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A jam submission

HayWireView game page

Control Group. Control. Escape. Control. No Control.
Submitted by PotentialError, Fletch, TheSnazzmaster, CoolGuyChris — 1 hour, 57 minutes before the deadline
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HayWire's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Fun#23902.6592.659
Overall#25822.7052.705
Originality#28412.7732.773
Presentation#30112.6142.614

Ranked from 44 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

How does your game fit the theme?
Your robot is escaping the control of the control group. However, the experimenters try and stop you from leaving by changing controls, putting large pits in the way. You are out of control and you mess with glitches in the game to go through each level. In the end you realize you were never in control and you were always doing the bidding of the experimenter.

Did your team create the art for this game during the 48 hour time slot?

Yes

We created all art during the game jam

Did your team create the audio for this game during the 48 hour time slot?

Yes

We created all audio during the game jam

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

Controls are kind of hard to use, but the game is a funny one.

Submitted(+1)

Interesting theme! Controls feel a bit floaty (especially the jumping) but this has a lot of potential! Keep up the good work!

Developer(+1)

Totally agree. We felt unsatisfied with the jumping but had no time to fix it. Thank you for the feedback!

Submitted

No problem! Would love your feedback on our game as well. SpaceBus

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Nice take on the portal story. The death animation was funny and using the gun to find invincible platforms was a smart way to create dual purpose.

Developer

Thanks! We really appreciate it! We had fun making that particle effect so we're happy you had fun with it too!

(2 edits) (+2)

A solid showing. Has a good bit of every component needed in a complete game plus some creative tricks here and there that mix it up. The core idea itself works, and the way it is tied to the narrative setting is a very nice touch. The presented applications of the idea, however, do feel a bit limited when compared to its possibility space, but this is probably due to the time constraints of the jam.

A minor bug occurs in the last scenario if the player holds down move-buttons while re-spawning from death, where the re-spawning invincibility state is sustained, allowing the player to push the other bots around. Apart from that small fix, perhaps a sound effect or two could be nice.

The idea has a broader possibility space than this, so it would be nice if the team explores the idea further beyond the jam. Some aspects of the game idea and setting are a little reminiscent of Portal, which similarly began as an interesting idea with broad possibility space (as the student project Narbacular Drop) and took it further.

It's still just scratching the surface, but nice work all around. It's quite a lot to have completed in 48hrs. Great job!

Developer(+1)

Thank you so much for this robust response! Yeah we definitely agree because we had so many ideas and then ran out of time so we weren't able to delve into them deeply.

Submitted(+1)

Interesting idea! I just wish it was longer and had more of a consistent art style. Great work!

Developer

Thank you for the feedback! Since its our first jam we will take all advice we can get!

Submitted(+1)

the controls were great but I wish  it had more features.

Developer

We as developers wish we had more features too! We got into disarray with version control so we had to cut out 2 levels to submit on time.

(+3)

What a well-rounded game! Its not too difficult with the simple controls, and rather straightforward storyline, but these mind-blowing graphics that will have you wondering why Battlefield 1 looked like a crapstorm. This game also has above-average writing with an eerie backstory, and let me just say the astounding narrator for this game gave such a grand performance I was sure it was Morgan Freeman, but the credits proved me wrong. 


The particle effects for this game are jaw-dropping, to say the least. The Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device cameo along with other references make this game seem well-informed with society rather then being this black hole that sort of sucks the joy and nostalgia out of every person who was willing to spend 60 dollars on your game, you know? Like when you hype up your customers expectations with a sequel but it just ends up being this dumpster fire that is comparable to Atari's E.T.? Its so good to see a game that avoids these hurdles.


I'm hoping this game gets some good DLC, I'm willing to drop $30.00 for a different color robot. Also, who knows, maybe a few sequels? Prequels? 6 feature films? A cashgrab TV show run by Apple TV that instead of focusing on the story and characters just ends up being a 8-hour political advertisement for Mexican drug trafficking and women's rights?


Another thing that really blew me away with this game has got to be that flawless walking animation for the main character. I have personally spent 69 minutes walking back and forth and I've come to the conclusion that it is mentally impossible to even imagine a more perfect walking animation. Give the man who designed this animation a raise!


An aspect I found familiar but still original is where you proceed from chamber to chamber gradually increasing in difficulty. You guys should lower the difficulty on the GLaDos boss fight though, I must have spent 420 minutes trying to get Wheatley into the Aperture Science Core Transfer Hatch for the Aperture Science Core Transfer and then initiate Stalemate Resolution Annex. A very impressive boss fight with amazing VFX and SFX but otherwise it could be a little easier for the less experienced players, if you get my drift.
As for the characters, man, I've never seen such amazing performances! Danny Devito as himself did an astounding job (as always), and Clancy Brown's performance also really stood out to me. 


Overall Ratings on Aspects of this game:

Graphics: 10/10
Story: 10/10
SFX: 11/10
Music: 42069/10 (How did you guys get Mike Morasky for this)
Gameplay: 10/10
Multiplayer: 10/10
Community: 5/10 (this needs some work, I'm tired of all these tryhards who think they can just get into the elevator before I can)
Violence: 46,853/10 (This will 100% turn all kids who play it into serial killers)
Guns: 10/10 (Very wide choice of firearms in this game)
Drugs: 9/10 (Not enough Ketamine or Aspirin)


After having 12 mental breakdowns, 7 strokes, an undetermined amount of heart attacks, molecular rearrangements and other mental disabilities I have come to the conclusion that this game is the product of the collective greatest minds of a generation, who put together the best fricking game of the year, no, of all time. 

Shrek Approved!

I have compiled a video that details my full critique of this outstanding game, which you can view here.

Submitted(+1)

I liked some of the puzzle solving - mainly the use of the projectiles to discover invisible platforms. Voice acting is always a nice touch too. Nice!

Submitted(+1)

The player felt great, and I love how smooth the animations were.  The puzzles were really well thought out, will definitely recommend!

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Thanks! We spent an embarrassing amount of time on the player animation so I appreciate the attention to it

Submitted(+1)

The robot is cute. I wish there was more showing, and less telling. I really liked dfrg

Developer

Thank you for the suggestion! We actually thought we did less telling than we should have! Good to know!