One Life by SnoringFrog

[raw]
made by SnoringFrog for LD28 (COMPO)
You only get one life--live it well.

A game/interactive fiction piece written in Twine. Simply access the game and click "Begin." to start.

WARNING: This game can't be saved at any point. It's best to play it from start to finish in one sitting. It's not very long, so 10-15 minutes should be sufficient to complete it.

Should the server go down for some reason, you can play the game with just the .html file. Just open it in any browser and it should work.

There were supposed to be 2-3 major storylines (the cop/robber decision originally led to two entirely different stories), but I ran short on time and wasn't able to implement them for the compo. I will probably add at least one other storyline to a post compo version at some point. For what it's worth, the ending with your wife was the 'real' ending (meaning that was the original ending before I added multiple endings), and I think that one came out the best. The other endings were more rushed and did not feel as 'right' to me.


Update: Fixed a couple typos (a sentence was appearing twice in a row)

Ratings

Coolness 85% 2
Overall 2.95 554
Fun 2.32 845
Graphics 1.90 937
Humor 2.08 570
Innovation 2.49 756
Mood 3.25 208
Theme 3.48 180

Feedback

tklovert
16. Dec 2013 · 06:07 UTC
Not a bad choose your own adventure. Could've used a few bigger decisions though.

I liked the story.
whiteknife
16. Dec 2013 · 06:10 UTC
A solid piece piece overall, but I felt like I could have used a bit more build-up. Going straight from being a little kid to disappointment over over-priced Mexican food to having to make a life-changing decision was a bit jarring. That said, it was well-written, and for the time frame, I thought it was a good showing.
Snail_Man
16. Dec 2013 · 07:34 UTC
Nice text adventure. I liked the story a lot. Good job.
ferrzo
16. Dec 2013 · 13:50 UTC
Its pitty, that it didnt go deeper, because it had a nice story.
PaperBlurt
16. Dec 2013 · 14:44 UTC
Not bad at all!
Nice..
Michcioperz
17. Dec 2013 · 00:35 UTC
Wow. Wow. I feel bad for choosing <spoiler goes here>.
kbake
17. Dec 2013 · 07:37 UTC
It was pretty engaging and had a decent amount of content despite the time limit you were under! There was at least one line that repeated itself (though this may have been intentional and I didn't read it correctly!) and at one point I read a sentence that didn't go with the choice I made (but the rest of the page made sense). I would be interested to see more!
kbake
17. Dec 2013 · 08:11 UTC
Hey I saw your comment on my game, is there a way I can contact you about the things I mentioned? Or is it ok to just post them here? I don't want to give away any spoilers.
DST
17. Dec 2013 · 10:36 UTC
I'm not too big on text-adventures, but I did enjoy the story in this one and made it to (one of the) ending(s?) :)
Bcadren
17. Dec 2013 · 10:40 UTC
Is this...an HTML-based text adventure? O_O; It felt a little random; jumping from 'cops and robbers' to 'Mexican food' to 'major life-changing decision'...I feel like it would have been better served to develop the main scenario farther...IDK.
mactinite
17. Dec 2013 · 21:24 UTC
So first off I want to say as a game, this is obviously nothing special in the terms of game-play. Now that we got that out of the way, let's talk about the absolutely wonderfully written narrative. As I read through this short story some points actually gave me chills(I'm a bit susceptible to this when it comes to engaging stories lol). I feel like although the story was a bit rushed, it hit on the key points to get me to feel as if the character was real. I'm not sure if the choices I made had any effect, but the story itself was engaging enough that didn't matter much. Nice job!
kristoffer zetterberg
19. Dec 2013 · 12:26 UTC
this was great, you used the theme to great effect. i mean, it's been done before in other games, but i was still very surprised when i wanted to try out the other storylines but couldn't.

the story is perhaps a bit short (took me about 5 minutes), and i don't really understand what the beginning had to do with anything, but i liked it nonetheless. good, sparse prose, just the way i want it.
Christina Nordlander
20. Dec 2013 · 16:34 UTC
The story is rather simple, and the writing is kind of... not bad in any way, but not really memorable most of the time. The back story when you're at the Mexican restaurant felt rather verbose. All in all, it felt like a rather standard Twine story.

SPOILER


Then I tried playing it again, and... oh, very nice. I've never seen that done with a Twine game before. You definitely get an extra star on Innovation from me. (I'd still like to go back and see how other choices would have panned out. But heck, such is life.)
joekinley
21. Dec 2013 · 07:30 UTC
Mh hard to say what I really think about that without sounding too harsh.
First off, nice take on the story. My second attempt at the game really freaked me out a bit.

That being said, it felt kinda displaced with the choices you had to make turning out to be futile regarding the end of the game. The last decision was tough, and I would have loved to see more coming out of it. As of now, you are not quite sure wether it was a right decision, wether you turn out to be happy with it or wether you maybe turn out to regret it. Could be much deeper.

It could be a nice story, but somehow it just didn't get to me too much. I'm sorry to say that, I'd have loved it for the story to really get into me and make me think. I'd have loved for the story to shuffle up my day leaving me pondering about it all day long, and a few days after that, like a dream that just really gets into you. I guess the story has kind of potential for this to happen, but maybe it's just the short timeframe of the compo to not end up being that.

So yeah, good take on the theme, overall a nice experience (don't worry, no bad points here), and special points for the potential it might have. If you wanna keep doing these storys, please please put everything into it that you can give, plus more. I want these storys to phase me out of my every day live.
CosmicAdventureSquad
21. Dec 2013 · 08:30 UTC
Strega:
Nice to see a text adventure in the mix of all the ludum games. It's good to play something emotional every once in a while. I wish I had more choices in some events, but I understand the time constraint.

(This is a team account)
Diptoman
22. Dec 2013 · 09:58 UTC
Damn, I wanted to play it again to get another ending but that's some very strict application of the theme xD. It's cool. Enjoyed the story anyways.
Masadow
23. Dec 2013 · 15:24 UTC
I'm not a big fan of the genre, but this one is well done :)
gustavodort
02. Jan 2014 · 14:38 UTC
Yeah, you have a good thing going on there! :D
kibertoad
02. Jan 2014 · 15:13 UTC
great to see a twine game where I can't predict the outcome at first screen. I get that you were going for butterfly effect in the beginning, but at least some foreshadowing would work better. also, I really like how it's written. btw, how did you make go back one page not to work?
kibertoad
02. Jan 2014 · 15:16 UTC
you clever bastards.
Xanjos
06. Jan 2014 · 22:11 UTC
Pretty engaging text adventure. I liked how you've incorporated the theme in the (rather difficult) choices that the player will have to make and I really loved the fact you only get one playthrough.
Jan Marcano
06. Jan 2014 · 23:28 UTC
I liked this very much :) I kinda expected the 'one-playthrough' thing, but I enjoyed it anyways.

Would like to know what would have happened if I made other choices, but I guess that's how life works.