Play maji
Māji's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Playability | #244 | 4.333 | 4.333 |
| Artistic Style | #321 | 4.667 | 4.667 |
| Theme | #1248 | 2.667 | 2.667 |
| Cleverness | #1466 | 2.333 | 2.333 |
Ranked from 3 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Judge feedback
Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.
- The music was fun to listen to, definitely want more of that. And I appreciate being able to adjust my audio settings. The art...where do I even begin? One word: fantastic! The style of the character art, the environment, the items, the animation, all done so well. I found no issues playing either; controls were straightforward. And as for the implementation of the themes, I'd have to say that I found the interpretation to be more creative by ways of the gameplay, more than the narrative and game's description. Crafting potions by way of puzzle is a nice concept, so I understood where alchemy fit in, but the shadow aspect wasn't something I grasped while playing. So I'm curious if there will be some way this could be expanded upon for the game. Overall, I had a more positive experience playing, and will play more. Keep up the good work!
- Art/aesthetic was rock solid, loved the music. It definitely fulfilled a "chill" vibe. No issues in playing the game, ran well. Good job! Two critiques, you addressed Alchemy but I am not seeing any sense of Shadow within the design. Second, it's a very simple game mechanic that has been a wildly popular mobile puzzle game for years. Good implementation, but nothing terribly new there.
- Hell yeah! I love 2048 - why hasn't anyone thought to put wizards in it before? Your game plays well and has a good level of polish. I really like the chill vibe and how progression is shown through the pillars. I would however like to see some gameplay which is unique to this game - add some extra spice to the machincs, shake up the format, experiment! With this solid foundation I'm sure there are lots of ways you could introduce new gameplay. I did not see any direct implementation of the shadow theme in this game. I also would disagree with the choice to have multiple tiers of tiles be the same colour. I would perhaps have gone with an alchemical direction and combined different coloured objects which are easily distinguishable. The art and animations are awesome. I'd love to see where you take this game next!
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!
Māji is a tile-based puzzle game about merging potions together to craft the ultimate potion in order to unlock the four magical obelisks and escape prison. Strategically merge potions, manage your resources and space in order to survive.
Story
Māji was a wizard imprisoned in a dungeon by a malevolent entity. He knew his only path to freedom lay in his mastery of alchemy. The dungeon's four powerful obelisks, each bound by dark enchantments, could only be unlocked by crafting the ultimate potion. With limited resources, Māji began merging potions scattered around his cell, creating ever more powerful concoctions. Each successful merge lit up the dungeon, pushing back the shadows and unraveling the entity's hold on the obelisks.
Controls
-Keyboard
Arrow keys / WASD: movement on the grid & menus.
Space: Accept
Escape : Back, pause menu
- Mouse
Interacting with potions and menu elements.
- Gamepad
Left stick: menus, movement on the grid.
A: Accept
B: Back
Start: Pause menu
Extra Notes
- I wanted to implement a simple idea.
My last game jam dated from 4 years ago. I was rusty.
- I approached this game jam as if I only have 4 days (hence the simple idea)
I didn’t really have 12 days. I work full time during the week. I rushed during the weekends.
- I wanted to try out the latest version of Game Maker Studio 2.3.
I have always used the legacy version of Game Maker 1.9. The principal reason behind this, is that most of my big games have been created with GM 1.9 & to migrate them to 2.3 requires a huge amount of work. So I never took the time to explore the new functionalities of the new GM version.
At the end of the day, it was a very fun game jam. I had a blast.
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Comments
This was so much fun! I love 2048 so this definitely was my cup of tea.
The art and story was great, I love the setup. I think the text was a bit slow at the start but other than that, it was great! I got to the second orange potion but couldn't get past that. I love the music and vibes, very relaxing environment and sounds.
Overall, a great game! Great job!! :)
Thank you for playing & enjoying the game.
It means a lot. <3
I'll release a new version later today improving the text speed & a few other post-jam polish.
THERE IS A REASON I HAD TO QUIT PLAYING 2048 COLD TURKEY
seriously this game is addicting and frustrating and wonderful
well done!
Looks like I've unintentionally reignited an addiction! 😅
Thank you for playing! 😊
that was fun, playing it for a bit it felt somewhat familiar looking at the comments, ah it was 2048
Thank you for playing. :)
I tried to combine the good feels of: Triple town, 2048, Merged & Taiji. These were my inspirations.
Having a blast playing this since yesterday just to relax ^^
This is amazing! :o
I tried to play through legit without debug mode. Almost succeeded a few times, but never completely yet.
One of the first player I see successfully escape.
Well played. :)
This game is so chill. The music and the way that the tiles move around is almost meditative. And difficult too! I was close but couldn't free the wizard.
Thank you for playing.
Keep trying and you'll get it eventually. :)
That was so good! Bravo on the theme implementation. I was so close!!!! Music was fantastic and it really was easy to play. I would say that the liquid jars between the 2nd and 3rd implementation were very close in resemblance maybe a slightly different jar shape would help those two stand out better against each other. But that is really if I am nitpicking something. Great game!
Yes, the potions being visually similar between medium and large are challenging for some players.
But when I got that feedback I was too deep in the process already. Time allocation for potions gfx had already been all used.
