This is not a minimalist game by Volute

[raw]
made by Volute for LD26 (COMPO)
This is not a minimalist game

You're a mighty warrior, and you spend your life doing quests for various NPC in a medieval fantastic setting.
But what if your whole world disappeared and there were no more colors, no more details ? Even the way people talk has changed, only the essential words are left.

Solve the puzzles and get the world back the way it was... Or not ?

Controls :
- arrow keys
- X, C to talk to NPC
- 1 for the map (when you have it), then 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 on the map screen to go to another location (if you enter your current location, it does nothing)
- X to pick up an object when it's possible
- 2, 3, 4, 5... to drop an object

Advices if you're lost :
- revisit the locations you know to see if something's changed.
- try to combine the objects by dropping them

[TROUBLESHOOTING]
If the game doesn't start when you hit "X", click on the game, then hit "X" again (Flash needs the focus to register keyboard events).

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall 4.10 18
Audio 3.44 143
Fun 3.69 80
Graphics 3.91 102
Humor 3.80 31
Innovation 3.63 185
Mood 3.86 46
Theme 4.17 63

Feedback

stqn
29. Apr 2013 · 04:37 UTC
The beginning was nice and funny; not sure about the white part… Can it be done?
🎤 Volute
29. Apr 2013 · 07:34 UTC
Yes it can be done ! I've just added a walkthrough :)
Brian Corr
29. Apr 2013 · 08:38 UTC
Great concept, nice mood. I like the control very much. Perhaps a little short on challenge...

*fyi I met a bug: if you leave after the dude drops the red squares, you can't make them respawn again. He'll talk and talk but no squares appear. This seems to be a dead end bug.
🎤 Volute
29. Apr 2013 · 08:46 UTC
Thanks for the bug report :)
Mythalore
29. Apr 2013 · 11:19 UTC
Wow, amazing! Very nice art style and good music. Not to mention the story!
krutech
29. Apr 2013 · 11:53 UTC
Nice guitar at the end! overall a fun game.
lapogo
29. Apr 2013 · 13:47 UTC
I couldn't get into to it, but it looks great, and is pretty funny!
Zekyon
29. Apr 2013 · 15:10 UTC
Great concept! I love this game
arnaudmolle
29. Apr 2013 · 16:34 UTC
Nice game, i like the parallel world. Simple but efficient!
mortus
29. Apr 2013 · 18:25 UTC
Great idea. I was thinking about something like that, but ended up with quite the opposite game idea.
atraxgames
29. Apr 2013 · 18:29 UTC
Wow. My favourite so far.
Loren
29. Apr 2013 · 22:25 UTC
very cool idea, awesome execution ;)
kewry
29. Apr 2013 · 22:34 UTC
Great game as usual!
TheSheep
29. Apr 2013 · 23:56 UTC
Great idea!
bleatingheart
29. Apr 2013 · 23:56 UTC
Really clever take on the theme!
henrykun
30. Apr 2013 · 03:17 UTC
Very nice game, I like the art :) and it looks polished.
CosmicAdventureSquad
30. Apr 2013 · 03:23 UTC
Strega: Neat concept. I liked the feedback when you jumped on objects to destroy them and change the world. It took a bit of trial and error to complete, but I managed to beat it without using the walkthrough.

