THE COOKIE IS A LIE

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.58
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.51
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.51
Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.76
Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.95
Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.53
Have you ever lied about eating a cookie when you were a kid? Well, in this epic text-based adventure you will, and it will escalate faster than you can chew...

Epic chase scenes, people getting abducted, a Dutch province getting blown to pieces, the king making a guest appearance. In this text-adventure it all happens. There are more than 64 possible outcomes for you to explore.
The adventures are short and crunchy, so it won't take long to complete one or two.

After your adventure is done, your lie will be shared automatically among the other gamers. The results of all played adventures are listed on the bottom of the page.

The game has been programmed in such a way that more stories can be added. The source is free to use, so you can add your own if you like.
I planned on adding 8 stories, but I learned my lesson... I'm a programmer, not a story-teller. The making of this story took 18 hours to complete + 6 hours of correcting all kinds of mistakes.

I opted out of two categories: Graphics and Music. I at least have music in my game now, I always find it scary to make/use music. I put some royalty free music in the game, and I made sure to credit those :-)
The graphics I am very proud of, I made some baller-edits to existing photo's I found on the internet. Which is for me quite an experience, haha. But yea, maybe you now understand why I opted out of that one as well, it just didn't feel right.

Have fun with lying in: THE COOKIE IS A LIE

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*Edit: when entering your name, make sure it is at least 4 characters long for it to work*

*Edit: fixed a massive spelling mistake in the cover image on this website, it was late for me ^^"*

Comments63

Sode
Sode27 Apr 2021, 13:30
This is an interesting game you should add suport for other characters like öäåáàèé. And please use https for security reasons
Lucky Zucc
Lucky Zucc27 Apr 2021, 13:50
I LOVE this! Had a great laugh reading through my own, and other players' stories and lies. Great job! I can see myself replaying this sometime soon.
Lucky Zucc
Lucky Zucc27 Apr 2021, 13:50
I LOVE this! Had a great laugh reading through my own, and other players' stories and lies. Great job! I can see myself replaying this sometime soon.
ThatANoNoWord
ThatANoNoWord27 Apr 2021, 13:57
This is a really cool spin to the theme. Going deeper into a lie through a text adventure game that has lots of branching paths. The images used actually helped with the scene, their low quality helped with the wacky situations. Although the starting character customizer is unnecessary if your special character only appears in 1 scene.
Wouter52
Wouter52author27 Apr 2021, 14:01
@sode Thank you! I'll make sure to support other characters in my next entry :smile: Oh, and it was 3 o clock in the morning when uploading it. I did not see that I entered an "http" link.. My website supports HTTPS, so I updated the link
Wouter52
Wouter52author27 Apr 2021, 14:04
@lucky-zucc yayy thank you! I'm glad that it made you laugh! I see that your lie ended up clogging some toilets! Those damn kids :laughing:
Wouter52
Wouter52author27 Apr 2021, 14:08
@thatanonoword Thank you for your feedback! The low quality graphics had two functions ideed: setting the scene without giving the player too much information (so there is some room for fantacy), and because I needed to hide some low quality edits. A noise filter does wonders I must say :laughing:

The character appears in to graphics, but I did not have time to add it to more graphics. I had more plans, but I bit off more than I could chew.
So it is mostly for the screenshot that is uploaded to the server, to add some personality to all the kids that lied :smile:
willjardine
willjardine27 Apr 2021, 14:16
Dang, this is a brilliant take on the theme. Awesome game!
nethead
nethead27 Apr 2021, 15:11
This was hilarious, awesome work :D Left me hungry for some cookies..
Wouter52
Wouter52author27 Apr 2021, 15:20
@nethead thank you very much! You have earned your cookies 😎
kr4ft3r
kr4ft3r27 Apr 2021, 16:57
Hey man, good to see you've become a steady LDer.

No need to feel bad about your story writing capabilities, these are funny, related to human nature, and to the point. Character creation screen is a rare achievement for a LD entry, you clearly had fun making this.

