itch.io

For posterity’s sake, here’s a notice:

First patch is out, and the issues reported below have been corrected!

I’m still preparing the next version, aiming to overhaul the game quite a bit, so any feedback or issues you encounter in this new version, I’d be grateful if you could let me know!

Thanks for the support, it means a lot!

A quick notice for anyone checking this project for the first time:

Patch is out!

Now that submissions are unlocked, a patch has been deployed addressing the issues that have been reported so far, so the game should be playable without issues (hopefully).

Feel free to let me know what you think and any issues you find along the way. The next version, a complete overhaul that will feature most of what was cut, is currently on the works, so any feedback is greatly appreciated.

Thanks for stopping by!

Really appreciate your comment, thank you!

I was a huge fan of Comix Zone, so I was really excited to get that feature working with the “comic” like stripes and squares. Your guess is pretty good, version 1 of the plugin used a parallax screenshot to simulate the effect, but it didn’t work in browsers. The one in-game actually creates a new bitmap overlay with an “empty” square to create the window. It’s still a wip, there’s a lot of bugs to solve, specially on game saving/loading.

I was really bummed with how many issues the game ended up with, but I’m glad to see people enjoying it regardless. I’m definitely working on reworking it and restoring what was cut, and a recipe book is a must!

Thank you again for trying it out!

Thanks for the very kind review! I’m so glad you noticed some of the more ‘invisible’ details that made the project such a hard one to finish!

I’ve been trying to figure out the cutout thing for ages, so I’m glad it looks appealing, I really like it!

I had a blast writing the dialogue and picking the music. Most of them come from music packs, but the credits are buried behind the ending, which as far as I’ve noticed, I doubt someone will manage to see them, haha. I’ll make them more accessible for next revision-

Regarding the “great deals” feature, I was afraid it could break at some point. The whole time system is a bit crude and gets desync easily as I’ve noticed. They’re supposed to be new npcs added to the market for a day that buy specific stuff at crazy prices.

Thank you again for such a detailed review! I think the ARES references are leftover code lol

Yeah, the penalties are too high, it’s a problem. There was a mix of not enough playtesting and some unintended values that made them a lot harder than they should be.

Thanks for playing it and taking the time to comment! I do plan to push a post game-jam patch, so is really helpful having feedback!

Haha, yeah, the ‘penalties’ came out a little harsh, it wasn’t fully intended that way.

Thanks for trying it out! There’s a lot of work left but thankfully I’ve got some pointers on what to prioritize.

Thanks for playing it! I agree, I went a bit overboard with the punishments. I had a very hard time adjusting the scope, so I’m glad it turned out ‘playable’ at least.

Thank you again for trying it out!

It took me a while to get the mechanics, but once I did it was a good challenge. I never ended up finding another weapon, is there another one? (Also, can the grim reaper ones die?)

I found it fun, title made me chuckle, and the art was simple and effective. Good job!

Love me some space games, and this one was pretty cool!

I love the way the ship handles, the ambience, the micromanaging, really great! I’d have loved to see some more QoL additions, mainly a bit more info on what you’re trying to do while on the ship.

I’m stunned with how great it looks and plays given the short development time. Shame about the browser issues, but the PC build works perfectly. Amazing stuff, really good job!

I had my volume a bit too high, duck gave me a heart attack.

That was fun! Very challenging, but simple and fluid to just keep trying again. The theme interpretation may be a bit ‘abstract’, but I see it. Great job!

Combat was a bit hard, but once you get the timing of the potions and enemy it gets even. It’s a nice challenge, I enjoyed it. Art was simple but effective. I can totally see this being very addictive with some more polish and enemies. Great job!

I liked the style and art. Music is a bit glitchy on the low tones, but works well. Though the technical side of things need some work, the game has charm and it’s enjoyable. Nice humor, as well. Good job! Would make another sandwich!

Nice artwork! Really like it! Even though it was a short demo, the controls felt nice and fluid. I liked it! Great job!

Thank you a lot for your comment! I saw it by chance, had not alert about it. You’ve no idea how much reassuring is to see this, I had a lot of doubts on this game when I was developing it, given it’s such a small niche, but to see people enjoy it and get invested in the story is heartwarming!

Thank you for taking the time to check my projects and comment! I do intend to go all the way with this one for a full release, hopefully soonish if time is on my side, and I’ll be glad if you checked it out too!

Nice! Thanks for streaming it! Man, it’s riddled with bugs isn’t it, haha

You got me thinking, I never really specified what was the end goal. I’ll add it to the description at least. The game decides an ending when suspicion reaches 100 and you go to bed, there’s 4 ending cutscenes that checks if you’ve got >30k gold and >90 reputation, or only >30k gold, another for only >80 reputation and a ‘none of the above’ one.

