Play game
Sage's Folly: Prologue's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Theme Integration | #12 | n/a | n/a |
| Impact and Engagement | #18 | n/a | n/a |
| Playability and Fun Factor | #18 | n/a | n/a |
| Technical Execution and Completion | #22 | n/a | n/a |
| Innovation and Creativity | #37 | n/a | n/a |
| Community Favorite | #54 | 2.739 | 2.739 |
Ranked from 23 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Comments
Great art and writing
This was really well written and the art is incredible. Would love to see a fuller version.
Thank you very much! I'm glad you like the writing, considering how rushed it was in the end. We pivoted to a really narrative-heavy game in the last 48h, so it was an ordeal to outline, draft and edit all of it at such short notice.
I really loved the art! As a visual novel enthusiast I love music shifts for each scene. There was a small problem for me at the start where I had some trouble running the game on the browser but after switching back to chrome, it worked (after waiting for like 1minute on a black screen) ! Lovely art and atmosphere. I was shocked by the 3d scene because i wasn't expecting it on a visual novel! Overall lovely game!
I appreciate the feedback! Yeah it's 3d because it wasn't originally meant to be a visual novel, but I hope that the experience ended up being coherent and emotionally resonant.
Art and aesthetics wise, i think this was by far my favourite in the whole jam! The 3D graphics especially made me so nostalgic
Wow the character art is amazing, I wish i could draw like that! Also massive runescape vibes with the 3D style and music ;) I wish I could move around in the world.
Thanks for your feedback! I'm sure you'll be able to draw like that if you put in the time to practice.
I can see why you're getting Runescape vibes from the style, I didn't even think about that similarity.
couldn't run it, tried different browsers
Can you try waiting for a while after clicking "play"? It worked for one person.
The art for this is amazing, but I don't know if I'm missing something. On the start screen it says wasd and e to interact, but I couldn't move or interact with anything. The story just kept progressing and then, before I knew it, it was credits and then I was back on the title screen. I was just stuck in a boat that inched forward until it hit an island and that was the whole game. If this was supposed to be a visual novel that's fine. I'm just confused. I do want to see where this goes though. It looks like it's got potential.
Yeah, we transitioned to more of a visual novel format as the deadline neared due to huge issues with programmers getting sick. I can understand why it felt like a bug the way it was presented, though. I'm sorry that you got an experience that felt like something went wrong. I hope you enjoyed it anyway, if you actually read it, which you may not have since it appeared like it bugged out). I was hoping that it would be a coherent narrative-focused experience, even if it lacked any real gameplay.
Thanks for the feedback. It's interesting to know that people might think it's a bug. I wonder what we could even do about that now, since we can't edit the uploaded files.
I'm sorry to hear about the programmers. But I'll definitely give it a read. It was getting pretty late here when I got around to playing your entry so I wasn't able to give it a proper read through, but It did seem like there was a solid story being told.
Ok this is so far my favorite. The Music is great the art is great, I especially like the different little Morgan emotion faces, and the story is quite nice as well. It has a good sense of triumph and the friendo guy is coolio and nice, I really wish I had him with me IRL!!
One gripe I had with it was that Morgan starts beating challenges before you get aquainted with her making the first challenge ring a bit hollow for me.
But ye, amazing work and would like to see where it goes next (if it goes next)
Wow! That's very high praise, especially considering your game might actually be my favourite as well. Thank you for the praise and for the feedback in general!
I absolutely love our music and art too. It was really fun to write the script and go through the folder of Morgan reaction images, constantly picking which ones to use. It really was like writing a visual novel, but I haven't had art for a visual novel yet, so it was really fun to get to do it.
Yeah, Morien is pretty cool. I tried my best to write him as someone who is clearly neurotypical and clearly doesn't understand her struggles, but he just ends up figuring out a possible solution (accountability buddies) through sheer determination to help.
And that's definitely a fair gripe. I had her save the cat with the water elemental, so if my emotional manipulation worked (what? that's literally what writing is!), then you may have become more invested in her by the time she started talking with the water elemental.
