The Swirl

by cybuuorg

co-authored: @jane-wei, @neonstryker, @aivencha

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.94

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.12

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.12

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.43

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★4.46

Audio★★★★★★★★★★4.08

Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.10

Mood★★★★★★★★★★4.29

Take one hardboiled detective, an abandoned theatre, a ghostly otherworld, and what do you get? A caper worth seeing to believe.

This adventure takes you on a journey into the outskirts of a colourless town and the mystery of the now permanently closed Cavalier Theatre, a place full of dark tales. Learn about its history, those who were struck by its curse, and venture deep into the colourful world of the Tear.

Will you make it out? Or will you become one with... the Swirl?!!

Tags: #2d, #multiple endings, #mystery, #narrative, #noir, #story rich, #stylised

Genres: interactive fiction, visual novel

Tools: Adobe Photoshop, Clip Studio Paint, Ren'Py

Comments28

IcedJaM5 Oct 2021, 03:52

This is very nicely made. The aesthetic and sound are beautiful and cohesive. You actually included a lot of content as well which most impressed me. Very nice work, good job.

CZ465 Oct 2021, 06:35

Fantastic play on the classic detective stereotype mixed with the theme. I'm usually not one for dialogue games but this one kept me captivated with it's great writing, artwork and sound design. A really solid entry, good job :D

KingOfNova5 Oct 2021, 14:09

Very cool art style reminds me of an ai trying to make art neat.

cubebuc5 Oct 2021, 14:20

Even though I usually don't play this kind of games I liked it. The artstyle is amazing and the music is relaxing :D

BjornStahl5 Oct 2021, 14:21

This is very well made for such a short time, well done. The art style is beautiful and the music sets the mood perfectly, but the best part is the writing, very well written.

Seskon5 Oct 2021, 14:52

Nice writing, interesting story and I like the unique Artstyle. Only thing that i missed was an explanation for the buttons at the bottom, but overall great entry.

Natalia Dushkina5 Oct 2021, 22:02

Played a couple of times, first a quick ending, next time I was very careful until I met that boss :) Very stylish art & music, great composition in images.

TheGamerASD5 Oct 2021, 23:46

Great game, I loved the story.

yojammerjammer6 Oct 2021, 01:22

Another bunch of Aussie LD visual novel devs. I love that. The mood was fantastic.

Caladrius6 Oct 2021, 08:51

This is awesome, I was hooked in by the art style and stayed for the story. Really impressive job for a Ludum Dare project, would love to see a full-length game by you guys!

Bauke Regnerus6 Oct 2021, 08:59

Nice film noir graphics, you did a good job. I had some glitches with what looks like images being loaded.

LouieJams6 Oct 2021, 23:33

Nice atmosphere and beautiful graphics, great entry!

jessefreeman6 Oct 2021, 23:39

This reminded me of the old HyperCard games I used to make/play back in the day. Liked the graphics, good job!

Adrieldf7 Oct 2021, 01:18

I loved the art style, you girls nailed it! Interesting story and great music. Keep on the good work!

Sirplop7 Oct 2021, 07:35

Nice story, good amount of content and character building for only 2-3 days. Good job!

TailsGameDev7 Oct 2021, 11:38

Woow I'm watching it on https://www.twitch.tv/justcamh stream and I'm loving it. Rated already ^^ nice characters, scenario, game feel, congratulations!

Fear Games7 Oct 2021, 11:39

Beautiful game. Loads of content. congrats

JUSTCAMH7 Oct 2021, 15:08

Hey team, thanks for submitting the game to stream! Such an incredible story, the art and audio were on fleek too. It's perfect as far as I'm concerned, here's the vod if you'd like to rewatch: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1169813985

BangKerpow8 Oct 2021, 02:19

Stunning visuals. I'd make half the game my desktop.

LDJam user 2429718 Oct 2021, 02:27

Cool. I had to go back and check out the different ending. Nice touch. Thanks for the submission.

yodoG8 Oct 2021, 05:21

Really beautiful work! Loved the music throughout. And it was just so beautiful to look at! I reached the end, but I'll probably play a few times to check out the various endings. Nice job team!

mhorth9 Oct 2021, 01:55

There's so much story in here! And you even have them go to different endings instead of just being superficial choices. Really really cool.

Do I need to even mention the music? Absolutely amazing! How can you make that during a weekend?!

Rubiia9 Oct 2021, 16:30

Oh wow. I absolutely loved this entry. The game oozed style and spoke with the vibrant and beautiful story you composed. The music was top notch, and the various different routes to the story made this one an absolute blast to play. Honestly keep this kind of thing up: I'd love to see a full VN or detective style game from you guys one day.

Molpe11 Oct 2021, 20:01

This is absolutely amazing :heart: Love the art style and the music, very interesting story! :heart: Got two different endings!

Angela He11 Oct 2021, 22:42

Oooh, I just love the art, so avant garde. Ugh, it's so inspiring. I might just have to include more textures in my art too now.

The writing is so noir, I can literally hear the swoon of detectives in old b&w movies in the writing

Quite Good13 Oct 2021, 02:51

As has been said, the visuals are absolutely killer. The music and sound design are also top notch and created a really authentic atmosphere on top of the writing and very clear character voices. While I wasn't able to explore all of the possible endings, I was very pleasantly surprised at the amount of writing and story that was fit into this project. Keep on swirling!

Cookie_CHR13 Oct 2021, 16:50

This is awesome! Great job with the atmosphere, got every ending except one (Think it was B, but I'm not entirely sure)

JUSTCAMH22 Oct 2021, 02:44

This game deserved gold, regardless of final ranking, you guys did great this jam!