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The Autumn Reverie's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Creativity: Does the game include something unexpected or interesting? | #5 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Fun: Is the game enjoyable or satisfying to play? | #8 | 3.619 | 3.619 |
| Aesthetics: Does this game have aesthetically pleasing artwork or polish? | #10 | 4.238 | 4.238 |
| Overall: Is the game objectively good? | #24 | 3.476 | 3.476 |
| Cozy: Does the game you feel cozy? | #38 | 3.238 | 3.238 |
| Theme: Does this game represent the theme well? | #41 | 3.333 | 3.333 |
Ranked from 21 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Resources & Tutorials (optional)
Unity, Aseprite, Audacity, Beepbox, Visual Studio Code, Giphy Capture, and the Autumn Harvest 37 palette (modified).
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Comments
Super unique concept and a great execution! Loved the animations and the aesthetic! Wonderful work!
really good pixel-art and cozy atmosphere! it took me a little while to get used to the rythm, but then it was very fun, and the music and sfx are great!
I really liked the concept of the past times, in fact, I did not expect to see such a game. The visual style, soundtracks, dialogues were beautiful. The game feels polished and made with soul. Great job.
Wonderful idea. I never expected to see a dancing simulator. The art is also great. Unfortunately, I haven’t made it past the first dance. Maybe I got something wrong, of course… But I think some slow-paced tutorials would be VERY helpful here. Also, you may show keys (in a moment when you need to hit them) on the screen for dummies. There is enough empty space. Sometimes, the character just refused to move, and I couldn’t understand why. Maybe the initial position was wrong. Dunno. After all, I got around 8/16 by trying to do it correctly, and then on the next attempt, I started hitting keys like crazy ‘a’, ‘d’, ‘a’, ‘d’. Etc. The character moved seemingly randomly, but the score was high 15/16. I would definitely play more if the learning curve were easier.
Thanks so much for playing and for this feedback! At one time I had the idea that the character's grandfather would show him a first dance as a kind of tutorial at the start, but over time it became clear that I didn't have time for it if I was going to finish the main gameplay -- the tutorial is a good idea. The game has a time window, lasting from 0.15 seconds before the beat to 0.15 seconds after the beat, when pushing the keys will move the character; during the other 0.2 seconds for each beat, it will do nothing (i.e., it will refuse to move). From jam player feedback I realized that if you rapidly press all relevant keys, then when the movement window opens, the script will detect the correct key and give you credit for it, even if you're also pushing wrong keys. I didn't anticipate that to guard against it, so that was my design mistake -- and thank you for pointing it out! Out of curiosity, if you're on a PC, have you tried using the arrows? I haven't been able to have a PC playtester try playing with arrows vs. WASD to see if it makes a difference, and I seem to hear more feedback about frustration with reference to WASD keys. I can't imagine why that would make a difference, but I'd love to rule it out! Thanks again for playing and for noting the parts you enjoyed!
That was so much fun! The art style is very cute and I think the idea is just terrific. Would love to see more :)
I love that game. Simple and fun! I had way too much fun with the dancing! :D I don't think there is little margin to make error. If you follow the rhytm you will make it. After all you have to bring the A game if you want to win her over ;)
Amazing game, I had a lot of fun with it! *-*
The idea of setting a rhythm game in New England of the 18th century is almost absurd, but I was amazed by how it fits perfectly with the cozy and festive atmosphere of an old-school dance fight. The dialogues are brief yet effective, and they gave me every element I needed to immerse myself in the situation just from the beginning (also, I loved the introductory scene). The artwork and the animations are extremely polished: it's hard to draw such peculiar characters with such few pixels, and yet you were even able to give them historical costumes! In summary, congrats!
Speaking of the mechanics, as others already pointed out, the game is not easy. Well, it's true that the player can retry every time you want, and the rounds are so fast that replaying doesn't bother too much (I was able to reach my record score of 15/16 in the third songs, this way...).
However, I noticed two problems: (1) when you miss a move, the player stops for more than one beat; this causes a chain reaction that makes it impossible to recover the error. (2) The hand-clapping at the beginning of each round has 5 beats, instead of 4, and that drove me crazy ahaha. I had to count out loud the numbers, and still it didn't work to make my mind register the starting time of the musical measure.
I don't know if they were intended or not, and I don't mean to say you have to change those; I just hope to give you some useful feedback :)
Also, I'll say it clear: for me, it's not a problem of "small temporal windows" to get the correct input, because - if your purpose it to make a really hard game - that is a perfectly legit mechanic. Maybe, rather than accepting the keyboard input at any time, the player could pass a level with 90% of correct moves? The 80%? I don't know, you'll figure out the proper threshold :)
In conclusion, again, thanks a lot for your submission, I really enjoyed it!
Thank you so much for these very thoughtful and helpful comments, and for playing the game -- I appreciate it! I'm happy to hear about the parts you liked. On the mechanics, much of my error here was in thinking that players were going to have an easy time with the game. You are absolutely right on the problem #2 you identified -- it threw me a bit, too, but I figured leaving it that way would perhaps add a little challenge (and bugs needed fixing until late in the night). Thinking your game is easier than it is is a classic game jam mistake, but I did it again. As for #1, the way it's coded is that there's a window for making dance moves that opens a bit before the beat and lasts until a bit after the beat, such that striking a key outside of that window just has no effect (there is no freeze of the player). The open/close of the window is based on a clock that starts at the start of the song, so it's also unaffected by when you made your last move, and you can always interrupt a dance move with another one (if you strike a dance key during the window). So my guess on problem #1 is that it's the disruption-of-rhythm sensation.
