Also, I know this game was created five years ago, but I was wondering if you had thought of the full backstory of the main character. When looking at the village houses, they say that sometimes they wonder if their parents are still secretly living in the village. Did you ever decide what actually happened to them, or did you only intend for it to be left ambiguous? Even if it's not considered "canon", do you have your own ideas as to what you think the backstory there is?
Yes. I explore it a little in the narrative but I don't think I ever directly say what happened. The main character is a child who was left at Grandma's house by their parents one weekend and they never returned.
It's possible the parents had some financial difficulty and couldn't afford to raise their child, but it's never explicitly clear why they left. It was purposefully left hazy to reflect the perspective of abandonment and uncertainty. One can only know the resulting actions and hardly ever the motivation.
It's a maternal story, and I strongly believe that while writing it the grandmother was the child's mother's mother. You can infer from the grandmother the traits of the mother.
I never explicitly mention the child's gender or physical traits so that the player can Quantum Leap into the story with the greatest of ease - but the child is curious and lonely and they rarely interact with other children (X CHILDREN at the foot of the hill).
Playing back through the game I note other aspects that were explored about the family dynamic, like the grandfather keeping the family together until he passed away.
The village sits on a horizon that can be explored mentally but not physically. It may as well be another country from the player's perspective.
Thank you for your comments! It's been a lovely moment of reflection.
I really appreciate your insights! I definitely feel like I picked up on most of those aspects of the story through my repeated playthroughs, but it was great to hear them from your perspective! It's easy to tell how much thought and love was put into this story, and I hope you know that so many people appreciate it and you for it!
What with it being October and thus fall again, I decided to revisit this game. I am so glad that I did! It's easy to see how much love and attention to detail was included in here, and I'm so grateful for such a wonderful story and gameplay experience! I'm so glad that you're still active and still making games. I hope you have a great life!
It's so nice to have you back at Grandma's cottage! I can't believe I made this a full five years ago. It feels like only last year. Writing the game was very therapeutic. I wrote it at a time as I was coming to terms with some of the flawed people in my life and understanding that love is a complex and nuanced thing. I'm glad that shines through if only a little.
Based on your hints in the comments and a lot of exploring, I think I got almost everything! I remembered the holidaymakers, my parents, had a cave monster hallucination at night, and even saw the lake monster (but I didn't do it all on one playthrough.. I wonder what happens then).
I didn't know if there was actually a magic word though :)
Anyway, really beautiful palette and art. I definitely need to play around with textmode, I really like the style.
Hey, lovely game and graphics. If I may ask: How did you prevent Adventuron from going full-screen on game start? I couldn't figure out how to stop mine from immediately jumping into fullscreen, but I notice some other Adventuron games on itch are able to do it
I can't quite remember. It may be a setting in itch.io, but I also remember changing the default CSS so that the content scales to the screen differently than the default.
Thank you so much! I used Adventuron to make the game during the Adventuron cavejam :~) The artwork is an art medium called textmode. I used RexPaint for that but you might also like to try playscii or lvllvl.com
I loved it! The writing and the palette of the art feel rustic, and the flavourtext hiding everywhere like little mushrooms are a delight to discover. I found all mushrooms and tried making the most tasty stew possible, and then the most poisonous stew possible. The artwork is a joy to revisit. I wish it showed pictures of the different mushrooms you find, which the Itch page background seems to have the artworks done for already. I didn't discover the save & load feature until later, but it was nice to have for experimenting with different stew recipes.
Showing the different mushrooms would've been great! If I ever revisit I'll have to plug that in.
Your end game experience will also change depending on the events that occur in the game - whether you get prickled by thorns, or stung by bees, what you do or don't know of your parents, or if you see the easteregg. I don't think anyone has ever seen them all. I'm not sure if anyone has ever seen the hallucination monster ending, and at this point even I can't remember how to get it :~)
Thank you so much for playing. I hope you enjoyed mixing the mushrooms.
Amazing game! And amazing artwork. I haven't played a lot of text adventures before, but this game really made me interested in the genre.
