I was surprised by the amount of content you were able to achieve in the space of the jam, great work! The visual design is cohesive and fun, the arcade style and simple "mouse over to kill" mechanic worked well, the power-ups from killing enemies is a nice addition, and I do really like the implementation of the map as something you're visually progressing along between each level. I agree with William that it'd benefit hugely from more variation, as currently it feels like there's far too many levels that are more of the same, but given what is present in this version it's understandable. If you do keep tinkering at it, I'd love to see the things like: new weapons to unlock as you go; more enemy types introduced at a quicker pace; more variations in level design, maybe including tiles with certain effects; maybe the maps could be slightly larger and the spawn points could be the size of the largest thing they spawn (I accidentally kicked ghosts in the face a lot as I ran above them).
adamdjames
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Good work on the jam! I like the concept of a Punjabi father being motivated by his own nostalgia for the now-lost animals he grew up hearing to turn his farm into an oasis, and the bit I was able to play set this up very well. The book of species is a nice touch to guide the player's farm while linking it to real life information and practices. Unfortunately, I couldn't progress past the introduction as I couldn't get any of the farming mechanics working, but I would be interested in seeing more and I think you may be wrong about it only being enjoyable in the setting of the jam—farming sims like Stardew Valley are incredibly popular, and you've chosen a more unique setting than most.
Sorry to hear the development was a bit of a nightmare and came at an inopportune time for you personally; I do think you should be proud of what you've managed to submit despite that. Hopefully despite the stress you found it creatively fulfilling!
Archeocook is a great neologism and a really interesting concept, and I think you've done a great job executing it as a simple and relaxing narrative experience! I was excited to play this after reading your artistic statement, as I sympathise greatly with your frustration at the narrowness of the "apocalypse" genre, it's oft un-noticed western parochialism, and the disappointing inability to imagine a world outside of the confines of capitalism. I think your resulting effort to focus on the mundane lives of people rebuilding their (non-temperate!) world really pays off and helps to bring some of these themes to life.
As it currently stands, I agree that you have a solid worldbuilding base moulded into a polished short story, which is releasable as such as is. I do hope, though, that you keep tinkering away, as I'd love to play a longer version with some simple puzzle/card mechanics like you suggest in your release plan. Also, I love Le Guin, and myself and my partner for this jam both loved Pentiment, so I think your influences are very well chosen!
I really love the direction you went in here, and it's really impressive what you've managed to achieve! You've made a lot of really smart choices with the visual and sound design, and it comes together into a really cohesive and atmospheric whole. The 2d characters on 3d backgrounds works really well, the sounds effects as you run around collecting wood are fun, the music and the pipe noises are the perfect type of creepy, the dialogue manages to pack a strong storytelling punch in a fairly small word-count (and I really liked how game control prompts were "disguised" in text), and the simple mechanics of managing your body and fire heat give purpose while setting the scene. I agree with you that the current version is already a polished and releasable product (more than a "minimum viable" one in my estimation), but would love to see the additions you've suggested and then a price tag on it.
In terms of your itchio page, your trailer and promo images capture the vibe of the game very well—and as a consumer, if I stumbled across the them on steam I would be inclined to buy the game!—so it'd be great to see a banner and background added to reinforce the overall visuals.
In case it'd be useful, here are the bugs I encountered while playing.
- I accidentally clicked on Kat a few times after talking to her for the first time, and the game stopped letting me interact with anything or move, and I had to reboot it
- Upon reloading it wouldn't let me select any dialogue options with Red-Eye and I couldn't back out of the dialogue, so I had to reload again
- On reloading this time, it displayed Red-Eye's name as "NPC" for a few bits of his dialogue
- The game crashed just after the credits, so I'm not sure if we find out what's in the pipe
Glad you found the bibliography intriguing! I got my degree specialising in environmental history and then trained and (briefly!) worked as a history teacher, so I can't resist the urge to share texts with people. If you are interested in the politics of climate justice, I can also send you an epub version of Dunlap's book so you can read the chapter which our game is based on!
