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PRAXIS/PROVIDENCE -=- Star;SEA's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall fun and playability | #13 | 3.737 | 3.737 |
Ranked from 19 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Theme incorporation
- INFINITY/THE ENDLESS: Faster-than-light travel remains a fantasy, and colonists aboard this ship have a long road to their new home -- unimaginably so. And it might be getting longer...
- SOLITUDE: The passengers and crew cannot be carelessly woken from their cryogenic sleep. The unlucky few who have had this fate forced upon them will resent it, but at least they share a common humanity. But you? You shouldn't even be talking.
- COSMIC HORROR: Something is wrong out here. None of this was supposed to happen.
Didn't manage to implement the full scenario during jam week, but I hope you enjoy!
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I made it to the end of what was playable!
This was pretty nice for an unfinished entry, and I can definitely relate to only completing a percentage of what you had planned.
The visuals were great, the NPC's all looked interesting, and the filter on the viewport was a neat touch.
Combat was simple but it worked, though admittedly it did feel a bit odd having to interact with an NPC before attacking at first. I think it would've been better if interaction started automatically, since you're sucked into the view of the NPCs anyways.
For most of the game until I unlocked the ability to talk to the spacers I found it kinda annoying that enemies could just spawn behind you. It felt like it broke the pacing of the gameplay since there were already enemies manually placed in the level that I could see and strategize around. The reveal towards the end kinda addresses it but not really since it doesn't explain why the random enemies attack on site, but not the placed ones.
I do like the multiple stages of progression as you unlock new parts of your bots programming. Being able to talk to people, unlocking the combat module for more damage, and the climbing module was pretty neat though underexplored given how much was cut out. But it still tied into the narrative in a cool way, like being unable to ask why you have to do what you're doing.
This was a neat entry, though sadly unfinished. I did enjoy what was released in any case, good work!
I appreciate the feedback!
I did briefly try auto-interaction, and it’s something I want to experiment with more. But they aren’t really enemies until you attack them, and it made it a lot more annoying if you were trying to get around someone in a hallway, playing as a pacifist. I was also too rushed to add in a flee mechanic once combat had actually started, and never decided how that would affect dialogue states…
In my mind, the fixed-placement space suit guys haven’t received word that a cleaning bot is going around killing people, so they’re still non-aggressive until you get the first hit in, but the “revenge units” that automatically spawn are the ones that have. Ideally I’d have a lot more to communicate that – different unit types, hostile/terrified idle animations, some kind of more sophisticated reputation system, lore tweaks, etc.
But I agree, these details are a bit of a friction point as things stand now. Thanks for playing. :)
Such a solid entry! How do I get the rest of it? ;) I loved it.
You can find my play through here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2116031581?t=01h53m12s
Thank you, your stream commentary is very helpful. I’m pleased you got invested in my little story by the time of the cutoff point. I hope to put out a post-jam update to address some of the smaller issues and ideally to expand upon the simplistic combat.
I would actually like to take a step back and make a version of this game with no writing, just to see how much I can do to enhance the core gameplay.
As for extending the scenario to an actual ending, it’s something we have talked about, but only time will tell. I don’t expect it to get as much attention after the jam though… :)
Very nice game! I liked the narration most of all. It was also interesting with some options never being possible to select. Even if it probably related to content cut due to running out of time, it kind of became a form of narrative too. Like you can’t ask mother “why” in the beginning because you don’t have that ability yet. Probably never will get. Or perhaps that one was on purpose. I liked it a lot though.
I was about to give up in the first room, because I couldn’t open the door. This was because I had pressed so much
Returnin the dialog I forgot thatFwas the interaction key when outside of the dialog. Might be worth reminding players or make a bit of remapping soReturnalso works asFthe same wayFworks forReturnin the dialog/text options.It was a bit hard at times to see when there was a lot of text where the current message started. Perhaps there could have been an empty line or some margin or something to mark it out a bit.
