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AfterParty's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Creativity | #15 | 4.025 | 4.500 |
| Presentation | #36 | 2.821 | 3.154 |
| Implementation of Theme | #38 | 2.511 | 2.808 |
| Story | #44 | 1.995 | 2.231 |
Ranked from 26 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
What is the name of your wolf/wolfess/wolves?
Eddy, Sarah, Francis, Death
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This was cool to read through! I wasn't expecting the gameplay at all and it was neat!
Although main issue I had with it is that the story that you made to go along with it didn't hold up imo. I liked the concept a lot, but I felt as if instead of having the game part after you finish the interaction with one character you allowed the player to go talk with everybody and then have the chase sequence. I think it would allow the player to fully understand each character before deciding on what route to take. And they each are very lenient in their jobs, having 1-2 conversations with the MC before saying, "I like you, so I shall spare you". Maybe if there was some backstory between them and the MC it would be a bit better, but that's just an opinion of mine.
There was also a lot of grammar mistakes throughout the story that I paused at trying to understand what they were talking about. And I think there is an issue because I finished the conqueror and the warmonger paths and I just couldn't find the famine, no matter what I did.
This was really cool though! I feel like with a bit of polish this could be a very good vn! Especially with the gameplay element! Great job!
I do like your suggestions, and it all really boils down into how the writing is so so underbaked it's not that interesting, because I focused so much on the gameplay, I am curious where the grammar mistakes are if you are able to provide them so I can clean those up on an update, also I'm quite surprised that you're the only one with the opposite issue from Famine, everyone else had themselves in an encounter loop because they kept hitting the locust swarms and the infestation counter not going down.
Yeah, I seemed to have a problem with the infestation counter never getting high enough to spawn them. I was seeing the locust swarms though, I just never encountered the famine themselves.
I can reread through the story and put what I've found on a list or something if you would like? If not I can just put them in a list on here.
If it's ok with you sure! Maybe have the list here instead because I dunno where else I'd maybe see the list
Alright, here's the list (I am going line by line in the code.):
OK, I'm finally done with it. Granted some of this may be wrong and there might also be some other mistakes that I missed. Also, I didn't mention it on here, it's fine to use contractions (unless you weren't using them to make them have a certain voice.). Also I found the character thoughts at the end of the story file pretty funny lol. I hope this helps! And sorry this took so long.
Oh my goodness this is a lot... Thank you very much 😭😭😭
You're welcome! I hope this doesn't discourage you at all though. I think it's absolutely fine to have mistakes like this, and it's just a part of beginning as a new writer!
I tend to struggle with these types of games, so I caught what I could of the stream. What you were able to achieve is technically impressive for Ren'Py, and far above my understanding or capabilities. I appreciate you using our sprites as well... I always love seeing what everyone comes up with, whether they use the jam provided sprites or not, but I enjoy watching how they can be adapted in such unique ways. I would love to see how you can build on this and polish and refine the gameplay and assets in the future, and hope to see more in the future.
So like, this is a really cool idea. I love how you took the 4 wolves and turned them into enemies, making a game out of their horseman powers. It's always impressive to see this kind of game constructed within Ren'Py. But honestly, I found myself confused by the gameplay, and frankly not invested enough to really figure it out. The story at the beginning was kinda weak, brought down by some awkward writing and cheesy jokes that killed any semblance of intrigue the story could have had. The enemies were also pretty tough to shake off, leading into a lot of loops where I got stuck back and forth between enemies for a while. I did manage to find some items and appease some wolves, which I actually found satisfying. It's neat that you can convince these bloodthirsty monsters to chill out with some wine or a nice book or whatever. But then I got nuked by the conqueror and like, I don't really want to go through that game again. Sorry. It's a cool idea, but the gameplay definitely needs to be made more intuitive and less punishing.
That sure was a wild experience. The whole project is very ambitious, I just wish the narration wasn’t “drowned” by the gameplay. I’m curious how things will look once you finish polishing the game.
'After Party' is a fun little adventure point and click game that gets to use all the community wolves. It's always impressive when a gam is crafted within the confines of Ren'py. This one's about trying to avoid the different gods of death when you're in limbo, by playing keep away while trying to find items to stave them off. The controls are a little bit clunky, and so are the rules of how to avoid 4 different spirits in a fairly small space. I feel this was something that was dreamt up as something you'd experience in a 3D environment, like many a horror survival game, but trying to translate it into point and click with 2D assets pushes the limits of what can be achieved and still provide an enjoyable experience for a general player base.
