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The Town Inside Me's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Game Design | #482 | 2.858 | 3.500 |
| Innovation | #528 | 2.654 | 3.250 |
| Graphics | #553 | 2.756 | 3.375 |
| Overall | #599 | 2.586 | 3.167 |
| Fun | #636 | 2.449 | 3.000 |
| Theme | #636 | 2.552 | 3.125 |
| Audio | #645 | 2.245 | 2.750 |
Ranked from 8 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does you game fit the theme?
Split into a sappy story about 'not being alone' and reconnecting with friends and family.
Mechanically fits by the actual gameplay being about stumbling in the dark while 'not being alone' due to lurking monsters.
Did you write all the code and made all the assets from scratch?
Some assets were from creative commons like music which is credited in the description.
Code is almost purely made from scratch except for very basic/generic functions such as helper functions for working with text or transforms.
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Comments
(I am now in a rush to test as many games as possible to help, so please do not mind the cursory reviewing style.)
Semi-on-the-fly remarks:
great smoke effect
great in-game tutorial! and very atmospheric, too
nice tile-based fog of war! :)
Ironically, you program the keys layout-independently, which is usually great, but let the literal value, so Q becomes actually A to press on my AZERTY keyboard. X)
beaten in the tutorial! :o Was that expected??
Next level: what are these square holes for?
Aaaaah, I had no idea the talking shadows could move diagonally!! <:o The game seems rather hard, with this moving thing!
Lost…
Trying again the same level. Oh, that small spider was an enemy! :o
Fleeing the shadow, lost again. XD BUT already lit up three out of four coloured "flames"/lights. By the way, this system is rather intuitive! Reminds me of the first adult temple from "Ocarina of Time" (the Forest), where you have to beat coloured ghosts. :)
How many levels are there, actually? Because this is hard!
Third try: my hearts do not regenerate!! <:o
Managed it on third try! :D
meta-humour, I love this ("a lot of broken dialogue")
Line on "simile": the writing is quite fine, up to here. :)
End of dialogue: sent back to the beginning of level 1! :o Is this a bug??
Ah, void level? I think this was really the end!
Takeaway: interesting game mechanics (mixing tiled-based with real time, long-distance spell, mana), well-written dialogue… Clearly, I think there is the potential for a full game! :) You wrote you might get back to it; double-check what other people think, but my guess is that you should.
I like your attempt at a double-sided use of the theme; I think the ‘dark’ side of it is somewhat loose, as it boils down to ‘there are monsters’ (although the talking shadow really makes it perceivable!!), while the narrative ‘light’ side is closer to it. Graphics are great, audio a bit lacking, and the game is engaging, although a bit hard for the moment (and possibly buggy, but this happens ;)).
Good entry, and good basis for more! :)
Hey-hey, thank you very much I really appreciate your off the cuff thoughts! Honestly I super like your review style, and I'll probably steal it in the future~
It's super helpful for seeing how things landed, and honestly it's made me feel all fired up again about it! ^.^
There's a lot of really useful stuff in what you said that I'll definitely want to emphasize/polish in the future now that I can see it from another perspective. Not to mention things that I just completely failed to consider like how different keyboards interact.
Thanks for your thanks. :)
I used to write more proper syntheses, but realized it was taking me way too long given the quantity of games to test, at least in big game jams. So, I switched to this, and the creators still thought it was helpful, so I kept it — even though I am still slow at testing and writing, but I am trying hard to get more efficient. XD
I was nothing serious, there! A lot of games do not take that into account. ;) But most of them precisely use a QWERTY layout, while yours did not; which is actually a good thing for position-related controls, but not for letter-related controls — although this was really no pain once I (quickly) found the right key, contrary to, say, playing fast-paced devilishly hard PLAT Inc. with my fingers twisted on the movement controls. XD I know video game APIs generally allow you to get keys both by position and by letter, so you just have to use the right one between position-wise and letter-wise functions depending on context. :)
As a side note, your game was the last I got to test during the voting period. I think I will still visit some more in the future, but there are so many, and various stuff keeps piling up… ._. Still, good luck in enhancing your game! :)
Nice game idea you have there. Great job!
Thank you, I appreciate it!
I like the idea of convining visual novel and dungeun, what it would lack would be a little more game feel to have a stronger feeling when playing. But still I liked it and I hope to see this project in the future with more time and work.
Thank you very much! ^.^
Hey! amusing game It would have been wonderful to have some background music and perhaps a log for the text portions. Sometimes when I read something and move on to the next page, I realise I didn't internalise what it actually said. But I enjoyed the tale, and the dream sequences were entertaining even if they took a little getting accustomed to. I believe a screen-based control method should be present and concealable. I enjoyed the animations and the spritework, as well as the sound effects. If you want to would you feel like rating my game please? Or if not then you could help the people in the need of rating catogory. What ever you choose it is up to you. Keep up the creation of fun games :)
Heya, thanks a bunch for the feedback!
And yep-yep, I definitely will! I've set aside some time at the end of the week to binge rate as many games as I can! ^.^
Decent one. Congrats on submitting! All the best. Please check ours.
Thank you, and I definitely will once I'm free to later this week!
Hey! fun game. A little bit of music would have been nice, and maybe a log for the text bits, sometimes i read something go to the next page then realize i didnt internalize what it actually said. but i liked the story and the dream sequences were very fun if a little complicated to get used to. i'd say there should be a (hidable) control scheme on screen. The spritework was delightful along with the animations and i liked the sound effects :)
Hey-hey, thanks so much!
I'm looking forward to improving in the future and that's all really helpful insight~
Nice creative concept.
Thanks, I appreciate it! ^^