Till the last spin

You can play this game via its itch page by clicking here

Till the last spin is a narrative and rhythm game made for Ludum Dare 39 (July-August 2017), whose theme was "Running out of Power".

The game's dialogue tells the story of a hospitalized person who has just learned that her days are numbered. Each night, she will experience dreams related to her past that will confront her with challenges in the form of rhythm games.

Intention

There is not really a "Happy Ending", nor is there really a success or failure, since the narrative is in all cases fatalistic. This is what I want to show with this experience: a forthcoming death implies complex situations where words are not enough and where emotions follow one another rapidly in an introspection and a look on the past life full of nihilism and nostalgia.

Principle et mechanics

The progression in the game is done with the help of the 5 stages model of acceptance of grief or death of oneself. (Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance).

The game follows the above scheme, depending on whether or not the rhythm game is successful during the dream, the player will move through the different stages (they move backwards towards denial and anger if they fail, and forward towards acceptance if they succeed).

Caution! As the theme "Running out of Power" suggests, the character's strength decreases more and more, so you must hurry to reach acceptance before death.

Depending on the success of the player, the character will manage to reach acceptance before her death and leave in peace, otherwise she will have done his best, so there is no failure either, just a deadline...

The playable demo available via the link at the top of this page, features a single night, where the player is faced with the first memory and the first challenge: a Dance Dance Revolution-like rhythm game. The difference is that every time the player misses an arrow, the screen cracks, and after three cracks, it bursts and the arrows move horizontally on the track. It's also a desire to break the fourth wall: all the game's challenges are based on the graphical interface to propose "twists" in the player's experience.

It is a way to make the experience nightmarish and trying from the first night, to show the player that dreams are important and eventful phases of the game. The challenge is then deliberately difficult.