I can. by Pitzik4

[raw]
made by Pitzik4 for LD34 (JAM)
A story about growing up.

Spiritual successor to "Guide 2 Where?" You don't have to know anything about that game to play this one, of course. There is even less gameplay here than there was in G2W; you just walk around. I wanted to try making a dialogue-reading game, so sue me.

Edit (March 21, 2017): I've updated the game to use the canvas. It's a lot faster now, and it will work equally well in pretty much any browser. It will also run on a phone; touch the left or right side of the screen to walk left or right.

Original (outdated) text: I made another game using HTML DOM and CSS? I'm a real weirdo. It looks better on Firefox, but it runs faster on Chrome; take your pick. It also runs significantly faster at lower resolutions. It doesn't work in Microsoft browsers because Microsoft just can't stop being terrible.


Sounds from Freesound.org:
"footstep-grass.wav" by swuing — https://freesound.org/people/swuing/sounds/38874/
"footstep-wood.wav" by swuing — https://freesound.org/people/swuing/sounds/38876/
"Windy Autumn Forest Soundscape 2" by Porphyr — https://freesound.org/people/Porphyr/sounds/209339/
"snow_13.wav", "snow_12.wav", "snow_9.wav", "snow_18.wav", "snow_5.wav" by iujhu — https://freesound.org/people/iujhu/packs/11490/
"Heavy Rain" by lebcraftlp — https://freesound.org/people/lebcraftlp/sounds/243628/
"Crickets in the night" by caquet — https://freesound.org/people/caquet/sounds/221164/


Font: "Montserrat" by Julieta Ulanovsky — https://github.com/JulietaUla/Montserrat

Ratings

Coolness 24% 2115
Overall(Jam) 3.53 315
Graphics(Jam) 3.31 586
Innovation(Jam) 3.00 603
Theme(Jam) 3.75 442

Feedback

sleepyhammer
15. Dec 2015 · 03:25 UTC
I'm crying.
kabel
15. Dec 2015 · 13:51 UTC
This is one of the best experiences I've had in this Ludum so far, it's not a game, not even an interactive story, it's basically a short film with a constant play button, that makes you sad, if you press it.
Storywise it's very well done, and the metaphor is fairly clear as well. The tone it sets is excellent. I little more gameplay wouldn't hurt it though...and while the visuals are great, there could've been more things to look at, because the text is really slow.
BigBrother
16. Dec 2015 · 02:34 UTC
This is so amazing and metaphorical, and it's even sadder because I think I know what inspired it.
RoseNinja
16. Dec 2015 · 05:50 UTC
really well thought out, had me in bits, amazing
Echo Team
18. Dec 2015 · 01:02 UTC
Didn't run too well :(
Squid Blink Games
18. Dec 2015 · 01:27 UTC
This was barely tolerable for me. I know the slow text is supposed to contemplate the mood and story but this was just ... torture.

I'm conflicted because the story was very well written and it did evoke feelings that I wouldn't think it would but at the same time I was frustrated on how slowly-paced the dialogue was.
Pitƶik4
18. Dec 2015 · 01:41 UTC
Believe it or not, I've been told the text was too fast. I did all I could, but I worried from the start that it would be poorly suited for the Ludum Dare "rate 25 games and then keep going" judging style.

And, yeah, this game is not optimized for performance.
hpearson2
18. Dec 2015 · 01:47 UTC
Wow *tear
narve
18. Dec 2015 · 02:00 UTC
You might not get a lot of comments on this. Let it be known that that is not because we found it unremarkable, but because it left us all speechless. This was actually inspiring. In fact, I think I'm gonna get off of the internet and learn Blender.
nassi
27. Dec 2015 · 11:55 UTC
I too am a bit conflicted about the text speed, but other than that this was really good. I guess the storm/rain was quite loud, but that's how they tend to be in real life too...
Omiya Games
02. Jan 2016 · 03:51 UTC
Play session 1: Do everything the game tells me not to do. End up in limbo forever.
Well that was interesting. Success?

Play session 2: Keep moving right. Quickly realize there's more to the story.

I actually liked that you could always go back and end everything. It really contextualizes the only binary decision in the game, without being an annoying yes/no pop-up menu. On the other hand, I thought the story was predictable and overused. Then again, that's just me: it's probably fresh to someone else, and that's alright!

Also, of course it takes someone to turn to 40 to realize they shouldn't give a flying squirt at what other people thinks of them. I found that pretty funny.