Her Majesty's Apathy Bomb

Overall★★★★★★★★★★4.10
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.68
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.34
Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.91
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.71
Audio★★★★★★★★★★4.15
Humor★★★★★★★★★★4.27
Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.97
Coolness★★★★★★★★★★100%
My homage to The Stanley Parable.

It's a short, narrative game with six different endings, depending on how well you listen to the narrator.

Made for Ludum Dare 32 compo. Please vote!

WASD + Mouse

OR

Limited controller support

Source: https://github.com/ianburnette/IanBurnetteLD32

Genres: adventure

Comments96

Danman9914
Danman991420 Apr 2015, 05:53
Very cool narrative experience! The narration was quite good and I loved the narrowing parapet; gave me a real sense of height.
jk5000
jk500020 Apr 2015, 05:54
A really fun game experience. The game fits perfectly into the theme. Try It.
Yaroslav Kravtsov
Yaroslav Kravtsov20 Apr 2015, 06:00
Brilliant! This is kind of games that Ludum Dare exist for. I haven't enough word to describe how I'm amazed.

In additional, I want to say thanks for tutorial. Many games there have lack of it.
BraindeadGeo
BraindeadGeo20 Apr 2015, 06:04
Very good! A fitting tribute to the Stanley Parable and made me chuckle. It was also oddly pretty for such simple graphics!
feizenbara
feizenbara20 Apr 2015, 08:20
Great one, fun narration and good theme usage.
Dyn
Dyn20 Apr 2015, 11:19
Awesome work. Thank you!
Zielak
Zielak20 Apr 2015, 16:58
Lovely non-linear and humorous game :)
shrapx
shrapx20 Apr 2015, 18:32
I love the narration, excellent acting and funny! a pretty world; blending pixel art and 3D. The story fits the theme perfectly. The 2d sprites remind me of games like wolfenstein. This was a fun experience :D
ChrisGaudino
ChrisGaudino20 Apr 2015, 18:32
Fantastic. Loved the little details, like the mouse sensitivity going down when the apathy bomb exploded. Also, making the user press all the controls before starting is genius.
texdata20 Apr 2015, 18:34
wow ! great narrative and non-linear story! awesome
DKoding20 Apr 2015, 18:35
SIMPLY AMAZING. Narrator deserves a medal.
EvilTroopa
EvilTroopa20 Apr 2015, 18:57
Absolutely loved it!
The text is great and the interpretation is really good.
Got all 6 endings and got a smile on my face the whole game (yeah that is just 5 to 10 minutes, but still...)
Thank you.
Andrew Adams20 Apr 2015, 19:31
Excellent. Pure delight to play. I got 4 out 6 endings. I was blown away by this game... get it "BLOWN" away... cuz it's a bomb... hehe.
Hyoga-3D
Hyoga-3D20 Apr 2015, 20:13
It's my personal view but I don't like minecract style of art, Game ideia was nice, gameplay were really nice. Goof overall.
benmcnelly
benmcnelly20 Apr 2015, 20:45
High marks all around! Its hard to find a balance of game mechanics, story and production value, but you really nailed it. Bravo!
Awpteamoose
Awpteamoose20 Apr 2015, 20:52
Awesome!
Prize for SAD in controls!
Also, big thumb ups for the narrative and the endings!
Hectate20 Apr 2015, 20:56
This was a silly little game but I loved every minute of it. Finding all the endings (or 5 of them anyway) was a nice treat.
internetpaulicy20 Apr 2015, 20:59
This is a really inspiring entry. The narration and incidental cuts are really fun to play out. I hope this gets lots of views.
DouglasOliveira20 Apr 2015, 21:10
Very consistent art style and creative narrative =D. Congrats!
OnErrorResumeNext20 Apr 2015, 21:13
Played all the endings. Cool idea and the story was good... Thanks for this.
Lacaranian
Lacaranian20 Apr 2015, 21:38
Nicely done! Just the right amount of repetition in asset use, with some solid use of space/lighting. I kept trying to throw the bomb before the game let me though...heh.
skiper4e20 Apr 2015, 23:06
Awesome game!!!
incobalt
incobalt20 Apr 2015, 23:28
I kept having problems with the controls, like I was constantly bumping into something. At one point, descending the stairs, it actually turned me around entirely (it's also easy to just fall off the stairs, if you're determined). Still, I enjoyed it enough to get all the endings :)
Rulrite
Rulrite20 Apr 2015, 23:44
