Head Over Hooves: My Heart Bleats For You by Blarfnip

[raw]
made by Blarfnip for LD 43 (JAM)

An adorable apocalyptic dating sim! God has chosen you to save Earth from a fiery end, and your only hope for salvation is finding a sacrifice. The only problem: the sacrifice must be in love with you. You must seduce Goat: a budding writer who is also a goat. Will you and your relationship survive the end of the world?

This game has five endings. Try to get the best ones!

MainMenu2_Sm.gif

Dialogue_Sm2.gif

Hint: The minigames do matter! Your performance in them can unlock more dialogue options and other endings. We were too rushed to add a proper tutorial, but it's a simple "right choice, right place" game similar to the board game "Mastermind". You must perform the correct choices in the correct order to get maximum points. There CAN be duplicate choices though!

Our team:

Project Lead/Lead Programmer: Saul Amster
Programmer: Aidan Saltini
Lead Writer: Julia LaCava
Writers: Emma Herbst and Kristen Gregg

Thank you! And enjoy!

The "FIXEDPOST" version is the updated version that fixes some of the game breaking bugs (depending on your playthrough). It was made after the Jam time was over, so if you want the original (possibly broken) experience play the non "FIXEDPOST" game.

Ratings

Overall 96th 3.986⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Fun 179th 3.716⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 321th 3.412⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Theme 26th 4.403⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 421th 3.681⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Humor 8th 4.405⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Mood 90th 3.986⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Given 26🗳️ 38🗨️

Feedback

VickPerico
03. Dec 2018 · 23:52 UTC
Haha I love the theme. I never thought I would have to seduce a goat. I was not able to finish the story tho. After goat confessed he "liked me a lot", dialog disappers. ![Captura de Tela (123).png](///raw/ed2/e1/z/1d861.png)
🎤 Blarfnip
03. Dec 2018 · 23:57 UTC
@vickperico Sorry about that bug! We actually just caught and fixed it. If you're willing to try again the itch.io page now has v1_2 which should no longer do that.

Either way, thanks for playing our game!!
Swanijam
04. Dec 2018 · 03:06 UTC
i couldn't goat the game to continue after the third time in the field but boy do i feel charmed and into goats right now! this is a TON of polish for the amount of time oyu had. Way to go!
danman9914
04. Dec 2018 · 03:41 UTC
I had a game breaking bug! It was in the field after I decided that wooing Goat was becoming enjoyable and I was falling in love. I enjoyed what I played up to that point. What a great concept.
🎤 Blarfnip
04. Dec 2018 · 03:47 UTC
@swanijam and @danman9914 Thanks for telling us! I believe we have fixed it and there is a new Post-Jam version live on itch.io.

Turns out testing branching narratives in 72 hours is harder than we thought. Thank you for the feedback!
WalterP
04. Dec 2018 · 04:30 UTC
Very funny game! Love the visual novel style and the jokes were great too. Keep up the good work.
shieldgenerator7
04. Dec 2018 · 07:22 UTC
NOOOOOOO!!! it was just getting good, and she had to go!! :sob:

the mastermind puzzles weren't well explained, but i knew them already so it was a fun refreshing break from the average match 3 dating sim minigame

played on the post-jam version and there was an occasional glitch where a mastermind square was supposed to be green but it was red instead.
Fat cat
04. Dec 2018 · 07:52 UTC
The UI looks very nice, the backgrounds are great too, and although the story feels a bit rushed it was still very enjoyable. I love goats and I am sad Goat had to die. He seemed good. :(
BoopsGames
04. Dec 2018 · 10:02 UTC
I too couldn't get passed a point where the dialogue disappeared, and I was SO INVESTED!

I don't say this lightly, but GREAT job! It has some issues, but what can you do with branching path storylines?