Here's a little bit of trivia regarding that gripe. We had absolutely massive issues with programming. Both of our programmers got incredibly sick, which actually meant that we only had about 6-7 days of time for programming in total, and that was from a programmer who joined 20+ days into the jam and needed to be brought up to speed, and he ended up starting from scratch anyway. So in the end, we only realised we *absolutely* were not going to finish about 48 hours before the deadline, at which point I took it upon myself to try to fill that gap with writing. So I ended up outlining, writing and editing all that (except the conversation with Morien, that was going to be in the game anyway) a ridiculously short notice, crunching 7-9 hours a day on top of my day job. I only finished 3 hours before the deadline (and incidentally, 3 hours before I had to get up for work, lol). Your gripe is very true but it's the sort of structural issue I notice after a couple of more thorough editing passes. This whole thing is just a 2nd draft, which is kinda nuts because I actually don't consider it a disaster, I feel like it's actually serviceable at least.
Thanks for commenting, hope you liked the story of our emotional rollercoaster!
It's funny how you feel the need to defend writing being emotional manipulation when game design is quite literally just manipulation XD. What happened right before the end of the jam sounds rough, hope you got a good amount of rest!! I also wanted to ask, am I allowed to slide into them discord DMs?
hih
The art is very pretty. The music is great! I read that programming presented difficults (which is understandable, even with many programmers on a team). The story is gorgeous. Have you considered using Ren'Py and focusing on the novel while adding some 2D art? Your art is really good.
I don't want to do any spoilers, but I liked the story! It was a bit Star Wars-ie and sweet but sad.
Good work.
Oh, and it worked perfectly well on all browsers I tested with.
Thank you for testing it on all browsers, that's wonderful of you! That's really useful information.
I'm really glad you like the story! As you saw in the other comment, it was a ridiculously short-notice rush job. So much so that, there was actually supposed to be an earth element too, but I ended up cutting it just so I could actually get a couple of hours of sleep before work. Check out the reply I just wrote to someone else, if you want the full story. Really bad luck.
Yeah, I have experience with Ren'Py. I was making my own visual novel out of a WIP novel I had. Then I decided to work on a different novel before getting too far. Morgan really suits me, it seems. If you meant that we could switch to Ren'py after the game jam, we actually have a pretty well developed idea for this game's gameplay, and they're even half-coded, so I think it'd be more fun to try to finish that, if my team is up for it. I sure am.
You can put "SPOILERS" and then talk about what you liked about the story, if you'd like! I actually am surprised that you're calling it Star Wars-ie, but after thinking about it for a bit, I completely understand what you mean. It's definitely got elements of balance, "turning to the dark side", in a way, stuff like that. I guess that might be why you chose that descriptor. That makes sense, I have loved Star Wars since I was a kid.
Thanks for the comment!
Good idea!
⚠️ Spoiler warning ⚠️ – click to reveal
I mean yeah, Anakin is this super powerful, highly important protagonist, tormented by a vision, a type of prophecy, trying to save a woman he loves and he goes to bizarre extremes because of that. He was unable to accept loss, fear and helplessness and he left behind a tragic tale that I imagine members of his group would remember for ages.The prophet in your story wanted to save his daughter. Other than that, it bears similarities.
We all have trouble dealing with loss and helplessness and I think it is a good subject to bring up with art!
If game elements are planned, I would love to see that and help test that. :)
I am glad you got some sleep. Good work on your project.
That makes perfect sense. To be honest, it's been so long since I've seen the prequels that I completely forgot the the setup of his arc. And I didn't even know you could do actual spoilers, awesome. Thanks for letting me know!
Thank you -- I'm playing it on firefox right now with no issues. I love the music -- it's timed great with the dialogue and cutscene. Sounds like a conversation with the wind --there so much interesting stuff going on so the loop isn't noticeable. I love the art too!
Thank you for giving it another try, I'm glad it ended up working on Firefox! I wonder what the issue is.
