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(+1)

I was very much hyped to play this game since the menu screen that you posted on Discord :D And I’m not disappointed!


I love the atmosphere, setting, graphic elements (sculptures as avatars of characters? AMAZING!)

You definitely stand out for the fact that there is a lot of plot and story here, which I have missed after checking a dozen games so far. It reads very well. I see potential for a great game here, because the dramatic situation you use is very capacious and you can stuff a lot of interesting threads here (even this short demo could be discussed for long minutes).

Recently, I also had the idea of setting the psychotherapy situation as a frame for the game, but the fortune teller is even better because it allows similar things and at the same time adds mysticism.

One thing I don't know - as a person who has never had any contact with the tarot. Who chooses these 3 cards out of the 7 drawn? The fortune teller or the "client"? From the description I understood that the person who comes for the fortune telling, but then why am I, as a player, pointing them? (I understand that the player takes on the role of a fortune teller, not guests).

Regardless of the above, I see a lot of room here to add a little more "game" to the mix. For now, there is less interactivity in my opinion than it could be. I think "Paper, please" might be some kind of inspiration here. Depending on how we interpret the cards (maybe we have 3 interpretations to choose from for each card?), we will influence the fate of our "clients". Maybe I can somehow convince the character from the demo to start creating a more balanced and open City (lead him on a good path), or maybe I can convince him to take a risky deal that will result in him going to jail. But there should be some indicator than helps me predict what will be outcome of my decisions (it shouldn’t be too much clear, but still).

Anyway, you have to be careful, because there are potentially a lot of plot branching here, so from the very beginning you have to come up with a system of solving them to give the player a sense of "influence" and that his decisions have consequences, but not to make 1000 story paths, what would be really impossible to do for one person. On my profile I have a simple text game called "The run", you can check it, where you can make different decisions that are NOT mutually exclusive. That is, either you follow the storyline "A - make coffee" first, then "B - go to work" or vice versa. Problem with this solution? You have to include in the texts that sometimes the player has not done certain things, and sometimes that he has already done them. If the player chose to made coffee first, then at work you will not give him the dialogue line like: "hell, I could make coffee at home, I'm so sleepy!". Little things, but they build the consistency (or destroy it) of the story.

What I want to say is that your game really gives opportunity to make different plot branches, and therefore create a danger of getting lost in them.

Perhaps it would be interesting to do it as a separate small stories (one for each client) that doesn’t necessarily interact between each other, and then you will able to avoid cumulation of different threads.

Either way, I’m happy you are about to continue that work! I’ll follow your itch page and be happy to test next iterations of your game :)

(1 edit) (+1)

Before I dive into the explanations and answers : Thank you SO much for your feedback, it is waaaay better than I would ever imagine :D  

First of all, you mostly grabbed the "biggest" part of the story and plot but let me explain a little more ( Without spoiling you anything I hope )! 

As I told you on discord, sculptures portraits won't stay (But i found them cool too !) :) 

Telling me that the readibility is good makes me really happy ! I tried to give some thread of "main plot" for the player to follow and to understand better the world that the characters are in in a little time. 

That's a really good idea ! If it is nicely brought into a game, I would definitly play it. 

That's were the demo has its limit. You will now later in the story why 7 cards are choosen randomly then only 3 are picked. For official tarot card reading, it is the fortune teller that draw the cards. In the game, it is normal and wanted that the fact of "who" is drawing the cards stays kinda blurry/uncertain. But what I do not want to happen is that the player think he is the client. So thank you for your feedback on this point !

I see what you mean about interactivity. It is true that a better display of 'how' that card, better than another one will influence. I wanted to do it only by dialogues. For exemple, Daniel asked about his ideas for the future of the company etc. So there are cards which have a stronger influence on him if they are picked ( Thoses influence are only in the code, not at all showned in any manner than reading the description of said cards). So some cards are better picked because they will improve his creativity for exemple, or some because they are linked to his story. So I totally see what you mean about thoses interpretation and I will work on it to permit more the player to know which consequences the choice may have ( positivly, negativly etc.. ) . 

The influence you have on the customers will definitly mold the City and everything around you, even your own story. So yeah, more indicators ! 

There is a lot of story to write, with an enormous branching system to do, I almost thought of everything mostly, like big lines etc but I'm glad you warn me about this, I will take this in concideration. I will go check your game to see, thank you for the advice !  

Thank you again for your advices and you feedback, I appreciate it a lot and I will t ake it in consideration !