LudumData

The Ethereal Stage by Brassawiking

[raw]
made by Brassawiking for LD26 (COMPO)
My best entry to date, behold its glory!

START PROMO
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- Complete game (stick around until you see the actual end credits)
- A long and rich point'n'click adventure (No deaths, so no worries about that)
- Deep story
- Completely free of any gender and racial bias (Something I was very strict with)
- Wonderful graphics made for Full HD (Be sure to run in fullscreen)
- Music that almost loops alright
- Easter egg! See if you can spot it...
- Pure HTML, js and CSS3
- Long playthrough (15-60 minutes to reach end credits)
- Somewhat interesting characters if I may say so myself...

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END PROMO

Fourth time doing Ludum Dare. This time I'm all out with my best skills: Mood, story and graphics!

I have had this idea before, so it was not entirely brand new. The reason I took it for this theme, was that the idea for the game, was that it was going to be built like a theater play. Just an simply stage with some actors and a few props. The rest of world comes to life when they start interacting with eachother.


###### Additional notes #####
May require a refresh, if scrollbars starts getting weird or something else doesnt look right or the music doesn't play.
Also, the browser needs to have a 16/9 ratio or the images will get cut. So if that happens, just adjust the browser window until it looks good again.

Web (Chrome and Firefox) http://bit.ly/YgdZUF
DeviantArt (my art gallery) http://brassawiking.deviantart.com/gallery/
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview&uid=13137

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall 3.40 334
Audio 3.19 264
Fun 2.78 741
Graphics 4.13 54
Humor 1.89 812
Innovation 3.19 494
Mood 3.86 46
Theme 2.76 1169

Feedback

hnjslater
28. Apr 2013 路 13:14 UTC
Playing on chrome, I could not work out what to do once the greeter had gone. I called the merchant but nothing happened?!
馃帳 Brassawiking
28. Apr 2013 路 13:38 UTC
Ah that is because I am not done yet =) Should put that in the description.
beshr
28. Apr 2013 路 16:04 UTC
Nice artwork!
Szedouu
28. Apr 2013 路 19:33 UTC
artwork looks very good
Cybearg
28. Apr 2013 路 21:19 UTC
Very nice artwork and the idea of putting runes together like that is an interesting one.
cjacobwade
29. Apr 2013 路 04:21 UTC
Best game I've played so far.
stevejohnson
29. Apr 2013 路 04:27 UTC
This is great for a 48 hour game. Not the usual platformer fare by any means. A couple nits: the music felt repetitive after a few minutes, and it felt like things happened too slowly to keep my interest. If it were a bit faster, with small interface sound effects and different music, it could be 50% better. Maybe also put the hymns in some kind of visible display. The clicking back and forth was slightly (though not very) annoying.

Great work!
Griffablanc
29. Apr 2013 路 15:51 UTC
It's a very nice project. I found the likeness of a theater was an interesting way to work.
JFlegle
29. Apr 2013 路 16:58 UTC
This art work is great, I love how its a graphic adventure but you some the players.
zerebruin
29. Apr 2013 路 19:00 UTC
Wonderfull atmosphere. The graphic style fits perfectly to this game. Long and slow, but in a good way.
belickim
29. Apr 2013 路 20:01 UTC
The theme and the universe you came up with are quite impressive. I don't have much experience with visual novels, so it's hard for me to judge how original this idea is, but I find it really clever and neat to place the protagonist in front of the screen, it resembles games with third person perspective. I think it really adds a bit of depth.


However, the looping sound drives me crazy, please, consider adding a way to turn it off.
馃帳 Brassawiking
29. Apr 2013 路 20:49 UTC
Thank you all for the comments and feedback. As requested there is now a toggle button for the music in the upper right corner, something that I know should have been there from the beginning =P I blame exhaustion for that one hehe.
naughtyloose
29. Apr 2013 路 21:43 UTC
that was awesome! a bit repetitive tough.
siondream
29. Apr 2013 路 22:09 UTC
The art and mood are great but it doesn't really fit the theme very well.
AlbertoSM
29. Apr 2013 路 22:20 UTC
Wow...lengthy. The title gave me a good impression! I like the art direction, even though it doesn't match with the theme of the compo. The music gets repetitive after a while and the pacing is sllooooowww. Anyway, nicely done!
馃帳 Brassawiking
30. Apr 2013 路 07:50 UTC
For those of you that don't think this fits the theme well, would you mind explaining why you feel that? And what would have made it fit the theme better according to you?

