Where The Grains Are by axoona

[raw]
made by axoona for LD 40 (JAM)

Help your little community prepare for winter in this poetic and relaxing game. Your actions will have an impact.

wip2.png

We had very little time so it might be a bit rough. It also ends a bit abruptly. We recommend that you play the 1.1 version which corrects all the bugs (and if there are still some, please let us know). Linux and Mac versions are untested unfortunately. Let us know if there are any problems.

We'll be releasing a post-jam version soon.

Instructions

use Arrow keys to move and SPACE to interact with hotspots and close dialog boxes.

Credits:

graphics by @Sidhi

original ambient track by https://soundcloud.com/tokyorainfall (used under CC 4.0)

design, coding and all the rest by @axoona

Made with Unity3D.

Ratings

Overall 594th 3.429⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Fun 948th 2.81⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 513th 3.225⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1058th 2.625⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 31th 4.614⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Audio 156th 3.75⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Humor 958th 1.8⭐ 17🧑‍⚖️
Mood 36th 4.19⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Given 22🗳️ 24🗨️

Feedback

fastpath
06. Dec 2017 · 23:22 UTC
I liked the idea and style very much. :)
The drawback of getting more stuff is the longer walkway?
Anyway, the theme was strange, so go on making touching stories. :)
Carraka
06. Dec 2017 · 23:25 UTC
A very atmospheric game! On my playthrough, I left half the food in the cave and the children starved to death. I'm not sure if putting all the food in the granary would have done something different. Maybe I would have starved instead?

One thing that would have helped would have been something in the art indicating more obviously that there wasn't another screen to go to, so I wouldn't spend time going to the edge of the screen and wondering whether something else was supposed to load. I think a faster speed for the cart would have helped too. Maybe it wouldn't be as atmospheric, but it would've made me more willing to go back and play to see how to get everyone to survive.

Also, the intro at the beginning was fine, but I wonder if there could have been more sentences on the screen at a time. As it was, I spent more time waiting for one sentence to fade out and the other one to fade in then the time I spent actually reading the sentence, which was a bit annoying.

Overall, well done! And the art was beautiful!
jynspielt
08. Dec 2017 · 00:21 UTC
Really good looking game. But i have to agree with carraka. And the moving felt strange sometimes because of the interaction with space interrupting or forbidding you to walk for some time.
Anyways the painting is beutiful :)
mahalis
08. Dec 2017 · 03:45 UTC
Stunningly pretty art - nice work!
sgadrat
08. Dec 2017 · 17:39 UTC
Your goals are meet, I played the game an now I am relaxed. Everything in this game was calm, from the introduction pitch to the cart moving, nice way to establish your ambiance. Great work!
RIBOUT Horace
09. Dec 2017 · 12:13 UTC
It have really good visual, with a strong style and the gameplay work, but, like it was said above : the introduction have too many sentence one by one, and some think was not very clear (what is the use of the cave ? ) but for a game jam, it really work, and the game worth it entierly !
Naca
10. Dec 2017 · 18:09 UTC
Nice short experience :) I've enjoyed it.
BinaryUnit
16. Dec 2017 · 16:45 UTC
This is one of the entries i would really like to try from the screenshot, but although it had been done with Unity there seems to be only Windows export, i wonder what is the reason that so many Unity entries exist only as Windows builds? :(
basecase
16. Dec 2017 · 16:55 UTC
Beautiful artwork, a very atmospheric game. I was a bit confused by the cave, but maybe that becomes more clear on a second playthrough. Good job!
Shivur
18. Dec 2017 · 00:46 UTC
Very beautiful game.
🎤 axoona
19. Dec 2017 · 23:37 UTC
Thank you all for your encouraging comments.
I'm sorry that I'm not very responsive to your feedback, the end if the year has been very hectic... but I have been reading them all, and it's been a pleasure to receive honest feedback! :)

@binaryunit I've uploaded a Linux and Mac versions but they are untested, so please let me know if there are any problems.

I don't know why others are not releasing for Linux and Mac, but for me creating 3 proper releases is 3 times work (and it's important because I don't have a lot of free time...). Also the maintanace gets more complicated, so I only port the game to other platforms when I've cleared all the bugs in the windows version. I also noticed that it's preferable to create Mac version on a Mac to avoid problems (so I need to get acces to a Mac for that).
Nevertheless I usually try to create all 3 releases for LDJAM or I make a web version, but this time I really didn't have the time to do it properly (and yet it's still not done properly because it's untested :/)
Bastienre4
23. Dec 2017 · 12:20 UTC
What a mood ! The graphics are clearly unique and all elements work really well together. Congrats, its gorgeous !
Goat Toaster Games
24. Dec 2017 · 00:07 UTC
Very beautiful game! The visuals were stunning and it was nice and relaxing. I was also a bit confused by the cave, but nonetheless a very good entry! Well done :)
Sand-Gardeners
24. Dec 2017 · 13:13 UTC
Great atmosphere, I'm not sure I've understood what I needed to do but it was nice enough wandering here and there... Well done!
Vasco Rodrigues
25. Dec 2017 · 01:54 UTC
Beautiful game! The atmosphere is amazing and the art is great.
I just didn't understand what was the impact of hiding the food instead of delivering it. I did hide some food, but still managed to save the village.

Still, it was a great experience, very different from everything I tried so far. Congratulations!
PietPtr
25. Dec 2017 · 12:43 UTC
Amazing graphics, great atmosphere!
jk5000
25. Dec 2017 · 13:39 UTC
A interesting little game, with a sad story. I would have liked a bit more content and a bit more story, but what is there is really good. Well done.
Gama Croma
25. Dec 2017 · 16:43 UTC
Nice graphics, indeed pretty abrupt, don't really see what choices change the outcome or the time i have.
megabrutal
26. Dec 2017 · 19:15 UTC
To get this out of the way first, the character is unbearably slow. It takes minutes for the young boy to walk across the screen and get to the next area. When I had to walk from the forest all the way to the village, I actually put weight onto my right arrow key to be able to do other things while the young boy is walking to the village. But at least you see I had determination to play this game to the end. ;)

Otherwise, it's a great game. I like multiple endings (I managed to get two endings in this game, not sure if there are more). The art style and the ambient music also worth praising – these paintings are beautiful and make the game interesting, while the music is nice relaxing. Because it was mentioned earlier, I played with the Linux version. It works. :) Though there is only a 32-bit build in the package, it would be nice to have a 64-bit build as well. Congratulations for the game, keep up the good work! :)
Jupiter_Hadley
27. Dec 2017 · 22:10 UTC
Very relaxing, well made game. I included it in my Ludum Dare 40 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFjCDu50TQs