The game was a bit confusing pacing-wise. Leaving that first safe room, I got hit down to a sliver of health before reaching the healing station. That made me think, alright this game is going to toy with my emotions and keep me feeling like I’ll be dying all the time. And then the save feature said it might have saved. Which reinforced that feeling. But after that first close call, the game soon leveled me up enough I could hardly be hurt by the spacers.
The fighting was of course quite simplistic and with the random encounters, it was about to become a bit annoying but then I found the weapons module and could one-shot the spacers and then it was fine.
I only killed one of the people in the cryo-tanks, because it felt the right thing to do. The others weren’t going anywhere. And equally it was the most parsimonious option to reduce awake crew after having spoken to and learnt the truth from the one standing before the end thingy.
Lovely little game, very well written.
Playthrough: https://youtu.be/bttt5o0f_iY (there’s a pause where I restarted and got myself back to the door before I realized what key to press)
Thank you for the extensive feedback. I appreciate the video as well.
Yep, the plan was to limit gameplay based on a permission system/free will theme – the permission to break down certain walls of the ship, etc., with Mother unable to take them back once given, thus very reluctant to ever give you any of them until it’s absolutely necessary. But the pace of these permissions is a bit rushed in the jam and I couldn’t get to most of the ideas. It’s mostly a bit of flavor with the disabled dialogue options now.
F for doors is definitely getting put in as a tutorial line as soon as possible after. I could have done that in thirty seconds had I thought of it, but it would have helped for a lot of people.
Not too sure how to interpret the current text message thing. It does grey out older messages when new ones come in, or at least it’s supposed to. In some cases it sends multiple lines without greying out the previous, but perhaps I should just increase the contrast, you can tell me what you think if you like.
The combat/pacing is what I most want to refine. The random encounter system was added in the last day, and only adds enemies to a random encounter pool when you kill others (spoiler), for lore reasons, with the intent of having pacifist/non-pacifist playthroughs be possible, kind of going for an Undertale approach. I also wanted Mother to encourage combat while the player was still trusting in her and incapable of speaking with the “bad guys”. But what it currently means is that players will blindly pick a few fights and flood the random encounter pool before they even learn they can heal. It’s tuned such that you should at least survive a couple battles but otherwise not intentional. Also didn’t have time for combat items, skills on level-up, etc.
Thanks again for playing!
Oh, while playing I didn’t really notice that the previous message turned grey. I think either some more contrast there and/or extra space between entries/prompts should assist a lot.
I didn’t get that it was possible to do a pacifist run, but given that inspiration, it might be “nice” if there’s a genocide run too… maybe there is, had I only dealt with the two cryo that I didn’t wake up…
There’s not currently any special reactivity for it, but killing everyone/no one is possible… sort of. If you anger someone into hitting you, currently you can only finish them off. But yeah, it would be fun to take that further. :)
Oh my god. Loved this! I kept dying to ninja space dudes who appeared behind me and then finally managed to get repaired and armed. Really beautiful game and interesting premise. Looking forward to a more completed version!
Thank you!
I thank you for climbing up a ledge without glitching through the floor or my game crashing.
Seriously, this was really promising. The presentation is notably great, I love the environments and I love the characters. The game sounds good too and controls great. A game where you can attack plot characters is automatically extra ambitious and cool. Also yes the verticality was actually cool too. Finally I really enjoyed reading the text, it's directly linked to the action, flows well and is fun and funny, judging by the last dialog I guess I was going to do weird things for mother.
This was great except that now I want more of it.
Thank you very much!
Aw, I would have loved to play a bit more, well done! This was nicely written and I while I wept for the humans, I just wanted to please Mother. You nailed the mood.
Thank you!
Great!
The crt screen and animation and sound is very cool.
Like others, I had trouble getting out of first room. :D
Thank you!
Hey,
that was a really cool experience even if it was rather short lived. But I enjoyed the ride very much. The art was cool, great job there. The story was pretty neat. Lots of text, but well written. Loved the Credits. :D But the End not so much. :P
Thank you!
