LudumData

Eventualities by Human Writes Code

[raw]
made by Human Writes Code for Ludum Dare 45 (JAM)

A game about a conversation.

How to play: Interact with some one via a text message conversation and explore the dialogue paths to reveal who's arguing, how they feel, why they feel that way, who else is involved, what happened and what the consequences are. Once you feel like you completely understand the story, select your solution elements and submit them to find out how close you were.

Warning: this game exhibits very high levels of passive aggression.

Please note: The game has only been tested in 1920x1080, 1024x768 and 800x600 resolutions. Other resolutions may be available when launching, but I can't guarantee a pleasant experience.

Also, pressing ESC will immediately exit the game, if necessary.

The ONLY tested build is the Windows build. I have provided a Mac and a Linux build, too, but they are completely and utterly untested and may not work at all!!!

Youtube https://humanwritescode.itch.io/eventualities
Youtube https://humanwritescode.itch.io/eventualities
Youtube https://humanwritescode.itch.io/eventualities
Youtube https://humanwritescode.itch.io/eventualities
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/eventualities

Ratings

Overall 505th 3.5⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Fun 610th 3.197⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 55th 4.109⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Theme 206th 3.813⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 931th 2.742⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Audio 539th 2.984⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Humor 750th 2.296⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Mood 275th 3.727⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Given 28🗳️ 37🗨️

Feedback

Apace
07. Oct 2019 · 11:13 UTC
What a nice concept! I really like the idea of a kind of "detective" game, where you actually play a role in what you are "being detective about" (difficult to say what I mean!). I also enjoyed the calm background music and the sounds of typing and the messenger. What I didn't like as much was how many times I got back to the first sentence, but that's just the nature of the game I suppose, I can't expect you to write millions of lines of dialogue in a weekend.

Also, I managed to only get 4/6 right, and I'm not sure if I just clicked the wrong button, but it was kinda sad that I had to start from the beginning again with zero solution items, therefore I didn't feel like trying again even though I really wanted to know what happened.
🎤 Human Writes Code
07. Oct 2019 · 11:40 UTC
@apace Yeah. I underestimated the scale of the dialogue needed - hence the looping nature of the game dialogue tree. I would have implemented a save mechanic for the solution had I realised the need for it early on... but sadly I didn't. Thanks for playing!
laegoose
07. Oct 2019 · 11:44 UTC
It took me a long time to notice how is this connected to the theme... beautiful!

The genre is innovative.

After playing for a while I wish the game would play faster when I visit the branches I been before.

Background music is very well done, creates the atmosphere. Well done!
Rolly
07. Oct 2019 · 11:46 UTC
That's such a great concept! The story was quite interresting, and you can definitly feel the "passive aggressive"ness.

Visuals and sounds are simple but very well done! Music could have been a little louder.

The problem with that kind of game is that it needs a lot of content to make it feel like we are never repeating ourselves. Getting back to the "so... nothing?" seemed sometimes out of topic. Do you plan on adding more content after the jam?

At first, the delay between answers helps the mood, but when we want to get through the tree again to explore another part, it takes too much time... Maybe it should get faster after a while. I gave up with a 4/6 solution, but I had a good experience!

Nice entry!
🎤 Human Writes Code
07. Oct 2019 · 12:20 UTC
@rolly Those are all great suggestions. I probably won't add more content to *this* particular game (seriously, you do NOT want to see the code base) but it certainly stimulated some ideas for building something very similar but more substantial and... well, better coded. :laughing:
🎤 Human Writes Code
07. Oct 2019 · 12:22 UTC
@laegoose Thank you! I can totally see how ramping up the speed would be of great value! Cheers for playing!
Rolly
07. Oct 2019 · 12:26 UTC
@human-writes-code Haha, I feel you! Let's just be glad that there is no "Code quality" rating category! x)
James Beninger
07. Oct 2019 · 22:38 UTC
I'll echo the comments of the other folk here. The delays and constant restarting do well to set the mood, but become frustrating after a while, particularly in a jam situation where we're - let's be honest - trying to review as many games as possible.

Criticism out of the way, the UI and sounds both achieve minimalism without feeling "cheap". The concept is good and is just missing a few quality-of-life features that would really make it shine. Options that are persistent between games would help, and maybe something like a journal where you could see how each option was unlocked.

