The game is simple, but very conceptual. I liked. The music and atmosphere are very cool made. The only thing I really want is to be able to view the gallery on phone.
Wow this is gorgeous. Impressive you made everything yourself!
When playing it in browser in fullscreen you kind of have to push a bit harder to make the screen rotate. So the first time I played it, I didn't realize I could move the screen to the side. I was just taking the same pictures of the old guy hahahaha. The only reason I knew it was possible was from your screenshots of the other people on the beach.
Maybe a little indicator in game could be nice or have it be a bit clearer in the controls that you can look around the beach with the phone on top of just moving the phone?
Really interesting. Personally I would have loved a bit more interaction or gameplay, but it was beautiful to see all the different expressions. Very moody. Great job.
Great narrative game! The music just fits sooo well, the animation and overall art design is great. It's a little confusing that I really didn't know i could turn my view. Would be better if I could control view through keyboard! Nice job!
Wow! What an amazing artistic direction, both visual and auditory! I kind of missed having a bit more interaction or being able to see the photos I took to witness the consequences of my actions. Still, the artistic direction is outstanding, and the fact that you created everything yourself is truly impressive. Great entry!
This was a powerful experience, the presence of a little girl with seemingly religiously fixated father made me really sad! On my first run, I did not get that I could move my camera off-screen to capture other people in a panorama, but seeing your screenshots I understood I missed something. The ability to browse the gallery throughout (or after) would be great. Overall, great concept with a heavy mood
Such a wonderful project that feels like an art gallery experience. Very clever use of story set up to create tension in an otherwise beautiful scene. I wish there was more, but the fact that there isn't makes the moment that much more powerful. Well done!
Wait, you can rotate the screen? I spent 2 minutes just looking at the guy. It was still poignant and meaningful, but I would've had a better time if something told me I could look around somehow.
I love how you've made such a polished tiny game, which has a single experience that it's selling! :)
FYI - On my first playthrough, the camera couldn't scroll at all, even after the update you pushed out to try to fix it - No matter how much I pushed the phone towards the edge of the screen, it just got locked into place. I knew there *must* have be some way to scroll, based on the gifs that you shared, so I did give the game a second playthrough and it worked perfectly on the second attempt. I'm not sure exactly what was going wrong, because it felt like I took the same steps both times, but I did get to play the game as intended on my second attempt!
I really love the dynamic art style that you have for the scene, the little bit of jitter on the player's hands really adds a lot of life to the presentation.
In terms of presentation, this is the *tiniest* polish nitpick, but the way that you're currently revealing text can lead to awkward jumps as the text box reformats itself whenever a word becomes too long. It looks like you're adding each character to a text box one-at-a-time, but a different way to achieve the same effect is to start with the full string of text rendered at 0% opacity (or the same color as the background), and then change the font color of each character to be visible one at a time. This gives you the same character-by-character text reveal, but it locks the layout of the text into a preformatted block because the *contents* of the text box won't change, just the font color. This prevents those jumps in layout as text is revealed.
Hopefully that makes sense? The reformat that I'm talking about happens in the attached gif as "would" and "12:00" are revealed.
That tiny nitpick doesn't change the fact that this is a lovely polished little game! :) You've put a ton of care and attention into all the little details of the scene (having the camera album button was such a nice touch!), which is why I bring it up, because I can tell you really care about the fine details! Great job overall!
I've always wanted to tell stories through games, but never really knew how to do it well. You made something pretty impactful which lasted only a few a minutes, and I commend you for that
Maybe it's because of how short it was and how the timer on the phone was so close to the end that I felt like I really had to take a few pictures, lol. It definitely made the experience tbh. The anticipation because of it kinda had me on edge
Part of me wants to nitpick and wish that the game was maybe a little more interactive, but it doesn't take away from the fact that you made something really good here. Well done
@koolruz First of all, thank you so much for such a detailed answer!
Regarding the scrolling — I'm glad you found the time to check the game again after all the fixes and finally got to experience it. Fortunately, I was able to fix the bugs on the second try, and now the scrolling feels intuitive (just as it was originally intended, of course).
Everything you wrote about the text is an extremely valuable point! I'll admit, I hadn't given this aspect enough attention before, but now I clearly see how this oversight can be confusing. I'll definitely keep it in mind for future projects.
I'm really glad you noticed the details — it means my efforts were worthwhile. Once again, thank you very much!
Wow, thanks for waking up my existential crisis aha, the graphics and music are simple but they fit well together to create a spooky dreamy vibe. Would have loved to see a diaporama of my pictures at the end, would have been a nice touch. Nice entry!
A sad entry, but I like it. I don't know if it was your goal, but I quickly stopped to take photos, because what was the point? I just waited for the end
When I saw the text about going to heaven, I assumed this was a humorous game mocking the rapture news recently, how it was supposed to happen. So I expected the end to be, like, "Well, nothing happened!"
And that might be why the end surprised me SO much! Well done!
Really cool entry, I personally love narrative games 🙂 I would have liked the game to be a little longer so that the ending could be even more impactful but i know that's hard to do in only 72 hours. Congrats !!
