Very creative puzzle designs and theme interpretation! The music selection also nicely complements the atmosphere of the game, well done!
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GitHub repository URL
https://github.com/conor-wilson/gameoff2024
Game description
The Search for the Secret Sapphire
A point-and-click adventure puzzle game (with a twist)... Lost in a haunted mansion without a hope of escape, the only way out is in. Will you find the Secret Sapphire and cure the curse?
DEV'S NOTE: The above assumes that you are able to start the game. If the start-button breaks, the HELP BOT should be able to assist you. That shouldn't happen though. Probably.
------------------------SPOILERS BELOW------------------------
The point-and-click adventure actually takes place inside of the menu of "The Search for the Secret Sapphire". Your goal is to fix the start button and finally get to play the game.
Theme interpretation
The game is actually a secret game within the menu of another game. Additionally, you need to solve puzzles and find all of the secrets within the menu maze to get the pieces of the START button back together and play the game!
Wildcards used (optional)
Cheat Mode
Let players break the rules with things like infinite lives or invincibility
Comments
A very clever game! I really enjoyed the gameplay and thought the puzzles were really well designed. Great job!
Submitted
Incargnito!Extremely polished and creative! Well on theme too.
Good difficulty level. I managed to finish the game without needing any hints, although it took me quite a while and lots of thinking. I really liked the variety of puzzles you added. Makes or breaks a game like this.
Art style is simple yet effective. I like that the music volume/track changes depending on where you are looking.
For improvements, mainly just the bug fixing that you've already listed in the comments below.
Awesome submission. Congrats!
Thank you kindly, glad you enjoyed!
Also glad you liked the art style (this was my first time making all the visual assets myself for a game and I'm no artist so I had to learn a lot). I had intended on following the 4-colour wildcard by using different shades of the same colour as placeholders, and then replacing them with dithering later when I was tidying up. I ended up not having time for that which is no biggy, but I'm thinking I'll do it for the post-jam version :)
Amazing game, really fun and with some good puzzles, that are cryptic enough to be challenging but intuitive
Submitted
Museum ServivitReally interesting Pony Island-esque experience! I love meta-games like these. I found the puzzles well designed and never felt too frustrating or tedious. The final twist stole a chuckle from me. Bravo! 🐢
Submitted
Museum ServivitWhat an incredible little game, I had an amazing time playing it. Super well designed and polished. I only needed a hint for the password, everything else I figured out on my own and felt great.
Submitted
Ellie Dee`s AdventureThanks for playing and I'm thrilled you liked it!
You're not the only one who had trouble with the password puzzle, it's definitely one of the hardest puzzles in the game which is poor game-design on my part as it's one of the first puzzles in the game. I'll be making the solution to that one a bit more obvious in the post-jam version ;)
I give this game 5star for theme interpretation. Game is really smooth & polished and also the use of all 3 wild cards is truly remarkable. Amazing work!
Submitted
Ruins Of ArcanaWow! You really made a fatastic game. The puzzles weren’t too hard for me (except the second T). But is was very well paced and such a fun experience. I liked the hammer man mini game :)
The password crumble annoyed me a little bit though, because I always thought I had to do something with it.
Well done!
Submitted
o.l.e.s.a. - Guide the SymbolsThis is high praise coming from you as you've made my favorite puzzle game from the jam so far :)
The second T / crumpled paper puzzle is definitely one of the toughest in the game but I'm glad that you got there in the end. I appreciate the feedback, I'm going to tweak the in-game clues for the post-jam version to smooth out the user experience a little bit.
Thanks for playing!
Patch 2: More Game-Breaking Bug Fixes
There were a couple more game-breaking glitches that people found, so I've fixed the below ones to ensure the game is playable during the jam:
There's no limit to how far you can pan the camera, so it's possible to get completely lost in the void, making it impossible to finish the game. This could happen accidentally if the player is using a very dodgy mouse or track pad.(FIXED!)Theres a visual glitch where the letter T can continue to run back and forth without escaping.(fixed I think...)
Thanks to everyone who's found these!
Fun. My first play miss a bug which the T2 still runing on screen not run out.
Submitted
Hacker WorldLoved this game, was so fun to play. One of my fav submissions this jam, encountered one bug, that being the crumbled paper note just fell into the void other than that game was fairly polished. I could see the heavy inspiration from "There is no game". The art of the game is really well made imo.
Submitted
Detective Shade: The Turnabout CaseGlad that you liked it! Sorry that you encountered that bug that's really frustrating. I'll add a patch as soon as I can to fix that since it's pretty game breaking. Can't wait to play yours in a little bit!
