Play bite sized adventure
Shelly's Ship's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall | #4 | 3.956 | 3.956 |
| Enjoyment | #4 | 3.933 | 3.933 |
| Graphics | #6 | 4.400 | 4.400 |
| Story | #6 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Audio | #7 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Concept | #13 | 3.800 | 3.800 |
| Theme | #18 | 3.600 | 3.600 |
Ranked from 15 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Did you use any optional theme? If so which one?
Pizza lover
What game engine did you use?
Unity
Did you have fun? :D
Yeah totes!
Discord username
manlymanton, fishchiesa, danguin
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Comments
My goodness, the moment I started the game, and the music reached my ears, I was swept under a wave of nostalgia! The music and the setting was very "evergreen"!
Your music and art is FANTASTIC! It easily sets the tone of the game and I absolutely love Shelley and Leaf's characters. (I wanted to play more 😞 )
Some feedback:
I love games that give me a sense of nostalgia and with your artwork, music, story, writing and characters, it provided just that!
Fantastic work!
Sintech thanks so much! Super glad you enjoyed the music and art and overall tone. I consider your 'wanting to play more' a huge compliment!
Also thanks bunches for the feedback! The mushroom was at most going to have additional banter tagged onto it if you chose it (a mushroom-powered ship is a strange and delightful idea), buuuut I think we rushed implementation a bit there. Environment sounds would do wonders, as would finishing that dern inspection ui box.
Thanks for playing!
-FishChiesa | artist | Box of Mushrooms
This was so cute!! You had me from the first line "I'm not 8 anymore... I'm 8 and a half!" adorable. The pixel art was gorgeous, the music was really nice, and the story was super sweet. There's a ton of potential here if y'all do more development on it, I would love to see the relationship between Leaf and Shelly explored a little, maybe some fun little dialogue while on the sea, exploring how he died/why he wanted to see the ocean, idk. And the inventory, picking up random objects but giving them significance on the boat in Leaf's imagination. Anyway loved this, great job!
So so glad to hear the music, pixel art, and story were enjoyed!! Thank you for the feedback! Inventory items' having each a different role is something we want to lean into more for sure. Really like the idea of linking them directly to the imagination boat.
-FishChiesa | artist | Box of Mushrooms
Phenomenal art and writing! The opening really nails the protagonist's personality. I understand the team ran out of time, which is a shame. It felt like it ended just as it was starting, and I would love to see a more extended adventure on Shelly's mushroom-powered ship. Hope the drawing mechanic has more of an impact in a potential future release as well. Keep it up!
Thank you so much! I think an extended adventure on the ship would have been wonderful to throw in there. I'd be lying to say that we didn't have something like that in the original scope! (also, you chose the mushroom to power it! you are the first person that I know to choose mushroom over barko (besides myself that is). Thanks for the feedback and the support through the jam!
-FishChiesa | artist | Box of Mushrooms
The music really set the tone of this one. It completely carried the atmosphere. It was very pleasing to look at also.
The dialogue was succinct and well written. I would have preferred much more context / conflict. Give me some reason why I want to help the pirate, and give me a moment of conflict where we fall out or something.
For me the theme wasn't explored so strongly.
I enjoyed it!
The music! Ahhh well that is a relief because it sure was in a gestural state. Thanks!
Noted on the conflict. I think the result is a case of scope cutting to the point of story prompt losing itself a bit (including the theme). A falling out would have been interesting too. Glad the atmosphere worked though!!
-FishChiesa | artist | Box of Mushrooms
Loved the art style, and the animation of the paper crinkling!
Hiya! That means alot coming from the dev team behind Porko's Quest! That game had very cohesive and consistent art and animation! I definitely worked hard on the player animation and the ending sequence animation. The crinkling animation was one of those quick little "sure I'll get this done real quick on the spot as I thought of it" kind of moments.
-FishChiesa | artist | Box of Mushrooms
This was so sweet! The ending really tugged at my heartstrings. I love Leaf and her design so much; she's a great adventurer :). I also liked the environment a lot; it really felt wide open. I wasn't sure how the game fit the theme, though. Is the whole adventure made up out of Leaf's imagination?
Anyway, this was a wonderful little adventure. Great job!
