Listen - Just a game.

[Denna]

"Listen" is a short adventure game about life and being alive. The game was created by a team of five RPG Maker developers. This was a contribution to the RPG Maker Web Contest.
 
What is it about?

The puppetman is a creature that wanders the earth, unseen by almost everybody who is not close to death, but always ignored. He has almost given up on finding somebody to listen to his stories, when he meets a young girl who lives in a german hospice. As they open up for a quite unusual friendship, the little girl learns more about the puppetman's past and the reason he remains unseen. But can she save him? Or does he save her?
 
Some details
 
Team:

Alexis Hiemis, Crazy_Leen, Denna, Evrey, Pilzchen

Genre:

Puzzle, adventure and a bit drama

Setting:

Modern setting, a hospice in Germany

Languages:

English, German, Spanish, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese

Playtime:

Short game: 1- 2 h

Game Progression:

Revision of the full version released at the rpgmakerweb contest 2014.

Beta phase:

Beta starting on 04/30/2015.

Release date:

The offical release is intended for the 06/01/2015.

Recruitment:

Translators (e.g. Italian, Portuguese, French etc. ), see for further information on that matter the Listen website.

Website:

https://listen-game.de/en/

 
Main characters
 
Girl

The girl lives in a german hospice and suffers from her lonelyness and boredom. Her bigest wish is it to leave the hospice behind and to ride a Ferris wheel.
 
The puppetman

The puppetman is an invisible creature that wanders the earth. Always looking for contact to others and friendship. But his will is nearly broken.
 
Features

• Some tricky puzzles
• Charming characters
• Secrets!
• A minigame with a record-modus after unlocking

Screenshots
 

 
All screenshots

Spoiler

What is this creature that wanders the earth, unseen by everyone?
 

Unseen but sometimes noticed by those who are about to die.
 

He was almost broken when he met a young girl. She can see him! Why?
 

Let's play!

Can we make it to the top?

Push me! Oh, you know what that means?

 
Credits
 

Spoiler

***Story & Idea***
Denna Gherlyn
 
***Story Support***
Alexis Hiemis, Crazy_Leen, Pilzchen, Evrey
 
***Graphic Design***
Denna, Alexis Hiemis, Crazy_Leen, Pilzchen
 
***Scripts***
Ugly Horst, Evrey, Alexis Hiemis
 
***Graphics***
Enterbrain, PandaMaru, Sithjester, Timmah, yms.main.jp, Lune de la Cruor, Denna Gherlyn, Alexis Hiemis, Pilzchen, Evrey
 
***Music***
Crazy_Leen, fri.events Orchestra, Gregoire Lourme, Tyrad, Julien Boulien,
 
***Translators***
Denna (German), Evrey (German), Maca (Spanish)
 
***Previous beta tester***
Sorata, Lone Wolf, ChimaereJade, Darceus

Download it here (all languages included!)

 

[Raider]

I played it short time ago, and I must say it's fantastic

The story is very touching and the atmosphere is brilliant.

Also you can think very much about what the story said, should be more common in games

The puzzles were also nice, all in all a good game with the main focus on the story and puzzles.

 

[Jalal]

It's a great game with a nice and warm story, I was looking for something different(; 

but I got stuck in the first puzzle (the one with the toy horses)... Am I that bad? help!

 

[Denna]

Thank you very much for your feedback.

@Jalal: Problems in the first puzzle? Where exactly?

 

[snail]

It's a very good game! I love this adventure-genre with puzzles, like this game. It's a wonderfull story. Well done!

 

[cabfe]

Just finished playing it and must say that it's brilliant.
That little girl was so cute and felt so real that I really cared about her and

Spoiler

actually felt sad seeing her dying.

Puzzles were fun. The first one in the tower made me think a little more than I thought at first, but it was nicely done.

The animations of the sprites made them alive in a way that no faceshot can do.

The mapping and graphics in general were nicely done. Sometimes if was strange to be able to walk through poles (in the fairground) but I didn't find obvious errors.

The musics were perfectly chosen as well. I loved the piano theme.

That was really a great experience and your game deserves more exposure and recognition.

 

[Adellie]

Hi there, i decided to try your game because the feedback here and on the contest site looked really positive.

Liked:

* Visually pleasing. The graphics were all consistent and blended well together. The maps look stylized, with subtle but effective lighting effects. I particularly like the festival map.

* Bgm choice was good as well.

* I liked the leanback noveling. It was the right speed so i could just eat and watch at the same time. (Although i'd understand if some people would prefer to click after every line too.)

 

Disliked:

* Occasionally it feels slow when the game is out of your control (eg. waiting on horsies to drop). Not a big issue at all.

