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Untangled's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Audio | #4 | 4.250 | 4.250 |
| Game Design | #104 | 3.594 | 3.594 |
| Innovation | #106 | 3.438 | 3.438 |
| Overall | #131 | 3.458 | 3.458 |
| Graphics | #160 | 3.656 | 3.656 |
| Fun | #203 | 3.219 | 3.219 |
| Theme | #443 | 2.594 | 2.594 |
Ranked from 32 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the theme?
Each section of the game is a chat which starts with a chat request. These chat requests use a door as their icon, like older instant messaging apps, such as AIM. "What's behind the door" is the next conversation.
Did you write all the code and made all the assets from scratch?
All of the code and art was done by Shadow64. The music was all entirely written by Elise in the Clouds. The writing was a shared work. The SFX were selected, licensed, & purchased from Splice. The door icon is edited from Google icons. The fonts are free for commercial use from various sources.
We began discussions and work on February 3rd, 2024 and altered the project when the jam theme was announced. The game was largely created and completed after the announcement.
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Comments
Dang, playing this is quite a treat. In summary, I really enjoyed it—went through all kinds of emotions. The music and aesthetic are pretty cool and misleading, but that's what makes this special; it adds more to the theme. The game is like two best friends bashing each other; can relate to it. Great job!
Thank you so much! I'm glad you connected with it. And I'm glad the chat felt like/reminded you of something real. That's great feedback!
Reminiscence was a really fun play! I'm glad I got a chance to check it out. Thank you again for playing/rating and congrats on finishing the jam!
This was quite the experience. At first, it threw me off some kind of catfishing, stalker, stranger danger kind of vibe. But the more the game progressed, the clearer it became what's the story behind it. I'm rather new to game dev, and I could only imagine how many hours are put into this game, since it took me quite a while to complete it, and this is I assume just one of the scenarios there are, I chose to play the "leave me alone kind of answers". Great work!
Thank you very much! Yes, getting this to come together quickly was a big undertaking but we're very proud of the results and even more proud/flattered by the responses. So glad you had a chance to play it and that you enjoyed it. Thank you for playing/rating and I look forward to playing your entry!
Beautiful text based game. I went through all the emotions, fascinated by the sound effects and music, immediately and effectively ticked off and sad and lonely and in the end, connected.
Thank you for the wonderful feedback. We truly appreciate you sharing your experience with the game and we're happy to hear it had such an effect on you. Thank you for your time and for playing!
This was a really amazing and polished experience. The visuals and overall atmosphere were just amazing. I can't believe you got all this done in a week, that's crazy. I know it's a good game because when these absolute freaks kept trying to gaslight me and such, I got an actual angry reaction and wanted to type to them myself LOL. The only actual feedback I can give is that I wish the animations were a little faster, I was having to wait a little more than I like but a setting would fix that pretty easily. Overall the team did an amazing job on this one, great work getting all this done in only a week!! If you have the time, I would love for you to check out my game too!
Edit: I just saw you made the sound yourself. That is insane. You are so talented!
Thank you so much for the feedback! We did prep and discuss before (as that's allowed) but the bulk of the work was done during the week of the jam. The music is ALLLLL Elise in the Clouds and I will never stop saying that she's an absolute genius and amazing to work with.
I'm so glad you had that reaction to it. It really seems to have affected so many people and made them think and debate the meaning of the game and you always sort of hope that it will be that sort of thing, but we're very VERY flattered that it has turned out this way.
Thank you so much for playing and for the feedback. I need to get to Generational Drift, but I will today and leave you a rating/review.
Congrats on finishing the jam!
The music was great and the animations and everything felt very polished! I have 2 problems though(sorry that sounded worse then I meant it):
What is ....it?(Thats not a problem with the game I just want to know that)
Definitely no problem! Feedback is helpful and this is great.
1. Admittedly we know it's not the best use, but we both grew up with AIM which had a door opening sound when someone would come on to chat. For us, it makes sense, but for others, we know the reference is lost on them.
2. Your answers do change the outcome in certain areas. There is a system there of branches and ties - essentially the conversation can branch outward, but then does tie back in at a common area. This is something that many interactive fiction games do. With a larger scope, we'd love to make those branches more distinct and give them more of an effect, but for a jam this was the most we felt we could make happen in a short time span. There are very specific instances where you might have to start a section over and there is a "bad" ending if you make some particular choices, but for the most part we tried to "guide" the player towards the "right" ones, so few people are encountering those.
3. Haha. "It" is meant to be a bit nebulous. What I can say is that Ash and the main character have had a falling out. There are details given so you can piece together some of it, but the nature of it is meant to be more open and to invite discussion (as well as the nature of the characters contacting you). I'm sorry for not being more definitive, but in this case, it's less about the specifics and more about how the overall experience made you feel.