A wonderful entry! How you did all this in such a short amount of time is beyond me... I loved the atmosphere, and the narration is very well done. The entire game feels extremely polished.
MightyToast
MightyToast20 Apr 2015, 23:48
Unbelievably cool! I accidentally fell off the tower in an effort to avoid the guards. Immediately your narration stops and calls me out for being an idiot haha. Love it, awesome work.
rectangular Tim20 Apr 2015, 23:49
Getting a single ending was too movie-like. Getting all the endings was too repetitive. I'm just not into narrative games, I guess. But the voice acting was decent, the graphics were interesting and the story was sufficiently wacky to be fun. Well done.
madameberry
madameberry21 Apr 2015, 00:03
The narration was fantastic. The first time I jumped off the tower after setting the bomb, it gave me the "meh" ending anyway. Guess I didn't hit the trigger.
All six endings were great!
benjamck
benjamck21 Apr 2015, 00:42
Brilliant little game. (I found 5 of the endings!) A fine tribute to a modern classic ;) Great job on the voice-overs too. The whole thing felt like a complete game, which doesn't seem easy to do given the limited time. And one with multiple endings. Well done.
Fanttum
Fanttum21 Apr 2015, 00:59
Sweet dude. I loved it. So big and nice voice it all came together so nicely. An I loved the little touches here and there. Ahhhh! so many good things to say but I can't find the words.
emmelineprufrock
emmelineprufrock21 Apr 2015, 03:21
Interesting and kind of funny. A little quiet, but I think that's my bad for not listening in the opening tuner.
davidcmcdonald
davidcmcdonald21 Apr 2015, 03:59
hahahahaha this game is great!! well done very innovative :)
Chronodrax
Chronodrax21 Apr 2015, 04:01
Nice take on the Stanley Parable narrative style :)
some endings were really funny!
...I obtained the 3rd ending first :p I felt so stupid afterwards. Good job narrator, good job.
Ossi21 Apr 2015, 05:36
Funny and silly! I really like the narration and the graphical style fit well with some of the goofy dialogue. I enjoyed this a lot!
peterkirk
peterkirk21 Apr 2015, 11:48
I thought it was too short at first, but once I knew there were multiple endings I had fun finding them all. Good work.
strawfield21 Apr 2015, 17:04
This is brilliant, funny and well done. I almost gave it less than 5/5 humor because of the overthrow joke, almost.
Chris M22 Apr 2015, 15:05
Good take on Stanley Parable ideas, esp. good to move the narrative to a fantastical setting.
runvs
runvs22 Apr 2015, 15:34
Such a nice entry. Great audio and nice voice recording. plus the speaker is also very good. The pixel graphics are also awesome.
Don't stop making such games!
cgmorton22 Apr 2015, 17:36
So I managed to jump off the parapet before the game expected me to, landed on the roof of the palace and made it out onto the balcony where I killed the invisible queen. Was hoping to get a secret seventh ending but NOPE.
ianburnette
ianburnetteauthor22 Apr 2015, 20:12
Haha, yep, jumping off the parapet early is a problem I've run into before. I ran into it a couple times during testing, but I guess crazy people who jump off of balconies at sneaky times can manage to kill the invisible queen. :) I'll have to make that a secret ending for the post-jam version. "Uh, the bombmaker managed to survive a hundred foot fall, scrambled onto the empty balcony, and further subverted the gamemaker's expectations by killing the invisible queen - who was the REAL villian, pulling the strings all along! Uh, good job, bombmaker. Very, erm, clever, I guess." Achievement Name: Invisi-Queen, the Puppetmaster
NoorStudios23 Apr 2015, 01:23
Awesome! Very entertaining narrative. great graphics and sound. also the tutorial forcing you to notice it by clicking the buttons is brilliant.
JenniNexus23 Apr 2015, 01:56
Loved it a lot - Ian did you also do the voice acting? Very entertaining... :-)
ianburnette
ianburnetteauthor23 Apr 2015, 02:09
Yep, the voice acting was me as well. Besides game development, that's another dream of mine :)
NIGIC23 Apr 2015, 02:26
To be honest, jumping off was the first thing I did -- and I must say, the castle looks gorgeous from afar. Aside from that one random palm tree sticking out from the wall. That looked silly.

