Oh my god, why does everything look so different after I played your game?! Crazy ;)
The atmosphere was wonderful and the game has a very nice System Shock 2 vibe. The hunt for the different endings was cool (I did ot find ending 4) and the graphics and especially the sound were great. But I have to nitpick that you have not implemnted the requirement: "The game must have combat or a similar mechanic for determining outcome of certain situations, enemy encounters and events."
But the game was really cool!
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Glad you enjoyed it ! Thanks for playing
As for combat or similar mechanic I would argue that the health system tied to the dialogue is our replacement for that. Could be debated as to whether it counts but it was certainly the reason for that element of gameplay. We took the "similar mechanic" to imply that it doesn't need to be explicit combat just some sort of conflict resolution, similar to the way disco Elysium doesn't have combat but there is conflict within encounters. It's up to the jam hosts to decide whether that counts or not :)
Well, you just take damage, when you click on the last option in the messages on the first computer. Or the door you have to pry open. There is no conflict resolution, you just receive damage. That satisfies the rule, that you have to have some kind of status. But anyway, the atmosphere is sooo thick!
I see what you're saying, but our thinking was that if you engage with these systems in different ways, you will get a different outcome. The core conflict is between the ship's AI and the entity and who "wins" that encounter is down to how the player engages in the dialogue system. The conflict isn't directly the threat of an enemy attacking you, but rather the question of who you side with in this cosmic horror situation. Which fate is least miserable? you resolve this with your actions and chosen paths.
It's a stretch I know but I'm glad we went with that route for the sake of atmosphere, adding a traditional combat system would be cool and we will consider it for future builds, but for this Jam requirement, we focused on narrative conflict. If that's too far of a reach for some people, so be it, had fun and learned a lot either way :)