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One Joyful Day

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A member registered May 29, 2018 · View creator page →

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AmigaLive asked regarding my game submission earlier from Cammy, and Cammy said if updates idea was to make the game to work (a fix) then that would be okay.

I myself did a faster versions update for Amiga versions, I'm not sure if this is calculated a fix anymore, but I anyway kept them separate, that I kept the original files there so that judges could judge based upon the original versions.

However, this is just my opinion, but basically I guess Cammys main idea is to get more games to Amiga, so in that sense I don't necessarily see a problem even if someone does a huge update to his game after the submission deadline, after all, everyone has a chance for that anyway, so its not exactly unfair, well, except for those who actually completed their games before deadline.

But, of course it can be trickier question from fair competition point of view, that if someone actually sent his game to actually compete as the primary motivation, and he made it based upon the rules, then it isn't good if some keep sending major updates to the game. Also, even someone marks it clearly as having been sent after the submission deadline, I do think it will affect the rating positively, so in that sense even more unfair.

I can just say that I don't mind you or others updating the game, but don't know how others, or Cammy and the Judges, see it.

Thanks a lot from your feedback, also good to hear that you liked to Combining cards part and building the deck part, for at this point I am still very much thinking which way to take the game to, as there are different kind of possibilities. Like one possibility I have been thinking is that currently Pending Movement is simply stacking the amount of movement together and then in the end either fails to do it, or does it all, but another option could be that each movement card would be handled separately. As in if you have 2 x 1 move, and 1 x 2 move, instead of simply moving 4, it could do the move for each card separately, as in moving 1 + 1 + 2. This would then give a possibility that not every move would succeed, like there could be weather conditions on a match, like rain. If there is rain, then there could be for example 20 percent chance for each move card to fail.

And then this again gives other possibilities, like two main things still missing from this game is "Items" and "coach skills" (WIP name).

Idea with Items would be that you could for example get Rubber Boots, which could for example negate the rain effect.

Idea with coach skills comes from the Premier Picks one card. For in original Premier Picks there was this one card which let you click on cards for a short amount of time in hopes of finding a goal card. I am thinking that something like this would be a Coach Skill that could be activated by getting the skill, and having enough skill points to do it. Not sure however yet how those skill points would accumulate during the game. But basically those coach skills partial idea is also to make the game less random, as right now it is heavily luck based, that your strategy is in current version practically limited in shaping your deck. However, since original Premier Picks was luck based, I do like to keep the randomness as the default idea of the game, while still trying to add some strategic elements. Like one of the Coach skills could be that unflipped cards would be divided into two same sized groups, where one of the groups would contain all the bad cards. This would give you some strategic element, while still keeping the luck, as while you have a chance to turn only good cards, there would still be 50/50 chance that you pick the wrong group.

The Rogue part of the game is still missing too. Idea is that you can buy yourself permanent cards, and you will have character (maybe your football club?) and you will gain some sort of XP each time you play and win etc. and then after the game is over, you can use that XP to unlock more options, like maybe right at beginning having more cards at the table.

Basically my idea is that the aim of the game would be that at some point the player would have, similar to original Premier Picks, a load of cards in table to pick from.

No, it is soundless at this point still.

Just realised I have misunderstood word "Throttle" all this time. Didnt understand what you said about Throttling CPU, until checked from dictionary the meaning.

So how much did you speed it up? As in, is it now something like 040/2500 instead of 040/25? or do you have any idea?

Thanks for adding to that AmigaLive.

So how does that system actually work? I mean, it reads A4000 68040, but I guess that is not actually emulating the real speed of A4000/040 machine? Or is it? For that game seems to be working too fast for it to be on actual existing 68040? For my understanding is that due to scaling currently happening, it should be tough even for X5000 to run it since it will be done on CPU on Amigas. PCs have no problem since they use GFX cards for that, but Hollywood to my understanding doesn't have similar support to GFX cards in Amigas, hence reverting to raw CPU.

Yeah, it can be done and actually Andreas have even recommended not to use the ask mode anymore since he thinks it is bit old and might not be completely compatible anymore.

However, since I didn't know what to do and deadline was closing, I figured it was best option to hopefully get it to work on AOS3 by putting that Ask requester there so that at least one of the options would work. But it can be removed.

I think I will make a question to Hollywood forum for someone to explain a bit more about those Display options, since I am actually not sure what I should use, and after I get reply I can make an update which would use the option that they suggest to do.

I haven't really paid much attention to that yet, as I actually have a plan to make my own screen selector system, where user can more freely choose different options for the display. For example, there is option to do scaling either smooth or not, but I don't see an option how user could choose it through requester system, so I am planning on adding my own system where user is asked whether he wants to use smooth scaling or not. Point being, that it should be slow as it is already on Amigas, but if someone has enough power etc. maybe they wish to use the smooth scale for better looks.

Also, the major reason for my own system is that I am planning to make a system where user can choose some different resolution in such way that all the graphics are then converted to that screen resolution, meaning that it wouldn't need to do any scaling during the game.