Sorry if that's a cop out! We hope you still liked it!
Thank you for playing and congrats on finishing the jam! Your game is on my list! Hoping to get to all of you today!
Thanks for the reply!
Happy to! I love that it made you think about the situation enough to care to ask! Thanks again for playing!
I played a lot longer than i anticipated. Which can only be a good thing! I found it very interesting and this is a style of game I haven't played before. I don't have much more to say, I enjoyed it, I really liked that the music was dynamicly changing.
Yesssss! We hooked ya! Haha. That's great to hear. I'm glad we could bring you something original and that you liked the music as well. Elise is brilliant. Her other music is even better, so if you liked this, definitely check her out!
Thanks again for playing and I look forward to checking out your entry! Congrats on finishing!
Truly an immersive experience! The music developing as the chat progressed and the text sending speed correlating with the text size made it like I was actually receiving the texts. Nice job!
Thank you very much! The text speed is something I would definitely like to work on if we expand it. I think some people liked that effect and others felt it could've been faster. I'm glad you were one of the ones for whom it made it feel more real!
Thanks again for playing and congrats on finishing the jam! Can't wait to play yours!
This was truely phenomenal, the music is excellent and the writing is absolutely superb. How you got each character to sound unique is impressive, and the way they slowly get better at dealing with the situation is masterful. I got sucked into it and became super defensive as I imagined my character to be, but bit by bit those friends changed my mins and eventually that diamond character finally convinced me to leave. I don't know how you pulled this of so well! Playing so many games during a game jam can be tiring, but it's worth it for a gem like this.
This is an absolutely flooring review. My deepest thanks for your praise on this project. I'm glad that it really resonated with you and that you felt it was worthy of your time. That's so nice and I cannot thank you enough. I cannot take credit for the music as that was handled by Elise in the Clouds and she is just absolutely a powerhouse.
Thank you so much for playing and for your feedback and congrats on finishing the jam!
Wow, really glad I checked this one out. Super unique entry, dripping with style and heart. The soundtrack is fantastic, and the writing is exceptional for the time limit. I found myself actually annoyed at some of my 'friends', and that's not always an easy place to put the audience when you're making a narrative. I was pretty fed up with them so much so that I almost didn't give smiley face diamond avatar a chance. Really impressed, great work!
The only oddity I encountered was that I had to replay the second tangle, the one with the spark avatar that wanted to break things. I'm not sure if I just 'failed' the conversation, but it did repeat.
Good luck on getting to 20 ratings, y'all deserve it!
Thank you so much for playing! Viginti was so fun and I'm glad you enjoyed your time with Untangled - even if that may not be exaaaactly the verb you'd use haha. I really am glad that the characters stuck out to you and yes, if you go down the wrong path with a given conversation that can result in a restart. So it sounds like maybe that second NPC got ahold of you a bit.
Really glad you got a chance to play it and thank you again for giving it a shot and leaving a rating. Hopefully we make it across. It would be great to rank, so thank you for your help!
Cheers and good luck!
Thank you!!! 3 away!!! Haha. And to you too! I hope it does well. You did great!
I really really like the concept and I have a lot of good things to say about the game. BUT it was frustratingly slow for people who can read faster. I love the music the animations of the text but just too slow maybe an option to skip text animations or would that take away from the originally intended experience.
Ahhh that's a very good point! Definitely something we would add if we end up going further with it. Read speed options are key. For the jam I was trying to give it the real sense of waiting for someone to respond. In fact, I nearly based the wait time on the number of characters multiplied by an NPC "typing" speed so it would feel like they were actually chatting with you. But you're totally right! For people who just want to go, I can see that it would be frustrating. Thank you for the feedback and for playing!
Magical Tower of Doors was a lot of fun. Congrats again on finishing the jam!
This game feels like a psychology test! The gameplay, audio, simplicity, and story-rich content are truly outstanding! You've done a fantastic job at this!
Hahaha! In some ways I suppose it is! Thank you so much for the feedback. I'm so glad you enjoyed it!
And thank you for playing and rating. I can't wait to check out Doorbell! I'm looking forward to it.
Congrats on finishing the jam and thanks again for your help!
Good game,good graphic,immersive atmosphere ! I like all bout it ! great job
Thank you so much! I really enjoyed your game as well. Thanks for taking the time to play and leaving a rating and comment!
Does this game have multiple endings? I think the ending that I got is quite nice, although I did feel bad for the MC.
I think overall it's an amazing game with nice music.
Thanks for playing! There are two endings and a few different ways you can fail in each stage. I'm glad you got the nice ending - if you got "Please Try Again" at the bottom of the credits, then technically that's the "Bad End" but even then it's not that tragic. The MC definitely has their own situation to deal with throughout, so that's understandable.