The story has an element of a murder mystery, in trying to find out how you died and who killed you, but also an element of introspection about not 'working yourself to death'. The conversations with the different wolves were fun, and it is nice that they all have distinct personalities that are reflected in their game play behaviors. Though, as a result, the story is in a way very sitcom-like, so the reward for beating the game is the satisfaction of beating the game than any kind of emotional resolution to the story.
It's very ambitious to try and craft 20+ separate backgrounds for an exploration game like this which is why I can understand leaving them in a sketch state, though adding a bit more sketch color just to have orient the player would be helpful, since it's all blue lines on a black screen. The UI was pretty well done, effectively communicating what actions the player has. Game play-wise, maybe having one wolf follow you at a time might make things a bit less chaotic, so when you stun/ghost one, the next one in the line up starts to chase you.
Overall, it's a very creative approach to the theme 'light in the dark', though having the exploration be a 'flashlight' in the 'dark house' doesn't feel like it's integrated into the overall experience, just the aesthetic since I don't think it's part of the game mechanics either. Overall, it's a fun game to try out and I applaud the effort that goes into crafting all the mechanics.
They're coming to get you, Barbara...
Don't have much to say about this one. I watched a stream of this on the FVN server, and it looked pretty interesting. The writing's pretty simple, although it didn't catch my eye that much. The main draw of this VN is definitely the gameplay. It certainly looks like there was a lot of thought put into it, and there are a bunch of neat ideas put into it, but it's definitely unpolished. The ideas that are there are good, but it feels a little underbaked at the moment. Something to consider developing more.
A wild ride, a creative way to use the jam assets, and certainly a success in implementing gameplay mechanics in Ren'py such that it all feels pretty natural and intuitive. The biggest caveats are the presentation being obviously unfinished and the narrative conceit remaining a little abstract – the tone and the exposition are sort of all over the place in a way that makes the stakes a bit difficult to grasp. How undercooked the setup is definitely weakens the gameplay segment, even if it's still fun to go through.
Some further thoughts and nitpicks about that: keeping your items after you die is a good anti-frustration feature, though it means there are no big penalties to speak of. I took so many accidental screenshots while trying to navigate south with S (still bound to Ren'py's screenshot button). The free-roam level is definitely a cool feature, although there are some UX papercuts with the minimap – opening and closing it should really work with the same hotkey, and the indicator for which room you're currently is too subtle (could just have used a different color). Also, items appear to be scattered more or less randomly throughout the map, which feels less satisfying than there being clear thematic links. The game misses out on having a gameplay loop that motivates the player like "I need item X, I wonder if that could be in room Y". I do think the game mechanics support the nonlinear story with many different endings very well, though.
All in all, some messiness in the implementation aside, it's still a creative entry very much worth checking out.
I had a different idea for the item search, but thought it would take longer so I had to resort to using randomness with weights on certain items, difficult if the player doesn't know what to look for and if they are even thematic at all and some rooms having none of the items which in the stream I was on had to resort to me giving the locations which sucked a lot and took away some immersion, I'll take note of the current map location indicator too, right now I'm checking the reviews and seeing what I need to improve on the game or any bugs and issues that happen to pass by
Yeah, gameplay! The specifics about how the wolves move and how to escape them elude me a bit (notably, it seems almost impossible to escape Famine once he caught you?). The flashlight like looking around seemed really unnecessary as well. And collecting batteries didn’t seem to actually do anything (they didn’t appear in your inventory at least). The collecting of items and giving them to the wolves is fine, nothing special really. Choosing the right options give you a special ending that connects to the wolf’s theme, which was nice. The writing is sometimes a bit meandering and the story isn’t anything special. No music/sound was disappointing. Overall, neither the story nor the gameplay was particularly compelling but it was alright. It’s not far away from a good game, I feel.
I kind of noticed it in the stream, but I don't think anyone understood the flashlight mechanic or realized it exists, it's supposed to indicate which enemies are nearby, and yeah the story was underdeveloped compared to the rest of the game/VN, and I feel the battery counter is not updating .
*Insert two nickels joke about there being two games that exist named "Afterparty" about dying at a party then beating death in some sort of challenge to un-die yourself*. High marks for ambition on this one, but pretty shaky on execution.
Implementation of Theme:
Not abundantly clear, but I could see there being an interpretation of a light in the dark as finding the spark to continue living when faced with mortal danger. It's good enough for me anyway. To be honest I feel very reticent taking away points in this category unless pretty much the whole project whiffs.
