An Visual Novel Adaption Of "The Last Question" From Isaac Asimov
This Ludum Dare I didn't really have to the time to make it in the main competition. But the theme wouldn't get out of my head.. Sunday out of a sudden I remembered the most brilliant short story "The Last Question" from Isaac Asimov. That is the perfect story for the theme "Running out of Power". Running out of time myself I decided to make a Visual Novel adaption from this story for the Ludum Dare Jam using existing assets.
It is my first visual novel and the first game ever (for me), where I put in actual story and content.
The visual and music resources are from the Humble Game Making Bundle (from June 2015) [1].
The characters where made using the Anime Character generator with the "Guy Sprite" from SilverHyena[2] (integrated in the generator by Vixeria[3])
I enjoyed making this and reading the story over and over again for testing. I hope some of you might enjoy the story as much as I do.
Great choice of source material (perfect for the theme!) For a first effort as a visual novel/game, it's a good start - and you've clearly put a lot of effort into the characters' expressions changing, but I personally would have liked more scene changes - in chapter one, for example, more of a series of establishing shots before we're introduced to Adell and Lupov, and then some variation in mid/close/far shots. I also think the 'game' element would be vastly improved by the use of dialogue trees, rather than a single 'advance' button - I know it would mean that you'd have to stray from the original text, but it'd make it feel more interactive/immersive :)
It got me hooked until the end, altough it's more a visual book than a game itself, still, the music, the graphics and the chapters are all quite well put together!
This is one of my favourite stories of all time, I hadn't even considered that it fit so well with the theme. Of all the games in LD39, surely this one fits the theme most perfectly. If there were 6 stars for that, I'd surely award them. The music and graphics were of course great, and the scene selection was handy when I accidentally refreshed my browser.
I've seen similar games. I haven't done any research, but I'm quessing there is an engine that allows you to creare such stories, and maybe pre-made art. If you're going to make a story type game, I suggest actually programming all of the interactions, and not just writing the script on a programm made specifically to save time.
Based on other comments I saw, the story wasn't even yours. I'm demotivated to read all of it. Nice idea, but you lack originality and programming. I can't call this an actual game, and it defintly doesn't meet the level that the jam requieres. Better luck next time.
Too bad, you really miss out on a cool story! If you don't like my interpretation I suggest another one, the actual story is great! The audio book that abductedplatypus found is good for example.
"not just writing the script on a programm made specifically to save time." Wow! Do you really only program in assembler? ;) Wait, No! Even that is specifically made to save time.. Saving time is the essence
Anyway thank you for taking the time to write feedback =)
Comments11
Cheers
Keep up the hard work!
Based on other comments I saw, the story wasn't even yours. I'm demotivated to read all of it. Nice idea, but you lack originality and programming. I can't call this an actual game, and it defintly doesn't meet the level that the jam requieres. Better luck next time.
Too bad, you really miss out on a cool story! If you don't like my interpretation I suggest another one, the actual story is great! The audio book that abductedplatypus found is good for example.
"not just writing the script on a programm made specifically to save time."
Wow! Do you really only program in assembler? ;) Wait, No! Even that is specifically made to save time..
Saving time is the essence
Anyway thank you for taking the time to write feedback =)