itch.io

Playing on Win 10. I keep getting a window that says nw.js and nothing further happens. I have no idea if that’s part of the game or the system/platform it runs on. Does the game still work?

I felt much as Sneksnek did. I also wanted to harvest the crops to donate to the local church, but couldn’t figure out how to harvest them, and I could not find a way to interact with the manure, maybe to grow and donate larger crops or something.

Thank you, Daniverse. I’m glad you enjoyed the game.

That was a fun activity. I couldn’t get the links in the game to work, so I couldn’t submit my chameleon and its friends to the gallery. (My shapes were all animals.) Also, when I got to the question about sharing my gender I wanted an “ambivalent” option. I don’t go out of the way to share my gender, but I don’t hide it, either, and none of the responses seemed appropriate.

Great adaptation. I like the idea of Hammurabi more than the game itself, since it is so dependent on RNG. I’ve always wanted to find a version that requires more strategy than luck.

I tried to play the windows download, but I don’t think the play minigame worked (or maybe it did and it’s a random chance thing rather than skill). A hand with a decrementing circle inside it appeared somewhere in the vicinity of the cat. I couldn’t move it with the keyboard or mouse or interact with it in any way and clicking did nothing. Occasionally the cat would lift its tail, but more often it would crouch and after three hands, the cat was never happy. As far as I know, the rest of the game worked fine. After that, I gave up. Cute art, though.

The description is in English, but the game is in French. Is there a way to change the language in-game? If not, please note in the description that the game is in French.

Cute game. I think I won, but I don’t know what winning is supposed to look like.

Thanks for looking into them, Sai Yaku! If it helps, I played the game through Itch’s launcher on a Windows 10 gaming laptop.

I’m enjoying this game and like others, would love to see Gwen & Lance (I second an inn wedding), Robin & Sparrow, Johan, Idaho, and the royal couple. I also liked the plumber’s family and Neko. I think Elinor should adopt Remus and take him with her.

I was ambivalent about the fairies and did not like Irene or the opera singers. I haven’t played new game + yet.

I think my game is bugged.

First, it’s always Monday. If I go to sleep Monday evening, I will wake Monday evening. If I wait a little while, it becomes Monday morning. If I’m in the plaza, Monday afternoon becomes Monday morning without evening ever happening. As a consequence, rent is due every day, even the day after I paid. As a positive, rent is always $200, even if I miss a few days.

Second, every time I use the online shop (maybe outside it, too; I forgot to check), my money drops to $0 before I have a chance to buy anything. The only way I can use it is to sell, then buy immediately.

Last, I hatched three chicken eggs fine, but when I tried to hatch anymore, my eggs disappeared, but there were no new chickens. The warning that chickens drank all their water sometimes occurs when they still have water, and if they are supposed to lay eggs, after several days I never saw any.

I think the idea of this game is cute, but not being able to save money or pay rent and have it mean anything and having chickens that complain about water when they don’t need it and don’t give me eggs all make this game too difficult to play. I’ll check in a few months if these bugs have been addressed.

I found myself comparing the over-explaining to the Stanley Parable, but unlike in the Stanley Parable, first, the explanations added nothing new to the plot and second, I could not ignore the monologue to continue playing until it was finished. I agree with both commenters above that the game would be improved by either removing the monologues or allowing the player to ignore it without disrupting play. Maybe add a section to the journal where people can access thoughts on each note if they choose?

That’s creative and entertaining. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you, Toast!

It never occurred to me to play Shepherd’s Crook as a murder mystery. I’m curious, were the vultures (or the keepers) behind the killings, trying to solve them, or trying to cover them up?

Seconded. I kept accidentally calming my warriors (Romulans? they appeared too ambivalent about tribbles to be Klingons) and losing the ability to kill tribbles.

I’m enjoying the game and have been thinking about the mechanics for a butterfly sanctuary hack based on it. When I finish writing the hack, do you mind if I post it to Itch?

I enjoyed your document, but the discord link in it didn’t work.

I tried playing Incarnis solo and it worked pretty well. I created three characters/tensions and played three scenes, one for each pair. The included tables were helpful to randomize characters and landmarks.

I have two questions:

1. What is the card layout for landmarks? Are mundane landmarks just landmarks without domains?
2. Does the magical creature’s dwelling landmark behave as a landmark or creature? When the gods interact with the creature, should I be creating a new card?

Good luck, Maarten! As a fellow animal person, I’d love to try your story when you finish it, no matter how long it takes.

I’d think of it as “I tell a story to my sister about something that happened in class. Who does she tell and how does it change based in her (or my) relationship with them? For example, she tells our mom. How would she embellish it and would she make me the hero, sympathetic character, villain? How does it change again when our mom tells someone else?” Except change the point of view to the story itself.

I was thinking of doing something like this with a prophecy. I still might, later. The main question I think I would need to address is what the story’s relationship would be to a spin-off of it: all the different versions of Cinderella, for example.

