Through the Cracks
A downloadable game for Windows and macOS
A (very) Short Hidden Objects/Visual Novel About Grocery Shopping at the End of the World
I made this in like. 3.5 days for the Beansprout Jam, and I thought of this all while I was grocery shopping haha. It's very simple, short and a little rough on its edges but I hope you have fun with this little thing!
- Music and Art by me.
- Sound Effect from Squared.
Tip: You may need to google some of the object hints because I am a Nerd and I mostly made this for myself, sorry! (But also, you might learn a new thing or two about the scientific name of mushrooms? heheh)
EDIT: added the images used in the game as downloadable images for $2
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- A life update of some sortJan 29, 2021
- Indonesian Translation on the way!Dec 03, 2020
- Game Design: Taking Inspiration from COVID and How I Almost Made You All Look fo...Dec 01, 2020
- Post-Mortem: Working as a Solo DevNov 30, 2020
- Added Downloadable Backgrounds!Nov 29, 2020
Comments
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This is the comfiest game I've played all year. The graphics work perfectly, with a warm, hand-drawn style. The music is a pleasant accompaniment. The game acknowledged my input flawlessly, and had some replayability due to different items appearing on the list in subsequent playthroughs.
This doesn't feel like a game jam submission; it feels like a moment of tranquility in an unpredictable world.
Thanks for giving a try Tsuki! ^^
I'm glad to hear you've enjoyed it!
I loved the game! Quick play through, and I loved the art style and the story. Great music too!
Thank you for giving it a spin!
Glad to hear that you enjoyed it ^^
I absolutely love this game. I first played it almost 2 years ago and have played it several times since. I really love the locations and "hanging out" in them.
Thank you so much! I'm very glad to hear that you've enjoyed playing this ^^
I love this game and I feel like I could not just leave it without writing a review. The hidden-object gameplay is very fun and surprisingly challenging while I initially expected it to be easy because everything fits on one screen. The art so cute and pleasant and the writing beautiful, so you can really feel the story. For a 3-day effort there is quite a large amount of different locations too (more than what is shown in this page screenshots). All of the elements simply tie together nicely for a wonderful experience.
It's very inspirational to me since I've always enjoyed these hidden-object games, and I've thought of wanting to make them myself, but have never orientated on where to start. Such as I didn't expect this to be made in Ren'Py which I tend to associate with standard visual novels. I've played VNs with point and click segments, and found it really clever that you use that feature for this type of game.
Thank you for giving this game a spin! I'm glad you've enjoyed it, and I hope you get to make the game you want to make someday!!
I also didn't expect to make a hidden games object using renpy out of all the engines out there, but it was the only engine I could use rather comfortably at the time and my options were limited haha. I guess that's the beauty of game jams, you really have to work with what you have, and what I had was basic renpy programming and being able to draw quickly!
Once again, thanks for giving this a try and leaving a review, I really appreciate it!
Yeah, this is very late I suppose. I mean, the hype was like 2-3 months ago, but still, I cannot just purchase this and not making a video of it now, right? :D
Personally, I thank you for this wonderful work. I find myself playing it for 13 minutes through all the stages (it feels too short to be honest), and while finding objects is something I'm VERY HORRIBLE at, I managed to push through this one till the end (which, in my honest self, a big effort for impatient person like me). The challenge did increase as it progresses, and I did somewhat learn new things (that awkward moment when you're wondering what you're looking for and random click surprises you, like Potoo and A- something like Fungi), so it is a fun ride (sadly a short one too).
Your arts win my heart, so...
SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!
Also, speaking of money, the record bar of my recorder block my view from seeing the money which makes me feels dumb :D (Weird HINT moment 101)
Thank you so much for giving it a spin! I'm very glad you managed to push through!! I admit, some of the o jects i put were a little tricky but im glad you managed anyway.
Once again thanks for playing through it! Hope you enjoyed it haha
Ah, I really do enjoy it. Curious, what tools used for the music?
I used musescore to compose and make the mp3/MIDI, and did a little editing in audacity (mostly adding reverb, equalizing etc)
Both are free afaik, perfect for someone like me who isnt a musician by trade haha
Thanks for the information! ^^
Great arts & cool game, I like it. Well Done! M1 Mac Gameplay
Thank you for giving it a try! Hope you enjoyed it!
I loved this, I wished it was longer! It was relaxing and I loved the art.
Thank you for giving it a try! Very glad you enjoyed it!
Very charming and relaxing.
Thanks for playing, glad you feel that way about it!
Very calming & cute!! I love the overall aesthetic. A perfect little game for the endtimes.
Thanks for giving it a try! glad you feel that way
This game is cute and adorable, and loads of fun, but I have so many questions about YOU! Why do you know so much about plants? Did you study botany? Are you a dev by trade or passion? Did you study game development? Why was this a solo project when you've talked previously about working with a team? I feel like there's a lot of education packed into little ol' you! AWESOME! But back to the main topic at hand, the game's music and style is great! I like the combo of 'find the objects' and cuteness, with a twist of the apocalypse. It seems like a lot of work for only 3.5 days!
Great work!
