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Mindscapes's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Sound | #15 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Story | #41 | 3.750 | 3.750 |
| Music | #52 | 3.833 | 3.833 |
| Overall | #382 | 3.083 | 3.083 |
| Fun | #543 | 2.500 | 2.500 |
| Theme | #544 | 2.583 | 2.583 |
| Aesthetics | #556 | 2.667 | 2.667 |
| Mechanics | #588 | 2.250 | 2.250 |
Ranked from 12 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How many people worked on this game in total?
4
Did you use any existing assets? If so, list them below.
No
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Comments
really loved the atmosphere in this one, the muic and sounds added so much to the story and it felt personal and meaningful, looking forward to seeing the other color worlds you mentioned, great job!
the audio and ambient sounds were timed really well with the story and helped bring it to life. the writing was strong and the emotional tone came through clearly. Would be great to see the full version
Beautiful and sad story. Disappointed that the other colors weren’t part of the jam, but totally understandable. The sound design is brilliant how it perfectly syncs with what’s being read, the melancholy piano riff playing at just the right time.
Well done! One of the best narratives in the jam I’ve read so far!
Thank you so much for playing our game. I'm in the process of finishing the other areas and we'll update the game in a few days.
A text-based game ? That's a risky bet. I remember Radical Dreamer, the sequel to Chrono Trigger that eventually inspired Chrono Cross ; not the most comfortable game to play.
It's good to have warned about the content before the start of the game. The introduction is indeed very hard.
Exploring tiny interior worlds of memories and feelings is an original way to follow the theme. The story is well written, but there's a lot to read for non-native English speakers. On the other hand, I was about to say that more pictures would add value, but no, it's better to let the player-reader imagine for oneself.
And the music and the ambient sounds are here to help the reader to imagine. They're light, setting the mood of each location. Good job on this.
It's not the most fun game to play, but there's an audience for this kind of games.
Thank you @Taztempest!
TL;DR: Yes, you have hit the nail on the head!
Interactive novels have quite a niche audience. Our decision behind the decision was due to the commitment risks of team members, skills requirements, and workload balancing. This was our first time using Twine, and I admit, we learned A LOT about the challenges regarding this genre such as story and sensory communication over the dependency of technology.
You also mentioned a key design element -limited artwork-. Initially we thought about artwork for every page, but decided to only do artwork for main environment changes to quickly guide the player and reduce cognitive fatigue caused by all the reading in poetry-like style. This allows the player to formulate their own mental image when approach the detailed areas, and this also contributed to the decision of using an impressionistic art style.
The use of ambient sounds was critical to set the tone of an environment, such as when moving in the World of Grief. For example, the footsteps, the crows, and the leaves and tree in the wind sfx really help subconsciously.
Wow, very nice, a really great story! I'm not the biggest reader, so I don't usually play story games, but your story is very good. It's just great how music and story harmonize together.
Keep up the good work, best regards
Hi, thank you so much for playing. I have to admit, I don't play many story games like this. But it has been eye-opening and an interesting experience.
Really interesting game! I was actually thinking of doing something similar, but focused on mental health, with a goal of helping players understand depression or anxiety. I even had a therapist interested in collaborating, but the idea never took off... no time.
Regardless, the music, sound design, and story in your game were fantastic. I really loved it! Great job!
Hi, thanks for playing our game.
As we were working on the game we discussed the idea of this becoming some form of a self-help tool.
Something interesting that happened was that initially I started writing a story about losing your dad and dealing with those emotions and getting closure. However Nicolaas suggested we write the story in a way that we don't define a parent, but leave as much room as possible for interpretation.
This is really cool, I loved the idea. The start reminded me a lot of the intro to Disco Elysium but way friendlier and chilled.. Well done!
Great text/audio based game. Very interested to find out what the full story is and I felt disappointed that the other colour worlds were not available to me. But considering the time constraints it is totally understandable. The music and SFX made the reading worthwhile as they were timed so perfectly that as I read about something the appropriate SFX would que - very well executed.
Hi there, thank you so much for taking the time to play our game.
I fully understand your disappointment. We had to slightly pivot the story mid jam. Our original artist dropped out and our lead had to spend a ton of time making art, too.
The team loves the story and the concept and we'd love to work on it more and create a more in depth story and finishing all the mirrors.
Nice text based story telling, I love the quiet music and the subtle audio in the background throughout the rooms.
Thx so much! Thank you for taking the time to play!