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PHYSICS JAM 2021 (South Africa)

Hosted by Free Lives
29
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A jam submission

Last To LeaveView game page

A rude awakening coupled with a strange discovery
Submitted by simonbaumy, Razer1999, Twin Hydro Studios — 11 minutes, 29 seconds before the deadline
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Categories Your Team is Eligible for
Student Best Physics Gameplay
Best Visuals
Best Physics Gameplay

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Comments

Call Of The Void3 years ago (5 edits) (+1)

Wow, like others have said, a fully narrated jam game is an impressive feat in itself. Also there's a ton of environments and interactions and detailed sound work. The scope here is very impressive.

The platforming was a bit tricky in places, to the point of being frustrating. Seemed like there was a bit of slide induced by the capsule collider of the player.

I liked breaking things though!

I got a black screen at the end and it just seemed to hang there. That was after a speech by the AI at what seemed like the top of the building. I feel like I missed something or something went wrong.

The narrative was good too. The first conversation felt a bit front-loaded (it's irritating waiting for backstory before being engaged in the game, whereas hearing backstory after already being engaged is more satisfying... i.e. Answering questions noone is asking feels tiresome, but answering questions to mysteries that have already been noticed by players feels rewarding). 

(I'm not going to find it, but I watched a GDC talk once that made the point that the gaps in information are more engaging than what you get told. If the player becomes aware that they don't know something they're going to try complete their information, whereas if you just tell them everything then they have nothing driving them forward. You have to tell them a little bit so that they become aware of what they don't know, but it's the parts that you keep from them until the end that are the most engaging)

The pleas by the AI at the end came a little bit out of nowhere... I know I had been feeling frustrated running in circles because of the tests the AI was doing on me, but until that moment the narrative hadn't acknowledged it. It also maybe didn't need to be as grand sounding... and... this might have been your idea already... but a little agression test to see if the player is trustworthy is a good idea as a final test before they are released... though I guess just killing the AI might be satisfying in itself and making that a choice might rob those who choose not to destroy the AI of the pleasure of destroying the AI (making the good ending a boring ending). Though maybe there's a narrative solution I'm not thinking of.

For example, there's something weird about AI's testing to see if unfrozen people are imposters. That's already leaving a gap that could be filled. What are these imposters? If something about imposters were mentioned again it'd leave players wondering about this. They'd know that imformation is important because it is mentioned twice or more times, and so players would be motivated to fill their gap of information. Then, for example of a way to fill it,  it is suggested that one impostor got through the tests two years ago, so they made the tests harder, now 100% of all unfrozen clients turn out to be impostors and the AI's consider this a success, and that suggests that the AI's are refusing to let anyone unfrozen live and are making up impossible rules to ensure this... but that isn't actually said, it is something the players put together. And it sets up an adversarial relationship with the AI and then defeating the AI and disabling it become a resolution to this conflict.

Reply
Razer1999Developer3 years ago

Thank you for the immense amount of feedback, we sincerely appreciate every bit of it and will consider every aspect of it for future game jams and other games. 

For our second game jam, we thought about implementing much more and improving upon our previous mistakes, but most importantly we tried to have as many self-created assets as possible, during the time of the game jam. As a team of two, we did try to narrow down the scoping due to the amount of time available but was unfortunately very difficult to keep in our own scope... the life of a student and part-time weekend jobs is honestly quite dragging. 

As team Twin Hydro, we do like to aim above our very own expectations and satisfaction requirements, but it's to be quite the detriment to a complete jam. We'll definitely try to plan better in the future.

For the narrative, we wanted to create an engaging dialogue between the two characters, but like the lack of text objectives, subtitles, tooltips, sound feedback, game balancing and testing, audio balancing, we approached these challenges at the last possible moment of the game jam.

At the end of the game, we wanted to allow the player to have multiple choices to choose from which will all lead to different kinds of endings like:

1. Destroy and Disable the AI (but then the player goes with him and dies alongside him).

OR

2. Keep the AI activated to continuously study and learn from the humans.

We also wanted to pace the player to avoid any overlaps of dialogue by either implementing a skip dialogue function or just simply make a long passage for the player to walk in at the start and/or the very end. As per the end of the game, due to the time limitations, we used an old-fashion way of ending the game, by displaying a black screen with one final voice-line and once it finishes, the player would've automatically be returned to the main menu but some unfortunate responsibilities consumed this issue, forcing it's way to an unforeseen bin of bugs. So yes, the unfortunate black screen was the end, after all, the only way out of it was to quit the game as the 'MAIN MENU' in the game menu button also wasn't able to return to the menu. A very simple fix was required, but unfortunately, it wasn't noticed.

For the narrative feedback, we wanted to display the dialogue text at the bottom, while also displaying the persons' or AI's name, let the AI react if the player falls in the water or gets shot by the player, keep statistics that may interfere with the player's hud during the game to joke with the player or to tease the player.

We fully agree with you regarding the flow of the narrative and we admit entirely to the fact that the overall narrative is sluggish and not engaging at all with the player. We definitely make sure to squeeze in more time for narrative. 

Thank you once again for all the spectacular response and in-depth feedback, it really helps us to understand what we're delivering for all the gamers out there. Thank you for hosting this game jam, it was great fun!

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Call Of The Void3 years ago (4 edits) (+1)

Well I wouldn't say that the narrative is "not engaging at all with the player". I think it sets up an interesting premise, and it's well executed, so listening to the dialogue provides entertainment in itself. And I think an interesting premise like this can be turned into more engagement given a bit more time to work on the project (like if this wasn't a quick jam game I feel like you would have gotten there).

