Do you like sweets?
There was a Crooked Man, who wore a crooked smile, with a mouth of crooked teeth, which he could never file. He conjures Crooked magic, for those with brains and nous. But only if you meet him inside his Crooked House.'
That's part of the urban legend you've heard. You've been researching about encounters with 'the Crooked Man' for months. But now, you can find out if he really exists. Some reports say he's a wizard, others say he's...something entirely different.
The Sequel is now available - Inside the box
- 1000 words
- Keyboard Accessible
- Screenreader accessible (press 'v' to activate)
- Fully voice acted
- Part of the upcoming 'Folklore' game series
- 6 endings
This game was made for the O2A2 VN Jam 2023, a micro Visual Novel jam with strict asset limitations and a 1000-word limit.
For the best experience, I'd recommend downloading the game, as some features and effects may not work in the browser version.
Cast
The narrator and Crooked Man are performed by Jake McAskill
Download
Development log
- New project announcement!Aug 29, 2023
- O2A2 Do you like sweets...Just dessertsAug 01, 2023
Comments
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Perfectly both kooky and spooky; perfect for the halloween season. The story does indeed have that short-story folklore/legend type feel, and the use of sweets to enact the magic is certainly whimsical!
!SPOILERS FOR THE REMAINDER OF MY COMMENT!
I would wish that ending 2 wasn't so overused for so many of the choices(and ending 4, while it made sense for picking popularity, didn't exactly make sense for refusing to become and apprentice imo), since all the other choices felt like such a clever twist on your wish, and it would've been cool to see more of that. Though I am sure this was likely due to jam limitations, such an expansion on the game post-jam would've been great. But that's the only critique I have; both the art and voice acting is great, especially the growl-y tone of the wizard, it fits his character! Meanwhile, the narrator has absolutely nailed the tone of your stereotypical narrator, what can I say?/pos
Hey AshersBraincell! Thank you so much for taking the time to review! I really appreciate the feedback, always makes me smile! :)
I know what you mean about ending 2 - I hope that one day I make a nice game about a typical day in Crooked's sweatshop rather than 'I threw the sweets in the bin lol'
I was thinking of revisiting this game, but as you say, the jam limitations made it a bit challenging :) I hope you enjoy the rest of the series <3 (There's plenty more to go at and more to come :D)
Thanks again :)
Hi Quiet, thanks so much for checking out the Folklore series. I hope you look forward to more games that will be coming up this year and in 2025!
absolutely, cant wait to check them out!
Delightful.
Thank you so much for playing! I appreciate all the comments I recieve โจ
TLDR I loved it and Im definitely going to play your other games ๐
Thank you ever so much for your playthrough! I really enjoyed watching your reaction! You're destined to be a good pupil for Cru-chan, you picked the right answer first! Thank you so much for checking it out ๐
Found out Inside The Box has a prequel, so here I am first ๐๐คฒ๐ปโจ
It's short and sweet, I love it! Even with the Waste of Time ending, I had fun seeing all the little variations ๐๐คฒ๐ป๐ The art is also exquisite! I may or may not be charmed by the Crooked Man ๐๐๐ป๐๐ป ๐ฆโจ๐ And the music fits the mysterious and whimsical vibe quite well ๐๐๐ปโจ
All around, a great run! Hope to play the sequel tomorrow and see more of the Crooked Man ๐๐
Waaaa thank you so much ๐ซถ I'm so glad you like it. I appreciate your kind words ๐๐๐๐
I hope the sequel fulfils your expectations!
1000 word grumpy wizard simulator (is he a wizard? Who knows?...)
๐
I seriously love the whimsical music, it's so fun to just listen to! I also like how the different endings are played and how the Crooked Man benefits from all, either from giving away his magical sweets to a customer or getting publicity in any way, it's quite interesting!
I'm really looking forward to learning more about him as well as MC's life as his new apprentice since I believe magical candies aren't that popular in the wizarding world, it might look like a gimmick I believe. But either way, amazing work here!
