The Girl and the Kelpie
A downloadable game for Windows
Trigger Warning: This visual novel does not feature any graphic depictions of death but it does discuss grief and the after effects of loss. Reader discretion is advised.
Story:
A short visual novel about one little girl’s reaction to grief.
When Katie goes to stay with her Grandma during a difficult period in her life, she meets an unexpected creature on the beach.
The Kelpie is an infamous water-horse from folklore. Dangerous or friendly depending on the story, its capricious nature is no different here.
Depending on the choices made, Katie will embrace her ultimate fairy tale fantasy or confront her greatest fear.
Told in third-person POV and shown in a simplistic children’s storybook style, The Girl and The Kelpie was created in one month via a solo student dev and is their first attempt at creating visual novel.
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Features:
3,500+ words
Around 10 mins of gameplay
Limited branching story paths
Three achievable endings - one true end
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Credits and information:
Writing & programming: written and made by myself using Tyranobuilder on Steam
Character art: drawn with promarker pens
Background art: made using pastels
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Game Key Configuration:
Enter - progress the game
Ctrl-Win - skip
Space - Delete Message window
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Music used is copyright free, found here:
Outgoing Hikikomori. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BRtTjeo878
Chillpeach. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FScEvRbobsE
ESN Productions. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAO3x-Uhfoo
Outgoing Hikikomori - It's Alright, I'll Be Fine. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUw4B7qqw-w
No Copyright Background Music. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIWMXhAkWfw
BreakingCopyright- Royalty Free Music. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taAxpw03dgM
DistantMirrors. Camille Saint-Saëns – Aquarium. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVpl-RNzdE4
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Created for a university assignment.
STUDENT NUMBER: 202360259
MODULE: CW910
Download
Install instructions
Download instructions:
(your download might pause if you use Microsoft as the software is deemed suspicious because I couldn't figure out how to give the game a 'publisher'- TLDR: click 'keep' to successfully download if you run into this problem)
The game should show up in your PC/laptop in your downloads as a folder called Kelpie-win32-x64. Click on the zip file folder to open, then click on the Application titled Kelpie.
You will then be prompted to Extract all. Press Extract.
The new application called Kelpie will now have a game icon with a pink circle around it. Click to play the game!
Comments
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Finished the game, and I thought it was a nice little story. I liked the art style, it was unique. The music was also nice.
I do have a question about the second ending, denial. Is this ending implying that Katie drowns at sea?
I also found a game-breaking bug that I was able to replicate. if you save the game while the text is still printing out, and then try to load that save, the game soft-locks and needs to be closed.