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A jam submission

MoaiView game page

Explore Easter Island, take photos, and ride your scooter
Submitted by EmptyCastle — 9 hours, 18 minutes before the deadline
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Moai's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Presentation (graphics, audio)#1033.8713.871
Originality#1273.6453.645
Theme#2323.1293.129
Fun#2472.8062.806

Ranked from 31 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

How does your game represent Mode?
Moai is based around the theme: Mode. This game uses the statistical interpretation of Mode: "A value that appears most often in a data set." In Moai, players will study the facial features of each Moai (Easter Island Heads) and sort them into one of three groups: Hotu Iti, Koro Orongo, or Miru. These 3 groups are three of the historical families from ancient Rapa Nui (Easter Island). After sorting, the group associated with the most Moai (The Mode), are then determined to of been the most influential historical family on Rapa Nui. A massive discovery for the scientific community!

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Comments

Viewing comments 26 to 7 of 26 · Next page · Last page
Submitted

Needless to say that I spent more time cruising around the island than taking the pictures as I was tasked to do. I loved the relaxing experience.

Developer

Thanks so much for playing! I'm glad you enjoyed the vibe :)

Submitted

Very cool experience, makes me feel so relaxed, i very much enjoyed the game! Presentation is on top, the ONLY thing that wasn't perfect was the scooter, it was kinda hard to turn sometimes, and acceleration was very slow, but thats just a nitpick. Good game!(check out our game if you will have time, we need ratings a lot xd)

Developer

Hey thanks for playing! Yeah the scooter can be a little bit cumbersome at times, especially if the game is running at a lower framerate, which it usually is in the web player. Idk if that was your experience or not. I'm looking into it for future releases.

I will certainly try to find some time to give yours a play!

Submitted

So I tried to connect my controller, but somewhat the camera was a bit weird. I tried to take off anyway and I guess I ended up flying lol

Taking picture is pretty fun. Really enjoying the visuals and music. Great job!

Developer

Woah! That's interesting. I'd love to hear more about how you managed to do that if you have the time.

Submitted(+1)

I tried to step on the gas on a ramp-y part? And somewhat suddenly I got a big air boost and just went off flying

Submitted

It ran great on the web. I really appreciate the render distance, being able to see across the whole island was pretty magical. I'm also impressed you tackled a 3d adventure so well for a game jam, thats pretty ambitious!

Developer(+1)

Thanks foy playing!

I tried really hard to get a long render distance. There's a few tricks at play there. But the main ones are that the grass only renders at about 1/10th of the render distance as the terrain. Not calculating shadows also helped a lot with it.

Submitted

The performance was pretty good, did you test it with baked shadows at all?

Developer(+1)

I did not. I just didn't have the time to mess with any of it. I'm thinking about adding some shadows to a later version.

Submitted

Smart, it wouldn't have added anything your game didn't need.

Submitted

Unfortunately couldn't play because I have no gamepad, but just wanted to say it looks really impressive

Developer

Thank you! I'm sorry you couldn't play. There will be keyboard support in a later version of the game

Submitted

this is not the type of game i was expecting to see from this jam, wow! i love this kind of stuff! games where you explore and piece together answers from the environment are some of my absolute favorites. (aka: outer wilds enjoyer) i had so much fun covering every inch of rapa nui to find my next clue. the scooter was a little finicky at times - i found myself having to call for help a lot, since for some reason driving in reverse wasn’t working - but it still felt incredibly good to control. i also love the overall vibes and modelling work in the game, it’s all very well done and well polished for something made in such a short timeframe. nice work!!! :)

Submitted

I was confused by the reverse driving thing for a bit as well, but it works if you hold reverse and choose a direction.

Developer

I'm glad someone picked up on the Outer Wilds influence :) I'm glad you had some fun, thanks for playing!

I think someone else mentioned it, but you need to hold Left Trigger while stopped to reverse. 

Submitted (1 edit)

crazy stuff, but this is a pretty great entry! Really like this one. Shame it required a controller, i had one but it should still have keyboard controls, but yeah easy to run out of time with something like that

Developer

I'm glad you liked it, and thanks for the feedback!

Keyboard was on my radar, but towards then end it became apparent I would not be able to provide the level of control I wanted when turning, as well as showing the new key bindings in the UI, within the jam timeline. It was painful to cut. The post jam version will absolutely have keyboard support.

Thanks for playing!

Submitted(+1)

I really liked this! The atmosphere is incredibly relaxing and the concept is so fresh and ambitious. At first I just rode around on the scooter which was super fun. My only concern there is that it's so fun that I didn't want to stop and take pictures. I eventually restarted the game because I couldn't remember what I'd taken pictures of while randomly scootering around. 

On my second try I carefully followed the paths. Unfortunately, I am directionally challenged so I had a lot of trouble finding all the heads. I got 10 pictures of (I think) different heads, but the 11th head and one or two notes alluded me (I did find the totally destroyed head, which I feel like *should* have been the tricky one). I attempted to do some deduction from there but realized that the clue about there being a series of heads meant that just having pictures wasn't enough and I'd have to remember where each head I had pictures of was. That felt pretty impossible for me, so I realized I'd have to restart again and take notes to really do the puzzle correctly.

