Nolwenn
Cree for Brackeys Game Jam 2022.1 on the theme of "It's not real". I chose to use this theme to illustrate a complicated point of mental illness: the denial of its entourage that does not always consider these diseases as real. In addition to this, the controls, although simple (arrowkeys), will go against what you may have learn until now.
Gameplay :
A simple story with short dialogues to guide you through your adventure, and a simple goal: get Nolwenn to the end of each level.
Beat the levels, puzzle after puzzle, reaching the end plate. Destroy the obstacles that appear as you go along. Or learn to live with them and use them to go further.
Take on the challenge of the controls that will make you think despite their simplicity.
Live the infinite adventure in a world that is getting bigger and bigger.
Story :
A metaphor for the doubts and problems caused by sickness, obstacles will block or slow down Nolwenn on her journey. Those made of stones appear at the loading of a level and you can't interact with them like insoluble problems. Wooden or ceramic obstacles appear as you go along, they can be destroyed if you hit them and represent more temporary but sometimes annoying problems.
Controls :
[arrow] to slide in this direction (careful : as the level increases, the directions will change from one level to another) or hit wooden or ceramic obstacles in this direction
[R] to restart a level (randomly generated at each start)
[Space] to pass dialogue
Credit :
Game Creation & game design -
Kyofa
Graphics -
World by Cainos Chen - https://cainos.itch.io/pixel-art-top-down-basic
Character by aztrakatze - https://aztrakatze.itch.io/top-down-character-pack-4-directions?download
Music -
TheSearch by Jaunter - https://www.auboutdufil.com/index.php?id=574
Fonts -
Rainy Hearts by Camellina - https://www.dafont.com/rainyhearts.font
Alagard by Hewett Tsoi - https://www.dafont.com/hewett-tsoi.d4888
Download
Development log
- Nolwenn v1.0.0Feb 26, 2022
Comments
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A few things to say. 1. Some points in the game depict "depression" poorly. For example, seeing things that aren't there isn't really a common symptom of depression. However, a lot of the points actually did depict depression well such as the voice inside your head and the self doubts. As for the gameplay, I had to stop because I was getting pissed at the game. If this was your intention, you're going about it in the wrong way. If the difficulty boils down to RNG then it's not fun to play. Some of the levels that it game me were impossible, the goal was blocked off by walls. Pair that with the control scheme and level changing every time I restarted. You've got yourself a great concept, I just think that you could make some quality-of-life improvements. Such improvements include the level and control scheme not changing when you restart or have the random controls not hidden so that you're not experimenting and forgetting all the time. Overall, cute game, good message, gameplay could use some polish. All in all I give it a 7/10.
Thank you for your opinion and detailed advice. I know I need to rework the dialogue to get some messages across. And I hope I will be able to set up the replay with the same layout/controll, it seems to me a very relevant suggestion.
But for now, fixing the impossibles levels generation is on top of the to-do.
I think now my fingers have depression, hahaha. it was so confusing at certain point. But i really liked the game
I hope they get over it quickly then, haha. Glad you liked it !