Play odd predicament
Limbo Line's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Score | #23 | 4.762 | 4.762 |
Ranked from 42 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Log Line
Man a multidimensional support line! What could possibly go wrong? Help Nine uncover what happened to their best friend while healing or harming various callers at the SSL office in Limbo.
Content Warnings
Limbo Line is a psychological horror x dark comedy game. It has the following content warnings:
Bad language
Threatening behaviour
References to self-harm & suicide
References to abortion
Mild sexual references
Depictions of blood
Disturbing sounds
Mild flashing lights
Loss of life
Team Members
The Team
Writer/Creator
Melancholy Marionette - (using Naninovel x Unity)
Sprite Art, Camera Feed Art, Background Art, itchio page Art, UI Art
Lazy Polar Bear
CG Art
LazyCrocodile
Chibi Art
sophrossynes
Additional Art (Posters & Demons)
DestiniDraws
Photos
Clonker Honker (aka My Dad)
OST
Melancholy Marionette
Voice Director
Anthony Rodriguez
The Cast
Niard
Emma K. Blakeslee
Acheros, Deadly Desires Rep01, Hell's Hotline, Dirk the Vampire, Monster Noises
Ron Guan
Nyari, Tabitha, Old Cat Lady, Remi the Reaper
Rebecca Chiara Marano
Kiol (masculine voice option), Romeo the Incubus, Alli the Alligator, Demon
Heath Anderson
Kiol (feminine voice option)
Tarra "Miche" Ward
Tava, Heaven's Hotline, Pookie
Elissa Park
Ubel, Burdened Caller
Anthony Rodriguez
Maddie, Deadly Desires Rep02
Mel Valentine
Troubled Caller, Reiko the Werewolf
Lindsay Marie
Deadly Desires Recorded Message, Gina the Djinn
Krystal Martinez
Lefu, Additional Voices & Effects
Melancholy Marionette
Additional Assets Used (paid & free)
Additional Background Art
Minikle - Edited by Melancholy Marionette
Additional UI Art
Krachware - Edited by Melancholy Marionette
UI SFX
GameDev Market - estudiocafofo
GameDev Market - TomWinandySFX
SFX
freesfx.co.uk
Sidearm Studios
Additional BGM
Lute Sound
Otogoya
GameDev Market ChrisLSound
GameDev Market cyberleaf
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Comments
Well, that was really fun. I couldn't stop getting bad ends, damn, but I really enjoyed this game, I think it may be my favorite one of the jam. Dialogues were really good, voice acting was perfect and I felt like I can do a lot of things, there's like, a lot of choices. All characters were interesting and the art is also pretty cool.
Also, I love Nine, their sense of humor was great, I was just vibing with them.
I did't do all the endings (I got 2 bad endings and the good one) but I wanna access all the files with my new passwords!
SPOILER(?)
Why do I always approach to the wrong characters, oh my God.
Kudos to the writer and voice actors. Limbo Line is awesome!
Glad you think so :3 Thanks so much for taking the time to give it a go!
I'm extremely impressed by the entire package of "Limbo Line" with its theme and execution! This is certainly a rollercoaster of an experience: it got funny moments, anxiety, anguish, mystery, horror, it simply got everything.
The gameplay is comparable to - I merely bring up a popular game example as a reference because I couldn't quite find the name of genre/category but I know it's a staple for VNs that involve management - the daily life events in the "Persona" series. There is a joy to be found of doing mundane tasks to kill time, picking who you want to hang out with, or how to react in a conversation; except here I'm trapped with the uncomfortable feeling of an office job's first day (at a callcentre) and it's even worse when I'm told by my admin that my performance decides my fate of life-and-death! This makes for a unique immersive game premise - nothing about it is relaxing though, so it's an exciting twist on the formula. I already tried to form a plan in my head on how to escape, whereby the suspense ramped up when hints were dropped about Maddie, and I totally felt this as some objective shift of snooping around without looking suspicious.