That while the game by default is 1920x1080, you can choose to remake all the graphics to for example 800x600, and if you then play the game using 800x600, it would be using those new 800x600 graphics instead of the original ones, and this way there would be no need for scaling. I trust this will make the game work at decent speed on at least PPC Amigas. I doubt Classic would be able to handle it even then, unless maybe in 320x256 or something.

I have partially implemented that system there already, but didn't have time to fix it for this AmiGameJam yet, as was barely able to make this playable even. I plan to have much more stuff in this still.

This is great feedback!

I passed this info to Hollywood forum of the tipic: https://forums.hollywood-mal.com/viewtopic.php?p=21468#p21468  so Andreas can take a look at this and perhaps get some idea what the problem is. Maybe you can even jump in and join the conversation to help fix this bug.

This is actually first time that someone reports it doesn't work at all, and that crash too, so this might help giving idea where the problem lies at.

For everyone else it has worked after they have either used ALT + F4 or that WINDOWS + SHIFT + RIGHT.

I think other one moves to other monitor or something like that, about the other ones purpose I am not sure, but I think black window issue was fixed with that WINDOWS + SHIFT + RIGHT.

By the way, you mentioned it had jumped to TV monitor, so did you even see the text displayed telling about this bug?

For so far to my understanding others have seen that message, while after that it might become either black screen or disappear. 

I think it was after they select the screenmode that it either shows blackscreen or disappears, not before that.

(1 edit)

I have only tested the PCX64 version, none of the others, so I hope the PPC ports don't have that black window too, I am also wondering why is it doing that. Only thing I can figure where it should display a black window is if the Debug Window would be started, in which case there should read something in that black window. And at least when I run the game myself, I don't get any debug printing out, and there shouldn't be any debug printing that only AOS3 would activate.

That the PCx64 version is not working is strange. How does it not work? Does it give some error?

I just downloaded all those bundles and the separate PCx64 version, and they all work on my machine.

There is a known issue with double or more monitor setups, where it shows either a black screen or doesn't show anything. Depending which one happens, you can get around it by using: ALT + F4, or WINDOWS + SHIFT + RIGHT.

However, you should have seen a message about this double monitor issue when you started the game.

It would be great to get that double monitor issue fixed properly, for it seems to be with Hollywood itself somehow and many seem to be encountering it, but problem is that neither me or Andreas (Hollywood dev) are able to reproduce it.

By the way, you did notice that I sent new versions yesterday bit before the submissions deadline? Now it asks at beginning in what screenmode to open the game.

Dont know if this helps or not with AOS3 version, but it was like a best guess shot.

And thanks a lot for reporting all this. I think I need to set emulator environment up myself to test the AOS3 version myself too. But as already said, AOS3 version isn't really there as a version to use, but rather for those who might want to use emulators or those who want to play this in year 2050 with their newest fastest classic.

That is strange. It should have basically worked as far as I understood. It is still complaining about the same opening the display part, as I adjusted the code it changed from line 16 to line 27.

Not sure I am able to check this out before Submission deadline.

Actually, now that you are active there, I just uploaded the updated AOS3 exe separately to the download files. If you can try and see what happens, it would be good to know.

Thanks.

It actually crashes when trying to open the display already. It is automatically trying to open 1920x1080 Window, but I don't know how Hollywood handles a situation where screenmode is smaller than that.

I am changing the code in such way that it will scale the window to fit the current resolution. But still, this is basically not meant for AOS3, although I suppose through emulation with beefy enough machine you might get it to work properly.

I suppose you tried AOS3 version. While there is AOS3 version, it is basically just for the emulator guys, since it is done with Hollywood, it is pretty heavy and wont work on any real classic hardware.

Also,  I am suspecting this problem might actually have to do with the way how I am opening the display, I am going to update the exes today to open the display differently (letting user choose the mode), now that the submission deadline was extended.

Thanks for letting me know.

Hi, thanks for comment and playing the game.

I am actually making a commercial game that is based on this game basically. I would perhaps describe it as enhanced and expanded version of this one, not much bigger however, roughly double the size, and with a different story.

It is not far from ready, would estimate it to be ready around the change of the new year, depending on how much time I have to use on making it.

Basically was planning it to be out already, but unfortunately been busy with other things and haven't had enough time to put on it to get it done already.

Still haven't done any code and basically planning not to do either.

However, I did get one idea just a moment ago, and I am not sure I am happy or unhappy about getting it.

For I just figured out that basically, instead of making a game, I could have made a mock-up of that game, of what it could have looked like. That would have been useful to me too since I would have that way got some more solid idea how it would look and feel like, and also would have been some first steps into figuring out some gfx I could have maybe used even in the final product in the future.

Also, this speedgame would have motivated me to make that mock-up.

 So everything seems good and dandy, so why am I not sure I am happy for getting that idea. Well, simply because I am about to go on a trip today, and I don't think I have time to make even that mock-up anymore.

