itch.io

Thanks for this new link again! I retweeted that tweet. Damn, makes me so angry seeing that happen :( It seems that at least the reported games didn't get reuploaded. I hope all devs get to know about this and do those reports.

Got a message from Google that the game has now been removed from the store. It seems that the whole account has been removed as well. Good news! Thanks again for informing me!

Hi! Thank you very much for letting me know about this. I wouldn't have believed someone would do this to my contest game, but then again, it truly is quite easy with these kinds of jam games.. I reported about this to Google. Hopefully my game and other stolen games get removed from his/her account very soon, and hopefully that whole account as well!

I hate to see how almost everything you create and put to Internet gets stolen some day or another..

There is a little mathematical task hidden in the audio cassette. Read the sentences carefully (listen audio cassette by using the radio) and you will get the correct inputs (directions) for the second puzzle.

Thanks a lot, I'm glad you liked the game! :) Happy to hear that the difficulty level was also good since I didn't get to test it much. Thanks for the feedback also, I'll keep that in mind in my future games. 

By the way, what do you think if people would like to play these kinds of games on mobile? I'm still thinking about making some horror RPGs to be released on Google Play, for example. :)

Hehe, yes, I was actually travelling in Asia. Sun, heat, swimming, diving, new places, drinks, rest... and so on ;) Recharging my batteries.

Thanks for your hints! Speaking of water, I should've figured that out after your last hint. The times when I tried drinking water gave only negative effects to me, but this surely was good info.

And thanks for the review explanation, now I got it. I actually didn't read any forum posts during the jam. Guess I was too tired from my day work and my dev projects. Dunno whether there would've been any useful info.. Gotta be more active next time.

About the Sculptor, I still haven't decided what to do with the game, but certainly yours and others' positive words inspire me! If I decide not to continue the development of the game, a more longer sequel could also work nicely. A bigger game of the same concept was, after all, the original idea of mine. The thing is, though, if I'm going to make a bigger game of the idea, I want it to be possible to make a full working mobile and PC version out of it. I'm not sure if RPG Maker is the best engine for doing that, and I remember your comments about the difficulties of making a mobile version with RPG Maker as well. Maybe I should try and see if there are some good examples in Google Play.

It's nice to hear that you're currently working on another game project. Is it for some jam or is it a solo project? Are you making it with RPG Maker or are you trying some other engines or frameworks? If you want to show it sometime or if you need testers etc., please feel free to contact me :)

About jams, I've been following news about jams and such but not a single jam has yet grabbed my interest. I guess I will do my next project just by myself, although jams sure have some perks like deadlines and, of course, people and networks.

Hi!

Sorry that it's been so long since my last reply; I have been on a holiday trip abroad. Staying away from all kinds of technology.. haha. Back in business now.

I read that review you got from the judge(s). I personally would have given your game a higher score, but then again, a review is just a justified opinion. I liked your game very much audiovisually, and in my opinion, for example, your character portraits fit the game perfectly. The anime style gives the game the contrast it needs between the world and all the people in it. It makes it feel more alive.

About the amount of instruction in the game I partly agree with the judge(s). That is however, a difficult aspect in terms of game design because one of the main points in the game was to find out the path yourself. Like you said, one big puzzle. I bet some players need more instructions and some people only want the minimum. A save point or some kind of a skip option would be a good add like I have also said earlier, then it would save the player some time if they end up failing. Maybe a little less randomness as well; it also got me confused at one point. I also got stucked in the way that I couldn't figure out how to get enough xistence because all the other things I did consumed my stats even more. The best I could do was to have ~3 xistence when going to the elevator, I think. Any hints on getting more?

And yeah, I made it to the top 10 and it was a huge surprise to me, I'm very glad about that. It gives me motivation to go on developing :) I, however, got four different reviews and two of them were not so great experiences. I wonder why you only got one review? 

I'm still thinking about whether I should continue developing The Sculptor or leave it as it is. Making the game longer would possibly require much additional design work as well.. And then it wouldn't be a "one-month-game" anymore. Have you, by the way, continued developing your game like you were thinking? If not, have you started any other projects? If you're on Twitter, give me a follow and I'll follow you back, I'd like to hear more about your future progress on gamedev. There seems to be lot of other gamejams here on itch as well, maybe we should participate in another some time!

Well I like to play others' games the same way I'd like others to play my games, and your game has such depth that it interests me a lot :) 

Thanks for the hints! I'll keep them in my mind the next time I play. I've been quite busy these past few days so I haven't had much time to play anything. But I will. It seems that the judges have also given their comments to all the games now... Very interesting reading.

Have you, by the way, made any other games or is this your first game?

