The Blue Bedroom by SplitPainter
In this point-and-click game, follow Van Gogh's footsteps and creations during his stay in Arles, France.
Read his own words, extracted from his letters to his brother Theo Van Gogh.
Discover his desire to build a community of artists in his Yellow House with his friend Paul Gauguin. From his blissful days and creations, to his mental breakdown and instability.
Game based on historical facts.
Instructions
- It's highly recommended that you read the in-game Van Gogh letters (written by Van Gogh himself). The core of the game are the letters. Check the postmortem to see more.
- You reach the end when there's a "The End" screen.
- You can use the mouse for everything.
- If you prefer, some shortcuts:
- Go back: Left arrow
- Advance: Right arrow
- Read letter: L
- Close modals: ESC
- ALT+Enter for fullscreen
- The game has many secrets to be unlocked.
- WEB VERSION: Play on Chrome or Firefox.
Backstory
Van Gogh wrote constantly to his brother Theo, talking about his paintings, sketches, mental state, books, and more. More than 800 letters survived, which are a look straight into Van Gogh's heart and mind, or better yet, his letters are a gate into his soul.
I've read all of his letters and I always felt "connected" to him. When I read about the theme "Unstable", I had a burst of excitement: "THE PERFECT THEME TO MAKE A GAME ABOUT VAN GOGH".
So I chose one of his periods - Arles, France - in which his mood fluctuated on a daily basis, and in a matter of 3 months went from being extremely excited to having a mental breakdown (ear cut). The reasons? This is what you can see in the game.
Notes
- The chronological order of some of the letters were changed, to accomodate the structure of the game, but the content has been unchanged.
- Music from https://www.zapsplat.com/. Sound effects from https://www.zapsplat.com/ and https://freesound.org/.
- Made from scratch in 3 days, all by myself, for the game jam Ludum Dare 49.
- Letters from: http://vangoghletters.org/vg
- Made with Godot
Ratings
| Overall | 182th | 3.98⭐ | 52🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 1021th | 3.17⭐ | 52🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 328th | 3.694⭐ | 51🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 198th | 4.13⭐ | 52🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 283th | 4.143⭐ | 51🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 315th | 3.724⭐ | 51🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 36th | 4.37⭐ | 52🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 37🗳️ | 41🗨️ |
Some bits of constructive feedback: scrolling was way too fast for me with the touchpad, the text just flew to the end; I had to scroll by holding the bar on the right. Also, I wasn't quite sure about the ending - either there wasn't a real sense of conclusion of the game, or maybe I didn't find a way to progress?
In any case I enjoyed this a lot :)
Well put together.
As for the ending, I agree with you. There were 2 more rooms and 4 more letters to fit, but then I didn't have the time :sweat_smile: .
@minidavid @dix @bevp @zimny11 thanks for your feedback! If you want to see more about Van Gogh Letters, there's a website with his 800 letters http://vangoghletters.org/vg
Here's the twitch vod in case it's helpful; https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1167974254
Between the letters it was fun to try to find all the paintings hidden. Starry Night was a nice addition towards the end.
Though I'm not a huge fan of art, I do appreciate art games, and this one is top notch.
The serene atmosphere, somehow nostalgic feeling, and yet a little sad and frightening at the same time.
It was like playing that Cube Escape game based on Gogh (Cube Escape : Arles I think), but much calmer and less of the scare factor.
I also really liked the painting 'secrets' in the game. Nice job!
I would suggest to change the font of the text in the letters as it is too computerized, I would have loved the font you have for the "The end" and the secrets.
And I'm not sure if I should vote on the graphics category as the paintings are from him :sweat_smile: I don't see it clearly specified in the description, but have you done the paintings' replicas or just the animations?
1. **Fonts:** do you mean the font in the letters text or the UI?
2. **Graphics:** you are right that the paintings are all from Van Gogh, **but still, working on the graphics took me around 7 hours**, because I had to choose the right paintings, I sliced the bedroom, I animated the windows, animated the ear cutting breakdown, added a broken mirror, added the mirror frame and the reflected bedroom, animated the skies, added overlay paintings, removed the background from 5 Van Gogh portraits, painted the ear cut and the blood and more. So **as you can see, I had to work a LOT on the graphics**!
Ah I just remembered another one: do you know the Razor on the table? It seems as part of the painting, but it's actually a photo from Amazon, so I painted it over to match Van Gogh's style :smile:
About the font, I was talking about the font in the letters yes, I really like the UI font at the end, and I think it would be cool if this was the font everywhere.
But again, nice job :smile:
> I picked up the razor, knowing what was coming, I just thought “oh no”.
@jammygunns heheh :)
@jupiter-hadley thanks for the video!
@kromeboy _It gave me the vibe of an 90s interactive CD-Rom_ - oh that's true! Now that you mention it, I can't think of anything else. My game is definitely an interactive CD-Rom.
More seriously, as usual, the end result only contains a fraction of what you, creator, know.
Simple and straight-forward.
Nice point and click.
I love this idea of art game: when you click it reveals another painting.
(Van Gogh's are adapted since he painted objects.)
Unfortunately, the font of the letters (Times New Roman...) is too gaudy. At the same time I think this is what gives the old CD-Rom vibe, and it can be charming but in a cheesy way (and it's a cliché of educational games).
You have to be in the mood of reading to read.
It may be excessive nitpicking, but I think it would have been great to not have plain text for the letters, since it's an important part. You already used bold, maybe you could have various colours and fonts to transcribe the mood (and some word motions but maybe it's too much).
But it's true it's (historically) safer to keep the text as it is, because adding things might go too far in interpretation.
The peaceful music got stuck in my head.
So it's a sober game but it's nice, and its simplicity avoids possible bugs.
Went straight to the subject.
I can even imagine your novel being used by art teachers to engage teenagers in class, for instance. Have you thought of that?
Anyway, congratulations on your entry. Great theme ~~choice~~ interpretation and execution. I'm glad I came across your post and got to read your novel today :relaxed:
> maybe you could have various colours and fonts to transcribe the mood
Unfortunately that would take way more time during the jam and maybe it could even make it harder to read? That's my impression. It seems normal, italic and bold are enoough, no?
Thanks for the detailed feedback!
@mirianbr thank you for the very kind feedback!
> used by art teachers to engage teenagers in class, for instance. Have you thought of that?
Yes! I actually really want that to happen. I contacted the Van Gogh Museum, but their process of selecting external media is via a crowded weird Facebook group and my post was quickly lost between many non-sense posts.