(this is a team account)
cmjd
30. Apr 2013 · 05:10 UTC
This is an awesome game! It's amazing to see what can be made in 48 hours. Nice work!
theGiallo
30. Apr 2013 · 10:13 UTC
Great work!
FREEZX
30. Apr 2013 · 10:44 UTC
Nice story
Alex Shestakov
30. Apr 2013 · 13:48 UTC
Great music! nice gameplay!
_Rilem
30. Apr 2013 · 17:41 UTC
Blood everywhere .___.
Very cool game, and very minimal. :p
TheCze
30. Apr 2013 · 18:13 UTC
Very nice game and quite surprising.
marnaouf
30. Apr 2013 · 22:15 UTC
Really awesome game and story.
naufr4g0
01. May 2013 · 00:07 UTC
I enjoyed very much this game!
Nice story, good graphics and excellent ending.
psychomonster
01. May 2013 · 00:42 UTC
Fantastic
avidgamerNino
01. May 2013 · 02:25 UTC
I really enjoyed the dialog. I enjoyed the graphics and it stayed true to to theme.
sP0CkEr2
01. May 2013 · 03:08 UTC
this was superb -- i love these types of games -- and it was neat to have it as a platformer too -- great job!
s0ulcrusher
01. May 2013 · 03:17 UTC
Adding detail to the world is a cool mechanic :)
Siewart
01. May 2013 · 14:02 UTC
This game is awesome :)
infernet89
01. May 2013 · 15:10 UTC
Ok, rating any other game is useless now.. We have a clear winner. Congratulations!
FenrisWolf
01. May 2013 · 17:48 UTC
This is really really impressive. Congrats on getting Kongregate badges on a Ludum Dare game also. Very cool!
Aaants
01. May 2013 · 17:53 UTC
Fantastic job
EatenAlive3
01. May 2013 · 19:03 UTC
I gave this one all fives. I really enjoyed it! I might have liked an auto-jump feature where if you hold down up you keep jumping, but then again I just like jumping. Awesome!
🎤 Volute
01. May 2013 · 22:54 UTC
Thank you all for the nice comments ! I'm very happy so many people liked the game :)
VDOgamez
01. May 2013 · 22:54 UTC
This was a very nice take on the theme, and the story had a very Flatland feel to it. The graphics were really well done, even the simple ones, and the game generally played nicely. I didn't really like the whole concept of going back and forth between places that much, and there were some rough spots with the item system, although some of the puzzles were neat. The ending was a neat idea, but it seemed a little rushed graphically.
🎤 Volute
02. May 2013 · 00:30 UTC
Thank you for your comment :) The end was not rushed as I had plenty of time to finish. It was intended to be like this, I wanted it to feel very abstract, as the main character finds himself in a totally unknown situation where he has lost his bearings.
Rastagong
02. May 2013 · 01:31 UTC
I don't know how to say it. I'm in love with this game!

It's a very tiny game, but very well written, moving, and original. The very beginning enthralled me in a wonderful manner. I didn't know what to expect according to the title, nor when I saw this skilled fighter. And then there's the curse, the minimalist world, and we must learn to adapt. Incredible.

Seeing these pixels explode so often was particularly painful. But it was such a relief to adapt and change the world. The ending was such a wonderful idea too, although quite abstract. Some scenes were deeply disturbing (the mirror), and yet they were extremely simple.

I'm really amazed. That's a great work!
enzo
02. May 2013 · 02:16 UTC
I really liked seeing the world gradually change!
silentspartan72
02. May 2013 · 04:13 UTC
This game was pretty fun to play, starting out complex then becoming minimal and working your way back to complexity again.
whitetigle
02. May 2013 · 08:38 UTC
Just great. Good story. Good quests. Easy and fun to play. And it does fit the theme. So... bravo!
Gravel
02. May 2013 · 09:02 UTC
A lot of work very well executed and it fits the theme with elegance.
Nice!
millie
02. May 2013 · 10:32 UTC
Good fun! Impressed you pulled this off so fast! Did you also build the Kong API into the game in the 48 hours?! :0
🎤 Volute
02. May 2013 · 14:37 UTC
@ millie : I did a special version for Kongregate with the API. But it didn't take very long, it's only a few lines of code.
matheod
02. May 2013 · 19:00 UTC
Yeah ! Really good game ! Near perfect game :p
rujo
03. May 2013 · 08:06 UTC
pixel art here is adorable, and so the choice of colors.
a really cool entry.
Exclamation Mark
03. May 2013 · 18:08 UTC
Excellent story, one of the most engaging I've seen so far! A very enjoyable entry to play through indeed. Bravo.
BrothersT
03. May 2013 · 18:23 UTC
fantastic little game. Not that you copied it or anything but it reminds me of Evoland. I like the script though, how they are constantly amazed by the changes. Doesn't really need a walkthrough in my opinion but I guess you could get stuck if you were really impatient.. maybe.
ArkadyDracul
03. May 2013 · 18:26 UTC
I Love it!
Mikel
03. May 2013 · 18:28 UTC
Impresive
The Consul
03. May 2013 · 18:31 UTC
Wow, that was a trip. Well done! Handing people the walkthrough was a chicken move though ;)
reverso13
03. May 2013 · 18:39 UTC
One of the best games of LD48 so far for me :)
🎤 Volute
03. May 2013 · 18:46 UTC
Thanks for your comments :)

About the walkthrough, it seemed necessary. How to progress in the story may seem obvious, but I assure you it is not for everyone. For instance, some players didn't realise that they could jump on the red squares and they left the game angry.
I prefer that players go through the game even if they use the walkthrough rather than leave frustrated.

