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Midnight Oil's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Category: Music | #1 | 4.909 | 4.909 |
| Category: Voice Acting | #3 | 4.727 | 4.727 |
| Overall | #15 | 4.659 | 4.659 |
| Category: Cinematography | #19 | 4.477 | 4.477 |
| Visuals | #21 | 4.773 | 4.773 |
| Story | #27 | 4.455 | 4.455 |
Ranked from 45 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Content Warnings
Midnight Oil follows the stories of marginalized rail workers in the early 20th century. Much of the story takes place with the characters playing a game to win back their lives, following a incidentally-depicted storm and train accident. No gore or violence is depicted on-screen, though injuries are discussed or implied. While there are no pejorative terms used in our script, the characters do have frank discussions of the difficulties of marginalized life at that time. This includes topics such as racially-driven policies and laws, slavery, loss of parents, loss of sovereignty, forced cultural assimilation, coerced labor, financial pressure, and blurred self-identity.
Log Line
I sold my soul to the company store, now the reaper wants it back . . .
Team Credits & Cast
Midnight Oil was developed by the FeatherBoy team & friends! Specifically, Benjamin Feinstein was the Project Head (+ sprites, some assets, backgrounds, writing, programming, sfx, and some etc.!), Fluffnight (Tammy) was project manager (+ Writer & Audio Assist), and Kiera Rhodes was the Voice & Casting Director + Manager. Other members of the crew include: Kamaleon70, Programmer | Eli Hersh, Writer and Editor | Fabrice Richaud / Nyx Musicae, Composer | Caleb Feinstein, Backgrounds and CG | Marcus Roman, Title Track Artist | Biz, Dialogue Editor | EdgesSystem, Editor The game's cast features: Shawn Cadieux, as Conall | Jahmal Wray, as James | Allain Armean, as Liam | Anna Gąsecka, as Steffie + Polish Translations | Jackson Zappa and Zoe D. Lee, as DEATH The title and end credits track of the game were written by Benjamin Feinstein and Marcus Roman, sung and performed by Marcus Roman, and produced by Will Gillman. Midnight Oil was created using TyranoBuilder. No AI was used in the creation of this project.
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Comments
This game is so beautiful! Such a nicely work ♥ I loved the concept!
I remember seeing this project during a team recruiting meet on the DevTalk discord and I knew I had to play it just for the idea of the artstyle being inspired by woodcut art (something I've started to learn how to make very recently, had a few small accidents but it's very fun). At this point, all I can say is: Absolute cinema. From the sound to the art, voice acting, everything, congratulations to the entire team! it's an amazing game.
Holy moly, what a game. I'd say it's underrated, but I'm glad it's getting the attention it deserves. Eveything was superbly done, from the art to the presentation and music, and ESPECIALLY the voice acting and story. Trying to figure out who death was impersonating was really fun, i was out there spamming the dialogue history button like the doakes meme, looking for any contradictions or out of character lines.
This could be its own steam release. Incredible work, will replay it!
Sometimes I see games that I cant believe were for a gamejam and this is one of them, very impressive
This 100% deserves all the praise it's getting, it was a great experience, with a perfect match of visuals, writing, and audio style. It really made me nervous to choose, I didn't want to get it wrong!
Fantastic presentation and the randomized culprit has really added wonderful replay value. I'm a big fan!
I looked forward to playing your entry ever since I heard your pitch for it during the meet and greet ^^
The art direction is so beyond cool (huge fan of woodblock prints in general 🙂↕️) and paired amazingly well with the voice acting and work done on the music/sound, I was very immersed
I had a great time looking at the results of your and your team's hard work :O, tysm for making this 🚂✨
ABSOLUTELY AMAZING WORK ON THIS. FROM THE ART DIRECTION TO THE GAME PLAY TO THE WAY THE ENDINGS PLAYED OUT.... THE OPENING WAS PHENOMENAL AND THIS WAS AN AMAZING EXPERIENCE. Justice for Steffie (<- ref from MisterShins' stream)
That was AMAZING and it was such a surreal experience. Absolutely cinematic and peak and I have to go play every other ending now!!!
Ahhhh thank you so much!! It was great sharing the stream with you!!! It means so much hearing your compliments, especially from a team with such an impressive entry in their own right. Merry Spooktober!
FeatherBoy entry!! I was looking forward to this one ever since I saw the recruitment document!!!
I absolutely love the cinematography in this entry, super stylised and goodness the voice cast was superb! There's lot to say but I think the closest thing to my heart is the singing because I really love original music in games.
It's super fun to write some for my own game - Nova's Ship, but also to see it in other jam entries, so shout-out to Benjamin, Marcus and Will because it's not exactly the easiest thing to do in such a short amount of time!
Awesome work and I am, of course, looking forward to more of you and the team's work!
aaaaaaa thank you!!!! It really & truly means so much to hear it! The performers in this one really knocked it out of the park, it was such a joy working with everyone. Especially for more of a departure from our normal style. I'll absolutely be passing it along to the music crew too, they'll be thrilled to hear it 💖
I really really really love the music. This is probably my favorite entry in terms of music. It sets the tone perfectly. I normally don't like vocal barks but the way you did them was well fit in with the dialogue so I kept them on. I did have to start over since I was trapped in the setting screen, though. Maybe that's just the web build. Either way, great setting for a story.