[AdvJam2019] [Simon - Yaz] Mon Village est Magique : The Whale of the Infinite Ocean

First topic message reminder :

This is my project for Adventure Jam 2019.
AdvJam official page: http://jams.gamejolt.io/advjam2019
(Please check also the other Icehouse games: Juanjo/PythonBlue (game: Numen), Yves (game: Romanesco), ... )




The story takes place in the world of Mon Village est Magique.
http://www.monvillageestmagique.fr

Characters:
The main characters are Seb (8 years old kid) and his little brother Tommy (5 years old). We can also see Mumutton (the dust bunny), Mom and Dad (the parents of Seb and Tommy), and there will be other NPC (Not Playable Characters) to whom we can talk and interact with.

Places:
There are 2 distinct worlds in this game: the real world (the world where we live, and where Seb and Tommy live), and one of the many Magical Worlds.
The real world will be located in the village of Seb and Tommy in France, Bugundy. It will take place around their house, near the ruins of the castle as usual.
The Magical World will be a small kingdom inspired by fantasy, wizardry, etc.

Story:
Mumutton has disappeared! Seb and Tommy investigate to find him. The track takes them near the well of Magical Water at the pond of their village. Suddenly a breach opens between their world and another world. Mumutton suddenly gets out of the breach, with a very official invitation written by a king! Seb and Tommy are invited to a great spectacle to celebrate the meeting with these people. The kids are named ambassadors. In the new kingdom, the spectacle is amazing, with lots of colors and music, and a giant whale flies through the sky to end the show. The king is very proud. Everything is going well, until the whale escapes into our world! The heros learn that it is a rare animal that normally lives in the Infinite Ocean and shouldn't be held captive. The people of this world had tamed her to entertain the king. And now, she's so large and heavy that she could do some damage in the real world! They're gonna have to send her home and free her! But the king doesn't seem to want to cooperate...

Gameplay:
The game will be a point and click adventure game in 3rd person view, made of 3D characters in 2D environments (like Grim Fandango, The Longest Journey, etc). The player will go through the story (text) and will have to solve a few inventory puzzles (find and use items) and maybe other puzzles (if I have the time and ideas).

Engine:
This project will be developed with Visionaire Studio.

Graphics:
3D characters in 2D (pre-rendered) environments. The graphics will be created in 3dsmax and After Effects.

Music:
This is not decided yet, but I don't have a music composer so it is more likely that the music will be free royalty free music from the internet.
Update: FInally Yaz is joining the team!! We're going to have great music in the game!

Devlog:
You can follow my progress on the game page on Game Jolt, where I post WIP articles and pictures.
https://gamejolt.com/games/mvem_aj2019/418477

I will share some of the in-game screenshots here as soon as I have something playable!
I hope you are interested by my project and that you will want to play it. Don't hesitate to share your thoughts, give ideas, suggestions, etc.
Thanks!

Juanjo has clones, it's not possible otherwise...

Once again, I'm waiting for all your games to come out, to take a look at them.

by the way, a question (to save me time): is there a place (a topic?) that contains links to all your creations?
between YAZ, Juanjo and Simon, there's a lot to do!
and I probably missed a few things:(

Not a lot of things for me : my participation for the fragment GameJam is already sent. I'll not update it. So you can try it if you want, or directly focus on the Adventure Gamejam with only three projects : Simon, Juanjo and Yves ones. And they are really incredible ! I can't wait to play to these little jewels ^_^

Denis, to summarize the recent events:

Fragment Jam
- Yaz: https://yazorius.itch.io/fragments

Adventure Jam
- me: https://gamejolt.com/games/mvem_twotio/418477
- Yves: https://gamejolt.com/games/Romanesco/418647
- Juanjo: https://gamejolt.com/games/Numen/418894

I'm very impressed how much work you all can achieve in so little time..

Hahaha, great image Simon, with the entrance to the icehouse?

And thanks Simon for resume our works in the jams! Hahaha, too much creations at once!

Come on Simon, how are you doing? 7 hours left... you can do it!

I finished and uploaded my game in time! Yeah!!!!!

Huge thanks to Yazorius for the great music! Big up to Juanjo and Yves for participating to #AdvJam2019 too, I can't wait to play your games (just after).

