It was a neat game, but the mouse sensitivity messed with me. My wrist started hurting, so I tried to pause the game to go get my wrist brace, but that quit the game for me. :/
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Paragon Tower's itch.io pageResults
Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
Audio | #13 | 4.077 | 4.077 |
Overall | #25 | 3.582 | 3.582 |
Graphics | #26 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
Originality | #32 | 3.846 | 3.846 |
Accessibility | #34 | 3.154 | 3.154 |
Theme | #35 | 3.923 | 3.923 |
Fun | #49 | 3.154 | 3.154 |
Controls | #65 | 2.923 | 2.923 |
Ranked from 13 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Godot Version
4.3
Wildcards Used
Did You Know..., Warp Speed, Time Dilation
Game Description
Explore the mysteries behind strange occurences at Paragon Corp.
How does your game tie into the theme?
Traverse an office building, located in Paragon Tower
Source(s)
no
Discord Username(s)
dan, a_kimb0, garycactus, Roxiebleh
Participation Level (GWJ Only)
3
Comments
I'm not one for horror games, but I toughed it out to the end. It probably took me a lot longer than needed to win, because I was waiting every time I went in a door to make sure the hallway was safe. Having to physically move objects was a little wonky. The pieces would get stuck on things and made it hard to get in a door, which was a problem when I'm trying to move fast. It might be better to abstract them into an inventory system, and put out invisible interaction spots to place things.
Woah
The Visual is atonishing, those computers looks so good.
Nice building
If it can convince some people afraid of spooky games to try it: I didn’t find that it very spooky when I streamed it, no jumpscares (at least until level 3, but I didn’t reach it for some reason I don’t remember why exactly).
**AND there is a very chill elevator music that will reset your mood instantly **
It’s high-quality, my main annoyance was I wish we could collect the notes instead of going back and forth. It feels very “game logic” to not be able to carry at least a couple of them with you (are they superglued to the desks??)
But the behavior of going back and forth could have been exploited with dynamic spooky events. Like reading a journal triggers an event that you will see when you leave the room.
Usually when the submission list goes up on the Sunday of every Godot Wild Jam, I scan for what appears like the most ambitious titles, and this was the one of the few this edition that felt like it belonged on that list.
- I like the low-poly look and it communicated well enough the office tower setting.
- Mouse movement sensitivity feels really low, and often I have to lift my mouse and recenter it on my pad to continue a camera pan.
- Level design is interesting, because on the starting floor, all of the rooms except the Break Room don't really serve a function, so it reduces the gameplay effectively to a walking simulator. Nothing wrong with that, but walking sims usually need something else to keep interest levels at a median level (IE: music, ambience, narration, collectibles, etc.). This is something that I've since noted is realized in later levels.
- Using findable notes to tell a story is a good method, and I feel the text was succinct enough to be accessible to most players. Strong story about the seduction of biological enhancement leading to the unfortunate destruction of a scientific work environment. Reminiscent of Fallout's shelters; very well-written.
- Second level improves on objective-finding and becomes quite challenging to figure out where the nameplates go. It's here one must really begin to pay attention to what's being said in the notes. I appreciated the clink if the nameplates were on the right desk, but would've desired a more explicit way to illustrate the player is advancing successfully (like an objective tracker on a HUD, or quest markers in the environment). After placing all the nameplates successfully, nothing was happening, so I picked each one up again and re-placed them on or around the same spot on the desk, and finally heard the "Going Down" elevator soundbite.
- Level three surprise: freaky-deeky! Easy enough stage to get past, though it's here I realized I must've missed the password on level two.
- Level four evolves to full-blown horror, and the atmosphere and level design is the perfect terrifying climax to a well-developed story. As with level 2, wasn't clear what to do with the collected body parts, and I heard the clink for the legs in the first (engineering) room, and the clink for the head by the door of the executive's office. Couldn't find the clink for the torso, and when I inspected the executive office one more time holding the body part, I got clipped into the corner bookshelf and wasn't able to get out—effectively ending my hour-plus playthrough. Bugs like that are understandable for 3D games, however. It's where an escape menu / restart function can help.