Unfortunately I don't have a digital copy of Dismantling Green Colonialism, which is a drier but more stark look at how large infrastructure projects (including renewable energy projects) are foisted on impoverished communities as a tool of domination and control (e.g. the EU using them as a tool of it's neo-colonial economic domination of Africa and the Middle East, while Morocco uses wind farms specifically to deny statehood to the Western Saharan peoples which it occupies), and that those with the biggest stakes in renewable projects are typically petro-chemical companies diversifying their portfolios to fund further unsustainable extraction.
I'll avoid lecturing any further, but thanks again for your interest in our game and our themes!
Wow! Another wow! Skyglow is an absolutely amazing little game, and you should all be incredibly proud of what you've achieved! Picking a more niche topic was a great choice that makes the game stand out and the message more impactful, and the way you've handled it is so great—focusing on three animals affected; having a journal with more information, practical solutions, and case studies; placing collected stars onto a map. The main platforming gameplay is a cute way to connect all these elements (Thalia is beautifully sculpted and her animations are all adorable!) and surprisingly fleshed out. I was already impressed when I was jumping around at the start, and then I found out I could run, and then that I could climb! Seriously impressive in the timeframe of the jam.
Visuals! Huge pats on the back for everyone involved with this. All of the character models are gorgeous and full of character and I personally love the 3D characters and platforms against 2D backgrounds (which are also excellently done). All the other artistic choices complete the overall aesthetic, from the different interfaces down to the font. The sound design also compliments it, and I really love the sound effects for talking to the other characters. It'd be great to see you update the itchio page to have more of this; the background is really lovely, but a custom banner and some promo images and a video would really elevate it. If you do a full release, getting permission from itchio to change the page css would be a great idea.
Overall I'm impressed with how well-developed it already is (especially with the issues you mention of a last-minute camera angle change and github issues almost causing deletion!), and I really hope you do make the polishing touches! In an effort to help, here's the potential areas for bugfixing that I spotted while playing:
- You warn of lag in the disclaimer. The main lag spikes for me were upon first entering the observatory, and then every time I stood on a daisy specifically
- I fell down a gap to the right of Motholemew, and when I approached the base of the lantern while looking for a way up, it displayed "press e to interact", event though I'd already collected the (purple) star from it. This reset my spawn to the bottom of this gap, so I had to restart (this was before the prompt about climbing, but I'm not sure the objects either side of the gap were climbable anyway)
- Some buttons need their borders remapping: when placing the collected stars on the star map for the first time, one star was too close to the "close" button and thus trying to move it just closed the page, while clicking the top half of the notebook opens the menu instead of the notebook. Also, the back button of the notepad didn't work
- Check places where dialogue is four lines long and try and split it to fit in the text boxes better; places I noticed this are Shellie's second line of dialogue and as Thalia is talking to the mayor
- Stars seem to be able to snap onto constellation points that are already occupied by another star, making both of them unclickable
- The first time I played through it didn't go back to the start menu after the credits
I don't think any of these bugs I experienced detracts from your achievement, and while I'm not finished playing through everything, I suspect this will remain one of my favourites of the jam!
EDIT: I've been told to add a sentence specifically praising the climbing animation for being the cutest, and being very fun to do while running around.
The level on control over the boat (not much!) helps to make the main mechanic a bit more fun/comical, and I think there's a similar inherent humour in how the rubbish and animals work which helps to make the level of polish feel like an intentional choice. I think there is a decent foundation here.
Scope creep is a really difficult issue that can be hard to tackle, and I'm sympathetic to the pain of cutting aspects that you were really looking forward to! Your initial ideas were really interesting, but given your stated limitations I think you made the right call to cut what you did and focus on the main mechanic. Your release plan sounds like a good way to tackle adding them back in to reach your release state. Good luck!
That being said, the rough edges are very noticeable, particularly when design elements are dropped and you're shown default fonts and particle effects. There's some really nice pieces of art in game, such as the level select screen and the little steering wheel at the bottom of the game. However, I feel the need to ask, are 2 or 3 of the promo images (including the title screen) AI art? There's a confusing amount of distortion in them and the style isn't used again throughout the game. If so, I think this is a huge shame that detracts from your hard work - AI tools are immensely wasteful from an environmental perspective as well as ethically dubious. Hopefully if it is AI you'll consider replacing these with some great art from your artists, who did a great job in the other areas praised above (if that was them).
