Open the door and smile by Arnage

[raw]
made by Arnage for LD33 (COMPO)
A game about monsters on a personal scale.

Featuring:
- Broken people in a broken relationship
- Real-time stress, anxiety and euphoria simulation
- Six different endings, try to find one that's happy...

If you prefer not to download and install a 60 mb installer you can also try the Youtube playthrough.

The game requires a decent gaming PC. The game is based on UE4, so make sure you have a proper GPU. Only tested in DX11 mode, some effects might not work on older GPUs. Also Windows only. (For now)

Minor update on the day after submission:
- Fixed a bug that caused severe performance drops when the player reached high stress levels.
- Fixed controller button mapping.
- Fixed a misplaced tooltip.
- Replaced zip download with a nice installer that automatically handles prerequisites.

Ratings

Coolness 85% 2
Overall 4.04 25
Audio 3.31 201
Fun 2.93 532
Graphics 4.70 3
Humor 2.00 738
Innovation 4.08 25
Mood 4.24 13
Theme 4.29 21

Feedback

terop
24. Aug 2015 · 14:51 UTC
looks nice
highlyinteractive
24. Aug 2015 · 15:06 UTC
Best interpretation of the theme I've seen so far.
Powerful story & nice graphics!
KingGames
24. Aug 2015 · 15:16 UTC
Amazing Game! I loved it! Can't believe this was made in only 48 Hours! Very sad story. Definitely brought out emotions.
AndyBrown
24. Aug 2015 · 15:37 UTC
Gorgeous entry! Really like the clay feel of everything. The visual effects for focusing and when things go crazy were really well done too. Good use of the theme as well, great job!
Andrew Adams
24. Aug 2015 · 17:42 UTC
Wow.. that was intense. Very emotional.
Manou
24. Aug 2015 · 17:51 UTC
very, very nice ! will have a look at your sources! the effect that make meshes explode in triangles is very unique and serves the gameplay and story very well.
lcarpentier
24. Aug 2015 · 17:51 UTC
That's beautiful.
Gaius Baltar
24. Aug 2015 · 18:03 UTC
I found 6 endings. None of them were happy.
Great graphics (a bit too great, it was running at maybe 15 fps for me).
Wevel
24. Aug 2015 · 18:26 UTC
Really nice graphics and great mood
LeoM
24. Aug 2015 · 18:59 UTC
Woah. Let a strange impression after playing, and a little headache too.
Great work here.
It's one of my best rated for now but sorry... Humor it's 0 ! ;)
ALobker
25. Aug 2015 · 09:46 UTC
Wow. It took a while, but I got the crazy woman to get custody.
🎤 Arnage
25. Aug 2015 · 10:07 UTC
Thanks for all the feedback :)

@Manou: There's a material function that handles that effect, but also look at the way the models are build/smoothed. That was essential to get the final look.

@LoeM: I think you might have to be placed on a watchlist if you rate this game high in humor...
Simonaiso
25. Aug 2015 · 11:49 UTC
Amazing job! I really love the material effects. Excellent implementation of the theme. Bravo!
uvwar
25. Aug 2015 · 22:32 UTC
My graphics card sounded like it was about to take off, and I don't think I figured out the sequence of pills to 'win' but really awesome post processing effects!!
glimaleite
26. Aug 2015 · 21:45 UTC
Looks very good, and sets the mood very well. Nice interpretation of the theme aswell. I just wish there was more stuff to do in it. Still, what a good job!!
Kuchalu
26. Aug 2015 · 22:28 UTC
Those graphics, incredible. Powerful story too.
AdayMC
26. Aug 2015 · 22:28 UTC
Amazing experience. You really made me feel like a monster somehow, I can't explain why :P

Those effects, really cool but maybe if you would polished more the mobile device screen, you could have achieve an extra immersion.

Anyway good job!
Piotrek
27. Aug 2015 · 08:52 UTC
I don't like this type of games, i need to shoot or jump to have fun with game, but graphics looks amazing. I installed ue4 because of this game.
pereubu
27. Aug 2015 · 10:06 UTC
omg that's gorgeous. Really nice work, especially on lightings. I enjoyed finding all the endings :>
spotco
28. Aug 2015 · 08:32 UTC
UE4 games never seem to work on parallels desktop for me.
Wish I could have played this :(
Techblogogy
28. Aug 2015 · 16:28 UTC
The graphics are absolutely amazing, but that's what you get for using UE4. Game is quite nice and pleasing to play.

