Back to Life

by andypang1010

co-authored: @allenw, @devon-chan

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.36

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.02

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.10

Theme★★★★★★★★★★2.55

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★4.07

Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.00

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.71

Welcome to "Back to Life"!

In this short demo of ours, you will be exploring this little bedroom that was once filled with life and joy. The objects have long ceased to be so lively, and it is up to you to bring life back to these once happy little furnitures!

CONTROLS:

Key	Action
WASD	Movement
Mouse	Look around
E	Interact with objects
Left Mouse Button	Select/Deselect a sentence
ESC	Pause/Unpause the game

GENERAL GUIDELINES:

1. Whenever you are looking at an object that was once alive, your eye will glow up in the form of the crosshair.
2. To progress through the level and talk to more objects, correctly match three sentences with three objects.

CREDITS:

Game/Level Design - Allen Weng, Andy Pang, Devon Chan

Programmer - Allen Weng, Andy Pang

Art/VFX - Devon Chan

DEVELOPERS' NOTE:

The game is best to be played on Windows instead of with Web version because WebGL has some weird issues making some VFX not rendering and cameras snapping. It's totally okay if for convenience or some other reasons that you would prefer to play the game on the Web, but as developers we really do want you to be able to experience "Back to Life" in its entirety and download the game with the file name [Back_to_Life_Windows.zip]. We will be looking out for all comments and feedback so please don't hesitate to leave a comment. Thank you very much for all of your support and we hope you all have/had a great jam!

Comments32

Michael Macha16 Apr 2024, 00:26

For whatever the reason, it doesn't seem to want to load.

andypang1010author16 Apr 2024, 00:29

We're actively trying to fix the bug that the game is not loading on LDJam at the moment. The game is available on itch.io as well so in the meanwhile feel free to play the WIP version on itch!

andypang1010author16 Apr 2024, 02:30

The game can finally be played on LDJam's website now! Unfortunately, some of the VFX are still not present on the web version due to WebGL not being able to support Visual Effects Graph, so if you would like to experience the full game please feel free to download the Windows version in the links attached!

LDJam user 37718516 Apr 2024, 04:15

This looks really interesting, but I couldn't seem to interact with anything. Not sure if it's just a thing with the web version cuz I'm on mac-

SvenErik16 Apr 2024, 04:20

Fun little game, very suitable for a coffee-break aha! Loved the overall vibe of it, the graphics and the soundtrack fit together so well~

Batisdark16 Apr 2024, 04:40

Cute little puzzle with quite an evil story told inside? Or is it me overthinking it?

I crossouted all the entries, but there seem to be no game end - just everything became bright. And one time it actually didn't let me exit interaction with item after giving me the last phrase to solve so I had to restart, so I don't know if its the same kind of bug too. Also I hope the person whos thoughts we are reading will get help o_o scary stuff in cute presentation.

LDJam user 38281916 Apr 2024, 04:40

Oh my gosh, how did you guys whip up such an astounding piece in such little time? I'm head over heels for your art style – it must've been a herculean effort, right? And the game's difficulty is just perfect, exuding a vibe of total maturity. I'm so hyped, I can't wait to throw my cash at it! Shut up and take my money!!

MissingPixel16 Apr 2024, 04:56

Interesting game, loved how all the objects came to life. It was rather confusing at first however, I wasn't really sure if I was making progress until the first three objects scratched off. Movement also felt rather slow, but that could just be my own preference. Great work!

Ja_viera16 Apr 2024, 05:15

Super cute artstyle and mood!, I agree with previous comment that it was confusing and movement was on the slow side... I wasn't sure how to play or progress.

BreakfastGun16 Apr 2024, 05:19

Fun little puzzle that I want to come back and finish. The chair in the middle kept making it difficult to traverse the room. But the art and animations and idea are all very nice!

kanity17 Apr 2024, 01:33

Also didn't figure out what to do straight away, but reread the rules again, thought a bit and realized what to do. After that I quickly got first three objects crossed out and I gotta say it was so cute to watch them come to life!

andypang1010author17 Apr 2024, 01:52

@kanity I'm so sorry that this happened. Would you mind telling me which version of the game you downloaded? From what I can tell the version you have right now is deprecated and have some minor bugs, including the one that you just mentioned. I know you've probably left your ratings and left already, but I think the experience will be much better if you have the chance to play the latest bug-free version, which is called [Back_to_Life_Windows.zip]. Hope you had a great jam!

andypang1010author17 Apr 2024, 02:12

@just-a-cat We will be looking at why that's the case right now.

andypang1010author17 Apr 2024, 02:55

@just-a-cat I think the bug should be fixed now! We’ve just tried playing the new build on a Mac and this doesn’t seem to be an issue anymore. Hope you have a fun jam!