Had I got that idea yesterday, I would have made it and would be very happy about it. Now it is sort of frustrating figuring something I could have got done somewhat easily and that had been even quite useful, but not being able to do it anymore today due to other circumstances.

But, I guess it is good since perhaps I can use this in some future years' speedgame, in case I end up joining in similar situation as this year.

All in all, it is funny that while I didn't get any concrete stuff done, joining this speedgame still served my purpose of having figured out that worthy addition to the genre that I can use in that game that I hope to make as a commercial release in, hopefully near future, when I am able to concentrate on making a game again.

Basically, I have never got so little done in a speedgame that I joined, yet, I feel this was very much a success for me, I got from it the thing I was most looking forward to from it.

That was pretty fast. You could have entered the Speedgame: Hardmode even with that speed I guess.

Well, I have not got a single line of code done, yet I feel joining this Jam was a success already.

When I joined, I had basically two goals, or hopes, in mind.

The first one was in hopes of perhaps getting this game started, which I haven't, and might well be I won't either at this point yet.

However, seconds was that so far my idea was based on making a game to sell on a small platform, which was missing this kind of game. However, I couldn't help but think that if I could just figure out something simple new idea to this system, it might become sellable on other platforms too, and while having tinkered about ideas to this game jam based upon the verses, I did come up with, actually, even two simple enough ideas that would make it slightly more unique and worthy.

The first one is that when I was thinking of adding more units to lanes, I was unsatisfied by the basic idea that these have had. Idea have been that either you are able to choose the location of a tower (Plants vs Zombies) or if your units are moving, you simply click on your units icon, and one more marches from left to right. Basically I wanted these both. I wanted  to both get to choose the location more freely, as well as unit to move.

And then I figured it would be actually fun to drag them with your mouse from the unit icon to whatever location you want to drop them at, and that dropping gave me an idea. Why not that dropping itself do something too.

I haven't thought about it that much yet, but the basic idea is there. For example, you could have a unit that is otherwise not that good, but that unit is big and heavy, and when you drop it on the battlefield, if anyone is under him, it will hurt a lot.

Another thought that came to me was that there could be some units that could work a bit like bowling balls. Think as an example a hedgehog. You could throw it by dragging with your mouse and releasing the mouse button and depending on how fast you dragged it, it would roll forward as a spike ball for some time, hurting and collapsing everyone on the way, until finally movement stops and it starts walking/fighting regularly.

another thought, which had to do with the Psa 127:4  As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. 

I thought I would very much like to have an arrow that the player can use to aim and shoot at enemies, as long as you are skilled enough to hit.

Either this bow would come to the bottom middle, or it would come to somewhere on the left. They both give different options on how it would work and what it can do.

Anyway, just having figured out these two things were already worth joining the jam, even if I don't get a single line of code done for the jam.

Nice to see someone else put a DebBlog too!

I was originally planning on skipping speedgame this year too, but then I saw message about this in CGDC and started thinking the timing for the speedgame is sort of good.

Thing is, I am bit stuck, having to do some work that isn't unpleasant but not what I want to do really either.

What I would much rather do is Games, but unfortunately cant afford that in sense that it takes time before game is finished and even then it might not make any money, and bills need to be paid already now.

I, however, got one very simple game idea that would be quickly doable, it isn't anything special, but I realized a game like that is missing from the Amiga market, so I could maybe get a couple of sales from it in there.

But the problem is, doing this other work already, which involves being in front of a screen, sucks my interest in being in front of a screen even more.

So while I wouldn't call speedgames timing exactly good in the sense that due to that other screenwork, I would not like to spend more time on screen, this speedgame might however help me at least start on that game project.

Therefore I am taking very relaxed approach to Speedgame. I take it as an opportunity to motivate me to at least start making the game, maybe I get something playable to show in this speedgame time, maybe not.

In addition, I have been thinking that if I could figure out some unique approach, that is also easy to implement enough, to that game, then maybe it could become worthy enough to be published in other platforms as well, and not just Amiga market, which is missing a game like that.

But about the game.

It is one variation of a Tower Defence game. The one which is from a side and which has lanes, and where in addition to just defending, you can also send your units against the enemy, often having like tower vs tower kind of gameplay.

Plants vs Zombies is perhaps best known example of this approach, although Plants vs Zombies is missing the part of being able to send your own units to attack.

Anyway, that is the plan for my speedgame and now I am looking at the verses and looking how to implement it and perhaps figure out some more unique approach to the game.

I already checked that every verse does fit the bill:

Psa 127:1  A Song of degrees for Solomon. Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. 

This I am thinking most since clearly this is talking of a tower defence kind of thing, but not directly, so this could yield some interesting approach to the mechanics.

Psa 127:4  As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. 

This could simply be that there is some hero character who shoots arrows, but you could basically beat it by sending bunch of your own children against it. Say, you could be a bunny, and human with arrows attacks but you could produce more bunnies quickly to attack it.

Mat 21:13  And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. 