Thanks for taking the time to play, and your kind words!
We've working on a fix for the bug you've found now (commiserations to your playthrough, but thanks for finding it!). There's a few other bugfixes we're also going to roll out as soon as the ratings are over, and also a big story expansion, so hopefully we'll be at a more releasable point soon :)
Wow! Thanks so much for taking the time to play, and for writing such a great review! It's very well written, and captures the themes we wanted to wrestle with so lucidly.
Post-jam we're going to add in the planned parts that we cut out due to time constraints, fleshing out the themes and polishing the mechanics (including having the narrative respond to how you complete tasks and answer prompts). Hopefully this will solve the issue you identified of certain mechanics not yet being fleshed out!
In terms of theme, I'd add that our imagery of the hydra, and focus on seeing it's writhing, multi-headed machinations, comes from reading the work of the Zapatistas of Chiapas, who this year celebrated 30 years of fighting for a better world for their community—specifically their 2015 seminar series "Critical Thought in the Face of the Capitalist Hydra", the discussions and responses of which can be viewed freely online at Radio Zapatista.
Thanks again! It's our first collaboration and the first time either of us has done a jam, so it's a bit mindblowing to see our work in a review!
Thanks for taking the time to play! That's some incredibly kind feedback, and I'm so happy you found it enjoyable and polished (we were bug-fixing right before submitting!). This version is just Q1, with our initial plan containing Q1-4 - we've had to cut one of these out to meet the final deadline, but will work on adding it in after the deadline. That is to say, hopefully you'll find that you've got what you wanted in the next submission!
Also, to return kind words in kind, I really like the look of Carbonbusters! The elements in your powerpoint look really promising; mechanics sounds interesting, I like the theme, car animation looks fun, the background music fits the vibe really well. Good luck in the final submission! 😊
Thanks for taking the time to play, and for the feedback! I agree, a controls menu (and simplifying the controls slightly) and a button prompt would be important features both from a polish perspective and an accessibility one. We've fallen a bit behind on implementing certain features like this because our development team is two people, only one of whom is a competent coder, but we'll keep tinkering with it post-jam.
Thanks for taking the time to play it! I agree that it'd benefit from cleaner interfaces and a few explanations about how things work - we're trying to add a bit more of the protagonists inner monologue to accomplish this.
In terms of the companies economy, we've tried to do a bit of a bait and switch, where the protagonist expects to have an empowering role keeping a green project economically viable, but instead has to confront the reality of what the project is doing (and, hopefully, understand the processes that make that harm inevitable) while the project spins out of their control. Fundamentally, we don't want managing the finances to be a big part of the game mechanics because we don't want the player coming away thinking it could/should be possible to save the project. In the final game, we want player choices to be centred around feeling helpless within the company machinery while grappling with the info trickling in from on the ground, rather than from actually being empowered to manage the company. To create an arc where the player can "right" the course of the project, either balancing finances to turn a profit or pivoting spending to address the social wrongs of the company, would, in my view, be serving only to legitimise a false view of reality that excuses immense harm. Companies like this will never be concerned with climate justice, and are currently involved in land theft, neo-colonialism, and ethnic cleansing all around the world (our game is based on the real life example of Oaxaca, but we could easily have picked countless other examples), all while successfully laundering their reputations in the west by pretending to care about the environment. That is the realisation that I want our pixel protagonist to undergo.
Sorry if that comes across as a rather polemic answer to your quick comment! My intention is just to answer earnestly why we're developing in the direction we are, and I thought that was an interesting idea to expand on 😊
Lots of work to go, of course, but some milestones have clearly been made to get here, which is worth celebrating. I can see in the cat, bike, and crow that you've made progress on developing a nice, almost hand-painted looking aesthetic. Getting the movement working, by the looks of it with 2d objects in a 3d space, is a big step that will hopefully help to snowball further progress. A simple backing track is nice touch and it seems to fit well. My advice would be to try and focus on fleshing out the key mechanics (pun somewhat intended) of the game and the theme, which weren't present in this showcase. I think these are more important to be working on now than the elements that might seem the most tempting, like completely animating the cat's movements or fully fleshing out all of the environment (though you do have a large team, so you may have capacity to be doing all at once! Just make sure you keep each other productive with clear short term goals). Best of luck with the next sprint!
