Play game
The Solstice Sovereigns of the North's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Story | #3 | 4.352 | 4.429 |
| Beginners Tutorial (Optional) | #4 | 3.720 | 3.786 |
| Fun | #4 | 3.930 | 4.000 |
| Puzzles | #6 | 3.650 | 3.714 |
| Christmas Spirit | #6 | 3.930 | 4.000 |
| Overall Enjoyment (not an average) | #6 | 3.720 | 3.786 |
| Graphics | #7 | 3.509 | 3.571 |
| Interactivity | #8 | 3.229 | 3.286 |
Ranked from 14 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Development Time
1 month, a little each day
Native Language
French
Opinion of Adventuron
Quite good for its target audience
Parent / Child Team?
No
Prior Coding Experience
Yes, in various languages
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Comments
Very sweet story and nice little game! I loved the deciphering puzzle.
I found it to be a bit guess-the-verb at times, especially with the items needed for the final puzzle. However, the hint system was really straightforward and helpful.
the graphics are really clean and everything fit well together
I just needed two remaining elements of the last puzzle on 21th december and I'm not sure if the hint has been improved or if I had another reason to stopped playing but I continued today and `hint red thing` helped me finish quickly.
It was nice to have something in very different in graphics/genre/atmosphere and feeling.
I really liked the Solstice theme of this adventure! It had a very classic adventure feel to it - some of the puzzles were a little tricky because of the vocabulary needed. I really liked using the archaeologist as a hint system but absolutely loved doing the deciphering puzzle by hand. I know it's fallen out of style, but I absolutely love when I have to take hand written notes in an adventure game.
I really enjoyed this game! It had a kind of "deserted" feel, but in a good way. Somehow, it gave me a similar feeling to some of From Software's earlier games like the King's Field series, Evergrace, or Eternal Ring (although these days they're better known for Demon's Souls and Bloodborne). The puzzles were just right for me, and I loved the way that you recast familiar Anglophone Christmas traditions as things that belong more clearly to another place or time.
The super-blocky, minimalist graphics only added to the feeling of showing small pockets of detail in an expansive world. I've sometimes noticed a similar mood in Scandanavian films.
I don’t know any of the references you are giving (except Dark Souls and Bloodborne, but I didn’t even play them and that was not the point :p). I’ll have to check them out.
Mind giving some Scandinavian film names, if you have some? It seems I’m not as much a person of culture as yourself! ^^
Finished this, I liked the mystery surrounding it all. A few observations though - I often knew what to do, but the game wouldnt let me do itm so I had to keep going to the HINT system (thanks for that btw) to find what the actual words I had to use were.
And exmaple might be that I knew to use the ladder in a certain place, but leaning it, climbing it, putting it etc. didn't work. Had to rely on the hint system to tell me to drop it, which didn't feel quite right.
Same with another scene involving the knife, and having to be very specific about what to cut with it, even though any of the synonyms for the thing I was supposed to cut should've worked.
Still, despite all that, good xmas mystery, nicely done with a great atmosphere.
I’ve got some experience with Inform, and since a “lean” action doesn’t exist by default in Inform, I find it more intuitive to just drop the ladder (just use the verbs/tools you are already used to instead of trying new ones.)
But I get your point, which is very valid. I’ll think about it next time.
Really loved the graphics! Nice colors and very graphical use of the ultra-low-res style.
The story is cute, very appropriate for a Christmassy story.
The use of hints is nice in that you don't stay blocked too long. However it seems in many cases their use could be avoided by either hinting the player a bit more, or adding synonyms.
Overall it was a great little game!
An adorable game of finding love amidst mysterious rituals. Good job! ^_^
An adorable game of finding love amidst mysterious rituals. Good job! ^_^
Really loved this adventure. I liked the love story and the less traditional seasonal celebration angle. ;)
The graphics where lovely too, loved the layer usage and flipping the graphics to add people and objects when you interact with them. Nicely done.
What a lovely, mysterious story - with a heart-warming ending. You've gone for a different angle on the Christmas theme and it works very well; having the pagan festival as the focus allows you to avoid most of the standard Christmas tropes while still conjuring up an appropriately wintry and magical feel. Puzzle-wise the difficulty level is quite easy, which feels right for this jam, and the code-breaking element was a pleasant diversion (nostalgic of the kind of thing that used to be included in every Christmas annual). Having the archaeologist character on-hand to help with the puzzles is an effective way of integrating assistance into the game without reverting to a blunt 'help' command, and provides a satisfying denouement at the end. The low-res graphics (reminiscent of 'Over Here' from the last jam) are perfect for this, I think.
There aren't many bugs in it: I spotted a miscapitalisation and a missing word or two in your prose, and 'put x on altar' produced the standard 'the altar is not a container' response that you might want to override. Also, I'd suggest some sort of acknowledgement when you cross the ice. I confess that I found the means to cross it and did so without even realising that I had done it - it took me a while to realise that the location I was then in was on the island.
Overall this is a great effort and I really enjoyed playing it.
Thanks for the detailed feedback and the kind words!
My aim was to make a not too difficult, child-friendly game with a Christmassy feeling even if it’s not strictly-speaking Christmas-themed. So I guess I succeeded? :)
Regarding putting things on the altar, containers/supporters are not well supported (pun non intended!) in Adventuron (and not well documented), as are complex commands, so I think I’ll have to do with the issue. I added a note in the help to say that you just have to drop the thing if you want to put it on something else. And the game specifies at the beginning that you have to use 2-word commands anyway. I hope it’ll be enough.
I also added a message when you go to the island for the first time, as you suggested.
Regarding the miscapitalisation and the missing words, since you haven’t told where they are, I didn’t correct them.
Anyway, thanks again!
You definitely succeeded - my nearly 8-year old loved it.
With the altar: containers are difficult, but you could anticipate someone not noticing the 2-word restriction and deal with it in on_command with something like:
: match "put _" {
: if (is_carried (s1())) {
: if (noun2_is "altar"&&is_at "stone_circle") {
: print {("You put the "+s1()+" on the altar.")} ;
: drop quiet = "true" ;
}
: else {
: print "The altar is not here." ;
}
}
: else {
: print "You are not carrying it.";
}
}
(or do the same as above but print "You only need two words in this game - just drop it" or something as the response, if you want to be strict about that).
With the typos - sorry, should have noted them as I went along. Another quick run through reveals:
(at stone circle): "in the centre of the circle, ['stands' or 'you can see'] what seems to be an altar"
and there is definitely an errant capital that I spotted somewhere but can't find it now... If I see it again, I'll let you know.
Thanks a lot for taking the time to write this code.
Unfortunately, I was a bit away from Adventuron and the jam (I had other priorities), so I didn’t have time to add it to the game. I’ll keep it under my belt for next time, whenever there is one!