I hope this feedback isn't too detailed and/or honest. This really is one of the coolest games I've played so far in the jam and I thought you might find an account from someone really trying to solve the puzzle interesting. I'd check out a post-jam version if a few quality of life improvements were made!

Developer

Hey first of all I just want to say I'm super happy you liked it enough to delve into the game nuances and details! It always feels awesome to know someone likes what you made enough to spend some real time on it, so thank you!

I totally understand your frustrations about finding all the heads. I think that is probably this games biggest flaw at the moment, and I already have tons of ideas to fix it in a later build. So seriously, thank you for the honest feedback. It will help me make a better version of this game

Submitted

This game is exceptionally charming, and I really like the use of statistical mode to capture such a unique and creative theme. My only complaint is that it's hard to remember which moai I've taken pictures of- a map that filled in with the ones you've already captured would be amazing.

Still though, this is a really great job, and props to you for taking on such an ambitious project!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing!

I definitely agree its an issue. I'm planning an expanded version of the game for a full release and this is one of the most important problems I intend to tackle.

Submitted

Awesome work either way - this is really a joy to play!

Submitted

I really enjoy this game's vibe. The scooter controls pretty well, and though I did get stuck one time your watchdog timer unstuck me, so good work on implementing that. The game feels peaceful and really like the super vibrant colors. 

Developer

Thanks for playing! I'm happy you had some fun!

Submitted

Amazing sound and visuals. Driving the vespa around was a good time too. I found myself driving over the whole island looking for stuff to ramp off of. Ran into the same issue as others where I got distracted doing that and didn't know where I had already been, but was very cool regardless!

Developer

Thanks for playing! I'm glad you had some fun :)

I really wish I had time to either make a map, or leave tire tracks or something so players had some sort of idea of where they were / are. Definitely going to be addressing this for the full release.

Submitted

Concept, vibe, tunes, visuals are all on point, and according to the rules, drivable vehicles in any game are an automatic +1 letter grade. I spent some time just driving around for fun. Only problem for me was that I ended up wandering the island having no idea which heads I already had pictures of, and where the last ones I needed were

Developer(+1)

Thank you!

Yeah that is definitely a problem in the games current iteration no doubt. I'm planning on doing a full release of Moai sometime after the jam, and a solution to that issue is definitely going to be focused on. Pretty much anyone I had play test ran into the same issue.

Thanks for playing! I really liked your game btw

Submitted

This game rocks! The vibe is superb and the main mechanic is compelling too. Would love a little more control of the camera and the moped in the air if this got worked on post-jam, but a serious solid entry already.

Developer

Thanks for playing! I'm glad you liked it!

Totally agree. I'm working on plans now to expand Moai into a full release and those two things are very high on my list.

Submitted

Outstanding soundtrack, would pay good money for a cozy game where you're driving along the coast of a far island in the sea. A lot of potential with this!

Submitted(+1)

Outstanding soundtrack, would pay good money for a cozy game where you're driving along the coast of a far island in the sea. A lot of potential with this!

Developer(+1)

Thank you! I'm glad to here! The reception has been a lot better than I was hoping for, which has been really cool. I'm in the process of planning out an expanded full release

Submitted

Great experience, well done! Very nice polish on the rider animations, and of course the artwork is beautifully done :)

Developer

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Submitted

Absolutely love the atmosphere and calm gameplay, very clever logic puzzle. The focus on exploration, environment, and ambience is incredible. Definitely one of my favorites from this jam.

Developer

Thank you so much! I'm really glad you enjoyed it. Especially the puzzle elements :)

Submitted

I really enjoyed the chill and peaceful vibe of this game, and I liked the story :D. I missed being able to turn or have some kind of control during the motorcycle jumps. Overall, it's a very cool game!

Developer

Thanks! Yeah I put the game on a single stick so my girlfriend could play. She has trouble using both sticks at once. But I think in later versions there will definitely be a look around action on the right stick, that won't really be necessary to use, but will be helpful for those who want it. 
More air control and like tricks and things are also on my radar too!

Thanks for playing! I enjoyed playing Skaterwitch btw! 

Submitted(+1)

I like the shaders. it makes the game pop a LOT. the atmosphere is awesome and the music is lovely. Very relaxing gameplay. Good job!

Developer

I'm glad you liked it! Thanks for playing!

Submitted(+1)

really nice atmosphere, lovely graphics and audio.   I know it's not this kind of game but I really wanted to do flips when i went off a ramp 😂  well done! very impressive game

Developer

Thanks I'm glad you liked it! Doing flips and tricks was definitely something I wanted to do too. But I just ran out of time. I'm thinking about expanding this into a full game, and if I do tricks will absolutely be included. Thanks for playing

Viewing comments 26 to 7 of 26 · Next page · Last page