River, Carry Me Away
Having fought his brother over the throne, a young prince sets off in a boat down the river, deeper and deeper into the fog, to the place of eternal light.
An evocative tale of love, betrayal and death.
Trailer
Collect the objects floating down the river to unlock the prince’s memories and witness a new constellation appear in the sky.
*Let the river carry you away.*
Game features:
- Slavic fantasy setting;
- Meditative gameplay;
- Narrative driven via the mechanics, visuals and sound;
- Original art: stylized ethnic-inspired graphics;
- Original instrumental music for full immersion (play with headphones on).
How to play:
Point & Click. Use the mouse to collect the floating objects.
An evocative tale of love, betrayal and death.
Trailer
Collect the objects floating down the river to unlock the prince’s memories and witness a new constellation appear in the sky.
*Let the river carry you away.*
Game features:
- Slavic fantasy setting;
- Meditative gameplay;
- Narrative driven via the mechanics, visuals and sound;
- Original art: stylized ethnic-inspired graphics;
- Original instrumental music for full immersion (play with headphones on).
How to play:
Point & Click. Use the mouse to collect the floating objects.
Genres: visual novel
Tools: Unity
Comments159
Awesome music.
The Slavic vibe and the story unfolding with the music's tempo felt great!
From a design perspective, I have a pair of critiques.
First, it's not clear to me why I should pick up the items floating down the river. I don't know what they get me. Do they unlock more story?
Second: The items floating down the river come from the lower half of the screen, so I feel like I need to watch the lower half of the screen in case I miss an item. But all the story is taking place on the upper half of the screen. So, if I watch the lower half, which is beautiful but largely unchanging, I feel uncomfortable because I might miss some of the story. But if I watch the upper half and the story, I feel uncomfortable because I might miss some of the item pickups.
This was very well done. The audio was fantastic. The aesthetics were fantastic. The pacing and tone were very nice. You guys did a very good job.
It took me a moment to realize what the actual gameplay was, as the objects floating down the river were not immediately apparent. But with that being said, this was a really nice and relaxing experience!
There is hardly any gameplay but the atmosphere is so nice that I did not see the time pass! Great job
Gameplay was a bit lacking.
Great work on the art!
It looks and sounds amazing
Not too much gameplay though :D
Молодцы!
Strenghts :
- The audio is just Bonkers
- And so are the visuals
- The game tells so much without using a single word
Possible improvements :
- I'd love to get to listen to the music again :)
Fantastic job !
I got chills playing this, listening to the music.
The art, the atmosphere- this was an amazing experience. Really really amazing :)
This is a work of art. Thank you for making it
Хочется развития вашей идеи! Продолжайте в том же духе ^_^
I loved that there was hardly a story in it, but it was still completely captivating.
The only thing I missed, is a little more interaction. But other than that, I loved it, well done! :D
BTW, it is not optimized for ultra-wide monitors
Good job G_Kobu (@g-kobu) , euphelys (@euphelys) , Art_ether (@art-ether) , tyaka (@tyaka) , ashenswish (@ashenswish) , Alina Baybulatova (@alina-baybulatova) , Elin (@elin) , Galina (@galina) , mostel (@mostel) , larritey (@larritey) , Ivan Nosov (@ivan-nosov) , and Noire (@noire) *
1. I had to rate the fun rather low, due to the second point.
2. the audio and story.. almost shed a tear right there.
Audio almost puts Hans Zimmer to shame... Combined with the misty, moody visuals it's simply brilliant
We listened to your many requests and released a soundtrack.
https://soundcloud.com/dreamtalegames/dreamtale-games-ost-river-carry-me-away
@yeil , @lb01 , @negabyte , @almgru , @szymon-ogd , @fabian-g , @bubakgames , @24arina , @prostone , @janures , @corbeng , @sherwin-claridge , @dominium11 , @eboatwright , @rhoff95 , @realregi , @magnie , @pnkvrt , @koroshi , @ansick , @matijat , @dmitrygalias , @finn-tr , @rawb , @the-g , @phafou , @rouge-dragon , @maximegammaitoni , @youthfulidealism , @rendow , @wobs , @attala , @firas-mourad , @bokonon , @wisedawn , @nyanpierre , @pookipoot , @spliddo , @himeija , @kel , @joe-wright , @patsui , @cekitian , @wilhelmstein , @lev , @shaolin-dave , @getsky , @dodidouda , @kr0s , @peculiarcarrot , @jlv , @quite-good , @styrofoamwaffle , @jose-bonilla , @britt-henderson , @xpoho, @naali , @thestoff, @brielley , @tim77 , @xpycm , @david-u , @last-angle , @lelek-hunor-kadosa , @drew-long , @cem-adiloglu , @purplealien , @taran-unraveler , @tomz-best , @junior-lima , @szkocka , @luvjungle , @valfr , @jacobrutter , @caiolima , @omg-blackbeard , @xparker , @woolchara , @michaelhaughian
Excellent work, team!
