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The Night Before's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| UModelerX Pick | #2 | n/a | n/a |
| Polish | #3 | 3.850 | 3.850 |
| Art | #3 | 4.500 | 4.500 |
| Overall | #10 | 3.470 | 3.470 |
| Theme | #20 | 3.450 | 3.450 |
| Music | #26 | 3.050 | 3.050 |
| Gameplay | #48 | 2.500 | 2.500 |
Ranked from 20 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
UModelerX
No
I did not use UmodelerX
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Comments
fantastic visuals and atmosphere 🐱 i wish there was more stuff to do...atm this felt like a nice sneak peak of what could have possibly been an amazing game
I wish I had these budgets! An inspiration to 1 bit jammers to come. Not sure about the theme, but as a bonus I got to learn another language.
Hey!
The whole team worked pro bono and on their own free time, as members of an existing creative collective! We're more than happy with how well it went (I wouldn't say seamlessly, but it was indeed well organized and I feel like every voice mattered in each part of the process). And we're proud of the end result!!
As far as the theme goes, we might have been too hardcore on the innuendos, but here's an overview of our thoughts:
- very superficial (or even artificial): the title and time of the year (explained in the synopsis) says it's Christmas Eve, so gifts obv.
- the backbone of our sticking to the theme is that the Reader OFFERS solace to the Infant by reading poetry (to stop the cries in terms of playing experience)
- we also thought the poem collection as a set of guidelines, praising or encouraging words, that the Reader would offer to the Infant, to themselves (the baby and the chapel might just be an allegory, who knows?), and even to you, the Player.
And I'll admit we didn't mean to offer a French lesson, but we're glad some of you took the game as such, so it works, doesn't it? As Souleymane Bachir Diagne stated: Translating is an act of hospitality, hospitality offered in one language to what was thought in another language.
Thanks a lot for playing and reviewing!
-- Mathieu from Studio La Piraterie
The atmosphere is very well done. Visuals are really compelling.
However, I wish there was more to do in the world. Maybe more things in the room to interact with, or a reason to explore the space.
I did encounter what I believe to be a bug, where I was unable to leave the chair after the 3rd or 4th poem.
Well done.
Hi!
Thanks for playing and reviewing our game! We're happy that you liked the global atmosphere, we really put a lot of care in crafting this tiny world.
We thought of a lot of incentives to explore the place, additional interactions etc! But it all falls down to time management in the end: on the one hand we only had so much time to put everything we wanted in one small game, and above all, on the other hand we wanted the player to focus on the "story" told through the poems without boring them out of the game, so the experience's duration needed to be reasonably short.
In potential next iterations, we might add elements to OFFER something complete.
Thanks again!
-- Mathieu from Studio La Piraterie
Stunning production, really top notch. I didn’t understand at all how to play, but mostly took it as an opportunity to practice my french with the poetry readings :) Merci pour ca!
Hi,
You seem to have gotten the gist of it, as the game was mainly about reading and listening to poetry, in a very carefully crafted atmosphere! Delighted to hear you enjoyed our work and that it also served as a French practice session! We love that!! It was important to us to have original French content built in the game. Maybe we'll update the game with a full FR version.
Merci pour ton temps et à bientôt !
- Mathieu from Studio La Piraterie
I'm not a fan of this genre unfortunately; the threat of jumpscares is not fun for me (even if there are none). I couldn't get past the baby crying and had to quit. Amnesia: The Dark Descent lasted about an hour on my PC before getting deleted. I also had a problem in this where my view was forever drifting downward and I had to keep moving my mouse cursor up.
The ambience is certainly there though, so definitely points for that
Hello, we are aware this genra may not be suited to everyone, we appreciate you took the time to launch our game :).
We're also not too fond of jumpscares to leave an impression on the player, and would rather take the time to build this haunting atmosphere.