Thank you so much for giving the game a try! And to answer your questions, I did not study botany, although I do have an interest in both botany and mycology, I mostly learnt from guide books and personal research, I'm basically a hobbyist naturalist on the side, haha
In terms of my career as a gamedev, my position is a little weird I suppose. I have worked on bigger games as an independent contractor/freelancer, but I also make smaller games on the side as passion projects as a way to combat burnout from bigger projects. (I just joined my first game jam this year, which was suggested by a few industry friends and I found it helped with managing burnout)
As for my education, I never studied game design, all my knowledge of it comes down to watching videos that break down game design (i.e extra credits on youtube haha) or analyzing games that I, myself play.
However, while I have never studied game design, I did study a lot of things that helped me: Fine Arts, 2D and 3D arts and animation, as well as a little music (I'm not the greatest at music tbh, but i do know the basics). I mostly took short classes/courses for these but I do have a diploma in 3D Art/Animation. From there, I simply learnt of their implementation in different game engines and picked up some basic coding (mostly basic Python on renpy, but I know a little C# and learnt to operate UE4 Blueprints too)
As for your last question, I ended up going in this jam as a solo dev despite having plans to collaborate with other participants simply due to my schedule.
This jam was 10 days long, but about 1-2 days before the jam started, I got an urgent freelance job and suddenly I found myself available for less than half of it. (I really needed the money, then) At that time I wasnt even sure I could participate at all, I did talk to them about it and decided to not join the team, I thought it would be a little unfair if I worked in collaboration with someone but wasnt able to pull my weight because of my busy and irregular schedule. I didnt want them to have any sort of resentment towards me if i was unavailable. I wasnt planning on joining the game jam at all at this stage, but when I finished most of my work on the 5th day of the jam, I, (for some reason which i cant really explain) decided to give the jam a shot anyway. It felt a little weird asking to join someone who was already progressing with the jam so instead of asking for a collaboration, I decided to go at it alone.
Anyway, once again thanks for giving the game a try! I hope I answered all your questions, but feel free to ask if you have any more!
wow this was such a cute game! I was so happy when I played through a second time+ got different items to find. The art was so serene and the music was beautiful, you made it?! do you have other music like this? Very reminiscent of the Florence soundtrack, im in love ♥️
Thank you so much for giving it a try! I'm glad you enjoyed it! Unfortunately I dont have any other music like this, this was my first time composing haha. However, who's to say i wont make more for future games? ;D
please do! I’ll be on the lookout. This was a great first piece!!!!
visuals and music are very good and the atmosphere is wonderful.
Thank you for trying the game! I hope you enjoyed it!
This was a beautiful experience. I thought the hidden object part of the game would be very easy to get through but I was pleasantly surprised it increased in challenge as I progressed. The images were really pretty and detailed, which made looking for things all the more satisfying! The music was pleasant and paired well with the gameplay.
About the message, I didn’t really understand it at first but after reading your post about game design it added a lot more insight to what you were trying to convey. I thought you did a great job capturing the player’s attention through what limited gameplay mechanics there were. It’s a really nice feeling to learn something and to think/reflect after playing a game. I hope if you make a more mechanically complicated game someday, you’ll be able to continue to convey the same sort of ideas and feelings effectively through gameplay.
Made a video with my experiences. Keep up the great work!
Thank you so much for giving the game a try! I'm still very much a beginner in programming and I'm still experimenting with different engines (renpy being one engine I'm more comfortable with, which was why I stuck with it for this game jam) but I too, am looking forward to making more complex gameplay mechanics, I hope you'll look forward to them!
Once again, Thanks for giving it a shot as well as for all your feedback <3
So lovely and cute <3
Thank you! Glad you feel that way about it!
An Excellent Hidden Object Game. It wasn't that stressful to search for the object, as there's no ultimate goal and timer and the fact that you can just stare at the beautiful art and enjoy the music. Also contains some meaningful message, lovely.
Thank you so much for giving this game a try! To be honest, at first I had contemplated putting in a timer or a thing that tells you the number of clicks/extra clicks but when I tested it, a lot of players found it just added unnecessary stress to the game so ultimately i decided to cut it out :3c
Its a very short ame but so relaxing and the art is beautifuuuuuuuul.
And I discovered this hilarous bird called Potoo, my friend and I been laughing about this thing all the day.
Thanks for giving it a shot! Very glad you enjoyed it! (Also do look up how the birds sound if you havent because it is quite interesting as well hahaha)
Played the game and I love it!
First, I love the art! Beautiful, cute and outstanding <3
Story is nice and positive and music is relaxing! I had some issues finding some items, but I think that's because I'm not very observant sometimes. Good there are Hints in these situations.
and i learned more about Potoo (weird name) and fungus today, always nice to know more :D
I'm out of words to say, can't praise it enough, amazing work overall ^^ Keep up the good work! I love seeing more from you ^^ Good luck!
Thank you so much for giving it a try! I admit I have been a little crafty about some of the hidden items but I'm glad the hint feature helps! I hope you enjoyed it!!
This is gorgeous! I love the art and the music. The story was simple but touching. Great job!
Thanks for giving it a shot and I'm glad you enjoyed it!!
Beatiful art and goode music; the mechanics are simple, yet the character's reflections delivered bit by bit make you not care ^^.
Good 'un, Summer!
and Good luck!(... didn't check that the jam didn't have a competition factor... :P)thanks!! and yeah it's just a relaxing(?) little jam haha. Glad you enjoyed it!
OMG the artsyle is so cute <3 I will try play this!
Thank you!! I hope you'll enjoy it!