Wow. I love how the music, the battery and time is all adding up to the suspence, while when it all happens all that's left is to take pictures in awe.. Really like this one, very emotional
I lvoe when games make me experience things. I felt dread seeing the clock on the phone indicating 11:59; the ambiance is also really good and I love your artstyle it matches really well with the theme ! I also like really much that you represented different age groups. My only complaint (but I might be asking for what could be a distraction from the essence of the game) is that I would have loved to read different interactions between the other characters on screen, even a single line of text just to know a bit about their feelings. But once again, maybe the perfect balance has already been struck with the Religious Dad. :D Thank you for making this game !
i feel like the intro is too drawn out, but otherwise the game is so atmospheric and immersive. the music and the end animation is so good. i thought it was fascinating how the mc talks about facing the end "with eyes wide open" but they are constantly shielded with a phone screen. so much that you cant read the monologue while taking pictures. again, in the atmosphere and mood setting this game is peak. also very innovative from other entries i've been playing. great job!
amazing art and sound. It was cool to see some little things with zoom, like tears. Maybe i missed, but maybe it would be better to add more things like that
Thats why I love game jams, your entry was a really interesting experience. Also interesting why to make photos if there will be nobody to watch them, yet I'm sure many people would do that. Thank you for you game!
@re-markable yes, that was a small settings issue, I've successfully fixed that bug, and now the movement works intuitively as I originally intended, thanks for playing!
@nekobones to be honest, I didn't think about keyboard controls this time, I'll definitely keep it in mind next time. Yes, there was an issue with rotation, fortunately it's all fixed now
@badpiggy I perfectly understand what you mean, this is my first experience creating a short but complete story :) I'm glad it gave you emotions, that was the main goal, thank you for the comment!
@amande-dooce oh, I'm very glad you experienced the same emotions as me, that's very important to me. Good thought, thank you very much for the comment!
@amiuke thanks a lot for such high praise! It was really important for me to tell this story, even though it's not the entertaining and fun experience that is usually expected from a game. You hit the bullseye - that was exactly my goal, thank you again
Comments69
When playing it in browser in fullscreen you kind of have to push a bit harder to make the screen rotate. So the first time I played it, I didn't realize I could move the screen to the side. I was just taking the same pictures of the old guy hahahaha. The only reason I knew it was possible was from your screenshots of the other people on the beach.
Maybe a little indicator in game could be nice or have it be a bit clearer in the controls that you can look around the beach with the phone on top of just moving the phone?
Beautiful entry though
The screen rotation bug has been fixed.
Let me know if you find any other issues!
FYI - On my first playthrough, the camera couldn't scroll at all, even after the update you pushed out to try to fix it - No matter how much I pushed the phone towards the edge of the screen, it just got locked into place. I knew there *must* have be some way to scroll, based on the gifs that you shared, so I did give the game a second playthrough and it worked perfectly on the second attempt. I'm not sure exactly what was going wrong, because it felt like I took the same steps both times, but I did get to play the game as intended on my second attempt!
I really love the dynamic art style that you have for the scene, the little bit of jitter on the player's hands really adds a lot of life to the presentation.
In terms of presentation, this is the *tiniest* polish nitpick, but the way that you're currently revealing text can lead to awkward jumps as the text box reformats itself whenever a word becomes too long. It looks like you're adding each character to a text box one-at-a-time, but a different way to achieve the same effect is to start with the full string of text rendered at 0% opacity (or the same color as the background), and then change the font color of each character to be visible one at a time. This gives you the same character-by-character text reveal, but it locks the layout of the text into a preformatted block because the *contents* of the text box won't change, just the font color. This prevents those jumps in layout as text is revealed.
Hopefully that makes sense? The reformat that I'm talking about happens in the attached gif as "would" and "12:00" are revealed.
That tiny nitpick doesn't change the fact that this is a lovely polished little game! :) You've put a ton of care and attention into all the little details of the scene (having the camera album button was such a nice touch!), which is why I bring it up, because I can tell you really care about the fine details! Great job overall!
Maybe it's because of how short it was and how the timer on the phone was so close to the end that I felt like I really had to take a few pictures, lol. It definitely made the experience tbh. The anticipation because of it kinda had me on edge
Part of me wants to nitpick and wish that the game was maybe a little more interactive, but it doesn't take away from the fact that you made something really good here. Well done
Regarding the scrolling — I'm glad you found the time to check the game again after all the fixes and finally got to experience it. Fortunately, I was able to fix the bugs on the second try, and now the scrolling feels intuitive (just as it was originally intended, of course).
Everything you wrote about the text is an extremely valuable point!
I'll admit, I hadn't given this aspect enough attention before, but now I clearly see how this oversight can be confusing. I'll definitely keep it in mind for future projects.
I'm really glad you noticed the details — it means my efforts were worthwhile. Once again, thank you very much!
but great game and unexpected turn of event !
And that might be why the end surprised me SO much! Well done!
Pixel art and gameplay are simple, but effective.
cool art ;)