Great work
Denis347
28. Aug 2015 · 21:54 UTC
Epic mood. Only complaint, too short, I want more story !!
Ithildin
29. Aug 2015 · 17:19 UTC
I loved the art style, plus the game concept and the focus mechanic. Great job for a compo entry! :)
Hjalte500
30. Aug 2015 · 13:13 UTC
It was a little unclear what you had to do but once I found out the ending was definitely worth it. Awesome!
Biruts
30. Aug 2015 · 13:14 UTC
Very nice project guys, i really love it, please check our game too and if you liked it give us a vote. Look for Road to hell and enjoy.
Thalikoth
30. Aug 2015 · 14:13 UTC
Looks great. I like the distorion of the whole environment.
Schrodinger Games
30. Aug 2015 · 14:31 UTC
Wow! Congrats with this combo entry! Such pleased to see that kind of gems here!
DrZanuff
31. Aug 2015 · 13:48 UTC
Oh man! The graphics looks so nice. But i can't play because my laptop can't run UE4. Well there is the YouTube version but is not the same thing...
Grhyll
31. Aug 2015 · 16:17 UTC
Beautiful, for sure, but I didn't really get the pills thing either, and gave up because there is no way to switch to azerty keyboard...
🎤 Arnage
31. Aug 2015 · 19:35 UTC
Again thanks for all the comments!

@Grhyll: Adding a keybinding menu was a little bit too much work for the compo, but the arrow keys should work fine for AZERTY users. Additionally the game can also be played with a controller.
JoJoX
01. Sep 2015 · 22:15 UTC
Really nice. Good intepretation and great use of Unreal.
marvalgames
02. Sep 2015 · 02:41 UTC
Very sharp.
I am posting this but will be "playing" some more later.
My kind of game. Brought out the monster in me :)
Why let it be rated for humor though :(
Not funny but in a good way
CrazyMinnowStudio
02. Sep 2015 · 02:42 UTC
The effect of losing it was stunning. I've never felt worse about winning.
Reyn
02. Sep 2015 · 04:59 UTC
Nicely done. I tried to built a little emotional roller coaster myself. Liked the passing out effect.
team_ftlol
02. Sep 2015 · 05:53 UTC
Looks pretty, but the control scheme doesn't work with touchpads that don't have buttons. I can't hold the left and right mouse buttons at the same time because LMB is a one-finger touch and RMB is a two-finger touch. Also didn't work with touchscreen. I could hold RMB to focus, but as soon as I let up to click left, it started going out of focus and didn't let me take an action.

Watched the video, cool focus mechanic and graphical effects. The brand of monster for sale here's a little unfortunate, given real DV issues.

-mildmojo
crucknuk
02. Sep 2015 · 08:34 UTC
Well made! I was transported by the ambiance and when the world falls apart it felt really convincing.
Sad story, but epic art direction.

Well done really.
inbetweengames
02. Sep 2015 · 08:38 UTC
Wow.
Larzan
02. Sep 2015 · 11:47 UTC
Beautiful, love the art style...
🎤 Arnage
02. Sep 2015 · 12:00 UTC
@marvalgames I agree I should not have included that category. It was late when I finally finished though and didn't pay to much attention to the categories.

Not sure what happens to the rating if I remove it now, but feel free to put that one on n/a.
ButtonMasherBros
02. Sep 2015 · 16:04 UTC
Pssst - you have been featured in today's Ludum Dare to Believe! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWkF7dp7EeE
Linus123xbb
03. Sep 2015 · 15:11 UTC
Very sad story but very well made. The graphics were very pleasing and the theme interpretation was very unique and interesting.
pi_pi3
03. Sep 2015 · 16:16 UTC
I think I got every ending. Just out of curiosity, how long did it take to write the geometry shader?
🎤 Arnage
03. Sep 2015 · 21:04 UTC
@ButtonMasherBros: cool, thanks for playing and I'm glad you seemed to like it. Also great work pronouncing my name, you managed to almost get it correct...

@pi_pi3: The actual shader was really simple, it does little more then pushing vertices along their normals based on a noise function. It's the irregular geometry and hard edges throughout the meshes that created the final look. If you look closely you can see that the one model that I did not manage to replace in time (the basic cylinder of the florescent lamp in the bathroom) looks a lot less interesting and crappy even though it has the same kind of deformation.
randoman
04. Sep 2015 · 02:51 UTC
I didn't like those effects too much on the room (it gave me chills), but the story and how it was implemented was great. Good job!
Drauthius
04. Sep 2015 · 19:33 UTC
Exceptionally nice looking game. I spent a bit of time wandering around aimlessly, but very nice story and visuals.
Matzigon
06. Sep 2015 · 22:29 UTC
I expected something scary all along, but the punchline was a hit without a scare. Well done!
Polyganz
07. Sep 2015 · 05:02 UTC
Launches the game with rendering on my attached Oculus Rift DK2.
DDRKirby(ISQ)
07. Sep 2015 · 22:17 UTC
Intriguing, for sure!
UekiShurei
10. Sep 2015 · 15:46 UTC
Gorgeous graphics and great story, though I couldn't really get what I had to do.

P.S.: Initially when I ran the game, the game kept getting inactive (as in it kept getting switched to another window). I had remote host apps running, so I stopped them. Now it works wonders. Makes me wonder why Unreal doesn't like remote hosts.
Tanton-H2X
14. Sep 2015 · 17:24 UTC
so unique this game!
atmosphere and storytelling all great!
so enjoyable walkaround in this dreamland
i think this game will be more cool when use VR-device~
jaksa76
15. Sep 2015 · 09:50 UTC
Congratulations for the 3rd place in graphics. Well deserved!