Very nice work. It is glorious to see the background in such big image format scrolling smoothly. Can't think of any other praise that hasn't been already said. If I may be nitpicky, when compared with the rest of the experience, the fade out on the clicked river item deserves a better effect than to scale up and just disappear. But I get it is hard to get every aspect polished in such a short time, and it doesn't affect the overall feeling of awe.
The graphisms are simples but in the perfect beauty of the word simple. The music touch me right into the heart. Thank you for your artistic and poetic game, you made me travel in my emotions for a few minutes and it was really something
The storytelling is calm, beautiful, sad and sweet :) Btw, I've counted 12 people in this game. How did you manage to communicate so many people in a 3day jam? Congrats on that too. We are 4 and i think it's already difficult to manage the ideas and workflow in such a short period of time. I have a couple minor observations to make maybe for a post jam version.. I would love more interactions from the user part and a little bit better water keyframes because sometimes the movement was a bit "edgy". Other that that CONGRATULATIONS! You've made a very cool game :) Thanks guys
Hey! Thx for feedback.
Now I'll tell you how we managed to build communication in the team.
1. We had previously participated in jams together and knew our strengths and weaknesses
2. We spent half a day defining the idea of the game and actively used the Miro service
3. We had 2 groups: one of artists, the second of narrative designers, who worked together
4. We wrote design docs and tried to keep documentation right away to evaluate the experience in the future
5. Most of us are from different cities, therefore all communication we have is through discord
6. We tried to get enough sleep and minimize the risks of project failure. Right during the jam, two people got sick and could not continue, several were not all 3 days.
7. We initially planned the work so that the first day would be occupied by the prototype, the second day - the beta version, the third day - polishing. The whole third day was spent on finalizing graphics, fixing bugs and polishing. The main thing is to trim the tails in time, otherwise everything is pointless.
8. We called up a couple of days before the jam and talked about how we would interact on the jam with each other so that it would be productive. For some of us, this was the first jam.
9. We kept an online table in which we noted what had already been done and what was still left, so everyone understood the degree of project readiness and saved time.
So, as I wrote there, the game has no gameplay and I can hardly believe that 12 people worked on this game, you could come up with at least some variety. Because of this, the game is very boring and tedious. Even picking up garbage does not affect the end of the game in any way, what its meaning is remains a mystery. However, it looks beautiful and the music is beautiful, what is the reason for deleting my comment is not clear because I spoke as is and I think you perfectly understand what your game is like.
- This is closer to a visual novel than a game, there is no agency for the player and their actions.
- The story-telling using images is a great choice, but also a risky one. Sometimes the narrative visuals felt too similar to the background or too static, so they were hard to identify as the focal point (especially with all the extra fog).
- The pacing of this journey is too slow. There were a total of (I think) 5 narrative beats over the 3 minute experience.
- When finally the prince was in combat, am I to assume he then died in combat because no frames followed? I feel like the story was missing something to make me feel for him. I was disconnected from the main character and had no emotional connection to his life events (being a kid and playing, then growing up and saying goodbye, then getting married, then having a kid and finding a map from a traveler, then going to war and dying). These are all just "things" that happened to this prince, but the player is left to use their imagination to craft a narrative of why they should care.
- Finally, the end screen constellations were confusing. I clicked and dragged everything I could imagine, but the state of the game never changed so I assumed the experience was complete. What constellation was I looking for? What meaning should I be gleaning from this?
Overall, the mood of the piece was excellent, but the actual story and game mechanics fell flat. This concept is good, but requires some edits to properly polish the experience. I do highly recommend adding some player agency or intermediary user activity to retain engagement though.
