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Thank you! Just wanted to mention the game is out now :)

Create your own platforms by typing. Explore the ruins of an eerie castle and uncover dark secrets. Solve puzzles to find your way out. Do not fall! Collect items to learn more backstory and coins to... well, it's a secret what the coins are for.

Chapter 1 of Type & Magic is now out, featuring 15 levels and about a third of the overall story. Please play it here.

Awesome, looking forward!

Amazing stuff! I was wondering if this kind of thing would be possible with GDevelop and then stumbled across your project. Any chance you could make the code publicly available?

Very cool! I love how this is basically an interactive videogame history museum, which evokes not just the looks of old games but their difficulty as well. (I did rage quit on the screen to the left of the GBA after repeatedly trying to get over the tall spike and then killing myself against another spike immediately after I finally managed to get past it.)

Just finished playing the game (and then listening to it for a couple more minutes). It is very funny, as the other commenters have said, and the narration goes well with the overall quirky aesthetic.

What I noticed, though, was that I could either focus on the narration OR the gameplay. When I was actually playing, I didn't register much of what was being said; conversely, when I was listening, I couldn't focus on the completing the level. Maybe I'm just bad at multitasking.

I wonder if the experience would feel a bit more holistic (and reflect the title more) if the narrative were more closely integrated with the level design. E.g., you could break down the voice over into smaller parts and use them to introduce the levels, which could be themed accordingly (golf in Ancient Egypt, hammer-golf in the USSR, etc.)

I also felt that, due to seemingly lacking a "par" mechanic, the game was missing a meaningful challenge, since the player not only has an unlimited number of hits, but, unlike actual golf, can attempt them at any time. Maybe this, too, could be addressed by using prerecorded remarks on the player's performance (or e.g., passive aggressive segues) after they beat a level.

Thank you for this! I got emotional playing this little game. Great music and art, both contributing to the overall mood.

My one quibble is that, when I click while text is being displayed one letter at a time, it just starts showing the next line without revealing the current sentence first. That's not how it works in most visual novels, and after playing a few games in the genre, I'd acquired a habit to just click when text is shown at a slower pace than I'm able to read it. Here, due to this instinctive clicking, I ended up missing out on parts of the text. Also, on my first playthrough, when the protagonist decides to get out of bed and look around, I would see the background, but no text in the text box; when I restarted the game, the issue no longer occurred.

Looking forward to more of your work!

Looks nice! (Although I do wish the simulated pixels were of the same size as in an actual DOS or SNES game.) There is a lot of walking involved, which is to be expected in a game about collecting plants in a forest -- but I still wish there was more interactivity: e.g. the ability to examine objects and get some response from the player (the dog, the house, the other plants not used in the quests).

There is also not much of a difficulty progression: the final quest is supposed to be challenging (based on the dialogue), but it's as straightforward as the three before it. Maybe the plant could be obscured behind another one, or, instead of the picture, the book would only contain a textual description of what it looks like, etc.

Also, I was repeatedly trying to collect bogberries instead of blueberries and was getting frustrated that the game was not responding to my attempts to do so. Maybe some text explaining that that's not the right thing would be nice -- or even better, if I could collect them and bring them to the herbalist, who would point out that I brought the wrong thing.

Nice job overall!

Nice and good-looking little game! But when I click on the screen during the transition after completing a level, it skips to the next level (after the one that's actually supposed to follow), and the next one, etc., all the way to the end -- you might want to fix that.

Funny and nicely done! I'd make the game window a bit bigger, but otherwise I liked this a lot.

I really like how simple yet effective the mechanics are. But even more than that, I love the aesthetics of this game, including the randomized backgrounds and the especially the music! The game is a bit too difficult for me, but that’s likely because I’m just not a very good player :)

What a treat of a game! You have a knack for creating puzzles. I liked everything about this little game: the puzzles, the aesthetics, and the simple but fitting storyline.

If I have one quibble, it's again the controls: if the whole gameplay revolves around dragging objects with the mouse, then the restart button should also be clickable and not force the player to switch to the keyboard. But that's a minor point that didn't spoil the enjoyment at all.

It's a really cool concept! The levels are also well-designed, and I like how the player's choices have an effect on the gameplay. I'm not sure about the control scheme, though -- it's just not very intuitive to alternate between the keyboard and the mouse (+numbers for dialogue choices are almost always a bad idea; arrow keys would have been more consistent with the rest of the game). The graphics look like something that could be even nicer with more work (I understand this is a jam entry and there was not much time to spend on the assets). All in all, I enjoyed the experience and hope this can be developed further!

Really cool idea! Looks and sounds great, too!

That said, I cannot for the life of me get even the first chapter to work. I've put together a sequence that, to me, makes all the sense in the world -- but the game insists it's wrong. It's frustrating that there is no way to determine which of the squares is not in its right place (could the wrong element perhaps be highlighted? Or could there be a way to test an unfinished sequence before adding more elements?)

Another minor thing: it would be good to have a way of fast forwarding to the next frame in the chapter in addition to skipping the entire chapter (which is what a left click currently does).

Finally, I wonder if, for the full story, the mechanics would work without spoiling too much of the story? Or is it the point for the player to figure out what happens before they see the complete sequence? I would consider having frames containing key events that are not shown to the player until they have assembled all the elements in a chapter -- and then materialize, say, at the end of it to complete the story arch.

Anyhow, keep up the great work and best of luck!

Really brilliant idea! An interesting twist on mixed reality. I hope no one suffocated while playing this :)

This is a really clever idea! Although I thought the gameplay got somewhat tedius after a while. Maybe that's in part because I have difficulty telling left from right :) Also, seeing as this is in part a text-based game, I'd appreciate some kind of story to go with it.

A simple but elegant story. I initially thought the game mechanics were a bit too straightforward, but I ended up enjoying the game regardless, thanks to the writing and the characters. Keep  up the great work!

Really nice  concept! Really abrupt ending, too:)

I'm really enjoying the visual style and the atmospheric soundtrack. It's also a cool idea to combine breakout mechanics with a hero's journey-type storyline (or any storyline for that matter)!\

My only quibble - at least at this stage of the game (after getting the first crystal) - is that there seems to be little interaction between the story and the mechanics. What does the ball and the blocks symbolize? What are the challenges the protagonist undertakes in the game world? What connects the four locations? If the game knows the answers, I wish it could communicate them more clearly... maybe they will come later in the game, though.

Very well-written, atmospheric, and disturbing (in a good way). I thought the riddle was a bit on the trivial side, but I didn't mind since it was essential to the narrative.

Why did the scholar cross the road? (Also, what happened to the chicken and the turtle?)

Getting to the Other Side is a short jaywalking simulator, which doubles as an interactive version of the "Why did the chicken cross the road" jokes. My friend and I made this game to promote the upcoming International Society for Humor Studies 2018 conference in Tallinn, Estonia - but it is a fun little game in its own right! Give it a go, it shouldn't take more than 10 minutes to complete!

Features:

• Three challenging levels (and one not so challenging)
• Four cute characters to play as
• Fun game mechanic with a new twist for every level
• Original soundtrack