LDJam user 37718517 Apr 2024, 03:09

@andypang1010 Thanks!! It does seem to be working! I did encounter an issue where depending on the order you did the phrases in, sometimes you wouldn't be given the remaining phrases and would softlock, but after reseting I managed to finish it. Still though, really fun and cute game!

kanity17 Apr 2024, 03:40

@andypang1010 no I would love to try playing it again, I really like the playing part of the jam :) I am pretty sure the one I downloaded is the latest [Back_to_Life_Windows.zip] version:

Also note the bugs I mentioned in the end were about web build (the camera snapping issue), that's the first one I tried and after that I downloaded the file to get better experience.

I wasn't sure if next batch of objects not coming to life was a bug or maybe I just didn't figure out the correct phrases?

andypang1010author17 Apr 2024, 05:01

@kanity I see, thanks for the clarification! If the new objects are not showing up then it’s most likely because you haven’t figured out the correct combinations yet. Would you mind sharing a screenshot of your game progress?

kanity17 Apr 2024, 17:17

@andypang1010 sure, that is what I was talking about: that I can't really figure out the phrases to the objects as many of them are too cryptic, and I am not sure if the ones I set are correct.

I opened the game again, which made me start from the beginning, and crossing out first three items was easy as I already knew what to set.

However, after that I feel a bit lost. I clicked on many different items, trying different phrases, and these three made the most sense to me.

velvetlobster17 Apr 2024, 17:40

very beautiful scenario and smooth walking animation.

one can feel the good vibes walking around is quite delightful.

I am having a hard time finding what I need to do to actually match the objects and be sure that I am doing it right.

andypang1010author17 Apr 2024, 19:33

@kanity The ones in green are the ones that are confirmed to be correct, so congrats on finding them! However, the next few aren't matched correctly so that's the reason why the game hasn't progressed. To help you out, maybe consider the names of the objects and the spatial relations between them. Some of them are also coherent conversations so maybe you can try to first match the lines that are relevant to each other. Hope that'll help!

andypang1010author17 Apr 2024, 19:35

@velvetlobster Thanks for the compliment! This game is really a matter of reading between the lines and figuring out the relationships between the objects, as well as their name (both in real life and in the game). You should be able to progress through the game once you get three correct matches. Please don't hesitate to ask any questions or give any further feedback!

Ruslana17 Apr 2024, 20:35

Art and music are very cute!

Parker828317 Apr 2024, 23:34

Fun little game! It took me a while to get what I was doing. Even after I beat the game, I wasn't entirely sure why some phrases went with the objects that they did (I did have to end up resorting to trying random combinations until they worked). But I like the concept and the art style was nice. Thanks for participating!

andypang1010author18 Apr 2024, 02:07

@just-a-cat We did notice that the game had an issue of soft lock when progressing through particular objects. So we went immediately to fix the progression. Everything should be working perfectly now!

denilseven18 Apr 2024, 18:37

I was stuck the first time I played, but came back again today and finally figured things out - and I'm glad I did because it's such a pretty game!

I had no idea who was Scout, and was thinking that that "I want to see my cousin Key!" dialogue was fit for the keyboard. It was only when I realized that it was like a conversation between them that I started making progress.

Great job :D

LDJam user 37718518 Apr 2024, 23:43

@andypang1010 Thank you so much!! You've been really attentive to people's issues and it's really nice :D

andypang1010author19 Apr 2024, 00:49

@just-a-cat Thank you too for pointing out any bugs/issues in the game! It has really helped us a lot and to give everyone a better gameplay experience!

Cshep9919 Apr 2024, 22:56

i love when the objects come to life they are so cute! im using teh windows download version and i think i ran into a problem; the cutting board, tv, pc, and window don't seem to work correctly. im sure the cutting board was "i want to see my cousin key" and the pc was "someday I'll take over the world", and i think the tv was "whats the worst you can do to me?" but no combination of these would work for me. i guess the window could be "i wish i could see myself." but like i said no combination of these would work. also i didn't have a problem with the walking speed, but the LOOK speed is far too slow. i had to pick up my mouse and move it a couple of times to turn all the way around

andypang1010author20 Apr 2024, 03:14

@cshep99 Thanks for the comment! The one next to the door is not a window unfortunately, it’s actually a whiteboard. Sorry for the confusion!

JosephlDooley20 Apr 2024, 19:11

What a cute and unique puzzle game! At first I was confused but once I got the first three I was rolling. I like the clues it gave, made me feel smart once it clicked. I just couldn't find the "My head through your body?" object, I looked everywhere but could find it :'(. Good job!

braktheman20 Apr 2024, 20:52

Fun game. Really cute world and characters. Almost got stuck because one of the boxes on the floor was blocking the bottom shelf of the corner bookshelf but I eventually got it pushed out of the way enough to interact with the items.

Really liked when the items came to life.

Fun playthrough. Thank you for making it and keep on creating!