I'll echo the two previous comments that the art style is very impressive. I'll also add praise for the decision to a do a (very fun looking!) paper prototype, it's a great way to consider how the game feels to play while still constructing the engine. The balance notes and AI wireframe were interesting to read and seem well considered; overall the project seems to be progressing well. I'd give the slight warning to make sure that the balancing process doesn't lead to muddying the themes - for example, the patch notes seem to suggest you're buffing the amount carbon incentives "heal the environment", but carbon credits + carbon accounting more broadly have been heavily criticised by environmentalists for being a sleight of hand that allows corporate greenwashing. For example, Xander Dunlap:
"The reductive approach of carbon performs three functions. First, it allows the minimization of ecological and climate catastrophes, providing conservative assessments of regarding the impact of the techno-capitalist development. Second, it enables half-hearted mitigation schemes, such as conservation "offsets", ecotourism and low-carbon infrastructures, which collaborate with mining companies and further integrate ecosystems into economic and financial circuits. Thirdly, it enables the gymnastics of statistics and modelling, which offers reassurances, but also distracts from questioning the existing intensifying trajectory of production, consumption and profiteering. Carbon accounting, then, emerges as an essential technology in legitimizing the socio-political catastrophe."
Apologies, I know that's a long quote for a minor critique (especially one based on a guessed mechanic)! Good luck with the next stages, I look forward to playing your production submission.
Agreed! It's of the utmost important that the actions we take to tackle climate change don't cause further inequality, but such discussions are often silenced by flashy non-solutions pushed by governments and corporations. Our ends should be justice and our means should be just, and that can never be found in endless growth to prop up the status quo, even if it appears green!
Ooh, your project is coming at the game jam's themes through an angle similar to my team! The moral dynamics involved in overseeing such projects are interesting (if often solved by irl by simply ignoring them!), so I'm excited to see how you handle that. The boss favourability/pollution indicators seem like they'd present a good challenge for the player to manage while also being within the scope of the jam and allowing you to play around with the branching narrative you've outlined. Similarly, I think the game taking place between three scenes is a clever way of keeping workload down while creating a great atmosphere. The sketches and draft art for the desk scene are really good!
Good luck with the next stage 😊
A platformer/visual novel with each mini level + boss touching on a different type of ecological destruction seems a really good idea! Though the scope is quite large, the idea has plenty of flexibility to have more/less levels + characters based on your capacity as you continue - though I'd say maybe it'd be worth thinking of upgrades + item variety as fun stretch goals to include at the end rather than integral elements. Your mood board of pixel art inspirations makes me excited to see the game develop, and the selected theme of presenting animal's perspectives will be really interesting; I think challenging anthropocentric approaches to climate change is an important point!
Good luck, I can't wait to see what you come up with for the next sprint 😊
I agree with the others; really interesting concept, but I think it needs cutting down a bit to fit the scope of the jam. I think a good idea might be to brainstorm which elements are the core that you want to focus on and then removing the rest for now. For example, do you need an animation for the drone taking damage? Do you need NPCs to be moving around the location or multiple quest types and minigames? You might decide you do, as it's integral to the feeling you want the game to have, but there's a huge amount of ideas in here - the foraging minigame on it's own could be a jam submission, as could the pizza one. It all depends on your team size and capacity, of course, and I'm interested to see what you come up with regardless.
The ideation document itself seems good, particularly the Introduction and Mechanics sections, which seem the most fleshed out and edited. I think the bullet point list under "theme" contains a lot of solid ideas that'd be great to see in the game, and I think utilising concepts like disaster capitalism will make the game's apocalyptic future a more interesting and realistic setting. Keeping the scale of the drone's missions small, as you've outlined (deliveries, communal gardening, cleaning solar panels, repairing relationships etc), helps to drive home your themes well while also exploring elements of local sustainability and anarchist theory. Looking towards real-life communities already building hope in the face of these challenges might help you think of more quest/setting ideas; for example communities like the Zapatistas in Chiapas and the Apoist Kurdish movement in northern Syria have focused on issues like restoring peace, creating seed banks, creating clinics to enable healthcare without access to hospitals, and creating self-organised systems of education. As you highlight in your theme notes, issues of social inequality are connected to environmentalism.
