Goodnight Sheep by littlecloudflower
Cocoa Moss proudly presents Goodnight Sheep.
Goodnight Sheep is an interactive story about how having too many thoughts can prevent you from falling asleep!
Post-jam version (v1.09): http://cocoamoss.com/goodnight-sheep/goodnight-sheep.html
iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/goodnight-sheep/id1323278966
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cocoamoss.goodnightsheep
Compo version (v1.07): http://ddrkirby.com/games/goodnight-sheep/compo-version/goodnight-sheep-compo.html
Soundtrack download: https://ddrkirbyisq.bandcamp.com/album/goodnight-sheep-original-soundtrack
Changelog:
``` v1.09 - First mobile release! - Decreased sheep swirl speeds to 50% for nights 3 and 4
v1.08 - Added new swirly sheep flocking for nights 3 and 4 - Add sheep spread effect to make text more readable - Text also now scales up a bit after clicking and lingers a bit longer - Text is now prerendered for better performance and quality - Added "Cocoa Moss Presents" intro screen, and fix initial fadein - Added more treble to the spawn sfx so they're audible on smaller speakers - Lots of mobile-specific work, including letterboxing, app icons, etc. - Make title screen button click areas a bit larger
v1.07 - Fixed a bug that caused bubbles to not appear
v1.06 - Reduced global volume to 0.75 - Added some new "bad" click sounds for nights 3 and 4 - Adjusted panning for all sfx
v1.05 - Don't highlight the first sheep until all have spawned - Fixed a game-breaking bug introduced in v1.04 where clicking a sheep early softlocks the game
v1.04 - Add clickable title screen buttons -- game is now mouse-only! - Changed credits text slightly - Minor performance improvements
v1.03 - Made night 5 use the 5th music (since night 6 no longer exists)
v1.02 - Adjusted text colors a bit
v1.01 - Added a different ending and animation for the last night - Revised and reworked text - A handful of other improvement, including tweaked colors and volume adjustments
v1.00 - First release! ```
We made two games this time! You can check out our other one at: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/samurai-shaver
Screenshots:
Ratings
| Overall | 79th | 4⭐ | 57🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 534th | 3.361⭐ | 56🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 106th | 3.868⭐ | 55🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 89th | 4.136⭐ | 57🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 152th | 4.227⭐ | 57🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 5th | 4.426⭐ | 56🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 5th | 4.546⭐ | 56🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 71🗳️ | 63🗨️ |
I did enjoy the relaxing music.
Good job.
The mood in this one is excellent, and though it has some disturbingly familiar moments, I appreciate that the ending manages to find a balance between light and dark. I thoroughly enjoyed this game!
The game works to simulate a mind wandering before sleeping because of three things:
1. Thoughts are constantly moving, shifting, overlapping, and so you have to wait until the "active" thought moves into a visible space. I found myself activating a thought without reading the whole thing first. That's something a racing mind might do before sleep comes.
2. The need to wait means that thoughts come slowly.
3. You can see the whole story on screen, but you don't quite know the order in which thoughts will become active.
Yes, it is a "simple" game in that the story is basically linear and all you do is click on sheep in a certain order. But its unfair to be so reductive toward experiences of this sort. One cannot discount the effect of the story being told, the color and visual style, the sound effects and music. All of those things strengthen the core interaction, which is itself made more interesting by the movement and overlapping of the sheep, and not "just clicking".
Using continuous x/y transforms and Z-order to symbolize a scattered, racing/wandering mind. That's cool.
If this game is to be expanded, I think all it needs is just a variety of narratives. More than just a narrative about a student fretting over his/her immediate future.
It is simple, and it is simply clicking sheep - and I did find I had to wait for some of the sheep to meander somewhere I could click - but I think the emotion it invokes makes up for it.
A really good job guys!
Out of the blue. It might also have been cool if some sheep were not your thoughts and were not meant to be clicked. But maybe that would just have been confusing.
I didn't expect anything and it worked pretty good. I didn't expect a story-driven game to fit the game that much.
It's a pretty clever way to keep your player attention. I love how you used the theme for this.
Also woaw, you made two games !!
Do you have guys have a twitter, looking forward for your next games !
You can always check out our games at http://cocoamoss.com/ or http://ddrkirby.com/
The music and sound effects really add to the experience.
Great (and relatable) story, which reads like poetry, complemented by fitting graphics and music with subtle sfx.
It's a beautiful cute little game with a heart warming narrative. The change in music as the mood in the dialogue changes is perfect, it made me wish I had the means to the same in my narrative game. You've made two really polished games for the jam with amazing music, visuals, gameplay and narrative so, I know I'm repeating myself but, I'm looking forward to more games from you guys. :smile:
The only thing that bothered me a bit is often the sheep that was lit up that I was supposed to click was often hidden under other sheep and I had to wait for them to move around before I could progress.
I otherwise really liked this! Great job :smile:
On the downside, I thought this gameplay was rather minimalist and the game was short. Maybe you could have added some challenge like having the "right" thought randomly jumping to another sheep, or sheeps with varying speed and color. But I can consider this is as a "conceptual" game where the most important is to keep the gameplay close to feelings. Also, I liked the mood change given by the music, maybe this could have been reflected on the graphic side too.