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Mystical Scales: The Pangolin Odyssey's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Innovation | #108 | 3.346 | 3.346 |
| Theme interpretation | #129 | 3.513 | 3.513 |
| Gameplay | #167 | 3.090 | 3.090 |
| Overall | #173 | 3.231 | 3.231 |
| Audio | #203 | 2.936 | 2.936 |
| Graphics | #250 | 2.987 | 2.987 |
Ranked from 78 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
GitHub repository URL
https://github.com/Xentios/GJ23
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Comments
Fun game! I enjoyed the crafting and the battle simulation and the fact that you've done something unique with this game. Nice work :)
Thanks! We couldn't fit in everything we wanted, but we're still delighted with the results.
Loved the storytelling at the start of the game and the end of the fight,
and the way pangolins walked up to gear up :D
I really liked the little details that were thought through in the main gameplay.
Hint: I know nothing ;)
Well done!
So fun! I liked the spray bottle and coloring part. A very simple gameplay that has a lot of replayability, well done!
Really neat game, I struggled a little bit at first to understand exactly what I was supposed to be doing, but after that initial playthrough I think I ended up with a decent understanding of what I was supposed to be doing! Really cool how you fit two relatively bespoke systems together, very enjoyable. Well done!
I like the unique setting and mechanics. Even tough tehy don't seem too difficult it's impresive you managed to add this many systems working in just one month!
Pangolins, of course, they have scales. I think you guys are the only ones who thought of that. Running the armorsmith's shop was all right, everything worked great, I like the hammer bit the best. THWAK. I'm a simple man.
You certainly know this, but the armor-smithing definitely needs the other side of the game more realized to lean onto for the design to hold up. Two distinct game modes that inject elements from each other is a big task to attempt, even massive studios usually shy away, I think of the X-com reboot as an example of a game that does manage to balance two distinct modes that feed off each other, one focused on strategy in the overworld and the other on tactical grid battles.
Here it's some kind of auto-style tactical battles on one side with craftsmanship on the other. Pretty interesting approach, I can see why it appealed to the team. Really puts pressure on the armorsmith to deliver Quality gear. I assume the loot from the tactical battles was intended to somehow fuel the creation of better armor scales for your Pangolins. Would be interested to hear your thoughts how you saw that going further.
All said and done, I enjoyed donning my pangolins for battle and I would answer the call of the hammer again. 🔨
Thank you for your comment, it was really pleasing to read.
At start our scope in mind was much much bigger. If this was a 1 year or even 6 month this would be the features:
-You would not only craft scales but weapons, foot gear, hats , gloves
-All of them would be seen in the battle phase.
-Raw materials that change the quality and abilities that you get from battle phase.
-They would be set items that if you craft for 1 pangolin it would give bonuses.
-After 10 crafts for same item an auto craft option based on your last 10 manual crafts quality.
-A more player active battle scene with skills and maybe even orders
-Hardcore mode that is nearly impossible to get all 5 100% scores.
Now we reduced the scope because of the time limit and these are the ones we still could not deliver.
-Pangolins would wear the scales in battle phase.
-There would be animations on battle phase.
-You would collect different spikes,paints with sparkles from the battle phase and use them to create better scales.
-A more balanced gameplay and a longer game loop with a much clear goal.
-A boss battle
Felt like some whacky stuff, perfect game jam game. However, the part after the crafting did not work for me
I played it twice but when I got to this part the pangolins walked up to the enemy but nothing happened. The buttons changed the text but nothing more. Thought that it was just a strange bug so I replayed it but the same thing happened.
I got really confused the first time, I guess I am bad at reading. I was supposed to make a triangle but had another shape and though that I had to create a triangle by cutting the corners with that shape. I found out later that you can actually switch haha.
The press down part I never got right, not sure if I did it correctly. Were you just supposed to turn the valve with the mouse? Sometime it turned really fast.
The spike and color part was too easy. When you hammered the spike they could be hammered down perfectly or they could be a bit janky. Even if I hammered them down wrong I got a perfect score. Is the score only about the amount of spikes?
A last thing, the game started on the wrong screen for me and I could not change it. I don't expect that game jam games have support for that but maybe add a window mode later or an option to switch main screen.
On some computers second part of the game freezes like this. I do not know why and because of it we could not fix it. Will reply to you if we make progress.
We did not even consider multiple monitors or did not do any testing for widescreens too. I am using a program called "Display Fusion" and because it has a shortcut to do what you could not, It did not even occurred to me that would be a problem for double monitor users. Thank you for your feedback about this stuff.
We definitely failed to tell the player how to use the press machine. You are not the first one that points out that. Game is made easy because it was already a game that you had to learn and we wanted to reduce friction. I actually have an idea for hardcore mode. Like you have to choose the right color from a color wheel by just looking at the requirements. Like the painters in youtube.
Spike score is easy. You just need to place the exact number.
Hammer score comes from the hammer visual. The near you are to the middle of the hammer the better score you got. But there is a bug (not a bug actually) right now so you can get good score by the sides too.
Thank you for detailed review.
If you want to troubleshoot I could help you and send logs or whatnot :) And must have missed the hammer score
The narration is really nice with the images.
The crafting is perfect with this randomization.
Maybe it would be more funny, if the animals have the crafted items in the end. But maybe just the deadline was the problem.
