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Mia is MIA's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Mental Engagement | #14 | 3.813 | 3.813 |
| Emotional Engagement | #36 | 3.188 | 3.188 |
| Characterization | #37 | 3.563 | 3.563 |
| Overall | #43 | 3.427 | 3.427 |
| Overall | #45 | 3.563 | 3.563 |
| Lasting Impression | #80 | 3.063 | 3.063 |
| Atmosphere | #99 | 3.375 | 3.375 |
Ranked from 16 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
Cool concept! I really enjoyed the ARG aspects, though that's because I still have an active Facebook account; I might have enjoyed it less if I didn't. The phone UI is great (especially in the messaging app), and does a great work on explaining everyone's backstories. Sadly I didn't really understand how to use the result page and only got bad endings. I would love to see an update with the known issues fixed. Great work!
A very interesting game, using real world locations was a very cool idea and overall the concept was very well executed. I have never played a game like this before and i really enjoyed it.
Really satisfying experience-looking the places up on the map made me feel so clever haha. And I left feeling like I hadn't uncovered all the mysteries even though I got the good ending, so definitely something I could revisit!
This was a very interesting experience as I haven't played a game like this before! The art is amazing and the story is really interesting, great work!
This does an excellent job in capturing the frantic feeling of a missing persons case. The art is very strong, and I love all the ARG aspects. One thing that majorly affected my playthrough is that I don't have a Facebook, and therefore had a large portion of the game closed to me (you can't see friends, check-ins, etc without an account). Though on that note, it's worth mentioning that nobody I know has a Facebook either, so it may be a larger percentage of the player base than you expect who would run into the same issue. I think one thing I'd also look into is that the clock felt like it ran down too quickly- it seemed like every literal mouse click was progressing it. Maybe instead, if when you opened an app it would tick up by 10 minutes, but not tick up further until you switched apps. Or something like that? Either way, I thought this was a really affecting experience that had a lot to say. I got two bad endings, but would be interested to find out more about the other possibilities. Great job!
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!
Oh, wow! I am truly impressed. Mostly by the fact that someone spends this amount of time to play, record and put actual effort to analyse and provide valuable feedback to our game.
We are currently working on additional fixes related to time management, time-gated event issues, two additional NPC and the flow of collecting clues. I find it a bit difficult to decide how to fix the "social media" part of the game as anything except Facebook doesn't allow to set a post at a custom time. I can move profiles to Facebook pages (not so optimal but most information can be visible without logging), make a custom webpage that simulates social media flow or make it in-game (it backfires at consistency with the overall ARG idea).
I am glad that you like the game and your video really, really made my day :)
Very glad it could be helpful 😀 Excited to play the next version!!
I played the game again and the game is very interesting. It is my first time playing an ARG game, so it was pretty difficult. I do not use Facebook and I do not really know what to do with Google Maps. However, I enjoyed reading everyone's messages and the story is interesting. I wish there was a walkthrough/guide because I really want to see the true ending. I liked the minimum usage of sounds. The game is also very good at giving a creepy atmosphere. Good job!
The UI, artwork, and design of this are all impressive, yet still feels a little clunky at the same time, like it never fully comes together. I felt like it could desperately use a bit more audio. It also seemed to punish the player by moving time forward when the mouse clicked anywhere, even without actually interacting with anything. As someone who doesn't have a facebook, I'm not sure how much more I could have really gathered, due to facebook requesting me to log in ^_^ Cool ambitious game design, although it's not exactly my cup of tea. I had fun typing my own responses to the text messages and it was interesting getting the backstory through the text messages.
I am trying to figure out how to make a workaround for social media ideas to make it more accessible to more players but keep the entire ARG feel. We already started with some fixes focusing on time management and clue-appearing flow and order. Thanks for playing ;)
The story is very interesting and the messages feels real. The art is also very nice. Thought, I have no idea on how to open the in-game browser and thus cannot continue playing. I am playing the web version. Also just wanted to point out that my time runs out even though I am not doing anything.
Anyway, I have not rated the game yet, since it would not be fair. I hope that I will be able to complete it first. It seems like other people have completed the game.
There is no such thing as an in-game browser, you need to use your own ;)
Mia is MIA is ARG game - this means you have to go beyond the game and use the "real world" such as real websites, social media etc.
Time has its own logic, but we assure you that it doesn't pass when you do nothing (even click on empty space). It just doesn't jump, but slowly flows to a certain limit and will stop at some point if you continue to do nothing.
