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The Third Wish's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Atmosphere | #5 | 4.388 | 4.388 |
| Overall | #7 | 4.082 | 4.082 |
| Lasting Impression | #8 | 3.939 | 3.939 |
| Characterization | #8 | 4.041 | 4.041 |
| Overall | #10 | 3.871 | 3.871 |
| Emotional Engagement | #13 | 3.633 | 3.633 |
| Mental Engagement | #51 | 3.143 | 3.143 |
Ranked from 49 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
The graphics and atmosphere are immediately inviting and immersive, I was itching to play this from the moment I saw the screenshots. The overall slickness of the execution made it really fun to walk around even when I was stuck on a pixel hunt :). There's a pleasant old-school sci-fi feel to the setting, would love to play an anthology of short games with this style and mood.
The art and atmosphere are great. It feels a bit stuttery in motion. Travis Baldree did a nice job with the voices, reminded me of the Ripple System audio books narrated by him.
I must admit I was not fully satisfied with the puzzles (awfully convenient what the sand cats bury and mostly fetching stuff without a fast-travel mechanic and simple combinations), but I get that this was not the focus of the game.
Overall it's a nice jam game with the graphics and atmosphere taking the spotlight.
Just a bunch of dull pixelhunting followed by a barebones retelling of the monkey's paw story, which does not gel with the sci-fi setting at all. All the worldbuilding from the first section is worthless when it has no bearing on the actual plot. It might as well have been a rural farm instead of a space colony. While all the art is fantastic, this is pure style over substance. It doesn't matter how well animated the son is when we don't get to see the payoff of his revival. This mostly felt pointless, especially compared with Broussard's last game, where it felt like each puzzle built off the last one and the tension was consistently building. I hope his next game hues closer to that than "The Third Wish."
Sorry that game didn’t land for you. Thanks for playing.
Maybe, it's not obvious and needs you to wander about (and time) to get the things working, but it's in the style, I grew on, reminds that old Indiana and Atlantis. So classic! Delightful mood, a touch of Bradbury, loved this adventure!
What can I say, amazing!
Great work! I really enjoyed the fine pixel art and a variety of story content! But I still felt confused to get the turbine online. Maybe it's better to offer a function of tips, for those who are thick-witted as me haha.
Thanks for playing. I’m curious to learn how/where you got stuck on the turbine? It would help me design better in the future. I agree about tips. Any full version game I made would likely have a built-in hint system of some sort just to keep people from being frustrated.
I got stuck after I opened locker. I considered that if I should do something with breaker, so I almost tried every combination but all failed to work.
Ahh, makes sense. You just didn’t explore the other areas and got laser focused on the switches when the solution was elsewhere and you hadn’t discovered it yet. Thanks.
10/10
Absolutely incredible.
The aesthetic and voice acting really elevates the whole experience.
Thank you for playing it.
The game has an extremely cohesive art style and really tight adventure mechanics. The world is very well-established, and I really enjoyed the way the overworld map is presented. The voice acting was also excellent! One thing I wish is that the 'monkey's paw' storyline came into play earlier in the story, since it only really shows up near the end. But overall this is an incredible package. Very hard to believe this was created for a 2-week game jam. Amazing work!
I actually recorded my playthrough. If you want to see my impressions as I played, you can see it below. Hope that can be useful!
As it turned out, I didn't finish the game in one sitting. Here's a quick video where I play through the ending, and give my final thoughts:
Great story, amazing visuals, and superb voice acting. My only complaint is that the first half of the game just seemed too back and forthy if you get what I mean? If there was more involved puzzles, I think it would have been better, though for a 2 week jam, this is still an amazing entry.
I get what you mean and I saw it when making it but it was hard to change much due to time. One thing I wanted to do vs my last game was reuse rooms more and make the player traverse back and forth. I think I achieved that, and more use of the rooms, but it might have been too simple and too much like easy fetch quests. So I get it. Thanks for the feedback.