I'm still not done, missing two mushrooms (I have tall, indigo, striped, russet, inky, skinny, broad and golden) and probably a lot of easter eggs, judging by the ending text.
A small bug: "EXAMINE TREE" works in all (?) rooms and says "The skinny sycamore tree has taken root is not here".
Thanks for noticing! How annoying. That'll be down to the engine's default behaviour for 'examine' looking for an object. I think that's why I created the 'look' command (that and accessibility reasons). Must be an engine thing because it looks like the message appears after you've examined the sycamore tree once. If I ever revisit the code I'll be sure to fix this, alongside things like 'listen/hear' and 'smell' text.
Good work on finding so many mushrooms! The ending changes under many different situations, not just the completion of the game. If you find no mushrooms, for example, or if you add different mushrooms to the stew, or if you don't find certain objects.
Thanks so much for investing so much time into the game! If you want to complete it 100% you should also try different combinations of mushrooms: they trigger different lines of ending text which describe different aspects of the story.
In the expected run of the game it's not possible to go beyond the gate. There's a room for the path, but it's empty. The exit is just there to make the world seem larger.
People who get out early can see the lake monster.
Did you also remember the holidaymakers? Have you seen the mural? Did you remember your parents? Have you had any of the halucination endings?
Also useful to know: You can use a SAVE command to save the game's state once you have all the mushrooms. However, getting scratches/stings may also effect the endings - as well as remembering (or not remembering) certain events.
things i'm still stuck on - holiday makers, remembering what happened to my parents, and the old magic word. argh! I swear I've investigated everything! but that just gives it more and more replay value I think :
For the first two, you can find them by exploring nouns which appear in descriptions. The last one is an old text gaming joke - a magic word from old computer games.
I'm stuck ;( I read the book and went outside, have walked in circles (cottage, thorns, tree, gate, lake, statue, bees, pile) but I don't seem to be able to take anything or do anything. Any hint?
No, they're similar but slightly different commands. Look is sort of an alias for examine but without the built-in engine functionality which can cause hiccups.
This game is so cool! The fact that there are many eastereggs made this game even more enjoyable. Can't wait to find all of them. Such a Fantastic game this is. Well done Poly :D
Fantastic game! As a casual, I was able to complete (one ending) in about 20m, which is perfect for a little adventure like this one. The scene art is incredible, and I found the descriptions and clues to be well crafted. Thoroughly enjoy revisiting areas I had seen before once I caught onto the idea of where to look for mushrooms. Well done!
Very cool game! I've found all the mushrooms. I didn't understand the meaning of the picture on the cave, and what are the holidaymakers, tough. Any tips?
The picture is a reference to an old computer game called 'Hunt the Wumpus' - a game credited with being one of the very first survival horror games. The Wumpus is illustrated in textmode. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunt_the_Wumpus
The holidaymakers memory is findable a few layers deep near a hillside.
Thank you so much! :D Each of the images took 2-3 hours a piece. Except the lake, which was more like six hours. It was fun to do it but I'm certainly glad it's over haha
← Return to game
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Also, I know this game was created five years ago, but I was wondering if you had thought of the full backstory of the main character. When looking at the village houses, they say that sometimes they wonder if their parents are still secretly living in the village. Did you ever decide what actually happened to them, or did you only intend for it to be left ambiguous? Even if it's not considered "canon", do you have your own ideas as to what you think the backstory there is?
Yes. I explore it a little in the narrative but I don't think I ever directly say what happened. The main character is a child who was left at Grandma's house by their parents one weekend and they never returned.
It's possible the parents had some financial difficulty and couldn't afford to raise their child, but it's never explicitly clear why they left. It was purposefully left hazy to reflect the perspective of abandonment and uncertainty. One can only know the resulting actions and hardly ever the motivation.
It's a maternal story, and I strongly believe that while writing it the grandmother was the child's mother's mother. You can infer from the grandmother the traits of the mother.
I never explicitly mention the child's gender or physical traits so that the player can Quantum Leap into the story with the greatest of ease - but the child is curious and lonely and they rarely interact with other children (X CHILDREN at the foot of the hill).