I played without a walkthrough. Due to the complexity and many choice prompts I could not see everything. I simply followed my gut feeling, and if I hit a dead end, I try the other option. So eventually I've seen a fair number of bad endings until I hit a good ending. From then on I decided I was ready to write this review - although I certainly wish to come back later to see if I can unlock more gallery pictures! (...Still so many Spooktober entries to play)
Art:
- Stylish use of lime & purple in the palette. It makes the game stand out as a sci-fi style office setting. Combined with the clean art of backgrounds and characters, there is a sterile feel to it despite the pleasant pastel colouring.
- The use of UI within UI with the phone, pc, camera directed towards Nine for the main view. Everything looks so slick.
- Cool use of room depth perspective: with Nyari sitting behind Nine and sometimes a colleague appearing next to their side. I skimmed through the game page so I had no idea what Tava looked like and when they approached your booth with their head obscured outside view, it spooked me a little, haha. Sprites are dynamic with multiple poses.
Writing:
- The characters are great, I love them all! Even Niard is likable (I hope this does not count as a praise). You got your colleagues of different personalities that encapsulate the office life. I like the mix of callers and that there are both light-hearted silly problems they call you for and also heavy hitting ones, and you're on the edge not knowing what to expect. The gallery pictures you get when you improved their life situation are cute bonuses.
- I love the natural feeling to the dialogue of the cast. It brings the weight of the game's atmosphere closer to you.
Audio:
- The music is amazing.
- Great voice acting. I like the voice filters for the more alien looking characters. The natural dialogue style is especially enhanced when the voices sounds like real people we could have met on street.
Spoiler:
There were some parts that I found unsettling as I wasn't quite prepared for them, namely these Maddie's files you access. Can't handle weird repetitive sounds very well that play for a long duration, so I had to take a break before I continued on with the game. Couldn't figure out what I should do with these files, and I assumed I was missing hints in this playthrough, so I just played on to see wherever the story took me.
Thank you so much for taking the time check out the game and leave such epic detailed feedback! I feel like what I said in my comment was nowhere near enough now >.< haha.
You also really cheered me up because I happened to see this while I was in a gigantic queue for a theme park ride, and it just really lifted my mood :3
I think the bad ends are probably more exciting than the good ends for the most part anyways, haha. The good ends wound up being somewhat rushed in comparison x3 Plus I do tend to struggle with writing happier endings because I personally prefer the bad ones as a player!
I imagine LPB will be very pleased to read your comments on the colour palette and style because that's exactly what she was going for when she described to me how she wanted things to look/feel! It will never fail to amaze me how I can give her a very basic, probably not particularly helpful description of a character, and then she just works her magic and it comes out awesome! I had nothing to do with the colour palette whatsoever because I knew that she'd come up with something stunning :3
Hehe, Niard would be so pleased to hear you say that x3 And I'm really glad the writing didn't suck since aside from putting everything together and sorta directing assets, that was my main job! Throughout the entire jam, I just felt like I didn't deserve to have such a wonderful team, and that if anything was gonna let the project down, it'd be my writing >.<
And I'm super glad to hear you thought that about the music because I both love and despise creating soundtracks at the same time xD I get so much joy from doing it, but I also feel like it consumes me to the point of insanity, haha. I'm still frustrated that I had to use 3 tracks from asset packs because no matter what I did, I couldn't get the sort of sound I wanted for Niard and Nyari's themes especially!
SPOILERS
Ahh, man, sorry they ended up making you feel like that >.< Was the sound files that you download from Maddie's page that you're talking about? Or the ones that are within the game on the PC inside her folder? Either way, do you think I should edit my warnings somehow to better alert players? I don't want to wind up making anyone feel crappy >.< I just went with 'disturbing sounds' hoping it would cover everything, but I wasn't really sure if it'd do the job!