As a player, it's not because a game gives me a walkthrough that I look at it. I only look at it when I would have left the game otherwise.
Orni
03. May 2013 · 18:49 UTC
I liked the idea - definitely one of the games I played for more than 5 minutes. well done

:)
HelkeGames
03. May 2013 · 18:59 UTC
Nice game, well done :)
kidevil
03. May 2013 · 19:03 UTC
Great game! Very cool story and use of the theme. Nice artwork. Probably the most complete game I've played so far :)
StabAlarash
03. May 2013 · 19:14 UTC
That's really great !!! congrats, one of the best games i've seen so far
klianc09
03. May 2013 · 20:20 UTC
Really well done, I really liked it.
tcstyle
03. May 2013 · 21:03 UTC
Awesome game! That was so much fun to play.
Pixelulsar
03. May 2013 · 21:14 UTC
Good game. I like how the main character couldn't take being 3D.
Xanjos
03. May 2013 · 22:11 UTC
Clever use of the theme as part of the game plot and the puzzles are well thought out. Had a bit of a chuckle with the ending as well :D
Zccc
03. May 2013 · 23:27 UTC
This is excellent, I loved it so much! Very humorous story and clever ending!! Could use better graphics tough, I hope you enhance it :)
LTyrosine
03. May 2013 · 23:54 UTC
LOVED it... really amazing how to it used theme in its essence. Amazing job.
Catman
04. May 2013 · 07:42 UTC
Nice game, especially the mood and the take on the theme, which reminded me of the novel Flatland. The gameplay was a bit frustrating at times, however, due to lack of hints!
thephantom
04. May 2013 · 11:32 UTC
great game :) this is the first game that i rate all 5
Dir3kt
04. May 2013 · 21:36 UTC
Awesome, congrats! By far the funniest game I played so far.
JohnnySix
04. May 2013 · 22:37 UTC
I had to go to the walkthrough for the first step with the map, but wow, glad I did. Amazing work for 48h and a solo project! 5 Stars. :)
pvwradtke
05. May 2013 · 06:39 UTC
One of the best games I have played for this compo. Really well don, nice plot and the feeling of a complete game that's well thought out. I missed some in-game tutorial on how to open the map and to start exploring the world (I'll say in your defense that I didn't read the notes before playing). Thanks you did that walk-trough and linked it at the game window, that helped me earlier on until I could do it on my own.
Colapsydo
05. May 2013 · 07:56 UTC
Change is good when we are ready for it.
Really nice story, gameplay, and execution.
ManyAwesome
05. May 2013 · 11:55 UTC
This game is great! A little bit short though.
aquilicoco
05. May 2013 · 18:22 UTC
Nice game
Dans17
05. May 2013 · 18:54 UTC
This is the best game I've seen for this competition yet!
0beah
06. May 2013 · 14:52 UTC
Lovely game. Brilliant way to incorporate the theme into your story. A little vague on where to go and what to do sometimes but brilliant all the same.
Tifu
07. May 2013 · 22:25 UTC
That was interesting. Loved building the world back together again slowly. Great stuff.
Chronodrax
07. May 2013 · 22:43 UTC
Really nice and fun mini-quest !
Great ending too :)
twbnc
08. May 2013 · 09:02 UTC
Hi ! Looks great ! I am trying to play the flash version, but impossible to start it. The game doesn't listen to my X key, (I'm on an azerty keybord), nor to any other key.
S'il vous plaît !
🎤 Volute
08. May 2013 · 11:19 UTC
@twbnc : You need to click on the game to set the focus before you hit "X"
Oleg Zhurko
08. May 2013 · 12:09 UTC
Great game! I really like minimalist world and how player passes through it.
brantkings
08. May 2013 · 14:44 UTC
Sensational entry. Nice story. Nice take on the theme. Fun for while it lasts, include a walkthrough. Congratulations!
twbnc
08. May 2013 · 16:23 UTC
THX @Volute, great game !
Ryusui
08. May 2013 · 20:12 UTC
Neat little game; loved the twist at the end. I just wish the game was a little less reliant on "guess-the-author's-mind" puzzles.
shawn42
09. May 2013 · 04:05 UTC
Great game. I _had_ to finish it! Now it's tomorrow so I must sleep. Keep up the good work.
Leginar
09. May 2013 · 04:56 UTC
Great game. Very good craft. I was happy to see that the game was able to adjust to weather the player chose the high road or low road off the start. Very clever entry. I also loved all of the dialogue during the mirror segment. Good show. :)
euwaku
09. May 2013 · 06:34 UTC