Your thresholds idea is a good one -- with more time, I considered having a "good" level of striking the key on time (if within a large window) and a "perfect" level of striking a key (within a smaller window), and then some threshold for moving on, but by the end of the two weeks, that got cut.
You made it far -- the third dance is the final one, so you were on the brink of winning! Thanks again for playing and for these comments!
Pixel art is neat. The gameplay is great but I'm really bad at this kind of game :'( Nice job!
Thank you, and thank you for playing!
The animation here is so good! the gameplay was pretty tricky to get used to but was SO fun when it clicked. Amazing job!
Thanks so much -- I'm happy to hear you got the hang of it, and I appreciate the feedback!
The concept is good and I like the 2D art :)
Jam's color palette is used well, too!
Thank you!
Wow! the animations are EXCELLENT!! Really solid dance mechanics. Now if only I could get as many retries on the dance floor in real life XD. I loved it!!
I really appreciate these kind comments, thanks so much!
This game is awesome. I love the concept, the dialogue and the graphics. As with most people here, had a lot of trouble with the dancing. There is very little margin for error. I love rhythm games!
Thanks for these comments and for playing -- yes, it was trickier than I thought it would be. I had been thinking of trying to make a rhythm game for a while, so I finally gave it a shot. Your game reminded me also, though, that making (and playing) platformers is very fun, so I may go in that direction for my next jam. Thanks again!
I love how effective the art is for being reasonably simple. This is the first rhythm game I've seen this jam so far, as well as the first colonial setting, so definitely hits in a unique space. I kept getting off rhyhm, it felt like there was no window for being the slightest bit off, but I haven't played many rhythm games before so I'm probably just terrible at it! Nicely done!
Thank you for these kind and helpful comments, and thanks for giving it a go!
Nice rhythm game! With a stunning story, as well! The art is great, as well as the music! The beats before the dance knocked me out of the rhythm, but it didn't have much impact on the experience. I had a great time playing it, great job!
Thanks so much for these comments! This is a good point -- you know, I think it's the handclapping starting on the fourth pre-song beat that feels a little disorienting. I did it that way because it felt more realistic that people would start clapping only after the musician started counting off a few beats, but I think it would have felt better if they had done so on the first beat of the second measure. Thank you again for playing and for your comments!
If anyone is having difficulty getting the swing of the dancing mechanism, here's a demo of me playing the itch.io version, with audible taps of my left and right arrow keys:
oof just like in real life, im also bad at dancing in video games...
game has alot of charm for how straightforward and simple it is
Thanks for playing and for these comments! Several people found the dancing mechanism difficult to get off the ground, so I posted a video in a comment above with a run-through of the first dance with audible tapping on the arrow keys. Thanks again!
I tried many times, but I couldn't dance perfectly. The art is great. Especially the layering outside and the fireplace looked really good.
Thank you for these comments, I appreciate it! You are not alone in finding it tricky; I posted a video in a comment above in which you can hear how I tap the keys in playing through the first dance, if that might be helpful or interesting. Some kind of opening in-game demo probably would have been good, but there was only so much time :). Thanks for playing it!
I'm atrocious at playing these sort games, but I love the concept, the settings and the arts! Just a shame I'm not able to beat the game, I wonder if our hero could conquer the heart of the fair lady.
Thanks so much for playing and for your comments! I posted a video above in which I play through the first dance with audible tapping of the arrow keys, if that's helpful, or if you're curious as to how it runs. Thanks again!
Wow, that was so much fun! It took me a few tries to get the hang of the dancing, but once it clicked, I had a blast. Great job, and good luck with the jam! :-)
Thank you for playing and thanks so much for this feedback -- I'm very happy to hear you got the hang of it!
I absolutely LOVE the art in this game. It's so well done! So simple and yet so much aesthetic! The dancing portion was a little broken possibly? When it said GO I had a bit of a hard time trying to start the little Paul Reverie guy and move him back and forth with the beat. The text telling you what to do was also a bit confusing as it said press the L and R keys but I was hitting the actual L and R keys instead of the arrow keys on my keyboard. And the WASD worked for the character in the opening but not on the dance section. I would like some sort of visual indication when to move. Such a cool game, I would love to play a full adventure game in this world.
Thank you so much for your kind words, I really appreciate it! Thank you also for the helpful feedback on mechanics -- I tested it again just now on my computer (Mac/Firefox and Mac/Chrome) and the dancing worked as intended for arrows and for WASD, perhaps some other OS/browser setups could have issues? I perhaps should have also emphasized that if you don't push on (or near enough to) the beat, your character won't move at all -- a visual or audio indicator in such a situation perhaps would be useful, as you suggested. Thanks again!!
ahhh yeah definitely need a visual indicator that you can't move. It was frustrating because then I was trying to compensate for the missed move and thus further missing the beat. So the unresponsiveness wasn't unresponsiveness it was my crappy beat skills lol