Wrote a script to press left and right for me, grabbed me some dinner, sat back, relaxed and started eating.
After playing a lot of games this was a nice sort of break, it has soothing, calming and a simple aesthetic, this game may not have many mechanics but it was a really cool experience relaxing and reading all the text.
Play game
Walk, man.'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Sound | #2 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Mechanics | #18 | 2.867 | 2.867 |
| Overall | #23 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Theme | #26 | 3.333 | 3.333 |
| Fun | #26 | 2.533 | 2.533 |
| Art | #42 | 2.267 | 2.267 |
Ranked from 15 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Comments
Zork is great! And I've always wanted to have a go at making a parser-based game like it! But I don't know that it's quite the direction I see this particular game going. This is more influenced by other Twine games, and most specifically Gareth Damian Martin's Salt. What's going on behind the scenes of something like Zork is much more complicated than what I personally think is necessary for this game.
That said, I totally see what you're saying about this feeling more like an experience than a game. I think what would help would be making what little interactivity is already there (arrow keys to walk, number keys to make choices) more meaningful and one way to do this would definitely be to give the game more plot! I also think if your choices had more effect on the rest of the game (so, choices affected walking, other choices, and the ending), it would add more of that game-yness that seems to be lacking now.
Hopefully all that makes some sort of sense, haha. Really appreciate the feedback; you've given me some things to think about! Thanks for taking the time to play!
I really enjoyed the experience of an abstract interactive story, the simplicity of gameplay made it easy to stay engaged with what was going on.
Great choice of music for the game, maybe if there was some option for the player to choose the music when starting or between some events in the game, it would be a fun bonus in the experience.
Maybe if there was a more explicit pause for the player to decide to interact or not, it would already help the immersion of the story.
To help with one bug fix, when I tried to go to the mall in the third run, the game stopped and reported this bug to me, to solve it I had to reload a few times hahaha, but that didn't ruin the game, I could make other choices in this run and showed me more interesting options.
Congratulations on the innovative idea and very well executed :D
~Nicolas
324 days ago(+1)
Appreciate the feedback and report on the bug (that is super helpful, and is fortunately an easy fix, so thanks so much)!
Choosing between tracks was the original plan, along with some UI that would better sell the whole Walkman thing. Unfortunately, this was all cut due to time. It's being implemented now though! Glad to hear that you think it'd add to the experience; makes me feel like I'm not making pointless additions, haha.
And yeah, with the feedback I'm getting, it seems being able to walk past choices isn't too popular, so I've definitely got to change something with how that works. Still thinking about exactly how I want to approach that. Making the points where choices pop up more explicit seems like a great start. A sound maybe? A little animation? You've got me thinking...
Thanks so much for sticking with it after running into the bug, and just generally taking the time to play and comment!
Really appreciate the in-depth feedback! Text-based games are still around if you know where to look, but they're definitely niche!
You're the second person to mention the rhythm idea, so now I think for sure I ought to look into implementing something like that. I really like your idea about steps taking you farther if you do them in rhythm; that would take care of some of the reasons I chose not to do it as a rhythm game in the first place (alongside just worrying about my ability to finish those systems in time for the jam, haha). Very well may steal that outright.
And I completely agree about needing more events. Throughout my jams I've done this stupid thing where I've built a bunch of systems for a game and leave myself with, like, a single day to add content. Doing that definitely hurt this game. I think it would not only benefit from more events, but also more complicated and meaningful events (e.g. events with more branches, events that have more effect on your actual walk/ending, etc.).
Again, I really appreciate the feedback. Thanks so much for taking the time to play and comment!
326 days ago(+1)
Oh no! Thanks for letting me know. Do you remember what the error said?
I know that I've had some folks encounter this one: "Error: No valid storage adapters found." before, which can show up if you're playing in Incognito or have cookies disabled somewhere.
Yup this got it to work! You should probably put the fix to that in bold at the top of the game description). I think this concept would be really fun if you added in a rhythm element and made the dialogue change based on how you walk. Right now I just quit after I got to the video game store and nothing happened. But I think it has potential to be something quite fun if you continue to explore what mechanics could fit on top of this.