I think I was close to the conclusion, and was impressed by Paragon Tower. There's usually the one game (and oftentimes horror) that you play in these jams and feel, "Wow, this could absolutely be expanded out to a full commercial game," and this feels like that title. This was a noteworthy project by everyone who collaborated on it, and you all should be commended for tackling and completing a 3D story-based horror in such a short development window. Congratulations!
Thanks Ricky! I'm really glad you took all this time to comment out your thoughts and thoroughly playtest our game.
- We've taken note on the mouse sensitivity and plan to change it in a settings menu
- The intention of the first level with the break room was so the player could get a feel for the layout of the office, but I do agree that it is a little bare
- I am very glad you liked the story. I dug this out of an old story concept I had a long time ago and I'm glad it got to see the light of day. I'm sure some players don't care about story and just want straight into the action, but I do believe in having a nice story, especially in horror games to tie things together.
- Definitely the puzzle feedback system needs work! We're planning on (is vamping a word?) revamping that so it's extremely concrete and potentially making the notes a little clearer for players to make it easier to figure out.
- I think the confusion on puzzle 2 with the password is an oversight on my part. I'm thinking about having an [ACCESS DENIED] screen on LockiSafe on that level, since I.T. needs to fix it ;)
I am most pointedly ecstatic that you believe this could be a commercial release. Our team is definitely working towards a free Steam release and we hope we can get some fans to play more of our games in the future! Although we might have some tough competition with Handle With Care !
Very atmospheric and I enjoyed all the creepy notes and emails. Really good narrative setup, and just top notch on the lighting and audio. I'm just a bit of a wuss when it comes to scary games, so I couldn't stick around to figure out the puzzle in stage 4. But a very creepy entry in this genre!
genuinely terrifying for me. immersive and challenging puzzles, navigating the offices was a bit rough but overall pretty good feel. the rough controls almost make the game scarier though to it's benefit (ie. classic resident evil games). i had a great time, i did reach the floor where (without giving too much away) you had to gather some parts, and once i had said parts some of them would go into the container and i'd hear the ding and others would not. not sure if this was a bug or if it was something i was missing. either way solid game!
This is really well done! I don't think I saw it all, though. I seem to have gotten stuck on the 3rd day and couldn't figure out what I was missing to progress after checking out the computer. Mechanically really well done and very atmospheric. I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, but this was a very cool casual custodian/intern simulator. I thought the interaction system especially was very nicely done, and the audio felt just right for what I played. Great job!
Interesting, you’ve completed all the puzzles for that level. I’m thinking maybe you didn’t keep the coffee on the table since it being there is a condition for moving onto the next table. We’ll definitely take that into account as I think preventing objects from moving after the puzzle is completed would help
Nope, that's not it. i left it on the desk that requested it. it was weirdly clipped through the desk when i set it down, not quite sitting on top of it, but anyway i didn't do anything with the cup after it gave me the password. That said, yeah, probably would be a good idea to turn off interactive functionality once a prop has served its purpose.
TOOOOO SPOOKEY
lol but it was a fun game & great entry!
iirc you wanted the critiques recorded (?). From my recollection it was:: make a better building layout, so there is more dynamic running involved. The dead end was super weird, at least put in a blocked door or something. Add in an inventory to store all the journal bits to revisit and read later. Have the nametag placements glow or show a box so the player knows its in the right spot. Add in a sprint feature to move faster. Add in jumping to navigate those pesky chairs. Change the office world to be cubicles or have windows to better see the movements of the AI. Include a sub plot of you got exposed to Ichorium and are also trapped in the loop. Have a little into pop up. Juicing the world with other intractables that dont really do anything story/mechanic wise.
But still super cool game my man, thanks for stopping by my the stream!
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