Thank you so much for the comment! I really appreciate it! He's a mystery wrapped in an enigma, but I'm sure he'll charm his patrons one way or another. ๐ซถ
I love the game!! The music is perfect for the atmosphere!! Play this give news ideas about my own game i wanna create
Thank you so much! I'm really glad you enjoyed it. I'm really glad it gave you some ideas ๐ looking forward to seeing more of your project.
not to be a simp but damn he's fine~
๐ฅต๐ญ๐ฌ
loll
love your pfp its really cute btww
Thank youuuuu ๐
npp
I really love what you did with the Crooked Man (both how you changed the nursery rhyme to fit the urban legend angle, as well as how you made the character your own.)
The premise of the player character going to search for this possibly non-existent urban legend and actually coming across him was a lot of fun. I also loved that magic and wizards are a thing in this world, and that the Crooked Man's magic centres around candy. Which makes sense, since he does exist within a candy shoppe.
But the candy magic/candy itself was a hell of a fun way to get the different endings. It honestly made me laugh that every choice save for the "right" one gave the player character fairly terrible outcomes. The fact that the Crooked Man is just so underlyingly antagonistic is brilliant.
(Though I'm still not sure what he saw in the player character that made him want to teach them in the good ending, but it was honestly a nice turn with his otherwise terrible personality.)
I really loved the Crooked Man as a character too.
His design is positively gorgeous (and yes, I do have an adoration for sharp teeth...), and his behavior made me laugh in spite of the fact that he was pretty awful.
You really did a great job with this whole story and I think you set everything up very well. It felt very polished for a game jam game!
I look forward to seeing what other games you come up with! (and I hope the Crooked Man will be in some more of them!)
Thank you so very much for the lovely comment, I really appreciate all the details you noticed too! The good news is, he will be in a series of games and will be joined by some more fun characters.
As for what he saw in the character...he's a strange chap, who knows what's going through his head. ๐
Thank you again for your playthrough.
This game was absolutely well done I loved the music,the background (The Crooked Man's room) and the design of The Crooked Man and oh my god I won't even start with how much I love the last CG!
Thank you so much Len! I really appreciate the kind words, it was my first solo project so I was a little nervous about it! I'm looking forward to sharing more of his story with people soon. Thanks again for your kind words.
This was SO fun, I loved playing through this and experimenting with all the different choices to get the different endings! The story was set up really cleverly to give SIX endings within the 1000 word limit! I really liked the set up of the text at the beginning especially - how it played out in NOVL format, with each block of text turning to red after you played through it - it really contributed to that somewhat off-putting vibe. The whole aesthetic was so cohesive, with a slightly magical and creepy air (a bit Halloween-y?), and I really enjoyed the BGM as well! It was so atmospheric!
SLIGHT SPOILERS
I liked how some of the endings were "positive" and some were "negative," but most of them benefited the Crooked Man in some way or another! The Crooked Man is certainly a shrewd businessman!
I really loved the design of the Crooked Man - will become his magical apprentice any day of the week!! (The final ending card was gorgeous!)
Really great O2A2 entry :)
Waaaa thank you so much! When I saw so many cool solo dev projects (Karamu as an example) - I thought I would give it a go, so I really appreciate the feedback. I'm glad that you noticed some of the visual subtly too, and I your assessment was what I was going for genre wise, so this made me super happy ๐ฅน
Thanks again for such a thoughtful piece of feedback.
I kind of felt like this was the equivalent of us getting into a white van labeled "FREE CANDY". ๐
I love the color choices and the art! I hope to one day make games like these, so it's always really inspiring to see other developers earning their success through hard work.
Free sweets (they're fine, honestly
๐๏ธ๐๐๏ธ).
Thank you so much! I really appreciate your comments! I look forward to seeing your games one day too ๐ซถ
The Crooked Man's myth is such an interesting story, I loved the way you used him and made your own Crooked Man story!! The character design for him is super cool and the music fit really well!