I hope you figure it out because I want to try it when you’re ready to share.

Thanks, Armandah! I figured it out.

How do I set up community copies for people to download?

Thanks, Misha.

I guess I’m not a typical solo journaler, since very specific questions tend to turn me off more than keep me engaged. I’m also fairly new to solo journaling - it’s one of the hobbies I picked up during COVID.

I prefer open-ended prompts so I can tell a story I feel comfortable telling. “Did you betray someone or did someone betray you?” therefore works much better for me personally than “Who did you betray?”, since my response will probably be “I didn’t betray anyone and have no idea where to go from here.” (My aversion to leading questions may be related to my training as a survey developer; in surveys you want to avoid them.)

I’ve asked a few friends to test it for me and will ask them if they would have liked more leading questions, but they tend to like very specific prompts even less than I do.

I fleshed out rests a bit, but I don't think I addressed your question of tables. I had to fix the awful traits table first, but that's done now.

To answer your earlier question that I missed, I added a prompt or two for each agent - nothing fancy - but prefer the mechanic of the events for generating possible plots. I'm awful at figuring out plots on my own, so this was important to me.

I just uploaded my submission, and I'm new to Itch, but from what I understand, you create the project once, then you can revise it as often as you want. The project links to the game jam, not the individual PDF (or whatever form your game takes).

I'll be revising mine at least one more time before the end of the jam.

Fishoak, these are a bit more specific than I'm looking for, but I might turn "dairy bar owner" into "someone who works in food service or owns a food service establishment". The only one on my own list that I haven't used is "villain". 

If you're interested, my (incomplete) list of keepers is at https://astamm.gitbook.io/shepherd-s-crook/future-keepers

I am aiming for vague archetypes that leave a lot of flexibility for the player. I think "underdog politician" could fit in a couple of my archetypes.

Thanks for your feedback, Rupert.

When I played Artefact, I found the agent questions daunting and too restricting. "How did you help them complete the quest", for example, assumes (1) they completed the quest and (2) you helped (instead of hindering or getting in the way or just looking pretty). I wanted something more open ended so a player could take the game in any direction they'd like, and I wasn't entirely comfortable with the entire "chapter" being based only on a couple prompts that didn't work for me. I also wanted to delve a bit more into the object's thoughts and feelings, and the world in which it exists.

Time of rest is there, but I haven't spent much time on it. I don't use a timer myself, which is why I include statements like "about a minute", so I personally haven't utilized the tables much. The types of rest in Artefact I also find confusing. I'm a huge fan of consistency and of not needing to rely on the book much once you know the basics, and multiple acts with multiple types of keepers and rests overwhelms me easily. I'm willing to revisit it, though, if you think it's important.

(Now I want to write a one-page reference sheet for people who already know how to play. I'll have to think about that when I'm done.)

I'm new to writing solo journaling games and would appreciate some feedback from people more familiar with them than I. I'm still tinkering with my game and expounding on some descriptions, but I have posted a working draft at https://astamm.gitbook.io/shepherd-s-crook/

If you are willing to look through it and give it a try, please let me know what works, what doesn't, and where I could be more clear.

Thank you in advance! 

If anyone else is looking for feedback and willing to share, feel free to post a link to your project here, too.

Your instructions mentioned you'd accept it late. Can I just let you know when I upload it to Itch?

I have a logistical question. I post most of my creative writing on GitHub (most of it is software or programming related). For the purposes of this jam, will you accept something posted on GitHub or do we need to post on Itch? I'd rather take time after the jam to format something in LaTeX to upload to Itch, but I likely won't have time by the deadline. Also, I'm partial to the open source publishing model of "provide a free copy in HTML and charge for print or PDF", so no one is left out. I just want to make sure this will still meet the intention of the game jam.

Related, would it be appropriate/allowed to provide assorted SVG/PDF outlines of possible items for people to draw on or color if they don't feel comfortable drawing the item themselves (a bit like an art class project in school)?

Someone mentioned a recipe; what about a song, legend, prophecy, or breed of plant or animal? 

Would the evolution of a new breed of sheep count, so you'd follow each successive lamb rather than an immortal sheep?

If a song changes over time, then someone digs up the original, which version does the song see as the "true" version?

When a prophecy comes true, does it die? When humans think it has come true, does it feel the same way?

That sounds exactly like my software project at work. Every time it changes hands to a more skilled developer, it grows exponentially more complex (or gets ported to another language), and when there are no skilled developers on staff, it stagnates until a new one is hired. I'd be willing to give it a try if you want a play tester.

I've been playing "Lighthouse at the Edge of the Universe" and was thinking I'd love to create a shepherd variant of that. I think I could modify my idea to be about a shepherd's crook instead, but is that too specific? I have ideas for what could happen to the shepherd's crook (and, tangentially, the sheep) over time, but I have no idea if such a game would interest anyone other than me. (Disclaimer: I used to be a shepherd and have family stories of sheepherding. I have a desk job in a city now and miss the sheep and solitude.)