We did a great work in this Adventure Jam this year! Enjoy the result of our great participation/motivation/project incubation.
We are the Icehouse, Community of Indie Creators

Ahah that's super cool, I played and you made a lot lot lot of work in this...I really like the characters, and village /country side mood, with simple people and life unrolling in peacefull place. Like in some japanese anime I saw. I think you did the biggest job for this jam, I'll try Numen to, I guess Juanjo did also a good job in another style.
I still have to get logs and meat somewhere to get further in the demo (and Tommy is so much a "good-for-nothing" one !)

Ahah thanks a lot Yves!!!

I played your game and I loved it too, you also did a huge work, you should be more proud!

I don't think Tommy is a "good for nothing" LOL, I find him very entertaining and brings motivation to Seb!

Regarding the meat:

Spoiler:

And the wood logs:

Spoiler:

You have almost finished the demo!

Great news Simon! I'm very excited to try out you and Yves' games but for some reason I can't access gamejolt. It keeps saying "internal server error". I will check back again later. Congrats on finishing, the Icehouse is alive and strong!

Thanks Josh. I also had several issues of Internal servor error these days. Yves had an issue with his account and had to recreate a new one for Romanesco at the last minute. Game Jolt is far from being very stable. I am actually disapointed by Game Jolt as I thought they used to do better in the past. Is it because there are more and more games? (I mean more and more and more and more = too many!).

Even Adventure Jam seems to suffer of it. When the Jam launched, it was under the lights. It started with 85 entries and the next year 158 games were submitted, which was awesome. But then there has been more and more jams, more and more (small) adventure games in general and the entries have gone from 120 for the third year of AdvJam to 61 for the 4th year, and now 57 this year (with a lot of crappy things which are not even adventure, we have to be honest).

Globally I am happy of what I did for this Jam but I am saturated and tired. There are way too many games and a lack of interest in general. It wasn't like that when I started making games in 2012. Now it is too difficult. I am a bit lost and don't even know what to do, how and why. It is more likely that I will not continue the MVEM game despite the fun I had to make it. I loved to make 3d characters in prerendered retro environments. But it is obvious that I won't be able to make a living from a full version, and that is my biggest pains.

Well I'm tired, that's probably the main reason why I'm writing this. But on the other hand we've put a lot of energy in this game jam, Juanjo and Yves too, and when I see that people cannot even download our project that makes me even more disapointed. I know that it will be fixed soon, but nevertheless it doesn't help. So sad...

Whatever I said this morning (message before) there are some pretty impressive games in this year's Adventure Jam! I would recomment to play An Eternity Reflecting, Killer Frequency and Tea for two among others (and our games of course ^^)

Also regarding Game Jolt, they have made a new update in the message editor, so that might be the reason why there was a server error.

I am also a bit disappointed with Game Jolt - voting is restricted to contestants?
I signed up to Game Jolt, so I could follow you all more closely, but I cannot vote!

I hope to get on with trying the games out properly over this next week.

Oh you're right Roger...

Adventure Jam rules wrote:The Voting Phase

Once the jam has ended, participants are encouraged to play and rate as many entries as possible.

So indeed, we're the only ones who can vote!

Simon, I partially agree with you ...

On the one hand, you are absolutely right about jams in general. Right now there are many jams and the games that are presented sometimes don't have much to do with the theme (but this has always happened), it's very difficult for your game to stand out.

But on the other hand, a jam is a personal challenge, you participate because you want, because you like the theme, because you want to try new things, learn new techniques or improve what you already know. A jam puts you at the limit of your strength and it's at that moment when you really know how far you can go.

Don't expect success, or glory, or a massive interest in your games, that happens very rarely (if ever). So do it for pure pleasure and to learn.

For me, for example, jams are helping me to learn how to program. Every time I'm able to create more complex and sophisticated scripts and it's a way of forcing myself to do it. On many occasions I have thought about leaving a jam when I have been stuck with a programming problem, but I have gone ahead, researching, testing... until I have achieved it. That is priceless. I have done things I didn't know what I could do.

It's true that I always end up exhausted and sometimes dissatisfied with the result, but then I value what I've learned and that's what is important.

Ok, stop Juanjo! Hahaha, sorry, for the size of the message...

And I have not had time to play the game! I will play tonight and I will give you my feedback.

