very fun game but the boar boss at the end either has too much health or his health resets if you go back to your camp, unsure which one but it's a bit too hard.

it can be killed people!

@west thanks for the feedback! I was actually arguing with myself the last 15 mins before submission time as to whether I'd gave him too much health. His health *does* reset when you go back to camp -- I tried to balance it so that once you get the final upgrade (you can eat more food before becoming full), he'd be beatable.

All that said, I'm not sure that I'm allowed to fix balance issues after the fact since it's technically not a "bug", or I would probably scale back his health a bit.

Awesome! I wonder how you pulled this off in 2 days

@sthealthinator with a complete lack of sleep and sitting at my computer for 18 hours each day XD thank you!

Wow! What a great game, I finished it to the end. Reminded me a lot of the dark room game.

What I liked:
- the theme and story telling was spot on, I felt bad for hte monster in the end
- the music and sound were good

What I did not like:
- the big boar was way too tanky (took me 5 trips), i wasnt sure if his health resetted or I just suck
- acorns were too scarce (I usually managed to save ~2 acorns for crafting for each trip)

Congrats on finishing a great game!

That was fantastic! I didn't expect to be drawn in as much as I was. The only thing I would change would be to put more of a penalty on the creature dying. After he died the first time, and I found that you just wake up again, there wasn't as much pressure to keep him alive. But still easily 5/5.

@peto184 Thank you so much for your feedback! Yea, the boar turned out to be a lot tougher than I intended, but I'm not sure that I'm allowed to change it as it's not technically a "bug" so much as me not balancing it correctly. His health does reset every time you go back to camp (would have been a good idea to persist it UNLESS you die).

@sam-horner Thank you for playing! Yea, I was trying to think of ways to make that feel a little bit more painful, but I ran out of time.

Really enjoyable game, feels very complete with a consistent style for graphics, audio, and mechanics. Only thing that seemed weird was there was no consequence for being hit by creatures, unless I missed that while playing (note: emulated on Linux using Wine). Nice job!

OMG, I LOVED IT.
It has a lot of things to do,there is a feeling of progress and it's somewhat challenging.
But I think the boar boss has to much health.
Good work!

@armytag The creatures should increase your hunger when they hit you, however their AI and hitboxes are really janky so it's entirely possible they just didn't hit you as intended.

@siegmayer Thank you! Yea, I really wish I had made the boar a little easier.

I had trouble with the boar as well - a tip is to start moving in the direction it's going to move to after you catch up to it immediately, so you don't spend as much time chasing it.
Pretty fun game and love the way the story unfolds!

how did you come up with the idea, good stuff

nice game ! it's kind of strange to say but i would have prefered to only play the text based game

This is ace! I like the non-conforming to any genre collection of mechanics - is it a text-game? is it a survival game? is it a clicker game? None and all of them - that's what's cool about this. Also the writing is earnest and sincere in a way that definitely clicked with me. Wow.

Wow, can't believe you did this in 2 days! Really amazing! Well done!

Nice mashup of idle and adventure genres. Great audio for 48h. Respawning with progress intact is greatly appreciated. Overall solid except for the now infamous boar boss. One question, in the first phase I was able to ignore the fire completely after filling the bar 1 time. Probably intentional. Made the first phase feel better.

Really reminds me of a Firelit Room, and other idle/incremental games like it. The active elements to it are a nice break from the norm. I can understand the intro not having music, but upon unlocking the overworld with it having music, the tent menu becomes weirdly static in comparison. Also starting off with storage upgrades is usually a bad idea, as a player will usually leave those for last - starting with the attack would have really changed the tempo of the game. The player is also really lightning fast in the overworld; going slower could have been interesting in a way limiting the reach they have before needing to go back.
Overall a very impressive showing, considering the amount of content. Thanks for making this!

@congusbongus Thank you! Yup that's how I would beat it too, honestly after beating him so many times while developing I knew the hitboxes enough that it felt easy to me, but clearly upping the difficulty was a bad idea XD

@mehrdadsh @haro-games @zerohbeat Thanks for your feedback!

@simukas I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for the feedback :)

@cryptomnesic Thank you! I've never made music for my games before, so it was quite the experience :P the fire can be completely ignored, however if you keep it going you scavenge for items faster and your hunger depletes more slowly while at base. I tried to indicate that through flavor text but it's definitely easy to miss.

@artylo Thanks for all the constructive feedback! I'm much more of a programmer than I am a game designer, so balance and feel of my games is difficult for me, so I love hearing things that could be done to make the game feel more interesting and fun to play. I did actually try making a song for the tent menu, but I ran out of time, I 100% agree that it feels stale without music after going outside.

I loved this game, I was really worried about what would happen and if the monster could be trusted or not so I kept maxing out resources just to be safe.
The overal vibe of the game was really good and like I said I really loved playing this game

Interesting choice of mixing graphical and textual resource-gathering gameplays, and you bridged them very well! The difficulty is well calibrated (yeah except the boar ^^) and a complete storytelling always there while you do your stuff... And the game works, has an intro and an ending. A very impressive 48h job, congrats!