Yeah, Kaleb's music is just incredible, every time he posted a new piece, the team was blown away. When I messaged him about joining us in August, I felt silly for even asking, like he was sorely overqualified for us, even if most of us did have a decent amount of experience. But I feel like even though things didn't go exactly as planned (did anything even go as planned?), the music ended up actually working really well.
I'm glad you felt like there was a lot of interesting stuff going on! I was worried that, without being carried by the gameplay stuff like moving around and interacting with things (let alone more complex things like combat), the writing would feel anemic and not particularly good, especially considering it was a massive crunch job, made in the last 48 hours of the jam. I love that you said it was like a conversation with the wind. One of the name ideas I had for the game was "Windborn" but upon googling it, I realised there was already a game with that name.
Didn't run for me either, but it looks like many others have the same issue. I'm (trying to) run it on Brave Browser.
Do you have access to Firefox? If you do, could you try using that?
I have a few questions if you don't mind! Can you let me know what version of Brave you're using? Do other Unity games from the jam work properly for you?
Thanks for the feedback!
Brave 1.82.172 (Official Build) (64-bit). Other Unity games are working.
Update: The game actually loaded this time, but the game was fully broken. I couldn't move or do anything, but I kept clicking and it went through all the dialogue to the end
Great job to the team for finishing! I would have loved to see what the game would have looked like with the 3D art more integrated into the gameplay. The story was so sweet. It warmed my heart that Morien was a good friend to Morgan <3 The music also very pleasant and set a nice mood for the adventure!
Awww, thank you! I'm really glad it made you feel something, that is really the most important thing of all for me. And obviously I can't make promises on behalf of my team, but if it was my decision, you would see what the game would look like with 3D art. I hope we'll end up finishing it. That's why I advocated to add Prologue to the title - because it is my hope that there will be more to come.
I did my best to write Morien as someone who is clearly neurotypical and who does not at all understand the struggles Morgan is facing, but through his loyalty, he manages to help her out anyway, even if it's in an imperfect way.
And yeah, the music is incredible, isn't it? I can't believe it's actually our music, tailor-made for our game by an actual music producer! Kaleb is amazing.
Congrats on the game! I love Morgan's character design, so cuute!💚
P.S. the game managed to play on Firefox, but on Chrome I get a black screen and sound only.
Thank you so much! No idea why it doesnt run tho :/
We had similar issues at one point. Dunno the cause, it's either an itch thing or it might be due to browser settings 🤷♀️
Thank you very much! It is, isn't it? I love Morgan, Sleepens' designs are really amazing. Did you like the way she was written? Did you think it suited her design?
And that's a very useful bit of info, thank you for letting us know. After I'm done with work, and with chugging some coffee and energy drinks, I'll try my best to play and rate every game in the jam. If you've submitted one, then I'll get to yours too eventually!
Very interesting visual novel! I liked the story but wish we could make some choices some times to influence the story. Cool game and story!!
Thank you so much! We had a great deal more in mind for the game to be honest, but the programming side of things got disrupted for a majority of the jam, so this is what we got unfortunately :(
I'm elated to hear that you found the story interesting! It would be incredibly helpful if you told me what you liked about it, and what your favourite moments were.
As for your desire for choices, I can understand that. The thing is, though... it was not meant to be a visual novel at all, as you might be able to tell by the fact that it's got a 3D environment that you're dropped into, which isn't actually utilised.
Our programmers had a streak of terrible luck and were stricken by illness for the vast majority of the game jam. Marmaduke even had to drop out to rest and recover. By the time we found someone who could take over, we only really had a few days left. It was only then that we made the decision to switch to a narrative-heavy game, and by the time we did, I only had 48 hours to outline, draft and edit the whole script (which was meant to be much leaner originally, as you might imagine).
The fact that we actually had a coherent experience for the players by the end of it is a genuine miracle.
(That's not an admonishment of your feedback, not at all! I just thought you might find it interesting to know how the game came to be this way.)
It didn't run for me, but best of luck -- hopefully others aren't having the same issue!
That's really odd. Tiny Owl said that it had issues on Chrome, but not on Firefox. If you're interested, and you have Firefox, you could try that? Very odd issue. Thank you for trying it though!