Also thanks for letting us know about the cursor problem, its seems to be a relatively rare bug we didnt notice
-- Rodney
Super ambiance, en immersion totale, par le son, le graphisme ou la jouabilité, même si limitée, en même temps pas grand chose à faire quand on se protège du dehors dans une chapelle (:
J'ai essayé de défier l'obscurité mais rien n'y a fait (version navigateur)
Du bon boulot, mention spéciale pour le voice acting, c'est trop rare sur ce genre de format court!
Merci du retour ! :)
Something different, a very atmospheric experience. Not much gameplay to speak of but the few interactions there were supported the mood nicely.
Thanks, glad you liked our game! :)
Я не знаю почему, но после его запуска мой браузер стал сильно тормозить.
amazing mood!
I really enjoyed the visuals and the sound design.
The game also really succeeds in building up a mystery, where you've no real idea of time and place but just a eerie feeling of being out of place.
The game is obviously very light on interaction and could've benefitted from some more moments like the whispers and the windows opening. Just a little more escalation before the ascension at the end.
Also a bit sad that you missed the pure 1 bit, by not choosing a pixel font and introducing anti aliasing at the most unnecessary place. ^^°
However more impressive than anything I find how many people have worked on this game. It's a real challenge getting this many people to work together cohesively, managing differences in opinion etc. Huge hats off!
Thanks for the feedback! Yea a lot of the fonts you will find here among the submissions aren't truly 1-bit either :)
Great game. Everything is awesome there, especially visuals and voice acting.
One of my favorites now.
Wow ! Thank you so much !! I'm really moved that you enjoyed every aspect of the game. I'm transmitting your comment to the visual art team and the voice actress : I'm sure it will make their day
- Michael from Studio La Piraterie
Sure! Visuals just stunning, there is no doubts.
Just checked you previous game, it's cool, but with voice acting on this project is just another level.
I really pushed for the project to include voice acting so I’m really happy that it’s being well‑received. !!
- Michael from Studio La Piraterie
Love the visuals, impressive illusion of colour with the dithering. Sound design is good, very creepy. Just wish the gameplay was more engaging.
Hi !! We're really glad the art resonated with you. Everything was crafted with the intention of creating this eerie atmosphere : it means a lot that it worked for you. Fun fact : the sound design was mainly done using modular synths on VCV Rack !
Thanks for your note about the gampleay, we're looking forward to pushing this aspect further in our next projects :-)
Thanks for playing!
- Michael from Studio La Piraterie
Hello ! Trop content que tu aies apprécié l'atmosphère du jeu ! Petite anecdote, le bébé est un vrai bébé qu'on a enregistré haha ! Pour ce qui est de l'optimisation, la version téléchargeable peut offrir une meilleure expérience sur certaines configurations en effet !
Merci d'avoir joué au jeu !
- Michael du Studio La Piraterie
Very impressive visuals and great atmosphere! Simple gameplay but I think the game achieves what it set out to do. Nicely done.
Hi ! We're really glad that the simplicity of our intent came through ! Thank you so much for your kind words. Best regards from the Studio :-)
— Michael from Studio La Piraterie
Wow, looks amazing. The atmosphere is thrilling. It does seem like a bit of overkill for a web game, it was lagging very hard for me, but even with that I did enjoy it.
Hello ! Thank you, it means a lot to us that you enjoyed the game !
Indeed, it was quite an interesting challenge to make it playable on a web browser! We're looking forward pushing optimization further post-jam :)
- Michael from Studio La Piraterie
Wow, the atmosphere in this game is amazing. I felt like there could be a bit more to do in the game, but that's not a big problem, just a minor nit pick. Also, moving from the title screen there are more than two colours, as the text fades. Really cool game though, loved the atmosphere!
Hello! Thank you so much for your kind words ! It really means a lot to us that the game resonated with you! Every member of the studio poured a lot of love into making this project come to life.
And good catch on the fading issue !! The dithering didn’t quite behave the way we expected, haha. We’re planning to fix it after the jam.
Thanks again for playing :-)
– Michael, Studio La Piraterie