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Illuminate's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Cleverness | #755 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Playability | #804 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Theme | #1330 | 2.000 | 2.000 |
| Artistic Style | #1697 | 2.000 | 2.000 |
Ranked from 1 rating. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Judge feedback
Judge feedback is anonymous.
- There was nothing in the game that helped the player understand what was going on or how to play the game. After gathering scrap there was no direction on where to go or how to exit the level. The robots pathing could get a bit overwhelming to where you're just sitting there hiding the shadows for a long time without much ability to move around. Overall, this is a fun concept. The story/lore is compelling and I like the dystopian feel of the game. Just would have liked to see guidance within the game to understand what was going on and how to progress.
Did you include your Game Design Document as a Google Drive link?
Yes
Seriously... did you include your Game Design Document?
Yes
Is your game set to Public so we can see it?
Yes
Tell us about your game!
Try to survive in an oppressive world, where the poor are forgotten. Hide in the shadows to avoid enemies, gather scrap, then use alchemy at home to turn the scrap into gold to sell, so you can eat and one day escape this city.
Extra Notes
Thank you for the game jam!
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Comments
The art and the animations are really good! I love how the hide mechanic feels, and I hate the jump feeling just as much! I think for an action stealth platformer the controls could feel a bit more snappy.
I got 18 scraps and was just running around (I later found out exiting the level was a mechanic). Maybe a tutorial or a bit more explanation could have helped!
Besides that, pretty good project. I ran well, only had 1 game breaking bug: If you jump and search a trashcan and then fall down, you're stuck in the animation without completing it and have to restart
GG
Thank you so much for playing! I ran out of time trying to make everything clear, and if I do a jam again, I'll submit something working way earlier so I can start getting feedback on what is clear to people and what isn't. Definitely going to put in a tutorial level that lets you try all the mechanics out without worrying about dying or losing progress, I'm not sure what you mean about the jump, what did you hate about it? What do you mean by more snappy? Thanks again
Oh it's wayyy too floaty and it's not really clear how high it is/how far you can jump. Compared to how instant you can start to hide, the jump has a really big startup. Might just be preference :)
The game reminded me a bit of those retro games where it doesn’t really tell you much. If the description of the itch page wasn’t there, I’d probably have been almost completely lost. With the description and a little experimenting and patience, I was able to find my way through.
The things that confused me the most were that there were instructions for how to attack on the itch page, but you don’t actually start with an attack. I found myself confusingly floundering and getting caught as a result, until I progressed far enough to realize the weapon to attack with was on sale. Beyond that, I would have expected downing the patrolling robots to give scrap, if not becoming the prime source of scrap yielding more than dumpsters on the roof of a destitute city every could. And of course, having to tip the shopkeeper to close the shop window seemed a little silly.
There’s definitely room to freshen up the experience, but the controls felt solid (though might have a little bit of bloat with the added Enter key over just using the other two buttons for menu input). The animations flowed nicely, and the music fit the vibe. It was also nice to see the overhead indicators clearly show what could be interacted with as far as searching and hiding go.
Hey, thank you so much for playing! I ran out of time to scavenge from downed enemies, I absolutely plan on that being in the game, the items in the description are things that people have reported that I will do a better job of explaining in game when I can update it after judging. Everything you said is right, I will definitely apply all of your feedback into the next update. Thanks again!
Who is Tim? Why is he living in my house? Why do I need to pay Tim to unshackle me from the bindings of his store? I suppose 1 gold is a small price to pay for freedom...
The animations for the character sprites are smooth. Good job on that!
When completing the game there's a promise of a lot more dialogue, levels, enemies, upgrades, items, collectibles, and etc. I would heavily suggest focusing on your core gameplay (character movement, interaction, and combat) before moving on to adding more things into the game. You have a vision for what you want, but it's important to limit the size of your project to what your current game development abilities are. There are quite a few bugs and elements of gameplay that are unclear. There's nothing wrong with this; it happens to us all. However, you should focus on correcting these error before expanding your game. I think it would benefit you and improve your abilities a lot to work on what you have here until the bugs are gone and the gameplay is much more clear to the player.
On that last note, try to have someone unfamiliar with your game play through it in the future to see what parts of the gameplay they have trouble immediately understanding. This will be a good way to gauge which portions of your game need to give more guidance to the player so they know what to do.
I know this comment is quite critical, but it's not meant to be harsh. Creating things is tough so good on you for putting this out here!
