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Observer and the Observed's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Most Compelling Narrative | #1 | 4.750 | 4.750 |
| Best Use of Ludonarrative | #1 | 4.250 | 4.250 |
| Overall | #1 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Most Compelling Character | #2 | 4.500 | 4.500 |
| Best Use of the (optional) Theme | #6 | 2.500 | 2.500 |
Ranked from 4 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
So, surface level compliments come first for me. The polish on this is wonderful for something made in so little time. Every little room has so much detail packed in and feels like a proper place. The VHS filter does a great job of making everything feel more vague and unsettling. And the animation... *mwah.* Just beautiful. I love how much life is in this guy's walk.
You also did a great job of creating atmosphere. The music choices are good, and some of those journeys of walking right got much more intense than I expected.
As for the storytelling, it does a great job grabbing you and pulling you in. The idea of moving through this guy's life is very clear, as well as that impending sense of doom towards the end becoming more and more menacing as the environment decays more and more. Then you get to the end, and you see... that the end is the end as predicted, but with someone who wasn't quite accounted for! I initially thought the implication was that the guy was dreaming of his own death right before it was about to happen and that teddy bear from the dream was going to be the one to kill him, but reading the others' responses and about your inspiration for this game made me realize that I may be coming up with an... unintended narrative here. Regardless, you evoke the emotions of the narrative really darn well. Good work overall!
[EDIT: Silly me, I almost forgot to acknowledge the fun little cameos of the other participants! I thought I was seeing things at first, but then I realized I wasn't. I'm charmed by the gesture! You did the lil robot man on my Discord pic justice. :> ]
Looking back at it, I can see how the teddy can be menacing. My reason for its inclusion at the end is two fold. For one, I was using it only in scenes where the protagonist wasn't depressed. Secondly, I usually end all of my games on something "satisfying" as a reward for the player completing it. I thought the camera zoom + sound progression at the end would do, but with more time I would have liked to put in some particles and perhaps fix the whiplash transition to the ending scene.
Your narrative with the teddy being the killer is intriguing. I think it's the nature of this textless jam that all of the games have epic unintended interpretations.
It's admittedly partially on me; the depression storyline went completely over my head, as narratives like that sometimes do. Your actual intention for it makes a lot of sense, though. You pull off the symbolism pretty well, especially with how noticeable the bear is without being pushed in your face. It's just that I did a me and made a weird explanation in my head.
I think you're spot on with the nature of the jam having caused a lot of different interpretations. The vague style of information that resulted from so many creators who use text for narrative so strongly having to rely so much less on it. I don't think there was a single game submitted where there's a true consensus on what's being presented. It is honestly super interesting.
(Yooo! The opening "Ludum Dare 32 - Track 5" is in my game ROSA! Song buddies! :D)
Super SUPER well-made. The idea behind this is really intriguing. At first I thought the deteriorating environment was literal, but it started to make sense when the main character returned home. I liked the teddy bear as a symbol of innocence and hope. I also loved all the little details sprinkled throughout that convey both story and atmosphere. (Though I have to ask - why is SquishypuffDave in this game? XD EDIT: Oh my gosh, I can't believe I noticed SquishypuffDave but not myself XDDD It's an honour! Thanks!)
As for the reveal, I'm not sure it recontextualizes everything that came before because there's not much story prior to watching the tapes. Or at least, there doesn't seem to be. Why does the main character go to the house? Does he know he's going to do what he does in the tape, or is at least considering it? Or is the tape an unexpected wake-up call on where his life is going? Both those things are probably difficult to convey in such a short game, espcially when you need to focus on the main events. In any case, it definitely works as a reveal for both the main character and the player, whether it be literal or metaphorical.
The only real issue I saw is that there doesn't seem to be a way to exit the Windows version at the end. (Also if I knew my thumbnail would be front and centre, I might have spent more time on it XD Thanks for promoting us all though!)
Excellent job!
So the house, and in extension the tape, is a parallel to the flashback phenomenon before death. Chronologically, the events of the game are: the man grows up -> he was on the verge of death -> in that split second he experienced the house and got to watch his entire life up to that point -> he wakes up and discovered he's still alive. I also understand that, from what is presented, it's not clear as to why the man was hopeful at the end. Truthfully, I just wanted to leave the story on a somewhat uplifting note (this decision happened after someone pointed out that they've only been telling grim stories in the discord). You can probably make the argument that the things he saw in the tape, especially prior to the office scenes, would have convinced him that there's more in life, but that's not hinted at in the actual game.
Wah oh! That was me; I said that thing about only telling grim stories. Or at least I was one of the people who did. Apologies if that made you uncomfortable with whatever ending you had in mind before!
Your comment actually inspired me to end on a higher note. I was going to end on the protagonist dying, which happened in some of the chapters of the manga, but decided against it. I recall Dylan also saying something about why stories shouldn't just be depressing for depressing's sake, and I thought I hadn't shown enough of his life before the incident (or at least the happy things about it) to warrant ending the story in such a manner.
That makes sense! Depressing is something that, like a lot of elements of a work, should be applied responsibly. I do think that keeping some element pertaining to the protag's passing would have made some sense, though; he was watching a tape of his entire life, or at least that's what I thought based on your inspiration.
From the angle of him finding reason to keep on trucking in form of the bear, I suppose that bear showing up in real life but not the tape is him trying to go against the downer fate set before him and instead make improvements in his life... much like how you decided to make a less downer ending and instead go for something less excessively upsetting.
I loved it. What else is there to say? Incredible use of shaders, the story completely pulled me in, and the anagnorisis hit hard. For a game that's nearly all just "walk to the right", it somehow used that mechanic to communicate all sorts of ideas. Slowing his movement in the office scenes was a clever move; since my objective is to get to the door and I have no other ways of interacting with the world, I get a tactile sense of the frustration and hopelessness he's enduring.
I'm really glad you like my slowing down the movement. Time was tight and can't work in more content, but I can always change a floating point value so I went with that.