The Creature from East Second Street by emmelineprufrock

[raw]
made by emmelineprufrock for LD33 (COMPO)
A short (very short) FMV style visual novel put together on YouTube (using mostly the annotations system). Inspired kind of by the playable Until Dawn and Mad Max trailers, I've only tested it in Chrome but it should work in other browsers.

The story follows a Blob trying to go on a date with a sweet girl named Hana.

For best results, please enable captions and disable autoplay.

Thank you to my main character Gingy Gibson, for letting me take her on a "date" to a local food festival.

Ratings

Coolness 73% 3
Overall 3.10 493
Audio 2.44 574
Fun 2.42 828
Graphics 3.48 261
Humor 2.47 565
Innovation 4.20 20
Mood 3.50 166
Theme 3.17 606

Feedback

Birke
24. Aug 2015 路 01:27 UTC
Fun little game. The only complaint I have was that the captions should have stayed on the screen for a lot longer. A couple of seconds is not enough to make a decision before the thumbnails appears at the end of the video.
馃帳 emmelineprufrock
24. Aug 2015 路 01:43 UTC
@Birke Yeah, I need to go back through and add a few more seconds on some of the videos (especially the first ones.) I'll probably fix them tomorrow?
OnlySlightly
24. Aug 2015 路 04:06 UTC
Super cute game! It was equal parts cute and eerie. Very pretty. it made me smile :)
tanjent
25. Aug 2015 路 16:46 UTC
A+ for innovation, haven't seen it used like this before but then again I only watch unboxing videos :P When the clips are this short You-tube really messed up with the interaction ... I really think that if you hard-code the captions (I had to re-enable them all the time) in the video and add a bit of delay at the end of the video it will be much easier to navigate and decide where to click before Dr.Phil and other related videos show up. .. + Always fun to see something that's not unity-grey/pixel art. I managed two different endings anyway :)
馃帳 emmelineprufrock
25. Aug 2015 路 17:40 UTC
@tanjent -- yeah, honestly the biggest hassle with this project was the YouTube integration. I'm going to give a few more seconds to the end of the first few videos, which should help. I might also do a post-compo version with the captions burned in.
team_ftlol
26. Aug 2015 路 06:05 UTC
Cute story. Burgoo ending because burgoo ending. Buddy Jesus ending had some reflections of the cameraperson in Hana's sunglasses, and cameraperson was not a green blob.

That first choice, pretty/smile, had less than a second at the end to make a decision. That one could stand to be fixed. The others seemed okay. Some typos; unsure if that was an intentional homage to dating sim ports.

Captions baked in would make it easier to play, I think.

-mildmojo
crucknuk
26. Aug 2015 路 15:35 UTC
Interesting concept. More decisions would have been better, but it's good to see original concept like this.
Good job! I liked it!
Two Scoop Games
27. Aug 2015 路 02:26 UTC
Sweet little experience. Like watching someone else's fond memory.
SecondDimension
27. Aug 2015 路 19:05 UTC
Definitely interesting and innovative! Very different from any other LD game that I've played. With a few more choices and a bit longer to make those choices I think it would be great.
solarexplorer
28. Aug 2015 路 00:40 UTC
The YouTube annotations let you down more than your idea/ability, just made the whole experience feel clunky.
ohsqueezy
28. Aug 2015 路 01:21 UTC
Sad atmosphere. I'm sorry I didn't mean to turn you into a pile of goo.
MintArcade
28. Aug 2015 路 01:28 UTC
Interesting story. captions needs to be longer, other that that - beatiful little game.
Team Myopia
28. Aug 2015 路 01:39 UTC
Interesting take on the concept. It's hard to make the split second choices before the video ends, there also seems to be many dead ends.

