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The Fickle Hands of Fate

Short single-click point and click adventure game · By LostTrainDude

Single-click gameplay and "on-screen stream of consciousness": thoughts and feedback Sticky

A topic by LostTrainDude created Jun 08, 2017 Views: 480 Replies: 6
Viewing posts 1 to 4
Developer (1 edit) (+1)

I first started thinking about this single-click gameplay with on-screen descriptions after watching a gameplay video for STASIS by The Brotherhood Games. They deal with it in a different way, while I tried to use it as a way to display the main character's stream of consciousness while looking at the environment around her.

So this short game is also to be considered as a "test drive" for this kind of idea.

Did you like it? Did it break the immersion? I'm open to feedback!

Loved the idea. And the whole game for that matter!

Developer

Thank you, SPCTR! I'm glad you liked both!

This was massively enjoyable. I loved the little drip-feed style of storytelling, and the massive amount of potential, hidden story hidden behind what we did see. Amazing stuff, even if I did take a while to click what was going on (8 hour road trips will do that to your brain!)

Keep up the fantastic work!

Developer(+1)

Hey! Thanks a million for the great gameplay video! Great stuff with the editing also :D

I enjoyed your fun voice acting as well and, yes: it definitely was a little excerpt of a larger story (which I hope to start to work on soon)!

Thanks a lot again for the shoutout and feedback!

I loved this game! The art style was pleasing, the music suited the feel of the game, the characters immediately showed individual personality, the object descriptions added a lot to the narrative, the scenes were intriguing, and the dialogue and inferred information show that there is a much larger story behind this and dip into it perfectly. All the aspects of this game complimented each other to create a spot-on ambient feel throughout, and the intuitive controls made it possible to jump right into the game and get immersed right away. I've seldom found games in this style, unfortunately (Home and its sequel The Journey Home are both great, and they're similar in style and storytelling fashion but differ in maneuvering and lack descriptions), but it's a fantastic change of pace from the loads of boring, storyless games out there. I'm looking forward to the "larger story" you mentioned in response to MikeyBlighe, good luck!

By the way, where can I find more games like this? I've never found one in quite this style, and I'd love to play others! (Sorry for rambling.)

Developer

Thank you Otil for your kind words!
I really hope to make a full-fledged point and click adventure game out of this, with proper puzzles maybe :P

I don't think I ever played Home and The Journey Home before and I quite enjoyed them (nice variations in the sequel while keeping the whole "interactive novel" approach, which I usually don't really prefer compared to usual point and click adventures), thank you! Very nice stories and characters.

About other games in this style... Uhm... Speaking of indie games, the first that comes to mind could be Precipice, another short adventure that also uses a "description bar", except it is always on-screen (like it was done on Future Wars by Delphine Software, back in 1989) and it is not really used as a "stream of consciousness bar" like I tried in The Fickle Hands of Fate.

Another one could be Among Thorns which is also great, for me. Also worth mentioning are the games by Eight Bit Skyline.

I have worked on my share of point and click adventure games, if you like the genre, like A Night That Wouldn't End, A Landlord's Dream or the Red Dwarf-inspired Fanbots. They are all "jam games", so nothing that will take you too much time to play! :)

If you have a little more money to spend, I would suggest you to consider buying A Night In The Woods, a very interesting, deep and polished game while being very easy to play.

Another one that oozes depth, character and mystery is Kentucky Route Zero. Also I can't wait to get my hands on the full version of The Dream Machine.

Wow, there are plenty of games! :D Sorry for the wall of text!