This would be basically fun, you would play as sort of Jesus, I would think it would be something like that you keep sending angels against demons, and when your angels are winning, Jesus keeps overthrowing some tables. Or maybe even literally interpret opponents as thieves.

Finally the gameplay video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUu6KI3vyF0&feature=youtu.be

I will post you a video later, it is rendering on the background as I speak, but it is a slow process, so could well take couple of hours before I get it all the way to youtube.

Main problem with this game is that I still dont understand what is the principle of Jesus catching you. If I hit obstacles or not, it dont seem to really matter that much. Yes, If I do hit obstacles it seems he catches me even faster, but difference is that hitting obstacles i get 15 point, not hitting them, i end up at 30 points or something, so I dont really get it.

It is also very hard to get those special powers at all due to this, and I actually didnt get to try a single one, although I once did get that gem bar up and it told me to press enter, which I didnt notice until I died already (this one is not on video).

The video brings up some more problems with the game, which mainly has to do with slow machines like mine was while recording. This video is my first play session, but after turning off recording, I took another try since I suspected rfecording was slowing it down a lot, and I was right, I got at least double the speed, making the game finally playable.

Problem while I was recording was that things happened so slow that It was hard to do any quick reaction things.

This slow version however revealed one problem with your game, there was no sound effect telling if you hit an bostacle, which brought me a lot of confusion to the playing, and I didnt quite get how to catch those games until I played it without recording on. It appears, I keep jumping at wrong moment all the time which you cant quite figure out when machine is too slow. However, without recording on, it was clear how the timing should be done and I catched those gems much better and also got that powerbar filled once.

But even without recording on, I still couldnt figure out how to slow down Jesus from catching me, and I still couldnt get further than 40 points I think, and since it didnt seem to make enough difference, I didnt play longer to find out aboutt hose special powers since they were still difficult for me to get to the point to get to activate them.

The gametype is actually somethig I dislike, but I think you did a good job there making a christian theme for that one and were able to integrate it without it seeming like it was stuffed there just to get it christian. no, it felt like it naturally belonged there, so good job on that, although basically the christian message part bit escaped me. But I did like the basic idea of grace gets bigger when more sin is involved and Jesus trying to catch you all the time, regradless how sinful you are.

This game was actually bit difficult to rate on most categories since this similar thing of basically great but actually bit poor was all around in those categories.

To take the christian category, yes, basically you did very good job there, lots of message is there, characters having biblical names, brilliant idea of Jesus chasing you etc.

But in the end, I am very confused about what the message actually was, making it very bad in that sense. So it is like mix of brilliance and crappiness, and this was same situation in some other categories too. If I visit the rating still this evening, I might well change my ratings since this was very hard to decide whether to give high rating or lower rating on some of the categories.

It was nice that music and special abilities changed, and it was nice you got to unlock these characters. Basically same system as in Speedgame hardcore version game of yours, but it works and makes the game better.

Basically only problem with that was that I couldnt figure out how to escape Jesus longer, making me already feel bored while I was chasing enough points for the last two characters.

So basically a great system that enhances the gameplay and makes it longer lastin gexperience, but without figuring out how to get more points in one game, those things are starting to make game rather frustrating.

I also liked how you had these gems to give something more to do than just run and avoid obstacles with that power up system (although I didnt get to try it actually), it was another good idea.

That basically you grammed quite much good into this game, and while I havent yet played the rest of the speedgames, it does look to me that if there havent been some problems in execution of this game, this could well have won the competition. I dont think it is going to win it in its current state, but potential was there definetily.

All in all, I dont like the game genre, but I basically did like what I saw and played, except for the confusion that ruined the fun a lot from me. If I had knew how to slow down Jesus catching me, or perhaps it was just bad design choise, I could have seen myself enjoying this for the whole 20 minutes I played this on the video.

Heres the gameplay video first:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNkhsYs4W7

As you can see from the video, there are two different game sessions.

The first one ended when I ran out of hearts as I forgot to pay attention to them when so many monsters attacked at once. Anyway, that was my own mistake but also made me think it had been good to have something like alarm sound or similar when hearts go down to three or something. But that wasnt a big deal.

What however was a major big deal, was the crashing. Session 2 luckily happened to be the furthest I got on this game.

I tried to play this 8 times in total, until I just decided to give up. Never reached as far as on session 2 before game crashed.I first thought it might have been affected because of my recording on background, but actualy, it might have been the opposite, for the last session I played the game without recording both to see if it works as well as compare the speed of the gameplay, but actually it crashed sooner than on other sessions.

Would like to take 2 stars away just for that since I am feeling pretty pissed off still trying to play that game, all the small things that wouldnt annoy otherwise, especially on hardmode game, really started taking their toll, but I dont think it is fair to take more than 1 star from crash problem, even from this serious one.

I recommend you make another crash free version of this game for those to play it who play it after the voting is over, for after watching the rest from the gameplay video you provided, I would have really liked to get tot the end myself, now that end lost a lot watching it just from video.

So, the little annoyances that became really big annoyiances after starting the game for the nth time.