Thank you, you are absolutely right. I am amazed that people can deduct many parts of the game even the parts that was not done.
That was the plan indeed. The animals would have carry the items even crafted weapons too. I guess we did not work hard enough or it is really over ambitious to do that much in a 1 month.
Don't you work hard enough? or you have to time for a good game. The balance between them is the worst.
This is honestly a really fun and addictive game with a lot of charm and polish. The concept seems pretty simple, but the execution is really good. Well done!
nice idea. I liked the armor and battle mechanics. Its really fun watching the battle simulation. I think you did a great job putting it all together is such short period of them.
First of all, congrats on hitting the deadline! It's clear you put a lot of hard work in, but you possibly ran into scoping issues.
Mixed themes like this can and do work, but it takes a lot of skill to pull them off. Where this could be improved is the theme of the presentation, the vibe jumped straight from "quiet workshop" to "nature documentary".
The workshop scene is about just following instructions and once you understand the instructions, it's easy to get 95% or more on all metrics. However, you demonstrate skill with putting a 3D scene together and polishing it, and the task / controls are intuitive.
The battle scene is where I realise that this game's scope was enormous for a month game jam and it was going to be a lot more than what we see. Potentially a JRPG alongside the workshop gameplay loop?
I would suggest, don't give up, do more jams! Next time, choose fewer themes (or a single theme), pick a main menu plus one gameplay scene, work out how resolve scoping issues early on and avoid scope creep because when crunch time arrives, all that time you think you had disappears (even on its own, a single game idea always has more aspects than anyone can predict).
In all, this was an admirable effort and a lot of hard work, well done! Sorry for the wall of text.
On the contrary , thank you for detailed review.
The second part is more like "auto battler" but currently there is a game breaking bug on some computers that part freeze. I don't know why it happens so even it is a critical bug I could not fix it. I hope yours did not freeze too.
If it is works let me tell you, that part is actually has connection with first part. Better scores you got from first part better the pangolins fight in the second but you are absolutely right that we could not put everything we wanted to do in the game. Even a small middle part that that explains the second part of the game would be great but we did not thought about it at the jam time.
3D scenes can really get complicated very fast. Choosing camera angles,directions, fov. Calculations of input based on camera directions. Things like that took a lot of time especially when hunting bugs. Even thought I worked hard on bugs there are still very big ones in the game. They are very edge cases but they are still there.
Thank you for trying the game.
I didn't have any issues with the game freezing. In case it helps, I am running the game on Windows 10 and I have a GTX 1650
Well in hindsight my "review" just looks really patronising now. I'm the kind of person who would play God of War for 2 days and then go "yeah it shows potential" lol
Nothing is wrong with honest opinions. I did not even feel it that way anyways.
Great idea! I enjoyed making armor for these cuties :) I think I found a bug because I tried several times and nothing happens during the battle
Yeah there is a problem not many people mentioned and I have no idea why in some computers second part freezes.
Perhaps this will be useful for statistics, my specs: Windows 10 Home, laptop with AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS and Nvidia RTX 4050
Scattered themes are fun, but like right on the edge between absurd and confusing smorgasbord. Crafting, and story, and animated battling. I actually really liked watching the battle.I lmao to "Tip: Did you know you know nothing?"
I am glad it did not feel too cheesy : )
Quite a fun crafting crafting game! During the first step the cutter for the plate was jittering a bit but I don't know if that's a problem with my hardware or not. Definitely will turn out to be something special if you continue working on it. Great work!
That is intentional but I can see why you think it was a bug. It was not jittering in a satisfying way for sure and we could not adjust the sizes as we wanted.
Very unique entry! Not what I thought it was going to be going into it! I thought each stage of the process was nicely thought out and made for a fun little game loop. The bonus game at the end was also a nice surprise.
My only comment on potential improvements is that the pressing stage of the game was a little unclear on how it worked. I got pretty confused on my first attempt and made a pretty crappy plate. Even on future attempts, while I did better, I was never able to nail it.
Fun and unique! Best of luck on the jam and on your future projects.
What is the resolution of the monitor you played? We did not have enough time to fix some UI errors on them and if yours is also not just HD it is possible that UI was not working correctly.
Wow! There are many diverse techniques and systems applied here. I like it as a prototype. If the right adjustments are made and a level progression mechanic is added, it could be a very, very entertaining game.
Good Job!
Quick thing, in the download link, you should set it to be a Windows executable - that way, the game can work in the itch desktop app.
The mechanics of making scale armor is very well done, the painting works great, the cutting physics are solid (and I know how difficult those can be to program), and the fight scene at the end was very cool. It just feels like there's something missing?
To me, the game would work better if it had a loop where you collected supplies from the battles to improve your scale armor business. Maybe that was intended and you ran out of time, idk. But, as cool as the scale crafting physics are, I feel like I would have been more interested to see a gameplay loop with more push & pull to it.
Love seeing the handiwork of all your scales at the end!
Thank you for itch desktop app tip. You are 100% right about game loop. That was the intended way but we were out of time.
It's an amazing game! Congrats
Wow, surprised you were able to get so many features into the game within a month. Great job!
I wasn't expecting a fight scene at the end.
The mouse button colors threw me off, I ended up pressing left click to change the shape because it looked like the hint was indicating left click for changing shape.