August 23rd-26th 2013 :: Theme: 10 Seconds
Ludum Dare 27 — August 23rd-26th, 2013
[ Results: Top 100 Compo, Jam | Top 25 Categories | View My Entry ]
[ View All 2213 Games (Compo Only, Jam Only) | Warmup ]
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you want to place in the final results, you NEED votes. The easiest way to get votes is by rating other games. Judging lasts for 3 weeks following the end of Ludum Dare. For best effect, rate 20 games as soon as possible. Rating more games is encouraged.
MORE TIPS AND DETAILS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE
My intention with this game was to bring the player into an isolated moment of time. Faced with a morally gray situation, the player will be asked to make a choice. Time will slow and the decision will require perseverance.
Warning: This material may be objectionable to some.
Playable at: http://www.firstcommit.com/games/the-choice
Feedback? @matthewvermaak
Downloads and Links
Ratings
 | Coolness | 100% |
| #45 | Mood | 3.78 |
| #281 | Theme | 3.46 |
| #478 | Innovation | 3.06 |
| #483 | Overall | 3.13 |
| #594 | Audio | 2.47 |
| #836 | Graphics | 2.42 |
| #953 | Humor | 1.44 |
| #1106 | Fun | 2.03 |
Comments
This is why I don't ride in trains and just stay safe in my house all day with the shades down and Jack to keep me company. Well executed idea and nice art for it too. Best use of theme so far for me certainly, and possibly mood too.
Very powerful one! At first I thought I'd have 10 seconds to pick my actions :)
Amazing. My first idea was something like, a game that would highlight how just 10 seconds could change someone's life. I ultimately abandoned that idea because I couldn't figure out how to take that idea and put it into a game. Well, I applaud you for what I couldn't do - this is fantastic. Easily the best game I've played so far!
I am now sad. I think that emotional games are on the rise, and stuff like this (more developed) will be a bright future to the games industry.
Very good story, it's the first "mood game" I see so far and that's very cool :)
A thought-provoking experience, nicely communicated. I'm glad I tried this.
My favorite game so far.
I try to translate the experience I had with your game into words and I can't.
This game clearly shows that 'Fun' is not a measurement every game should be rated under. Of course I didn't have fun playing the game, which doesn't mean I couldn't get something out it.
Thanks.
Would have liked to been able to drive the text myself as I found often myself waiting for it to progress.
Took too long before any decisions were made.
To an extent I felt you foreshadowed things too much. It seemed clear what was going to happen because of the framing at the start.
Interesting capture of a moment, I'd love to see this expanded into a serious of similar moments, maybe even randomly generated/pulled from a pool of them to give a dose of emotion to the player.
It's a pretty morbid affair but altogether a good concept. I appreciate these types of entries.
Wow, very cool idea, excellent job... However, I feel it's pretty much impossible for those events to all occur within 10 seconds haha, but regardless, very good entry.
I kept replaying, and replaying. There had to be a way...
I really don't know what else there is to say, other than how it was so very... Affective.
The music didn't loop quite-right, and the brief cut-out broke immersion a bit, but the story covered for it well.
Good work, and I very much look forward to your future entries!
Enjoyable isn't really the right word, good work nonetheless.
Very grim. Not entirely sure how to rate this for 'fun' :) A good effort at a game that is trying to do something beyond the boundaries though.
Major quibble - the way the audio sample is looped needs work - it doesn't seem to loop smoothly at all. I found this really jarring, especially in a game that is all about the mood created.
Minor quibble - the game only just fit on my monitor and, given what it was doing, didn't seem to run as smoothly as it could have done.
That said, good effort.
Good, but too slow for me. Also, I think it would be nice to have some way after the end to restart the game and not just refreshing the page.
An interesting pace and take on the theme. Enjoyed it!
Interesting game. Kind of sad that the choice I wanted to make was not available, seems like I was forced into a certain ending.
Wow, I think we both went with the same kind of game for this LD! Yours is really beautiful - great job!
Grayscale, choice-based, piano-scored, ten seconds makes all the difference in the world.. this is so familiar..
It has a preditable ending, but otherwise makes you think about what you should do indeed. Too bad there's no option to leave both (or just the mother at one point) and save yourself.
