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Free Again - RainbowJam17's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Use of Theme | #2 | 4.364 | 4.364 |
| Fun | #15 | 2.909 | 2.909 |
| Art | #20 | 2.909 | 2.909 |
| Audio | #27 | 2.273 | 2.273 |
| Use of Diversifiers | #28 | 1.818 | 1.818 |
Ranked from 11 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Individual or Team Game?
Individual
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Comments
Very unique and well made game! I included it in my compilation video series of all of the Rainbow Game Jam 2017 games, if you’d like to take a look :)
Took me a while to get to grips with this game, I think mainly because the players focus is divided between the play area and the bars to the right. It can be tricky to divide your attention without running into unwanted blocks as the snake style game play requires a high degree of concentration.
I liked how the ludonarrative put you in a position of deliberately avoiding unwanted gender/sexual expressions as hazards. For example, playing as a teenage boy, crashing into "attracted to men" sets you back as if it were a negative, and put the player in the mindset of the gender stereotype each challenge represents, with the text encouraging the player to adopt this mindset. However there is a risk that if the player does not take on that mindset, they could interpret this as a universal statement (ie. "you have to avoid the "attracted to men" because being gay is bad") rather than one in the mindset of the player character ("I'm a teenage boy who is afraid of being seen as gay").
I am also aware that many trans activists are critical of the "array of sliders" description of gender expression and identity and would be uncomfortable with the "biological male-ness/biological female-ness" type slider in particular. This is of course a risk inherent to making games about sensitive subjects ;)
The I found the visuals very clean and easy to read. Making the text bigger or framed might help draw the eye as they are key to understanding the game and I initially overlooked it.
I did not come across any bugs and I found levels quite varied and challenging. Well executed and an interesting concept, you may just need to be mindful of some of the pitfalls presented by the subject matter.
I liked your second paragraph. It's interesting.
And I like knowing that those are called "array of sliders description of gender expression and identity".
I agree that I need to make important texts prominent.
I like what you wrote.
I like your inputs on the subject matter.
As for the undivided attention that will make controlling the "snake/long cat" easier, I would like to jokingly argue that I like to keep players busy ;) but yeah, there must be a better design.
As for running into unwanted blocks, there is a secret way to play that can make it less likely to happen. You can eat one block at a time; in other words, you should avoid eating a sequence of blocks, so only one block will regenerate on the board, and you go on to eat that regenerated block; by doing this, you avoid too many blocks scattered everywhere on the board, so running into unwanted blocks will less likely to happen; however, it will be less efficient, because you will need to travel more to accumulate required blocks one by one.
And finally, thank you for playing and thinking carefully!
Loved the game and concept! Congratulations!
thank you for playing!