Bartolomeo, misled by circumstances, learns that appearances can be deceptive

Started by lorenzo, Tue 29/09/2020 10:15:21

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lorenzo

Bartolomeo,
misled by circumstances,
learns that appearances can be deceptive

STORY

Bartolomeo is reading his favourite author's poetry, Ponte di Sughero, when suddenly he finds a wounded man in his house. Could it be? Could that man be Ponte di Sughero himself?
(probably not, as the theme of the game jam was "A Delusion")

Made in two weeks for the Adventure Game Challenge.


SCREENSHOTS


Read poetry!*


Explore an entire** house!


Meet the local people!


FEATURES
  • Two colours: black AND white!
  • Characters you can talk to!
  • Characters you can click on! (by doing that, you talk with them)
  • A story so gripping, you'll have forgotten about it five minutes later!
  • Medieval setting! Without dragons or kings!
  • Visit the smallest city you've ever seen!


WHERE CAN I DOWNLOAD IT?

HERE!



CREDITS

Lorenzo Boni: plot, coding, graphics, animations.

Slasher: testing, proofreading.

The game uses Snarky's SpeechBubble Module.

--

*Poetry not included with the game.
**The house features only two rooms and a half.

Mandle

Congratz on a released game, mate! The art shows your signature brilliance!

Cassiebsg

Quote
Two colours: black AND white!

Wait... since black and white aren't technically real colors, you're game is actually colorless!  (laugh)

Congrats on the release, it looks awesome!
There are those who believe that life here began out there...

cat

You got me with the title and the pretty screenshots, so this is the first adventure game I've played since month.

Lovely graphics, ridiculous story, well chosen music. The puzzles were very straight forward, just completing a list of tasks step by step. A small twist here or there would have made the game more interesting.

I was expecting that he would
Spoiler
burn his hand when retrieving the pliers from the fire  :-D
[close]

The ending was hilarious.

I googled the poet to see if he really existed
Spoiler
he didn't
[close]
and your game was already one of the top search results  (laugh)

milkanannan


TheFrighter


Uh! When I saw it on itch.io I was sure at first look that you are behind it, Lorenzo!  :-D

_

lorenzo

Mandle: thanks, mate! I did what I could with the backgrounds and characters, two weeks isn't nearly enough! (laugh)


Cassiebsg: thank you!
Quote from: Cassiebsg on Tue 29/09/2020 20:39:04
Wait... since black and white aren't technically real colors, you're game is actually colorless!  (laugh)
Well, at least the balloons are yellow! ;)


cat: thank you for the small review! I wanted to add a few more puzzles to the game, but there wasn't much time (only two weeks!).
Quote from: cat on Wed 30/09/2020 11:37:04
I was expecting that he would
Spoiler
burn his hand when retrieving the pliers from the fire  :-D
[close]
Haha, I should've added that!

Regarding the poet
Spoiler
he's basically a parody of Dante Alighieri, including the exile and other details. Ponte di Sughero literally means bridge made of cork, so I'm mostly getting people selling bridge models in my searches! (laugh)
[close]


TheFrighter: haha! Let me know if you give the game a try. ;)

Ponch

I was sold as soon as I read the title of this game.  :cheesy:

I was double-sold when I saw the art style. Well worth the $2.

guga2112

I loved it :) and it's one of the few where the goal is directly related to the jam's theme. Well done

Vincent

I played it and I found it very funny, I liked the humor and the graphics were very nice and well done for being created in two weeks, great work as usual and congrats for the release!  :)

Spoiler

I wish a crossover with Clotilde and Bartolomeo as well one day!  :-D
[close]

lorenzo

Ponch: thank you very much for your support!
Finding a title is always so difficult for me, I'm really happy you liked it! The alternative titles I had in mind were even worse. :P
Also, I really appreciate your suggestion for the "pick of the month". Your description made me laugh!

guga2112: thank you! I've been playing The Halloween Party but I've yet to finish it, I've been enjoying it so far!

Vincent: I'm glad you enjoyed the game, thank you for the nice words!
Quote from: Vincent on Thu 01/10/2020 19:17:48
Spoiler

I wish a crossover with Clotilde and Bartolomeo as well one day!  :-D
[close]
Spoiler
Haha, that's highly unlikely, but who knows? Maybe in an episode featuring a time machine. (laugh)
[close]

heltenjon

I've had this one on my to-play-list since you released it, and tonight I finally played it. What a gorgeous comic book feeling! The art is splendid, and though it's a bit easy (more tasks than puzzles), the humour throughout is really entertaining. I just wish it were longer, but I guess 14 days limits the scope. Great snack-sized game! (Now off to vote and rate!)

lorenzo

Thanks for your comment heltenjon!
I agree, the game is a bit too easy. I had some more puzzles planned (including one where you had to find the ingredients for the anesthetic outside the city gate, and convince a guard to let you out) but they would've meant more backgrounds, characters, and so on. I wanted to finish the game while still having some time left to test and polish it.

Every time I tried joining a game jam in the past, I always ran out of time way before the game was playable! So I decided that I'd rather have a finished small game, than an ambitious unfinished one. ;)

Slasher

What can I say?

Lorenzo produced this game within 2 weeks....it all works  and the  graphics were well drawn... love the storyline, music and puzzles....

Great game Lorenzo  (nod)

lorenzo

Quote from: Slasher on Wed 14/10/2020 07:20:20
it all works
Well, that's because you helped me squashing all the bugs. Otherwise I'm not sure it would've worked very well... ;)

FormosaFalanster

It's a very lovely art style, total respect for only using one colour; and what a great theme, a great tribute to your culture  :) I would hope you make a longer version!

lorenzo

Thank you very much, FormosaFalanster!
I'm really happy you enjoyed the theme of the game. :cheesy: I like 14th century Tuscan literature, so I had a lot of fun writing all the references -- even though in a parodic form.

I don't know if I'll make a longer version, but maybe I'll use characters for another small game in the future. In fact, I have an idea for a story, but I'm not sure how well it could be adapted in an adventure game.

FormosaFalanster

Quote from: lorenzo on Fri 16/10/2020 21:19:41
Thank you very much, FormosaFalanster!
I'm really happy you enjoyed the theme of the game. :cheesy: I like 14th century Tuscan literature, so I had a lot of fun writing all the references -- even though in a parodic form.

I don't know if I'll make a longer version, but maybe I'll use characters for another small game in the future. In fact, I have an idea for a story, but I'm not sure how well it could be adapted in an adventure game.

The problem of adapting a story into an adventure game has fascinated me for the last couple years. I was primarily an author and I was surprised, when I started looking into making games, to realize that actually the writing of the story was the hardest thing for me to do: AGS is intuitive enough and with a large supportive community that you can find your way through, and even the artwork you can still outsource. But in fact writing a story for a game is so different from writing a short story.

I reached the conclusion it's about "play don't tell": try to take away as much of story from text itself and try to convey it through the gameplay itself. It is incredibly difficult but I believe this is the ultimate goal.

It is so awesome having a taste for ancient literature. THat promises a lot of original ideas coming from you.

lorenzo

I agree with you. Adapting stories for adventure games is really difficult! In general, I start with the puzzles with only a very vague plot in mind and then try to frame a narration around them.

For the game jam I had to do the opposite, as you were required to follow a theme. That's one of the reasons the puzzles in the game are really easy!

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