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Silent Echoes's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall | #6 | 3.762 | 3.762 |
| Gameplay/Design | #7 | 3.619 | 3.619 |
| Enjoyment | #9 | 3.571 | 3.571 |
| Theme | #10 | 4.048 | 4.048 |
| Originality | #14 | 3.810 | 3.810 |
Ranked from 21 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your entry fit the theme?
The player character will use echoes of himself to solve puzzles. Rather than a repeating sound it is a repeating player.
What would you like feedback on?
Pretty much everything, this our first game jam
What assets did you use (if any)?
Font:
Dogica Font, Roberto Mocci, https://fontlibrary.org/en/font/dogica
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SFX:
"Ding 2", andersmmg, https://freesound.org/people/andersmmg/sounds/523425/
"Hit_02", LittleRobotSoundFactory, https://freesound.org/people/LittleRobotSoundFactory/sounds/270325/
"Coin Splash", KaysonArgyle, https://freesound.org/people/KaysonArgyle/sounds/547603/
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Music:
"Ludum Dare 38 - Track Two", Abstraction, https://soundcloud.com/abstraction/ludum-dare-38-track-two-game-loop-free-download?in=abstraction/sets/ludum-dare-challenge&si=94a0e2fb93224f4f8c97ba6bff0739cc&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
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Comments
The game was really good and fit the theme very well! I liked the factor that you only have limited time to complete the levels. However, the controlls are a bit clumsy, but you get used to it. All in all you did great work!
Thanks! It seems we are getting a lot of comments about how the controls are difficult to understand so we will have to consider that next time. Do you have any suggestions on what the controls should have been to make it easier to understand?
Really nice concept, a bit hard when your echoes are moving and what buttons do at start, and the timer often feels really tight, but the puzzles are nicely crafted, well done!
Yeah I tried to only give a few seconds more than necessary for the puzzle to be completed. I realized afterwards that I probably could have given the player more time though. I think I confused myself because originally the buttons were supposed to be levers and stay switched after you touched them, in that case the timer needs to be shorter so you need to use the echoes, but with the case of the buttons that need to be stood on I could have increased the timer since you need an echo to stand on it anyway
Aside from a few annoying bugs it's a pretty cool game. The most satisfying thing is, like others mentioned, getting all your hard work pay off a the end with all the echoes collaborating together. Of course the art and the UX could be improved but I particularly liked the guards approaching with the high pitched sfx and the exclamation point!
Thanks a lot! I was actually quite proud of the way the guard detection turned out looking and feeling
Oh man, I really liked this one. The controls felt difficult to wrangle at first, but by the third level, it started to feel natural to me.
I bet there's multiple ways to go about the later stages, which I think is a really cool aspect to this entry! Usually in game jam entries, the dev will implement a single ironclad solution on how to go about solving their puzzle, but this one felt more open ended, which is really good.
Thanks a lot! I tried to leave it kind of open ended and sometimes I'd do it without realizing too. Level 6 was one like that where I had an intended path but noticed afterwards that it could have been ignored. It was one of the consequences of having one of the "barriers" of the game, the guards, being by passable with an echo
By far one of the more unique games in this jam, and I found it to be super fun!
I've gotta instantly agree with angelkof15 about level 4, it was by far the best demonstration of the concepts for this game and it was super cool to see everything come together as you got past all the guards.
I also agree with the general consensus that there is some need for polishing in terms with loss and level reset, the most common glitch I ran into was pressing space too fast to create an echo after getting caught by a guard only for the guard to just slide across the map to get me, but this was solved by just pressing "F" to reset and then the guard went for the echo as it should, which brings me to my next point that I really appreciate the always available controls menu, this game has a lot of unique features so pressing "C" to see the controls was really nice and helped me a lot during my playthrough.
That being said I think concept-wise this one has gotta be one of my favorites. It was quick but complex in a fun way. I think with some general polishing of the loss and level reset mechanics and a couple more levels similar to level 4 this could be a really fun and unique product!
The controls need some polish because they can be confusing, but the game itself is pretty cool, good job, my friend. I think level 4 was the best of the bunch, I felt like a complete badass. I think if the main character were a ninja or a spy, it would look cooler.
well, i just think it couldve have an "Times up!" or something like that, and the movement idk if just for me but its delayed as heck, it looks like the player is literally rotating and not going instantly for the direction i go, and it has a bug when u die to guard and do echo, the guard floats to you after respawning and yeah very glitchy do nothing but floats to you. graphics yeah id say its good but it maybe could be better, but yeah if the game dindt had the bugs it would be very cool
Insanely well-polished, with more mechanics and more levels this could easily be a completed game.
