The Canary

by jorim

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.23

Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.73

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.27

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.81

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.04

Audio★★★★★★★★★★2.93

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.59

*The Canary* is a short narrative experience. Days after the last nuclear bomb exploded, you have followed a very sought after map to an abandoned coal mine. It is rumored that a bunker was built at the bottom in case of nuclear fallout. It falls to you to go deeper and deeper into the mine to find it.

Controls

WASD to Move

Left Click to pickup objects and mine stone.

Right Click to drop objects

F to equip your gas mask

Q and E to select dialogue prompts

Update Log

V1.1 - Fix the player being unable to move after reloading the game from the title screen. Fix the player being shown the ending screen when dying before reaching the ending.

Genres: visual novel

Comments19

Iak27 Apr 2021, 09:15

Hmm... I like what I see so far, but mining doesn't seem to work for me. It plays an audio cue but nothing else happens?

Giordas27 Apr 2021, 09:20

I see this game has a lot of potential. I lost due to the gas but when I wanted to play again I couldn't. The game has a pretty nice mood and is very relaxing. Keep up the good work

Jorimauthor27 Apr 2021, 09:26

@iak I think this might be poor communication on the part of my design! Only the light stone blocks can be mined. I tried to make the sound effects of hard stone being mined sound like a pickaxe 'bouncing off' ineffective though that wasn't very clear. Thanks for playing!

Mero27 Apr 2021, 10:17

My character freezed on hammering the intercome

Also after jogglining with 3 objects after some time i jsut rushed with a picaxe down

Craplex27 Apr 2021, 10:22

The idea is so cool. I like the art. 8/10 Great one

theheheo27 Apr 2021, 10:34

Really cool !! Very cool mechanic with the mining and I also really liked the narrative. The only critique would be that the movement felt just a little bit unresponsive. Nice voice acting also :D

Jorimauthor27 Apr 2021, 10:51

@mero Yes, unfortunately I was a bit short on time so that ending was supposed to be more animated. The idea behind it is your character breaks down the bunker door. Due to time constraint the animations / interactivity of that were a bit lost so I just froze the character and played the voice lines. Thanks for playing!

Jorimauthor27 Apr 2021, 10:53

@theheheo Thanks for the feedback! I don't have a ton of experience with 2D platformers, so that is useful feedback. For my next jam I might brush up a bit on ways to make the movement feel more responsive. Thanks for playing!

hansj27 Apr 2021, 11:26

I found the game pretty interesting! I was a bit unsure what to use the other items for, so I ended up just going all the way down with the pickaxe. I liked the rope mechanic, but a bit unsure of the core game loop as it basically seems to only be walking and destrooying blocks to get further down. Anyway a complete game, and a good contribution to the theme!

CubeX27 Apr 2021, 13:38

This was fun! The sounds kind of annoyed me, but apart from that, it was pretty good!

Lisichka27 Apr 2021, 13:41

Cool I like it! But art it not so good.

Chartle27 Apr 2021, 14:36

Very nice! I like the artstyle (pixel big good) and idea of the game. I did almost miss the bunker because I couldn't see where I'd drop down to and was scared but hey, I got there in the end. My first playthrough I died because I was messing around trying to mine all the blocks, but the second playthrough got me to the end just before the gas overtook me. Nice job! The SFX are a little jarring, but either way well done.

Swen27 Apr 2021, 15:12

Nice entry, really liked the voice overs in the narrative. The way the blocks 'break' is really cool too!
I replayed it quite a few times trying to get all the items to the end to see if I could get different endings. In the end I was able to find only 2 endings. Did I get them all? :-)

Jorimauthor27 Apr 2021, 15:41

@swen Yup you got them all :). I was gunning to make a third ending, but ran out of time unfortunately. Thanks for playing!

mmason28 Apr 2021, 00:23

I'm glad I played a second time or I never would have heard the voice acting

angrySandwich28 Apr 2021, 03:34

I kept dying to the smoke lol, couldn`t find anything after the second rope (wich I really liked!!! Nice mechenic!)
The art and that color pallet REALY! set the mood perfectly! Awesome job on that front!!!
Overall a great game!

miej30 Apr 2021, 16:41

took me a non-trivial amount of time to realize that the only thing i could mine in the starting room was the one block that was slightly lighter in hue than the others. also something a little odd about the movement mechanics that makes it feel like the character is ice skating. really nice art style though, pretty nicely implemented concept!

someone30 Apr 2021, 17:10

Interesting mining mechanic. The narrative part was cool.
The movement and collision are a bit janky, and I kept picking up the wrong item.
Overall a good entry.

Videt1 May 2021, 10:14

Collisions are weird, nice mining mechanic tho. Not bad in general

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