Mariole
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TRY OUT OUR PROTOTYPE AND HELP US CREATE THE BEST GAME WE CAN!
💬 Your feedback is really precious. You can comment or ask us anything about the game on this page or on Discord ( link bellow ).
There's also a short more specific form here:
https://forms.gle/Ucf6f3vMLD2jTMJD9
This playable is NOT a demo, let alone a vertical slice. It's a very early prototype meant to playtest some of the base mechanics of our new project, essentially:
- the collecting mechanic
- the crafting process
- the bartering phase
You can play with the mouse. It's a 10 minutes play. Hope you enjoy it!
Now...
MARIOLE* is a narrative management game inspired by the traditional culture of the south of France.
It's RamRam Studio's new video game project. We've just started developing it and we plan to release it in 2026.
- In the game, you take on the role of a young traveling merchant named Mariole, as she journeys through medieval/post-collapse landscapes in search of her friend, a missing ‘Trobairitz’ (a female troubadour).
- A donkey pulls her cart, two magpies bring her news from the surroundings and tell her about the needs of the villagers. Mariole goes from village to village, collecting or crafting along the way. She barters her wares, collects info and parts for her cart to unlock new areas of the map.
* “Mariole” is the temporary name
** Attribution: some sound effects by @kenney
🎮 We will share prototypes of some of the core mechanics on itch.io as we develop them.
❤️ We need your playtest and your feedback to create the best game we can!
💬 You can give us feedback here, by commenting the game, and there's a short more specific form here: https://forms.gle/Ucf6f3vMLD2jTMJD9
👉 You can also join OUR DISCORD to give feedback, get updates or simply talk with us!
More about the playable and about us
WHAT'S IN THE CURRENT PLAYABLE?
- A view where Mariole is traveling (we're calling it the road view). You can click on stuff in the scenery to collect them.
- The craft view: you can open it at any time from the road view.
- A barter scene where you'll be able to help Mariole trade stuff.
- Basic tutorial.
- Lots of place holders ^^
WHAT'S NOT IN THE CURRENT PLAYABLE?
- No map / choose your destination view
- No cart customizer
- Obviously, polish...
We're Coline and Laurent***, a small team of 2 people working together in Montpellier, France. We released 30 Birds, a video game inspired by Persian culture in 2024.
We now want to get closer to our origins: our grandparents spoke the almost forgotten language called "Occitan". This was the language of the troubadours and trobairitz, many variants were spoken in the south of France until the 20th century. We are both passionate about myths and legends, traditional aesthetics and fun fictions. We'll also be sharing our precious finds in the Discord as we journey back to our roots.
*** Laurent goes by "orororo" on itch
Comments
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I LOVE IT !
Hey Guys, really cute prototype!
I had some feedback:
- It was unclear which items merchants were interested in. So I had to put a lot on the scales to try it out. If you don't want to show it, I'd at least hint at it in the dialogue.
- It would be nice if the quest log menu paused cart movement, but that might not be what you had in mind for the game.
- The scales were kind of frustrating. I added items and others would fall off. It might be nicer if the scales have wall colliders on the side to stop stuff from falling out. It was frustrating to add an item on one end and have an item on the other scale fall off. I'd also snap items to the scales.
- I like that the crafting takes real time, so you can go back to travelling.
- It didnt trade everything that was on the scale. Sometimes i managed to balance something on the scale but when trading, it left it on the scale, instead of adding it to my inventory. It might be good to have some feedback about what the current trade is.
Ideas:
- I'd look at games like Oregon Trail, with its random events. Or even something like FTL with its map movement based on nodes.
- I can see you picking up party members that travel with you, camping and having dialogue with them. Sometimes people join and then leave again.
- I'd like to see random encounters with choices the player can make.
- I'd maybe also look at Samarost or other games by Amanita Design. I think, if you go the clicking route, it could give some ideas. But that might mean sacrificing the constant movement. Maybe we could pause and play movement? Set up shop on the side of the road? Etc.
Thoughts:
- I'm not sure how engaging the 'clicking on items you pass by' mechanic will be in the long term. I think I played for 10 minutes and I kind of figured I'd done enough clicking. If random events, NPCs and puzzles led to getting new items, I think that would be more engaging. Or at least some skill used to pick up items (either by having them hidden or by having them hidden behind puzzles).
- The characters were very cute, very 30 Birds.
- I could almost see a roguelike structure to it when travelling between cities and towns.