Thanks again for spending time to play "Mia is MIA" and we hope that the next attempt will allow you to finish it =)
Aha, okay thank you! I misinterpreted this sentence "Use your in-game phone, journal and browser". I will try the game soon again.
It is really amazing that you need to use real websites.
This felt like a cross between "Simulacra" and "In Memoriam". I'm not a fan of Facebook, but it was nicely integrated into game. I particularly liked the gathering of information outside the game. But gathering the clues was fun in general.
I would have liked a scroll bar while reading through old messages. But it works quite well as it is. I ran into a bug once: One of the endings only showed the picture, not the accompanying text. Unfortunately, I can't remember which one it was.
I found the scope of the game decent. At some point it can get a bit tiring/boring to scroll through umpteen messages and you managed to avoid that. But I'm still looking forward to the updated version.
Fun game!
Fair point about the scroll handle, the same goes for a keyboard pop-up for mobile users. We considered making an in-game social network but had to throw out that idea due to time limits. And.. as it comes to social media profiles, only facebook allows date change of posts so it was the only option to make proper chronology for profile content. I have to double-check the winning conditions again. Thanks for playing :)
Truly an immersive experience, while I am not a huge fan of text based games, I quite enjoyed this playthrough, the narrative strong, the writing quite engaging, I too like the realism like the locations and use of facebook and other details that really sell the concept, overall an excellent experience!
Thanks a lot for your kind words. Due to activity we recieved here I am pretty sure that we'll drop some kind of update that will bring more backstory and some additional puzzles, but I need to take some rest after sprint we had to do before a deadline :p
Also, I'd be happy if any of you can point towards things that you find not clear, bugged or just out of place.
Thanks again for spending time to play "Mia is MIA" ;)
A very interesting concept. I really enjoyed how the story was told through messages and social media. The art was also very appealing. I would suggest adding some background music to make it more immersive.
Yeah, I was thinking about that but didn't get a decent royalty-free track that would suit the theme. I guess I'll look for someone to do this ;)
Very immersive game, reminds me of Missing: Since January/In Memoriam. Reading through all the phone drama while I scrolled up was really fun. I see you've already brought up that you're planning on adding more content, will definitely come back when that happens.
I hope to do some minor updates this week to at least fix bugged ending and a few bugged messages that we stumbled into. According to feedback, I gathered by far: adding more message interactions with friends is possible as a next update ;)
I'll check your game tomorrow for sure, to leave some feedback. I am pretty lazy so WebGL is a way to go for me :P
The use of real life locations and facebook was so creative! I feel like the facebook part could be utilized more. It was a bit conflicting when the game encourages me to message and call people but it gets immediately shut down by the "anonymous" person. The result page could use more clarity but I still got to the ending! The story and the way you presented it grabbed my attention right away, though it did seem a little cliche towards the end, i wish it was longer!! Can't wait for the full game to come out.
I'd say that the main issue here, for now, is that the story is slightly too straightforward, I had ideas to bring more NPCs and interactions to the table to make more background noise and some alternate suspects but had to run with a "scope scissors" to let people reach game ending. I a, happy you like it :)
Your presentation was so clean and cohesive! I always struggle with laying out games with lots of UI. You also have just so many art assets, I'm very impressed. Awesome job!
At first, I wanted to make some more complex puzzles and more typing interactions using an in-game mobile phone but due to feedback I got during testing decided to use more straightforward "clicky" mechanics and unlocks. As it comes to artwork, not gonna lie I had to make use of AI a lot for consistent aesthetics. Glad you like it :)
This is a neat l'il experiment. Short, but with all the text and the ways things connect, I can't fault it for that. I did find a couple of spelling errors, but nothing worth complaining about. And while I'm not really a fan of the "the weird kid nobody likes is a serial killer" angle, the tension of the game was engaging enough for me to forgive it. Overall, I liked it. :)
I'd appreciate it if you could find the time to check out my own entry, The Chronicles of Mega-Mart! It's nowhere near as heavy as this, but I hope you enjoy it all the same! :)
https://itch.io/jam/advjam2023/rate/2109372
Thanks for your kind words. The game still has some minor issues, most of them related to the ending but that's the price of leaving some things to the last possible moment. I hope to make some minor updates to the game and additional side stories, and slightly more interactive puzzles.
I started a list of Gamejam titles to test once I'll get more time so I'll try your game for sure :)