First of all, why does the game start so slow. Alrady first time I was looking like it is taking ages before the fading ends and game starts. And text, why cant i skip them. One push complete the text, second push, remove it. Now I was force dto watch the text come to screen slowly, which didnt bother me the first time, but already did the second time.

Another terrible thing was the monster animation. Playability suffered terribly when there were several monsters on screen, and especially when playing for the nth time that was absolute torture. That was part that I felt bad even when playing the first time, but once again, it does go once, it only starts to bother you after you have to suffer it through more than once.

But that was about bad parts. I was in such a bad mood after failing to complete it the 8th time that I had to start from the bad things first.

Music is obviously very good. Not perfect, since I think in some parts it is bit overdoing it compared to what the game looks like, but very good indeed, especially the game complete part makes it very moody scene.

I actually bit missed what was the broken part on the end on the princess that why did they think she was that (avoiding giving spoilers to others, although I doubt anyone who would get spoiled reads this), I understand that the monsters were all about possibly that broken part, but I didnt quite understand why others were saying that broken thing?

Other than that, a great ending, one of the best ones I seen on any game. Good twist etc. and changed the game completely, that you thought game was this type A, when it actually was type B as you notice in the end.

Game itself was quite enjoyable too, especially for a hardmode game. Basically this had been a strong entry even to classic version of competition, but to hatrdmode even more so.

I also liked that there was some variety to monsters attacks, that sometimes came alone, sometimes in groups etc. That levels were different.

I also liked how each level were sort of fitting into a one screen (although they didnt in practice), so this was nice change too to RPGs where we have large dungeons to go around that now always just a small piece and bit of strategy there.

This concept could well be transformed into commercial one with more complexity and variety of monsters etc. and it would work quite nice, especially for something like Nintendo 3DS, Switch, Mobile, where you could easily have short game sessions of just finishing one floor when you are on a bus or something.

Graphics were good. No more, no less. They werent anything spectacular, but they did their job.

Having more attack types during the game was also good, although last two (from which I didnt get to experience triangle myself) made the player to over powered. With push attack, how can you die anymore as long as you play it right? So that was bit of a failure there actually.

Games length was quite okay. Basically might have been better if it had been bit shorter, since while I was playing, I was already waiting for it to end before the crash happened, but it wasnt that lengthy however that it would have really suffered from length, it was still on fine limit.

All in all, good game with excellent story with great twist in the end and good music. Graphics suit the game, and few sounds do their job. Couple of Polishing problems (forced to watch text, slow movement when lots of enemies) which are forgivable due to hardmode, except now that they are combined with a crash they really start annoying you bad.

Despite the crash, I felt this was the best game of the entries.

Heres the video: 

Review time.
I think you had a good idea here for a game, but I think you made wrong design decision.

First of all, I think this would have worked as it is had it been part of something like Nintendo Labo 04 which is about Virtual Reality.
But as this one is on computer, I dont think the speed version was a very working choice. I think better had been to have this as some sort of relaxed slow paced game where you keep cracking things just to relax. I think this concept would work on something like that very well.

Anyway, I did enjoy playing it for that short while, but if this game had had 100 levels, Boy had this been boring repeating game, unless, once again, made into a relaxing game instead.

For the four levels it had, this was workable enough this speed version.

One thing that was problem with this game was the confusion. You can see from my video (which I will upload when it gets ready) how it took me somewhat long to figure out that that I can use left mouse to "move". I kep clicking on different places trying to get balls to do different things, also kept left mouse down and moved some direction etc.
It also didnt help that you had some sort of random factor there making balls bounce differently when they were thrown from same place, since for that reason it took me a while to realise that clicking when arrow is different place actually makes no difference.

Then I finally figure out I can use right mouse to move, but it still takes me quite long before I figure out I can actually keep right mouse button down at same time as repeatedly clicking left mouse. After that the game finally flows.

Second problem I encounter is with the upgrades, I didnt realise level 2 had already opened, until I had bought the second upgrade, and same thing with third upgrade, hence I thought upgrades was progress to next levels. It was only on level 3 that I noticed that level 4 opened before the upgrade.
This also made me miss the difference between those upgrades, I basically noticed only the difference between bombs and the rest, where the bombs were actually strange as being last upgrade, since they seemed to me as being worse of them all. Balls bounce giving chance for mutiple damage and reaching places it originally wasnt meant to, while Bombs, they just hit and explode having no chance of making any extra damage.

I missed what was difference between the middle ones compared to rest.

But it was good idea getting to choose your ammunition and level, I just unfortunately didnt realise it until bit too late to experiment with them more.

I also liked the levels. There was some variety, and especially the last one, the chest, while it was actually annoyingly hard to hit some of the pieces, I however saw the potential there, that it could be possible to make some interesting levels to this game format although you didnt really explore those possibilities much.

For example to use minigolf as an example, there is toften a track where you shoot straight up and try to get the ball to hit the edge in such way it makes 90 degrree angle to get to the whole, basically L-shaped track. This same could have been used in this game making you need to use spedccifically a ball instead of a bomb to be able to hit a piece like that.

