Adventure Game Studio

Kuma Story was originally created as an anniversary gift to my girlfriend for our 3-year anniversary. I'm happy to say she enjoyed it very much, and asked me to continue with the game, and share it with the rest of the world.

The game is meant for a less hardcore adventure gaming audience, so most of you should find it to be extremely easy (It may take less time to read through this post than to finish the demo). The concept revolves around a series of small, self-contained puzzles where the protagonist, "Kuma Bear" is doing nice things for his girlfriend, "Cinnamon Bear".

Please note that what little text there is in the game is generally in Japanese. There is nothing specifically important written at any point as Kuma Story is intended to be a short, mostly text-less adventure game, playable and accessible by anybody in any language. The choice to render the existing text in Japanese was made as it's the common language between myself and the person the game is dedicated to.


Please feel free to download the Demo (http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?dmilittzml4), for a very small taste of how Kuma Story will play.

The Story:
It’s Kuma Bear’s anniversary with his girlfriend, Cinnamon Bear. He is hoping to surprise her on their anniversary with a small present, but doesn’t have anything to give to her yet. Help Kuma Bear find something nice to give to Cinnamon Bear, and a way to surprise her with it.

Playing the Game:
The game interface is meant to be very simplified - only consisting of 'walk' and 'interact'. Not all objects in the game can be interacted with, but most of the important objects stand out, so they shouldn’t be hard to find.

Left click: Kuma Bear will walk to the specified location
Right click: Kuma Bear will interact with the specified object

Progress:

• Puzzles: 10%
• Character Art: 30%
• Backgrounds: 20%
• Animation: 20%
• Scripting: 20%
• Music: 0%

Credits:
All art, animations and scripting: Luke "SpacePirateCaine" Rideout
Demo music borrowed from Crayon Physics (http://www.crayonphysics.com/): "Crayon Dreams" by Stian Stark (http://www.stianstark.com/) (Not with permission)
Special Thanks to Shane "ProgZmax" Stevens for scripting advice

Luke is making a game?  :o WOW!

My deepest admiration to you mate! (and it actually looks very very nice, haven't tried the demo yet).

I really dig the graphical style. Good work on capturing a very peaceful feel with your images! :D

I will download this demo when my internet decides that downloading things is normal internet behavior ;)

Awesome Luke!  I'll definitely check this out with my wife!  Though you'll make her wonder why I've never made an irresistibly cute game for her...

I played this already and I enjoyed it. ^_^

Looks cute! :)  And it's just in time for Valentine's Day.  I think I'll give it a spin this week.

There seems to be a recent trend for simplistic, palette-reduced and aestetically great games around! Downloaded and ready to dive in- but it already looks sweet indeed!

This game is beautiful. I very much enjoyed it.

Really cute  :).

It's a lovely game, and I'm sure she'll appreciate it. The grammar Nazi in me is tingling though - any reason why "story" is rendered in hiragana (す と- り-) rather than katakana (ス ト- リ-)? It's a foreign word after all. Or maybe something like きだん (a kind of story that's romantic or colourful).

It's good, though!


EDIT: And if I'm being ultra-Nazi, I'd put "の" after kuma, to indicate it's the story of kuma rather than two unrelated nouns.

Hi everyone, thank you all for your kind words and for enjoying the demo for what it's worth. It was a total coincidence that I ended up with such a similar palette to Annie Android, and semi-related theme, but I guess great minds think alike... Or fools never differ. Whichever works best.

The release wasn't exactly timed for Valentine's on purpose - our anniversary was actually late January, but it is convenient for anyone who wants to play something cutesy and romantic-ish on the upcoming holiday. I'm actually hoping to have an update to the Demo ready by then, for a sort of 'follow-up' present for my girlfriend, to whom this game remains firmly dedicated.

I'm glad the general response has been positive. I know that it's still extremely short and the puzzles probably couldn't get easier without huge signs saying "Click this, then this", but it's as much an interactive greeting card as it is a 'game'. The straightforwardness of the puzzles is likely to remain largely at this level, with lateral thinking mostly applied in a chronological manner (Like growing things, etc.). I also hope that nobody's had any problem with the interface or lack of inventory. It's my hope that even in a much larger version of the game, nobody's going to feel a necessity for a graphically represented inventory, as I feel that foregoing this will help to keep it as simplified as possible.

Quote from: Technocrat on Tue 10/02/2009 17:46:04
...hiragana (す と- り-) rather than katakana (ス ト- リ-)?
..."の" after kuma, to indicate it's the story of kuma rather than two unrelated nouns.

Hi, Technocrat - I can certainly see you've been paying attention in your Bunpou classes. Although you're certainly quoting proper rules for grammar in Japanese, the rules have a tendency to bend to the breaking point in literary and artistic works. The choice to use hiragana exclusively for the title was purely stylistic. Though technically katakana should be applied for loanwords, it's far from unheard of in the Japanese language to fudge the rules and write words using a different alphabet. Particularly in the case of children's books and media (Such as はろうきてぃ (http://shop.sanrio.jp/page/inc/ky.html) - Hello Kitty, for those who don't read Japanese), it's a common choice. The same is true for noun-story. Using the word 'Story' as a fill-in for the Japanese 物語, where the posessive の is usually omitted (Take Genji Monogatari, for example) and largely seen as unnecessary. I'd be happy to discuss Japanese grammar with you in PMs if you'd like, though - linguistics (especially Japanese) is one of my passions.

All I can say is:
Beautifull :'(.

Really lovely game, and that song fits perfectly to it! :P.
Would love to see a "full game" of this kind!

That. Was awesomely sweet. You rock.

And so simple, yet so beautiful. Inspiring, I'd say :)

Quote from: voh on Tue 10/02/2009 23:47:44
Inspiring, I'd say :)

Inspiring indeed!
This has made me start a new game with the limited artistic skills I got!
In a similar style, though even more simple artwise.

Same here, actually. Sometimes the 'less is more' idea needs to be pounded into the brain just that bit deeper for it to really take hold (until it loosens again and stuff gets complicated once more :D).

I can't wait for more of this - the simplicity of the game doesn't matter, even if you don't have proper puzzles but just an exploration kind of thing going on, while focusing on atmosphere and emotions, then by golly, you've got an amazing thing :)

Nice work Luke! It was fun to playwatch :)

That was so damn sweet, I think you gave me diabetes.

I think the simplicity of it (both in the graphics and the gameplay) really added a lot to it's charm.
I'd love to see more games like this.

Blip. This looks tastic.