Thank you very much for the compliment and yes, Elise in the Clouds is brilliant! You can find more of her music on Spotify and YT Music and basically everywhere, but she's incredibly talented and I was very lucky to have her on this project. Looking forward to playing Curiosity!
ah, i get that
got
This game made me feel different. I am really impressed by how much conversation possibility there is. It was a very enjoyable experience. The theme isn't really there but the overall game is amazing! The music, the dialogue, the experience, really great. The only thing that annoyed me was talking to someone and then when the chat end, I get paired with the same guy, I thought it was a bug but it might not be
This is a big and amazing compliment. Thank you very much for taking the time to explore it. I understand if you don't feel the theme was there. Admittedly it's not the best use we could have made, so I understand. I'm glad the rest of the experience was so positive!
As for the bug you described, it's actually intended behavior (sorry!). What you encountered were some of the restart conditions. Essentially if you get swept up too much by any of the characters and their hidden agendas, you may find yourself stuck with them until you're ready to move on. It has meaning thematically, but we want to let people explore this journey in whatever way makes sense to them.
Thank you very much for the compliments and I look forward to checking out your entry! Congrats on finishing!
Ok, thank for the reply, I also though this might have been intentend and I completely understand then
All good! The feedback is appreciated. We admittedly need to put more time into that so that it's more clear to the player. Definitely. Thank you for telling us so we can address it in the future!
Incredible atmosphere, especially supported by the great music. The dialogue hits almost too close to home lol.
With a more refined visual style, and maybe a bit of non-linearity amongst the conversations, this could make for a great narrative focussed game.
As for the jam theme, I actually interpret it a bit deeper than just the next conversation being the thing behind the door. Rather, the ulterior motives or toxic behaviour that "friends" can expose when they find someone vulnerable, those traits normally hidden behind a "door", or the usual face they present.
Good stuff, thanks for the experience.
Oh wow! Thank you for this.
I completely agree that the music is a HUGE part of the game. I still can't believe how fast she was able to compose this. There's actually even more that had to be cut for time (So sorry!). She's incredible.
I'm really glad the dialogue hit, though obviously it can be rough too if that happens. The topic is one that a lot of people have gone through and we tried to keep it open so that people could better see themselves in the situation.
We would love to do a more polished/refined version and have been discussing it, so that's great to hear!
Your interpretation of the "doors" or masks that people wear when they speak to us is a totally valid one that we hadn't noticed while making it. Thank you for pointing that out! I think it definitely gives it another level.
Thank you again for playing and giving feedback. I hope you had a great jam! Congrats!
That is indeed a very pretty soundtrack, very fitting! Loving the tensions.
Thank you very much for playing and yes, the soundtrack is incredible! It enhances every stage. It's unbelievable how fast she is able to establish mood and having her on this project was a dream.
What did I do to breed so many toxic people in my life lmao
Wonderful little game! Gorgeous music!
Hahaha. Yeah they are quite aggressive and even brutal at times, aren't they? Beware!
Thank you for playing and I'm glad you had a good experience (albeit a rough one). And yes! Élise in the Clouds is a genius. She has entire albums she's written. Go! Find her! She even has D&D stuff! It's insane!
This is neat, but I am not sure I fully followed the game aspect of it - most of my choices seemed to lead me down the same path. It also does not seem to fit the theme. Neat tho!
Glad you found it neat, but sorry to hear that it didn't hit certain targets for you. There is some branching involved (you can actually "lose" each section and even get a bad ending), but we do try to guide you and many of those branches are tied up, so that's an understandable reaction. I hope that the rest of the jam was a great experience! Thanks for playing!
This is an AMAZING little game that was created. it was fun for me to slowly find out hat exactly had happened (screw ash). and these conversations seem like two people actually talking in a chat room. this is a great game, and you should be proud of what you created.
Thank you so much for playing! I'm glad you enjoyed it and that the conversations seemed like real people.
It's an interesting thing about Ash. Consider this: Who made you feel that way about them? Who gave you that information? What does the game say about that character? Are they ultimately someone to be trusted and followed on that? What else does the MC say about the situation? The fault may not be as clear cut as it seems. But it never is.
I'm really glad you got something out of it and engaged you this way. Thanks again and congrats on finishing!
Thought it was a touching & relatable story, thank you for creating this- also, I loved the music in this!! Our game touches upon some of the same themes as this, think you could be interested :)
Thank you very much! I'll make sure to check out Talk Yourself Out of It. It actually reminds me of another game just from looking at it, so I'm excited to take a peek.
If you're interested in the music, Élise in the Clouds has several works out. Her album Patterns is absolutely beautiful and I highly recommend the track "L'Envol" which I listened to a lot while working on this with her.
Congrats on finishing the jam!