The story was very nice made!
Some minor bug: The story text is rendered over the pause screen.
And it would be nice to have also sound in the tent.

This was really good! ^^
I'm always impressed when compo-submissions manage to incorporate a story but this is beyond what can be expected from such a short timespan =D

A tiny criticism would be that at certain times I felt that I didn't have time to read the story since I needed to keep up the flame and hunger meters at all times. Would be nice to safely pause or something to be able to read in peace ^^

@gaminghamster Thanks for the feedback! I did worry about people not feeling like they could read the story, so I did make it pause your hunger meter when you go to a new area as that's a very text heavy part of the game flow. But yes, implementing some sort of pause so people could read without stressing out would probably make it feel better!

This is a surprisingly good game. I also thought it was interesting that this was a mix between resource managing and real time gameplay. Except for the boar which was somewhat annoying ( probably cause there's little feedback on hitting something ), it was great. I almost wish it was longer!

Loved the setting, the story was interesting to follow. I felt that gameplay was a bit slow in the beginning and I was always short on food compared to the other resources. I managed to defeat the boar but you should maybe let the player know that the boar health resets when going back to camp somehow or maybe not reset it at all. Overall a great game, well done!

Wow! Thats an awesome game!! I love the narrative, and that there was a narrative. I did have hard time reading it as I was moving along, a pause feature would have been nice. Other than that I really liked it :smile:

This game is really nice. I really like the pixel graphics, well done.

The game is so high quality for a game jam! It's very fun to play.. I just had a litttllleee frustration when facing a certain boar looking specimen at the end!

the game looks and plays amazing also a greate concept for a game.

This is an awesome game! I loved the writing especially. I like how you gradually introduce mechanics, and they just keep coming. Very impressive!

Wow! Such a complete game!!! Amazing job!!

This is a really awesome game, it feels like it is made in a much longer time period, so nice, so smooth. Great entry!

Very slick game, love the combination of moving around, and text-based/clicker.

This is currently my favorite game this jam. Finished it and loved it.

Awesome entry! Was more fleshed out that I thought it was going to be. Had a cool atmosphere. Excellent job!!

Wow. There is so much content here. The story is well written and engaging. You nailed the gameplay, it's well balanced and the boss fight was challenging. Very rewarding making it to the end.

You took on the challenge of the dreaded ESCORT MISSION. I extremely respect the game for working on a mechanic that is pretty controversial (looking at you resident evil 4's later levels). Some games like bioshock infinite have tried to make the escort mission style less of pain but actually making the main mechanic the escort mission is a super daunting task, which I think you handled really well! While the combat was alright, to me the solution you had that improved the escort mission mechanic was the writing and mystery of the creature. Instead of rolling my eyes I was intrigued to know more about the creature that I was keeping alive. I think future games could take note from this, the escort mission doesn't have to be completely avoided there just has to be a reason for the player to actually be interested in the thing being escorted. That's all to say, great work!

what a unique way to tell a story, nice package overall, i really liked it
...the darksoulsian boar encounter was a bit much though must have taken me 5 tries at least :)

I liked the art and the way you presented the story. The boar boss was a difficult but I liked the challenge it brought. Great Job!

I also got the A Dark Room vibes. A super enthralling experience.

The plot is the basis. Awesome job!

That's an impressive amount of content for a game jam! Everything seems to work very well, but I must admit that I had to come back to your ld page after a few attempts to make sure that I actually had to fight the boar ; as said before it probably had to many health points.

The stroyline really adds a lot to the game. The visuals are correct and I enjoyed your attention for details (come on, footsteps!). The music is nice and works well!

Great entry!

Great Job! I was thinking of a similar style RPG for my game, but I think your game fit the theme better. I spent too much time trying to make my maps and spawns random, so it took a bulk more time.

This was a really nice game, very balanced and fun. The only issue I had was how fast the text was going by. I had a hard time keeping up with reading and playing at the same time. I think a way to pause just to read would be a nice addition.

I LOVED this game! For me, the highlight was definitely the storytelling. I grew more attached to the creature as I read its descriptions! Overall, I'm super impressed that you managed to make this game in 48 hours. There's a complete story, a gathering and crafting system, several maps, and even some combat! Amazing job you did in such a short amount of time.

I have two comments on areas that could be improved:
* I think the creature's hunger should decrease more slowly. Sometimes, I felt like I didn't have enough time to read the dialogue because I was too focused on gathering food and monitoring the creature's hunger. It made me have to skim through the dialogue quickly, which is a shame because it's the best part of the game.
* The boar should have less HP. I spent a ton of time chasing it and whacking it, and barely had enough hunger to make it back.

Overall, amazing game you made, and definitely one of the best I've played in this jam!

Really love the story telling and it goes pretty well with all the other elements of the game. Good job!