* A few of the sfx were a little too obvious for my liking. Mostly the scrawling noise and the girl's heavy breathing.

 

Issues: no errors encountered.

 

Overall, I didn't find Listen particularly exciting (just personal taste - I'm pretty particular about stories, and i like more consistent puzzles), but you did a great job with keeping it simple and really polishing what you did have.

 

[Cinnamon]

I just gave the boxes of hair/dresses/clothing to the puppets and nothing happens. Is this the bug you mentioned on the game's page about not saving because there's an error? I can only take one box back, I'm assuming the order is wrong but I can't change it...

 

[Adellie]

Cinnamon:

At first, i got it wrong because i didn't know order mattered. I was able to correct it by picking up one box that was in the wrong place, then exchanging it with the other. (It says you can only hold one box, and then asks you if you want to swap.) It doesn't let you move boxes that were already in the right place.

If i remember correctly, what worked for me was: Dress, Hair, Hat. (top to bottom) 

 

[Cinnamon]

I can only take the middle one back. I think I gave the Hats to that one, but I can't exchange it with the other puppets. If that's a bug I give up, it's the second time I've had to start over. >_< It's a puzzle game I shouldn't feel the need to save before doing everything...

 

[Denna]

First of all, thank you for all your feedback.

@Cinnamon: No, this strange bug(?) with boxes wasn't what I meant. The mechanic of the wood circling on the production line have a problem with saving. The boxes shouldn't be effected by that. Uhmm... did you solve the problem or did you gave up? :/ We'll look into it. It would be much help if you could remember where which box was, but... ^^"

EDIT: We just found the bug. I'm really sorry about that. It's quite annoying to test and test and test and ... and then find out that there are more bugs. -.-

So, for everybody, the correct combination is dresses, hair, hat from top to bottom.

 

[Cinnamon]

Good to hear it's a bug and not me being missing something obvious, haha. Ah, sorry, of course it's not good for you. Will there be a new release with the bugs fixed or should I start over (and save in every area this time, ha)? I really want to finish the game, I love the story so much. >_<

 

[Denna]

There will be a fixed version after the contest, but because of the contest rules I think it isn't a good idea to update the links. I don't want to be disqualified. But I'll ask if I can offer a bugfixed version next to the bug-version. :X

In the bug-version don't save in the factory. It's not a good idea D:

 

[Cinnamon]

Haha, so no saving either. Got it. =p

I don't think you can even update the download link (you shouldn't try, though) but it'd be awesome if you could offer an update in the comments section. I haven't seen your code but fixing the boxes issue should be possible without having to restart. I'm assuming it's a problem of certain event pages getting wrongful priority over the ones that should be active?

 

[Denna]

We've now released a bugfixed version in the comments.

 

[Indrah]

Here's my very quick and sketchy take on the game (link for info on why it's so short and all that jazz)




+Good use of behavior poses and sprites.

+Interesting concept for the doll character.

+Nice intro music.

+Good sound effect design.

+Nice and clean mapping.

-Hard to tell what the GOAL is.

-Intro feels a bit slow.

-Intro is totally automated, I can’t even press the text advance.

-No music during “gameplay” section.

-Can be hard to tell what the doll is actually doing.

-The pale orange windowskin doesn’t mesh so well with the white text.

-The game totally loses steam by the time it comes to “gameplay”.

To the developer: My main beef with this game is that once the “intro” is over we still have no idea what the goal of the game IS, and to make things worse the music is gone and it’s all unrelated item find and use puzzles? It doesn’t make for a very compelling experience.

While the characters are not unlikeable, they lack a certain something. If they’re all we really have to work with, they’re a bit bland. Ultimately the game does not seem to ENGAGE the player that much.

I’d recommend establishing or at least hinting at the goal of the game and to PLEASE put some music on during the gameplay section.

 

[Denna]

PLEASE put some music on during the gameplay section.

I've no idea why you don't have music there. There's definitely music inserted and the most of the people didn't have any problems with that. (As far as I know, of course.) May I ask which operation system you use? So that we can see if we can replicate this problem.

 

[Cinnamon]

^

I didn't have music in the horsey room either. Windows 7.

 

[Indrah]

I use Windows XP, but I've never come across a problm with the sound in RM games.

 

[Denna]

Very strange. O.ô

I use Win7, too, and I have sound. D: And no error? Nothing? I'm sorry but I really have no idea where the problem is. I'll talk to my team and try to find a solution or rather find the problem.

First I thought that you use Win8 because we had problems with the sound there related to the codec. But... Maybe it's this time, too. I hope so, because to find another reason why the sound doesn't work will be difficult. Especially when no one of us can replicate the problem.