I also liked teh symbolism, especially the first level where you broke the vase and it was golden from inside.

All in all, very good entry for hardmode, although I feel it was a mistake making this a speed game instead of a relaxed game. As relaxation game this could have even commercial potential.

But indeed, I did feel bit excited trying to break those things in time when I finally got hang of it all, so you didnt actually fail there, I just think relax version had been better, and this exciting speed version couldnt handle much more levels than it already has, unless you are able to figure out interesting twists to the levels.Also I felt it bit difficult moving to different positions using right mouse down and repeatedly hiting left mouse in that it felt like mouse was about to move out of mouse mat when moving, so it didnt feel good.

All in all, A very good entry for a hardmode. You got something very worthy in such a short time, and although I am complainning about the speed mode versus relaxed mode, even as a speed mode entry, this is still a great entry for a hardmode. Excellent result. Only slightly bigger complaint is confusion, but even that was only a matter of time to overcome, so not that big a deal, especially when it is hardmode on which you cant expect everything to get polished to the max.

Here is the link to video: 

By the way, after watching that video I only then noticed there were arrows pointing towards children, and that you could unzoom the map etc.
That was nice extra touch, but also made it even more screaming for making kids better hidden, as you could anyway see them from the arrows/map, so you could then try hid them harder to find making it more interesting.

I Finished playing your hardmode entry, also made a video about it, but that is still rendering (been having trouble lately uploading videos to youtube, so have used WMV mode to get it done but rendering takes long).

I very much liked the title screen, I also liked the idea that broken but beautiful is someone in a wheelchair looking to find kids. 

Graphics looked good as can be expected since you probably used some ready stuff, music was a good choice again, and this compated to previous years speedgame entry, you had this time made the amount of children to be found a manageablenumber.

10 kids to be found in a game in this state, was pretty good number. Not too many, not too little.

If I saw correctly, there probabaly was sort of a trail that you could follow that would get you through all the kids, which was basically nice. However, I would have wanted the kids to be hiding more cleverly, now it felt very much that kids were just randomly dropped to some locations and thats the game.

Taken into consideration that Hardmode had only very little time, this was a good entry, it looked good, I liked driving with the wheelchair etc. Only that the kids felt too much like they had just been placed there without any better thought. That it felt like the level design was bit lazy, that there was potential for more.

That you could say that while not much really jumped out as great, neither did anything really jump out as bad either, except for the kids locations feeling too lazy. That basically using bit more time for level design would have made this game much better. Now it was a game that entertained exactly that 5-10 minutes it took to complete it, but not a minute more.

Notice about the video (that I will put link to as soon as its done and uploaded) that I first used 1920x1080 mode, and my machine is from 2014 and was the cheap version even then, so it is bit slow, also made it somewhat unplayable. I make a second try with 800x600 which makes it much better already, however, recording the video slows down the game a bit too, so after I stopped recording I did try once more with 800x600 screen, and then it was about playable, it was almost playable with the recording already on, but you can still see that my aiming at turning is bit difficult. 

Also, I didnt realise the turning thing until I took the recording off to have enough frame rate speed, and I liked how it felt turning in that game. So good job in that one by not making it obvious way, but it felt bit like going with wheelchair or something.

Good entry for hardmode, although nothing remarkable in that while I enjoyed playing it this time, I dont see myself playing it again a year later. And excellent idea with having wheelchair character giving game in itself a nice twist that I could even actually see myself starting this game again or recommending this to someone to show that wheelchair character could well be done for a game.

I have forgot to comment this again. I tried this with my daughter, but unfortunately that already happen days ago enough that I dont remember well enough to write about it anymore. Only that it did seem better with two, but it really would have needed that third one too it seems. I thought it would work somewhat fine with two already,  but no, it does require the third one too to really know what its worth, as while it was better with two players compared to one, it wasnt much better anyway. But I suspect everything changes when there is third one too.

Anyway, here is the gameplay video of that two player playing session: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQsqvLZtICs&t=1s

Itch.io has this annoying system where those entries that have less votes get their points reduced a bit.

This year only one game (Dry Place) got affected by this, since it seems that games with 3 or 4 votes, got their real points, while only Dry Place that had only 2 votes, had its points reduced. Here is anyway the real result based upon Raw Points:

Best Christian Teaching:
1 - Radiant Evil
2 - #TheApostle
3 - Super Christian
4- Shine On
5 - AI
6 - Widget World
7 - Dry Place  

Best Overall:
1 - Radiant Evil
2 - Shine On and Super Christian
4 - AI
5 - Widget World
6 - The Apostle
7 - Dry Place

Best fun Game (enjoy playing the game):
1 - Radiant Evil and AI
3 - Shine On and Super Christian
5 - Widget World
6 - #TheApostle
7 - Dry Place

Best Original Concept (New Ideas):
1 - AI
2 - Radiant Evil
3 - Shine On
4 - Widget World
5 - Super Christian and #TheApostle and Dry Place

Best Graphics (preference given to contestant drawn graphics):
1 - Shine On
2 - Radiant Evil
3 - Super Christian
4 - Speedgame and Widget World and #TheApostle
7 - Dry Place

Best Build (Most Stable):
1 - Shine On and Super Christian
3 - AI
4 - Radiant Evil
5 - Widget World
6 - Dry Place
7 - #TheApostle


Changes to Itch.ios official rating are following:

In Best Build Dry Place and #TheApostle switched places.