Thanks again for playing it!

Thank you for playing it! This was my first public project I made, I’m glad you enjoyed it!

Wait, you mean inside the inn room, or in the world area? It was actually an earlier version that had no “town” area, so I guess I messed up the check somewhere.

Funny thing about the random events, they were supposed to be tied to Suspicion so you’d see them almost never at the start and much more frequently as you raise it, but I just realized they’re tied to reputation instead, so it’s a 50/50 at the start haha. Crime wave is real here.

If you want to share my pain about the bezel plugin, save when a bezel is active and then load it when you change maps. At least is only visual.

Thanks for playing it and taking the time to comment!

EDIT: Uh-oh. Yeah, it’s a bug! Evening gathering is broken, sorry! Thanks for the report, really useful info. The time system must have got de-sync at some point, I’ll have a look at the whole thing and make it more soundproof.

I probably should’ve added more events there, considering gathering would be a common option. The potion thing it’s good to know, how high was your Suspicion stat? You should only see 5 items gone on high levels of suspicion. The items are randomly chosen from your inventory too. I’ll take a closer look at difficulty there, it may be a bit harsh considering events get pretty frequent at later stages.

On high suspicion, you should try the more “aggressive” choice on dialogues, it gets more effective. Also: it may be worth just paying gold if you’re carrying valuable inventory!

Thanks for giving it a go and commenting!

You sure went ham on the recipes, a lot of content there!

I liked the setting and the plot is interesting as well. I like the Talk or fight feature with NPCs, let’s you take things at your pace. And the story bonus were also a nice idea!

I like your progress, it’s seems you’re getting more comfortable with the engine since your last entry. Good job!

It was planned, but axed ultimately. It was certainly a big loss, I’ll definitely add it for a post-jam update. Recipes are fixed though, so if you manage to get any ‘oil’, you can get them again with the same ingredients. Those are the most expensive ones!

Nice one! Loved the art style and the animations. Controls were tight too. It was a bit hard at first but once you get the groove of things you can get pretty efficient at it. It’s a nice concept, would love to see how it turns out! Fastest escape I could manage was day three!

Ty man, you’ve been a lot of help!

No, I’m kinda behind in the whole discord thing haha

But I’ll post devlogs here in itch, and sometimes share a few things in the RPG Maker channel in the pirate software discord!

Thanks for the interest though! I may have to bite the bullet and make one if the updated version gets traction.

The dreaded install file. That was a very big oversight on my part, It’s one of those things you never realize it’s only clear to you as the developer, but not as a player. That is being entirely reworked now with its own “file system” like interface, so hopefully it’ll be more intuitive.

Funny you mention that about a sort of prologue, the first draft had something just like that with Selm testing ARES after being first made, and then being reactivated some time later, but I couldn’t figure out how to make it engaging and scrapped it to finish on time. I had completely forgotten about it, I can definitely try working it in now that time is not an issue.

Thank you so much for revisiting the game. The new UI may help to make the game easier to understand. The locator was definitely one of my biggest frustrations, as it was my favorite feature that I couldn’t really flesh out. So, I may be overcompensating now, but every name even just mentioned in passing has a bio file haha.

I haven’t shared this, but my approach to story is writing a detailed lore before going on with a main story, to help me keep characters consistent, even in multiple rewrites, so there’s a lot of content that’s just waiting to be added. Even Reacher has a full on backstory haha.

Thank you again for taking the time to leave a comment! I appreciate you pointing out the typos, I may have to bite the bullet and find someone to proofread my non-native ass. If you’re curious about ending 2, you get the chance to get it once you listen to the audiologs you find in the low decks.

That’d be cool, I’m very interested on hearing about pacing and gameplay, I want this new version to be enjoyable from the get-go instead of a slow-cook experience as I’ve noticed.

There’s a lovely gameplay stream by Pyrotechnic on the jam submission page where he actually gets both endings if you’re curious, around the 2 hour mark.

I haven’t forgotten you wanted to throw Tronner out of the ship.

It was such a trip watching you so enthralled in the story, I’m so thrilled to see you’ve enjoyed it! There’s always a lot of doubt on whether the plot and setting works, considering I’m numb to it by this point, so you had me smiling from ear to ear watching you so invested in them, and rekindled some of the inspiration that brought it forward.

Huge thanks for taking the time to stream it! I definitely took many notes on the ending and its pacing, and your feedback was really spot on. You’re doing amazing work giving some exposure and really needed feedback to these projects!

Simple, fun, and even though RNG heavy, it had ample room for strategies to arise. Almost two hours went by, I’m late to everything now haha

What a great game! Very responsive and easy to grasp. The difficulty is very well placed, it never felt unfair or frustrating. I’m a guy that’s not a big fan of puzzle platformers, and you got me trying the extra hard levels, haha! Nice job!

