Flatwoods

[VisitorsFromDreams]

Flatwoods is a small adventure game built in RPG Maker MV with a Game Boy Color inspired color palette, a heavy emphasis on hand drawn animated cutscenes, and with two endings. You are Lemon, a small child that feels a great need to uncover the mystery of the "shooting star" that has just flown over your home and landed somewhere in the woods nearby. Loosely based on the story of The Flatwoods Monster.
 


Features:

• Original pixel art inspired by the color pallet of the Game Boy Color
  
• Fully animated, hand drawn cutscenes.
  
• Original soundtrack
  
• Lots of interesting facts about Turnips
  

This is my first game and designed to be a quaint experience (between 10 - 30 minutes) for the player, and an educational experience for myself.


If the trailer tickles your fancy you can download the game from rpgmaker.net here: https://rpgmaker.net/games/8849/
It can also be downloaded from itch.io here: https://visitorsfromdreams.itch.io/flatwoods
OR it can be played within your browser on Newgrounds here: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/682358

Mac OS X version requires Mac OS X 10.10 or better. (I have heard of some issues relating to the OS X version and these problems seem to the related to the way the WebM video format which is used heavily throughout the game runs on the operating system. I have done what I can to minimize these problems in v1.0.3).


You can follow the progress on this game over on its dedicated development blog:


http://flatwoodsgame.tumblr.comhttp://flatwoodsgame.tumblr.com/


You can also follow me on Twitter here:


https://twitter.com/visitorsdreamshttps://twitter.com/visitorsdreams


Flatwoods also features an original soundtrack by Jake Tracey:


https://soundcloud.com/kungfukidhttps://soundcloud.com/kungfukid



Thanks for any and all feedback, and I look forward to talking to you in the comments below as well as getting started on a more substantial game project for you all now that I feel more comfortable with the engine.


- Daniel
Visitors From Dreams

 

[JRibbons]

Love the look of this, short and story-focused!


Will get into it this weekend. 

 

[VisitorsFromDreams]

Love the look of this, short and story-focused!


Will get into it this weekend. 

I hope you enjoy it! Getting feedback for it hasn't been easy, ha ha.

 

[barnzie8]

Downloaded and beat the game. Nice atmosphere, a E.T feel, rather than spooky experience. The cut scenes were great, reminded me of cartoon network. Liked that the majority of items have a unique description, from bookshelves, turnips, dead trees and each chicken having its own name. It is definitely a easy game, the most difficulty i had was getting a bit lost in the woods but it didn't take long to get my bearings. More challenges or some puzzles would improve the game imo.


On the endings.

Spoiler

I collected all the metal first try, on replay missed them all, i assume these are the two endings? Two of the turnips in the forest have the same description by the way.

Looking forward to your  more substantial game.

 

[VisitorsFromDreams]

Downloaded and beat the game. Nice atmosphere, a E.T feel, rather than spooky experience. The cut scenes were great, reminded me of cartoon network. Liked that the majority of items have a unique description, from bookshelves, turnips, dead trees and each chicken having its own name. It is definitely a easy game, the most difficulty i had was getting a bit lost in the woods but it didn't take long to get my bearings. More challenges or some puzzles would improve the game imo.


On the endings.

Spoiler

I collected all the metal first try, on replay missed them all, i assume these are the two endings? Two of the turnips in the forest have the same description by the way.

Looking forward to your  more substantial game.

I am glad you enjoyed the game, and took the time to get all the turnips ha ha. Yup, those were the 2 endings, not many people have gotten the good ending first try from the comments and I have reviews I have gotten so good on you for pulling that off! Must have forgotten to change one of those turnip facts, oops.

My next game will be much larger, I am hoping around the 3 - 5 hour range, development will be starting in December so I am really looking forward to it, going to enjoy this break for now tho, ha ha.

 

[palinskyjoe]

This was a quick and fun game. I absolutely loved the artwork and the Game Boy Color aesthetic. Those animated scenes were a blast. Thanks for the entertainment and kudos on the game itself.

 

[VisitorsFromDreams]

This was a quick and fun game. I absolutely loved the artwork and the Game Boy Color aesthetic. Those animated scenes were a blast. Thanks for the entertainment and kudos on the game itself.

Hey! It makes me happy to know so many people are enjoying my dinky little game, ha ha.

 

[JRibbons]

I really enjoyed this! Loved the art and animation and the sense of discovery. 


You said getting feedback hasn't been easy, so here's a couple of thoughts I had: I felt the music could have been a little more tonally consistent. While I loved the tracks separately, they didn't all mesh for me. I also thought the animation with Lemon leaving the house could have been maybe a beat faster - he looks back over his shoulder at the house, but it doesn't add to the 'story' because you don't cut back to a shot of the house (e.g. the back of his mother watching tv through the window) and therefore simply slows down that cut scene. Minor quibbles. 


Well done on your first game! Awesome. 

 

[VisitorsFromDreams]

I really enjoyed this! Loved the art and animation and the sense of discovery. 


You said getting feedback hasn't been easy, so here's a couple of thoughts I had: I felt the music could have been a little more tonally consistent. While I loved the tracks separately, they didn't all mesh for me. I also thought the animation with Lemon leaving the house could have been maybe a beat faster - he looks back over his shoulder at the house, but it doesn't add to the 'story' because you don't cut back to a shot of the house (e.g. the back of his mother watching tv through the window) and therefore simply slows down that cut scene. Minor quibbles. 