The Maddie stuff essentially just leads to another ending which is considered a bad ending anyways, so you're not missing out on too much :3
Thank you very much for your detailed reply. You've already been replying to a lot of comments, don't worry about it. :)
This reply is mostly to come back to what I had put under the spoiler tag. It's specifically about the attachment with the singing and the screen blinking. I don't know how long the clip actually took, but I was startled a bit. So I believe I just pressed Window key to get out of the game and turned the volume down, not sure anymore. There are some games I cannot play for this reason, but I know my limits. Anyway I'm doing fine. Your warning is sufficient and I imagine it doesn't make sense to say where these appear as a new player could not understand it either way.
Hi, since Potato has many of the same thoughts that I did, I'm just going to add a little bit more.
First off, this is a gigantic and well-executed effort. I read through what you wrote, and please don't think for a second that you didn't deserve such a great team, because you did. Everyone involved did a fantastic job like Potato mentioned, and putting all of it together is no joke, and to do it so wonderfully at that.
I was blown away with how much content there was to offer, for a Jam Game at that. I loved the the effect used for Niard's voice, and those background transitions were clean.
Similar to how Potato played, I did not use a guide, and I really enjoyed getting to know the characters a lot more. However, (this is probably not your fault) I had some technical issues (prolly because of my potato PC) so the game froze at times and I had glitches with the audio. So I only managed to get a few of the endings, but if I get the chance I'll explore it all.
As I was playing through the game, the only thing I could think about is how much work this entire game entailed, so much so that it made me feel bad about my own skills( I know it's not right to compare and self-deprecate, but I want to be honest😅)
Kudos, and I'm wishing you and the team for the very best for any future projects!
I'm glad to hear you thought similarly to Potato :3 The project certainly did feel like perhaps we had bitten off more than we could chew as the deadline crept closer, haha. As exhausting as it may be, I do enjoy really pushing myself against a deadline though. It's very helpful in allowing me to cope with my mental health, even if it's not really a healthy way to work over too long a period of time x3
Man, I'm over the moon that you enjoyed Niard's voice effects because I still wasn't sure if I was all that happy with what I did even after I finished up with it! And it took me almost an entire day's work just to add the darn things because I was an idiot and thought that maybe I could make something cool by adding 2 layers to the VA's voice >.< I'd already cut all of the individual lines, so I then went and made pitched-up and pitched-down versions, did some reverb and reverse reverb on all of them, then some delay, and then editing the volume was a nightmare afterwards as well! It was just a grind, haha. I had to keep making hot drinks and reassuring myself that I was at least making progress with each completed line, haha.
The issues you encountered probably weren't because of your potato PC x3 cos my PC is relatively decent and there are some weird audio glitches for me too! Some I know why they occur, others I'm just clueless T_T I know that voice lines don't stop playing when you use skip mode and that's because of the weird way that I make several sprite expression changes per line. It sorta prevents me from halting audio because the system thinks that each bit of text after an expression change is a new line, even though it's not, it's just part of the same sentence, and so if I use the stop voice function, it will cut off the VA halfway through a line >.< There has to be around it, I'm just not a particularly competent coder (well, I'm not a coder at all, which is why I'm using Naninovel xD) I could ditch the mid-sentence expression changes to solve the problem easily, but I really like having those in for more movement.
And then there's rewinding, which sometimes breaks audio or even freezes the game completely, which I have no idea how to fix aside from preventing the player from using the rewind feature >.<
And I still have no clue how to fix the nasty bug which occurs due to missing transition material (I don't even know what that means >.<) near the start of the game if you have skip mode active when Acheros leaves Nine with Kiol. That then causes the save function to bug and will crash the game any time the player tries to save. I still can't believe I thought I had fixed that by adding a forced wait to the line, completely forgetting that skip mode ignores wait commands T_T
But I've had other folks say in the past that just reaching a loading screen causes my other Unity games to freeze on their potato laptops, so who knows what other problems there are in the darn thing >.<
To be honest, what you said regarding thinking about how much work a game has entailed while playing through it is exactly what I've been thinking to myself while playing through the Spooktober games cos man, there are so many that you can tell have had countless hours put into them :3 Everyone's worked so hard on their games this year that I'm just blown away!
