psychiatrist.
GFM
16. May 2014 · 01:25 UTC
WOOOOOOOW

This was awesome! It took me 4 tries to get 4 of them, but I still don't know what is the 3rd one's problem.
Really liked the graphics and the idea. It's really fun and interesting! =D
mark.goetz
16. May 2014 · 03:53 UTC
Nice take on the theme! I agree with a lot of the other comments that there are too many options (both questions to ask and diagnoses to choose), and that elements like the 'confidence points" you mention need to be communicated better. (Although that in and of itself could constitute "beneath the surface"...hm...)
🎤 Anoarith
16. May 2014 · 12:47 UTC
Once again, thanks a lot for these feedbacks, it's really cool, you're all nice :)
Reinkout
16. May 2014 · 19:22 UTC
Okay, how did YOU come up with the idea for this? :D This was refreshening!
Suese
17. May 2014 · 06:30 UTC
I'm having (as opposed to had) lots of fun with this one. I am playing again.
BadPaul34
17. May 2014 · 11:17 UTC
Nice take on the theme! Really interesting concept, good work concerning the stories and the researches of the syndromes. Music reminds me the sound from kairosoft games, so I like it. Should have been even more great to adapt music in regard of characters :) Well done!