About

Dear Anna is an atmospheric short-story/puzzle game about a Count who is mourning his recently deceased wife. The game is designed for a game-pad, but is perfectly playable with just your keyboard too.

Music, Game & Art created by Kyon Edelenbosch.

Frame rate issues may occur in fullscreen mode. Try windowed instead. (which is on by default)

Game Trailer: https://youtu.be/1pphlQ018tU

Controls

Game-pad: L-joystick = movement | X=Use/pickup | O = Return/Exit.

Keyboard: ASDW = movement | Q = Use/pickup | E = Return/Exit.

Contact

Follow me on twitter! https://twitter.com/kyonedelenbosch

Thanks to Cloaked Games for the last minute voice acting.

You must be logged in to leave feedback
Log in Register an account
  • Tero Hannula
    Patron

    I like the graphics as they are not pixelart like the most. The animations were bit odd, but they are pretty hard to make in 48 hours. I don't know how skillful you are as animator if given more time, but in this jam-game animations worked well enough and brought more liveliness to character

    Music was well done, brought the right athmosphere. Narrator's voice was good, was it your own? Game was bit short but tight package. Pacing was good enough, but could have not been any slower, otherwise would have irritated me.

    I immediately played second time to find any second/secret ending, or could you die, but sadly didn't find any :( On second run I had visual bug (played fullscreen whole time), I saw normal game and other view as smaller (surface drawn top of game view?), is this the reason? :

    • Surface area is set for correct proportions when player switch to fullscreen/windowed. (Code is executed when pressed button).
    • When you play again, game is reset / the settings are reset
    • Because game is already fullscreen, player doesn't press for fullscreen and therefore game doesn't execute code to set surface area to right proportions.

    About the theme, many had idea of Count Dracula, but the execution was here notable factor.

    This was great entry for the jam, it is too bad that no more have had rated this game.

    ( Count understands, but I don't understand what Count understands :D )

  • Kwis
    Lv. 67

    I'll start with the bad and finish with the good:

    • The pace is too slow. I know it's not intended to be fast, but the character is a tad too slow and everything feels like it's slowed down. A bit faster would have been better. Even slightly.
    • Although the countdown is actually there, it didn't feel like it was central to the game. I didn't feel like the game had a reason to really fit the theme.
    • The occasional pain from the player is a nice touch but it also cuts the pace a bit too much. The game is slow already, would have liked these to be a bit shorter/faster. Again, slightly would already help a lot, it doesn't need to take less than 1 second. Just... not as much
    • The animations felt a bit off but we can feel there was lots of effort put into it
    • You should adapt the text depending on what the player uses. For example, if a controller is plugged, maybe display its controls; when it's not, don't. A majority of people will play it in their keyboard, so it's confusing to have to make the translation ourselves.
    • As Fachewa mentioned, it was unclear we got the key or not. The only reason I opened the door was because I assumed it triggered it since there was nothing else to do.

    Aside that, the game is remarkable! The atmosphere is astounding. Obviously getting a 10 in immersion. You nailed that perfectly and the voice acting was also pretty good. It gave me strong Silent Hill vibes as its atmosphere and story-telling style was particular, and I think your game has that pretty well done. Especially in its metaphorical sense. I love how we can interpret things ourselves and it makes the game open to our imagination (although I think we don't have many ways to interpret it). The visuals served that pretty well and was tied with appropriate sounds. That was very well executed!

    Really a pretty solid entry! I just wish the theme would be a bit more important to the gameplay itself.

  • Jupiter Hadley
    Lv. 13

    Creepy, well made game! I included it in my GM48: Countdown compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/MHzNKYCzwks

  • Fachewachewa
    Patron

    Loved it! Really impressive visuals. Everything seems really polished for a jam game. I also like how you interpreted the theme.

    The story and puzzles are a little simple, but it's not that big of a problem, especially with the other aspects of the game being so good.

    One "real" issue (not that big though) for me: it's not clear that you get a key (of something else) in the closed box. I didn't even try the door at first because I wanted to explore the room I was in, then I opened the box and it seemed there was nothing inside (I mean, maybe that's intended). I had to start again after finishing the game to understand that I didn't miss anything and that the door was closed at first.

    Oh and I'll add something to the command prompt: maybe have something that adapts based on the title screen input? I can't imagine trying everything on my keyboard to find what you decided was the interact button (you see everything in jams, sometimes it's space, sometimes Z, could even be Shift..). I was on a controller so that was ok, but still a little weird since you used the playstation mapping, and most people use an xbox controller on PC, I think.

    Boyard
    Submitted

    Boyard

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    5yrs ago

    I'm going to be as honest as I possibly can.

    It's incredibly remarkable that you were able to produce this in 48 hours. You should be very proud of this.

    You should also be very proud of the fact that your game is one of the only ones with an actual story (that I've seen so far). The story execution was great; the graphics, the mood that the music provided, and the feel of the game contributed to the Count's depression. You did an excellent job with that.

    I'm going to be a bit nit-picky here. Firstly, the font didn't do a whole lot for me. You chose a very basic font, and I feel that was one area which could have contributed to the story and feel in an even greater way.

    Secondly, the Count's starts and stops in movement are abrupt and inhuman-looking. Gradual starts and stops in his walking would give the game just a little more polish.

    Additionally, playing on a keyboard, it was a little confusing when the game told me to press X to open. I knew that meant Q, but it would be best if all the tooltips changed depending on whether or not a gamepad is plugged in.

    Lastly, the Count's periodic tremors got to be kinda annoying when I'm trying to walk somewhere and suddenly he's collapsed on his knees.

    I think you did a great job with this game, and you picked a very unique route to go with this game jam, albeit, your connection to the theme is rather weak.

  • C0DERP1GLET
    Lv. 36

    Dear Kyon

    I understand now,

    It's my destiny...


    ...To give this game 10/10 in immersion

  • Neural Pathway
    Lv. 2

    Super cool game, really immersive! I especially enjoyed the music and voice acting. It took me a while to figure out how it related to the theme, but I got it eventually :)

    Amazing entry, great job!

    UNCOUNTED
    Submitted

    UNCOUNTED

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    5yrs ago

    It ran at 10fps for me, I wasn't sure if that was intentional. It's a very difficult thing to make a narrative point and click puzzle game fun, it's something that has to take more than 48 hours to do. This was a very ambitious game but I don't think it nails the fun factor of a point and click. Part of that is the pacing of it, I solved a few puzzles but felt punished if I had to walk to the other side of a room to check if I missed something because the slow walking. I think the main issue was the 10fps. Mechanically sometimes it's difficult to identify where the mouse has to be to interact with something.

    edit - Played it in windowed mode and it was much more enjoyable. Shame it ends so soon!

    • Kyon
      Lv. 25

      That's a shame to hear. 10 fps really isn't intentional! I can imagine it ruining all the fun. It could have something to do with going full screen. Or did the fps stay 10 in windowed mode? Could you maybe check for me? (this issue has occurred to me before when making a game using .swf sprites like this one) Thanks for the feedback though!

      (I'm wondering why you are talking about point to click and using the mouse though, this game doesn't use the mouse.)

  • Jose
    Lv. 2

    Amazing game, the sound, music and voice acting was really polished and well done.

    Overall a great game, good job.

    Bomb it!
    Submitted

    Bomb it!