And heck, as you say, I wind up comparing myself to others and self-deprecating all the time >.< It's kinda hard not to really cos you wanna check out other people's works, but then what happens to me is I just constantly come across stuff that's absolutely incredible, and at the same time I can't help feeling a bit like I suck in comparison >.< but I have to keep reminding myself that everyone's got something to bring to the table :3 I feel like at this point, I'm a sort of Jack of all trades, master of none type (though I can't draw to save my life, so I can only cover art stuff my using pre-existing assets and making basic edits!) I'd rather actually have a solid skill in one area though.
If it makes you feel any better, when I played through Wolfskin's Curse, I couldn't help but think it was pretty much perfect, haha. Everything about it is so polished that it looks like a commercial release that was years in the making rather than a 1-month jam game! I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if you guys won 1st place prize for it because it's just flawless :3
I sure as hell couldn't have put together anything remotely like this without having such an awesome team though! It's such a blessing to be able to work with people on something and have heaps of fun at the same time ^-^
I agree, deadlines can help! Rather than just staring at a wall, so I see what you're saying.
The work for Niard's voice really did show! And I'm sorry to hear that it was such a grueling process for you :(
Ohh I see, yes I do like the mid-sentence expression changes! Hopefully there's a workaround for both in the near future.
Well, at least you're trying and tried your best to fix any bugs! The game is still playable, so it should be alright. Just have to save scum I guess to get everything.
Yeah, the submissions are mind-blowing! I think your reminder is a good one, and it's cool that you're a Jack of All Trades! There's huge merit in that, and it's fun although I do see your point to be more comfortable with one skill. Perhaps writing? I think you that well! unfortunately goes under the radar sometimes with games.
Thanks for the Kind words about our game! And I do feel the same way that I got to meet cool people, have fun, and play so many well-thought out submissions here.
Take care <3
I'm blown away that a game with this much polish came out of a game jam. It's beautiful, the gameplay feels interesting and varied, and the voice acting is stellar. I've only gotten one ending so far, but I'll definitely come back to this one once I've tried out more Spooktober games.
One small thing -- if you use the fast-foward function, all of the voices play at once. I did this with Wishmaker and it was like my computer was possessed.
I'm glad you think it came out that way :3 It certainly wouldn't have done if I attempted to make it on my own because I can't even draw to save my life >.< haha. It's a project that is very reliant on both art assets and voice acting, so I couldn't have done it without my amazing team!
Ahh, man, I haven't done that through Wishmaker but I can imagine it was horrifying xD Sorry about that >.< It's because of the way Nani/Unity works mixed with how I do expressions, haha. Basically, in Nani, there's this thing called the voice map utility, which allows you to drag and drop voice files onto their correct lines and play without having to code them in like you would with SFX. That means you can't stop them as easily either though >.< There's the option to mute voices within the text printers when changing to a different printer, but because I put mid-sentence expression changes into my projects, Nani treats the text after an expression change as a brand new line, which means the voice mute option cuts off before the sentence has actually finished printing if I try to use that.
There has to be another way to both allow me to have my mid-line expression changes + mute voices on each line, but I currently don't know what it is >.< It's definitely something I need to ask about though to see if I can fix all my Unity games!
Thanks so much for taking the time to try it and leave a comment :3
This is one of my favorite entries. I don't even know where to start with this. I played this together with parts of my jam team and everyone loved it as well.
The voice acting and processing is amazing. It really brings the characters to life.
I love how in many scenes you don't go for the standard way of displaying characters but instead work them into the background. Everything just feels so... immediate? It certainly levels up the game's general polish.
Then there's the story. It's hilarious, sad, and intriguing at the same time. There's so much going on. The stories of the different callers are varied, hitting differently each time with some being silly, others being sweet, and some tearing your heart out.
The characters are diversely characterized, each carrying their own distinct personalities. They are so much fun to be around!