Well done anyway :)
Крутой качественный проект, которым приятно насладиться. Видно что ребята вы не простые и умеете делать игры, у вас это здорово получается. Мотивирует)
PS: I can't imagine how you managed to organize work between 12 people. That must have been the hardest part of your development. Good job guys, every single one of you!
This entry creates a consistent ponderous mood, in a good way. It invites you to follow along the river and relax, take in your surroundings and just contemplate what you see. Graphics are very nice - consistent, a bit paper-cutout. I like this style.
The music and the whole soundscape are also perfect for this.
Not much more to say here. Not much of a game but a nice piece of slightly interactive art :)
It's very cool that the Slavic setting was taken. It's always good to see that.
The visual captured my eyes and the music captured my soul! I'm captured ...
Congratulations to all involved!
All that being said, seldomly clicking on things coming down the river felt a bit disconnected design-wise - the pacing could have probably worked even better as just a full-fledged cinematic. Regardless, I do still think your focus went in the right place though, making sure the game packs the punch intended atmospherically, and that it surely did.
Really well done, congratulations!
But as a 'game' it was very passive. I felt like a spectator, rather than a participant. Obviously it's a difficult balance to strike in a game like this, but it would lovely to feel like you as the player are more involved in the journey - even if it's through something as simple as steering the boat.
To be honest at the end I felt like I'd missed something, and I tried clicking on the stars to see if there was something else left to the story. But nope. I get the basic gist of the story (again, beautiful artwork, great music and atmosphere) but I never connected with what was happening on an emotional level, which is a pity.
All that aside, it was gorgeous, and what game-play there was went by very smoothly. It was a nice relaxing experience in the midst of all this Game Jam madness. Nicely done!
- I loved the graphics, the style resonated deeply with me and it felt consistent throughout the whole journey.
- The audio is made in the same way - simply amazing. I can see that a lot of effort went into these categories, and it definitely shows.
- It's more of an experience than a game. I wouldn't say that clicking a few times during a boat ride is considered gameplay. But not to be too critical: I think that interactive experiences are fair submissions to Ludum Dare as well, so this is more of a note, rather than a critique.
- Some differentiation from the background and the elements that are spawned by the player would be appreciated.
- I'd like to see more dramatic effect when players click on the objects in the water, so it feels more rewarding. Simple particles would probably do the trick. This way it would feel much more enjoyable to click the objects in the water.
Thank you for submitting this entry! Looking forward to your next submissions! :slight_smile:
I also love how unique the style and setting feels - the slavic folklore look really makes it stand out and makes it feel more authentic in a way.
The music is absolutely gorgeous! Big respect to the composer!
Wish there was a bit more to do other than just clicking on an object every now and then. Like it was cool the first time but the trick got old quickly and I felt like there could be some more depth to the interactive elements.
I wasn't entirely sure what exactly to make of the narrative. Maybe I wasn't clever enough to put the pieces together or I didn't immediately manage to tell all the characters apart but it was a bit hard for me to recognize a clear chronology of what actually happened in the plot. Could just be me being dumb though lol. Maybe there's also a bunch of cultural references that I'm not getting. Not entirely sure!
Either way, this has been a fascinating artistic experience. Well done, y'all!
+ музыка подходящая
+ интересная история
- Я не кликал на начальные предметы, просто откинулся в кресле. Возможно стоит в начале указать что тут что-то надо делать
Well done!
I was unable to connect the constellations – I clicked around but did not figure out the mechanic, so I ended up watching the gameplay video for it.
I did find myself getting a bit impatient with the slow pace, but it was fine after I settled into the groove.
I did find there was a bit of a disconnect between the gameplay and the story, though. It mostly just felt like a "click to progress plot" mechanic, and I feel like there could be more opportunity to connect with the player if their actions more directly tied to what was happening in the story.
But that's some super abstract stuff I'm asking for (and I'm not even sure what it would look like). I guess what I'm trying to say is that I loved this, and I would love even more to see it expanded upon. :slight_smile:
Only 2 small technical issues I noticed. 1) The custom "hand" cursor reverted to a regular pointer early on, after clicking the first floating item. 2) The fog in the foreground sometimes had a faint "checkerboard" impression in it.
Overall, great experience!