I think more clarity could be given to the user in how they failed, I didn't even realise there was a time limit which was very confusing! Just a little "time's up" or something.
The concept is really cool but the controls are so confusing I just never know what I'm doing. Maybe with more feedback on whether we're recording the movements or not, or if we did reset the level or just came back to the start after creating an echo ?
Originally I intended to have more sound effects, currently there is a sound effect for when you run out of time (meaning the run was not recorded), and maybe I should have played the same sound when you reset all of or your current run. I also intended for one when you lock it in but I just couldn't find a good one and ended up forgetting about it.
Thanks so much for the feedback though, I probably do need to work on more intuitive controls in my games
Love this one! It was a bit hard to reorient myself after dying, but on the whole, what a ride!
Might just be me, but I love a good puzzle and I really liked how you had provided hints to the level early on by arranging the environmental assets in the form of the arrow etc.
On the constructive side - the game could do with a smoother experience when it comes to locking / while getting caught by a guard. A few bug fixes and the game would play beautifully!
The minor annoyances aside, I just loved how it fits into the theme and gives a unique gameplay with well designed levels. Good stuff!
Do check out our game Reverb - We'd love to know what you think! https://itch.io/jam/pjp-game-jam-2023-1/rate/2079583
I appreciate that you noticed the arrows with the boxes, I tried to design level 1 to specifically be as easy as possible to explain the echo mechanic without having to include a tutorial, then with level 2 I tried to design it so that you need to figure out you can distract guard with you echoes which hopefully teaches all the mechanics. Thanks for the feedback!
I struggled a bit with this game, I would randomly die and respawn not really sure why. I did notice the trick to dealing with guards but everytime i got caught my echo didn't follow my path when I reset.
I do think this game has a lot of promise! it had a cool theme behind it, I love the puzzle aspect of the game. And for your first game jam this was a lot of work and done well. I know it can be difficult to have it running smoothly without bugs in such a short time span, so really you guys did well.
If you were unexpectedly dying it was likely the timer in the top right, each instance of your player has a set amount of time they can exist, which prevents you from being able to do it all by yourself and forces you to use the echoes to your advantage.
I apologize if that wasn't clear, and thanks for the feedback!
Wow, HOLLLLY did I have an amazing time with this game! Despite being short, it packs an incredible amount of fun! The music selection was spot-on in my opinion, and I really appreciate how well the theme was integrated into the core mechanics of the game. The puzzles were enjoyable and gave me a nostalgic feel of the early Newgrounds flash era, which, as a fan of those games (probably because I grew up on them), made me love it even more!
If I were to be a bit nitpicky, I did encounter a slight annoyance when locking on (via spacebar) while getting caught. The echo would still move, but the guard would head straight toward my current position. It happened a few times and interrupted the flow a bit. However, despite these minor hiccups, the overall experience was simply amazing!
I must say bravo for creating such a fun concept with engaging gameplay that perfectly captures the theme. There were only a few minor bugs here and there, but they didn't overshadow the enjoyment overall! just great job guys!
Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad you liked it. To be clear with the guards, it isn't specified to the player but once they catch either you or an echo they wont be able to catch anyone else. I considered turning off their flashlight to try and communicate this to the player but couldn't decide whether I liked that or not and landed on turning off the flashlight once the guard overlaps the player.
Also, do you remember what the bugs you found were? I know the movement can be a bit finnicky around corners and the enemy flashlights can look weird when the enemies are a little too close together like in level 5, but if there was anything else you noticed please feel free to mention it so that hopefully we can avoid it in the future.
thanks for the response!
ahh okay yeah that makes some sense, ok there thanks for that clarification, I think cause its late my brain is also a bit melted haha
uhhh as for bugs I think what you said is the ones I can think of, I do have one, though it may just be on my end?
I cant download the game, I tried both the browser and client version of itch but either way this error comes up to me
so I was only able to play via the browser version, hopefully its just something on my end but yeah just though to let you know since I did forget to mention in the og review ^^