I thought some of the pacing solutions were quite brilliant actually. All those airlocks were clearly there to allow voice lines to complete, but they also had this dehumanizing effect, like I was being constantly sprayed with disinfectant because the AI thought I was dirty. This really builds on moments like the "play room" where the AI brings the player into something like a children's play room, it feels demeaning, it feels like the AI considers the player to be a dirty child.

And that kind of world building (with disinfectant airlocks and the children's play room etc) is part of the narrative obviously. And it's kind of great that the dialogue (as far as I can remember) never refers to the airlocks and never calls the player stupid, it just leaves it up to the player's imagination to figure out why they are being treated this way. That's the good kind of gap in narrative left for the player to fill.

Have you watched Idiocracy? My single favourite moment, possibly in any film ever, is the IQ test scene that humans in the future are assigned. It's such perfect world building, it doesn't need any explanation or dialogue.

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Razer1999Developer3 years ago

I would love to fully finish a project which was made from a game jam, heck maybe we may consider doing that very soon.  I haven't watch Idiocracy before, but I'll definitely add it to my list of movies to watch next, it sounds quite hilarious and interesting. 

Thank you once again for the valuable extended feedback!

Reply
ashashzaSubmitted3 years ago (1 edit) (+1)

Oh wow, this totally knocks it out of the park in terms of immersion. 

I'm blown away at how good the voice acting is for a jam. I find that voice acting in a game is something that either seriously elevates immersion or just dissolves it completely (if it's poor). This totally adds to the immersion and it was done during a jam. Honestly, blown away.

Speaking of immersion, the sound design, lighting and vfx in the airlock chambers is also super good. Wow.

I found the 2nd parkour challenge pretty hard and almost gave up, kept going because I was so keen to see what else the game had to offer. :)

Submitted
Kickflip, The Horse
Reply
Razer1999Developer3 years ago

Thank you so much for your feedback! 

We would've liked to add so much more to the game, like on screen dialog text, a health condition that periodically updates when you progress or when you die, much more narrative context, hints and tips, and so much more. But yeah, unfortunately we got knocked over by the given time. Your feedback is superb and we'll keep it in mind for future game jams, thank you once again!

Reply
Lilly&JamesSubmitted3 years ago(+1)

I never expected to find such a thoroughly voiced gem in a game jam. Well done on all of it folks, you should be proud!

Submitted
No Strings Attached
Reply
Razer1999Developer3 years ago

Thanks! We would've like to go even further with the voice lines, like when the player is shooting the AI robot, falls into the water, or when the player dies. We'll try to work even more efficient and be more effective in future game jams, you once again!

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Jwho303Submitted3 years ago(+1)

My name is Jeffrey and I approve! very cool atmosphere to be immersed in.

Submitted
[Physics Jam] Simian Slam
Reply
Razer1999Developer3 years ago(+1)

I thought of having a "my name is jeff" joke, but man would that have been so cringe hahaha. Thank you very much!

Reply
kgomotsoSubmitted3 years ago(+2)

I really like how immersive Last To Leave is.
The voice acting had me chuckling way harder than I should have...
I think it had to do with the fact that it was in a South African accent!

I had a bit of trouble getting past the second part of the parkouring platforms.
Maybe a ladder should appear on the other side after the player lands in the
water after a certain amount of time to reduce the likelihood that a player 
might rage quit at that section.

The voxel art style, humour and sound design alone make this game unforgettable.
I hope to see more titles from you. 

Submitted
Mecha Snake-Ah
Reply
Razer1999Developer3 years ago(+1)

I'm not proud of my Afrikaans accent haha, but it sure was a blast to play the role of the AI, Alpha. Fear not, you're not the only one to face the truth difficulties around the Wipeout room, well try our best in future game jams to polish the game more.

Thank you so much for your kind feedback! 

Reply
solid_chabistoSubmitted3 years ago(+1)

Perhaps I missed something but I cannot get passed the room with the furnace trash thing. I was playing on mute though so maybe I didnt here something important

Submitted
Raycast van x 31 Savage
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Razer1999Developer3 years ago

I'm not sure if you managed to get passed the furnace level, and apologizes for not implementing ui to update or display objects. At the Ventilation room, your objective is to simply clean all the vents, and once all red lights dissappear, you're free to go to the next level.

Our way of direction was to listen to the AI at most of the parts, so to have sound on may have been more helpful. We'll keep that in consideration for future game jams. Your feedback means a lot to us.

Reply
solid_chabistoSubmitted3 years ago(+1)

oh. I'll give that a try when I get time to play. I don't actually mind the voice prompts or what not. I was just letting you know incase there was some sort of bug.

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Mandy J Watson3 years ago(+1)

There are bugs. The first time I tried to play the game I couldn't get past the first room because the door switch wouldn't activate. The text didn't pop up saying "door switch" and I couldn't push it. The second time I tried I managed to get to the ventilation room but had the same problem as @solid_chabisto - there's nothing to interact with.

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Call Of The Void3 years ago (1 edit) (+1)

I got stuck for a minute there... I didn't know I had to drag the vents open. Up until that point everything involved pressing "E" to open... and my weapon being "fists" wasn't enough of a clue (clicking on the vents didn't do anything)

If a little hand indicator appeared over the vent when I clicked, or when I moused over it, then that might have been enough of a clue to figure it out immediately. I think that would have been more helpful than the narration being more descriptive, just a little bit of visual feedback to steer players towards the correct interaction.


The vents did feel nice to open after I figured it out.

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