Fun, high-quality adventure game. The narrative and atmosphere are pretty good. Good job!
jesterswilde
jesterswilde23 Apr 2015, 02:45
I take my job seriously, and have pride in my work. How my work is used...well I don't care. Not my job. I made the bomb and delivered it promptly. GG.

Homage indeed. Quite enjoyed this. Especially when you explained the overthrow joke, I didn't get it the first time.
ianburnette
ianburnetteauthor23 Apr 2015, 03:20
Aw geez, I figured no one would see that palm tree! I mostly left it because I thought it was funny!
Horsed
Horsed23 Apr 2015, 09:25
Very nice setting and story. I never played a narrative game before, so yours will be forever in my memory :-)
Mantlair
Mantlair23 Apr 2015, 12:36
Being a stanley parable here i loved this thing. I will probably try to make a narrative game at some time. The only thing felt bed was the meh ending. I donk know i expected some cool stuff happening on there. Like "The Win" you are the "Winner" quotes. But yeah. Awesome! You can make a series maybe.
LimeniusTeam
LimeniusTeam23 Apr 2015, 12:41
Very good and funny! I normally get a bit bored with games heavy on the narrative side, but yours is simply awesome!
OneTrueAaron23 Apr 2015, 12:53
Well this was just about the most fun thing ever.
BubuIIC23 Apr 2015, 13:07
Awesome entry, loved finding all the endings!
dallonf
dallonf23 Apr 2015, 14:38
Makes me want to play the Stanley Parable again! I especially liked that you listed out all the possible endings so I knew when I was finished. I'm a bit of a... completionist and I can get stuck on games like this otherwise!
Taldius23 Apr 2015, 18:26
Really nice game, it's really funny to play. My only concern is that this needs less walking, or a sprint button, because it seems long after some replay.
Anyway, great job!
ianburnette
ianburnetteauthor23 Apr 2015, 18:49
I anticipated that it would start to feel a little tedious walking everywhere, but I tried my best to time the audio trigger zones so that there wouldn't be huge silence times. If the player is able to sprint, then we'd have a lot of clips cutting each other off. I guess that wouldn't be the worst thing, but I couldn't think of a more elegant solution.
BeardoGames23 Apr 2015, 19:14
The humor is spot-on and really well voice acted, and I enjoyed playing a game that encouraged me to subvert things. I'm sure I'll end up going back to this game later since I missed a lone ending. Great job, I had a lot of fun!
FeniX23 Apr 2015, 21:37
Great game in almost every aspect! Starting from the controls tutorial (I started thinking about something like that after posting my own game here), throught very nice graphics and great narration, to the idea of multiple endings. Well done!

One thing I missed is more music, as it's not everywhere.

And BTW, those guards looking at me when I'm passing by are creepy. :D
daredevildave23 Apr 2015, 23:15
Great! Enjoyed the story-telling :-)
hexdie
hexdie24 Apr 2015, 00:03
Very cool game! I really enjoyed it! I don't really have any criticisms. Keep up the awesome work!
igoramendola
igoramendola24 Apr 2015, 03:51
I've completed the 100%! I really liked narrative thing, also the different endings. Besides, it's pretty funny. It's the kind of game that I like. Well done :D
Prowler
Prowler24 Apr 2015, 12:49
A nice interactive story!
recursor
recursor24 Apr 2015, 19:50
The narration is great and really help to set the mood. Well done on pretty much everything. Great job.
grillaface
grillaface24 Apr 2015, 22:41
Very nice branching story and I absolutely love the pixel / 3D visuals. Great job!
syncxzoz25 Apr 2015, 14:39
i don't get it..
Crowbeak
Crowbeak26 Apr 2015, 06:08
The narrative was good and although it's clear how The Stanley Parable was your inspiration... I dunno, it felt like it was missing something. Hard to say if that's because I have played the crap out of The Stanley Parable or not.
DeltaF127 Apr 2015, 01:15
That was awesome! I'll definitely try and get the other 2 endings :)

The voice acting was terrific, and I encourage you to follow that dream. The graphical style was really neat. Some of the textures were stretched a little too much, but all in all it looked fantastic as well. It was funny, and had some awesome little touches, such as the way the queen followed you in little bursts, like how people in long gowns do in movies. As Danman9914 said, the parapet narrowing was also an awesome effect. It was funny and self-aware, and I hope The Stanley Parable is proud to be your influence.
Split82
Split8227 Apr 2015, 16:04
Excellent! :) Super awesome narrative.
esayitch27 Apr 2015, 17:26
Found all 6 endings xD Pretty cool game, and a great homage! The apathy bomb is a great concept that can be even made into an action arcadey/puzzle game where you throw it at people to temporarily disable their aggression, etc. But this is a neat way to explore the concept as well :)

Good luck!
norwalnate1327 Apr 2015, 18:27
It's not often you see a narrative game in LD. I enjoyed finding all the quite humerus endings and the voice acting was top notch! Nice work.
Mase
Mase27 Apr 2015, 20:20
I greatly enjoyed the views from the palace.

