HE BEAT HER. by Angela He



HE BEAT HER.
That’s what everyone thinks.
But you might find otherwise.. if you pick the right move.
...
You’re a lawyer, and your client is being accused of abuse. You only have 5 minutes until the verdict. You’re practically powerless.
What will you do in those minutes? And can your actions make a difference?
*Find the truth. Serve justice. *
Play the game.
Features:
A mystery interactive story
Over 220 possible choices that lead to 42 paths revealing the truth of the case
Dream-like, original art and animations
Original sounds and music
Tools:
Code: Unity 2017+Fungus+2DxFX+TextMeshPro
Art: Photoshop CC 2017
Music: FL Studio+Audacity+Samplified Samples
Timelapse/making-of: https://youtu.be/E0qIxfl5tb4
this was my first LD, and I had a great time! I hope people enjoy my compo entry ^_^
GAME JAM VERSION (harder, few bugs, and less accurate narrative): * Windows: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BX2rGyxUNBBVHVJRFRtZmtUaWs/view?usp=sharing * Mac: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BX2rGyxUNBBbGF4Ui10VlFsWXc/view?usp=sharing * Linux: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_X2rGyxUNBBeDgyZ2g1XzZhWU0/view?usp=sharing
| Windows | https://zephyo.itch.io/he-beat-her |
| macOS | https://zephyo.itch.io/he-beat-her |
| Linux | https://zephyo.itch.io/he-beat-her |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/he-beat-her |
Ratings
| Overall | 21th | 4.1⭐ | 102🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 164th | 3.495⭐ | 101🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 36th | 4⭐ | 101🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 424th | 3.34⭐ | 102🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 1th | 4.843⭐ | 104🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 11th | 4.2⭐ | 102🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 291th | 2.41⭐ | 80🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 8th | 4.4⭐ | 102🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 45🗳️ | 72🗨️ |
@gmfk07 I won by (spoilers) looking through her phone and finding bipolar related notes and texts.
@sir-mr-dr-prof-sr-jr-phd yeahh.. I interpreted 'power' as psychological power, woops :P
@gmfk07 there are 3 'justice' endings, all of which are slightly related and bring a new level of complexity to the plot.
I would have liked to be able to play the game from just my keyboard, especially since the main interaction is through typing. I'm not sure if it's possible right now but I often had to switch to my mouse to click on stuff, i.e. when I lost.
Overall I'm really impressed with the polish of this game. Keep up the good work, I look forward to seeing what else you make in the future! :thumbsup:
The plot was also really good and kept me engaged until I got all 3 endings without a walkthrough :smile:
Admittedly, I tend to get quite lost in adventure games, so... much to my embarrassment, I admit looking at the other comments here to try to get unstuck.
The data folder is right there, but whitespaces in filenames probably don't help.
Bugs! I'm going to try fixing the bugs O_O
@yetman I'll try to use WordNet, thank you for showing me!! PS just in case you're confused, choices /= endings. Kinda makes me sad you only got 2.. Mind sharing what you inputted/tried?
@diptoman I don't want to limit player freedom too much - I have some pretty blatant hints in the 'help' button - what else would you suggest?
That said, I'm honestly really uncomfortable with the story. I'm not sure if this is different when you play other endings, but the one I found had some pretty ugly implications. Not intentionally, I'm sure, but it still leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth.
Also I couldn't get the audio to work in for Linux version.
It’s now:
* Easier: First time you click the help button, it gives you 4 basic commands, think, talk, observe, and grab. The second time you click it, you get the walkthrough link.
* After losing > 4 times, the lose cutscene is much shorter.
* 15 more choices using http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/ from @ and Youtuber playthroughs (thanks, @yetman!)
* Fixed bug caused when pressing ‘enter’ many times (I think)
* Fixed weird logic causing certain dialogues to go out of order
I’ve also attached the Game Jam version in the description. If this breaks LD rules, please tell me. Thanks, everyone who gave feedback!
@ganbaregameskyle I don't have a Linux so I can't test it :( I rebuilt it tho. Not sure what's going on there.
I agree that you need more options or clues to understand what you can do
Then again, amazing work for the compo. I can't wait for the next release!
I feel like it's a bit hard to play though nad would have liked a list of all the possivble actions, but I have always been bad at these kind of text games so I'm not a reliable witness when it comes to that part xD
This is an excellent game! The graphics and music are awesome, it looks and feels so real. It is very immersive, the characters feel real and deep, even through the limited interaction that we get with them. Your drawing is fantastic, huge respect for that!
I was not able to come up with the solution myself, after falling asleep in court and finding out about the dog, I was not going anywhere so I looked at the walkthrough. That still did not make the game less interesting at all, seeing the story unfold is an emotional experience. You managed to make me feel for the characters, I cannot stress how cool this is, I did not expect this kind of experience from any of the compo entries!
