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Sinking into Substance's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Theme | #163 | 3.725 | 3.725 |
| Graphics | #177 | 3.600 | 3.600 |
| Overall | #281 | 3.133 | 3.133 |
| Innovation | #296 | 2.925 | 2.925 |
| Audio | #329 | 2.900 | 2.900 |
| Fun | #381 | 2.800 | 2.800 |
| Game Design | #396 | 2.850 | 2.850 |
Ranked from 40 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the theme?
Through the gradual descent of Sean, the protagonist, into the world of drugs and its consequences. As Sean becomes increasingly curious and influenced by external factors, he becomes more entangled in the allure of substances, mirroring a descent into an abyss of addiction and its associated dangers.
Did you write all the code and made all the assets from scratch?
Yes, even the storyline, narrative script and dialogues. (That was a fun task tho)
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Comments
Good job for creating everything from scratch.
A very beautiful and interesting game :)
Great and very interesting take on the theme. I particularly love the art style, great job !
Yay, another visual novel submission! I really liked the art style and the theme. I would only nitpick that the audio of text was a bit annoying and some of the options didn't seem like influenced the story much... But either way, great game!
Super interesting concept and unique take on the theme. I thought the story line was well thought out and contains a lot of important topics that need to be addressed in kids lives, like finding healthy coping mechanisms besides drugs. it was hard choosing some of the options, and I usually don't struggle with making decisions on similar stuff like this. I wish I could have had more control over the choices and outcomes, but I think it was appropriate to show that sometimes it doesn't really matter what you chose, life can take over because life is hard.
Anyway, Great artwork and theming and good job all around.
This is a very interesting take on the theme. It's all very well put together: the graphics, audio and story are very solid! Very impressive work!
There is a surprising amount of content here, the build into dependence is very slow, and at first feels beneficial, interesting design.
I do think your audio effect for dialog needs to be changed or toned down, I had to turn the volume off after a couple of screens.
Art all looks handmade, which is nice as well, makes for a relaxed atmosphere. ;)
It's impressive that you handle to do this in only one week, good job!
Really great game, i really liked the artstyle and the story. Good Job!
Very impressive!
The interpretation of the theme is truly original. This game highlights the fact that it's very easy to make "bad" decisions, even if they seem to be the right ones at the time.
It's a game that leaves no one indifferent, and one that I'll enjoy playing again to make other choices!
Jacqueline is charming!
Wow. I can't believe everything was made from scratch. This is truly amazing. It's such a unique experience and a clever twist on the theme, I love this. The story itself was captivating, and for the most part I felt like I had a lot of agency which is something that is hard to find in a lot of visual novels. The art style was cute, the music was amazing, and the overall atmosphere was very immersive. The only thing this is missing is a couple of technical tweaks, like an option to control text speed and a way to skip dialogue straight to the decisions (I wanted to replay it, but I didn't want to click through all the dialogue again haha). Honestly, this is probably the closest submission I've seen to a full five star rating across the board. Kudos to the team, thanks for the experience.
Played through the whole game and kept my interest. The writing was pretty good!
So, I'm not sure where to rank this on fun, since it's not (at least not in the traditional sense), but I can't imagine it's supposed to be (seriously, how would you make a topic like this "fun"? I swear these categories are too restrictive on experimental/narrative games), so I just gave it 5 stars. Knocked it out of the park in all the other categories too. Only thing I would have changed is toning down the dialogue sounds.
Really nailed the story, though I kinda wish there was a good ending where Sean is able to avoid substances and still achieve some measure of success and address whatever was causing the stress in the first place. And I'm not sure if work done while under the influence of chemicals would actually be good (granted, I don't really research this stuff).
Honestly I could see this being expanded into a much larger story driven game with multiple endings, provided you keep in mind that it's always much easier to say no in a game than it is in real life.
I played the Too cool for School Sean :PReally enjoyed this VN. Music especailly was very immersive! Great job!
I played the Too cool for School Sean :PReally enjoyed this VN. Music especailly was very immersive! Great job!
There has too be some naughty Seans out there! Thanks for the feedback!
Haha damn right!
Cool game from scratch!
Thanks!
Much prettiated! Thanks @VOID!
