The Spectrum Soup

by splitpainter

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.71

Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.72

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.90

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.50

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.50

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.09

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.93

A virtual museum about Autism.

An exploration of some of the ingredients and traits of the ASD - Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Collect items that represent autistic traits. They all come together in the final room.

Production Notes

Made in 72 hours, from scratch, by myself.

- ALL the art from scratch in Blender (my favorite part, in which I always try to make PS1 or N64 stylized art).
- Photos from Pexels (all Royalty free, no credit needed), then adjusted and prepared as textures using Gimp.
- Sounds from freesound, additional sound effects obtained from https://www.zapsplat.com. Main music from https://www.zapsplat.com.
- Game developed in Godot Engine, also from scratch (I coded a point and click framework during the jam).
- To make things even better, April is Autism Acceptance Month, so this game matches this month perfectly.

Instructions

- W, A, S, D: Walk
- Hold Shift: Run
- Alt+Enter: Toggle Full-Screen
- E: Action
- F: Continue Dialog

Screenshots

Tags: #3d, #artgame, #autism, #black and white, #godot, #mental health, #mind-bending, #point & click, #walking simulator

Genres: adventure

Tools: Adobe Photoshop, Audacity, Blender, GIMP, Godot

Comments20

AdamsMcCall26 Apr 2021, 23:38

Truly interesting. I was confused at first because I didn't really understand where the game tried to lead me but the conclusion made everything clear to me. I learned quite a lot about my condition.

miwikiwi27 Apr 2021, 00:09

Amazing game! So much valuable information and in such a structured and empathetic style. I'm blown away by the playtime I got out of this, while it never fails to be eloquent and visually interesting.
Two very minor details just to perfect the game: the lowercase "a" is a little hard to read (to me) and I was sometimes confused as to whether I had obtained an object.
Looking forward to future games of yours!

dxk229427 Apr 2021, 10:01

This was a very thought provoking and eye opening experience, thank you for sharing it! It took me a moment to realize that the unlocked doors were indicated by white and locked doors were indicated by red, but once I did things went smoothly. I loved the idea of picking up ingredients tied to traits, and the ending tied it all together perfectly. Great job!

A couple technical nitpicks:
- Vertical mouse sensitivity seemed lower than horizontal, which was a bit strange to get used to
- Continue Dialog button should probably be something like 'F' rather than 'Enter' so you don't have to take your hand off the mouse

SplitPainterauthor27 Apr 2021, 10:21

@adamsmccall @miwikiwi @dxk2294 thank you! It's good to hear that the game made you think a little about what I wrote :) Never believe on what it's on the surface.

@miwikiwi thanks for noting about the "a". I'm gathering a list of fixes for the post jam version.
@dxk2294 Noted about your technical suggestions! I'll fix them on the post jam version!

Jupiter_Hadley27 Apr 2021, 10:26

What an interesting game. I included it in my compilation video series of a bunch of LDJAM games!

astronautmikedexter27 Apr 2021, 16:20

Really enjoyed this. The music was very spookey so was expecting a jump scare. the SFX were also too loud i think.

Also would have liked to be able to not have to press enter but use mouse click. Would make it much easier than switching.

Sensitivity horizontally is too low also i think. Text prompts could also be larger and higher on screen, on a wide screen they are tucked away right at the bottom and small.

This is genuinely a fantastic bit of art. I am so impressed by this, I learned a lout about autism and really made me empathise. I think this is fantastic how you expressed autistic traits, the issues that are faced and how autistic people process them. The understanding and empathy and presentation. I am floored by this. I didn't expect this from a game jam.

LDJam user 23794527 Apr 2021, 17:26

Very interesting concept!

fabula_rasa27 Apr 2021, 17:31

It felt to me like an interactive exhibition in a modern art museum. Very nicely done and an interesting read! I liked the "Sin City" like color work - the contrast between the colorful ingredients and the gray environment.

From a pure gameplay perspective - "Enter" to confirm is not the best idea, as you already have one hand on a mouse and the second one on WASD. A mouse click or some other button close to WASD would be much more comfortable.

I also met a bug in Web version (on Firefox) when some doors would refuse to open even though trigger requirements were met. It didn't happen in downloadable version. There are some mistakes in the text itself, could use some proofreading (e.g. you have "Every one" instead of "Everyone").

Really good work and a unique take on the theme.

thomasward27 Apr 2021, 19:26

I have to agree with @fabula-rasa comment. This has some modern art museum vibes, but made as a computer game. Rather interesting, but it's hard to focus on reading everything since there is no story whatsoever. I liked it though.

vsi-28 Apr 2021, 13:24

nice concept, like 3d models, gj!

LocustJin28 Apr 2021, 15:47

It feels very strange and interesting to play a game like this. A little disturbing, but wonderful and educating.

Emiliabea28 Apr 2021, 20:35

Wow, this was beautifully made. I'm very happy I got to play it and that I found it on the itch.io explore page. The idea of a virtual museum is interesting and different compared to many of the other games and I wanted to play through it all :)

Inno29 Apr 2021, 09:02

Good job with the simple yet very well executed visual elements.

...not really sure if something like autism is understood enough to make it into a simple-ish statement like this - but that just me...(I did'nt factor this in when rating the game)...

msipp2729 Apr 2021, 16:25

as someone with autism myself, I think this game does a great job at informing others about autism. I very much appreciate the effort

saoi-games1 May 2021, 04:56

I really like the creativity you put into this experience. I loved the way it unfolded and educated the player about what it is like to have Autism.

Thank you for creating this and sharing.

ursagames4 May 2021, 03:05

Hello! Your game was played on stream ( https://www.twitch.tv/ursagames/videos ) on 5/03 (Day 2 of LDJAM streams).

You can find the timestamp of when your game was played here: https://tinyurl.com/LDJAM48-ursa

QYOUK14 May 2021, 13:55

Wow that's not what I expected, but your game does go deeper and deeper! I wouldn't say it was fun, but the game kept my interest for a while and I wanted to explore and see more of what you had to say! Visuals and sounds where perfect to set the mood, that was a great experience!

digital bacon17 May 2021, 10:57

I wouldn't describe this as a game, but it was certainly a very interesting introduction to the life of a person with autism (like my son). I do like the metaphor of the cauldron at the end, and the clear dichotomies of how autistic and non-autistic people experience the world. Extremely well done!

ancient-pixel17 May 2021, 13:12

As a friend of an autistic person it was spot on and surely would halp anyone that is more removed from this topic to understand and learn

PhilStrahl18 May 2021, 17:14

Super polished and complete experience, I enjoyed the PS1-look and the overall aesthetics a lot! Very well crafted and I learned something new still! Thanks for submitting, this is an important game.

Here's my time with it on my stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1oYMc95du8

Other games by @splitpainter

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★3.14