Trust in Me
A game about trust, friendship, and learning to be better. You play as Zel during a New Years festival. She's somewhat of a loner to her village. Learn about her story by helping her through some tough times.
Controls
- I recommend you play in full screen. :)
- WASD to move
- SPACE to interact
- P (press, tap, or hold) to jump/fly
- CLICK to interact with buttons
Info
Hey all! This is a small game I made for the Emotion & Feelings Jam with the theme "friendship." I wanted to take this time to explore my weird feelings with trusting my friends and telling them my problems with anxiety and depression. I'm not a writer and I'm still trying to process my feelings, so this isn't the best narrative ever. I had fun regardless! I'd like to learn and make more of these games. I hope you enjoy. <3
Feel free to notify me of any bugs and I'll fix them up when I can.
Credits
- Code: April Denise, RPGTalk (Seize Studios)
- Art: April Denise, Kenney Game Assets
- Sounds: Bossa Town by Karate Studios, Fly Away by Jake Dalby, Letter Sounds by RPGTalk (Seize Studios)
Development log
- Update 1 (09/22/2020) : Small fixesSep 23, 2020
Comments
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I felt like the last “choice” is actually not a choice at all — “how can i get close the her if there is a cloud there”, i thought. I am guessing this is totally intentional, because it might match what Zel feels too at that moment.
It was a great story!
Yes, it was intentional. :D I'm glad you saw that. You can still try to make other choices though, but it may not be obvious because 1. we play in the shoes of Zel or 2. I'm not the best game writer haha xD
Regardless, thanks for playing and sharing what you thought! :)
I played this because I really liked your use of the Kenny asset pack in OOPS: Octopus Only Postal Service, which was the most creative design I saw in MizJam1.
You used many of the assets from the same pack, but in a very different way. Great job!
It's quite an ambitious story for such a simple setup but it delivers very well for a Jam Gam.
I enjoyed "Winter" as a character; really sold it as the personal story it seems to be from your Info section. Depression is a personal experience and telling the story as such fits well.
Nice job matching the audio to the mood after the club scene. The choice at the end isn't 100% clear you even have a choice; which is exactly how anxiety and depression presents itself for a lot of people.
It might enhance the atmosphere by using dynamic post-processing throughout to color-shift the game to be more muted when Zel's mood is low, and apply a faint vignette to create a sense of claustrophobia when she's feeling trapped.
If this is new to you and you want a link to a tutorial on how to implement these let me know, I couldn't find a Brackeys one that isn't out of date. The video below though does include what they can do.
Great job overall! Looking forward to your next game.
Nice to see you again!
Yeah, I really like this asset pack. I haven't found many free pixelart packs that have this many tiles and are as versatile.
Winter was fun to make! I had more cameos with her where she'd put more pressure on the player, but couldn't make them in time. It looks like the minimum amount of cameos still conveyed the intention though. :) It's nice to hear you interpreted her as intentioned.
Same goes for the ending. It really straddles the line between clear and unclear, and I'm still trying to figure out how to translate unclear emotions like mental health to clear game instructions. The player can end up missing a lot depending on how they interpret the ending!
I totally forgot Unity had post-processing effects xD. That's such an awesome idea - thanks for the advice.
Overall, thanks for the comment and thanks for playing <3!
Such a cute little story and a lovely art style. I enjoyed the interactions with the villagers and the endings really made me think. It's a sweet little game that has so much potential.
If you had/have more time, I'd suggest refining the conversations with villagers and giving them a little bit more dialogue, help to expand the story of the main character before the inciting incident. Great effort though!
There's a small bug where the character doesn't move to the edge when you return home and a black cloud appears in Lee's place. Also, the controls are a little imprecise when you're flying home. Nothing major though :)
Thanks for playing and commenting!
I had a whole other section of the game planned, but couldn't implement it due to the jam deadline - so cuts had to be made xD. I have very little idea how to cut narrative based games though!
I'm on the fence though whether I want to continue this story through this game, or make a sequel with more expansion and a new event to focus on. I'll think about it >>
Nice catch on the bugs btw. The character not moving towards the end and the finicky movement is definitely spaghetti code working at its best xD. However, the black cloud in front of Lee is intentional. :) It's okay if you though it was a bug - I just need to find ways to make the goals clearer!