Super cool! I love both music and graphics, and the dialogues are well written :) Can't wait to continue it! The only thing I would change is the font and maybe the textbox, they could be more unique ;)
Thank you!
You are verymuch right my friend! Will try to work on those features for following updates. Thanks for the feedback @O-Uno
Very nice that everything was made completely from scratch, super impressive and applaud you all for that in such a short amount of time. I appreciated that there was variety in posing and expressions when meeting NPCs, this added to the lived-in feel of the game. I can see a lot of writing and branching was done as well, which takes a lot of effort so, props to you! That said, I'd like to give some feedback on some points that raised some flags for me. I work as a narrative designer, so I'll mainly focus on that angle, with a couple of other things to mention. Spoilers ahead!
- This story deals with substance abuse, mental health, anxiety it seems, stress, peer pressure, overdosing, demise. I feel like it would benefit (and might need) a content warning in the beginning as a lot of those types of games have.
- I think changing the sound effect that is used when clicking through text would be beneficial to the vibe of the game, as it got a little repetitive over the course of a playthrough.
- Overall, I think it's super cool this topic was chosen as we don't talk about it enough; at the same time, I was concerned about the message it was transmitting. No matter how much I tried to be good, I felt forced to do drugs, and it seemed like drugs were the only way of 1) completing my school task 2) getting friends 3) receiving praise from my teacher. If a person doesn't play through till the end, it almost sends the message that this is the way to go. Luckily I think the title kind of nods at the fact that it's leading you down the wrong path.
- Speaking of trying to be good; coming into it, I think the player can obviously tell that the bold and interesting choice is to try new things and follow the counter-culture (aka do drugs, go to the crackhouse), but for the sake of experimentation, I went with the 'good guy' route. It's a strong principle in narrative design that you offer branching dialogues in order to accomplish something 1) supplementary information 2) alternative outcome 3) player agency, and so on. I felt that I was almost always railroaded in the same direction and had no player agency. I chose to not take drugs, but then I was forced to take drugs. I chose to not go to the crackhouse but to call Jackie, but I'm still forced to go to the crackhouse. I refuse drugs at the crackhouse, but I give in anyway. I try to stop Jackie from overdosing, but it has no effect. That's not to say that narrative options can't sometimes lead down the same path or railroad, but here it felt visible to the player and gave me a sense that my choices didn't matter.
Overall, it's a very cool concept, but I think value would be added if you 1) warn the player about the nature of the game on screen as well 2) consider the message of the game and how to convey it delicately in the time you have 3) consider player agency and meaningful choices when you build a narrative :D
Some tools I recommend (in case it's useful) for building these narratives and checking their outcomes: Twine, Inklewriter, Articy, MURAL diagrams, Lucidcharts, etc. Hope this honest comment is well received, I just love games like this and want to see them prosper.
Thank you for the feedback, I think you're right!
Well this comment is not well recieved, it is wonderfully apreciatted!
I think the disclaimer is a must, we dont encourage the use of drugs, thats why we tried to aboid controversy while using "Magic Powder" and "substances" instead of real drug nouns. So Im really happy to read you, as it was the kind of comment I was waiting to confirm myself that I need to add this disclaimer.
Sinking into Substance is a written novel. Due to time restrictions we had to force a one story path. We agree in this point, as it was intended for the developement.
I am really glad me and my team could deriver this project and get this much feedback, it has been the first time I got out the confortzone into a game with backgound and story, not just arcade. It is surprising how much work the narrative and the literary script are.
Thanks again for the feedback @Flo McQ., I will with no doubt check on the resources you provided me! :)
Great game. Creative story and good graphics!
Thank you!
So happy to read the good feedback! @Parado10
Was not expecting this kind of experience!
Things I enjoyed ✔️
Things I would like to possibly see with your title. 🤷♂️
Overall 📓
This was a very memorable story, your team did a fantastic job on this game! You all should be very proud of yourselves! 5/5 Stars across the board! These exact story games are what inspire me to try and spread my own narratives through games, so great job!
Thank you!
Hello @LandonZX it is lovely too read that you enjoyed the game! The team is proud, not even because of the result, but how well we have worked together and the effort done during this week. Thank you so much for your feedback, it is much prettiated!