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The Driller That Will Unravel The World's itch.io pageRate this game
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Game's Take on the Theme
Mechanically I can only argue that the many luck based gambling gimmicks are akin to spinning a roulette. Thematically I incorporated as many spin-related concepts as I could imagine: the main battle system and much of the plot includes drills and the golden rectangle, your damage output is based on your drill's RPM. The library part of the game with the bosses stories was meant to represent "spinning a tale." originally the story was much more confusing because I wanted to make heads spin, but i ended up putting too much logic into it and may have lost that. There are still plenty of unexplained things that I dont plan on explaining either to keep that part of my intent in it. these were my spins on spin as a literary device, rather than a gameplay mechanic.
Did your team make the majority of the art and music during the jam?
100% during the jam
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Comments
I love the unique takes on theme. A lot of reading so I will play it again later. But I enjoyed what I've played so far.
Thank you!
If you like any of the books or storylines, do tell me! I'd love to know what connected with you.
Very cool project, there seems to be a lot of lore and details to unravel. I'm not very good at it but I still had fun. Good job!
It should be easy, I just failed to teach you well how to do it, so it's on me. Glad you could enjoy it despite the confusion!
Really cool unique concept and look. It took me a little bit to understand what was happening and how the fights worked but it was fun once I got it!
I've been waiting for people telling me they found the fun in the fights for so long, I'm so happy to have you here.
This game is so unique!! I haven't seen anything like this before, the story is very cool. I found it very confusing how to combat and all of that stuff but I'm sure with more time in this game I can get better, the art is great , the boss design is great too! Good job.
You totally can, it's weird at first, but it's actually a really simple system.
If you have any questions, I'd love to explain what each thing does so you can truly experience what the game is about
I gave it a second chance and now I feel how fun this game is! I think I kinda understand it but anyways it's very fun, one of my top choices for this jam, very good job!!
Thank you very much, I'm very happy you could find it!
I think there are some bosses which are more fun than others, so I'll really be thrilled if you get to know them!
Very unusual "boss" game. It has a lot of story and lots of unique art.
Combat has some depth too. I was mostly just charging my drill though :)
There are bosses designed to be easier using other things, but you can totally cheese through just charging and attacking. My playtests were mostly "can i beat this by mostly charging?" and only a few bosses weren't beatable via ungabunga, but it's a totally valid way to play.
That's a unique take on theme and has nice manga art style. The combat was a bit difficult for me to understand as it often give me consequence of my action choice. But still managed to beat two boss.
The responsiveness and tutorialness was lacking, it's completely my fault you came out feeling that way. I'll work on it when I complete it, thank you for trying it out!
You're actually the first person to report how many bosses you beat, so I'm happy to know that! Now that I'm aware the tutorial is lacking, I've been considering the game's been too complicated to engage with and actually beat any of the bosses, so getting a number on how far someone who was lost could get is really good info.
Do you recall which two ones you beat (their looks, if you hadn't unlocked their names yet)?
First boss was the one with a bee head on the shoulder.
Second is, I forgot.
The third one that I can't beat is the old man.
Thank you!
He's actually a boss that you profit from not knowing the mechanics very well! Trying to use tricks doesn't pay off as well as going on the offensive and just charging and hitting, or being a bit more safe and using the shield. (However there's a secret turn end event where he puts on the bee mask (no sprite for him wearing it :c) and gets different stats and moveset, so he's simultaneously one of the easiest and one of the hardest bosses)
A rather interesting story-driven game—I haven’t seen anything like this in the jam yet! The idea of using a visual novel system for combat is great, and it’s executed with style! This was a unique experience in the jam—great job!
Thank you very much! (I just left a reply saying I don't think what I did was unique, so hearing that you considered it a unique experience made me go "uh oh" but also "hell yeah")
Liked the artstyle and this is an interesting approach for a boss fight. I didn't think about that the visual novels would be a good one. Congrats.
Thank you!
It's a bit of a weird one for sure, even the other more narrative-oriented games I've seen had a more point-click or action-y gameplay mixed in, so while I don't think I was unique, I kind of ended up being an outlier.
