As i already told in the last entry, this past week i participated to the narrative-driven jam #11. Although i was not sure whether i would end up submitting my entry, at long last i could write a simple and short adventure game that i was not completely embarrassed of: Grapes and Bacon.
It has a somewhat absurd premise that, i believe, works for this jam’s theme of “anachronism”: Grapes and Bacon are two “interdimensional detectives” that become the unwitting victim of a prank from a feline humanoid race, and have to travel back in time in order to fix the timeline. Somewhat clichéd but it does work for a jam game.
However, what made me decide to write this game was one of the three optional themes: besties—Add a lovely companion to your game. Impactful or not to your gameplay it’ll surely make you simile.
As soon as i saw that theme, i was sure that whatever story i would write it would have Lily Grapes and Gordon Bacon as protagonists. That’s because i had these two in the back of my mind since late 2019, when i thought them up, but i was unable to make anything meaningful with them. I used them as part of the cover image for my Tramposillu game on itch.io, but that was not much. This was an opportunity i could not let pass.
What i always wanted for these two was to show them meeting for the first time at work and becoming really good friends over time, but, to be honest, i do not know how to do that, no matter what i try, especially given the different and almost opposing personalities they have, so i waited for “inspiration” on how to approach such story. The years passed, and i still did not know what to do with them. Until now.
Even though i still feel like they have a somewhat “forced” relationship, i think that i managed to make it believable to a degree.
Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, i did not win this jam and was only able to reach second place yet again. It is a bit disheartening to see that the best rated part of this game is precisely the thing i did not do myself, the music, and seems that i have to practice much more in graphics and story. I am not sure how i can improve in graphics, not because i am doing a great job, but because i am already giving my “best”, even if it is not enough.
In fact, i considered whether to turn Xenorogue from a dungeon crawler to a graphic adventure game, or to drop it altogether, in order to practice a bit more for the next jam. It is the same i always think after losing this jam, but for now i stick to the original plan and let’s see what comes out of it.