My partner and I were extremely charmed by the idea!
Harksa
04. Dec 2018 · 12:36 UTC
Well, I had a bug where the dialogue disappeared as well. I hope you manage to fix that. If you do, I'd love to try your game again !
DeathBySnail
04. Dec 2018 · 13:22 UTC
Fantastic interpretation of the theme, love it! G.O.A.T
Hydezeke
04. Dec 2018 · 15:57 UTC
Hilarious, and now I have legitimate feelings for a virtual goat.
The church/comedy club scenes didn't feel crazy necessary, but the writing for the main plot was really the hallmark. Loved it!
Haneton
04. Dec 2018 · 17:43 UTC
I really enjoyed playing your game ! The UI is nice and so are the graphics. Sound design is cool too, but I suppose that you didn't had the time to put sound everywhere in the game (maybe later ?). As I'm not very familliar with dating sim' I didn't really understood if there was a link between the mini games and the rest of the story. Still a nice moment for me :D
YureiOkami
04. Dec 2018 · 18:11 UTC
This!! \o/

Great presentation guys! It has the 3 Ws (warm, weird, wtf?!) vibes that made me like something like Hatoful Boyfriend so much. Considering how short it is, you actually get to care enough (and more than I'd expect) about Goat to feel something at the end.

The puzzle mechanics kinda felt generic and out of place, but that doesn't matter. Their role is to keep the flow of the game not too linear, which is something that helps avoid getting the player tired from repetition. Though that probably isn't an issue with such a short game, the bare fact that it is there shows the dev knows how these games play and what makes them good, which is definitely a plus to me.

Anyway, I laughed, I felt sorry and I enjoyed it. So to me, this is a win o/
Trifectuh
05. Dec 2018 · 00:19 UTC
I don't even know what to say about this... 5/5.
Papabirb
05. Dec 2018 · 02:04 UTC
I've been excited for this since I saw a blog post of the title screen during the jam. I gotta say, in the places that do have audio, it's absolutely phenomenal - but overall, there's a lot of silence that leaves me feeling empty, and while I can't blame you for not having enough time to make a tutorial for the minigame, I'm unfamiliar with the Mastermind board game. It was intuitive enough to figure out that red = wrong spot and green = right spot, but I have no idea what the yellow squares I got meant, as I only encountered thoseo n I believe day 2. (Having a counter for what day you're on would have been helpful storytelling wise, as the days are so short and I feel like I spent more than a week with Goat before God took them from me.)

It would also be nice if there was a return to menu or restart button on the endings, or at least on the one I got - I'm not inclined to hunt for endings right now when I have to close and restart the .exe for each one of them, but I might play it for fun later just to see what else there is and if I can figure out better strategies for that minigame.

Overall, very strong visuals and concept, and great that there were options for text speed and music! A bit out of place in contrast to how much dead silence there was, though, and it seemed to me that text was put up instantaneously anyway, so either the speed slider is too sensitive since I wasn't even close to maxed out on it, or it's just an aesthetic slider that does nothing but look cool. I'd love to see this as a full visual novel in the future. I'm not really sure if I'd play it myself, since visual novels aren't generally my cup of tea to play, but I'd definitely watch some Let's Plays of it.
jcroisant
05. Dec 2018 · 03:36 UTC
I have never been so emotionally invested in a goat before. When I hit a bug (using the non-fixed version) on my first playthrough, I was devastated. I downloaded the fixed version and played through 5 more times until I saved my darling Goat. Love is real. :heart: :goat:

The concept and writing are of course where the game shines. The visuals and minigame are satisfactory to support the story. Overall a very strong LD game. Nicely done!
Vimlark
06. Dec 2018 · 08:36 UTC
Not usually a story heavy game kind of person but by the end I loved that goat. Great style and all around awesome work.
Hex Agendum
06. Dec 2018 · 21:48 UTC
Hilarious, my first dating sim and I really enjoyed it.
TheCrittersCove
07. Dec 2018 · 21:39 UTC
Very well written, especially for a weekend! Now I feel like I need a full length goat dating sim. I actually didn't hit any bugs despite playing the earlier game version. I actually enjoyed the Mastermind like mini-game, but obviously that needs more polish. Only thing that bugged me a little is the lack of contrast in the text and text background. Overall very charming game!
FireBug
09. Dec 2018 · 12:35 UTC
I absolutely love this game. The presentation is so charming, with the sparkling cursor and peppy pink, and the story is adorable and silly. The mini-games were fun to do once you figure out how they work, especially since they reward you with more dialogue options. The game as a whole was a unique idea! ^_^
MattWagar
13. Dec 2018 · 08:22 UTC
Now I wanna meet goats at my local cafe!
Joror
15. Dec 2018 · 14:08 UTC
Goat and I shall love and live forever in the afterlife!

Also: God is a dick

Would have loved a bit more audio. A color scheme explanation for the minigame would have been nice. (had to look up the description / hints) Minigame got better after that.