I loved the story. The art style was also amazing. It looks really polished. I had a lot of fun playing your game. It is one of the best games I have played so far in the jam. Great Job.
An honor to hear such words, thank you very much.
It was good! I enjoyed the story the most.
Very happy to hear it!
Rewarding to know the time spent on the script could make its way to someone who liked it.
Looks super polished. I liked the visuals, music and sfx a lot. Main critique I have is maybe having more information on screen during combat so I have more context to figure things out. But that could just be me.
It wasn't just you, so it is something I'll remember to implement for sure. If not just show it as you choose, at least give the option to look back at the shown stats again.
Thank you!
Was that an A’Tuin reference I saw? Past the elephants and the turtle. I really enjoy this game, there’s so many references and the style of writing feels very comfortable almost cosy, I read through a couple of the books between runs and I’m gonna come back to this a few times over this week to keep venturing further, thank you for such an interesting game and take on the theme of spinning
It is! The game has a bunch of literature references, so while I didn't want to open with one, I wanted to let one in early so people would know what it is about. And nobody better than the master to be the top batter.
When you do, I'd love to know what books you liked the most. As their styles can be quite different, I think there's one for everyone, so having that knowledge is also important to me.
Thank you too for the kind words!
Amazing presentation and the most unique and involved use of the theme I've seen. Worldbuilding isn't something you expect to find in a game jam game but I was delighted by the level of thought and creativity that went into this. Top notch all around. RPM as a sort of currency is brilliant.
Money makes the world go around...
Therefore money is spin and spin is money.
(Originally there was much more use of RPM as currency, as RPM didn't reset after battles [Perils could be paid for with RPM too for an example], but 1) it allowed you to cheese the game by charging forever against the bosses that aren't fights 2) after enough DP increases, retaining it also made you cheese through every boss. Once I decided to make it reset, the characters and things that asked for great amounts of your RPM for skills/services also had to be done with because it didn't work anymore. Glad I noticed that issue halfway through as opposed to near completion, but still a bummer to have to rework/remove so many things due to one system change.)
Kills me say this but I dropped during the first fight, tutorial was too obscure to understand for me, It would be nice if every mechanich would be introduced little by little instead everything everywhere all at once, also the tutorial combined with the poetic narrative made it harder to understand I would prefer those things more separated, specially if the mechanics are so important and complex. Great art and great music, really a shame that I coudn't continue because I didn't knew what I was doing specially because I really liked the concept.
Another thing sometimes the text goes to hard for a simple explanation, like too poetic? Idk if that makes sense hope it does
Very valid criticism, I was too self-centered on the explanation ("since I, the designer, got it, surely everyone can understand with just this, right?"). While I do think it's better to dump it all at once and then have you learn as you get to use the skills in real battles, properly explaining how each system works in a more detailed way was necessary.
To me it'd be deadly to break the world of the game by speaking in a colder, more methodic voice to make it clear, so while I consider a glossary of terms and systems added to your home, I also consider making a game manual that comes with the game, and you can read it to understand the minutiae of the game without the magic of immersion being broken in-universe. Do you think that would be too much work, since the game should explain the game in-game, or do you think that approach could count as the separation of poetic and pratical you mentioned?
(If anybody else is reading this thread and would like to comment, all input is welcome, as it is more of a general question than a question to YmotLe in particular.)
Thank you very much for the feedback, I'll work to not lose people like you in the future.
Oh I think that having the instructions separated and explained more "gamy" in this particular case would be better so the player can enjoy the narrative without getting choked on the text that is also vital to play and enjoy the game (messing up the narrative and the explanation). Thank you for your detailed feedback on my feedback :P
Interesting game with a cool twist on the theme. I liked the art and sfx. Great job!
Thank you very much!
A twist... in a way, that is also a spin...
This game rocks AND rolls baby
all day long sweet susie
Hey, I am usually not into VN but I went back into your game after reading the detailed feedback you left to some other games, hoping you’ll play mine ;)
Definitely you accomplished the “heads spin” part with the story. Very convoluted with many unexplained things (some make sense later, some I coulnd’t make sense). Kudos there. I like stories and I tried to add one to my shmup even it if may not need it.
