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The Enigma of Mr. X's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Characterization | #5 | 4.207 | 4.207 |
| Emotional Engagement | #11 | 3.655 | 3.655 |
| Atmosphere | #21 | 4.207 | 4.207 |
| Overall | #23 | 3.649 | 3.649 |
| Lasting Impression | #28 | 3.586 | 3.586 |
| Overall | #34 | 3.655 | 3.655 |
| Mental Engagement | #102 | 2.586 | 2.586 |
Ranked from 29 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
A fantastic visual experience. The voice acting sells the whole package, while the overall visual design and creates a fantastic mood/atmosphere I think the pixel art is bit blurry, as well as the overall lighting being a bit dark - I had to increase my screens brightness to see more of the game.
While I thoroughly enjoyed the dialogue, one mechanical critique I have is that I do wish that when I skipped dialogue that it didn't skip the voice acting as well, so that I could hit the skip the text animation and read it in full while also listening to the voice acting.
I'm thinking the next time I use character sprites like these I may increase their pixels by at least 1/4, they're currently 32x96 or 64x64. I had intended for the visuals to be quite dark but I also believe they turned out a little too dark, the lighting in the WebGL version seems to suffer slightly too. I may look into your suggestion about the textboxes next time I implement a similar system, perhaps I could make it an option to skip the 'text scrolling' effect all together, as I quite like it but I'm aware others do not. Thanks for your kind and insightful words, and yes these voice actors were all incredible!
Very cinematic, and definitely the most visceral/emotionally impactful entry I've played so far. I don't think I've actually watched anything by David Lynch, but based on cultural osmosis and context I assume this is what you call "Lynchian"? I think it's interesting that the more grounded scenes (with the cop) provoked more of an emotional response than the more out-there stuff at the end. I'm curious whether any of the choices made a substantial difference; I guess it's not exactly a format that encourages replays, so it's probably for the best if you don't hide large amounts of content that requires a second replay.
It was consistently pretty dark and difficult to gain much information from the visuals. Obviously the story is supposed to be dark and the player is supposed to feel a bit lost/powerless, so maybe it works. But to be honest, for a lot of it I was basically tuning out the visuals and just focusing on the audio/text, which is probably not what was intended. Then again, my vision is worse than normal, so maybe that experience isn't typical. There were definitely some visuals (e.g. the cornfield) that were fairly striking, though.
Overall, this "cinematic"/linear visual novel style of game isn't what I usually play, and I'm not sure I'd seek out more like it, but I can't deny that it maxes out most of the specific scoring categories for this jam!
This is fairly 'Lynchian' but the definition of what that is leads to a whole different debate haha The choices don't make much of a difference, there's some different ways the scene in the corn might play out which will slightly change Billings' appearance in the final scene, but they aren't drastic differences to the overall story. The visuals were kinda the last piece of focus for me in this whole endeavor, more there merely as the backdrop for the characters. Many of them are supposed to cloud your perception as well, so I'm almost glad you tuned them out as the focus is really meant to be on the voiceovers and the text. Thanks for your comments!
I'm gonna preface this by saying that I couldn't get through this game, because its subject matter and atmosphere put me in a bad place. I played up to when I got in the police car with the creepy cop, and my fight-or-flight kicked in and I had to shut the game down. That's nothing to do with you or the quality of the game, I read the warnings, it's all on me. I won't think of docking score for my own inability to play it. :)
Now, the art. GORGEOUS. That "pixelart characters over simple model environments" aesthetic sends me to the moon. I adore the way this game looks. The VAs - those I heard, anyway - also sold their role, full props to them. And the game, overall, succeeds in what it appears to be trying to do, put you in that bad place to show you a bad situation. Very strong game. Props! :)
Thanks for giving it a shot and I definitely won't hold it against you, especially after seeing how adorable your game is :) I'm aware this isn't the kind of adventure many are looking for but it's very therapeutic for me to create and share these kinds of things. And yes, all the voice actors who contributed to this were incredible!
Great voice acting, and a strong mood thanks to the music. Adore the coloured fade-in effect on the text. I like the creative camera angles, though the pixel art is blurry and unsuited to closeups, and the sprites don't often cohere with the 3D environments. Gameplay-wise, the dialogue and voice acting sell the story more than the busywork does.
I agree, the 3d environments never quite came together the way I wanted them to, the diner and the home in particular. And it was a bit of a challenge for me to develop 'meaningful' interaction with the environment, although it was partially intended to make some of the gameplay sequences more monotonous than thoroughly engaging. Thanks for your constructive comments!