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The Darwin dating app's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Atmosphere | #8 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Mental Engagement | #11 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Overall | #20 | 3.021 | 3.021 |
| Emotional Engagement | #23 | 2.684 | 2.684 |
| Characterization | #29 | 2.737 | 2.737 |
| Lasting Impression | #30 | 2.684 | 2.684 |
Ranked from 19 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
I like the feel and the style of this game, the tension is definitely in who goes first, You have made something I wouldn't have guessed was made with Visionaire Studio Engine.
yeah, i have fun with enforce the engine to do something like that, especially for intrfaces
very cool implementation of the prisoner's dilemma. it was fun trying to figure out the emergent metagame of what to prioritize on each turn, and there were genuine moments of suspense waiting to see whether i would go first on a given turn.
the theming was excellent, and all of the ux fit very well. my main request from a ux perspective would be maybe a visual bar of the turn order, and also a way to visualize the coin flip of who goes first each round.
other things to play with would be just the overall balance. the 1,2,4 system is a bit too blunt. the treadmill of having to always eat 1 for 1 goes from suspenseful to tedious quick. so maybe some mixed stats like the ice cream giving +.5 hunger, or something.
also, in the tutorial you had two bits of nice diegetic ux in the ✓ and X of the tinder app. just use those. ;)
great job! wonderfully dark concept!
Good atmosphere. The concept reminds me of Arkham Horror Card game. I'm missing interactions between the persons like when you're helping each other out, when you talk to them etc. Without it it's just the core gameplay loop with the resource optimazion and the RNG there is a bit frustrating.
I like the atmosphere; it's very dark and creepy, reminiscent of prison horror like The Platform. And the art is good as well. I think the idea behind the combat is good, but in practice it was very repetitive--every box has exactly one of each item, and food is always your lowest stat, so it's always just whoever goes first getting the food. I ended up losing every time just because at some point the opponent went first three or four times in a row. But some small changes--randomizing what items are in the box, adding some randomization to what stat decreases every turn or what your opponent wants--would improve it a lot without having to change anything major.
Thank you for your feedback.
What you say is true, can be repetitive with only few stats to looking at,
and if the randomization that runs the turn always makes the opponent start it can be difficult.
I'm still thinking about whether to get my hands on this game again or not.
I will wait until the end of the jam to make a decision
Visually it's really cool. The art is quite simple with a quite empty room and just some characters in the middle, but it makes sense and is very polished. It's great, everything is put together geniusly to serve the game and story. It has a very unique atmosphere!
thank you! Glad that you like it.
Have you been able ti complete It?
Cool aesthetic and an intriguing core concept. I think there'd be a lot of room for expanding on this idea in a kind of combination escape room/killing game set of interactions and puzzles. Getting to know each opponent, making deals and promises, trying to figure out what's really going on...there's a lot of potential in the psychological back-and-forth here.
Unfortunately, over a few attempts, I was never able to make it much farther than 10–14 days, as you eventually start running out of stats too fast to keep up. Not being able to get on top of the system was a bit of a letdown, but understandable for the timeframe of the jam.
Overall, I think this is an interesting and — wait...they are drugging me with that sleeping gas! Damn bastards...
:D
thank you for the kind words!
actually I am thinking whether to expand this game by putting much more into it
or to continue one that I had already started.
who knows!
I simplified the game before I posted it, the trick is to make the opponents not
all angry at the same time and only attack the weakest one.
Of course at the same time you have to have enough resources to survive
oh, I'm being drugged again!
damn bastards
Interesting concept. My session last 15 days, and after that I died because all my stats went to 0. It was funny to stab an NPC and then feel nervous about facing him again. The game feels a bit unfair tho because most of the time NPCs go only for food, and I didn't find a way to persuade them to give it to me when they obviously didn't need it. Saw the chat icon, but it was too late to, by the time, I was more concerned about fullfilling my needs than to try that mechanic.
excellent observation!
in my initial idea there was also the possibility of exchanging items.
Due to time issues I shortened everything to the bare minimum.
I might expand this game maybe
That sounds interesting.
for all that have find the bug that crashing the game, now is fixed.
Was a problem within the build that not always occour
https://nonsonostatoio.itch.io/the-darwin-dating-app/devlog/396301/darwin-bugs-f...
Cool concept, eerie atmosphere, unfortunately game started crashing soon on my computer and couldn't continue.
i know in sorry... I am talking with the engine creator in order ti fix this problem, hope you Will consideri in future when eventually get fixed
Hey DaniM, i fixed it, the problem, was an issue with webp export from visionaire format.
yo can re-download it if you want, it shouldn't cause you any problems
Wow, that was fast! :-D Thanks, will probably try it again later.
A very intriguing idea - and the game mechanic is really original - nice game .-)
Very complex, but after a while it gets easy. It has a very dark atmosphere.
This is a winning idea! Wish there were more ways to interact with the opponent, maybe an event that takes place every few turns? Or a way to deal mental damage... This gives me squid game vibes and I want to cause more drama
thanks! Well, that was the idea! But i had to cut a lot of stuff to close the jam in time.
The Psycho type objects was planned to understand the opponent better.
Glad that you liked it
The game keeps crashing and at some point it wasn't allowing me to make any moves to continue it, so I wasn't able to reach any ending. I like the atmosphere a lot, though. The music choice is great for it ^^
aw, sorry for that... i need to polish it in these days.
Anyway the music is by ascari, and is a great composer.
Thank you for your time!
Hey Morphi, i fixed it, the problem, was an issue with webp export from visionaire format.
you can re-download it if you want, it shouldn't cause you any problems