Also, really bizarrely, I've never actually played "There is No Game", and honestly forgot that it existed! I definitely would have watched a playthrough of it on YouTube though back in the day, so I'm certain some background part of my brain was retaining its core game concept. We'll call it a core piece of heavy sub-conscious inspiration 😂
I'll 100% be giving that game a go though once I have a bit of spare time over Christmas as evidently I dig the concept lmao
Patch 1: Urgent Bug Fixes
Fixed the following bugs since they were game-breaking and seriously damaging to the player experience for some players:
Some users have reported that the desktop section freezes up and becomes non-interactable.(Fixed!)
Clicking on the Cave of Secrets while it is thanking you for giving it a secret results in it interrupting itself, which stops it from being able to give you the hidden letter.(Fixed!)
MacOS users cannot use CTRL+Click to pan the camera.(Fixed!)
fun game and cool graphics. I always love the kind of games that turn the main menu into the game. I just had trouble figuring out the password. I messed around and tried some things but just couldn't seem to get it though
Submitted
Kitchen HandThanks for playing! You're not the first person to have trouble with it so it's definitely a bit too hard for an early-game puzzle. Here's some hints:
- There might be a useful TOOL in the menu somewhere that could help you find a hint for the password.
- Once you've found the hint, you might find some more information if you CLICK on everything, be it moving or STATIC.
I'll add some better in-game hints for this once I have some spare time. Right now I'm too busy thinking about turtles. Such majestic creatures. Can't get enough of them.
------------------------SPOILERS BELOW------------------------
Fun game! I liked the meta-ness and solving some of the puzzles.
I also resorted to source code for the password puzzle ty @Grubwall. I couldn't get hammerman to exit the desktop just out of his window but solved some of the other problems. restarted a few times because of the buggy desktop.
Very amusing and clever. Feel like a genius when I solve a puzzle but and idiot when I get stuck!
Thank you kindly for playing, glad you had some fun!
Sorry that you encountered the buggy desktop, I've since fixed it to no-longer be prone to complete and utter failure, but it's definitely still a little funny to use so I'll be addressing that properly post-jam. I'll also be making the password puzzle a little easier as it's one of the first puzzle in the game so it shouldn't be one of the hardest. For now I've added hints to all the puzzles in the game's description.
Thanks for the review my dude ;)
What an amazing game! The puzzles were really intriguing and the jokes were hilarious! I don't know if I solved the "password" puzzle correctly, did you intend the player to dig through the source code on git-hub? That's what I ended up doing after running out of ideas. XD
Such a great game, I had a lot of fun with it. I loved finding the secret sapphire XD
Submitted
Looking GlassThanks for playing, glad you had a good time!
There is an in-game way for solving the password but it's definitely one of the hardest puzzles in the game (which is poor design on my part as it's one of the first puzzles in the game) - you're actually not the only one who resorted to digging through the source code to figure it out!
In the post-jam version, I'm going to make the solution for this puzzle a bit more obvious, but for now I've added hints to all the puzzles in the game's description :) Thanks for the feedback!
List of Known Bugs (!SPOILER WARNING!):
Hey guys, thanks for checking out my game! I'll be using this comment to keep track of any bugs that people come across. If they feel game-breaking enough, I'll try to fixing during the jam, otherwise I'll get to the more minor ones in the post-jam version.
Major Bugs:
Some users have reported that the desktop section freezes up and becomes non-interactable. This is very game-breaking so will have to be fixed mid-jam.(FIXED!)Clicking on the Cave of Secrets while it is thanking you for giving it a secret results in it interrupting itself, which stops it from being able to give you the hidden letter. This is game-breaking so I will fix this ASAP.(FIXED!)MacOS users cannot use CTRL+Click to pan the camera.(FIXED!)There's no limit to how far you can pan the camera, so it's possible to get completely lost in the void, making it impossible to finish the game. This could happen accidentally if the player is using a very dodgy mouse or track pad.(FIXED!)
- Very rarely, items can glitch out of the menu screens and fall into the void.
Less-Major Bugs:
- The desktop's drag-drop functionality is generally a bit buggy.
- HammerMan can be generally glitchy at times, particularly when interacting with the desktop. If you find that he's bugging out too-much, you can reset him by closing his window and reopening it.
- Some find the password puzzle very difficult, to the point of looking at the source code. I think the solution to this is some better clues from the HELP BOT (that will have to wait for the post-jam build). In the meantime, I'll add some hints to the puzzles in the game's description.
- The click-point of certain items while you're holding them is sometimes unintuitive.
- The Play Again and Main Menu buttons at the end of the game are generally a bit glitchy.
The game gives the wrong instructions for the camera-pan functionality if you activate it using the toggle button.(FIXED!)- While Ctrl+Clicking to pan the camera, you can still interact with the environment, which causes weird behavior (particularly in the desktop)
Theres a visual glitch where the letter T can continue to run back and forth without escaping.(fixed I think...)- There's no actual instructions telling you that you need to use left-click to use held items. One user didn't find this intuitive.
- Some grammatical errors.
If you encounter any bugs that are not mentioned in the list above, let me know in a comment and I'll add it to the list!
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