Thank you for playing. Hope you had fun. :)
Charming 2048 inspired game with very nice visuals, calming music and popping sound effects!
The issues I have with this game are clarity, slow responsiveness/optimisation and the theme of shadow not being apparent:
- There's not significant differentiation between the tiles. The color difference between the types of potions is good, but within the same potion type, the shape is the only differentiator and that's not easy to see at once glance
- The game is running at 30 FPS. Perhaps it's the browser version makes it impossible to do so but it would be nice if the game could run at 60 FPS because this kind of game heavily relies on the feel you have seeing sliding tiles, and if the sliding looks choppy, it just takes away from the experience.
- Carrying from previous point, I am getting the following error trying to run the exe so I can't test the fps in that version
- The theme of shadow is not apparent in the game at all and seems to just be tacked on to the story
Thank you for playing & for the review. :)
I had a few feedback about the potions looking alike.
Initially, I developped the game for fullscreen experience only. The differences are more obvious in fullscreen.
But I had some fullscreen issues with the game maker html5 export. I kept fullscreen available only for Windows.
I intentionnaly capped the browser version to run at 30 fps, because the browser performance was poor on lower end computers.
The Windows version comes with shaders enabled by default & handles quite easily a 60 fps experience with any basic graphic cards.
Unlucky that you encountered that recursion issue. I cannot replicate on 3 different systems though. :/
I'll try setting a fixed depth on the menus once the voting ends, see if it fixes the issue.
The theme of shadow is mainly tacked onto the story / purpose.
The player is imprisoned in a dungeon by an evil entity. The shadow theme is embodied by this malevolent force as the player seeks freedom through the power of alchemy. The player's imprisonment is a direct result of this entity's quest for ultimate power. It seeks to harness the energy of the obelisks, which are bound by the shadows, and only the most potent potions can unlock them. The player's quest to merge potions and activate the obelisks is a fight against the entity's evil control.
From my understanding, there were no requirements to have the themes present only as a game mechanics as we can see in most entries.
Nice take on the 2048 genre !
Thanks for playing. :)
i really like this one. Addicting Gameplay and very polished. I also somehow like the Name of the Game very much. You can tell that its about „Magic“ and it Sounds a Bit otherworldly. :)
Well done!
Thank you for the kind words.
I got lucky during my name ideation session & found out that "merged" in japanese was māji (which also sounds like magic).
It was also fitting with the overall atmosphere I wanted to convey.
wow, this game got me from the start. it starts and it's inmediately clear what it's about, and the 2048 mechanic of moving everything from edge to edge feels a lot like shaking a potion, combined with the sound effects, it's instantly engaging. I loved it!
Thank you for playing the game.
Glad you enjoyed it. <3
Great design. Love the visuals and music, it's a very chill game. And I defo did get the 2048 inspiration - the other games you mentioned I'm not familiar with. I can see this being a really cool game to play on the phone, actually, just like 2048! The only thing that takes getting used to is to recognise the order in which the potions progress from least to greatest (which in 2048 is conveniently done by the number itself, haha). Great job and I hope you release this!
Thank you for playing.
The ambience and relaxing experience was defenitely what I tried to focus on in this game.
I played taiji recently (highly recommended) & in this game they did this so well, it was helping with the immersive aspect so much...
I wanted to try and replicate it.
Loved the music. Neat game and a cool concept! Can't see myself ever getting to the orange obeslisk, nevermind the other 2! It was so clean and polished, I don't really have any feedback, other than it would have been nice if the intro text was either faster or skippable.
Aegis 🛡
Thank you for playing & I appreciate the feedback.
Yes, the text at the beginning was added in the last few hours.
I made a mistake in my variables & the fast functionality is set to be as fast as the standard text speed. :)
Cool take on 2048! Love the visuals and that "pop" sound is very satisfying.
Only complaint is that intro text was painfully slow xD
Great to hear that you got back into making games after 4 years, keep it up! I also got back recently after 5 years
Thank you for playing & the kind words.
Yes, when pressing Space / A, it's supposed to make the text go faster.
But I believe I've kept the same values by mistake for standard & fast text output.
Puzzle games aren't generally my thing, but this one was really engrossing and I lost track of how many times I tried to beat it. Good job!
Thank you. That means a lot, even more coming from someone disliking puzzles. :P
Super cool and engaging puzzle game! I love the art too. It's simple and fun, good job! :)
Thank you for testing my game out. Appreciated. :)
Interesting "2048" concept implementation into the game jam theme. The art is nice and music make the gameplay relaxing. Good job :)
Thank you for playing. :)
Yes, this was 100% the intent.
I tried to combine together the feels of: Triple town, 2048, Merged & Taiji.
The graphics are actually too clean!!!!!
Thank you. ^_^
Like the game, I miss a score counter. I like how you themed 2048 to feel like different game.
Thank you for playing. :)
Yes, this was the intent.
I tried to combine together the feels of: Triple town, 2048, Merged & Taiji. These were my inspirations.
Your game "Penguin Kitchen" looks amazing. I'll check it out.
Really cool game! Very relaxing and good art! and SFX!
Thank you very much. I'll go check your game out. :)