Thank you very much for taking the time to leave a comment! I’m really glad you enjoyed it. I’m really relieved that the ambience and look turned out okay, I’m still very new to art direction as a whole. It helped a lot that I actually used terminal computers back in the day, haha.

Nice job getting both endings! Ending 2 seems to be a bit confusing I’ve noticed.

Also, I had no clue you could do spoilers like this, thanks!

Hopefully, a more collected and calm development cycle will bring the game to a more polished experience in the next big patch. Thank you again for your comment!

Nice catch! I didn't notice that one.

And also, the green "glitchy" lines are not supposed to remain on the screen, haha. Another bug to the list!

Oh my, what a radiant review! How great to hear you enjoyed it so much! I'm thrilled to hear you enjoyed the pacing. I definitely tried to avoid handholding, but there's still plenty of room to improve the experience. The report list being one of the priorities!

It surely was a lot of work to cram into a two week development, but I'm glad it turned out playable. Thank you for the very kind review, and hopefully you'll enjoy the updated version once it's finished!

Theres two official endings and the bad one, which is essentially a game over screen. The short answer to get a numbered ending, you have to reach the intruder coordinates without losing your drone.

Long answer is, the first time you are able to move the drone, you can lose your drone without getting a bad ending, in which case you'll only be able to get ending 1.The second time you can move your drone, losing it will cause a bad ending. In this case, reaching the coordinates shown is a trap and you'll get a bad ending. You have to reach the Command Nexus at the very top to get ending one.

If you didn't lose the drone the first time and got the snapshot, you may get ending 1 or 2. For the second time you can move your drone, you have to reach the coordinates again, which will set you up for the other ending. Listen (well, read actually) the audiologs you get before moving on to unlock ending two. I don't wanna spoil it, but the audiologs paint a good picture on what to try and focus on doing to get ending two.

Thank you for playing! Let me know how it went!

You may be referring to the SafeZone install. You can actually check a list of your available reports by clicking the "Reports saved: X" text in your main screen. If you select the one you got, you'll trigger the install.
It wasn't communicated properly that you can do that, it's definitely something I'll try to improve! Sorry!
If you plan to give it another go, keep in mind that some text is clickable (as well as the ! warnings) and can give some more information. When you get the audiologs (disclaimer: they're still text), you can read them that way.

Thank you for giving the game a try! I'm glad you enjoyed it despite its shortcomings.

Nice one! I remember Smash TV, can clearly see the influence! The ensuing chaos when the whole arena is filled is really entertaining, and the screen resize is very welcome, it all flows really well.

I would've love to carry all the weapons, I often felt like I was missing one. Overall it's a fun game with a solid gameplay. Great job!

I liked it! It was challenging and fun and was really easy to pick up and play. Controls are responsive and it feels smooth. I really liked the leaderboard to the right, don't know what's going on on the left. Was there any music? I'm not sure it was on my part, it felt awkward without it.

Also, I couldn't find a fullscreen option and it was way bigger than my screen. At least the action happens in the middle, so it wasn't such a big deal.

Overall, I like where this is going. The UI looks retro with the rounded fonts and bright colors, reminds me of those early 90's games. I don't know if you were going for that, but I liked it!

Really enjoyed it! I can see the inspiration from Gradius (one of my favs), and it got me hooked for a good while. It's a bit wonky with the mouse on browser, but that may be on my end. I really liked the 'cell' thing that surrounds the enemies, very interesting concept.

I'm really glad you enjoyed the story,! I tried to rely on it as much as I could to play to my strengths. Now I have to bring the rest  up to par, now that the jam is "over".  There is a way to limit the locations known at the start, I just didn't use it, top notch designer right there haha. I'll definitely re-visit the starting sequence, I've seen this feedback pop up frequently. The reports saved button also needs a makeover. I already added a "new!" alert next to it to draw attention, but maybe I should just make it a button, much simpler.

There was a couple of entries that do not get activated in the locator! I was so bummed when I realized. Try entering "cognis".

Content is definitely the direction I'm going for the next release. Thank you for trying it out and for the detailed review!

It definitely caught me off guard when the first 'fanatic' appeared, haha.

I really liked the photo uploading mechanic, and made me chuckle seeing that bunch just yeet themselves into the hole.

The final step definitely was too dark, but I found a weird angle in my screen that let me see a bit. I couldn't stop myself from trying again, it's got a really captivating feel.

Great job! I really enjoyed this one.

What a nice thing to say! I don't have a lot of experience as a visual artist, so it means a lot. Thanks for playing!