Thanks for the great feedback so far.
not what I'd hoped for
Sorry.
maybe there's a deep hidden message but all I'm getting so far is that girls are generally vacuous, don't like having to think about things and like pink.. I get that the main character (without character) is 'different' but that's basically what you're saying about all the other females I've encountered right?
I guess the idea here is more along the lines that the 'vacuous' girls represent stereotypical girls (and I admit that I'm maybe misrepresenting some stereotypes here). And as opposed to trying to say anything about these stereotypical girls the game is meant to be more about these stereotypes being forced on the main character.
Played until I reached the tragic conformity ending. Didn't feel particularly satisfying, mostly because the narrative flow of my playthrough was rather flat. Met a few cryptic robots, saw a few neat sights, but it never felt like the game was building to anything. Nor did it feel like the atmosphere was so oppressive that I felt this collapse of self was inevitable.
I agree that I don't really build into any sort of ending; which means that, the conformist ending in particular, comes across as rather abrupt.
I felt I was already taught to dislike the stereotypical vapidity of the "friends" and the gender-norms imposed by the mother by the first or second conversation. Forcing me to sit through it ten to twenty more times every time my exploration was interrupted just made me dislike the developer.
Which is of course a problem with making a game that's intentionally frustrating. It's difficult to direct that frustration where I want it (the gender stereotypes and the characters forcing them on you, rather than me and the game in general), which is something I have probably not done a very good job of.
Played again and got the wasteland exploration ending. This felt a bit more satisfying, mainly because running a straight shot away from home somehow resulted in me being interrupted only once with a slumber party. I guess your intent was for this path to demonstrate unwavering dedication to ditching the gender norms, while taking side roads represents a wandering mind easily open to any form of distraction? Didn't quite work for me if so, because I wanted to explore the world as a distraction from the unsatisfying distraction of the conversations. Regardless of meaning or intent, I totally did not get the correlation between taking side roads and being compelled to return to the house, which made my first playthrough quite irritating.
I definitely drag my point on a bit(understatement) too long.
The player
is meant to want to explore the world as a distraction from the conversations; the idea being that the mother and friends stop the player from doing what they want.
There's not meant to be any correlation between taking side-roads and getting interrupted, really. This, I think, is sort of a result of the combination of a few things. One simply being where I decided to place the ending (I had everything laid out before I went to add the endings), so it's an unfortunate coincidence, of sorts, that the ending is in a straight line from the house.
The other thing lies in how I implemented the interruptions. This is an artifact from the original LD20 jam entry, because I did not change how they were handled, really, when I went back to add endings. The interruptions are random, being more likely to happen the more you have explored. They happen only when you enter a new area, up until the point where the game stops you from exploring further (conformity ending). The idea behind this is that I wanted the interruptions to be unpredictable, in terms of when and where they happened.
I'm thinking now that I should pick a smaller number of interruptions at the start and somehow, slightly randomly, scatter them through the world. The thing here, though, is I still want to keep it unpredictable when you'll be encountered, and I think I want the interruptions to be more frequent the farther you are from home (sort of like they're trying harder to stop you and make you conform the more you explore, or something?).
Giving us some more movement speed (possibly unlocking the ability to run after a while) and cutting down on the resetting roadblocks would be a good way to go, in my humble opinion.
Rather than spontaneously letting the player start running, I'm considering now (along with a lower, more stable number of interruptions) that I could increase the player's movement speed a little each time they're interrupted, so by the end they're going at a full run. Hopefully this would feel more like an increasing desperation to escape, rather than being rewarded for getting interrupted (something I want to avoid).
My criticism: the execution of the theme feels very forced and you don't give the player any interesting decisions to make. I think you could challenge gender stereotypes more effectively by allowing the player to engage more fully with the world you have created. I really felt like I was watching a video. While a lack of control within the context of a game could be seen as a mechanic of the game itself (especially if the game is about the oppressive expectations of society), in the case of your game I think the player may simply get frustrated that he or she can't at least explore the consequences of reacting to the environment.
The idea of having more consequences for interacting with and exploring the environment is good. Among other things it would maybe give the player more incentive to want to continue exploring, despite knowing that they'll eventually get another frustrating interruption. The problem, though, is I'm not quite sure what those consequences would be.
Played until the basement ending.
I've been wondering if the basement ending is too obscure (partially because I think that, of the three, it's the ending that works best for me, despite having no real build into it, just like the other endings). There's not really any cue as to when the basement is open. At the same time though, doing something like visually opening the door would, I think, make it too obvious. I don't really want to make it the obvious ending; I think the intent here is that the conformity ending is the one you'll get if you don't actively look for another.
However! I don't really think the point that's being made here is all that worth making. I really don't like that you play a stereotypical goth girl, trying to be a stereotypical goth girl without any other goth kids or media around to encourage you. People aren't born into random stereotypes. And it generally doesn't strike me that there is anything all that much less trite and boring about being a "goth kid" than being a "popular kid." I really didn't feel like this was challenging gender roles at all (which I felt that it was attempting to do). There are a lot of built-in societal roles for girls (and boys), places to conform and fit in, and one of them is this purple/green miniskirt/leggings + shirt with a broken heart on it + dyed black hair pulled over one eye + dislike of color pink and parents.
I felt like the game was trying to preach a point about how stupid non-goth girls are and I just was really disappointed. I definitely would have appreciated it more if you'd portrayed the main character as a full, real, confused person, instead of as someone who just has already decided which stereotype to fulfill but is surrounded by people who chose a different stereotype.
Oh dear. Not my intent at all.
When I designed the character I think I was just trying to make her a little visually interesting, as well as differentiate her from the other stereotypical girls. It hadn't really occurred to me that, in combination with the player's actions, it would seem as if the girl was just conforming to a different stereotype. I think I had intended for the character to be much more of a blank slate, but I completely failed to do that with her visual appearance. This is quite worrisome though as a possible genesis for a 'one stereotype is better than another' misinterpretation.
Sorry for being harsh.
Nothing to be sorry for.
P.S. People are complaining about the sound but I loved the building buzzing noise. Hurts your ears but does it for a reason!
The music is one thing that's not going to change. I'm actually quite happy with how the soundtrack turned out, which is why there's a download link (though I certainly don't expect everyone else to like it).
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