My take on it is that this is a like a theater play, with just an empty stage, props and a few actors. It intends to play more on your imagination than what you actually see and read. So what you see and hear is minimal, but the world you experience is enourmous.
enzo
30. Apr 2013 路 16:37 UTC
Intense! I feel like the characters and the world have a sort of depth, even with such a comparatively short story! I have so many questions. Why was the Lost one lost? What are the Merchant's motives? What happened to the Bridge? Why is the Greeter so angry all the time, gosh
馃帳 Brassawiking
30. Apr 2013 路 17:16 UTC
@Enzo
I leave it up to you to figure out the answers yourself. Feel free to speculate any theories you have here =)

Btw, speaking about The Bridge, did you stick around long enough to see the end credit? There is a small hint on what happens with the bridge just before that.
GetFun
01. May 2013 路 12:05 UTC
very cool art work =)
multikorv
01. May 2013 路 22:28 UTC
Very nice! You're really starting get the hang of the art work. The narrative is also really good! Nice work! :) The music really put a hole through my head after a while though. Nice that you added the toggle. :)
MinionStudios
06. May 2013 路 22:24 UTC
Very compelling story and characters! This storytelling would make for an EXCELLENT RPG. You have succeeded in drawing me into the world through a few props in a browser window. Awesome
mildmojo
12. May 2013 路 00:52 UTC
Wonderful piece of kinetic fiction. There were a few spots where the next step wasn't evident, but thankfully there wasn't any penalty for doing the wrong thing. The journal filled out nicely with bits of story, and the lost soul was enigmatic enough to keep me wondering. Quite a lot of content for a compo entry!

I peeked at the source and it's pretty brute-force. Way to optimize for programmer throughput! =)
Xanjos
12. May 2013 路 19:19 UTC
Loved the artwork and music and the story was amazingly deep.
RedPandaWasTaken
12. May 2013 路 19:41 UTC
Nice artwork and a pretty good music but gets pretty annoying after a while. Pretty well written too.
nathanj439
12. May 2013 路 19:44 UTC
Nice art, music and story. Kept me entertained until the end.
sP0CkEr2
13. May 2013 路 03:31 UTC
nice art -- great story -- good use of theme -- high marks
Hayawi
13. May 2013 路 05:59 UTC
Really nice game that has a wonderful mood, and artwork, but if only it was a different theme, this game just does not seem to fit into minimalism all that well.
Mago
13. May 2013 路 20:12 UTC
Very interesting atmosphere and great art.
imagnity
13. May 2013 路 20:16 UTC
I would really like if the background music was a little longer before it starts repeating. :)
alwaysinbeta
13. May 2013 路 21:21 UTC
I like the art and writing. Got stuck after a while though!
avidgamerNino
13. May 2013 路 22:15 UTC
Very cool, At some parts I swear I just waiting for the merchant to do something. The art looks 3D from the screenshots, but when you get close up you begin to see the brushwork.
Taro Omiya
14. May 2013 路 04:41 UTC
Quite an interesting adventure game that utilizes the Ocarina of Ti- I meant, hymns. Story was a little confusing, however. Was it supposed to be a love story, like the Shadow of Colossus?
someone
14. May 2013 路 18:07 UTC
That was nice. Good story.
Krahe
14. May 2013 路 23:30 UTC
Pretty amazing
kibertoad
19. May 2013 路 17:44 UTC
has a strong Neil Gaiman vibe to it. nice work.
stqn
19. May 2013 路 20:19 UTC
I don't get it, better instructions would be nice (I don't feel like working one hour to try to understand the game). Nice music (for the first 30 s) and gfx though.
馃帳 Brassawiking
19. May 2013 路 20:25 UTC
If you got stuck after the first dialog, then you simply need to click the darkness in the middle. A blue border shows when you hover over things that are clickable.
stqn
19. May 2013 路 20:38 UTC
@Brassawiking: I got to that point but then... had to remember 3 runes, which was too much for me. And I didn't know what I was supposed to do. I think I'm too tired to play this... Thanks for trying my game!
馃帳 Brassawiking
19. May 2013 路 21:36 UTC
Thanks for trying anyway =)
AndyBumpkin
20. May 2013 路 11:09 UTC
it could have done with a slightly longer music loop, and perhaps some sounds on the "hymns" would have been nice.
Otherwise yeah not bad :)
dalbinblue
20. May 2013 路 13:42 UTC
This was nice and refreshing entry; very different from pretty much everything else I have played. I waited a while to review this from when I played, as I too didn't think it melded well with the theme and saw your comment asking for details on why reviewers felt that way. After thinking about it for a while I didn't have a good reason; I think its actually because it's the elements around the story that are minimalistic, but actually story takes center stage (pun intended) that many of those elements didn't really cross my mind. Yes the game is played out on a stage, the music is minimalistic, the graphics are too (everything is just a static overlay), and the controls are too as everything is just casting one of 6 hymns. It's the story that makes you not pay attention to those things, and overall I think that is a far better accomplishment than making your game obviously match the theme.
馃帳 Brassawiking
20. May 2013 路 18:07 UTC
@dalbinblue:
Thank you very much for that review, that meant a lot to me! It looks like I have accomplished what I wanted on how this is perceived. Really glad that all the details came through after you had thought about it for a while =)
stqn
20. May 2013 路 22:34 UTC
Just so you know ;) I tried again and got to the point where the merchant tells you to wait for the next day. Then I didn't find how to make the story progress.