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| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Best use of: Transhumanism | #1 | n/a | n/a |
| Best use of: Too Late | #3 | n/a | n/a |
| Best use of: The Fall of Rome | #4 | n/a | n/a |
| Best Overall | #4 | n/a | n/a |
| Best use of chosen theme(s) | #4 | 3.200 | 3.200 |
| Submitter's Choice Award (top game overall) | #5 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
Ranked from 5 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Use of themes
I chose the subthemes of Transhumanism and The Fall of Rome. The setting for the game is a once-great neural network of some kind, where numerous entities used to exist. But something is causing the entire system to decay. You need to keep moving forward in search of a way out before the world disappears beneath your feet. With each sector, you jump into a new 'body', and your perception of the world changes in small ways.
Content warnings
Minor discussion of apathetic / aimless / hopeless feelings, may be problematic for those suffering from depression, but ultimately I used this as a way to vent some of my own feelings while depressed.
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Comments
Congrats on winning Best Use of Theme: Transhumanism!
Please contact me about your prize. apocalypsegamejam@gmail.com
Hey Bismod! Thanks very much for hosting the Jam, as well as the updoot! I had a lot of fun =]
I've never seen an ASCII game done for a game jam, that's really cool - and ontop of that, your interpretation of the themes is very unique and interesting as well :)
I made it to Sector 20, but then ran into a room that had no width, but the exit at the end, so I had no means to get to it.
Other than that, I can agree to the comments below - especially that the lore text is really hard to read when you focus on finding an exit!
(Also one more thing, more on a meta level - I really appreciate you putting that content warning on that page! A lot of people would probably not even think about it, but it's very nice of you that you do! <3)
Haha, yeah, my room generation logic needs a bit more logic in it. It's very much in the 'good enough to submit' category, but I definitely want to refine the process, especially in terms of generating the exit door (or maybe at least allowing for a second exit to appear for situations like that >_>)
Thank you for the kind words and the feedback!
Beautiful ASCII art style, loved the look of the game. I made it to Sector 16 and then the exit seemed to be behind a wall with no entrance to it. Admittedly, I quickly focused on the game instead of the text, so I missed out on a good bit of it. I also love the idea of the paths you've walked collapsing behind you, very poetic.
I sadly didn't understand what integrity, output and energy meant and did, and also what the "&" and "z" enemies/obstacles did. They seemed to disappear once I ran into them with no further consequences.
I'd also loved some 8-bit chiptune in the background, or something of the likes, to not play the game in full silence (the silence could of course be a stylistic choice, so I may be in the wrong here).
All in all a cool little and beautiful game!
Yeah, in my mind I was being 'deliberately obtuse', but it's probably not helpful for people looking to just play the game, haha. I should really build in more/better visual feedback (maybe some simple audio as well?) to convey what's happening rather than relying on text only.
Ampersands are wandering "entities" (and if you're standing where they want to move, they will hit you). The 'Z' pickups are 'energy' drops. It takes energy on your moves to hit enemies (and if I go back to add more to the game, I might add things like 'locked doors' that take energy to open). 'Integrity' is just my word for 'HP', 'output' is for 'attack'.
But thank you very much for the kind words! I appreciate the feedback =]
High score: Sector 16!
Love this game, it's a very unique concept. Gameplay loop is fun, one could even say a-maze-ing...
The story on the right was intriguing and I liked how it made a complex imaginative world out of a flat, near-artless 2D world. And the main character's struggle was felt.
I didn't notice the stats on the bottom till my 3rd playthrough, haha, maybe that's just me. Maybe making them colored would make it more noticeable?
Also, I enjoyed destroying millions of ampersans and getting their energy afterwards. Maybe in a future iteration there could be ways of improving the character, or slowing down the deterioration based on the energy you picked up?
Lastly, the text on the right is hard to read and I feel like I've rarely gotten to see the whole paragraph because I had to find the exit quickly. I think the slow text speed is cool, but maybe increasing the speed, or having it already typed out to begin with would be nice. Although I do like the idea of trying to stay alive longer to be able to read the story. Either way, great game!
Thanks for the kind words! And yeah, the fine-tuning and balancing definitely needs some work. Based on a lot of the feedback, it's probably worth either slowing down the initial decay or speeding up the text (or both) for people that want to take their time on that aspect. Maybe a 'difficulty' toggle?
The origin of the 'energy' system was to become a baseline that I could theoretically layer more things on top of ('locked' doors that cost energy to open, etc). If I were to add complexity, it'd definitely be fun to work on some limited "abilities" (draw a line of stable 'ground' out in front of you to cross gaps?) that cost energy to use. Upgrades is definitely something I considered.
This was pretty difficult. I kept running into doors that lead nowhere, which means I had to backtrack a long way, but by that point the hallways in the beginning had collapsed.
I tried a few times but I didn't get further than sector 3 I think. It also was difficult to read the text on the right when I have to keep moving.
What I found cool is the whole ASCII type gameplay, a nice nod to older games!