Play game
Sandblasted [GDEX Game Jam 2022]'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Representation of Theme | #9 | 3.242 | 3.400 |
| Visual Design | #11 | 3.242 | 3.400 |
| Overall | #12 | 2.886 | 3.027 |
| Engagement | #12 | 2.670 | 2.800 |
| Gameplay | #12 | 2.479 | 2.600 |
| Functionality | #13 | 2.797 | 2.933 |
Ranked from 15 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Judge feedback
Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.
- Great interpretation on the theme! Love the sandstorm mechanic. Didn't at first get that some objects were movable and I think it would be great if you could at least see an outline of your player when blocked by other objects so have an idea of where they went. I love the thought of the wasteland approach too. Very strong Bladerunner 2049 in Las Vegas feel, which is sweet. Music fits perfectly and adds a ton to the desolate, wasteland feels. 馃憤
- A bit tricky until you figure out *how* to run, and given how fast death happens if you aren't running, it might have been better in the current form as an endless runner. Still, it's short, sweet, and the minimal art and haunting music provide the core of something that could be rather enjoyable if expanded on.
- Really nice mood. The soundscape and the visuals left a great impression. I may have initially broken the sandstorm accidentally by going left first (habit). I was able to do the whole run without the storm showing up at all (but it was there after the end when my character jumped back to the beginning). Jumping lets you multi-jump up walls. Not sure if that was intended. Because you're doing 2D movement in a 2.5D space, I suggest unifying the colors of the "gameplay space" or using some other visual identifier. I thought for a moment the "gold" items were always in the pathway, but sometimes there aren't. Something to differentiate foreground and background from the mainground would be helpful. Overall, I see where you are going and I'm here for it. Looking forward to seeing updates.
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Comments
I like the theme of the sandstorm erasing. The look to the game is cool and engaging. The sandstorm has outrun me each time, so I do not get far.
Thanks for playing! Regarding the storm, I need to update its speed so it stays consistent on different kinds of machines. I plan on uploading an updated build in the coming days.
I loved the atmosphere of the game! The subtle music and backgrounds were nice and calming! Also, I noticed the thumbnail of the game shows off some really cool 2D art! Is this what the style of the game will look like in the future? If so, I'm very excited to see it! Very cool work!
Yup! The thumbnail was a concept art mockup of how I envision the game to look except with more color instead of greyscale. Thanks for playing! I plan on uploading an updated build in the coming days.
Really enjoyed the vibes of this game, the backgrounds, the music. I did run into a bug where it seems like the sandstorm moves faster if you have a higher framerate though (at 60fps I could outrun it, but at 120 it moved too quickly for me to get away)
Thanks for playing! I didn't manage to deltaTime the storm's speed during the jam, but I've implemented a fix for that now and will be uploading a modified version in the coming days.
The game is simple but has some interesting thing going on. The barebones/virtual/mechanical environment art is super compelling, it makes me wonder what I'm really looking at here. Nice work!
Thank you! I plan on continuing working on this and improving it!
I feel like this has a good concept, but unfortunately lacks a lot of polish to make it stand out. While the game runs smoothly, it does max out my GPU, so maybe you need to add a max framerate or some other cap? Every time I tried running, I would die within seconds even while running, except once when I ran backwards and escaped the storm that way. Also, you can push your character forward off of rotated blocks so they are no longer on the same depth as the rest of the objects. Would love to come back to this game when its polished out more.
Ah interesting! Someone else mentioned that the camera does get tilted when on an angled block so they aren't on the same axis anymore. I tried reproducing but haven't been able to. Can you speak to exactly what you did? I've since also tweaked the sandstorm (not uploaded the new build yet though) so now it moves on deltaTime, although on my PC I could never reproduce moving in the opposite direction of the storm without dying, the storm always killed me.
This game definitely needs more polish, so I'll be working on doing that post-jam. As I mentioned, I already tweaked the sandstorm. There's a few other things I'll be doing, and then I'll upload the improved build.
I think maybe the storm not killing me by running in the opposite direction might have been linked to the storm moving to fast, as I am able to repeat it consistently, or it could also be the player shifting depth. And for the player getting moved, I simply run against any block that is skewed, and it moves the player's depth slowly. Also, IDK if it is intended or not, but you can also push some of the small yellow blocks, as well as move their depth as well on the skewed blocks. Hope the video visually explains what is going on.
Excellent! This also tracks with what someone else told me. I'll be fixing this. Thanks for doing the video!
I keep dying to the sandstorm randomly and I'm not sure what to do exactly, but I love games like this and like where it's going. If you have more time to polish it, I'm totally willing to help you out!
You gotta keep ahead of the storm by running with all your might! (hold shift if using keyboard or left trigger if using a gamepad) Be as quick as the wind, well quicker than the wind pushing that sandstorm on you! I'm definitely interested in polishing this game and will be doing that. One thing I'll do is potentially make the sandstorm stand out a bit more so it's clear it's coming on you.
Short, but sweet! Love the post-apocalyptic feeling!
Thanks! Looking forward to improving on this project through the next month.