Honeycomb Smoke
A micro Visual Novel in a futuristic film noir setting.
Lying low in a dangerous city, you receive a cryptic message from an old friend. Could your luck have changed, or has the past finally caught up with you?
This game was made for O2A2 VN Jam 2023 in 10 days. It is a <1000 word linear story with 3 possible endings and voice acting.
O2A2's basic restrictions are:
- one sprite
- one background
- one thousand words
- one voice actor
- one soundtrack
- + in-engine effects
Please see end of page for minor content warning.
(Web version may have issues depending on your set up - if you experience issues with the transitions or sound lagging, please download the game instead!)
Credits
Concept, writing, game visuals, programming - Cerise
Menu portrait artist & design assistance - Soluryn
SFX and audio assistance - Amidst None
Voice Acting - Tabetha McNeal
Many thanks to Smoke, Skolaztika, Supercircuit and Fen.
Please see about page for additional assets credits
(A little note to followers - my longer projects are still in progress! ❤ )
Be sure to check out the other submissions and thank you to tofurocks and PRINCESS INTERNET CAFé for hosting the jam!
Click for content warnings:
Implied possible death of the main character (not described).
Download
Install instructions
Chose PC or MAC folder to download, unzip/extract the folder, and open the .exe file .
PC version should also be compatible with both Windows and Linux, but not yet Linux tested.
Comments
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Aaaaaa! Another absolutely stunning game. Totally blown away by what you manage to achieve with such restrictive limits.
The whole game just oozes atmosphere. The writing is, as ever, gorgeous. There's so many layers of character worked into here that it just makes me wish I could explore this world more! And some of the lines are just so subtle and delicious.
I love the backgrounds and the character design. You've done so many clever things with light effects and I know it's just a small moment, but I LOVED the rain.
The sprite design is lovely, and the expressions are perfect - just subtle enough for the character. The voice actress absolutely nails the genre and the tone of the character, I think she's amazing! It's a really beautiful addition to this game.
Love the opening image and menu designs too. Altogether, this really nails the Noir vibe so much and I hope you do more games in this genre, because you're amazing at it!
Hi! Sorry for the review delay. >.<
Either way, big congrats - it was lovely to see everything come together! Your writing is as awesome as always, though I also wanted to say what you did with the background effects and scene change were so, so good, especially for the jam limit. The smoke effect, too! I also enjoyed how simple and effective the UI was for the setting. The art and music were also absolutely stunning and fit the mood to a T.
I'm not sure why this game hasn't gotten more attention - it definitely should. ^.^
Thank you so much for this, and don’t worry about that, I’m delighted with comments anytime! I’m so glad you enjoyed the finished product - and I’m just relieved everything came together in time as I always forget how much work even tiny games are 😅
And aw that’s kind of you, I’m very happy with the response but I've not shared it outside of itch so that’s a reminder I should do so. Hope you had fun in the jam and congrats again on your entry!!🎉
I played your game and it oozes style in all ways! Graphically with the changing colours and the use of geometric shapes for VFX. I wasn't expecting the car by the end of one ending and my mind was blown trying to decipher how the panelling effect is created. Or how you show rain with primal shapes. You can totally feel the noir throughout the entire prose and Tabetha plays the femme fatale role perfectly. I found the writing quite refreshing because I don't see VNs often in this style. I love the mysterious jazzy piano music that really immerses you as if you're sitting in the bar with Lara (I love her bob cut design and how her sprite depicts her side-profile). Every element together makes it a very fulfilling package!
Aww!! Voice Actor of honey here! Thank you so much. I'm so glad you enjoyed the game! This comment means so much to me.
Thank you for this incredibly thoughtful comment and for picking out so many details - and yes I thought Tabetha did a great job!
I'm glad you liked the effects - I'm unfortunately off sick this week but once I'm better I'll hopefully do a devlog about them. Just quickly though - the car paneling was black bars made in-engine and rotated over the ceiling portion of the bg image! Probably only useful for o2a2, but still fun to try new things out :-)
Interesting story (^w^) I really like the atmosphere you created (~^^)~
Thank you so much! 'Atmosphere' was my goal so I'm really happy to hear it worked for you!!
An intriguing read! :D
Thank you so much! I'm happy you liked it! 🤍
I’ve liked everything you’ve made so far, so your odds were very good. ;)