Stella Brown and the Curse of the Grocery Witch by Iamsodarncool

It was just an ordinary day at the grocery store...
Note: the web build has some audio issues. For the best sonic experience, download a standalone build.
Code
Jimmy Cushnie (@Iamsodarncool) — jimmycushnie.com
Zoey Duthie (@Zoey)
Art
Issa (art director) (@Eezabra) — artstation.com/izamatrix
Linka (@linka) — instagram.com/linkaguo
Keyna (@gkeyna) — instagram.com/gkeyna
Music
Lauren Pham (@bison-warlock) — laurenpham.bandcamp.com
Markku Wainman (@markku-wainman) — markkuwainman.com
Starring Lauren as Stella Brown and Zoey as The Grocery Witch!
Post-jam changes
The initially published build had a hole about halfway through the game that most players were falling into and getting stuck inside. A few hours after the deadline, I made a small update to the game that adds some stairs out of that hole. This is kind of borderline in terms of the jam rules, but it's a very minor tweak that fixes a big problem that prevented players from completing the game, so I hope my fellow jammers won't mind too much!
Ratings
| Overall | 49th | 4.189⭐ | 47🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 181th | 3.878⭐ | 47🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 284th | 3.67⭐ | 46🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 69th | 4.289⭐ | 47🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 39th | 4.534⭐ | 46🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 8th | 4.544⭐ | 47🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 30th | 4.3⭐ | 47🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 70th | 4.189⭐ | 47🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 43🗳️ | 72🗨️ |
Clever switching back-and-forth mechanic to platform around with, but I eventually ended up stuck on the ground between a bus and a van and couldn't find a way out. There was one of those monsters with me, but I had already found out they do no damage. I *was* playing the web build, it might have been a bug, as I assumed spooky beasts would hurt me.
Excellent music, love the contrast between the backing tracks of the normal world and the shadow realm, yet they still work together.
Awesome entry!
My biggest regret with this game is that I forgot to give the player a way out of that hole. It's the only place in the whole game you can get stuck. [Edit: ah, screw it, I just added some stairs and updated the game. I think it counts within the rules for post-jam changes.]
The demons *were* supposed to kill you, but we ran out of time for that lol. So in the published build they're just for atmosphere :P
While the music was really well done, I wish they could be composed with the thought of prompting the next change between the two worlds.
Such as using an upward arpreggio at the end of the 10 secs soundtrack of the shadow realm or something to let the player know the state of the game world is about to switch.
Thanks for playing!
Very well done!
Also, looks like web version have a bug? I think the idea was that Monsters should hit a player? But for me they was just going to my position and hanging around like this:

I won :)

Thanks for the experience.
> if the enemies cause damage and with minor adjustments, I particularly would consider a full demo :)
We're definitely doing a polished-up and extended version of the game post-jam -- a "Definitive Edition," if you will. I'll let you know when it's done <3
> I would recommend adding a timer ui since there are timed puzzles in the game and you have to count the seconds in your head
I would also recommend this, we ran out of time haha. Definitely coming in the Definitive Edition :) for now you need to pay close attention to the music!
> Great story. The email address part in the intro was hilarious
Thank you, I'm actually really proud of that joke, and of the payoff in the endings 😁
One of the most original every 10 second ideas that I've seen so far. The music was stupidly well made, and even the fact that it wasn't the same music repeating over and over, but it had little twists. Really an awesome idea anyways.. Also the shadow realm music just banged so hard :guitar:
If there was one thing that i was kinda curious of, it was why it seemed like the cool enemies on the shadow realm didn't damage me at all, they were really running after me but couldn't hurt me i guess? Honestly I think it would have made this even more interesting and hard, but I know it's a game jam and there is very limited time. And not trying to take anything away from you guys, it was still an amazing LD entry! That's the only minor "downside" I could think of.
But yeah everything was great and there was some really cool details like the characters that I was passing by that said random things, overall had a nice humour to it all the way from the beginning to the absolute end. I don't admit getting rickrolled though. :nose:
Overall, my favorite things were the music and applying the theme to it, and of course the graphics and cut scenes were very epic. But yeah, an amazing entry and congrats to you guys on this game! :sunglasses:
> The music was stupidly well made
Agreed. I got to work with two extraordinary musicians this jam, and they both did amazingly.
> and even the fact that it wasn’t the same music repeating over and over, but it had little twists
Thanks for noticing! Yeah, for each section of the game (store, streets, home) and each realm (mortal, shadow) there are two possible 10-second clips that are chosen from randomly. This works really well IMO and keeps the music feeling fresh the whole game through.
> If there was one thing that i was kinda curious of, it was why it seemed like the cool enemies on the shadow realm didn’t damage me at all, they were really running after me but couldn’t hurt me i guess?
We just ran out of time to add this 😭 damage and death will be the first thing I add for the upcoming post-jam version.
> But yeah, an amazing entry and congrats to you guys on this game! :sunglasses:
Cheers, homie 🥂
Tried both ends ;D
Keep on doing !
The story and writing is just plain amazing! So funny and creative! Love the alternative endings! The audio is just so good also! The recording quality is superb and stellar voice acting! I love how the music switches and I just laughed so hard when I heard the general midi music with the pan flutes! So good! Music is also composed really well and fits with the picture 10/10! What can I even say about the art? It's just so good! Love also how the production values drop in the end! Makes the writing in the end just so much more hilarious! This is truly the must funny LD game I have ever played, period.
Incredible work all of you! Thank you so much for making this gem! Will look forward what you will make in the future!! :3
What an amazing job you all have done. Nice game design. amazing music and voice over performance and the graphics + cut scenes were just perfect.
Well done! 👏
even if the monsters didn't actually hurt you, they were still terrifying and i avoided them anyway.
I really love it when so much thought is put into making a full experience at a jam, and you did just that, with plenty of polish too.
Music was very nice(and coherent despite having two composers!), and using the length of each segment as an indicator of when the switch would come to time some of the jumps was particularly satisfying.
All in all, great work to the whole team, enjoyed this one quite a bit!
The cutscenes were great and I liked how they were drawn. But for some reason, the audio worked and the cutscenes slowed down a lot, so I couldn't see everything that was drawn
I missed a timer, but the music was perfect, you could tell it was beautiful, but I personally don't have a good ear for it, so in some moments I couldn't properly estimate the change.
Anyway, very good game. I would easily play it again if it had other endings
I think my only issue with this was the writing, especially at the beginning. Our character was just so unbelievably obnoxious (even for a teenager) that, firstly, I would not believe anyone would just outright speak to someone that way, and secondly, even if it was just for laughs I can't continue to play this character knowing that I'm clearly the asshole in this situation. There were a lot of humorous lines sprinkled throughout that I enjoyed, but at least they were not voiced from our main character. Like when her boyfriend didn't offer to help and instead asked for a sandwich, it gives you sympathy for her. But when you main character herself is being the absolute worst human being on Earth right from the start, it's hard to want to play this character, fit in their shoes. As the intro played out, I thought we were going to play the witch, but when we played the girl I just felt demotivated to want to help her out; frankly, she deserved it.
Other than that, I think this game is just 5 stars all around! A job well done, and thank you for putting this together!
I'm kind of glad the monsters weren't that dangerous and couldn't kill you, although there wasn't really that much of a challenge there in any other form either. Timing the jumps was a bit hard on the 2-3 places where you it was important but with the game being so easy otherwise that didn't get annoying. And switching the music for the worlds helped once one learned the songs.
A really solid entry!