I love the mood of this game. I was too indecisive to save anyone, which might actually be true about me. :)
The greyout graphics set the mood for the game very well.
Great job on this!
Very nice, smooth and well written. Very good mood aswell. Excellent entry
Emotional and thought provoking, well done. It would have been nice if there were sound effects or some kind of visual or color change to accompany the words and choices you made. Amazing atmosphere!
Very unique game. I havent played anything like it so far this jam. Great entry!
Good job.. glad to see more interactive fiction. But I actually stopped for a sec and thought about what choices to make.
I don't want to play it again as it would feel like cheating. The scenario I created is my "truth" so to say.
Nice! I always enjoy new ways of making a text based game
Very deep experience. I waited until the last moment to make a choice, and kinda regret it. Good work, man.
Nice concept. Good Story line, but i think you could give some more options. But nicely done for the 48 hours =)
I played it only once. Truly a great experience. It made me wonder about life and choices, so I think you succeeded in your attempt. A beautiful philosophical game ! There might be some work left on graphics ;)
love the moral questions and the stylized graphics. I like making and playing visual novels, so playing your game was a bright spot for today.
Deep game. Love the graphic style. One of the best story games submitted. I featured it in my Ludum Dare 27 video compilation, if you'd like to check it out :), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GZNeIKxvyg
i played all the possible ways and not one has a happy ending!
i love these decision games!lol
This was such a good concept. I liked it but it was very depressing :(
Damn it. I want to save them both, but I guess some things just aren't meant to be. Pretty good writing. I like your interpretation of the theme: Not 10 seconds in game time, but 10 seconds in real life. It would seem lazy, but executed so well it doesn't.
Also, a lot of: :(
I know what you are going for, but a little to on the nose for me.
I like what you were trying to do here but I was pretty sure I knew how it would go from the start so it didn't have as much of an impact on me. A good direction for the theme though for sure.
Overall the game was well made. It's interesting to make different choices and see what happens. A text-based game is a good idea and suits the story well. There could perhaps be more descriptions of things like the train itself and what the people looked like. Once you've played it once it becomes quite obvious to see what would happen if you made certain choices. The graphics and audio could do with some work in order to match the quality of the dialogue. A great piece of interactive fiction.
Really great mood, the mom being pregnant is a nice touch, great job!
The moral choice is kind of a well-worn topic, but the story is very well-written. (I did catch a typo, though: "begining".) I like how you worked in the ten second theme.
I liked the graphic. The music is pretty good, but I can't help but feel that it didn't match the mood of most of the story.
I'll probably come back to this game to see what happens if I choose differently.
You must sign in to comment.
TEAMS: Teams entering the Jam should pick a single representative to submit your game, or create a team specific account you can share. We currently do not support Team Voting, but sharing an account and together playing and rating games is acceptable.
NOT LOGGED IN?: If you get a message about not being logged in, even though you are, it’s because your web browser cached the non-logged in page. You can fix this by either refreshing your cache or clearing your cache. CTRL+F5 in many browsers. Chrome is a bit more work. Press F12 to enable Developer Mode, then you can right click on the refresh button and select “Empty Cache and Hard Reload”. This option is unavailable if you are not in Developer Mode.
PORTS: Ports to other platforms can be done after the deadline. That said, the sooner you finish your port, the sooner people can play your game, improving your chances of placing in the final results. For best results, provide a Web version of your game, or a Windows version with no dependencies. Also be sure to rate about 20 games to improve your visibility.
MY GAME DOESN’T SHOW UP: If you can’t find your game, it’s usually because the URL to your downloads are missing ‘http://‘. Fix your URLs (http://mysite.com/mygame.zip) and you will show up.
MY GAME CRASHES, IS UNBEATABLE, OR I MADE A TYPO: We allow you to fix crash or win condition bugs after the deadline (in a sense, like “porting” to support more players). We also allow “typo” bugs. I.e. A true that should have been a false, a word that should have been a different word, very tiny changes that you would have caught if you had more sleep. We leave this open to interpretation, but generally speaking your game should be identical to the game you submitted. No new features, just things you messed up last minute. Typos.
Gray like mine, good, good.