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Life with a Newborn's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Narrative | #37 | 4.372 | 4.372 |
| Creativity | #479 | 4.209 | 4.209 |
| Enjoyment | #927 | 3.744 | 3.744 |
| Audio | #2544 | 3.093 | 3.093 |
| Artwork | #7416 | 2.093 | 2.093 |
Ranked from 43 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the theme?
Main loop: regular parenting chores; Meta-loop: Roguelike-ish (emphasis on "ish") for replayability; and some more loops hidden in-game (don't want to spoil it).
(Optional) Please credit all assets you've used
See description for full credits.
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Comments
Really great story. Some of the moments seem unfair, but that's life for you right? You can't make everyone happy (Or can you.....) I like the distinction between the baby and todler phase. I love that you kept it simple in interaction, I think some ASCII visuals could be nice, but I understand why you didn't include them!
And send hugs to both Zelda and Elliot
Thank you very much!
Yeah, I pushing my artist skills to the limit with the single piece of ascii art.
XD
Plenty of choices, with a story that feels whole and satisfying.
Such a great game!
Thank you very much!
:)
For a long time I was thinking to play some text based game but never actually did it. So... Technically this is my first text based game that I ever played and LOVED IT. Didn't expected to be a text based game. You nailed every aspect of it, I had a lot of fun :D. Is it based on you life? Like... The two children that we get on the game... Either way, pretty solid experience. Loved it, Good job :)
Thank you very much; and, yes, it is based on my life!
I am currently in the Chaos part.
XD
Honestly such a lovely change of pace being able to play a text adventure like this! The presentation style along with the music gave such a chill, relaxed vibe, and even though I was quickly running out of vases and stepping in cat vomit, it was still a cosy experience! The dedications were lovely too, congratulations on your new born, and your first jam! <3
Thank you very much!
:)
I actually really wanted to put in some sort of vase counting system that would acknowledge that nobody should have that many vases; but I didn't manage to get to it.
Either that, or some code to randomly swap the item being broken - just something to freshen up the text.
Haha I liked to think the toddler was doing us a favour since we never really liked that vase anyway, even more so if we had a stockpile of ugly vases!
They were inherited from grandma, who was a vase hoarder!
We couldn't get rid them, or sell them, without mum guilt tripping us - but, oops!
The toddler broke them!
XD
What a delightful little game! I'll echo what another comment said of some slight variety would be great, even if it was just a phrase bank that has no tangible effect on the outcome. I lol'ed when "Work on Game Jam" came up -- I'm sure that is personal, given who you dedicated it to, and hope you didn't wake up face-first in too many bowls of cat food during this jam.
Also, I think it's been noted that the husband's happiness doesn't decrease, but I like that metaphor of just helping out bringing him happiness, even if it's cleaning cat vomit :)
Thank you!
Yes, more variety (even in just acknowledgement text prompts) is one of the few things that I definitely want to improve.
I think just cycling, or randomly picking, from different text blurbs about (e.g.) putting on laundry would be a good improvement.
I am also conflicted about changing the husband happiness.
My logic for most of the actions was: "well, I feel better now because my home is less disgusting".
At this point, I'm leaning more towards taking the husband penalty out of the tutorial (because that sets up a false expectation); and taking down his happiness more with random events.
I designed a whole random event system; and then I only put 3 in the game!
XD
Definitely worth the download ! (might be worth uploading as a .zip as the itch app doesn't seem to like the.exe and wouldn't install it in the app)
I really enjoyed it, chapter 3 was for sure utter chaos! This was very fun and felt very polished. Well done on being a parent for the second time AND making a game in the game jam!
Thank you very much for your kind words!
I do hope that when people see the acknowledgements they think "oh, THAT'S why it's a text game".
(When, really, it's because I have no art skills)
XD
Thank you, also, for your patience in downloading it separately when the app didn't work.
I didn't even know Itch had an app!
I only joined for this jam, so I don't have experience with the website.
If I were to guess, I suspect the app probably doesn't like it because the exe is just a wrapper.
The game is written in python and bundled with a copy of the python interpreter (using auto-py-to-exe).
That trick works really well for just running straight on Windows; but it has failed me for getting engagement on literally any other platform in the jam.
Next time: web build!
That is what I thought, but honestly it is a great work around if you struggle with art! I'd say playing to your strength is a good way to make a game for a jam!
To be honest I only realized because Mark uses it when doing the GMTK live! But it makes it much easier to play download only game. I wanted to try playing more of these, because they are very good games in the lot (like yours!) but they get way less traction and view. It not working could also be depending if you ticked the box on your download identifying it as a windows build? I think that maybe the itch app needs to identify that there is a build for your system, otherwise it does not "find" it.
