That was very fun and charming. Great work!

Resurrection Rancher

by Baz and Noobk

Hey there Baz and Noobk, thanks for submitting a project to the 2022 IGMC. I was asked to judge your game in round three of the IGMC 2022 game jam. Here's some feedback about your project.

It's really cool to see you two teaming up for this project. I respect both of you and appreciate the work that you've both done. That being said, let's talk about your entry:

I think that you may want to reconsider how the game is packaged(currently it's in a forced Drive C installer) and here's why: 

*Every new entry into the system registry will slow down your computer(specifically startup). 

*Some people install their OS onto their drive C, and then have a separate HDD for their games' library. Quite often, and I know I'm also in this camp, the OS drive C is a low capacity and high speed drive. M.2(my case), or regular SSD typically. Space is very limited and when you force install your product onto the very limited space they have on their main drive there's a chance that it won't fit, but also even if it does fit, the user may not prefer that. 

*Installers make people think of malware or bloatware. It doesn't instill confidence in your product and believe it or not some people will see the installer, and when windows says "Windows prevented this application from running" they'll decide to skip your product, or not even be able to figure out how to run it in some cases. 

*The next issue is after it's been forcefully installed onto drive C to play it, if the user unchecked the box that says "add to desktop" then they won't have a shortcut to launch it. The installer doesn't state where it's installed to and if they lack basic file management skills(I know many gamers who lack these simple computer skills) your software may now be lost on their PC. 

*I would suggest allowing a drive selection for installation if you insist on going with an installer. 

*Typically you can avoid an installer all-together and make a simple run-time that will self execute. You could encrypt or even enigma-box your run-time if you're worried about asset theft. 

It's just a bad idea to go this route, wouldn't you agree? 

However, maybe there are other reasons that I don't understand as to why you chose(or had?) to make an installer that forces your game onto the main drive C. 

Really nice little splash screen intro that shows it's made with Pixel Game Maker MV and for the IGMC 2022. Great music and sound selection with visuals to match.

The volume of the BGM while travelling north of town was quite a bit too low and it always felt like it got too quiet while exploring for resources.

I like the core gameplay loop. While it's minimalistic, it's also very simple to understand.

While I would have preferred to have a slightly more zoomed out perspective, the resolution reminds me of GameBoy Color titles or even some NES ones. 

Some of the corners of buildings and trees feel a little sticky when using the d-pad, but using an analog stick on the controller mostly fixes that.

I feel like the maps are sufficient, but hidden chests wouldn't have been a terrible idea. Maybe stick in a couple of sections that you can walk through the trees to reveal a hidden secret? 

A good idea would be to implement some kind of 'return to the graveyard' button/item/mechanic. That way when you harvest everything on a gather run you don't have to backtrack through the empty maps. I've see these maps dozens of times already and it would just speed up the excitement by eliminating the repetitious retracing.

While the actual gameplay is nothing fancy, the pacing and town progression are laid out very well. Sometimes a game can be good even if the gameplay isn't all that fun. A compelling experience is also good.

I'm not sure what's up with Nova. 

I revive one cat and all the sudden there are 20 cats on every map... sounds about right.

Towards the end there is a little bit of framerate loss but it's probably because of the engine's limitations and not actually bad coding.

It took me 13 game days to beat it, but the ending was good and like I mentioned before, even though I went quite a bit passed the 1 hour mark I was compelled to finish it. 

You guys put together a nice project and I think that's something to be proud of. Congratulations on making it to round three of the IGCM 2022. I look forward to the next projects that yall work on.

-Drifty 

I tried this out but it failed to connect with me. While there was a good amount of polish (very impressive, if it's custom!) in the presentation, I felt like it became a repetitive task list too quickly; almost like this is the testing ground and the game's content should be built on top.

For me, not having any really new stuff to do and the days playing so similarly was a loss. There was no real incentive story-wise (at least, up to where I got, there could be more later) so it just doesn't work well for me. 

If the art (I think custom and all nice) was all made within a month, I can see that taking a huge chunk of time, together with the coding/eventing required, but I think it has made the appeal of the game suffer: for me, I really need a bit more charm, a cute story, changing gameplay, something. The gameplay here was all I could find, and even that was too repetitive for my taste.

