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A jam submission

Past Lives: The Case of Bletchley ManorView game page

Three different rooms interconnect by floating balconies. But some can only be accessed in another life...
Submitted by Duncan Gallagher (@dunkz_irl), Rdawg7 (@rmcariello) — 3 hours, 35 minutes before the deadline
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Past Lives: The Case of Bletchley Manor's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Use of Theme#53.6003.600
Level Design#53.1003.100
Technical Accomplishment#53.4003.400
Game Design#53.4003.400
Original Audio#103.1003.100
3D Art#112.6002.600
Fun#132.8002.800
Overall#143.0003.000
Commercial Viability#152.8002.800
Narrative#182.4002.400
Itch Page#182.6002.600
Use of Audio#212.6002.600
Art Direction#242.8002.800
User Interface#242.3002.300
2D Art#252.0002.000

Ranked from 10 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Number in Team
3

Does your game include Art packs?
Yes - all links included in project description.

Does your game include Sound packs?
No

Does your game include plugins or pre-coded content?
Yes - all links included in project description.

Please provide a full playthrough YouTube video of your game.
https://youtu.be/g0cwcY5S8U4

Please provide a link to a 30 seconds gameplay YouTube video of your game.
https://youtu.be/DGn8vq1uL1U

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

Good game. Especially liked the models and graphics. 

However, to be honest, I didn't really get the gameplay. You might wanna add a tutorial level. Moreover, the game was lagging a lot on my laptop(it has 16gb ram), so you might wanna optimize it so that it's playable by everyone.

If you don't mind, could you rate my game?

Developer

Hey thanks so much for the feedback - that's very fair, the central mechanic is very confusing without explanation so a tutorial level is a great shout! Optimisation is also definitely needed haha ;) Of course, I'll check it out now!

Submitted(+2)

Nice interpretation of the theme! I liked wandering around to understand what needed to be done and the level design guides us correctly. Just had a small bug where my past life threw the key with a slight ofset from where I had threw it, making it fall into the void (unless it was intended and I didn't see the solution?).

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Cheers for the comments! Thanks for mentioning the bug, I think I know what caused it, and it's to do with the way the key being thrown having some randomised physics which aren't replicated properly when the life plays back!

Submitted(+2)

I loved the atmosphere that you managed to create. I had a nice time wandering about and generally had a nice time being totally lost. I did start to work out what was required and the use of multiple time points was interesting. It's a big idea that sort of feels like it was made in less time than it really needed. I'd be interested to see if it gets taken further. I think it justifies this consideration. Good job

Developer

I'm happy you enjoyed the atmosphere, as that's all we had time to really work on haha! I did spend far too long getting the life recording and playback working, and by that point we were already so far behind that the whole thing felt a bit rushed. But all in all I'm fairly happy with the idea, and I agree it would be cool to work further on it :)

Submitted(+1)

Oh I feel the time running out pain. Mine was so broken just before submission that I was contemplating not having anything to submit. Sweat was definitly involved. That's part of the fun, it just is not very much fun whilst you are in it.

Submitted(+2)

Strange game for sure, The darkness made it really eerie! I found that I sort of stumbled into the solution though, but seeing all the past lives run around made me think the mechanics would allow for some really interesting puzzles. I liked the use of the telescope to advance the puzzle, that was pretty neat. I’d say the hitboxes need a bit of refinement, but I made sure to stay within bounds to get the ‘proper’ solution!

Developer(+1)

Ah nice to hear you managed to play it through as if I'd had time to put all the colliders in! Strange and eerie are definitely words that fit with what we were aiming for :D I agree that the idea has the potential for some cool puzzles, I just wish we'd managed to work on the visuals a little more. I also quite like the telescope - the original idea came from a puzzle in Myst, but far simplified!

Submitted(+2)

This is a great game concept! I think given some more time, the narrative and art assets could really work together and enhance each other- would be awesome to see! I think for where the art assets are right now the map might be a little big, but I’m pretty sure I could get a sense of final atmosphere you were aiming for with what you have done. Great work!

Developer

Thank you! I agree that the map feels a little big, which also makes it a little dull as the player waits around for the previous life to perform the actions needed to progress. I'm glad you got a sense of the atmosphere too - since we overscoped and had plenty of technical problems getting the general gist of something was the best we could do haha ;)

Submitted(+2)

Sounds like a true jam experience then haha! I did actually enjoy having the opportunity to watch my previous lives' playthroughs. The ridicule I'd give the guy wandering around once I solved a puzzle was quite entertaining.

Submitted(+2)

This was such a neat concept and exactly like the games I usually play. I love the level design and the clever use of theme!

Developer(+1)

Cheers Kelsey! I'm glad you liked the concept - I think it's an interesting idea and could be a lot of fun if it were more polished!

Submitted(+2)

Very cool! I like the use of minimal yet clear art assets and the big hero asset of the moon brings everything together nicely!

I didn't actually play, I just watched the video. I wasn't sure what the cause and effect of all the path unlocking was for each life. Maybe that would become clearer if I actually walked through the space myself.

Developer

Cheers! The moon was indeed meant to be a central part of the level - initially I wanted the moon to be the only light source in the level but the global illumination stuff in Unity gave me quite a lot of grief haha!

Submitted(+2)

Almost tangibly unrelated, bar the unique gameplay mechanic of switching lives, that could have made the project fit in an unconventional way, if it were potentially implemented/used more, under a 'back/forth' lens, that if implemented a bit more in a puzzle element, would be wonders. Past that...

Noticed quite a few glitches out of bounds, if one's very destructive with parkor or what-have-you. That in some broadscope lenes, even if 'railroaded' the game didn't take into account. Or in some other lens, didnt' include 'reset' flooring in case of unwitting 'fall death'. But visually, even if everything looked more "Prototypical" in visuals. Gameplay, tells another story, especially with what few 3D Assets were made/included for this unusually fitting theme.

Developer

Thanks for you comments Andrew! I agree that it does indeed only just fit the theme ;) Certainly a lot of glitches in this still, and the inclusion of a trigger to reset the lives on falling off the level would have been a nice thing to add. I'm glad you felt that the gameplay had some sense of a story - we were limited in time and hilariously overscoped (every jam I do this haha) so we were very much going for a prototype level more than anything else!

Submitted(+2)

Reminds me very much of Braid! The concept of controlling two "lives" at once and having one work in tandem with a real-time "recording" of the other is pretty cool, though it does get confusing when one of the "lives" I was in control of duplicates itself, runs forward just as I did before and grabs a key before I can!

Also, since it takes a while to figure things out and execute on plans as the duplicated player recording plays out, this means a lot of waiting for events to play out before the other "life" can execute the second part of the intended plan (i.e. one "life" waiting to catch the key that's eventually going to be thrown from above by the other "life")

Hope my description doesn't tie your brain in knots! (Though then again, that's the good hallmark of a promising puzzle game imo)

Developer(+1)

I appreciate your comments, thank you :D I agree with your points about the way the lives interact with each other - I feel like it just about works but there's a lot of waiting around atm, and is indeed super buggy. I am a massive fan of Braid haha, it hadn't actually occurred to me but that game was probably in the back of my mind when we were coming up with ideas!