Nice little game, and interesting theme interpretation!
robotality
09. May 2013 · 07:06 UTC
Very well done. Loved the end. :D
Awesome entry overall.
galman
09. May 2013 · 10:10 UTC
Nice game! It was really good at overall, but I felt that something is missing..
bobiniki
09. May 2013 · 10:55 UTC
10/5 on humor others are 5 from me. Best game I have seen so far. I realy liked the mood the dialogs the idea. I have played many games where they begin with minimal graphics and evolve. I don't like games like that. Even though your game has this idea it is a lot different, deep and fun.
dector
09. May 2013 · 13:11 UTC
Epic ending! Man, you rocks
MinionStudios
09. May 2013 · 16:04 UTC
An amazing game full of hilariousness! Huge and fun!
stqn
09. May 2013 · 16:26 UTC
So after reading the comments I thought there might be something more than this annoying white level where nothing can be done. I played again and saw I could press 1/etc. to change locations. This game is a nice achievement, although I find there is little logic in most required actions so I had to visit everything several times and drop random objects until something happened.
Zener
10. May 2013 · 14:40 UTC
This game is pretty fun to play. I like the dialogs and how well the character is controlled.
Jeremias
11. May 2013 · 08:16 UTC
I played through it and solved all the puzzles except the last one without the walkthrough :)
foyosoft
11. May 2013 · 19:29 UTC
Nice! I love the parallel world idea. Some of the puzzles were a little left field for me, thanks for the walk-through!
lotusgame
12. May 2013 · 17:45 UTC
Very cute polished game. The way you use the theme is truely innovative ! Well done :)
Jod
12. May 2013 · 17:53 UTC
Wow, this is awesome. The game flowed naturally for me, no need to look through the walkthrough. I loved how things grew slowly, great take on the theme! Defenitely one of the more polished games I've seen.
messiano
13. May 2013 · 02:20 UTC
Awesome, pretty interesting changes :).
alwaysinbeta
13. May 2013 · 16:55 UTC
Really great story. Enjoyed playing.
Typedeaf
13. May 2013 · 17:25 UTC
This was a very cute game. I enjoyed it a lot! ^^
Puzzlem00n
13. May 2013 · 23:28 UTC
Quite a weird interpretation of the theme. I approve! You definitely got a good amount done for the 48 hours.
Rafael Sales
14. May 2013 · 17:04 UTC
AMAZING game. It's really impressive how the concept was well done. I've played until the end. Congratulations a lot!
Sylvain.p
14. May 2013 · 21:10 UTC
Nice concept and atmosphere! I liked the story, but I think a bit more challenge would be great.
Madball
15. May 2013 · 17:46 UTC
Cool! Amazing story! *claps*
The gameplay was simple but very polished. Though sometimes it wasn`t obvious if I could pick up/destroy someting.
Now let`s craft a sign "This is not 3D"!
echa
18. May 2013 · 10:42 UTC
Great!
lightnarcissus
19. May 2013 · 13:13 UTC
Cool concept and an interesting twist to the done-to-death RPG formula. Does fairly stick to the theme,so no complaints in that department.
deathray
19. May 2013 · 18:54 UTC
I really enjoyed this game! The graphics were nice, it fit the theme great and was actually funny. It's impressive for 48 hours! My only complaint is that it needs some more hints on what to do next. I needed to consult the walkthrough - something I don't like doing.
AestheticGamer
20. May 2013 · 03:18 UTC
A very fun entry! Had quite a bit of charm, mood, and humor, and was interesting, though at a couple instances I didn't find the solution before consulting the walkthrough. Even made me think a small bit. Quite enjoyed.
pentaphobe
20. May 2013 · 07:46 UTC
Awesome stuff :)
voxel
20. May 2013 · 09:11 UTC
THIS IS SO COOL aaahhhhh

Loved the end music. Lots of fun
hgouveia
20. May 2013 · 10:45 UTC
took me a long time to realize where to go but besides of that, very creative
geepit
20. May 2013 · 11:59 UTC
Really really cool! Enjoyed this a lot
Misfit
20. May 2013 · 13:51 UTC
Great game!
GeorgeBroussard
20. May 2013 · 22:33 UTC
Interesting game and a lot to it for 48 hours. I really liked the structure of moving from map to map and getting items. Good work!
namuol
21. May 2013 · 07:45 UTC
I'm literally crunching numbers right now and it makes me so happy.
jackdw31
31. Aug 2013 · 16:26 UTC
AMAZING!