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(+1)

I like the core idea of this game and the initial set up is promising, but it's maybe a bit too ambitious for a game jam. 

The idea of collecting memories to remember yourself seems cool, especially when you realise you need to find them in some dark desert kind of place. Collecting them is easy enough, but unfortunately there's no real challenge or narrative to go with it; I expected some kind of flashback or text or something to say "hey, this is who you are", as the premise seems like a potentially strong narrative.

The challenge should come from avoiding the spider monster, but unfortunately it's both too hard and too easy. I say both because if you're in the vicinity of the spider then it tracks you too quickly and it's difficult to escape from, but if you're not near it then you just never see it and it doesn't matter. There's also no real fear of being caught by it after a while; it caught up to me a couple of times but nothing happened, so I just didn't look around for it. It's kind of a shame because I really like the design of the spider and how it looks in the game -  the glowing lights are a great idea!

Overall I think this was a good start, but it doesn't really seem to tie in to the narrative in a strong way. I feel like if the world were smaller and less empty it would help improve the sense of dread at the glowing spider, especially as initially the atmosphere feels quite unnerving. Well done for submitting!

Deleted 3 years ago
(+1)

Don't put yourself down just because you didn't deliver entirely on what you wanted; being able to design, create and submit a game in such a short time is a huge achievement. If it was easy, everyone would do it! Feedback-wise, there weren't a lot of people involved in this jam to begin with, so the amount of feedback was always going to be low (especially when many people will rate but not comment). I do understand your frustration though, it sucks when you put a lot of effort into something and it doesn't seem to be seen. 

Hopefully I'm not stepping out of bounds here for advice, but on a more general game jam note I recommend taking one of two approaches when you're thinking of the game to make. You can either keep the scope small and make as polished a game as possible, or be a bit more ambitious and make a game akin to a prototype. The best games for jams I've seen are usually one of those two types, or if they're larger and polished it tends to be because there's a bigger team (or using preexisting assets/workflows). It sounds like you maybe fall on the more inexperienced side (at least with the tools you were using), so I'd recommend next time going with a smaller scope in order to get used to the time frame and different skills required. Then you can build to bigger and better things :)

For this submission, I definitely think you should properly plan it, flesh it out, and finish it! You don't have to add a tonne of things, but I think you have some neat ideas here that would make for a great short game. At the very least you'll become more used to the engine, ready for the next game jam!

Thanks. These were really helpful.