Realy great idea :) And the rpg game is great too !

Ok, it's just a success !

I won't tell more that : I was on my desk and I was blown away, multiple time.

You've really raised the bar here! Everyone else is just trying for second place.

wow. just, wow

My oh my, so very innovative and such an engaging narrative. Really plays with your expectations, encountered a few issues and movement was a little clunky - but neither of those detracted from the overall experience one bit! My thoughts echo those of beta gamer, by the way congrats! Solid entry, fit neatly with the theme.

I played it thinking it would be a non-suspicious RPG... lets just say it wasn't quite as I expected. It was very interesting and I thought it fit the theme perfectly. Although being completely honest I would have liked to see the magic combat system part as a more prevalent part of the game.

Great color palette!

This is amazing. I hope it gets the attention it deserves before the end of the jam. :blush:
On par with The Stanley Parable. :heartbeat: :heartbeat: :heartbeat:

woah. this is super duper cool. i really just don't know what to say about this, it really made me wow. good work!

That was really great! Love your take on the theme!

Goddamn. I had so many WTF moments, this had me glued right to the end.

Aaaahhh thanks for all the support everyone! I really appreciate it, and thanks for avoiding spoilers!

@ansoneh I think you underestimate other LD participants, and you underestimate yourself! Thanks for the :heart:

@sharks I’m curious to know what sort of issues? I wish the controls were buffered, is there anything else missing?

@doctormozart I don’t think it’s quite on that level, but I appreciate it! I don’t think I’ll ever beat Kevan Brighting’s narration for Stanley Parable (though honestly, I doubt anyone can)

@babyking I’m glad to hear that! The game was built around those moments.

I am stuck in a loop with the dragon fight. It seems immune to my fire magic and I tried to apply 5 buckets of water in a row - no results, it keeps summoning minions and I run out of spells really fast. Any advice?

That island NPC dialogs are hilarious and voiceovers are great, keep it up!

Here is my attempt:

https://youtu.be/0beuTxRqRsQ

So unique! Loved the idea and didn't expect this at all!

Very, very cool concept. Loved how you kept the game relatively short too, perfect jam game length! That final boss kept killing me though, it kinda sucked. Hope you fix that in a post jam version. Other than that I loved it!

@icxon yeah, the dragon fight is definitely tough, I’d recommend beating the Goblin King first. They drop a holy spear, which the dragon is weak to. I’d also recommend adding a healer to your party. Thanks for the video, and next time don’t drink all your health potions on the first enemy.

@virtual-turtle-studio stock up some status berries and you should be ok. Also try mega evolving the super crumpet (hint, that’s not it’s final form).

@justcamh At one point I got confused and tried hitting shift + t a second time which led to some interesting issues and also clicking on the phone in the city hall twice led to some interesting behaviour, but again nothing that prevented me from playing. I didn't like the ending with the final boss, after everything I went through and then defeating him was so unsatisfying!

Wow I was not expecting that to be fair. Very cool concept.

Had to farm some levels to beat the boss, but when I learned the last magic spell I got him easy :P

Heya @justcamh ,
Haha - unrelated, but big fan of your hole punch work. But pushing that aside:
This is quite a breath of fresh air, narrative-focused games are always welcome in my book. Let's go through the things I like:

1) I think the art is entering programmer art territory. So I don't think I will judge it too harshly. It works well as a programmer art form of game. If anything, even as programmer art - there is an art direction you tend towards which works!

2) That SMOOTH transition. The iconic scene of your game if anything and you did amazingly on it. Really threw me off when the phone rang the first time.

Although I anticipated it from the teaser gifs, the transition to other realities was still quite surprising and kept the narrative on its toes.

For any qualms that I have:

1) I only wishes the sprint button was a toggle option. My fingers had to do a bit of gymnastics to continue sprinting but it would be nice if it's toggle-able.

Otherwise, it's good - would travel to the inner depths of escapism again!

Wow this is a great little loop. I really loved it. Lots of work here and it was all worth it. Thanks for the stream play too. Great work

Such a great idea, and very well executed!

Yo this game is awesome. I liked the art, it's simple but in a good way. I also really liked the ability to sprint, most games like this don't have that. Sometimes the movement felt a bit difficult as it was grid based but it was find most of the time. Overall it's a really cool concept, one of the best games in this jam by far.

Well that was an... interesting experience xD
You really went all out with that ending lol, I got kind of scared haha.
Great job!

Outstanding work, here. This kind of love letter to Stanley Parable is what I was hoping to see out of this game jam, I'm not disappointed. :)

This is genius, congratulations guys, I was SO not expecting any of this

Unfortunately this is unplayable on an ultrawide monitor, and there doesn't seem to be a way to configure the resolution. The dialog gets mostly cut off at the bottom of the screen :frowning: That's a shame, this looked like a really interesting game, I loved the music and art!

@dxk2294 ~~That's very odd, the game should force a 16:9 aspect ratio. Can I get a screenshot of what you're seeing, then I should be able to fix it.~~

So I did some digging, and apparently unity's ability to force an aspect ratio is janky as all hell... I'm making a fix now!

Well that was interesting. The dragon fight is rough without the spear.

@dxk2294 That should be fixed now, try again! Let me know if it still doesn't work.

@justcamh Awesome, thank you! I'll give it a go tonight :smile:

Haha that was amazing, what a clever application of the theme! Won't go into spoilers, but this is definitely one of my favorite games this jam. Fantastic job!