And then there's the horror aspect, slowly sneaking its way into the story. It's such an amazing mix of light-hearted fun with more serious aspects beneath.
Also, I can't begin to imagine how you made a game of this size within a month. This is insane.
I have to admit, the ending came a bit sudden (I've reached one ending that wasn't a bad one so far, will check out more after playing other jam games), but it makes total sense considering this is a 1-month project. All this time I kept wondering how you did all of this within a month.
Anyway, if there's anything I'd wish for in this game, it would be for it to be longer. If you ever make a sequel, I'll check it out for sure :)
Thanks for this amazing experience!
Man, I don't know what to say cos you've been so in-depth and said so many lovely things x3 Thanks so much for playing it and taking the time to write up such detailed feedback! It's very much appreciated ^-^
I'm so glad it was well-received because we absolutely worked our asses off, haha. I spent almost an entire day working on Niard's voice effects alone xD It got to the point where I was having to try and psyche myself up to finish, like reassuring myself there wasn't too much more to go because it became quite grueling, haha. It's my own fault for overcomplicating things >.< I just can't help it when it comes to sound design because it's something I really enjoy working on, and if something is missing or doesn't sound right, I can't just ignore it.
LPB and I discussed the possibility of displaying the characters in that sorta camera feed style for sections of the game, and I said to her, I think it'll look really cool, but it's gonna be a hell of a lot of work on the art front >.< It's fine for me to sit there spouting ideas, but they're not always practical to actually create xD I still can't believe she made as many art assets as she did in such a short space of time. I still also kinda feel bad for dragging her and everyone else into my madness >.< haha. I'm sure many people would have told me to get lost! Heck knows how hard it must've been to figure out a practical way of creating those camera feed assets. Because it's one thing to have an idea, but another to actually implement it! I'm no artist, but I just imagine it must've been an absolute headache figuring out the perspective and stuff.
I did wonder if maybe I kinda let the whole project down on the horror front >.< I really wanted to try my hand at writing something non-romantic, since all my other projects have been sorta otome-like. And I really wanted to try bleak comedy x3 but I feel like some of the opportunity for horror got lost along the way, haha. I would have liked it to be scarier/more disturbing than it turned out! And I was very worried that the comedy would wind up not actually being funny, haha.
Looking back, both LPB and I said we don't really know how we managed to put out so much work in one month x3 Our team was pretty big with having 4 artists, and then many of the voice actors doubled up on roles as well to help out. Admittedly, my work ethic is not the most healthy when it comes to game jams >.< I get a little too absorbed and because I don't have a job beyond housework and general chores due to my mental health, focusing on project work for 15+ hours a day is enjoyable for me because it gives me a real sense of purpose! I realise I shouldn't push myself like that, but I bet I'm not the only one who does during jams xD And I do make sure to slow down and take things easier afterwards :3
Yeah, I have to agree with you about the ending! I'd definitely love to have fitted more stuff in there. I was disappointed that I couldn't get more creepy calls done because the ratio was supposed to be about even between comedy calls and creepy calls >.< That kinda went down the pan!
I wouldn't have been able to make anything remotely like this without such a wonderful team though, so I owe them all a hell of a lot :3
Thanks so much again for checking it out and for leaving such detailed feedback!
Hey,
I can't even beging imagining working on sounds in addition to all the other stuff :O
Good thing you kept working on this, it would've been sad if you hadn't finished it! 100% worth psyching yourself up every time!
And I wouldn't worry about the horror elements. Imo the story was great as is. We tried to run at the first chance, just because we wanted to see if there was a cool dead end, and we were not disappointed lol. The comedy ended up being amazing and you still had some horror elements, so I think overall, that worked out :)
I actually started making VNs when I was couch-bound due to physical issues for far too many months and getting into a really dark place mentally, so that whole "working on something single-mindedly for all of your waking hours" sounds spookily familiar.
Anyway, I'm glad you liked the feedback!