Oh, impressive mix of mechanics! Nice looking and immersive game, good job! Don't know why, but it reminds me Candy Box :D

I like the mix of resource management and exploration! I thought that the rate of food spawning to hunger depleting was a little unbalanced; when fighting the boss, the biggest pressure came from time rather than the boss itself. The boss took me a few tries (although I fled for camp rather than dying), but I managed to get it by waiting in the center of the field rather than chasing after it.

Pretty cool, it's so hard to make a solid entry in compo that also tells a story. I've yet to pull it off in a jam or compo so entries like yours give me hope.

This game had a lost of charm to it, and the combination of the graphics (loved the pixel art and shading effect) and story stuff, especially the way text was used, fits so well with the theme and it was a joy to see come together. It must have taken a lot to make storytelling text a part of the entry but it does so much for the experience. I hope you win!

Usually in "bar is running out, scavenge for ressource" games I feel bored after a while and don't care anymore.

What this game delivers however is permanent storytelling. If you don't click stuff, you read, if you don't read, you click stuff. The Scavenge Action-RPG-lite interludes were additionaly a great change of pace every once in a while. Everything that was put into this game made the survival genre actually work for me!

The ambiguity concerning the theme of this ld (is the visitor the one you are keeping alive? is it the fire? is it yourself?) is also a great idea :D

Fantastic work, doubly so for a Compo! The concept of the gameplay loop alone is so complex, but then to think you had to come up and write down the story, do assets AND code and have fitting sound design... unbelievable!

Thank you all for your kind words and constructive feedback! Working on this game was a joy, and I love hearing all the things people have to say about it. I'm in the process of extending the game into a full release (hoping to get 2-3 hours of gameplay), so your feedback is extremely important to me. Thanks again!

Wow, seriously? What a great entry for a compo. So much content. Not only is there game play variations, but also a story and a progression system. The background track really does add a lot to the mysterios nature of your little survival action adventure. I really don't have much to criticize, but i'll add some issues I encountered when playing through your game:

- The written story is awesome, but due to the nature of your game play loop, it was hard to read the texts and simultaneously deal with all the survival stuff. The player will ultimately miss some of the written pieces (I did, at least)
- the last bridge upgrade did not trigger for me. I thought I was doing something wrong and tried to kill the boar without minding the hunger or fire meter (expecting a game over) After dying, the bridge upgrade was there and I could finish the game
- Was the boar killable? I tried it two times, but it seemed to be pointless. It did take damage though, so I don't know.
- The art is pretty rough, but that's not really a criticism in this context.

It's baffling how you implemented all this in such a short amount of time. Kudos!

Nice take on the survival genre which fits perfectly with the theme, it got me hooked for a while.
I liked especially the text part, well executed, the game could actually revolve only on that part.

Nice story, but quite grindy gameplay. The end boss also has too much health and was difficult to hit. The music didn't have a very long loop, but it added to the mood. Overall pretty good game, especially for 2 days.

That idea is very innovative! The 'survival' theme here makes me remember Minecraft (in its good way). The music is also cool, but a bit repetitive. Nice graphics, and the mood feels good.

Great work

Really liked it, great job!

Very nice game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 46 compilation video series, if you want to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/fsg5gDaiyQc

It was a really interesting game! Loved the story progression along the actions in the world.
The graphics are rough but pretty good (glad it has footsteps!), the music is simple but likeable.

The start was a bit too slow (the first two crafts that only improved resourse capacity could probably be skipped and the scavenging bar was too slow), the boar has the already known issue of taking too long to die.

I loved when in the end the character went out the game screen and walked on the text window. I was confused about if the game had truly ended because there wasn't an obvious "The End" or similar. Also I discovered it was possible to walk up along an invisible path with a dead end.

It was certainly fun and could be even more if further developed following people's feedback. Combat was a bit off but the story was so sweet... Please keep up the great work!

Really great story telling. I love the combo of really simple graphics to set things up, with the descriptive text, it really lets you fill in the details with your own brain

Amazing that you were able to get this much done in the Jam time limit.

Great job!

Thanks for submitting your game for me to play on my livestream!

If you’d like to rewatch the playthrough, you can find it here:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/615937007?t=3h04m00s

Good luck on your ratings, see you next LD! :D

💜 Elysia Griffin AKA Button Feedback Lady

https://www.twitch.tv/elysiagriffin

This was great, thanks! I'm especially impressed by the sheer amount of work that must've gone into making all of this inside the 48 hours - simple but very pleasing pixel graphics, sound effects and music, all the writing, multiple stages, and on top of that all the game systems you had to program.

I like your decision to let me just respawn without many consequences when the creature didn't have any food anymore. It would've been great if that also made more sense in-world, but I'm mainly glad that I didn't have to e.g. restart the game multiple times. And it's not like I stopped feeding the creature afterwards. (Although that might actually be the most *effective* route, I guess? It didn't even occur to me while playing. I wanted to feed it.)

I think there should've been a sound effect and/or another indicator for new messages. Even just looking at the GIF, I realize that I missed two from there. I wonder how many others I missed.

Telling the story while the game was going on, in flashbacks with context, was nice.

Fantastic work!