We were hoping to make Shelly more of a creepy, untrustworthy-seeming character at the beginning (only to subvert it at the reveal). Unfortunately the writing and the development kinda clashed with each other, so we didn't have much time to play it up the way we wanted :/ glad you liked it though!
You guys really REALLY nailed the ambiance in this. Adorable art style, great looking backgrounds, chill music (appreciate the live guitar!) and really clever design with the back yard looking like a ship before it turned into one!
The dialog, while short, also had a lot of personality to it! Leaf's 8 and a half line really made me smile, as did the "ghost wizard pirate (etc) captain) line! Well done with that!
In terms of story.... it's definitely a great idea! But as it stands now, I feel like it could use more fleshing out with characters. Shelly and Leaf are both great characters, and the result of their friendship at the end was really sweet. However, I feel like there were some missed opportunities to build that friendship naturally at the beginning. Something to really convince the player on why they are good enough friends to go on this journey together.
I think a good solution for this would be to have more banter between Shelly and Leaf. And the back yard ship would be a GREAT place for that! At the moment, the wheel and flag moments (which are so clever by the way!) are introduced either through instructional text, or very quick, out of context conversation. They introduce the mechanic, but not Leaf and Shelly's connection to it. Instead, let your imagination run wild and let the entire encounter be run by Leaf and Shelly's roleplaying conversation.
For instance with the wheel.
Shelly "Arrrggg, that there be my steering wheel, but ALAS it was eaten by the mighty pizza monster.
Leaf "A pizza monster! We must seek VENGANCE for your fallen ship!
Shelly "But alas, how can a ship seek vengance without a wheel to steer.
Leaf "Leave it to me and my MAGIC MARKER.
Something like that! It's got a lot more personality than the instruction box, proving a lot more of an immersive environment and building the friendship of Leaf and Shelly with just a few lines!
Also... if you were to extend the gameplay... it might be interesting if Leaf and shelly had to go on a "Hunt" throughout the yard to find what really powers the ship. Barko was a great idea, but it was a tad anti climactic that the solution and everything leading up to it were already in the backpack! Making it a treasure hunt to find could be a really fun idea!!
So yeah! All just little suggestions to make the strong story concept just a bit stronger. But all in all, you guys did a lovely job creating a game with heart and charm! Keep up the good work! Can't wait to see more projects from you in the future!
Well done!
-Sasha
Thanks so much for all the feedback! We definitely started development a bit late into the jam that made writing a bit more rushed, which is why the memorable bits (the pizza box and the lunchbox) felt out of context. However, we hope to update the game with more characterization like you mentioned. I really like the "pizza monster" line suggestion!
With more time toward the end, we were going to try to make a narrative of Leaf helping Shelly to sail her ship off, with Shelly being a bit more "unreliable" by asking the player to go off into the deeper, creepier parts of the forest and retrieve some of her "ancient treasure" after the ship sets sail. With the time constraints, we settled on a less creepy, more immediately wholesome vibe going on. I'm hoping I can convince the team to go back to writing some more of the unsettling parts.
Using the rest of the yard as sort of a scavenger hunt is a great idea! We used this jam to test out building an inventory system, but unfortunately we only had time to hide one very missable item around the yard to pick up. I agree that a better introduction to items via actually having to pick them up would be more effective, so we're hopefully going to be able to put that in going forward.
Thanks again for the feedback, and I'm glad you liked the bits that are there! Our artist (fishchiesa) did an incredible job of making the atmosphere feel as charming as it did, and I hope we'll be able to really cement that feeling into the narrative moving forward :)
This is such a sweet game. The colors, the atmosphere, the characters, their designs. Everything really came together.
Unfortunately for me, there seemed to be a bit of a bug where I couldn't interact with an object unless I reloaded the game. But that may honestly be on my end.
Either way, great game!
Thanks for the feedback! Given the last minute extension I think we might have fixed the bug you mentioned. I appreciate you pointing it out, or we might have missed it!
Edit: Okay maybe not, it seems to be an issue with the order in which you inspect things. Total oversight on our part haha
Thanks for playing, Yoobie! Truly made us happy to hear someone say "everything really came together".
We are working on the bug, but for the submitted version at least we have a path one could take that for sure works.
-FishChiesa | artist | Box of Mushrooms