Omg, awesome game! Seriously, it blew me away. I loved how you took care of every detail since the beggining, by integrating the warnings in the narrative, to the end, giving a resolution to each call (and the variety of topics on them!).
I loved the story, and how it got creepier bit by bit. Also, the character designs are amazing and I loved how you developed the relationship between them; it felt so real!
As some notes, it took a bit of time to load some parts (might be because I'm using an old computer, so it's more my fault ^^ ') and I think some subtitles might be missing (when calling and in the wishmaker? ). Great job, loved it and I'll make sure to check out more endings and more of your games :3
Thanks so much for playing it :3 I'm glad you had fun ^-^ I couldn't have done it without the whole team! I can't even draw a good stick person myself, haha. And not only did they all work really hard to help bring everything to life, but they were also super supportive with cheering me on :3 Which really helped a lot when I was starting to get incredibly tired towards the end of the jam!
It's probably not your computer because mine's not that old but it's still very slow to load. Especially the part after you choose a voice for Kiol and go into the office! It's because the game has so many assets >.< I could have split the script up into smaller chunks and put in more loading screens instead of having 1 really long wait, but I got a comment in the previous jam I made a game for from some people saying that having multiple load screens caused their laptops to struggle >.< So I thought I should maybe try not to put many in this time.
As for the missing subtitles on the calls and when interacting with Wishmaker and some of the other PC content, that was by choice, but I still feel conflicted about it. I wanted to have those sections without text for extra immersion, but at the same time, it did occur to me that if someone is hard of hearing or if English isn't their native language, the text could be essential in order to get the full meaning of what's going on >.< Ideally, I would have liked to have had an option to ask the player if they want subtitles for the calls or not, so that the player could choose. But there just wasn't enough time left in the jam to add that, sadly :( I will probably add it in an update though because I wouldn't want anyone to miss out on content :3
Thank you so much again for all your kind words!
Aw, that sounds like a dream team and it shows! Honestly, I think you all did amazing :3
Well, I noticed about the loading time and the subtitles but they weren't a big issue, I just mentioned it in case the feedback was helpful ^^
Buy really, The VA did a really good job and I could understand everything very clearly even if I'm not englihs native :) I do think that you are right and it would be nice to give that choice in the future as accesibility is always a good thing to think of, but in the end we do as we can in the time we have and you really did a lot already!
This game is worderful! Everything is so nice, the gameplay, interactivity, UI, voice acting, audio, art, story. And I can't even mention how greatful the story is! Definitly made me cry and curious about everything! The characters! I could hug them and not let them go. It's fantastic! The whole team did a great job.
I'm so glad you think so ^-^ Thanks for taking the time to play through it and leave such a lovely comment! The team definitely worked their asses off, haha. I couldn't have made anything like it without them because for starters, I can't draw to save my life >.<
Incredible game & excellent work! Got 3 bad endings and 1 good one. The writing was amazing and I LOVE Nyari's character and would love to see more of her (DLC?! or maybe she has an ending I didn't discover... :O ) . I really want to go back and see the different endings.
I think having side stories related to the calls is really cute and unique!
The concept and choices made this a very unique experience. The art, story, voice acting, audio implementation, and everything is really polished and on point.
Thanks so much for taking the time to go through it and drop a comment :3
I was kinda hoping to make one of the numbers on the telephone Nyari's number after she gives it to you, but there just wasn't time to add a bunch of extra things like that >.< It's not really an ending as such, but there is a bit of extra content with Nyari if you speak to her on all of the break times :3 I won't say any more than that because spoilers, haha.
It's funny you mention DLC though because Lazy Polar Bear and I were discussing wanting to expand on the game sometime in the future in one way or another, and I suggested maybe making either some kinda DLC or spinoff type thing possible for Valentine's VN Jam since the current version of the game doesn't feature any sort of romance. I just wanted to write something without romance this time around because all my other games have had romance stuff in so far x3
I think it's fine not to feature romance in this title! A Valentine's spinoff would be really cute, though! I'd definitely play.
