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A jam submission

DOGSView game page

A narrative driven, psychological-horror sitcom experience - gHosts' Choice at ScreamTV
Submitted by Duck Made Of Wood (@DuckMadeOfWood), hankworx (@hankworx) — 9 hours, 31 minutes before the deadline
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DOGS's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
gHosts' Choice#1n/an/a
Sound Design#53.6323.632
Story#103.0003.000
Aesthetics#143.6323.632
Horror#162.7372.737
Enjoyment (Best Game)#193.0003.000

Ranked from 19 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

Very cool concept and execution!! Loved the design of the characters and the screen room. The dialogue was a bit confusing but felt poetic and like I was watching a stage play. I got ending 6 and appreciated the cheeky commentary at the end hehe
I do wish the game moved a bit faster (especially since I'd like to see the other endings). Perhaps consider giving the player the ability to fast forward the dialogue? but I understand if the pacing was intentional. Overall great work!!

Submitted(+2)

This was incredible! The polish and attention to detail is really top-notch. I'm a big fan of the subtle sprite changes when we're not looking at the screen and how the intensity of on-screen glitchiness increases towards the end. And this was in only a week? Wow! Great job, keep making games like this!

Submitted(+2)

I was a little confused playing the game, but the aesthetics and overall atmosphere were very cool!

Submitted(+2)

Definitely saw what you were going for with it! Makes me wonder about experimenting with lynchian horror myself one day

Developer

We do need more Lynchian horror! I will be looking forward to play your Lynchian game!

Submitted(+2)

Well crafted story in a spooky atmosphere. Surprised to see that there were so many endings. Like how it was a blend of horror and casual.

Submitted(+2)

the voice acting in this is great, the game is unique compared to the rest!

Submitted(+2)

This game was a very unique experience. The game play was pretty unsettling and captivating. As for the story, it was very difficult to keep up with but I as I have read from others and heard from you guys, this was intended. This was an ambitious project and it showed through the fantastic voice acting and 'Lynchian' writing. I believe that if the game play was somehow even more connected to the dialogue it would bolster engagement, though how to do that would be way above me. Awesome job guys, I hope yall continue to make more games like these!!!

Submitted(+2)

Love the Lynch references! I really enjoyed this

Submitted(+2)

This was so confusing at first and I really worried about your mental health during my playthrought. After that I saw a comment talking about rabbits and I understood what you were doing with this game.

It's an interesting approach.

Developer

Not a single day goes by without me being worried about my mental health status.

Developer(+1)

I'M FINE

Submitted(+2)

Very unique experience. Gave it a five star rating would be great if you could do the same :)

Submitted(+2)

Dang, never thought I'd get to be the laugh track in Rabbits! Very interesting stuff, though it did test the limits of my unfortunately short attention span. Regardless, I enjoyed this experience, and you've kind of inspired me to try and adapt some more Lynchian influences into my own work. Excellent job!

Developer(+1)

Thanks! There was a lot of unappealing stuff to the experience that was partially intended in the design, and this project definitely isn't for everyone. And I'd highly recommend incorporating more Lynchian ideas into your games, there's so much to explore.

Submitted(+2)

A very unique experience! I'm still tinkering with it trying to find out all of the different endings.

I still can't seem to find a purpose for zooming in or out, though. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the script and the voice acting. It felt like I was part of an interactive horror play in a theater!

Submitted

I couldn't seem to get the game to really "Start" I'm just stuck at the beginning zooming in and out of the TV.

Might be because I'm running on linux through Wine.  Bummer, I really like your submission back in October and was excited to play through this one.

Developer

It seems to be a known issue with Unity on Wine. The Mouse usually works fine but you may have something going on that interfere with the keyboard input. Are you using any keyboard switching tools such as scim or xneur? Have you tried disabling desktop effects?
I may try to build for Linux specifically after the jam and see how it goes. 

Submitted

Nope, nothing that I can think of. Been working fine with most unity projects but here I can just sit there after hitting start, zoom in and out, and the TV screen never switches from the static.

Submitted(+2)

Man that was creepy! Everything was unsettling, from the dialogue spacing to the poltergeisty flamingo. Just an overall awfully unsettling experience, loved it!

Submitted(+2)

This is very well put together but It did feel more like I was just watching a play.

Host(+3)

Brilliant and fascinating satire of Rabbits that deconstructs the uneasy relationship between the audience, actor, and medium through a surrealistic fever dream. The uncanny, dithered screen, the atmospheric music and the disjointed, disaffected voice acting creates a perfect iteration of its Lynchian inspirations. From what I can tell there was some experimentation with randomisation or generative approaches to the 'shows' which made them feel even more offbeat and unusual. The inclusion of multiple endings oriented around the player as judge reinforce the idea of the characters as puppets in a nightmare play. The writing was excellent for a surrealistic imitation of Rabbits and found a good balance imitating its dismal and routine dialogue with the beats of existential dread. I think in terms of feedback, whilst putting aside the fact some players will not quite understand what this is going for, the relationship between passive and active player roles could have been explored a little more to keep the player involved in the show of Dogs and the outside world. But then again, the game seems to relish in asking who the captive is - the actors awaiting their fate, or the player doomed to laugh and applause on command? 

Thanks for being a part of the Scream TV jam! 

- ryan 

Developer

My hearth just skipped a beat. <3
Thank you so much for these kind words and feedback, they really made my day and the whole experiment worthwhile.  

Developer

D'aw thanks for the kind words Ryan, it seems like you're definitely a part of the small intended target audience for this, and like you picked up everything we were going for :)

Submitted(+2)

Interesting, very art house. I think the story of the game was difficult to follow, but I also think that was the point. I think the sound design in this was spectacular, hearing the dog enter the room and bark behind me was very effective at rising tension, as was the ambient roar that grew in volume.

The voice acting was on point as well, all the actors did stellar.

The mechanics of having to interact the correct way didn't feel particularly engaging, but maybe then that was also intentional? I did like how it played out when I interacted incorrectly or not fast enough.

I agree with Last Minute games that the sections did feel long, but I also feel like it worked to the game's themes, which I think were about feeling confused, lost, uncertain.

Decent game, thanks for your efforts.

Developer

Thanks for the kind words, and yes the voice actors all did incredible work! The mechanics were partially intended to imply you have no free will, and  we got a little overly ambitious with everything. There was an intention to randomize and shorten the monologues, but time constraints happened.

Submitted (1 edit) (+2)

I loved the art style of the game! The lighting, the bloom, and the art were really well done. I did feel as though the game droned on for quite a bit though, it felt like Lady in particular wouldn't stop yapping. It could be that I personally was impatient, but it could have been that they talked quite slow which made conversations last a longer time than they needed to.

Overall though, I really enjoyed the game! It was a cool premise I haven't seen before and honestly would love a full release of a game like this! Great work!

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Thanks for the feedback. The length of the monologues was definitely a topic of discussion during the Jam. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to randomise the monologues as we did for the Acts and so we decided to keep the full version of the voice acting (as the actors did an amazing job) instead of cutting them short. We are definitely going to fix this, randomising the lines in the next patch of the game. We thank you for playing and we are trilled that you liked the game and the format.