Skip to main content

Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
TagsGame Engines
A jam submission

ThetabytesView game page

Game about using database queries to track down a suspect. Made for GMTK Game Jam 2024
Submitted by Karhut Games — 1 hour, 34 seconds before the deadline
Add to collection

Play game

Thetabytes's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Creativity#4274.0484.048
Overall#4613.9053.905
Style#5274.1434.143
Enjoyment#10553.5243.524

Ranked from 21 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?
Gameplay: Large scale database & Story: Galactic scale threat

Development Time

96 hours

(Optional) Please credit all assets you've used
3rd party assets and tools:
Audio Engine: FMOD Studio by Firelight Technologies Pty Ltd
3D Scifi Starter Kit (Creepy Cat)
Federation Corvette F3 and Free SF Fighter (CGPitbull)
Office pack - Free (nappin)
Destroyable Retro CRT Monitor Prop (Pekdata)

3rd party sounds:
https://freesound.org/people/newlocknew/sounds/627117/
https://freesound.org/people/gladkiy/sounds/232169/
https://freesound.org/people/jim-ph/packs/12363/
https://freesound.org/people/CGEffex/sounds/93844/
https://freesound.org/people/Erdie/sounds/165613/
https://freesound.org/people/marsal.oido/sounds/415836/
https://freesound.org/people/Cell31_Sound_Productions/sounds/388824/
https://freesound.org/people/BRYANSMOSH/sounds/261858/
https://freesound.org/people/Robinhood76/sounds/684149/
https://freesound.org/people/calivintage/sounds/95703/
https://freesound.org/people/JustinBW/sounds/70152/
https://freesound.org/people/SavageFX/sounds/388192/
https://freesound.org/people/nathanshadow/sounds/22453/
https://freesound.org/people/Woodingp/sounds/83517/
https://freesound.org/people/DaveOfDefeat2248/sounds/323090/
https://freesound.org/people/newlocknew/sounds/627117/
https://freesound.org/people/gladkiy/sounds/232169/
https://freesound.org/people/jim-ph/packs/12363/

Leave a comment

Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.

Comments

Submitted(+1)

love this game! these kinds of deduction + terminal style games are exactly my jam, and i managed to complete it within an hour or so without any help! the beginning is definitely the hardest just because you're getting used to typing out the commands with the correct categories and options, but i personally liked how the game didn't try to hold your hand and that you had to mess around with the terminal to understand how the system worked. the game itself looks beautiful, the typing effect was a great touch, and the ui of the database made it easy to process loads of data. excellent work!

(+1)

I love this game in concept. In practice, you might want to adjust the difficulty curve, especially at the beginning. [To anyone who wants to avoid spoilers, skip the rest of this comment.] There's a principle in mystery role-playing game design that you shouldn't introduce red herrings, because your players will find their own red herrings all on your own. In tracing the first three ships, Falcon-841 was the one with all the activity, so I assumed that was the path I need to follow. A ship disguising itself by changing it's name is a pretty advanced concept to throw at the player right at the beginning. To realize that's what's going on, you have to understand that reservation is time the ship remains at the station and that that you can figure out when a ship should depart based on that information. That's a lot of concepts for the first clue, when the player is still trying to figure out how to navigate the tables. That said, this type of game is absolutely my shit, and I'm definitely going to come back to it later.

Submitted(+1)

I saw your video being played by Mark live on the first day of his stream, and I fell asleep during it because I was so tired from work. I'm intrigued to play the game myself~

I really like the visuals and the atmosphere! It reminds me of Firewatch. I wish the gameplay can be more noob-friendly though cause i'm having a hard time progressing. I would like it if there is some sort of narrator that will help you through it or sometimes messes with you, like telling you to execute a funny commands. Something like Stanley Parable.

Submitted(+1)

Still haven't finished this game. Really loved the vibes. Will def invest time to beat it WITHOUT HELP!!!

Submitted(+1)

This is an excellent idea. I'm a sucker for deduction games so I enjoyed each second of it. Well done!

Submitted(+1)

As someone who had to work with databases on Linux, it was incredible. I found myself so immersed that I tried to do other command-line shortcuts. I enjoyed the whole narrative with the searching in different databases. The intro set the scene and the mood perfectly, and great choices with the keyboard sound, it truly sounded like an old Comodor!
Sadly I lost them after 1212 and I'm open to any tips on how can I continue my search because the safety of the entire space democracy depends on that!
And I also really loved how the environment looked. It was really realistic and retro.

Developer(+1)

Thank you for the feedback. It's very nice to hear you getting immersed in the game world and enjoying the story because that was something we really worked on.  As for finishing the story and catching the bad guy there is a walkthrough available on this game's itch.io page. I cannot really pinpoint exactly where you were going at, but if you go through the walkthrough ship by ship I'm sure you will find the next clue.

Submitted(+1)

Very stylish game, lovely Comandor atmosphere :) Thank you

Submitted(+1)

I love these terminal style games and this one was really polished, down to the room around it and the keyboard sounds! I did need a bit of walkthrough to get some of the answers, but the quest was still fun. I'd love to see more like this where you track anomalies in the data and find the missing pieces. Had a lot of fun with this!!

Submitted(+1)

Loved the idea of having to go through a DB and find data to piece together information to get the answer.

Submitted(+1)

Very good idea, and thanks for the walkthrough!
(Just found a bug when doing alt+tab, the screen of the in-game computer does not work anymore, and I have to restart the game to fix it.)

Submitted(+1)

I am a sucker for these types of games. The sci-fi framing of the gameplay sells the theme really well. I can see an inspiration from Stories Untold (or at least this game reminds me of it). Good job!

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Super challenging but very fun. Most of the commands worked perfectly but I found myself typing "exit" a couple times instead of "back", and since when I launch the game i have to watch the whole intro sequence all over again that got old very fast. I wish I had a better idea of what I was looking for, like am I looking for a terrorist who operates a certain ship? Or are they just a passenger moving between different ships? But otherwise this is a SUPER cool game and very technically challenging

Edit: Peeked at walkthrough (very glad its there) and used it to help put things together. I still don't understand the very first step though, I don't know how I was supposed to figure that out.

Developer(+1)

Haha, you certainly are not the first to intuitively type "exit" when leaving database search :D
I have to agree the information provided on the game's objective is not the best with some getting the idea immediately and some requiring more details. As for the story the the initial info is "They departed station Theta at time 1150" and you can just "search departures station=Theta time=1150" and it's the one with alert status and a note. After that you can just search using the spacecraft's name. Hope that helps!

Submitted(+1)

Great game, quite interesting with all the clues and the thinking it needs. The font was a bit unclear as i couldn't distinguish some letters but other than that it was fun :)