I did the same on my first game jam (which was last month) and realized a web build is a must for visibility!
so the game is looking fun but when you keep playing then it become repeated so fast i would like if it has more dialog and ever action lead to other dialogue tree even if it end up the same but thats makes the player feel enjoying and want to explore more
Running with the greatest graphic processor which is our brain, hook is good. Great work!
Thank you very much!
You got me in the first half!
When I read "greatest graphic processor", I thought "did they comment on the wrong game?" for a split second.
XD
I loved the idea, and I’m fond of text-based games. The story hooked me from the start and quickly turned into a chaos we could control. Very nice work!
Thank you very much!
:)
Such great potential for a text based game, the ideas and trying to balance your happiness with other's happiness each day is a fun idea. Great submission 🙌
Thank you very much!
:)
Wow I didn't think I would have enjoyed a text game that much yet here we are. At first I thought that it was very easy but then it quickly turned into chaos. I love it! The audio is also great. Congrats on being a proud father too! Seeing it was based on your life made my heart warm :DD Good job, it's a great game (now I know why there's a work on the game jam option haha)
Thank you very much!
:)
No visuals, no graphics, yet i was hooked from the beginning and visualized the scenarios in my head. awesome work and congratulations on the new baby.
Thank you very much!
:)
such a cool game! Loved the storytelling elements and NPC are so much awesome! You have the absolute potential to expand this game and make it better in future! Cheers and all the best!
Thank you very much!
:)
Amazing game, I loved it.
The story is really nice, the outcomes are great, NPCs are good as well
I would love for it to have a save feature and even expand the story with more characters.
And some more varying options for different days as well. The dialogue is nicely written and I hope you develop this further or atleast a save feature.
GL
Thank you very much!
:)
To be honest, I don't currently have plans to continue work on this in a major way.
This was sort of just meant to be a throw away game for my first jam.
However, I could make some minor tweaks, like a save function, without too much effort.
You have my absolute respect for references to both Zork and The Stanley Parable. You totally had too much fun writing the input tutorial.
In the first two acts I struggled to keep my wife happy, so I fixed that by apparently making everyone equally unhappy in act 3! I hope Zelda and Elliot see this simulation of the chaos they cause you in your daily life when they grow up! This was very funny, and it was cool to see a text adventure for a change! Also the music was beautiful!
I hope you try out and rate my entry too!
Thank you!
I'm glad someone got both the references (I was worried that Zork would be too old).
Also, yes, the input tutorial was fun to write.
The "this is a game jam with a time limit" was mostly a note to myself to start making the rest of the game.
I seriously thought about making it even longer...
XD
You could always come back after the voting period and add to it! I mean, it's basically another metaphor to what it's like holding a conversation with a kid sometimes, right? ;-P
Ha ha, you have kids, don't you?
Oh no no no, but I've encountered one or two throughout my life so far!
could not play your game as I am not on windows :/ but it looks very interesting!
Haha, yep, I've gotten that a lot.
This was my first jam, and I just looked at the rules that said "must run on Windows" and built for that.
I didn't realise how important web builds are.
Next time I'll definitely make a web build!
no worries there is plenty of players on windows! its just too bad I can't play it :)
Very neat and fun game. I love the calm and relaxing music. I really like the humor especially when picking only playing video games. I do wish it was more than just text but it's not a big deal.
Thank you, I'm glad you liked it!
:)
Yeah, I knew that being text-only would be a bit of an issue (especially in the Art category) - and I totally understand.
They definitely aren't for everyone (or even, most people... <_< ).
What do software or something else did you use to make this?
The game is coded in Python.
A calm and charming game with relaxing music — you could totally turn this into a 2D game!
One issue I had was losing a lot of points for falling asleep at some point in the game that was a bit frustrating, haha.
Thank you, I'm glad you liked it!
:)
I was thinking about turning it into a 2D game just an hour or two ago; but I'm not sure that I will.
Aside from my complete lack of art skills (and time!), I'm not sure it would feel the same...
The sleep collapse is intended to be frustrating to encourage you to sleep (in addition to being true for parenting, it is also a subtle meta-commentary for the community of game devs participating in the jam).
However, it may need some tweaks to balance it properly.
My first (only) playtester during the jam didn't like that it was a total surprise - so I added a warning message the first time you miss sleep.
It seems that might not be enough, and that the event might still be too punishing / feel unfair.
I like this one, it so unique and narrative so good that I will give you 5, love it
Man I love retro style aesthetics, hard to manage a newborn at times apparently haha