Story:
It's... pretty basic. I don't have a ton to say about it, and I typically have too much to say about everything. Characters are all pretty one note: conqueror is horny, warmonger likes books, famine likes food, death wants to kill you (fair play on that last one I guess). There are some individual lines of dialogue that sparkle, but the tone is a bit inconsistent, especially with the balance between humor and horror. A lot of the dialogue could have really used another proofreading pass to make sure the characters were speaking clearly and naturally. I'm also not really entirely clear what Laine's relationships with the wolves were before the party - were they actually friends? Just coworkers? There's a foundation here but I think there are some blanks to be filled in to make the plot and characters pop.
Ultimately I felt like the writing took a backseat to the gameplay, which brings me to...
Presentation:
As mentioned, very ambitious, but I don't think the gameplay really stuck the landing. I'm not going to stress too much about the sketchy backgrounds or stock sprites since it's a jam and all. Sketchy backgrounds kinda worked aesthetically with the main gameplay anyway, but it was also really difficult to tell the rooms apart so I was basically just clicking around randomly.
Passiv_boi already noted most of the technical issues I encountered, so I'm not going to go into extensive detail, but just for a quick rundown:
- the famine softlock happens for the reason you suggested. The stacking locusts mean if he catches you with a full stack, no matter where you move he shows up there as well.
- famine was the only character who captured me or really put me in any danger at any point.
- I had numerous instances of sprites doubling up when I ghosted one and was attacked by a different one in the next room. Also had some issues with the map not going away when I closed it until I moved to the next room.
- conqueror is useless and never attacked me. I had to literally hunt him down to get the true ending.
- I wouldn't attempt WASD controls unless you can overwrite the "S" key binding. After taking my fourth inadvertent screenshot I just switched to clicking the icons.
- Best strategy I found was just sitting in the starting room and searching on repeat. I don't think I ever ended up stunning any enemies when I got the true ending.
The other big thing I want to mention here is the information dump at the start of the main gameplay section. You start off the tutorial cards with "this is gonna be a lot so bear with me", and maybe it was just me playing the game too late at night or mentally expecting something with the complexity of a traditional VN, but this felt like an understatement. During my first attempt at the gameplay I had absolutely no idea what I was actually supposed to do. I wonder if having a "tutorial" enemy where you walk the player through searching for items, avoiding contact, and the options available during confrontation before dropping them into the full scenario would be helpful for communicating the mechanics and goals of the game.
Creativity:
As stated, numerous problems with the execution, but I can't fault you for the attempt. I can definitely appreciate that you took a wildly different line to most. Only issue I have here is that I think this project stretches the "My Wolf" premise just a bit since the very surface level bonds Laine has with the wolves are very secondary to the gameplay and even the main plot really. Like yes there are wolves and there's romance (kinda) but it's pretty thin. Not enough of a big deal for me to really discount you for it though really.
I think this was a good start and I hope you're able to build on this to make some more polished projects in the same vein.
I did not know there was another game named Afterparty oh no, would that be some kind of issue or nah
Yeah the writing took such a low priority, I wrote it all in a day and a half and after the gameplay was sort of set up already so all I did at least was clean up what I wrote that it's decent at least, and I focused too much on the gameplay section because that would probably where most of the "hook" of my game was going to be. Even so there were still issues present as I did not give it enough testing or polish, still I can't fault myself much cuz of time limits and such but at least I made something. It might be stupid but I think my theme is mostly the light in the dark section of the game, there's not a lot of narrative theming here. And when my game was streamed on the discord I realize that a lot of the buttons I chose were pretty bad too, I should have probably used the ones on the right side of the keyboard instead or better ones. I also thought that maybe the weirdness at the start some something to say "Huh something is wrong here but I can't tell" but maybe I made it too on the nose or not executed well? Majority here is not executed well tbh. And thanks for the review!
Nah, I don't think there's an issue here. The other Afterparty has very little in common with this one other than the very high level premise. I don't think anyone would care that there's a free furry VN with the same idea, I just thought it was funny.
I think your observation about the controls is good - there was another jam entry that involved spatial navigation that used arrow keys instead of WASD which might have been better here as well. Also totally get the problems with getting everything done in the jam timeframe - that's the tradeoff for developing something with actual gameplay instead of a standard VN. If you do a bigger project though, I'd emphasize that ideally you want both the story and gameplay to be "hooks". As much as you want the gameplay to be engaging, you also want the story to be compelling enough for the player to want to do the gameplay to get to the next story section.
