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PATHogenic (Unfinished / Godot Wild Jam #67)'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Originality | #26 | 3.615 | 3.615 |
| Theme | #59 | 3.385 | 3.385 |
| Graphics | #65 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Accessibilty | #69 | 2.692 | 2.692 |
| Overall | #73 | 2.857 | 2.857 |
| Controls | #82 | 2.538 | 2.538 |
| Fun | #91 | 2.462 | 2.462 |
| Audio | #106 | 2.308 | 2.308 |
Ranked from 13 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Godot Version
4.2
Wildcards Used
GridLock, Roshambo
Game Description
3 player; Rock, Paper, Scissors style strategy game, using a fixed hex grid for movement.
How does your game tie into the theme?
You can infect or hijack the limbs of opponents you're strong against to grow and manipulate their 'arms.' Then, use their type advantage to attack another opponent who is normally invulnerable to you.
Source(s)
N/a
Discord Username(s)
StrikeForceZero, FenixAzulPR
Participation Level (GWJ Only)
0, this is our first submission
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Comments
Very cool idea. Congrats on your first GWJ submission. I think it would have played really nice with an AI. Maybe the yellow you're supposed to avoid would be controlled by the AI. I didn't quite understand what happened when the red and blue merged, but it was a cool effect. Overall a cool prototype.
Very cool concept. I love territory capture games and this seems like a unique take on the formula. When I played, I couldn't figure out how to penetrate their defences once their root node was occluded by branches.
Feels like a strange mix between Tron, Go, and Chess.
I hope you develop it further.
(And make single player the default setting. Couch coop is cool and everything, but I'm guessing there's way more single players.)
This feels like this is an incredible unfinished game! The animation of the microscope at the start shows a huge depth of polish and attention to detail. The graphics and audio really match well.
Unfortunately the gameplay is unclear and despite trying a few times I wasn't able to achieve victory. I might not have understood the right-click (something I missed completely on my first play and tried repeatedly on my second). I'm using a trackpad on Mac laptop so right click is always a bit tricky in games.
Anyway, there was a really great idea in this entry and I hope you get to sort out the AI and finish it one day
Thank you so much for taking the time to share your thoughts and feedback on the game. I'm thrilled to hear that you appreciated the attention to detail in the animation of the microscope I did that part. This is my first jam, my first game in godot so i was new at everything mostly hehe.
We understand your frustration with the unclear gameplay, and I apologize for that. We're glad you see potential in the concept, and your encouragement means a lot to us. Rest assured, we're committed to address all issues. Your support motivates us to keep pushing forward, and we're grateful for your enthusiasm.
PD im still trying to figure out where to start with the AI part .
This was an interesting concept. I really liked a lot of the visual touches like zooming in on the microscope lens and the sort of pulsing/propagating animation of the arms when you move the root node.
From reading the comments it seems like there are different abilities that the different node types have. I wasn’t able to figure out what that is, but maybe it’s just that I wasn’t able to infect the blue opponent until after I infected the red? Also, sometimes I would see the black patterned cells that I thought indicated that you could infect that node, but it didn’t always seem to work.
Probably most importantly, I wasn’t able to ever infect a root node, so I don’t know what winning was like. The bots moving randomly made it so with some repeatedly clicking I ended up near the root node a couple times but I couldn’t infect it and I wasn’t sure why. It seemed like there was some kind of rule to the infection mechanics that wasn’t easy to figure out. I thought the bots-only mode might be informative but while it was kind of funny to watch it seemed like they just got stuck.
Regardless, I feel like there’s something really cool here, but either not enough of it was working to really feel like it clicked or I just really needed a tutorial to make sense of why some things worked how they did. Will definitely be interested in checking this out when it’s more fleshed out though. Solid start nonetheless!
Crap, I had this elaborate reply typed out covering everything you mentioned but accidentally hit back and lost it.
But yes, I can confirm that there are at least 3 known instances that are currently broken when trying to infect a root node.
The bots sadly didn't get prioritized in the end, so they never learned how to to infect.
And the win screen was very anti-climatic, so you're not missing out on anything xD ( "Player X won!" replacing the label used for "Player X's turn")
Thanks for taking the time to play our game and leaving a comment! I'm excited to go back and take my time to rewrite everything from the ground up to support all the systems I had in mind and see how it plays.
To clarify for other readers, there are no "abilities" other than being able to infect your target and then using your target's infected branches to delete branches of their target (in lieu of trying to maintain a branch infecting a branch, infecting another branch).
I really - really - loved the core mechanic of this entry! The fact that you can become the parasite for your adversary and gain their power fits perfectly to the theme, and furthermore it blends very well with the "rock-paper-scissor" concept. When playing this, I was amazed by how nicely you've been able to mix the theme and the wildcards in a solid and cohesive game: I think your submission is a great example of game design, congrats :)
The only critique that I can make on the gameplay, is that the game could end when one player injects their target. In this case, in fact, the "rock-paper-scissor" balance is broken, and the injected player would have a hard time in recovering...
The graphics elements were well made, but I liked especially the "flux" animation of injecting an adversary. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to play it in full screen, and my grid was cropped on the right :(
I'll look forward for a fixed version of the game. Again, great entry and congratulations for your first GWJ! :D
Thank you taking time to play our game and for the kind words and encouragement!
I'm glad you were able to test out the core gameplay. I hadn't notice until sometime after your comment that the manually set sizing was wrong because I was submitting it on a device with high DPI settings (I forgot to uncheck the setting in godot. Whoops!)
As far as the rock paper scissors feedback/suggestion, if I'm following, you're suggesting the game ends as soon an injection occurs because it's too hard for the player to recover?
Based on your comment I'm guessing (at no fault to you because our lack of ingame tutorial) that you didn't try right clicking to move a root node anywhere on your path? That adds an element of "chase" and "sacrifice" while also letting you create more paths.
We originally had scoped out the win condition to be injecting into your targets Root Node and then using their power to take out the other players Root Node. IMO that would have really solidified the lore of these 3 organisms in a winner take all battle. And it was unfortunate we had to scrap that for the jam due to time constraints.
Another ability that didn't make it in was to "disable" the injections or infections by having your adversary inject lower down into your arm. So ideally there was supposed to be a lot of back and forth, and strategic trading. Like losing the injection just gives your opponent the free ground you grew for them.
But whether or not any of that turns out to be fun will be fun to test out after we make some updates after the jam!
PATHogenic is a delightful surprise in the world of indie games. Its clever blend of rock paper scissors mechanics with strategic hex grid movement creates a captivating experience that keeps you on the edge of your seat. The game's charming visuals and engaging gameplay make it a must-play for strategy enthusiasts looking for a fresh challenge. With its intuitive mechanics and strategic depth, PATHogenic is sure to leave a lasting impression on players!
Thanks for the comment. However, I want to temper expectations for future readers, considering this game is unfinished and a prototype at best. I would also like to note that this comment reads as though it was written by a large language model rather than by someone who has played the game. This suspicion also stems from the fact your profile was just created and this is its only post. While kind words are appreciated, I don't want to unintentionally spotlight the game with descriptions like 'captivating,' 'engaging gameplay,' or 'must-play,' especially when there are other games that may more rightfully deserve such attention at this stage.