Looking at results of other players (you might want to mention that they are listed below the app, I found them by accident), I'm impressed by the amount and spread of possible endings. You are clearly good at making these... Systems.
Wouter52
Wouter52author27 Apr 2021, 17:52
@kr4ft3r Thanks! It's great to be back and I plan to continue LDing :smile:

Thanks for your compliments! I can see why character creation is a rare thing in the LD-world. It is a lot of work for a game most people will play once or twice :sweat_smile: But as you say: it is fun to make and that is what LD is all about :smiley:

I just opened the game on my laptop and I can see now what you were saying: the results of other players are not visible without scrolling ^^" I'll make sure to test it on more devices next time :slight_smile:
Justine D
Justine D27 Apr 2021, 17:53
I had a lot of fun, this is the kind of absurd humor I love. Played a few times and had very different stories, my favorite was the one where I got the wrong guy arrested. Love the programmer art

On another note, I was unable to change my gender, I have no idea why. I saw other submissions playing a man, so it must be a problem on my side.
mujina27 Apr 2021, 18:04
Hey! Nice game. Loved the character creation with a simple hand drawn sprite. And I loved the bit of "MMO" aspect that there is to the game in being able to see other people's results!
By the way, I saw you live in Groningen. I live there too! Maybe we can get in touch and program something together in the future!
Wouter52
Wouter52author27 Apr 2021, 18:47
@mujina Thank you for the compliments! The character creation was lots of fun to make, the hand drawn sprite was created in about 30 seconds and somehow it stuck, it was just perfect for the quirky introduction I imagined ^^"

Oh and actually, I live in Friesland :smile: Groningen and Friesland are like The Netherlands and Belgium, always picking on each other haha :laughing:

Collaborating sounds fun for once, but I have to think about it first :innocent: I've never collaborated on an LD before, let alone with someone I don't know personally. I see that you worked in a team, so I imagine that you are comfortable with it?

If you want to collab in a future LD, then you can always ask. This is my email address: [email protected]
Wouter52
Wouter52author27 Apr 2021, 18:52
@justine-d glad you like it! You can change the gender by clicking the blue smudge under "Gender", did you try that already?

That outcome is funny indeed, my favorite is a whole other branch in the story, where there is a police helicopter with a big magnet picking some bad guy in a shady black car from the road. :laughing:
nephronhunter27 Apr 2021, 22:09
And now I am going to eat some cookies. ;)
2rek28 Apr 2021, 01:06
Nothings better than putting on reverse while doing 60 xD
I like the style and the humor ;p
It's funny to compare to others endings.
Zliebowitz28 Apr 2021, 01:13
Very interesting game. Plays well, the sharing of stories is interesting, and having two runs I was surprised how quickly the stories deviated.

I did originally try it on Safari with no luck, but it worked fine in chrome.
SamarthMP500228 Apr 2021, 04:02
Cool Game! I love the concept, the audio was not made by you though, maybe add some of your own music? keep up the good work!
Labete28 Apr 2021, 04:09
I loved that there was some character creation :D. Interesting idea, ok graphics. Quite funny game, cool that player choices have an effect :)
Wouter52
Wouter52author28 Apr 2021, 09:48
@nephronhunter that's ok, just don't lie about it. You now know what can happen :wink: :laughing:
Wouter52
Wouter52author28 Apr 2021, 09:50
@zliebowitz Thank you! That is a nice compliment :smile:

I only tested it on the Opera Browser, maybe I could have tested it on more than 1 browser :open_mouth: I'll do that next time :smile:
Wouter52
Wouter52author28 Apr 2021, 09:52
@samarthmp5002 Thank you! The audio has always been scary for me. My previous entry did not have music at all :laughing: Maybe next entry I'll have a try with my own creations :smile:
Wouter52
Wouter52author28 Apr 2021, 09:53
@labete Thank you for your compliemnts! I had fun implementing that character creation feature :smile:
Eugenik
Eugenik28 Apr 2021, 14:15
Great game, Love the art style
nicholassoen28 Apr 2021, 19:55
Such a fun concept. Love the artstyle & the humor!
Great fun!
Daniel Whittaker28 Apr 2021, 20:49
Very fun! Character customization was very unexpected but welcome polish. nice work
Wouter52
Wouter52author28 Apr 2021, 20:51
@daniel-whittaker Thank you :smiley: I had lots of fun making the character creation :innocent:
Nikolaj
Nikolaj28 Apr 2021, 20:54
cool, big plus for letting me customize my character!
jaybaus28 Apr 2021, 20:56
I love a narrative game with multiple endings! Really impressed that you included a character creator in a Ludum Dare game as well. Good job :)
Wouter52
Wouter52author28 Apr 2021, 20:56
@nikolaj Thank you :smile: I didn't expect that the character creation would be this well received :smile:
Wouter52
Wouter52author28 Apr 2021, 20:59
@jaybaus Thank you very much! This was my first time making a text adventure, which was an adventure in it's own way :sweat_smile: Glad you like it!
LDJam user 235694
LDJam user 23569428 Apr 2021, 21:10
O like this, its cool i can customize character and give him name, realy cool dialog game
extar
extar29 Apr 2021, 18:03
The phrase 'Text-based adventure' filled me with dread, but I was pleasantly surprised with this, it rocks. Usually these games end up with me stuck in a dead end trying to find a way out, so it was great that the story in this marched ever onwards. It's great seeing the results of other players games and wondering how they ended up in those situations, great work. The music you've added is a nice touch, it's a shame it can't be rated.
Sheinxy
Sheinxy29 Apr 2021, 18:38
Awesome text based adventure!
I really love the fact that you can see other players' endings on the website, pretty neat touch!
tengusheath
tengusheath29 Apr 2021, 18:41
Pretty funny game. Impressed you were able to add customizable characters.
Wouter52
Wouter52author29 Apr 2021, 20:51
@extar thank you for your nice compliment :smiley:

Next time I'll try to create my own music. Then I don't have to opt out :sweat_smile: lets hope it will be a success 😅
Wouter52
Wouter52author29 Apr 2021, 20:52
@sheinxy thank you very much! I love that feature too, its funny to read what the players all went through :innocent:
Wouter52
Wouter52author29 Apr 2021, 20:53
@tengusheath thank you! It was about 3 hours work to implement (where I struggled with color codes in javascript for about an hour :sweat_smile: )
Ulisses30 Apr 2021, 00:48
Haha a lot of fun, I was thinking about the work of writing so many variations. I played several times to see how far I could go, and make it to 11! Very good Congratulations!
Wouter52
Wouter52author30 Apr 2021, 09:20
@ulisses hah yea it was lots of work. The first day I spent mainly on writing the story and questioning my ability finishing it
The second day was spent correcting all the errors I made de previous day 😂

Ooh good job getting so far! To behounest, I didn't really check which was the deepest story. I think 11 is the deepest you can go 😇
sonmi30 Apr 2021, 21:18
haha gosh, i have to force myself not to tryout every possible ending to be able to play some other games
Kirby
Kirby30 Apr 2021, 21:46
Great game! So cool idea and mechanics. Good luck and my congratulations
Andreia
Andreia1 May 2021, 04:54
Very fun concept, made me laugh. The character creation is a nice touch, made it feel a lot more personal
Wouter52
Wouter52author1 May 2021, 12:46
@kirby thank you :slight_smile: Which mechanics to you mean in particular?
Wouter52
Wouter52author1 May 2021, 12:47
@andreia Thank you! :smile: I had lots of fun making the character customization :smile:
lexi
lexi1 May 2021, 16:22
Really nice game, had more than a few laughs playing this! I especially liked that you also put the endings that other people reached below. Great entry! :cookie:
Molpe
Molpe1 May 2021, 19:24
This was unexpected :smile: Great idea, very nice game :heart:

My LP :slight_smile:
Wouter52
Wouter52author1 May 2021, 21:46
@molpe that is so cool! Thank you :smiley: that brought a big smile on my face :innocent:
Doot
Doot3 May 2021, 16:31
Nice game!

The story is simple and cute, with funny choices.
The "wall of fame" underneath is a superb idea!

I love the character creator 💕
It just felt a bit sad to have to choose between "Genders". Maybe you could use the wording "Shape" like Nintendo does in recent games?

Thanks for the game!
Wouter52
Wouter52author4 May 2021, 11:52
@doot Thank you for your feedback :smile:

I actually have been thinking really hard about the Genders and how that is a bit out fashion these days. But I could not really work around it anymore for two reasons:

1: the story has been built with gender in mind. :sweat_smile: E.g. "his car" or "her car"

2: the character creator is designed to pick colors from the screen, and I could not figure out within the tight deadline how to make it different than "pink" and "blue" :open_mouth:

Thanks for your suggestions, "shape" sounds a bit better than "gender" :heart_eyes:
Doot
Doot4 May 2021, 12:11
That is very great to hear you thought about it! Those matters are always hard to answer and I guess the best is to always question ourselves and ask people around us!

One idea for the first point would be to also ask for pronoun on top of shape. One could chose between "he/him", "she/her" and the genderless "they/them".

Also just for the anecdote, this becomes even harder when you do localisation. In French for exemple, we do not even have genderless pronouns...
Wouter52
Wouter52author4 May 2021, 13:18
Ah, I did not think about "they/them" as English is not my first language :sweat_smile: Otherwise I would have put a green dot next to the green and blue one :slight_smile:

Some languages are way different than others, and no language is perfect. Luckily languages always develop in some way or another :smile:
LeYaoTang
LeYaoTang11 May 2021, 05:51
Amazingly I sell cookies in real life and now I will always think about what will happen to the person that bought my cookies.

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