DunG03ns [Demo]

Gobelins person here! I saw your game on the page for Press Start 2022.

First, congrats on making a VN/point-and-click game with GBStudio. I’ve played several top-view games made with its default “adventure” framework but they were looking a bit alike, so I started avoiding them at some point.

I expected something like YOU LEFT ME (OK, to be fair I could never fully play it myself due to blocking bugs) but the stats are much more prominent than I expected, much more like individual daily life simulators.

In fact, I worked on one myself and it was full of stats, with a minimal number of interactions, but not much narration going on. So I enjoyed the fact that this is more than abstract resource management. On the counterpart, there are many actions with a lot of overlap, so I do suspect once you nailed it, you can stick to 3 or 4 of them to get the resources where you want to. I eventually lost all my Health but I don’t remember which action makes you recover it, so I’m not sure how I’d be doing better next time. (EDIT: according to Nekoga’s comment, there is only one action that can Heal, I’m surprised Restore Health and visit Doctor wouldn’t)

On the purely functional side:

• I found a bug when choice text is not padding with one space, where the cursor would overlap the first letter of each line and erase it permanently

• after watering the plant twice, it becomes glitchy. I found it was a wanted effect until the text also become glitchy

• after watering the plant and meeting the Crow, I met again: Plant, Crow, Plant! The second time I kept listened to the plant (bad), the 3rd time I watered it again and then it got on a rampage! I’m not sure what to do if I meet it 3 times and only watering seems good. I understand if it’s a situation where you cannot do all good, but I wonder if it’s a bug that I met them repeatedly in the same nightmare, I thought I was stuck in an infinite loop (or maybe the meetings are just random?)

• to advance text quickly you press Z, but some text immediately skip to the next text if you hold Z. As a result, if you hold Z too long, you may miss some text completely. Sometimes you may also press Z too late after the choices appear and select the 1st choice by accident (an option to display all text immediately, or advance text quickly using X instead, would help, but I’m not sure how much GB Studio can do about it)

My game crashed before I could make it far enough to reach the end of the month, but here is a quick guide I made so you can shoot for the long haul.

[Days: Keep track of your days, black X needs shot from bathroom, orange X Doctor visit]

-STATS-

Some you want to keep low, some you want to keep high.

When stats reach their (good) low/high status, you will get bonuses (Bad  statuses can lead to a game end)

Nightmare (nm) lvl:  1-10  :Dysphoria    (low)

                      Hearts:  0-10  :Energy           (high)

                           guts:  0-10  :Mental           (high)

                             cha:  0-10  :Self-Esteem(se)  (high)

                                int:  0-10  :Social           (high)

                        stress:  0-10  :Anxiety          (low)

                           Luck:  0-10  :Love              (high)

CURSE? unknown effect?

-SLEEP CYCLE-

Flower:

-Listen: -1 Cha, +1 stress, +1 nightmare

-Rip: -1 guts, -1 energy, +1 nm

-Give water: -1 guts, -1 energy, -1 int, -1 cha

Eyes:

-Run   -1 guts, -1 stress

-Stare -1 cha, +1 stress, -1 int

-Slit  +1 cha, +1 guts, +1 stress, -1 luck

Twisty guy:

-Restore Health: +1 energy, +1 stress

-Increase Guts:  +1 guts, -1 Cha

-DecreaseStress: -1 stress, -1 luck

Mushroom Skull:

-Jump Water: -1 Health, -1 guts, -1 stress

-Eat Mushroom: -1 Health, -1 Int, +1 Luck

-RequestHelp: -1 Cha, +1 nm, +1 guts

Crow:

-Ask about: -1 stress, -1 nm, -1 guts, -1 Cha

-Feather: +1 CURSE

-Kneel: -1 cha, +1 luck, +1 health, +1 nightmare

Rubber Guy: ?

-AWAKE CYCLE-

-work: -1 energy, +1 mental, -1 stress

-social media: +1 social, -1 mental

-Plants: -1 dysphoria, +1 love, +1 mental

-TV: +1 energy, -1 mental

-Game: +1 energy, -1 mental, -1 anxiety

-cleaning: +1 se, -1 energy, +1 mental

-music: +1 se, -1 energy

-Draw: +1 se, -1 anxiety

-cook: +1 energy, -1 anxiety

-dishes: +1 mental, +1 se

-dress:  -1 dysphoria, +1 se

-Outside 

>Shopping: +1 dysphoria, +1 mental, -1 energy

>Stroll: -1 dysphoria, -1 mental, -1 energy, -1 anxiety

>Friends: -1 energy, -1 mental, +1 social, -1 anxiety

>Doctor: -1 energy, +1 mental, +1 dysphoria, +1 social

-Shower: -1 mental, +1 se

-Brush teeth: -1 mental, +1 se

cool rpg creepy