Playing back through the game I note other aspects that were explored about the family dynamic, like the grandfather keeping the family together until he passed away.
The village sits on a horizon that can be explored mentally but not physically. It may as well be another country from the player's perspective.
Thank you for your comments! It's been a lovely moment of reflection.
I really appreciate your insights! I definitely feel like I picked up on most of those aspects of the story through my repeated playthroughs, but it was great to hear them from your perspective! It's easy to tell how much thought and love was put into this story, and I hope you know that so many people appreciate it and you for it!
What with it being October and thus fall again, I decided to revisit this game. I am so glad that I did! It's easy to see how much love and attention to detail was included in here, and I'm so grateful for such a wonderful story and gameplay experience! I'm so glad that you're still active and still making games. I hope you have a great life!
It's so nice to have you back at Grandma's cottage! I can't believe I made this a full five years ago. It feels like only last year. Writing the game was very therapeutic. I wrote it at a time as I was coming to terms with some of the flawed people in my life and understanding that love is a complex and nuanced thing. I'm glad that shines through if only a little.
I hope you too have a great life :~)
Based on your hints in the comments and a lot of exploring, I think I got almost everything! I remembered the holidaymakers, my parents, had a cave monster hallucination at night, and even saw the lake monster (but I didn't do it all on one playthrough.. I wonder what happens then).
I didn't know if there was actually a magic word though :)
Anyway, really beautiful palette and art. I definitely need to play around with textmode, I really like the style.
I know you commented three years ago, but I must have opened the comment in another tab to reply and then eventually had to shut down.
Thanks so much for engaging so sincerely with the game.
There is a common magic word used in interactive fiction games that most hardcore players try out. I don't even remember if it does anything.
Thank you for playing. I hope you eventually tried textmode art!
such a beautiful game! i love story based games and the art is amazing
Thank you so much, I'm glad you enjoyed it :)
Hey, lovely game and graphics. If I may ask: How did you prevent Adventuron from going full-screen on game start? I couldn't figure out how to stop mine from immediately jumping into fullscreen, but I notice some other Adventuron games on itch are able to do it
Thank you!
I can't quite remember. It may be a setting in itch.io, but I also remember changing the default CSS so that the content scales to the screen differently than the default.
This game is awesome!! What engine did you use to make it?
Thank you so much! I used Adventuron to make the game during the Adventuron cavejam :~)
The artwork is an art medium called textmode. I used RexPaint for that but you might also like to try playscii or lvllvl.com
Ah neat!! Thanks so much, it turned out amazing
I loved it! The writing and the palette of the art feel rustic, and the flavourtext hiding everywhere like little mushrooms are a delight to discover. I found all mushrooms and tried making the most tasty stew possible, and then the most poisonous stew possible. The artwork is a joy to revisit. I wish it showed pictures of the different mushrooms you find, which the Itch page background seems to have the artworks done for already. I didn't discover the save & load feature until later, but it was nice to have for experimenting with different stew recipes.
Showing the different mushrooms would've been great! If I ever revisit I'll have to plug that in.
Your end game experience will also change depending on the events that occur in the game - whether you get prickled by thorns, or stung by bees, what you do or don't know of your parents, or if you see the easteregg. I don't think anyone has ever seen them all. I'm not sure if anyone has ever seen the hallucination monster ending, and at this point even I can't remember how to get it :~)
Thank you so much for playing. I hope you enjoyed mixing the mushrooms.
Amazing game! And amazing artwork. I haven't played a lot of text adventures before, but this game really made me interested in the genre.
I'm still not done, missing two mushrooms (I have tall, indigo, striped, russet, inky, skinny, broad and golden) and probably a lot of easter eggs, judging by the ending text.
A small bug: "EXAMINE TREE" works in all (?) rooms and says "The skinny sycamore tree has taken root is not here".
Thanks for noticing! How annoying. That'll be down to the engine's default behaviour for 'examine' looking for an object. I think that's why I created the 'look' command (that and accessibility reasons). Must be an engine thing because it looks like the message appears after you've examined the sycamore tree once. If I ever revisit the code I'll be sure to fix this, alongside things like 'listen/hear' and 'smell' text.