I super enjoyed this game.
Love the Repair-O-Tron. Thinking about buying one from amazon.
Lots of text.
That I didn't read.
So I had to stop at the password prompt.
Because I didn't read.
What?
Great entry.
Thanks. Fun fact: If you type in the wrong prompt after getting the password from another character, the game “reminds” you what the password was. But you mostly just missed more reading, so don’t sweat it.
It made me smile several times, it’s a really nice way to lay out the game and tell the story. I understand the pressure of a jam and ambitions, so I salute for what you you’ve done!
I thought that stepping on the tile with a spacer is enough to trigger a dialog, so I was confused a couple of times there, but after that it went smoothly. Probably it can be a good idea to just assume that player wants to interact when stepping on an occupied tile (same for pickups and saves).
Thanks for the feedback!
Wow, there is so much dialog in this game and well written, too. The graphics and sound are very nice and the animations of the enemies are amongst the best in the whole jam! Plays very well. My only nitpick is, that it is very hard and th view is a bit angled to low for my liking.
Thank you! Agreed that the combat needs tuning. The view angle thing is subtle feedback I haven’t heard yet so I appreciate that. I think it’s pointing at (EyeLevel / 2) when you aren’t facing a person, but which was originally set with the intention of leaving items on the ground, but now that you mention it, it’s quite unnecessary in its current state; I’ll have to do some A/B testing on that one.
Great game! Loved the art style and the animations on the unknown spacers! Was stuck in the first room for longer than I care to admit, but when I finally decided to re-read the controls (don't know why it took me so long to do that), I found myself really enjoying the gameplay and the witty dialogue!
Thank you! And yeah, enough people have had that problem that I should’ve called it “PRAXIS/PROVIDENCE -=- F_Opens_Doors”.
F is to open doors - this changed my life :D!
Awesome aesthetic, a LOT of little things to unlock and really interesting take. Really awesome proof of concept here! Loved the art-style and the general feel of the game. It's darn hard tho! Be careful not to pick fights you cannot win (as I did multiple times).
Awesome!
Thanks very much. (I’ll add a different door interact button or tutorial note there next time…)
Yeah, the combat is kind of aggressively tuned and tends to kill you by surprise at the start, as I only got the random encounters in on the last day, and they only spawn relative to how many non-randomly-placed guys you kill. Knowing this and spawning one at a time while camping a heal station trivializes it, haha.
Really love this concept of this game! Feels like it could be a huge hit if its fully fleshed out. For those wondering, 24 Characters is the limit for your name O_O.
Thank you! I wasted a lot of time on character name gags, like if you call yourself Mother or Father, and a few secret ones nobody will ever find. I was also going to make Mother cut you off if you made too many attempts to lengthen your name over the max, or do a haggling thing where you ask for more to settle on a more modest gains in name length, but then I thought… what the hell am I doing, I still need to make the rest of the game, lol.
Am I dumb why am I stuck in the first room ? ;-;
If everyone know please tell me, it looks like a cool game I really want to test it as much as I can before rating
Oh dang, sorry to hear that, and thanks for making the effort to find out.
I’m not sure. If you’ve tapped through all the dialogue (past “Yes, mother”) you should be able to move at that point with WASD, and if not, it could be an issue I didn’t encounter, but maybe try a download version if the web version isn’t working? I haven’t tested it on every browser.
Having this same issue. I can move, but I cannot get out of the room for some reason :(? I tried downloading too, but can't seem to figure out how to open the door (?) May be a bug?
The interact key for doors and characters is F, if you’re just trying Space or Enter.
I struggled a bit at first too, I was using space to try to interact, but once I got the right interact key it was smooth sailing.
Nice job! great presentation and atmosphere! loved the artstyle and crt effects
I really enjoyed this, even if it was cut short due to time constraints. I hope you continue developing it! I got some System Shock vibes which was cool and I definitely would like to see more!
Thanks! Yeah, there’s definitely some Shodan DNA in there… lol.