Some feedback on things I’d improve. There are some colored numbers next to the actions. Explaining those beforehand would be useful for new players, maybe even in the game page description.
Also, some actions are not very evident, I don’t know what they will do until I execute them and then there is no backtrack. I guess that adds to replayability but one thing text adventures used to do was provide hints in the text itself of what the results of the actions may be just so it doesn’t feel like you are just randomly choosing actions and seeing what will happen.
One last thing. I really enjoyed the art and I am particularly fond of dithering. Have you considered using blue noise or a serpentine dither? It creates less uniform and IMO better looking dithering. See for example comparison: https://josepvalls.itch.io/time-attack-3d uses uniform dithering (but with a richer color palette) whereas https://josepvalls.itch.io/duck-duck uses blue noise (and less colors).
Will get to yours, as you so kindly requested and much feedback provided.
If there's anything in particular you'd like to understand about the story, I can give you an answer/explanation or tell you there isn't one and there won't be any, so you are free to take it in whatever way, rather than try to crack the puzzle. If you'd like it, of course, I don't mind spoiling if you don't mind being spoiled.
The tutorial really was a fumble on my part, but as a turn-based game that is cyclical, I believe you can afford to find out what your skills do by using them, and at the same time you start finding out what the bosses do and how their actions interact with yours. If the tutorial was better you wouldn't feel so alone in how to engage with it, but I do believe letting the player start finding out the inner workings by themselves is an experience that they should have. I can see how that can filter some people, but it's my philosophy and I'm still unsure I should discard it. I'll fix my teaching of the mechanics, and if even so it's hard to follow, then I'll abandon what I believe in for the players.
Aren't those dithering techniques for 3D models in blender? I like the look of your uniform dithering, but I don't think it's something that 2D art can embody in the same way. I'll look more into dithering brushes and functions on Clip Studio Paint to see what other artstyles I can present with it, but I have no idea if those concepts exactly will be available. Thank you for the tips, I wouldn't look into expanding my horizons otherwise.
This is my go-to resource to experiment with dithering algorithms and palettes before coding anything: https://ditherit.com/ If you have your originals in grayscale I bet you can try running them here. Just look at the impact of the very first dropdown to switch between ordered and not.
The results did come out pretty good, I liked it! I'd have to paint a little differently to maximize what it does, but I'll save it for a future project and surely use it. I can already see a great use for it, no better way to show something is alien to have it in a clearly different style, so I can dither with the tool and the alien is my handmade, or vice versa. Very interesting, mucho thank you!
happened to see this today (probably youtube looking into my search history) and thought of you, so came to share
I had seen that already, I love it; what I’m doing is much simpler than that but it is on my growing list of things I want to look into. “Return of the Obra Dinn” does a stable screen space shader that also looks pretty neat and it’s much simpler. That is my next goal.
I had seen that already, I love it; what I’m doing is much simpler than that but it is on my growing list of things I want to look into. “Return of the Obra Dinn” does a stable screen space shader that also looks pretty neat and it’s much simpler than that.
Very unique to the boss rush category, works very well and is so intresting . the interpratation of the jams theme "Spin" is so bizzare and works with harmony with everything in the game . you can tell how much love was put into making this game. it has its own personality. music and sound effects were very good.
Post enhanced by imagining Haguruma saying it to me, thank you for the mental image and for identifying the love in it, it means a lot to me.
Really unique! truly experimental and thought-provoking...the black-and-white aesthetic adds so much to the atmosphere, congrats!
Nothing but words that are a delight to hear, it is an honor to receive such praise! Thank you!
art was really amazing. i also wanted to add that shading effect to my art. usually i spam through the dialogues xD. but very unique game fo sure. thanx for sharing <3!
If you use CSP, it's all tone layers, if you use something else, I don't know how you can do it, but maybe it's just under another name (dithering perhaps) or a setting you never messed on. Hope you have it in your program, thank you!
When you're skipping dialogue the real gamble is if you'll get the least lines possible when getting candy, I imagine. I meant to make them short since you'll see them a lot, but some of them did end up with a few too many lines.