The Witch's Lullaby

Honza · Tue 27/12/2022 17:11:43

Famed for its mushrooming business and idyllic countryside, the land of Fungham has seen better days. A child has gone missing, a demonic witch haunts the woods and if you're not careful, gnomes will take your socks. Also, there is a pig king... don't ask. But why have all these creatures suddenly appeared? Where did the witch come from and what does she want? Could the answer to everything lie behind the ancient gate in the nearby mountains?

The Witch's Lullaby is a classical point and click adventure, somewhat reminiscent of games like King's Quest or Legend of Kyrandia. It was made in two weeks for AdvJam 2022 and it ended up ranking #1 in the jam.

Windowed mode recommended if you have a low tolerance for blurry pixels

.

Check it out here:
ITCH | AGS database

Credits:

Written, drawn and coded by Jan Vávra

Music by Paco Diago

Sound by Maxim Grachev / freesound.org

Lullaby lyrics by Kasia "Hitohai" Wasylak

There is also a full-length, high-res (or, rather, somewhat-higher-res

) remake in the works. Here's a small preview:

Enjoy!

arj0n · Tue 27/12/2022 18:46:27

Nice job, gratz on the release!

heltenjon · Tue 27/12/2022 21:29:54

Here's what I wrote about the game in the jam thread when it came out:

Quote from: heltenjon on Fri 19/08/2022 00:36:51I played Honza's The Witch's Lullaby, the overall winner of the Jam. This is an amazing short/medium game. The graphics, story, music, story and characters are all top notch. I also think this one has the best pixel hunt mechanic I've ever seen. Highly recommended!

I still stand by this.

Edit: Even though I squared the "story".

glurex · Tue 27/12/2022 23:12:13

I loved the game when I played it in the Jam. So I'm looking forward for the remake!

Shadow1000 · Wed 28/12/2022 20:41:17

I played this game last night.

- Top-notch, professional-grade storybook backgrounds and characters. Well designed maps and no effort was spared to design an explorable world with so much to look at.
- Great story and interesting characters. The story unfolds at the perfect pace to draw the player into the game and make you want to keep playing.
- I found the puzzles to be delightful to solve and got a lot of satisfaction out of how my mind was moving constantly, putting together all the different things to do to get through the puzzles. I never found any of the puzzles frustrating. I will say that despite all this, they were on the easier side, and were solved quite intuitively. My absolute FAVOURITE puzzle was:

Spoiler

The pig-head tracking. I think I may have seen something like this in the past but it is DEFINITELY a creative way to give hints as to where to look

[close]

Overall, exceptional work and congrats.

Honza · Mon 16/01/2023 21:07:39

Thanks everyone for the nice feedback! If you decide to also leave a rating/comment on the game's page, that's always appreciated

. Meanwhile, here's another look at how the remake is coming along:

The Great Underground Empire · Wed 05/04/2023 00:08:07

Copy-pasting this from the actual game page, because it deserves to be said more than once:

This was absolutely gorgeous, well designed, well executed, just a brilliant short adventure.

The story was wonderful, and the mood was borderline-storybook-scary without ever veering into actual horror, which I appreciated.

The dialogue was excellent, always driving driving plot forward and showing depth to the characters.

Art and animation were beautiful, I can't wait to see the full graphical remake.

The one bit with the clever game mechanic - you'll know when you see it - OH MY GOD I loved that so much. Like every other puzzle in this, it wasn't too hard, juuust sneaky enough that when you catch on to it, you still feel satisfied for figuring it out.

Even the last couple sentences of the closing made me smile.

Jan, you've outdone yourself, which is really saying something with the quality of everything you make.

ThreeOhFour · Wed 05/04/2023 17:10:00

Hey man, cool game! LOTS of scenes to walk in for two weeks work, very impressive. And the kind of settings I like, with weirdo statues and fungi and things. Also you had an interesting idea behind your story which I always appreciate. Great stuff all around.

Honza · Sun 09/04/2023 19:18:50

Quote from: The Great Underground Empire on Wed 05/04/2023 00:08:07Copy-pasting this from the actual game page, because it deserves to be said more than once:

This was absolutely gorgeous, well designed, well executed, just a brilliant short adventure.

Quote from: ThreeOhFour on Wed 05/04/2023 17:10:00Hey man, cool game! LOTS of scenes to walk in for two weeks work, very impressive. And the kind of settings I like, with weirdo statues and fungi and things. Also you had an interesting idea behind your story which I always appreciate. Great stuff all around.

Thanks guys, really happy you enjoyed the game!

Quote from: The Great Underground Empire on Wed 05/04/2023 00:08:07Art and animation were beautiful, I can't wait to see the full graphical remake.

Thanks again good sir

. The basic remake of the jam version is finished, now the plan is to keep adding more content until it can pass for a full (albeit probably still shorter) game. I've been posting screenshots on Twitter if anyone wants to check them out: https://twitter.com/hnzvavra. Here's one of those:

DBoyWheeler · Sun 09/04/2023 22:05:52

I briefly saw a playthrough of this on Future Vintage Gaming on YouTube.

Just the first few sightings of the Veiled Lady alone had me thinking "Where's our paranormal hero Trilby when you need him?"

Anyway, hats off to this game's creator.