Glad you were able to get it working! I should put that somewhere; it's an issue with Twine and how it does saves, so I've run into it before.
I'd actually considered a rhythm element at one point while working on it actually, but thought both that I might not have time to get it working nicely, and that it might mess with the chill vibe I was going for. Might still be worth pursuing though!
Appreciate the feedback so much, especially after having to stick with it through some issues! Glad you see the potential, although the game is admittedly very simple right now.
Yeah, I was a little back and forth on walking through events, but ended up adding it because I thought it would add to the chill vibe if you could ignore everything if you really wanted to. I can definitely see how it can also be a bit annoying though. Maybe just make it take a bunch of steps to pass them? I don't know, sort of thinking aloud.
Anyway, thanks so much for taking the time to play and leave some feedback! Your comment about playing it like an action game makes me think that a similar idea could work with a more stressful game about soldiers marching, haha. Might be fun to explore.
327 days ago(+1)
I was trying to speak specifically to you with this game, Deep Delta Play, so I'm glad you got the message.
(Haha. Thanks for taking the time to play and comment. Glad you felt spoken to.)
Ha! I don't think it's that big of a problem that you ended up closing your eyes and jamming out, that's exactly the kind of feelings the game was designed to evoke. You'll just walk through the choices anyway, so it doesn't have a big effect on gameplay as long as you were having fun just tapping away. Thanks for taking the time to play!
327 days ago(+1)
Wowee! Really appreciate the feedback and thought!
I can totally understand that this type of game isn't for everyone, especially in this case, when I've made it particularly slow-paced and repetitive, haha. But I'm glad that, despite that, what I was going for came across! This was definitely a bit of an experiment for me; playing around with systems and just seeing if I could make something weird and memorable, even if it isn't for everyone (and is slow-paced and repetitive).
Oh, and you're not entirely wrong about minimal effort if I'm being brutally honest with myself. A leading factor in making this game was that I started out the jam making an entirely different little platformer game where you whipped enemies with a Walkman. Getting from that to this was such a massive leap, that I just couldn't put as much into this as I maybe would've liked to. But yes, I did still throw my everything into it, regardless.
And, yes, the pun is the main point of the game. That's what I really want folks to get from it.
This game is slow-paced and repetitive by design and intention. Dumping a dookie on that is like complaining "pOkÉmOn StIlL hAz Da BaWd GwApHiCs In GoD's YeAr Of 2022" or "tHe CoMbAt In FiNaL fAnTaSy Is SlOw, ArChAiC aNd tEdIoUs". Oh yeah, you use turbo-button for your chess-games too I assume? And yes, the best thing in music is the graphics, durrrr
This field needs more experimenting, this industry needs more people like you! Videogames are not only a form of media but also objectively works of art. Some of the art may be bad, but art regarless! And people like you remind me of that ~ And people like you are needed to make more people remember/realise this!
Based on your description, you have the curiosity and child-like wonder of a designer. As a fellow designer: Candid moment for Kim over here, I'm tearing up. God you are such a wonderful human-being!! Keep tinkering on about with different mechanics, find out what makes them tick! Let "Not-Only But-Also" cook! Nay, I will personally order a subscription for spatulas, incredients, pots and pans right to your doorstep personally!
About the idea of your game changing: You hinted at this in my Dokka's comment section. The crossover is now complete, and now I understand everything. I'm glad that leap happened though! Sometimes the best ideas are born from the fate-iest of leaps ~ <3 Also, it demonstrates your ability to adapt as well as your ability to practically make two games out of thin air IN FIVE DAYS.
Also, correction: "That's what I want people to WALK AWAY with from this experience". Eh, eh? Okay, I'll grab me coat ; w ;
Ps: It would genuinely be an honour to get to work with someone like you in whatever game you may end up hatching in the future ~ That is the Mystery Egg I'd gladly walk miles for :') <3 Unintentional walking-reference to Pokémon GO that I've recently began playing a lot again? Well I'll be ~
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