A good spot...^^
Stunning art (I agree with the others, Dig all the way) combined with a well told version of a classic story. It is simply amazing what nuances the sole voice actor was able to produce!
The puzzles are a bit on the easy side, but still fun. I guess there was more planned - the good spot surely had a purpose in the original design - and I would be happy to play an extended version.
I was stuck on executing content most of the time and the puzzles could have used more depth and love but better to be too easy than too hard?
The Good Spot was just a flavor thing I added and possibly to act as a red herring for a couple minutes if people were stuck. Very last minute addition that I perhaps should have cut.
In retrospect adding more puzzle depth would have been faster and far easier than doing a lot of the art and content! Plus it was my first time with PowerQuest so that took some time learning. A commercial effort game would be vastly more puzzle-y for sure :)
Glad you liked what was there.
on the top entry of this year.
Art is brilliant and length of the game is fair.
the puzzle are logic and the story give you the right tension.
Great job!
Beautiful art! As many have already said, there are some The Dig vibes that I really like. The map is a really nice touch.
I would have liked to see more puzzles in the second half of the game. I've read that what you already planned, hope you'll have time to do it!
Overall, it's a very solid game. Great job!
Very nice little game, easy to finish. Much appreciated!
Finally had the time to check out this interesting entry. The puzzles are mostly not too difficult, mainly fetch-quests to repair mechanisms. This brings one nicely into the narrative and is a very well working world building. The actual short-story that gives the game its name actually starts at the end of the actual gameplay (apart from repeatedly refilling a glass and picking up an item). The short story is very well delivered and has a great emotional impact thanks to the world-building done earlier. But I still can't help but feel that it is disconnected from actual gameplay.
The pixel-art, writing and voice acting are all incredible. Very strong The Dig vibes and the map reminded me of Full Throttle. But don't get me wrong, this is no mere copy, this is very self-consciously something new and unique. The sci-fi design is somewhere between Tatooine and Dune, the colour palette just superb! Some dialog repeats a few times but this is completely understandable of course. And there's even a map. And EVERYONE knows that a map elevates an adventure game onto a completely different level! :)
Overall this was a very nice 20-30 minutes that took me far far away. And taught me to be careful what to wish for!
Fantastic game! The art and voice acting are superb. The setting is interesting.
I enjoyed the puzzles in the first half. I won't complain about a lack of puzzles in the second half because I found the story of the second to be quite captivating. The wishing on the monkey's paw was predictable, of course, but you executed it so well!
A very fun and polished entry. Great job!
Lot of effort put into this one! The backgrounds are absolutely stunning here, any the Dig comparisons are for sure complementary considering how beautiful both the backdrop art looks in that and in your game.
As a kid I used to just eat up episode after episode of the Twilight Zone. The narration and the drama in the second half were such a sweet tribute to that series. For me, I loved how the puzzle-focused beginning set up how blue collared the family really was. The modesty of the wish and the extreme consequences resonates more with me because it's in such an isolated, domestic setting. Great work!
Very stylish. Loving the Dig vibe and the story is a classic. Hoping you'll expand the interactivity of the second half a bit in a later update. What was the "good spot" on the map for?
Enjoyed the game, hope to see a full game from this developer soon.
Enjoy the W W Jacobs - The Monkey's Paw reference, but unashamedly the Simpson's 'Treehouse of Horror II - Monkey Paw episode' reference came to mind haha.
Seemed like two games - one about moisture farming and one about consequences. Both games worth playing, so it was literally a win/win!
Definitely two distinct parts and planned that way but I wish I’d had more time to iterate and inject some puzzles/items/more stuff in the back half. But as it is I think it plays out as a fairly interesting and not too long, interactive story. Thanks for playing! I’m trying to rate all the games that comment here as well.
Well if you play mine you'll hear some great VO performances, and notice the puzzles/items problem in someone else's work. ;)
Wonderful atmosphere, mesmerizing story. Really enjoyed this. Loved the Twilight Zone style narration.
I’m really glad you enjoyed it. Being a lifelong Twilight Zone fan, writing the intro/outro made me smile to myself.