Our games have a few similarities in the hiding mechanics :)
The hiding animation looks really cool, and i like the overall look and feel. i made it to the top of the first building but I wasn't sure how to progress after that. Maybe you can add some kind of signaling to help the player in the right direction. Really good job! keep making games!
Thank you for playing! You can jump from one building to another at any level of the building. Those boxes block the way so find a way around. Leave the level at any time by taking the skateboard at the bottom left. Maybe try it again and go for the ending and let me know what you think!
I love that you went with a stealth game, I was hoping to see a stealth game in the jam. Yours is wonderful, the hiding animation is so smooth and cute that it actually feels really satisfying to hide. If you animated that yourself, you should be really proud. The music fits the mood of the game perfectly, the character design is thoughtful and cool, and the level design is a great mix of challenging and enjoyable. Excellent job!
Thank you so much for playing and your compliments!
Neat little stealth game! This difficulty is a bit much, with flying robots instakills, especially in the early game, but that's fine. It really gave you that flee mentality and I guess that makes the game more immersive then anything.
A nitpick that searching is a bit slow, and cannot be interrupted, making that a death sentence if you started searching when a flying robot entered from the side of the screen. Not sure if adding interrupt is a good idea though. Also, I somehow got softlocked in the shop where I cannot buy anything or leave the shop menu, my whole progress was gone because of that and I was a bit sad.
But anyway, you did a nice job here!
Thanks for playing! If you let go of up when you're searching the dumpster it stops in the middle, not sure what you mean. Could you let me know what the situation was when you were locked in the shop? like how many scrap/gold you had? I tried to anticipate all of the situations where you'd be trapped in the shop. Please let me know
art, animation and theming are all really cool, actually a pretty difficult game , I think fewer enemies and progressively adding more would help the difficulty curve
Thanks for playing! Definitely going to make things easier when I have more than 1 level. I thought it would be a nice challenge considering you don't have to get every dumpster to leave
I like the animations of the player character a lot. At first I didn’t get that you were supposed to jump from balcony to balcony, and those are very tight jumps in my opinion.
I wish there was more motivation for actually attacking enemies. Maybe if they dropped scrap or something, the weapon would be a better investment.
After getting the weapon, I played 2 more days, but after that, I was 2-3 gold short of leaving the city, so I had to play a whole another day to beat the game. I understand the randomness of scrap and the feeling of helplessness might be integral to your vision, but going through the same game loops I have already been through with nothing new didn’t feel great.
ALSO it was practically impossible to ever hit the enemies on floors 1 and 2. I was only able to attack enemies on ground floor and the rooftops.
Thank you so much for playing and providing feedback! I ran out of time, but I did want the player to be able to salvage scrap from enemies! I will definitely update that as soon as the judging is over. I plan on making it more clear where to go and what to do, I just had time to make a level that had the core mechanics in it, I plan on actually doing level design when I update it. Thanks again!
holy shit that's intense xD
i really like the concept and the implementation of the theme, very original, also the main menu is sick and the character waving hair :O
you should keep working on this, well done!
Definitely going to keep going on this, I plan on doing a whole story, more levels, like districts around a world map, helping people, missions, achievements, different weapons, more enemies, etc. Thank you so much for playing
this game has a very unique style and cool arcade vibes. I enjoyed avoiding the robots, but it is a bit unclear what I do with the materials from the dumpsters. I also couldn't figure out if there was anywhere to go, or am I just to stay alive and collect materials?
Either way, the experience was fun, if a little unclear :D Good work!
Hi, I put it in the description under tips, but you go home from the bottom left of the level with your scrap and turn the scrap into gold and buy stuff, like a weapon to fight the robots! Maybe try it again, and leave the level at the bottom left when you gather some scrap and keep going to get to the end! Thanks!
Damn it's hard :D
I like the art style but element that are interactable (ladders etc.) need to stand out a little bit more :)
Overall I like it and feels retro ;) Good job.
Thanks for playing, yea, I do need to make things easier to see, thanks for the feedback
Its a cool game! Very retro vibes and the hiding is an interesting mechanic. Keep up the good work!
Thanks! I plan on expanding it a lot after the judging
Really cool! Although I think the sprites need a bit more shading, the animations were really good and really brought the player to life, like the hiding and dumpster diving. I bugged out a lot during the parkour though and some of the movement felt clunky. But the game atmosphere is definitely there and you have a solid product to keep working on!
Thanks for playing, I have a lot to fix after the judging but I appreciate the feedback