Good work on finding so many mushrooms! The ending changes under many different situations, not just the completion of the game. If you find no mushrooms, for example, or if you add different mushrooms to the stew, or if you don't find certain objects.
If I got your juices running for text games, also check out "Hunter, in darkness", "A dark room" and "Hoist Sail for the Heliopause and home".
Hi,
I love your game Mushromm Hunt.
I'm on http://www.fiction-interactive.fr/ and i write a few interactiv fictions www.inkypinky.blog.
I use Inform 7 ou Ink.
Would it be possible to make a French translation of your game, using Inform 7 ? Just for fun. No commercial use of course .
I would be glad of it !
Thanks
Stéphane
great game! i'm looking to 100% the game. things i'm still stuck on: getting past the gate, seeing the lake monster. got any hints?
Thanks so much for investing so much time into the game! If you want to complete it 100% you should also try different combinations of mushrooms: they trigger different lines of ending text which describe different aspects of the story.
In the expected run of the game it's not possible to go beyond the gate. There's a room for the path, but it's empty. The exit is just there to make the world seem larger.
People who get out early can see the lake monster.
Did you also remember the holidaymakers? Have you seen the mural? Did you remember your parents? Have you had any of the halucination endings?
Also useful to know: You can use a SAVE command to save the game's state once you have all the mushrooms. However, getting scratches/stings may also effect the endings - as well as remembering (or not remembering) certain events.
Couldn't stop playing! This was lovely in all ways :) amazing work
things i'm still stuck on - holiday makers, remembering what happened to my parents, and the old magic word. argh! I swear I've investigated everything! but that just gives it more and more replay value I think :
For the first two, you can find them by exploring nouns which appear in descriptions. The last one is an old text gaming joke - a magic word from old computer games.
Thanks so much for playing! :)
Fun Game I loved it!
i love this game...
i played through it a bunch of times but cannot for the life of me find the last mushroom! :( (or find the lake monster but was that a joke?)
other than that it was super fun!!! recommend totally
There is special text for the lake monster if you meet a certain set of conditions clued in the game. Which mushrooms did you find?
Thanks so much for playing! :)
I'm stuck ;( I read the book and went outside, have walked in circles (cottage, thorns, tree, gate, lake, statue, bees, pile) but I don't seem to be able to take anything or do anything. Any hint?
You should try LOOKing at nouns in the room descriptions, and the nouns those descriptions provide :)
Don't you mean EXAMINEing? :)
No, they're similar but slightly different commands. Look is sort of an alias for examine but without the built-in engine functionality which can cause hiccups.
Aha! I didn't notice that. I guess I always use X as a shorthand for EXAMINE...
Yeah, with the exception of a few bugs (like your X TREE bug), they're pretty much identical!
Thanks so much :)
This game is so cool! The fact that there are many eastereggs made this game even more enjoyable. Can't wait to find all of them. Such a Fantastic game this is. Well done Poly :D
Fantastic game! As a casual, I was able to complete (one ending) in about 20m, which is perfect for a little adventure like this one. The scene art is incredible, and I found the descriptions and clues to be well crafted. Thoroughly enjoy revisiting areas I had seen before once I caught onto the idea of where to look for mushrooms. Well done!
Digging the art in this one.
Very cool game! I've found all the mushrooms. I didn't understand the meaning of the picture on the cave, and what are the holidaymakers, tough. Any tips?
The picture is a reference to an old computer game called 'Hunt the Wumpus' - a game credited with being one of the very first survival horror games. The Wumpus is illustrated in textmode.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunt_the_Wumpus
The holidaymakers memory is findable a few layers deep near a hillside.
Congratulations on finding all the mushrooms!
That looks just gorgeous!! :)
Thank you so much! :D Each of the images took 2-3 hours a piece. Except the lake, which was more like six hours. It was fun to do it but I'm certainly glad it's over haha
So that's why you signed the lake image! ;)
Good eye!