Good luck!
I love the idea - I do like a niche little narrative ttrpg, and I think the angle of "post-fossil fuel community creating a museum" is a simple but interesting one! Questions to prompt the players to create their community sounds like a good way to ease players into the setting while giving them agency over the scope of the story, and the idea for playing cards seems like it could be a fun way of structuring play while also being tactile.
The art direction sounds good as well. I'll absolutely have to check out Agent of the Register as it sounds right up my alley, and the idea of using historical documents as inspiration is great. Going for a more weathered field-notes look with hand-drawn images around the text sounds cool for this idea, and sourcing images from Creative Commons seems the right move aesthetically and workload-wise. A bit random, but you might appreciate Insect Intruders, an example of a literary genre not too far from museum guide - a bestiary! Aiming to both instil a fascination with insects and help with pest control, it was made by a colonial entomologist with illustrations drawn by his wife.
As Flabbiergerm points out, fully working out and testing the system may end up being a big challenge for the scope of the jam. A peaceful narrative ttrpg is certainly more doable than something like an action ttrpg requiring dozens of classes/items/stat blocks, but the challenge will be to restrict your playing card mechanics to something you're able to quickly and concisely explain in a few pages (a tough test of discipline given all the possibilities a deck allows!). The idea of a playmat is similarly a fun and enticing one but one not strictly necessary for the jam.
Haaaaving said that, dare I suggest a new mechanic? I would love it if there was some simple optional mechanics for players to be able to draw their own simple museum map with a short descriptor of each object. I think this would fit the setting of community coming together to create the museum really well, with everyone leaning over the map as they play their cards and pass the pencil around evoking the intimacy of communal reminiscing. I loved playing Border Rising at a indie game showcase recently because of how it does this.
I'll also volunteer myself and my jam partner if you need help playtesting it further down the line 😊
Such a strong and detailed ideation plan! This is my first game jam, and I feel like I better understand the different elements of a good ideation stage through looking through your document. It's really clear where you've done some productive brainstorming as a team; your art direction seems confident and considered; mechanics and gameplay loop are appropriate in scope and explained with clarity; and a precise production plan that keeps in mind the likelihood of flexibility being needed. Big pat on the back/s 😊
In terms of the actual game, it sounds interesting. Having three default actions with three combos seems like it'd give a good range of ways for the player to interact with the map, while managing human and animal populations sounds like a good amount of variation and challenge for replays. The idea of records being tracked to show progress in the face of failure appeals to me.
Thematically, it works well. I like how the framing of economic battleground gives space for a variety of competing agencies that the player must manage. One potential reflection point would be that, personally, I think the message might be stronger if it was grounded in specificity. For example, could basing it on an ecosystem close to your hearts help ground your World Events Phase in a realism that would also adds coherency to the events (what the symptoms of climate change are; who the exploiters/opportunists are; how environmentalists respond, etc)? I might be preaching to the choir here, since there's references to indigenous communities in the doc! Another point for reflection that you might have already discussed: public opinion by itself (which has been broadly positive towards environmentalism for decades) tends not to lead to any change in climate policy due to the relationship between exploitative industry (fossil capital in particular) and politicians. Where change does happen it's due to action that threatens that power/relationship rather than opinion, so focusing on the former would be more salient. I hope this paragraph made sense and doesn't sound nitpicky!
Best wishes with the rest of the jam, I'm looking forward to seeing more!
Thank you for the kind words, and for taking the time to leave them! 😊
I think the point about it potentially being more engaging to academic types is more than fair, as I studied environmental history at uni and love that stuff. I'm hoping that this won't mean it's unapproachable to those without the same interests/knowledge (having the protagonist be new to such topics and making certain text optional will hopefully help here), while also having a chance to get players acquainted with/interested in discussions around consumption, dispossession, and degrowth. As you say, getting the right balance on the minigame so that it feels thematically appropriate while still being absorbing rather than tedious will be a big part of the challenge!
Your pixel art looks great by the way! I just had a quick play of Engulfed and the sprites are cute and animation looks really professional. Reassuring to know I can reach out if I have any stumbling points! Now, brb, I'm off to say nice things about your (excellent) ideation submission...