Wow, I loved Piemont City, such beautiful assets ^^ This is definitely one of the coolest jam games I've played this time. Although I really wish I could have gone to Piemont City for longer, I was anticipating something great. :P

Oh, I like this small game, really nice idea and implementation. I want to say more, but can't, there is an excellent plot twist with the demon king.

another masterpiece man. you've got a real gift. can't wait to see you at the top

Has that "What?!" followed by that "WOW!" factor. Great entry!

I really enjoyed playing it! IDK what else to say other than great job on the awesome game.

What just happened lmao. Interesting experience.

Very good concept here, not what I was expecting at all. Music goes well with this. Overall a well executed polished experience. Well done

Wow. Just, wow. What a beautiful combination Stanley Parable and Pokemon. I love it, so surprising and original! I 5s all the way down, gonna go recommend this to my friends right now. Wonderful job :)

Piamont City is over-rated anyway. The first time the screen panned out of the game was so impressive. Really original and unique entry!

Wow, that was clever. I really like the contrast between aesthetics is really well done, and super polished

This was a really excellent idea, butI stopped playing because of a weird bug where after returning to the screen, I can no longer control my character. Big fan regardless

Yeah, that got me... I had a genuine WTF moment... very nice.

Ok that's cool, but how do we get to Piamont city though?

@tuatarian did you have sound on? That wasn’t a bug, there was voice instructions that you might’ve missed. Please try again! In case the voice doesn’t play for some reason, press shift+T to enable the walkthrough.

@sophiemae0 aaah, thank you so much! It means so much to hear your enthusiasm, I really appreciate it!

@kaldrin did you try beating the goblin king? If not, you can use your scuba gear to dive through Rocky Reef and resurface in the city. You can also use your extra party members to get a vip ticket into the pub, and enter the city from there. And finally, if you put a box on your head, you can stealth your way in.

I really really loved this one - even though there were too many bosses, seeing Piamont City was worth it all. ;)

Wow, such a well-designed and tricky game! Liked the game-in-game feature. Those phone calls...

Very originally, well done!

Really neat idea!

Well, that was quite fancy! Neat idea!

Jesus, I certainly didn't expect that. Not gonna post screenshots for spoilers-sake but this was one of the biggest laughs I had on this jam. Clockmaker did a great job on the soundtrack also!

Really cool art style! And a very good idea for a game

this was delightful! insanely well polished for a game jam. great job on the transitions. too bad i ran out of manna at the end and couldn't defeat the dragon.

Wow what a surprising game! I love this kind of games that subvert your expectations, it really did that for me.
I loved how you set up the game to really make you think there is the content the grandad talk about, a man on the water, some walls to climb etc... So it's hard to doubt that, and then you make the PC thing that is a very wtf moment where I knew I was into something interesting.
The game per se seemed interesting enough, with nice music and visual, but nothing too special, so I was so excited when that thing happened.

And yet, I thought it was just that, not that much to be honest, but then you had the second pc thing and so on, and it set you in that atmosphere of "I'm in the game too".

And you know, now I actually I'm a bit sad I couldn't make to the town ahah.

How you made the room where the pc is, is also very cool, just a draft, that improves the weird atmosphere. Nailed.

For the theme I don't really know if it is very nailed or just enough, because you are surely stuck in a loop into the 2d game, but the rest is more of an inception thing, not sure.

You've also written a perfect description "A non-suspicious rpg" now that I read it again it's so funny, and also "You may also experience a sense of freedom, as your boring modern life fades away into the background." it makes even more sense now.

Being the game that it is, I would say it's perfect the way it is now, my only "complaint" is about the control for the 2d part because it felt a bit laggy, especially when I wanted to change direction, but I could say it does not matter that much for this game. To be honest, I've also spent a lot of time exploring and now that I thought about it, it was so meaningless ahah, even though it shows that you made a good job in making the game believable and immersive enough to increase the surprise and others emotions when the rest of the game happens.

This is one of the best game I've played in this ludum dare, thank you for making this, very inspirational, something I would love to make in the future too! Also, thank you for having streamed my game =)

@sakura-magika Try finding some extra party members, and remember to synergise. The dragon is also weak to crumpets, so the crumpet cannon (and other crumpet type weapons) are super effective. The boss may seem impossible, but if you stay alive for a few minutes, then the hand of god will swoop in and rescue you.

@toccio94 Thanks for the feedback, and I’m glad you enjoyed! Movement is grid based, inspired by classic rpgs of ye old days.

WOW..big suprise here! I love the way you break the fourth wall showing a 3D enviroment and playing a voice-in-off (I believe i have recognised your voice @justcamh ).Nice retro style and intriguing conversations with NPC characters. So great job for a game jam...I did not manage to watch during gameplay the videofeedback FX that youu show in your teaser clip... I think is the use of the theme here and that is really clever... videofeedback in a RPG?Congrats!

I wasn't expecting Piamont City to be that awesome!

!> I wasn't expecting the transition to 3D at all! You really got me (claps) ;-) I don't know if anyone had this issue too, but playing on Linux, when beeing in the 3D room I wanted to look left and then couldn't rotate back to the right until I started to move the mouse like crazy. This happened after another fourth wall breaking. This time I didn't rotate left, but I couldn't rotate right enough to answer the phone until I went crazy again ^^U
Other than that, this was an awesome experience, and you have my full respect for having "two games into one" ;-)

!> PS: You didn't dare to voice the woman at the end, didn't you? :-P