Judith

Posted in Complete Games judith
By Terry Apr 13, 2009

Stephen and I finished this little thing tonight. Sorry for the delays!

[edit] Thanks to Jani Mikkonen, we now also have a Linux build! Cheers! (A note to Linux users, the windows version reportedly works quite well through WINE.)

Judith is a game about control.

Downloads:

Windows (11MB)
OSX 10.5+ (11MB)
Linux (11MB)
Source (73KB)

267 thoughts on “Judith”

  3. Grah really want to play it but ded.johnmarkkearney.com seems to be down. Don’t suppose anyone has a mirror for a mac download?

    Reply

  7. This is so psychological. It really brings the paranoia out of a person… the stupid narrow hallways, the stupid pixelized characters…

    The stupid ending.

    But I really enjoyed it— even the abrupt ending (although I’ll admit that what I felt was more like relief at the ending).
    I guess my only real complaint is about the full-screen feature. I multitask a lot and it was annoying to find out that I had to repeat the entire story again when I pressed the escape key. A save feature would have been nice too, no matter how short it was.

    Reply

  8. Ummm… don’t get me wrong, it’s a GREAT game with amazing gameplay, but I can’t go on with it, it’s to horrible, coated with misery, and dark and depressing. Don’t Look Back is my personal favorite.

    Reply

  9. I just read about VVVVVV – and I’m really looking forward to it. I just have to say, I’m really glad I discovered you. The emotional depth in your games, although being very simple, is nothing short of astounding. Hope to see more games by you in the future. 🙂

    Reply

  10. Really suspenseful

    I’ve gotten so used to games on the internet jumping out at me I was worried to go through many of the doors lol

    But I really liked it…creepy 🙂

    Reply

  15. Your game is so awesome ,so creative,it really touched me heart as the passage and don’t look back did.The only thing that sucks ,that all of this games are sooo short,make some more games soon)

    Reply

  17. Technical note: I found it much easier to get the windows version to run in Wine than to get the actual Linux version going.

    But yes, brilliance.

    Reply

  20. Someone who understands the connection between the characters, please throw out a spoiler, because I’m lost and I really want to understand what that was all about. Thanks in advance. =)

    Reply

  21. Hey good work with the game; I REALLY enjoyed the story and the atmosphere, well done. The ending was so abrupt and brief it allowed me to interpret the story in so many different ways. I spent like twenty minutes or so trying to figure out what the significance of the ending was, but I decided to just appreciate the surreal nature of it all. Good job man. SERIOUSLY

    Reply

  23. the idea behind it is good, but there are some problems.
    I dropped the action after about 20 minutes because I find annoying going back and forth between all the locations wainting for the plot to unfold. It would have been better to automate also that process (it is more of literature-movie piece than a game, right?).
    Also I found confusing understand the the dreamy and real nature of the various sequences.
    Sorry I could not unfolf the plot for the problem above.

    Reply

  25. Brilliant. Amazing how tense a game can be without the aid of flashy graphics. Well made sounds and music give a fantastic atmosphere as well the dimmed lighting. Not sure if I fully understood how emily got where she was at the end…
    Still loved playing it nontheless.
    Thank you.

    Reply

  29. […] player’s attention by adding mechanics about looking and navigation.  Terry Cavanagh’s game Judith, while having a more narrative focus, has gameplay that involves navigating and observing a low […]

    Reply

  30. WOW! 4.75 stars! the game was amazing! The only flaw is that (don’t think I’m shallow minded) I expected something that was a little freakier at the end. Also, are Judith and Alice the same person?
    P.S. I should have thought better of you Terry but I was expecting a screamer.

    Reply

  31. I think judith and emely are the same person… hmm this game is so interesting. just like dont look back 🙂 keep up the good work…

    when i was playin this i thought its like a whole movie haha

    Reply

  32. I think Judith and emely are the same person… hmm this game is so interesting, just like don’t look back keep up the good work…

    when i was playing this i thought its like a whole movie haha

    but i want this game to be online

    Reply

  35. @Rupert Swarbrick and others having errors under Linux:

    Add the following function call in musicback.hpp just before the call to FMOD_System_GetDriverCaps() (line 150):

    FMOD_System_SetOutput(fmod_system, FMOD_OUTPUTTYPE_ALSA);

    and recompile:

    g -O3 -ojudith *.cpp -lfmodex `sdl-config –cflags –libs`

    Worked for me! I can finally try to play this game…

    Reply

  39. This game inspired a song in me. I hope I can come up with the rest of the lyrics and music for it. If I get it recorded, I’ll share it with you (all).

    Reply

  41. Had trouble on my AMD64 Ubuntu setup. For me, this worked:

    Install qmake, pkg-config, and SDL (https://ubuntu-gamedev.wikispaces.com/How-To Setup SDL for games development) from Synaptic or whatever

    Install FMOD manually (https://www.fmod.org/index.php/release/version/fmodapi42806linux64.tar.gz). For FMOD you will also have to make a soft link from /usr/lib/libfmodex64.so to /usr/local/lib/libfmodex64-4.28.06.so

    Untar the Linux bundle from above, cd into this directory and issue:

    qmake -project
    qmake

    Edit the Makefile and add

    -I/usr/local/include/fmodex -I/usr/include/SDL

    to the INCPATH and

    -lSDL -lfmodex64

    to the LIBS. Then “make”.

    There is probably an easier way to do this, I’m just working with rudimentary knowledge of how to build C projects.

    Reply

  47. I once took a Chaucer literature class, learning that Geoffrey Chaucer and his contemporaries and writers from before him copied tales off of other writers and adapted them as their own, either as translations of the same story or adaptations under another locale and different names. It wasn’t plagiarism, nor was it unoriginal, in the slightest of their time, since retelling another story and making it your own takes skill as a writer.

    And now we have this gem. I just gleaned from the other posters that this is possibly an adaptation of Bluebeard. You two have definitely encapsulated the spirit of the story and made it into another with the simplest of graphics and narration. Although there are some really laughable glitches that I’ve found, like being able to examine the bookcase from the other side of the wall, I was pleased with this elegant game. Good job.

    Reply

  49. I played through the game and think I had a very similar experience to the rest of you: I loved the atmosphere and admired the way the minimal graphics seemed to accentuate the creepiness. I did find it a little disappointing that I couldn’t discern the sex of the person you find in the room – whether the or not the person was female impacted the story a lot. I also was thrown off by the ending – I didn’t find it to be abrupt exactly, I was just expecting some kind of explanation. The rest of my post contains spoilers as to what I think is the meaning of the story.

    The original Blue Beard story is story whose moral is “Curiosity, in spite of its appeal, often leads to deep regret. To the displeasure of many a maiden, its enjoyment is short lived” or to put it more simply – women shouldn’t be too nosy. The Judith story is pretty similar to that of Blue Beard, but the story of Emily and the protagonist is really more of one of secrecy. The hall that Judith’s husband had chosen to be the place of all his secrets. The cheating couple rent out the place to hide away in so no one will discover their affair. That whole place is a symbol of secrecy. It’s difficult to delve much deeper into the Emily story because we mostly play the Judith one. What we do know is that the end Emily wants to stay with the protagonist forever. Presumably this means an end to their secrecy if they could only meet once every few months but now they intend to be together always, I am guessing they plan to expose their secret in one way or another.

    Besides the fact both stories are about the end of secrets in relationships, I can’t seem to come to a good understanding of it. Does anyone else have another interpretation or feel they can better extend my own? …please?

    Reply

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