I also didn't know what my condition was? Hugging her kills her? Some more exposition would be good to make this work.
ehtd
28. Aug 2015 路 03:17 UTC
Very cool idea,, good job.
daveh
28. Aug 2015 路 03:25 UTC
I like your idea of FMV visual novels -- haven't played anything like it before myself. It's pretty innovative. I think embedding the videos in web pages and linking between pages would be more flexible than using YouTube's annotations. Good video editing and a good sense of mood.
m3_on
28. Aug 2015 路 04:54 UTC
Haha, this was a really awesome idea!! I played through once and got Hana BBQ but then I went back to give her a hug...and turned her into a pile of goo! A really fun idea and fun experience, reminds of the indie game Her Story.
OFF
28. Aug 2015 路 06:15 UTC
Not the first interactive video is saw on youtube but you have some mood like an independant american movie but... (there is always a but.
The interaction with youtube is really hard, and even using game maker could allow to make a smoother game.
You could have also add caption inside the video.
The effect of the voice is nice but i think that with an human voice it coule work but you have to make the text and scene more clear about the natue of the player.
You could add music but by simply putting everything in a one time moment (with no cut from Youtube) will create already a full mood.
One of my favorite game so far...
(i was an hardcore fan of old interactive movie game! ;) )
randoman
28. Aug 2015 路 08:20 UTC
I think I've never seen an interactive video like this one on YouTube, so the experience was great. Congrats on the entry!
WhiteVoidia
28. Aug 2015 路 13:19 UTC
This is so cute I love it :D

It did a good job of building the tone and I felt bad when I turned her to goo :(

I'd love to see more like this!
Archonthewizard
28. Aug 2015 路 16:02 UTC
Great idea. I think with more time it could have been really fun. I didn't feel like I had a reason to choose one option over another, and didn't see any real results from my choices.
馃帳 emmelineprufrock
28. Aug 2015 路 16:46 UTC
@Archon, I'm a bit surprised by that response on the lack of options. There are four different endings, two good and two bad.
MrTwister
29. Aug 2015 路 04:24 UTC
Well that was interesting. Definitely the most innovative game I've seen so far.

I've played some interactive YT videos in the past and I like them a lot. It's a sadly under-used format.

Some clips definitely need extra seconds for decision-making but it's Ok, no big deal.

Anyway; pretty well made entry, kudos! I had a really hard time figuring out a score for "Graphics" xD.
xWarZonex
29. Aug 2015 路 04:56 UTC
I liked the idea of using youtube to create a nearly text-based game, but not text based, and video based. Innovation 5/5.
Mothdan
29. Aug 2015 路 05:37 UTC
Just follow my lead, Creature. We got this.
Nomys_Tempar
29. Aug 2015 路 12:25 UTC
Very nice and cute ! I like the mood induce by the filming, the sound could be a bit more complex to me but works anyway.
Sparrow
29. Aug 2015 路 18:54 UTC
Very creative, good job!
eric777
29. Aug 2015 路 20:58 UTC
Loved the concept. I found Blob to be a compelling character. I played through all the endings twice trying to decide which one was my favorite. I'm tied between the melty pile of Hanna-goo and the unromantic pot of burgoo. Great job on blending cute and creepy!
El Cabaro
30. Aug 2015 路 04:10 UTC
Pretty odd game- I think you hit the "uncanny valley" of storytelling, (maybe unintentionally?) Seeing the girl go through a date with an ostensible blob monster, overlaid with Pacman-esque (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEYxgqnK27c) voices and an overly-attached dialogue really sort of weirds ya out. Though that might be what you were shooting for.

Don't get me wrong though it was interesting as well (and one of the few "visual novels" that is actually videographic).
LeoM
31. Aug 2015 路 18:15 UTC
Nice mood in this.
Just the youtube experience could have been better with longer delay for captions and auto loading subtitles. (first row I played I didn't see that subtitles for the monster was here)
Poor Hana, I just fried her...
LandoSystems
01. Sep 2015 路 04:23 UTC
Interesting take on the theme and 5/5 for innovation. Very creative!
Brightstar
01. Sep 2015 路 05:51 UTC
This is great. I love it.
dickpoelen
01. Sep 2015 路 09:21 UTC
Very fun idea! A little bare bones, but very impressive for 48 hours
Grahhhhh
01. Sep 2015 路 22:28 UTC
Was cool to see something aside from the norm! Nice way to keep it original, would've liked to have seen more options, but limited time, sweet!
HotBoxGames
10. Sep 2015 路 00:45 UTC
How do humans fall in love? Because for blobs, I think it might be all at once... That's some real feels..

Nice entry, first YouTube entry I've seen so far, agree about the captions but you already know that one :) Overall had a very good mood, good job to G Gibson for letting you film her! :D
Omiya Games
13. Sep 2015 路 18:51 UTC
Ah, yes, finally the captions on Youtube is useful for once! Glad to see an online tool used for these experimental reasons. Liked the game a lot! Definitely a wonderful evolution from visual novels.

The music was kind of repetitive, though.