I feel like this would be an amazing prototype for a bigger game, but it's not fair to pin that on something made in a month. It's great effort within the time, for sure, but I really think nailing a good point of charm, hook, or something to keep you playing is important. 

In any case, congratulations in getting something this polished done! I'm not sure how complicated the engine is, but considering other entries made in it, I assume it's trickier than most. 

This is exactly the kind of game I love curling up with for short periods of time to relax and unwind, so it brought me a lot of joy to play this! The art / presentation is quite lovely and, while I would love to see even more variation added in the future, I think this was a very well-polished, enjoyable game!

I really liked the overall presentation of the game and its visuals and audio design! The gameplay seemed okayish to me (maybe a bit repetitive?), but I'm not a huge fan of the genre, so I would not consider this a flaw ^ ^

Overall very good job!

I really enjoyed play Resurrection Rancher, I'm a completionist so I have to save all the poor souls! I like that you have integrated the jam theme into the game mechanics. In the long run it might be repetitive a gameplay loop of this type but it was never a burden for me (maybe because it lasts the right amount of time, it took me 12 days). Great job!

Tight game! Was satisfying to collect things and slowly bring back the town (except Nova, who sucks). The premise was pretty sweet, and it was executed well. Still, 10+ repetitions of basically the same thing didn't quite wear out its welcome, but I also didn't find myself particularly excited to walk the same paths, attacking the same things, albeit in different places. Some variety, challenge, or more progression in gameplay would have kicked this game a few notches up in my book.

Surprising collect & farming game. I spent "11 day" to reach end. It's very impressive to see the forest and town becoming more and more lively. Five stars!

Love the artwork and action system! Feels really satisfying to swing the scythe around! :)

Quality game, nice fun chill gameplay, gorgeous sprite work and 

would of completed in 13 days if i hadnt messed around and lost my 1st day by mistake lol. Great little game, i noticed a few graphic bugs but other then that it was fun and refreshing. Would be great as an expanded game with more to do. 

Very nice visuals, music and gameplay!

fantastic. Just fantastic. Really well done!

wow really cool!

Lots of fun!

im a big fan of pixelart and an even bigger fan of collecting and redeeming things.

Resurrection rancher has both. Lots of effort was put into this using my favorite game engine - PGMMV. Knowing its capabilities, I see that Baz and Noob have used every feature available to make this a satisfying game.

It's like Stardew valley and Rune Factory Frontier had a love child, but Stardew valley had an affair with an isekai goddess, so the...

I dont know where I'm going with this xD But omg this is beautiful seriously!

Resurrection Rancher is about two beings in the business of resurrecting souls. One of them, named Gavin, is about to retire, while the other one, the player character that goes unnamed, is brand new. Gavin acts as guide and mentor throughout the game, giving advice and teaching you how to play it. Their first job together involves resurrecting an entire town that, somehow or some other, managed to just die out, literally. However, there's a glitch in their plans when they discover that a Grim Reaper has already taken the souls. He'll give them back to you, for a price. The rest of the game involves going around the forest, collecting items that the Grim Reaper wants, then buying the souls back from the Reaper, then planting the souls in graves to grow them back to life.

In all, I really enjoyed this game. It's really done well for something that was made in a short amount of time. I'd love to see this game fully fleshed out, with much more to do than go around the forest every day, rinse, and repeat.  The only real issue I had with the game was  the control scheme. Most of the PC games I play use WASD for movement, and at the very least, the mouse for activating attacks. Not having that made the game fairly awkward for me to play. That would actually be my only real comment on the game: I'd have rather seen the mouse and keyboard scheme follow most PC game formats. I'm sure it was very comfortable to play with a controller, but I don't use the controller. I'm a PC gamer who prefers mouse and keyboard. At the very least, I would have liked the option to rebind the keys to something more comfortable. Not sure if that's possible with PGM, though. But it's definitely on my wish list of features I'd love to see, if the developer ever decides to expand the game. Anyhow, thanks for sharing this game with us! I really enjoyed it!

Not too bad at all! Very impressive looking game. The big thing that stood out to me is the grammar and things not really being explained properly (I have no idea how to get resources). But I really like the look and feel of it. I can tell you put a lot into it. 

A chill and relaxing soul farming game! Not sure if it's just my computer, but it does seem to stutter a little in the big maps, especially the one in with the pond.

Nice work!