I really appreciated the tiny "click" of recognition in my head when I realized the two options were literally "passive" and "aggressive".
Baktillus
08. Oct 2019 · 07:19 UTC
Gonna repeat some of the praise: The visuals and audio are simple without being bad. It all fits together and matches the game's mood very well.
I didn't have any issues with the delays, they gave me time to flick through the responses again. Plus they made it feel pretty organic.
For the looparound maybe there would have been a better sentence but I honestly don't have a good idea either.
🎤 Human Writes Code
08. Oct 2019 · 07:48 UTC
@baktillus Thanks for playing. Yeah, I kind of knew that the loop around of the dialogue would be a bit of a pain. It was a stop fix measure that I used because I was running out of time to implement the dialogue tree. Using a binary response approach means that you end up with 2 to the power of however many levels of dialogue. As I came to realise - that's a lot of dialogue to write :laughing:
Khorm
08. Oct 2019 · 07:49 UTC
Cool idea and you really feel the passive aggressive radiating from the messages. This game score really high on innovation and mood for me and even though it might not be the typical game I normally like it was a cool experience!

Some negatives was the I found it a bit repetitive after a while, and there's maybe a bit lacking on the visuals even though the simplicity really do work.

But overall a nice submission!
givit-game-studios
08. Oct 2019 · 08:14 UTC
This is a good game. I really like it when developers starts inovating more. I just couldn't get the right combenation.
Kirke
08. Oct 2019 · 08:18 UTC
Wow, I have never before meet with game in this type, but this one is great. I love you idea to use phone as a media. It feels so satisfying to hear this sound for new possible solution item! You add great, calm but mysterious music, and even when dialogues sometimes to often back to the beginning, still it was a lot of content and I really enjoy this game. I'm impressed you manage to do this in game jam! :D
🎤 Human Writes Code
08. Oct 2019 · 08:20 UTC
@kirke Thank you!
🎤 Human Writes Code
08. Oct 2019 · 08:22 UTC
@givit-game-studios Thanks! Finding the full solution is hard and you have to play though a lot of dialogue branches (one of the things I would change if I was to redo the game). A lot of the solution items are kind of half right, which makes it pretty tricky. Thanks for playing!
Jake White
08. Oct 2019 · 08:23 UTC
Nice theme interpretation. The conversation looping is really smart, although I'm not good enough to figure out more than like 2/6
🎤 Human Writes Code
08. Oct 2019 · 08:24 UTC
@khorm Thanks for the feedback. I agree wholeheartedly with the negatives you pointed out. Glad you liked the experience (also, it's not the kind of game I would usually play, either).
GraphicEdit
08. Oct 2019 · 09:59 UTC
ok
Shunt
08. Oct 2019 · 10:31 UTC
Really nice theme interpretation and a clever idea and execution, obviously you need to consider the amount of dialouge option but given the time constraints still really impressive.
JUSTCAMH
08. Oct 2019 · 10:55 UTC
This was really impressive, and for quite a while, you had me fooled. I didn't even realise things were looping, and the 'typical' response was a really smart transition. Although I eventually managed to divorce my wife multiple times which clued me in. Neat how the story opened up, if only the illusion held up a little longer. I still really enjoyed it! :heart:
Pio
08. Oct 2019 · 11:57 UTC
Very interesting idea and a cool story. It's hard to make a game where you literally start with nothing, but it really was the case here. Player starts with no information. Music fits very well too. I wish there was less repetition, but still a great game.
Swanijam
09. Oct 2019 · 03:50 UTC
This is so extremely interesting and heavy. Took a long time to figure out, and each time i learned something new i was floored. and sad. This reminds me a lot of https://tak.itch.io/agppbp this game - in the way that it simulates text anxiety, and the awful feeling of receiving a negative or stressful text. Thanks!
🎤 Human Writes Code
09. Oct 2019 · 04:09 UTC
@swanijam I wasn't familiar with the AGP game so I went and had a look - very interesting! A lot better looking than my game obviously but I can clearly see the similarities. Thanks for playing!
radgegames
10. Oct 2019 · 05:11 UTC
This is actually a great and innovative entry
Scott Steffes
11. Oct 2019 · 00:22 UTC
Very intriguing and thought-provoking concept. I got some strange lag in the HTML web version but maybe it was my PC's problem. Loved experimenting with this.
kleinzach
11. Oct 2019 · 00:26 UTC
Really cool idea. It basically simulates a mystery game through lack of information, and the mechanic of learning more about a situation and gathering more parts to come to a conclusion is great. The only things that I didn't like were how slow messages came through and that you couldn't see your history, but otherwise this was great!
🎤 Human Writes Code
11. Oct 2019 · 06:06 UTC
@kleinzach Thanks for playing! A message history was on the feature list but I never got around to implementing it. Definitely would have been good to include.
Enzo_B
11. Oct 2019 · 17:16 UTC
really nice idea love it