I am not sure about the message that you bring across with the solution to the mystery. It says (SPOILERALERT) "Now you think about all the domestic violence cases" where the reality is that in 99.9 % the guy really is the bad one. So this kind of thinking is a bit dangerous I feel.
There is one technical thing, the controls :-) I had to sometimes click the input with the mouse although it is the only text field. The same goes for the restart button (or rather text), I should just be able to ENTER my way through everything as this is the kind of game that you start over and over again.
Overall I think it goes without saying that I find this one of the top games in this competition. Thank you very much for this, I will follow your work from now on.
Please in text-input games, try to always focus text input. It is ruining game experience when you always have to grab mouse and re-focus.
Now as for the graphics and music. The quality was high enough, it matched together (yet compared to some other games here on Ludum Dare it felt 'too simple' ... don't get me wrong, this isn't necessarily bad, but I'd like to see it in 'Life is Strange' like way). The game has quite good storytelling (I'd say one of the best this time on Ludum Dare).
Keep up the good work.
but
// *SPOILER ALERT:* //
I'm not sure about it because I haven't been able to find all finals and I'm not an expert but I think you have mistaken the concept of the mental illness, bipolarity.
The bipolar disorder is altering periods of depression (hypomania) and elevated mood (mania). During the mania, the person can be either euphoric or irritable.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but in this game I've understand the illness as something more likely a personality disorder such as schizophrenia (what I don't know about).
If I've understood correctly the girl has this bipolar disorder and that's why she attacked her boyfriend with a knife. And that would be so wrong.
I'm telling this because this misinformation could feed the popular idea that bipolarity could be dangerous for social behaviour and this is not true.
Please correct me if i misunderstood the information and I'll erase this comment.
Great game anyways, impressive for a compo! Great job!
After glancing over the comments, i really don't think i can add anything else. I agree that it would be nice to be able to play using only the keyboard, and the unfocusing input was kinda annoying at times.
Also, i couldn't figure out what to do at first... since different actions automatically targeted different people, and i had no idea what to try. I gotta admit i ended up using the walkthrough... (thanks for the link). And i enjoyed it a lot more this way, and i tried not to spoil anything big to myself.
However... here end my critiques. We can't forget this is a Jam and the time and the resources are limited. And what you achieved with those is amazing. I don't know how you did something like that. Either you're not fully human, or you're just a beast.
I loved the art, the story and the characters. The "open end-ness", kind of, lets you fill the blanks with your own story, and that makes it feel so much personal. I don't know if it's a conscious choice, but it works really well.
Just... well. I'm no professional, but the best tip i can give is "Keep it up". You've already come so far, i can't even imagine what you could do with more time and experience, since you've got the talent.
@gonutz The true rate of female-on-male abuse is actually around 20% ([National Incident-Based Reporting System](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sherry_Hamby/publication/259918579_Intimate_Partner_and_Sexual_Violence_Research_Scientific_Progress_Scientific_Challenges_Gender/links/54e7613a0cf277664ffa6779/Intimate-Partner-and-Sexual-Violence-Research-Scientific-Progress-Scientific-Challenges-Gender.pdf)). Besides, the point of this game is to make you feel helpless - in this case, a trial for a male-on-female abuse case is optimum, because men are more likely to be charged for abuse than women ([Carney et al. 2007](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/222426549_Women_Who_Perpetrate_Intimate_Partner_Violence_A_Review_of_the_Literature_With_Recommendations_for_Treatment)).
@mr-houdini - thank you so much!! :) I understand bipolar is a mood disorder. I based this off of a true story of a friend I know. Bipolar may not cause changes in personality, but it can cause people to do things they never would otherwise, which is why medication is important. Also, female perpetrators of abuse are more often to have personality dysfunction or mood disorder ([Henning et al., 2003](http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0886260503253876)). Note: Or.
Thank you for answering!
From the gameplay it reminded me a little bit of Event 0, where one also needed to enter commands. Also would have liked if theme was more visible throughout the game.
All in all really well done. :)
Bravo.
At first I didn't realize what to type so I opened the walkthrough which was a really good thing that you added so people can still complete your game. The connection to the theme was not at first obvious but I realized the game is supposed to be played many times in order to get the ending, reminds me a bit of Life is Strange.
I didn't pickup on all the things in the introduction so maybe having a notebook or something where you small hints would be written could have been useful but that is just a minor detail.
Amazing job and I hope to see you in the next Ludum Dare, Angela :)
I had a bit of a hard time thinking about what to write but in the end I've managed to get a few endings i was satisfied
with...Oh and also you've got a new subscriber :D
These graphics, the audio... No words from me haha
About the gameplay, I felt like I was playing a mix of Her Story and Life is Strange, and I really enjoyed it, the subject is interesting, not too cliché, and the interpretation of the theme is really good!
There is certainly things to improve at some points but the game is already quite clean for an LD entry. And I think the bug that block you in the game (no user interface) with hitting enter or space is still there ^^'
I hope to see and hear more about you in the future!!
4 times sorry for bugging tho xD