Nope, I haven't reached the ending yet. I had my second playing session this morning and I player your game for about an hour. Six tries this time ;)

*SPOILERS*
Today I started the game right from the beginning and this time the game started with a blonde girl with curly hair and blue eyes. She said something about flirting and the main character was thinking whether she can read minds. I tried my best to get through the first day but this time I couldn't. I took notes everytime I tried and failed just to see if I could find the correct choices. If I'm correct I need to get as much xistence as possible, right? Otherwise the day fails almost immediately after the lift. The best I could do this time was to have 3 xistence when I entered the lift, and it allowed me to open a couple doors from there. There are always three doors with different colors that I can open, I'm not sure yet whether only one of them is a correct one or if every door leads to the same place.

Like I said I took notes of my stats (xistence, affinity, psinergy) after every choice I made and one thing is confusing me. Two of my tries went like this (choice / stats after):
1) Lift / 313 -> Laundro / 251 -> Neighbour Sugar Pill + Shop Sugar Pill / 451 -> Work / 300 ... etc.
2) Lift / 313 -> Laundro / 271 -> Neighbour Sugar Pill + Shop Sugar Pill / 571 -> Work / 400 ... etc.

See, I did the exact same choices but the second time I got 6 affinity from the Laundro and 3 xistence from two Sugar Pills. Are those numbers somehow randomized or is there a reason for me getting more the second time I tried?

When I went to the lift with not much xistence, the blonde girl said something about the room and me not visiting there before. When I had 3 xistence (I saved Sugar Pills and used them before the lift), I saw some prisoner after the lift twice and then the blonde girl was in a different room and said something about 83 %.

The sixth time I tried was when I got those extra points from Laundro and Sugar Pills, and that time the View-choice showed me that bright-picture as well. This was the first time I got that picture. Still, I went through the Imagine-choice, took a nap, had stats of 290 and ultimately failed.

Could you give me some hints at this point, like how much do I need xistence or does the different colored doors have some meaning? I had 6 xistence on my sixth try but as I have to spend the day in some way the points get easily spent.

Which girl did I meet in the first room on my first try.. Well that is a very good question, haha. Next time I try I'll take some notes ;)

I actually like very much how your game provides challenge and requires thinking, it's also more interesting that way. Difficult, yeah maybe, but thanks to that your game has been in my mind since my last session. Your game is one of those which requires you to sit down, take a cup of coffee/tea and fully jump in. It's best when there are no distractions. I personally need more than 1 hour for completing your game but 1 hour also gives you plenty. I'm sure others agree, and maybe some can even finish it in one session.

Wording errors are fine, I bet almost all of these competetion games have them. No confusion this far!

I'm glad that I could give you an idea for improvement like you gave me. Have you, by the way, thought about making a mobile version of your game? It could work very nicely given the fact that your game requires only click/touch.

I'll get back to you after my next try!

PS. POP assets are great, you sure gave them a nice extra touch in your game; works perfectly in creating the atmosphere.

I gave this game a try and I gotta say the game is made in very unique and personal way. I haven't seen similar games made with RPG Maker so this was a very surprising and positive experience.

When I first tried the game, the storytelling together with all the dreamy audiovisual elements made me feel like I was watching a short film. At that time I didn't quite know what I was supposed to do so I tried to do a little bit of everything. It got me quite far but ultimately I failed - as you would expect. I tried again, multiple times, and little by little I began to understand the idea and gameplay better. Different terms started to make sense and I learned about some good and bad choices. The game gives you hints in a clever way, which you might not get the first time you play. I began to understand more every time I failed and got back to the beginning. I think failing has an important role in this game because it gives you more information about the core concept and basically guides your way through.

I think I tried the game about ten times but I still couldn't make it to the end even though I always did better (at least I think so). Sometimes when I was discovering new possibilities, I couldn't do much else than take naps because the main character was feeling "too tired" or was not in the mood to do anything. These times I knew that I did something wrong and that I needed to start over, and so I had to rush to the failure. I think a good add for situations like these would be to create some sort of option or mechanism in the game which takes you back to the morning and resets everything. It would be faster to try again.

I will try the game again to see if I can make it even further. This game has some depth and it definitely demands focus and thinking. For me the idea and the world felt so interesting that I certainly want to see how the story ends.

Oh and great job with the development, I didn't encounter any bugs. Good luck in the contest! 

Hey you were quite fast then, great job! When I tested the game with my friends before publishing, their time run out near the UV puzzle. That got me thinking whether I had implemented too many puzzles, but according to your answer I think the amount is quite good for now. This was very good information.