I'm really impressed with the amount of content in this game for being made in such a short time window!
I'm impressed in general with all the games I've tried so far :3 They're all so different and you can feel the love that's gone into all of them! It's really inspiring to see everyone's ideas.
I do have a tendency to go a bit mad during jams x3 I have a scope problem, haha. And a hell of a lot of free time since I don't actually have a job >.< I honestly don't know how everyone else on the team coped with the workload when they all had other work/study responsibilities x3
yes I agree!!! I haven’t had time to play too many games yet but I’m going to try and go through them this month. Every one I’ve played has been unique!
I’m so glad I did the jam cause it got me inspired to work on my main game ^_^
You and your team did great work!!
Oh my god, what can I say, this game has everything. Beautiful sound design and art, awesome UI, great transitions, an awesome unique story and last but not least the best damn voice acting, like top tier. Maybe Spoilers Below
The ARG components of this were genius, and so much fun, honestly I love fake computers in video games lmao I don't know what it is but they feel so good.
The artists here popped off, I mean, the background are awesome and the sprites are so varied and detailed I was in awe at the amount of content there was here, not just with art as the actual content in terms of story was also massive. Even as someone who's not a fan of anthropomorphism I ended up loving the characters so much. As someone who has a short attention span especially when it comes to text based games this held my interest through everything, enough to make me play multiple times to get different endings. - Clifford
Well, that's officially made my morning x3 Thank you so much for your kind words! I woke up to see that and just felt really honoured to get a comment like that.
I'm a big fan of fake computers in games too, haha. That and the phone were the most anxiety-inducing parts of the game for me because I've never tried to code anything like that before. It was my first attempt at making sorta gameplay elements that weren't just typical visual novel story stuff. I was really worried that I wouldn't be capable of executing the ideas with my limited knowledge >.< But it turned out to be easier than I thought it would be! Largely thanks to LPB's awesome artwork because having such amazing assets made everything quite smooth to implement and a hell of a lot easier to envision.
Everyone worked crazy hard on this, to the point that I feel kinda bad for dragging them into my madness xD Especially LPB, because when I discussed the idea with her, I feel like most artists would have told me to fuck off considering the sheer amount of art assets required, haha. But nope, she was just as up for the challenge as I was!
I mean, I'm unemployed at the moment cos of my crappy mental health >.< So aside from doing housework and such, I can afford to spend 15 hour days working on stuff like this, but the rest of the team all had work/school/college/uni. It's just incredible that they all managed to do as much as they did while having those other commitments. And on top of that, they were so supportive with cheering me on as well :3 I couldn't have wished for a lovelier bunch of people to team up with!
I'm so glad you ended up enjoying it :3 And thank you so much for taking the time to play it!
I reckon your game is still the creepiest one I've played so far, hehe. I kinda wish I had managed to get the same sorta level of disturbing into Limbo Line, but it's not even close compared to The Housemate >.< I just really wanted to try my hand at comedy writing while keeping psychological horror in the mix, but I feel like I probably went too far with the comedy and the horror was a little lost in the end, making it more along the lines of comedy x mystery maybe >.< I tried to make certain moments disturbing, but they just don't have that same oomph that you guys have in yours with those really creepy moments!
Like the lights going out and the superbly timed thunder sfx! And those glitchy, freaky expression changes were just *chef's kiss*, haha. Loved em! You guys have definitely inspired me when it comes to properly creepy horror!
Lmao and thank you for those even kinder words, and don't sell yourself short, personally I think the same as you but opposite in terms of our game, that we might have took the horror a little too far in some places, but I like how lighthearted your game can seem at first, but deeper there's so much there. Like I'm not good at words but like even on the surface level, the idea of running a help line like that gives me so much anxiety and I think it translated so perfectly. Even if you didn't take the horror elements as far as you maybe wanted, I think it blended really well, and possibly made it more unsettling.
