Play game
portal critters's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Gameplay | #3 | 3.333 | 3.333 |
| Story | #4 | 2.667 | 2.667 |
| Overall | #4 | 2.800 | 2.800 |
| Audio | #5 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Visuals | #6 | 2.667 | 2.667 |
| Characters | #7 | 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.
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Comments
This is a tactical RPG created using RPGMaker MZ and a plugin that converts the standard turn-based RPGMaker battles into something more like Fire Emblem, but looking at the game summary it was originally started in Godot and then the RPGMaker entry was created right before the deadline after the original Godot project got corrupted. Given that context, it's a pretty solid salvage attempt and I'd love to see what can be done using the entire jam duration.
Understandably the game content and balance feel unfinished, but I appreciated that the sample mission had a clearly defined objective and a simple narrative about holding out against continuous enemy reinforcements until help arrives from friendly airstrikes. During my first playthrough I treated it as an ordinary 'exterminate everything' kind of mission and got frustrated, but the second time I played defensively and it worked out surprisingly well.
Issues with project file corruption can be prevented by using a source control system such as Git. Even if you're working on something solo, source control will at least provide backups and allow you to easily roll back any new changes that introduce too many bugs. I always use source control even on solo jams because I develop on both a laptop and a desktop and have to frequently switch between the two.
For pulling this together in a couple of days, it's very solid. I appreciate that you went for something closer to Fire Emblem than Pokemon for this, it really makes the project stick out. I would be intrigued to see more of FE-type monster collector. I hope you work on this more!
Thanks and I definitely will, tatical monster collector is an idea that I have been holding for a while, and even if portal critters doesn't go very far, I have tons of concept art and some small tests for 3 other games of that nature but I'm making them alone while I also work on game jams and study for college (I'm doing computer sciences), they are : DWG (about a crazy scientist and wepons dealer that makes dinosaurs to rescue his brother from another dimension because of an experiment gone wrong), beasts of gaia (about a world tour in a world where a meteor with strange properties mutated the animals turning them into monstrous forms of themselves, this one has creatures based on fauna, flora and culture in every continent and galapagos and Hawaii because those arquipelagos are cool) and lof (take the tatical and monster collector idea and mix with don't starve and monster hunter and give literal 50kg of sketchbooks of lore, it's the most ambitious of the bunch), also I encourage ya to try giving a shot to the idea, adding the movement really complements the capture systems, moves and usefulness of the troops, you will be amazed on the things you can and can't "import" from other games like pokemon, fire emblem and jwa, and all that without sacrificing strategic complexity what is the usual reason that people play thease games (as far as I remember everyone that purposes real time combat on pokemon cites the anime, I am not oposed to real time sinse I get is that is more imersive and all of that but I can't play some of them because of the mechanical skill entry bar, strategy games allow me to be challenged despite lacking the time and genetics to time everything right, I can just use my brain and be happy with myself or with my brother of the clever tricks I pull, flutter mane with clam mind + subtitute on pokemon showdown lol ), it's fun to play and to make, if you like the idea and try yourself pls contact me because I will be more than happy to give it a shot (I'm making them because is something that I really want to play but can't find a complete one to play or make my ideas with the time I have), have a exceptional day :b
I can definitely see the Duct tape with this one, but at the very least it is playable. I do enjoy some tactics gameplay and from what I played everything seems to work pretty well, even with the over the top enemy stats. Besides that though, I think the overall aesthetics needs a bit of work, it's fine for right now, but some of the UI gets in the way of the action when there are controllable critters by the bottom of the screen.
Good job so far.
thanks