| 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 is anonymous and shown in a random order.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. :)
Thank you for playing. :)
Yes, this was 100% the intent.
I tried to combine together the feels of: Triple town, 2048, Merged & Taiji.
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.
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