Monster in the Woods by Move127

[raw]
made by Move127 for LD33 (JAM)
Story:
10 years ago a boy mysteriously vanished from the woods near Camp Tott. No one knows what happened to him. Now four stereotypical unsuspecting young people and the grandmother of the missing boy are all camping nearby the place where the boy vanished. Little do they know, the monster that took the boy has come for them.

Gameplay:
You play a monster that takes the form of the people that it kills. Your goal is to kill 5 campers by convincing them to go into the woods with you. To do this you will either find certain items or convince them through a dialogue tree. Once you are in the woods you need to distract your victim by choosing the correct options in the dialogue or having a certain item. Once they are distracted you can kill them. If you kill them without distracting them, then the other campers will become suspicious. If they become too suspicious then you will lose. Also, sometimes you will be unable to lure the remaining campers into the woods. This is because you do not have the correct item or dialogue options to lure them out. (I ran out of time and couldn't add a feature where it stops the game in this situation.)

Controls:
A,D/Arrows = movement
c = close dialogue
x = kill
z = inspect backpack/tent
space = talk/progress dialogue/choose item

The team:
We are a husband and wife team. I (the husband) did the programming, writing, and game design, and my wife did the art.
We felt rushed the entire time and the game obviously suffered from the time constraints. I think that we should have picked a slightly more manageable game to make, since this one required a lot of writing. My writing suffered a lot as the deadline started to draw close.
All in all, it was a fun experience making a game with my wife, and I think we learned a lot doing it.

Ratings

Coolness 45% 1415
Overall(Jam) 3.16 576
Audio(Jam) 2.92 477
Fun(Jam) 2.75 748
Graphics(Jam) 3.19 618
Humor(Jam) 2.60 634
Innovation(Jam) 2.96 567
Mood(Jam) 3.16 494
Theme(Jam) 3.52 477

Feedback

LandoSystems
25. Aug 2015 · 01:48 UTC
Good take on the theme, nice art and story elements. Great work!
packetpirate
25. Aug 2015 · 02:02 UTC
I don't seem to be able to finish it. I managed to kill the grandma first, then the Shaggy-looking guy, but then the rest of them don't have any dialogue options. I picked up every item in the camp and still nobody had anything to talk about.
jphelps
25. Aug 2015 · 02:06 UTC
I like the theme and overall concept.
Stephen Patrick
25. Aug 2015 · 02:26 UTC
Maybe it was because I killed people in the wrong order, but I couldn't get the last person (in the pink dress) to say anything but a greeting.
LeafThief
25. Aug 2015 · 07:06 UTC
The killing sequence and being that person afterwards surprised me (in a creepy way)! Full marks for theme here!
Mikhail
26. Aug 2015 · 02:00 UTC
Good job. Simple but to the point. Good game
SecularBaron
26. Aug 2015 · 02:03 UTC
Cool concept.
amortus
26. Aug 2015 · 02:14 UTC
I like the kinda morbid atmosphere of the game.
redzero
27. Aug 2015 · 13:45 UTC
Pretty good concept!
cyrixd
04. Sep 2015 · 08:48 UTC
Wow very ambitious to make such an interweaving story-based game for a jam! I think you just about pulled it off, too. Would have liked more clues from dialogue as to which items worked on who, but in general it wasn't too difficult to figure out. Had a good time playing through twice in order to beat it. Great work!
superfreak
08. Sep 2015 · 17:20 UTC
Ambitious level of narrative for a game jam - felt a little unpolished at times but seriously impressive scope and an interesting take on the theme!