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The Trial's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Theme | #19 | 2.832 | 3.167 |
| Overall | #20 | 3.205 | 3.583 |
| Narration | #23 | 2.907 | 3.250 |
| Originality | #26 | 2.981 | 3.333 |
Ranked from 12 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
This kind of "time loop" game reminded me a bit of games like The Forgotten City, and I wonder if the inspiration was intentional or not - although maybe this is more alike to... a narrative roguelite? Is there such a thing ;-D?
The drawings are really evocative of the atmosphere, and also the idea that practically everything and anything is a danger. Maybe the idea of inventing a "Rah"-thing was not strictly necessary for the story itself, but overall well executed, it kept me there until I was finally able to exit! Maybe a quick restart button could be useful too.
I didn't know The Forgotten City, but I definetly have to check that out now. I love loop mechanics and "narrative roguelite" (i kinda like the box, even though I don't know it if is a thing). I'm currently working on a more elaborate game, inspired by this submission, which should expore the loop mechanic more in depth... also give the Rah-thing a bit more background. I agree that it does not add much to the short prototype.
Thanks a lot for playing and your feedback!
I think you've done a great job here! I'd also like to say that it's pretty smart to mirror the graphics as it saves a LOT of time in creating art assets, plus they look pretty darn nice here. The simple color palette makes the consequences of your choices stand out a lot more and overall it all seems to fit together nicely. Sorry to say that's all I can really comment on, I was a bit too dumb to complete the whole thing!
Thanks for your feedback and sorry, that you got stuck on bad endings. I might have to consider to add some more subtle hints, how that could be improved, but I did run out of time, eventhough I saved some time mirroring my art :D
You've got nothing to apologize for! Just wanted to say it to make it clear that I didn't finish the whole thing and that's alright, not everyone will finish our games. I think you did a great job regardless and seeing as other people got through the game (just fine, I think?) it's possible I'm just an outlier.
Nicely done! I figured it out relatively quickly, but then again these are the types of games/puzzles that I always prefer to make so it all seemed very natural to me :D I assume you can somehow die of mind corruption/bodily exhaustion (since those kept popping up) but I didn't really see any particular way to achieve that.
That said, there might be a slight bug with your 'restart' in that it might not fully restart things? Like I researched until I could no more then went back to the eye room and died to the screamy-scream, but the next time I went back there and selected 'undo the protection circle' it told me I could easily do it because of all my time spent practicing the weave of rah (even though this was a new run where I hadn't practiced anything). Just a note.
Thanks for playing and your feedback, plus bug report! Good to know, that it can actually be easy to beat, if you know, what you are doing. And you are right, that you could die or lose the trial by corruption/exhaustion, but I might have to adjust the triggering number a bit, so that it happens earlier, if you keep repeating some dangerous things, so that you have to evaluate your choices more carefully.
Ominous! I did die a lot (chosen acolyte's a tough gig). Started to gauge the meaning of the text colours the more I played; was a bit unsure how to go about things so mostly just tried things out. Nice, consistent art style that definitely fits the tone you're going for.
Thanks for your feedback! I agree, that the the message of the colors was not fleshed well enough in this short game loop, to really have a lot of use, but it just gave me an idea, how to improve that in an other prototype :)
i did it! really excellent presentation and design. i felt immersed enough to learn more and the ui/flow was clear enough that i wanted to keep trying when i failed. everything had its purpose. well done!
Congrats for mastering the challenge and thanks for trying and your lovely comment :) I'm glad it worked well enough to continue trying!
Really beautiful art and great ambiance! I died about five different ways haha. Very creepy and lots of fun!
Thanks for playing and your comment. I'm glad you enjoyed the creepy deaths :D