In best Original Concept, Dry Place becomes tied to number 5 with Super Christian and #TheApostle games, when in itch.ios version Dry Place was dropped to 7th.

RESULTS ARE IN

Results are in, and heres my thoughts. For most part it went about as I expected, and I am basically happy for the end result. Of course it had been nice to be number 1, but I figured fight would be between me, Shine On and Radiant Evil, where any of us three could win, and if you look at results, it was quite tight competition'

rank of games I almost agree with, in my mind, situation was that there were three groups. 

First was me, Shine On, Radiant Evil, and these could end up in any order.
Second was Widget World alone, which would become fourth
And then there was this third group that I felt all were too incomplete, being Super Christian, #TheApostle and Dry Place, and their placing would be in this same order.

However, Super Christian did better than i expected, and surprisingly well in some categories, like being number 3 on best representation of biblical truths. But, I guess that had more to do with low scoring on most entries in this category rather than people actually thinking it was that good a presentation. Another thing I was amazed was winning the best stability. Either others didnt encounter any stability issues or they thought it different than me, for after all, I got stuck to a building for good, and it wasnt that rare to be more or less stuck on buildings or your main character jumping bit unctorollably when getting into rough. So I didnt expect this high stability rating for this, although all in all, it wasnt that bad either. Also, Best fun in playing Super Christian getting 3.5 average score is pretty surprising, especially when considering I gave only 2, making other two giving him either 3 and 5, or both 4s. That is surprising when considering how incomplete the game is and therefore game just ending up in collecting 50 bibles which I personally didnt find very fun due to repetitive nature. This game sure had potential to become a 5 star game. Had it been more complete, It might well have ended being fun enough that I would have given it 5 stars myself too, for sure thing is, it did have that potential, which is proven even more by others giving it already in its current state this high a rating, but in its current state it wasnt very good in my opinion. But that jumping and climbing on buildings, it was very fun concept indeed, but strange is if that alone was enough for people to rate it so high, truly surprises me.

Widget Worlds graphics I was expecting a bit better end result, for after all, they were only hand drawn graphics. I myself gave it only 3 stars, since they werent very good this time, usually Scott42 does better graphics, but they were still fine. When pretty much all other games were using ready graphics, it was sad to see widget world performing so bad compared to these becoming only number 4.

But then again, if we take for example before mentioned Super Christian, yes, it is using ready graphics I suppose, but then again, he is putting them in very nice use. Same with Shine On, they mentioned they put placeholder graphics and they stayed until the end, but then again, all that extra animation they have is part of graphics. So maybe Widget World is exactly where it should be.

#TheApostle becoming number 2 in Christian Teaching category was very much a surprise too, but maybe this was again due to low points in general in this category, for basically I think he had a great way there coming on showing christian teaching, but due to incompleteness, it didnt come out yet.  I would say that this was probably second or third best idea in whole competition (with Radiant Evil being first and then Shine On either second or third), but in its current form the idea didnt come out.

Radiant Evil getting over 4 seems that at least someone didnt either feel there was lack of presenting one of the competition verses, or didnt punish him from it. Personally I thought Radiant Evil was otherwise worth 5 stars, but since I felt he failed on presenting one of the competition verses properly, I felt he had to be punished 1 star away. Basically I felt bit sad doing that, since it absolutely deserved the 5 stars, but then again, if we let people freely make their game without using the verses, then that makes the competition unfair, so therefore from having a glued on top feeling on compeition verse, I decided it had to reflect on the rating. But anyway, Radiant Evil well deserved its first spot on christian teaching, such a brilliant way of showing it.


ABOUT MY OWN RESULTS

Mainly I am happy about the end result. Especially since at point I submitted the game, I was expecting lower end result for my entry, but basically my better end result is for a sad reason, because this years entries in my opinion werent as good this year as they usually have been. You can see this for example from that there was not a single complete seeming game, but they all seemed like they ran out of time. In previous years there is usually at least one small actually complete game that didnt run out of time but aimed at small, and then there are couple of games that while they ran out of time, they still feel complete. Closest to this complete feeling got Shine On, but even it shows some signs of running out of time.

Anyway, While I am basically happy for the results, of course I am sad about some issues, which have nothing to do with voters, but with the product itself.