I hope we see more of him in another game, he got me really curious and I certainly wouldn't mind learning his magic confectionary (เน*แ*)!!
Great work!! <3
Thank you so much and playing and commenting I really appreciate it! ๐ซถ
We'll be seeing a lot more from him in the future, sweets included! ๐
I love this game!! and how u desinged him. and how you took the time to draw this and code it! it gives me cozy vibes and also. whats the crooked man myth? im a big fan of myths and i never heard of it before!! <3
Thank you so much for playing this crazy little game ๐ซถ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_Was_a_Crooked_Man I pasted the wiki here. I made up my own story for him, which will be in a sequel game ๐
thank you! and no problem! i just get really bored sometimes and get on here and i thought ur game was interesting!! infinty/10 would play again<33
this art is so cute!! also i have a question maybe 2 idk
Sure thing, I have dreaded twitter and also tumblr (I'm happy with whichever ๐)
i do not like sweets. i only like chocolate.
Good for you. I think he'd be okay with chocolates too ๐
oh yay my mum said to not accept sweets from candy so i assume i can accept chocolate
Real cool game!! I've always been a fan of the "Crooked Man" mythos so seeing more stuff related to it is always a huge "HELL YES" from me.
Had a lot of fun with this one. You did a great job! <3
Ahhhhhhhhh thank you so much! I'm so grateful that you took the time to play. I can't wait to share a bit more about him and his world soon :)
would like to see more done with it but I did very much like the atmosphere and how it feels.
Thanks so much for your feedback. I'm happy to say that now that the game jam is over I'll be thinking about expanding on the Crooked Man in future games ๐ฅน
Silly sweets moment
Being stuck in bed with salmonella sure is fun when you got great short games like these!!
Oh no for salmonella but I'm glad you enjoy it and feel a little better soon! I don't know if sugar helps...but if it does, I hope lots of sweeties come your way <3
Lots of fun. The music in particular is bang-on. The Crooked Man feels chaotic in that old-school dangerous magic way. And I enjoyed finding all the different endings.
Thank you so much for the comment. I'm glad you found them all, his trickery was very fun to explore in the different endings. ๐
Great music and general vibes! This would make a great Halloween game lol
Thank you so much for the feedback. I really appreciate the comments โจ
He is a man with the Halloween spooky vibes ๐
The Crooked Man as a character is so fun!! The character design and CG are amazing. Can't wait to see more of him in the future!
Thank you so much ๐
I can't wait to share more of his craziness with people. I really appreciate the comment ๐ฅน
I loved the endings, especially when the Crooked Man capitalised on our badmouthing!
Looking forward to playing your future games.
Thank you so much for your review, I really appreciate it! I'm glad that you enjoyed the game, and you can look forward to seeing more of this chap in the future. ๐ฅน
I really liked this VN. I hope that you'll maybe expand upon the chracter of the crooked man someday.
Thank you so much for playing! I'm really delighted to say that he will features in lots of games I'm developing in the future ๐ thank you for your support
I keep on "coming back" so The Crooked Man will give me various magic sweets! I'm full of sugar now ๐๐ฌ It's a very fun VN experience! I'm loving it!
Thank you so much Konayachi, I really appreciate you taking the time to review! He'll be dispensing more sweets in the future for you to enjoy โค๏ธ
Awesome job! I really love the creepy and mysterious atmosphere. I felt uneasy and nervous whenever I had to make a decision, which made this game really memorable.
Thank you so much! I really appreciate you playing ๐
He's definitely a mysterious type ๐
I knew there is no better wish than for magic. Good end first try.
Natural talent for magic then. Thanks so much for playing. :)
If he's evil, then why is he also kinda handsome? ๐
I love looking for the various endings. This was very fun!
Thank you so much for playing ๐ฅน
He's an accidentally handsome fiend ๐