Even if it didn't turn out perfect this time, all these experiences are great for building your craft and learning what you can and can't do in a given period. Keep it up :)
That's the cool nature of Game jams, practice making stuff whether for practice or making actual stuff and getting better for the next time :D
Spoiler Alert!
This entry is very much interesting, though there are so many problems that came with such a complex system.
I’m not sure what the ‘Ghost’em’ button does other than just makes you immortal -.-; and even with that button’s existence, you can be softlocked by Famine somehow (because when you encounter the enemies you can’t access any other function than moving). Many times interacting w/ the characters before the game creates duplicates of the sprite, and one of the sprite for Famine in this section is also unavailable.
The buttons also takes a while to get used to, but maybe its just a me problem. It seemed to me like that items that you can get by searching is random, which may prove to be really annoying in actuality. I like the visuals of indicating when an enemy is close to you, but it looks out of place within the game’s bg.
The story leaves much to be desired, although one positive is there isn’t as many grammatical errors. A simple plot works fine, though the idea itself is not very interesting on paper.
There is a lack of music and all bgs are only sketches at most, which makes ‘Presentation’ the weakest aspect of the VN.
I’d assume the ‘light in the dark’ of this entry is just life and death, which is ok enough.
P.S is there multiple endings for winning cuz i only got 1 (i assume if you dont use the “Ghost’em” button at all you get the best ending but im not resetting for an early Famine defeat lol)
Rating: 4325
Edit: Rebalancing of rating to 3235
Thanks for trying out my game, and dear lawd, there are still quite many bugs yes, and I hope I can update the game with better quality after the rating phase is over, but for now this is the game I have submitted and I will do my best to take notes with any more issues that come up.
"Ghost em" in the encounter is the ghost mechanic, where if you have done enough steps, you can become more ghost-y, and basically escape an encounter, phasing away somewhere else. An issue is that you aren't going away from that mode, so basically no game over.
Famine also has a counting issue due to the stacking of locusts, and if there's a high amount, it's probably constantly triggering the encounter, which I only noticed when I tried the mobile version, and probably has the same issue in the other versions.
May I know where the sprite duplication happens? I think its because of the way I showed the sprites, but then again I did also not have a fully tested check since I only checked if it was possible at least to get the endings (Which there are 4 endings per enemy if you say the right things to them after giving gifts, there's no punishment for escaping an encounter, for example, Ghosting em) (I also should probably do a better job on the sprite naming conventions because I made it way harder for myself)
I'm sorry if I didn't make the buttons make sense, I might consider moving it to the right side of the keyboard instead, especially since many buttons on the left side have existing functions in Ren'py already (Like S is supposed to be going down, but it was already set for screenshot, so I changed it to X)
Item searching IS random, but some weights differ in each room, and some may not even be in some rooms. I should have clarified that.
For the lack of music, sketchy bg quality, and enemy closeness, I had to sacrifice those assets and instead focused on the more technical parts, which again, some update polish I could do it someday.
Also, is Famine STILL difficult??? 😭😭😭
I see, yeah I can just keep clickng Ghost’em after unlocking that choice.
I remember there being a few places where the sprites duped, one of which is by denying to go with Sarah right before the game and another by denying to go with Francis. The others I forgor but the errors are definitely similar in nature so you probably could use Ctrl+F for that.
Famine is still difficult 😭 It’s the only one that caused most my losses. Conqueror AI is weak af, Death can basically be dodged with ease if you pay attention to the map + the look feature and I never got a problem with the Warmonger in all my runs.
Then that is most likely a show and hide issue, and bad file naming I've done that made it harder for myself.
For the enemies, either I have to ease up the counter for Famine even more, or make the randomization of the locusts building up in the rooms even less high (it is a 1/10 to increase the level for every room, and I probably forgot to make it if the player is in the room it should not add the level for that room)
Death at least works well (He does have 1 particular issue with regards to look mode)
Conqueror, I think I made him stupid, he tries to predict where you might go, but can end up in a room where you might not even be near, or be in a room that has one exit, I think I have an idea to make him a little more difficult, I also do wonder about a possible hard mode but this might even be hard enough already sometimes.
I did try to ghost through a wall and ended up right into the Conqueror Wolf, so maybe its the wall logic. By having Conqueror be a wildcard, it makes it more fun ig. You should still improve the AI somehow, though all 4 wolf chasing us is kind of hard to balance.
It's an interesting experiment of a VN. Lacks polish, but I think I can see the vision.
After the Jam I could improve on it a little more, I'm open to suggestions!