Well said Juanjo! After all, the greatest reward is accomplishment and gained knowledge

Simon, WOW! I just finished it and I can't believe you were able to put so much content in during only 2 weeks. It took me about an hour to finish it and I loved every second of it. All the references to the book are special to me having read it and now actually getting to visit the French countryside to see these places brought to life was magical. The other references and easter eggs were fun too! Yaz's whimsical music was the perfect match for a mischievous adventure. The dialogue's were very entertaining. I love Tommy's reactions and childish excitement! Overall very impressive and very sentimental. Your baby continues to grow! I know you are frustrated with the lack of interest in such a saturated market but you have a love and passion for your work like very few I've ever known! I would love to see you continue this project, I'm already hanging on the edge of my seat wondering what adventure awaits! Thank you for the adventure, it was a perfect ending to a hot summers day!

Thanks guys for your messages and encouragements, it means a lot!

I know you are frustrated with the lack of interest in such a saturated market but you have a love and passion for your work

I think it summarizes all my problem..... I work a lot with passion without expecting much in return, but after so many years I wish I could get a bit of success - not for the glory, I'm not interested - in order to make a living. I'm really in a delicate situation and it's getting worst every year, but on the other hand I don't want to give up. As a result I don't know how to do to continue to make games for this market, I need to find a recipe that interest current players (and usually I don't have the same tastes...). What I know at least for sure is that I can't afford to continue to make 1st-person 2D adventures like ASA for the moment (but I still hope to finish Boïnihi someday).

On the other hand I partially disagree with you Juanjo. Jams are not only a way to put ourselves to the limits. It's also a project incubator. When a game created during a jam is good, it should be under the lights a bit more, people should share their feedback in order to help the developer continue his project. That's how game jams were working initially: teams of devs or students were gathering together, wanting to learn new things and to have fun together, but also with the hope of making something worth to continue if external people were interested. There are several complete games that were started during a jam, and it was only possible because they received some exposure and people asked more of them.

Anyway! It's not what's happening with Adventure Jam this year, so it's useless to discuss. I have to take the decision on my own, so I will be thinking carefully about continuing or not my game. I personally want to continue it, I know there is a lot of potential and it motivates me. The few people who played it also liked what they saw. It is quite positive.

Last night I was able to play and although I could not get to the end I'm very impressed... Simon, Yaz, you have created an experience with an interesting story, with an incredible graphic style, with the perfect music... you can be proud!

An authentic graphic adventure, fun and intriguing, I love it!

Congratulations!

I'm sure the game will finish in the top 10.

---

Regarding my opinion about the jams... it is that, my personal opinion, of course everyone has their opinion and their reasons to participate in a jam and all are valid, the important thing is to create, have fun and be proud of what one make.

Thanks Juanjo for playing!

Yes of course you are right on this point about jams. I was happy to create and had fun.

Well Simon I didn't try your game yet. I will let you know what I think about it.

About the market and make a living with game development.. I guess it's hard to plan it. It happens or not. So it's not something that we should think about. I'm also in a very difficult situation every year and I never know if I will be able to develop the next game.

But I have a great feeling of accomplishment after every project and it's really priceless. On the other hand, I'm always suffering of a post-dev 'minor' nervous breakdown after each project.

Also being a solo dev doesn't really help.
Personnally, I won't rely too much on jams to gain visibility. It worked before but I guess not anymore.

Thank you Ormusto. I also think like you that we should not think too much about the success a project, and that we can only see in the end. That's why I always my previous games with passion, trying to do my best, and that's all. And that is what I will do again probably if I continue MVEM.

Ahah I see what you mean about the post-dev nervous breakdown

Ok I've played the whole demo and it's really good!

What I like the most is the humor you put in it. I'm also really impressed by the amount of work. It took me 30 min to finish the demo. Since you've spent only two weeks to develop it, it's really amazing!

Also I didn't feel bored. The story is very coherent.

Thanks for your feedback Ormusto I saw your comment too on Game Jolt and it was nice from you to take some time to play the game and leave a message. I'm glad you liked the project!

Voting Results

This game was voted on by 16 people and its final ranking is #12 out of 56 games.

Category Rank Score
------------------------------------
Atmosphere #5 3.88
Characterization #11 3.27
Mental Engagement #20 2.72
Emotional Engagement #9 2.93
Lasting Impression #12 3.12
Overall #12 3.18

It could have been better but it's not a bad result!

Congrats!