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Esoterica's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Sound Design | #19 | 3.880 | 3.880 |
| Horror | #65 | 3.360 | 3.360 |
| Aesthetics | #77 | 3.920 | 3.920 |
| Story | #96 | 3.120 | 3.120 |
| Enjoyment (Best Game) | #159 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
Ranked from 25 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
This is so *deliciously* crunchy, the dithering filter effect really sells the creep - and makes screenshots look extra nice and dirty at a smaller resolution. I simply must ask, did you make the shader for the jam or is it an asset (that I could find maybe in the godot shaders library)?
Hey Dreamseed!
Glad you like it!! I didn't make it for the Jam, but did do a little bit of modification to the shader to actually get it working on godot 4.1 and then also just to get it dialed in. You can find the shader here:
https://godotshaders.com/shader/ps1-post-processing/
This was also a great resource for other shaders I messed around with but didn't end up using:
https://github.com/MenacingMecha/godot-psx-style-demo
What I used was a bit of the PSX-lit from the github link on models in the game and then post-processing with the first link to get the dithering :)
Oh cheers for such an extensive reply! This is all very helpful; shaders are a completely foreign language to me still so I'm just in openmouthed awe at folks who're able to make things like shadertoy work for them, so this is super kind of you.
Thanks again, and keep makin' them little games!
Very good game in terms of atmosphere and theme! From my point of view you're going into the right direction, a little bit more help with the player's onboarding and maybe an interface on the radio and PC itself would be great helpers in the all around experience! Keep it up!
Hey NightmareFuel!
Thank you for trying out Esoterica in its current state! Also, totally agree with you :D There's a lot of work to do to actually get it in a place where I am comfortable calling this a 0.1.0 build, but I am definitely glad that I was at least able to get something out for the Jam.
If you are interested be sure to follow along and I will be posting the public Trello and a few other things so that people can follow along with development.
Thanks again for playing my broken little game!
very good game! the atmosphere and the sounds are very suitable!
Thanks for playing!
Definitely follow along with the development if you enjoyed this little broken demo of the game. I have a ton more plans for how to expand upon this game and will be posting often with devlogs, Trello and discord :)
Most of my comments are similar to others. Definitely need some more player direction at the beginning of the game. The visuals and mood are well suited for the atmosphere. The sound design is well done but hearing that same noise for every failed interaction reallllly lowers the atmosphere you've otherwise established. I think for improvements your focus should really be on teaching the player how to play, establishing the gameplay loop, and creating more responses from the game to let the player know they are interacting with it appropriately. Overall, its a very ambitious work and has a lot of positives, but the experience for me was fairly frustrating.
Hey Hankworx!
Totally agree with you! It is quite a frustrating experience without any of the player feedback. Will be my first priority once the Jam ends to get all of that implemented so there is actually an advanceable gameplay loop.
Also, totally agree on the sounds. It's the door locked sound which was just there because a lot of the code for interactables is reused. There are sounds already in-engine that just need to be linked up properly. Going to be one of the first things implemented once the jam is complete.
Aside from that, it will definitely get better. It was quite a lot to take on for a Jam, let alone my first Jam or game in general. More great things to come in the future :) just collecting all the feedback and filing it into a Trello board so I can sort my top priorities.
Thanks again for playing Esoterica in its current state!
Me and a colleague tried the game for several minutes, both didn't know what to do all the time, my colleague was terribly lost, we had to look up for the comments to have a hint on what to do and then even we couldn't advance. Then I played it myself discoverint that the left and right click buttons are being used for different actions on each obect but at least in the web version for the game I couldn't send more than one data to the server.
I would have liked to finish the game or at least know how it continues but I found it impossible and really frustrating, apart from this it has an outstanding aesthetic and a really good sound design!
Hey Golden Circle!
My apologies! Like prior commenters have said there is definitely a lot of work to be done in terms of player feedback. I have/had systems planned but just didn't have time to implement them -- bad time prioritization on my part.
I will double check the web version to make sure there isn't something wonky going on as well.
Thank you for at least trying the game and hopefully after the Jam I can get it all fixed up and actually in a playable state.
Okie dokie, just went back to double check things are working on the web version. They are, but this is just a case of my failure to give feedback to the player as to where they are in the radio frequency range. What I suspect is happening is that people are running into the same issue where it isn't clear that left and right click do different things (on the radio LMB is up, RMB is down) and then once they hit the top of the range and don't find any more frequencies they assume it's broken.
This is totally not you or anyone else's fault. This is a failure on my part since I didn't include the player feedback I had planned to include. Just stuff to fix once the jam is over and things to think about and prioritize in the future.
Thanks again for at least trying the game and giving your honest feedback! It is much appreciated.
Loved the overall atmosphere! I have onlye one note:
The game needs to teach better how to play it. It took some time untill I find out what i needed to do and how to do it.
But the sound, aesthetics and environment is perfect and made me fell really scary all the time. Keep developing it! I would love to play a full version of it. Great job!
Hey Bacchox!
Thanks for playing Esoterica! Totally agree with you. There is a lot missing just because I ran out of time or didn’t do a good job prioritizing in the development process. I have some plans to make the game much more straightforward and interactive, so going to pick that all up once the Jam is over!
That said, I am really glad you enjoyed the atmosphere, sound and aesthetics! Keep an eye out for more to come in the future!
Cheers!