Adventure Game Studio

Kuma Story was originally created as an anniversary gift to my girlfriend, Da Young (to whom this game is dedicated), for our 3-year anniversary. It grew to its current form in time for our 4th and I have created a non-anniversary edition for everyone else as of today. I’m happy to say she enjoyed it very much and allowed me to continue with the game, and share it with the rest of the world. So this is our Gift to you.

The game is meant for a less hardcore adventure gaming audience, so most of you should find it to be extremely easy (A seasoned adventure gamer may take less time to read this post than to finish the game). 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 download from the AGS Database entry, viewable here (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?category=&action=detail&id=1361), or download it directly from Mediafire (http://www.mediafire.com/?uvyug4j2au768zf).

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


Credits:
All art, animations, music, story and scripting: Luke "SpacePirateCaine" Rideout
Special Thanks to Shane "ProgZmax" Stevens for scripting advice
Massive props go out to Chris "Pumaman" Jones for creating this amazing engine.

If you have any comments, questions or criticism, I would love to hear from you all. Thank you for downloading and playing, and I hope that you enjoy it as much as we did.

A very nice text-less game, bravo!

Ooh, I remember you posting something about this.

Looks amazing! *downloading*

Really like the style!
Will definitely check it out.

Strange thing the whole concept is VERY similar to my own mags game which should be (keep fingers crossed) released tomorrow.
Must be a funny coincidence because I've never heard of your game before.

Thanks for the feedback everyone - it's nice to see people enjoying something you poured your heart into. I really like doing independent work, as you get a lot more honest and direct feedback than with commercially distributed games. And this is a labor of love anyway.

@bicilotti - Thank you very much. I thought that by not adding in speech or other unnecessary text, the game allows the player to focus more on other, and in this case more important parts of the experience. I wanted to get my point across with movement, sound and where absolutely necessary simple representations of concepts.

@Bulbapuck - I'm surprised anyone remembers my Demo from back around the beginning of the year. I announced it and it was kind of swept aside by bigger, more ambitious projects. I hope you enjoy playing it - it's very minimalistic, but was a blast to make.

@mode7 - Glad to hear the style is appealing; I was hoping to go for something of a 'storybook' feel to it. As far as your MAGS game is concerned, pure coincidence, but great minds do think alike (and all things considered, it is a pretty common theme). Good luck on your release! Looking forward to seeing it.

It feels silly to criticize this, so I wont. It is what it is.

Darius - feel free to criticize if you like. It certainly is what it is, but I'm still happy to hear what people liked and didn't like about it, so that I can better myself as a game creator.

Will download and play this again :).
I remember well that I liked it alot the last time you posted it! :)

Love the visuals!

Liked it very much; the stylishness and elegant simplicity are very appealing.

Playing something like this always boosts my own creativity.

[squeals like a chibi character]Kawaiiiii[/squeals like a chibi character] I love how simple and yet stylish the art is. It looks so much like a children's book with watercolor illustrations. And the game feels like one, too. It's great how everything can be conveyed without any words whatsoever, through actions and simple symbolics. And you just can't go wrong with melancholic piano music :)

Maybe one of the best short games of its kind?

@Peder Johnsen - Thank you, Peder, I really appreciate the kind comments, and willingness to give it another shot as well. I think I've managed to make some huge improvements over the original and I really hope that you enjoy it.

@Virgil - Thank you very much! I spent a lot of time on them, even though they're by definition not very detailed.

@Khris - Much appreciated! Simple is definitely a keyword in the entire execution of the game. And I'm really glad it could give you a little creativity boost as well. I've always found that playing something new that I enjoy gives me a lot of inspiration to do more.

@Fitz - Arigatou, it was definitely a labor of love, and keeping everything thematically similar was an interesting task. Trying to avoid dissonance and keep everything in a single palette, while conveying a sense of children's storybook visuals was a really great learning experience. And many, many thanks on the music. It was surprisingly easy to compose once I got through the first bar.

@Sslaxx - Thanks! I don't know if superlatives like that quite fit this humble project, but the praise is very much appreciated.

I envy people who can make music :) Especially the piano. Oh and guitars! Me, I can compose something simple or play a few notes that end up sounding tollerable - but I lack the skill or the kind of musical imagination to create something beautiful. Lucky I found - or was found by, actually - someone who can and is willing to make music for my game :)

Also, the general mood reminded me of the early parts of The Whispered World. Lots of great music.

Pick of the Month!

man, that cute little animation where the bear by the stove gives the other bear a kiss... it just rocked my socks off. What an absolutely awesome little piece of animation. good job!

@Calin Leafshade - Thanks so much for the recommendation, Calin - I'm really glad that the game's been so well received. It's been a small, mostly unmarketed release, but it seems people are enjoying it. I really do enjoy this in contrast to the hectic nature of large-scale things. I just hope that everyone's enjoying it.

@Fitz - I used to play the guitar, but mostly I just listen to what's in my head and translate it to notes in my music program (all by hand - I couldn't even begin to dream of playing the piano). I really enjoyed the music in Whispered World as well.

@theo - Thank you very much, it was my girlfriend's favorite animation as well.

That was fantastic.

The game is very adorable and leaves you feeling warm and loved.

What a cute little bag o gummybears of a game. Inspired stuff!

Playing this one is like a big, warm hug - very nice!

Cute, simple and stylish.. playing this was a short but worthy experience.

At some point I should make something small too.. instead of being overwhelmed by several large projects  ::)

I played it a while ago but forgot to comment...
I liked the game, it was cute & cozy, lovely graphical style and beatiful music.

Things I would improve:
- Hotspot labels and/or feedback that the action is impossible. It was a bit of a pixel hunt (especially the plant in the first screen, I interacted with it, got no response and assumed that it's not a real hotspot).
- The name is somewhat misleading, I was expecting a story, but there wasn't...

Just wanted to say that this was truely amazing. Reminded me more of Hayao Miyazaki than say sierra or lucas arts.

Wouldn't change a thing, thanks for sharing

Gosh, this is just the cutest game ever!

No criticisms. (I couldn't make out the cow icon in the speech bubble, but once I came across it it was quite obvious.)