The Nymph’s Laugh
A downloadable game for Windows
In this game (which I created in the Visionaire 5), a young farmer named Avon has ventured into the mystic marshes, looking for his wife, a nymph. To reach her, Avon must learn to read emotions other than his own human feelings.
This story is inspired by a short tale that I have read in a book by Brian Froud. The tale of a misunderstanding between a human and a nymph because she can't express emotions well in human ways has always resonated with me.
My impetus to make this game for the Adventure Game Challenge (in about less than a week) was to take the opportunity to get something done quickly and not get carried away by perfectionism.
In order to create this game as quickly as possible, the game's backgrounds as well as the base images for the protagonist's closeup were AI-generated, but then edited by myself. This might be considered artistically questionable, so I want to be honest about this.
Although the game's puzzle mechanic is always the same, each playthrough is a little bit different, as all major elements revolving around the puzzle are randomized [MILD SPOILERS]:
- NPCs' positions, poses, tints, emotions, and texts are randomized.
- The locations of puzzle-items are randomly scattered.
- The correspondence between emotions and expressions gets shuffled, which also affects the puzzle-combination.
- The nymphs' language is procedurally generated according to a pre-determined phonetic rule-set.
Download
Install instructions
Unpack the .zip and run the executable.
(Watch out, Windows Defender MIGHT wrongfully identify the .exe as a trojan named "Bearfoos.A!ml" -- a problem which Windows Defender seems to have with other games for several years now. If that happens to you, you should be able to manually whitelist the game's .exe or its folder in the Windows Defender settings by adding it as an exception.)
Development log
- FIXED Intro, Outro, and Pixel-HuntingOct 22, 2022
- AI-Generated Art – Original vs. EditedOct 22, 2022
- Small Fix for Randomized PositionsSep 25, 2022
- "Day One Patch" for The Nymph's LaughSep 25, 2022
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Nice interpretation of the jam's theme. I like how technically, they were both strangers in a strange land. :)
That's a great Point, about them both being Strangers in a stange Land. I do feel for both Characters and wanted the Protagonist to grow by being exposed to a similar Situation she had gone through. You have formulated that very on point. :)
Sidenote about your Video, I actually thought of it as such that his Wife had learned his Language and spoke it when they lived together, but I get that I didn't convey that clearly. Thank you for the LetsPlay! :)
Ah, well even knowing human language the nymph didn't know how to behave among humans. It would actually be cool to have an adventure from her perspective. :)
Can you show your pre-edited images? I'm curious to see what the AI made initially, especially for the backgrounds.
I have prepared a few Comparison-Images for a Dev-Log in which I'll show and describe the Edits, but it looks like I can't create any new Dev-Logs until the Jam's Estimation-Time is over. I'll comment again to inform you once the Dev-Log is up. But here's a Sneak-Peak. :)
Very cool. Thank you.
Here is my new Dev-Log about the AI-related Art-Process. :)
AI-Generated Art – Original vs. Edited - The Nymph’s Laugh by Christopher A. Summer (itch.io)
(I'm not sure if I could have published this Dev-Log earlier, maybe the itch-io Jam-Rules and Interface just confused me.)
Great write-up! Thanks for going into such detail about this.
I really liked this folklore inspired tale. It's interesting to see AI art in a game - it works really well, and of course, the game is good on its own. The game is really one long puzzle, which also makes up the story. Recommended!
One minor gripe is that one of the strong suits, the replayability through randomization, may not fit with what is told in the intro.
Thank you very much! :) Yes, that is true, I was wondering whether I should let him say those two Lines in the Intro or not -- maybe I should replace them with something less specific.
In my Head-Canon, his Wife just may have tried to express Emotions different from what would naturally come to her, and in doing so, she messed up on both Sides... but if that were the Explanation, it would have to be said ingame, and that would unnecessarily complicate the Ending.
Thank you for pointing it out, I'll think about it. :)
Short and snappy. Good job on the art, puzzle, music and writing.
Thank you, glad you appreciated it. :)
Wow, for me this has a good chance of winning. Reminiscent of the adventure games of the 90s, beautiful backgrounds and characters, fitting music, a clear goal to achieve. Not much puzzling to it, but a short fairy tale worth the experience. Good job!
Thank you so much, Johnny! :)
Very nice work :)
Thank you! :)
Thank you! :)
A wonderful little game.
I really liked how you slowly revealed the cause of the misunderstanding. The background are truly gorgeous, as are the closeups of the characters. (I don't know how much you edited, but you did a wonderful job ^^) You created an enchanting atmosphere with fitting music and the fog-effects.
Thanks for this little gem.^^