I know how mental health can be and I'm glad that you are choosing to make VN's despite that because this was something special. Personally I spent too much time on this and ignored many assignments the past few weeks (Probably wouldn't have done them anyway) But like you our team popped off, our artist and writer really stunned every day we were developing this.
It also makes me feel so good to hear you talk about things like the sprite flickering and the eye on the title page since even after I finished I struggle with accepting that the things I helped make are good or whether I contributed enough considering the quality our artist put out. I am so glad people are playing our game and saying nice things especially since our game had a pretty big bug on launch that also only effected some computers which was infuriating. And of course it was due to dumb programming on my part. But your response helped me deal with the guilt that we released a initially flawed product, and that the judges may or may not be able to play it. Not to mention I think the day you posted that I just took an exam that I might've failed.
Anyway I don't know why I am talking o much here, bu thank you so much for making your game but also liking our game :P
Nah, you can never take horror too far x3 at least not for me anyhow, haha. I really loved how creepy The Housemate was, and while I still haven't played even half of the jam's games yet, it remains the most disturbing one I've tried so far! Don't get me wrong, I adore all kinds of horror, so all the cute, quirky, funny stuff is still super enjoyable, but I do like to be genuinely freaked out by horror, and so far, your game is the only one still that's made me feel legitimately unsettled (in the best possible way!)
Yeah, I definitely couldn't work at a helpline myself x3 I'd love to help folks, but my anxiety prevents me from using the phone most of the time, even when I really need to >.<
I'm sure some assignments and such must've been put off for a few folks on our team too, haha. I did say a couple of times to everyone to make sure to put that stuff first cos the jam is just for fun x3 But I know it's hard when you wanna be working on something. I get super absorbed in jams and can't stop, haha. I find it helps heaps with depression and stuff though, having something to really dedicate all my time to because it gives me a purpose and doesn't give my brain a chance to pause and think about negative stuff!
Oh, hell yes, things like that eye on the title screen and the flickering sprites are the icing on the cake! I'm an absolute sucker for details x3 Anything like that gets me super excited, haha.
That really sucks about the bug though >.< and I sort of know how you feel because there was a bug in ours that I thought I had fixed, well, I had fixed it, but then one or two people I know who tried it out managed to find a way to bypass my fix xD There's basically this weird Unity bug I ran into and couldn't properly solve because upon searching online, others who encountered it just got told along the lines of “Unity must be borked. That shouldn't be happening unless you deleted it yourself.” And no fix suggestions were offered >.< It was to do with a transition material trying to be accessed once it had been deleted or something. Well, like the other folks posting about it, I hadn't deleted anything like that either. It was just something that randomly started happening on this one line of code that was no different from any other line where I was making a character exit. The bug in question meant that if you scrolled through that one line of text too quickly, something in the shadows would break. The game would continue as normal, and you would be unaware anything had gone wrong, until you try to save. Saving after the bug would just basically crash the game.
My fix involved putting in a wait command so that players physically couldn't scroll through the line in question too quickly, therefore preventing the bug from occurring in the first place. Problem solved. Or so I thought >.<
I didn't take into account the fact that the skip text function ignores wait commands T_T So when a player has skip text active while passing over that line, it jumps my wait fix and breaks the save function >.>
I guess it's not too major because it's near the beginning of the game and completely avoidable provided you're not using the skip function, but still incredibly annoying when I spent ages researching the issue and thought I'd finally found a way to stop it from happening!
I'm not a programmer though, so things like that do my head in, haha. It's very difficult for me to figure out a fix when stuff goes wrong.
If the bug you guys had only affected some computers though, I'm sure at least some of the judges would be able to play :3 And hey ya never know, you might've aced the exam! I've thought I've failed exams in the past only to find out I did just fine in the end :D
I'm sorry for rambling right back at ya anyhow x3 But I always look at jams as a fun sorta learning experience :3 I seem to learn a lot more when I participate in these things, and they're always a blast! It's really nice to get to interact with such an awesome community too! I mean, I know we have the discord server and I do lurk there, but with my anxiety, I don't like to type much there, haha.