About the development, I spent 1 week for writing, 1 week for graphics/audio and 2 weeks for development. Like in most gamedev projects, I had my crunch time at the end and it was that last Sunday when I created the last part of the game in one day. Phew, but I bet we all get to experience times like that every now and then.

Thank you for your kind words about the game possibly reaching the top 20, that would be astonishing! I've been thinking about making a mobile release of this game as well. That might depend on how easily it gets done from RPG Maker MV; never done that before. I, myself, would like to play these kinds 2D horror/thriller games on mobile, there aren't much of those on the market.

And of course I'll play your game, it looked very interesting already from the screenshots! I don't actually play puzzle games much myself, I'm very open to all kinds of games. My game was a puzzle game mainly because I was inspired by real-life escape room games. I play RPGs, platformers, arcade shooters, horror games, visual novels etc. so I'm sure that your game fits to my liking very well :)

Thank you, that's nice to hear! :) This version of the game has only two endings: one when the time runs out, and the other for completing all the puzzles and finishing the game. Multiple endings could be a nice add for this type of a game - but then again - I created this game to resemble real-life room escape games where you can only win or lose.

Thank you for playing my game and for your comments! :) It's very nice to read that someone has given this much thought when playing my game. 

*Warning: This reply contains spoilers below this point*

About the statue puzzle, I understand your thoughts about the misleadingness. Yes, the audio cassette can be interpreted in different ways; that's why I put the two X markings on the floor as hints. You wrote that nothing happened when you placed the two statues on the X markings, but to be precise, there are actually three statues that must be put in place in order to proceed. One of them is already in the correct place when you enter the room and two must be moved on the X markings. However, if you move the third one to some place else, nothing happens if the two others are placed on the X markings. This happened to one of my friends who played the game. But I guess you already figured this out since you finished the game.

I'm curious, how much time did you have left when you completed the final puzzle? I had actually designed even more gameplay into this game after the final puzzle, but given the time limit of this contest this was the best that I could do. I actually created the whole Factory area together with the rest of the island, UV and statue puzzle + endings in one single day. It took me 12-14 hours that day, haha, I should write a blog post about the whole development project. It was also difficult to estimate that how long should I make the game, given the fact that some players get the puzzles done more quickly than others. I'm glad that you still liked the end result! This is my one-month-game, who knows what the game would have been if I'd had two months ;)

And about the lag with the faster car, I didn't experience that with my two computers, but that is absolutely possible. I had originally designed the car to be only slightly faster when upgraded, but the options of RPG Maker always double the speed, you know. Hopefully it didn't hurt your experience too much :)

Thanks again, I'll put your game on my list of games to play as well!

Thank you! :)

*spoilers!*
You need to find duct tape first, then you can attach various items to the RC Car. I assume you got the first puzzle completed since you found the mini flashlight. Then you have also found the audio cassette, which gives you an answer to the second puzzle. There is another locker in the room which requires a password, and the password can be deduced from the audio cassette. It can be listened by using the radio in the room. By completing this second puzzle you will get the duct tape. 

Very beautiful and atmospheric game! I especially liked all your hand-drawn art, great work :) I also liked your use of plugins etc., the point & click -style was a really fitting choice for gameplay. When I was a kid I played lots of these kinds of games; this game gave me some heart-warming nostalgia.

*spoilers* I got to the point where I was searching for the lost children and when I found the 3rd one and the music changed, all character sprites turned invisible and I couldn't continue. I wonder if the scene should have teleported me to some other map?

In your game page I read that you have been planning to make some updates for the game after the contest. If you do so, please write me a message, I'd be happy to play your game again in future :) As for suggestions for improvement, it would be great to see more unique sound effects as well since you have so beautiful graphics.

Thank you for this gaming experience and good luck in the contest! 

First thing this morning I took a cup of coffee, downloaded your game and played through it. I gotta say the game aroused my interest immediately. I think those images you made with Paint were amazing, how long did it take from you to draw them? The gameplay itself felt similar to me like some bigger interactive drama games, such as the games of Telltale Games where there are multiple branches of discussion to choose from. Every character that I talked in the game had their own stories and personalities, which made them feel unique. In addition, the discussion options were diverse in a way that I never felt like the best answer was missing. Very well written. Towards the end I got a mixture of feelings, which left me thinking. It's great that even in such a short time it's possible to start caring about the fate of a game character.

Thank you for this experience :)

Thank you very much for your words and for trying my game! It was quite a challenge to design the puzzles as well since I didn't have much time to playtest them thoroughly. But that's what this contest is about - and thus making a puzzle game can be a bit risky. I'm happy to hear that you enjoyed the game and its puzzles, thanks again :)