The option to restart from various points is good, but the "beginning" button is confusing & possibly buggy. It seemed to send me to the location closest to the ending I'd just triggered, rather than the beginning of the game.
Andrew Quartermain27 Apr 2015, 20:38
Very enjoyable. I love the narration. It was a good idea to list the possible endings.
Evergreen Games28 Apr 2015, 00:58
awesome! i loved stanley parable and this lives up to it. i got all endings but the dumb bomb maker one. you are a great voice actor! all around solid entry.
LukeZaz
LukeZaz29 Apr 2015, 00:53
Great voice acting, and it was fun discovering all the endings.
Xanjos30 Apr 2015, 21:04
I love how the narrative dynamically changes in a humorous way plus it was really fun working out how to get all 6 endings.
dreamlogician
dreamlogician1 May 2015, 01:18
Nice simulation of tabletop roleplaying with a passive-aggressive GM. ;)
NightShadow0
NightShadow02 May 2015, 00:20
Hahaha loved this, your voice acting is on point. Great entry!
ruerob4 May 2015, 07:01
Very great entry! I've got 6/6 endings! WHOA 100%.

First I want to say that your voice acting is very nice!!! I'm native german and a little bit unsure when it comes to understand spoken english, but you are perfectly understandable! I like your voice!
The story is nice, too. And I like the mostly non-violent approach!
One little bug I've found, but it isn't game or fun breaking. If I finished the game once and warp to somewhere except beginning and reach the end again, warping to beginning doesn't work! But halway is next to it and there is no need to get back to the beginning, so I can live with that!

I like your game very much! So thank you for this piece of fun and keep coding!!!
IamAcoconut6 May 2015, 00:22
Nice little game, very funny! It'd be nice if there was more gameplay.
Druid
Druid6 May 2015, 21:58
Wow, i really love this entry. (that puns are best XD). Nice funny game :D
nassi7 May 2015, 00:18
Impressive work for a compo entry. Of course I went for all of the endings since you also went the extra length of making them so easy to discover :).

It was a neat experience even if the gameplay elements were pretty light. I had a good time though, so thanks are in order.
Mach60KAS
Mach60KAS8 May 2015, 17:41
Quite a nice interactive fiction piece, the humorous presentation brought it all together! The only real issue I have is that it all felt very slow - but I'm sure this is necessary to stop clips running into one another mid-sentence. Great work, keep it up!
crazya029 May 2015, 13:58
Simple yet effective, and funny! Though the endings that involved jumping off of something didn't always trigger. Was this fixed in the post-compo version?
ianburnette
ianburnetteauthor10 May 2015, 18:59
Yep, I didn't make the trigger zones big enough, so that was something I fixed in the post-compo version (I think, at least).
jhell11 May 2015, 14:06
Very impressive entry, I have only positive things to say: great art, atmosphere, audio quality, voice-over work, etc. The only thing that bugged me ever so slightly was that the writing could have been a tad more mature; sometimes, at least for me, it went from game to joke and that broke immersion.
pixzleone11 May 2015, 14:09
Cool graphics and nice idea. I don´t like the stepping sounds though :)
OddballDave
OddballDave11 May 2015, 14:21
Loved it. Loved all of it. Great entry. Good stuff.
lochmann-apps
lochmann-apps11 May 2015, 15:00
Reminds me of some Game, a really good approach!
TeamCalcium11 May 2015, 15:12
A really great hommage to Stanley Parable. Great job!
apple_pie98120 May 2015, 20:20
To put it bluntly,this game is just copying Stanley Parable (you said that as homage) and Minecraft. The tone of narrator is too intentional and artificial. It looks like a optional story more than a game. The only thing I appreciate that is the lighting effects are quite impressive.

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