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A jam submission

Paper RootsView game page

Pick up a PEN and some PAPER to solve your way out of this surreal labyrinth!
Submitted by PostMortemExpress — 2 hours, 41 minutes before the deadline
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Paper Roots's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Presentation#1034.1754.175
Originality#1044.0254.025
Fun#1503.5253.525
Theme#6282.1752.175

Ranked from 40 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

How does your game represent "Power"?
The game studies the relationship humans have with power.

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Comments

Viewing comments 33 to 21 of 33 · Next page · Last page
Submitted(+1)

This is so cool for the first two puzzles but then unfortunately it locks me in place once I solve the second one. I tried multiple times both on windows and in browser but unfortunately I cannot finish it. What I played was great though!

Developer

I'm so sad to hear that. Many people have been reporting similar issues, but then some, including me, haven't had anything like that happen. Thank you for giving the game multiple chances, sorry the game bugged.

Submitted(+1)

This is beautiful, and the puzzles are nice and just intuitive enough for me to piece them together without going nuts.

Developer(+1)

Good to hear thanks for playing

Submitted(+1)

Mesmerizing experience, beautiful game, sudoku was nice chill, maze was surreal... Wanted to add maze to our game, but did not have time. Thought about using lights to slightly guide the player with hints, or at least show that they are on the right track :)

Developer(+1)

Thank youuu

Submitted(+1)

That was awesome. I used a digital art program as my paper, but it worked just as well. Had to learn Sudoku for this, so that was interesting. Really enjoyed the art style sound design, and music. Definitely reminds me of the maze section in Hylics 2, which in my opinion is a good thing. Nice work.

Developer(+1)

Thank you for playing. I gotta check out that game you're talking about.

Submitted(+1)

This is so well made and I love the different puzzles. When I first started playing I went pfft, I won't need paper. Haha was I wrong. Reminds me of the witness. 

Developer

Haha I'm glad you did get a paper and a pen, because the game is way more fun to play with them. Thanks for playing

Submitted(+1)

Neat game! I really like the posterized visuals, that color palette reminded me of Hylics. I do think that TRANS_BACK, EASE_IN_OUT(?) effect on the movement (and especially turning) is a little nauseating, I would've just eased out and maybe opted for a different transition. A very distracting bug involved any interactable screen opening back up immediately when I close it. This happened on the web build (firefox, windows) so I tried the downloadable one but it still happened, I think it's an issue with the way you're reading input. Aside of that frustration though, the logic puzzles themselves were solid and the mood was tense. I will say if there was some significance to the symbols like the motorcycle, the tree, the "I went in" phrase, beyond just being surreal and kinda interesting, I couldn't figure anything out. (Not that a game's meaning needs to be "solvable", but I didn't understand why these symbols were there at all. Maybe that's just a skill issue?)

Developer

Thanks for the detailed comment. You may have a point with the movement being too nauseating. Other people have complained about the inputs as well, I don't know what's going on with that.
With the symbolism, we had many ideas for the story, having to do with theme "power", but don't think too deeply about it haha. You're the first one to comment anything about the lore elements so it's nice that they didn't go completely unnoticed. Thanks for playing!

Submitted(+1)

Absolutely love the art style on this one. A lot of the puzzles are head scratchers which is an accomplishment in itself. Was the movement inspired by Inscryption?

Developer

I've played inscryption, but I didn't even realize the movement was the same until now. I just didn't want the player to have to use a mouse, because I had visualized a setup where the player's left hand could be on the keyboard and the right on the pen and paper. If the game had a mouse and 360 degree camera control, the player would essentially have to completely pause the game every time he went to draw/write something for solving a puzzle. At the start I had the idea that the whole game would exist in a labyrinth and the player would have to track his movement at all times, where it would be very tedious to have to use a mouse for moving as well, but then we didn't even end up going that direction so it didn't really matter that much. Thanks a lot for playing and commenting!

Submitted(+1)

Very cool vibes.

Developer

Thanks!

Submitted(+1)

Proud to say that my dumb self was able to beat the game! Only took almost 2 hours (-_-;). Solid escape room game with some fun out of the box thinking needed.

Developer (1 edit)

Wow no way. Which part took you the most time?

Submitted(+1)

The maze had me totally stumped for a while, but to be fair I'm absolutely not smart enough for a game like this.

Developer

Well I'm very glad you found the game engaging enough to keep playing for such a long time :)

Submitted(+1)

i really enjoyed the look of the game, and the way the movement happened was really unique, felt like an old school game, but refreshed to feel more modern and more engaging. also very much liked your use of puzzles for each section.

Developer

Thanks for playing!

Submitted(+1)

Incredibly cool game! Perfect difficulty level and never felt unfair.

Developer

Thank you, glad to hear!

Submitted(+1)

Solving a puzzle feels good. Never having played a puzzle, like sudoku before, researching it and successfully solving it feels even better. And I've honestly never used a rotary combination lock safe before, so that was also a new experience for me. Top notch presentation also. The color shader gives it a nice retro/gloomy aesthetic. Nice work, and thank you for introducing me to new things!

Developer(+1)

Nice to hear, thanks for playing!

Submitted(+1)

Hey! Leaving a comment because I got stuck after solving the first puzzle, the door opens and then it seems like I can't move - I've tried everything but it's possible I'm missing something completely obvious. Any help would be appreciated, I really want to give this game a fair shot! I'm on the downloaded version fwiw

Developer

I honestly don't know. Some people have said that the inputs are for some reason a little messed up. One person said that if you always hold spacebar during the interactions the inputs shouldn't glitch. I haven't had these problems on my device so I'm unsure.

Viewing comments 33 to 21 of 33 · Next page · Last page