Well done on your first game! Awesome. 

Thanks for all the feedback mate, every little bit helps with the next project!

I can see your in Australia, I am an Australian living in Canada at the moment working as an animator, but I am hoping to move back again in April next year, grew up around Nimbin, kind of influenced the feel of the forest a bit. Where about's are you from if you don't mind me asking?

 

[JRibbons]

No worries!


Nice, drove close to Nimbin earlier this year - some interesting forestry around there for sure. 


I'm from Sydney How are you coping with Nova Scotia? Isn't it freezing and windy ie the opposite of Queensland?

 

[Thego]

Nice work! Fun to play and it doesn't seems like a first game at all with the incredible work you have done with the art and amazing animation. I will certainly be waiting for your "more substantial work".


Any way, just curious, which hardware/software do you use for your animations process? 

 

[VisitorsFromDreams]

Nice work! Fun to play and it doesn't seems like a first game at all with the incredible work you have done with the art and amazing animation. I will certainly be waiting for your "more substantial work".


Any way, just curious, which hardware/software do you use for your animations process? 

Hey thanks! I spend a lot of time watching game design videos and try to apply as much as I can. I've also played enough RPG Maker games to know what I personally don't like and so I tried to avoid those short comings where I could. Still got some mistakes made in retrospect but I am happy with it for a first effort. You can follow my blog which has posts like this one on the map design for my next game right here if you find that sort of thing interesting.

In terms of animation, these cutscenes were made with a mix of Adobe Animate and After Effects, those tend to be the two tools I use most in the work place (along with Premier) so it was fun using them on my own personal project. You can check out my most recent showreel below to get a better idea of the sort of work I do.
 









Thanks again for the comments!

 

[Vox Novus]

Been playing games suited to the upcoming holiday of Halloween so I couldn't help but try this out. I don't have an incredible amount of feedback because of the shortness of it and over all job well done on your part for what the game was.


Love the custom graphics, you captured the look you wanted perfectly; makes me miss my old gameboy color. The music suited what was going on to, had a retro feel to it while still seeming modern-ish. Massive amount of credit goes to you for the animation work, beautiful stuff indeed. I also found it fun to examine and interact with everything to read the different descriptions. It was a simple game but I enjoyed the brief experience and it would definitely be a nice game to play late at night when in the mood for something relaxing to go with the atmosphere.


I don't have any major negatives to point out because you were trying to achieve something pretty specific here and I think you accomplished that. I could say I would have liked to play more and have it be longer or something a little more challenging to do but I don't think that's necessarily any fault of the game.


The only improvements I can suggest are grammatical. Since I knew this was a short game, I took note of the ones I found while playing (I'll add the fixes in a green text color):

Spoiler

-I think this is one of my little brothers (should be brother's) books. 


-I just saw a shooting star heading for Mr (Mr.) Fishers (Fisher's) farm.


-I found the house key on Mothers (Mother's) dresser


It’s a story about someone known as “the batter”. ("the batter.") Sounds interesting!


-Mr (Mr.) Fishers (Fisher's) Farm


-He is a grouchy old man, I hope he doesnt (doesn't) catch me.


-The doors (door is or you can use door's) locked.


-I feel bad about taking it tho (though).

 

[vannt93]

Awesome! Love it

 

[VisitorsFromDreams]

Been playing games suited to the upcoming holiday of Halloween so I couldn't help but try this out. I don't have an incredible amount of feedback because of the shortness of it and over all job well done on your part for what the game was.


Love the custom graphics, you captured the look you wanted perfectly; makes me miss my old gameboy color. The music suited what was going on to, had a retro feel to it while still seeming modern-ish. Massive amount of credit goes to you for the animation work, beautiful stuff indeed. I also found it fun to examine and interact with everything to read the different descriptions. It was a simple game but I enjoyed the brief experience and it would definitely be a nice game to play late at night when in the mood for something relaxing to go with the atmosphere.


I don't have any major negatives to point out because you were trying to achieve something pretty specific here and I think you accomplished that. I could say I would have liked to play more and have it be longer or something a little more challenging to do but I don't think that's necessarily any fault of the game.


The only improvements I can suggest are grammatical. Since I knew this was a short game, I took note of the ones I found while playing (I'll add the fixes in a green text color):

Spoiler

-I think this is one of my little brothers (should be brother's) books. 


-I just saw a shooting star heading for Mr (Mr.) Fishers (Fisher's) farm.


-I found the house key on Mothers (Mother's) dresser


It’s a story about someone known as “the batter”. ("the batter.") Sounds interesting!


-Mr (Mr.) Fishers (Fisher's) Farm


-He is a grouchy old man, I hope he doesnt (doesn't) catch me.


-The doors (door is or you can use door's) locked.


-I feel bad about taking it tho (though).

Im glad you had a good time with my dinky little game, ha ha.

Those grammatical issues (the ones with ' missing anyway) was more due to issues with the font. It did contain one but it didn't read well. I know a lot of older Game Boy games dropped everything but full stops and exclamation marks to save on cart space, so I kind of thought it would help replicate that feel a bit. I can totally understand why it would bother people though.
 

Awesome! Love it

Thank you kind sir/madam. ^^