Play Visual Novel
Tight-Knit Heist's itch.io pageResults
Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
Writing | #6 | 3.536 | 3.750 |
Mechanics | #8 | 2.828 | 3.000 |
Overall | #13 | 2.593 | 2.750 |
Visuals | #14 | 2.828 | 3.000 |
Audio | #16 | 1.179 | 1.250 |
Ranked from 9 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.
- There's a lot to like in this stand-out entry! First and foremost, this was a great take on the theme. Building the story around escaping a tight-knit crime family was a great premise! Having our heroes magically bound together just added a second layer of thematic synergy. I really loved the art style on this, and the world it evoked. The writing was good, and the story it took me on was engaging and rewarding. The characters were also cool! Mechanically, this felt very thin on opportunities for players to feel involved in shaping or directing the story. Checking out objects in the store room and drawer was cool, but I'd have loved more agency in what I did with the things I collected. (Would have loved to see the Rubber Ducks being something useful, rather than just a wrong choice). Some great use of the RenPy engine, and I hope to see you making more adventures in this style in the future!
- Nice use of movement in the characters and scavenging tools along the way worked as a prototype. Storywise there was too much focus on the escaping, which began to feel repetitive and I think meant there wasn't time to bring the story to a satisfying conclusion.
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Comments
Love the narrative style and the art was an immediate hook. My attention is just short, so I stopped after about 30 mins, but it deserves development.
Very Dnd, I love it!
Excellent narrative, I just wish there was a little more polish to the visual details, and some audio as well. This is unfortunately also very light on mechanics, but that goes with visual novel type projects.
You must run a dnd campaign! Got the feeling from the way it was written.
I really enjoyed the writing. There were moments that made me chuckle like "our favourite broom!" lol. I felt invested in the characters.
Not the hugest fan of the "you got caught, retry?" sequence. With these types of narratives, I expect all the dialogue to pan out. I.E. We got caught, how should we escape? Its ALOT more work because the branching narrative becomes exponential, but it pays off. (Not expecting it for a jam)
Giving the player meaningful choice makes them feel like they have agency. I liked being able to screw up, I just wished it panned out. Making the players decisions have consequences (that pan out) is its own sense of progression and "reward"
In general the characters movements and expressions were really nice.
Like Kaeyara standing on the chair in the beginning. Those small details have payed off, good job.
The string at the top, I thought it was some kind of health bar? and confused me right until the end. Glad you explained it though.
WHAT WAS IN THE SCROLL THOUGH?!!