Christian Teaching #5 - 2.33

For example, ending at spot number 5 on christian teaching was a bummer, but nothing unexpected however. I was afraid this would happen that people wouldnt get the message. This had in great part to do with the video not ending up as I planned. And dont get me wrong, I am very happy for the video, but it does have one problem, it doesnt quite convey the message I was after. I could have told the video guy to change it a bit to get the message out better, but then again, I wanted to give the video guy some freedom too and let him get his vision of the video out. And while that Video is great in my opinion, the message doesnt come out very well, which probably resulted in the christian message rating, since ultimately, if you didnt get the beginning, you wouldnt get the end either.

For basically I was interpreting the verse. Interpretation was that it is talking of Robots attacking Jerusalem, that those robots are what will later become these like mighty men that will be Attacking against Jerusalem.

And then I did a small twist to the end of game. While you think this game is about that single bible verse, I actually added another verse to the game too, which wouldnt be reelased until you first complete the game. For game is giving dark vision of Robots attacking Jerusalem and killing all the people they can, but as the game is only AI simulations, and in the end you click the "Execute Plan" button, which is the point when all those things from before become real, then at that point comes the message which tells that what ever was written beforfe, including these Joel verses, were written for our learning, so that by reading scriptures patiently, we could both have comfort as well as hope, since we notice that despite all these Robots attacking, God takes care of us, and in the end, all will be good. So dont worry, be happy, despite them developing these horse looking robots for US army right now.

Either people didnt think this was clever thing at all, or as I think, they probably didnt understand it since presentation failed to present it, which is unfortunate, since had they got it, I guess I could have ended maybe number 3 in that category.

Best Build (most stable) - #3 - 3.667

This was category I was most afraid with other category that had to do with this stability. In the end, it seems people didnt really encounter the unstability issues that I was afraid they might. This might be due to lack of voters actually. Had there been more voters, perhaps more had encountered stability issues, but now with just three ratings, maybe I was just lucky with them all.

Best Original Concept (New Ideas) #1 - 5.0

This category I just clearly dont get. Last year I made a game I thought would have ended up first or second in that category, and I dont get why lst years first one was ranked first when I didnt feel it was very original.

This year, I am getting full 5. I just dont get it. I didnt think this was that original. 4 I would understand, since there are new ideas and concepts, but in the end, I didnt think this was so original. But if people think this is worth 5, well, Im not complaining. I just dont get it.

Best Graphics (preference given to hand drawn graphics) - #4 - 2.666

This was one that I was wondering how would I end up in this. And while I am quite happy for the ranking of number #4, I am at same time slightly unhappy for the 2.666 only. But then again, It does make sense, mostly.

For basically I was wondering what would people think about just using rectangles basically, but then again, it was supposed to be a radar picture, so they were somewhat suitable. But then again, Those command buttons I never had time to enchance them in any way , so they are quite ugly. In addition to that, the information given about levels contain extra information that dont have any relevance, making it bit messy, and text arent that good looking either, basically put once in place "temporarily" and there they stayed like they were with only very little change, didnt even look for some special font to use for them, so indeed, it is bit ugly.

But then again, I think graphics were clear and they did do good job in bringing out the feeling I meant. And takin from google maps those places and then recoloring them to more radar looking way, I think it worked quite nice in the end.

On top of that, when considering hand drawn graphics should be valued more than the rest, I thought this could have done better, when almost all were using ready graphics. Sure, I was also taking from google maps, but that is still somewhat making the graphics yourself, especially when I recolored them, so at least I made graphics myself, hence was hoping bit higher. I was afraid people might not like them much, especially thanks to confusion in command buttons, text etc. But then again, I was hoping the Robot video at beginning would look so good that even if they would think my graphics are worth even just 2 (i was hoping them think 3 or even 4 if lucky), they would think video worth 5 and make the end graphics 3 or 4 stars, as in giving one more star on top of in game graphics. But seems video didnt persuade people enough to give better graphics, nor did they value "hand drawn" graphics or the general concept at all. But, still ending number #4 is not bad at all.

Best Fun Game #1 - 3.666

This I am very happy, since along with stability, this was an issue I was very much afraid how it would end. Basically I believe the game concept was fun, but there were so many issues that could have hindered this.

First of course the stability, if game had kept crashing, people wouldnt have felt very fun playing it.

Levels was another thing I was worried. I had made first two levels by purpose very easy, so that people could try out them pretty much any way they want and still get through them (although strangely,#TheApostle maker reported he had difficulty passing them, so obviously they werent that easy then). Idea was that 3rd level would be first level that you would actually need to actually concentrate and have some idea to get through. Although in third level there was this idea still, that as long as you are willing to sacrifice some robots, it would be easy to pass, but that means less robots in future levels left. 

When in the end I practically had only levels 1 and 2 as time ran out and 3, 4, and 5 were giving that bug problem with slower machines, I was worried that it wouldnt be fun playing just levels 1 and 2, them being too easy.

Also, Im not sure, but might be that you can never get to play levels 4 and 5 properly, since it might be I am having bug with those Coders, that it puts one too less a coderf in a level, than you have to kill to pass it, making it impossible to ever complete even level 3 and therefore got proper amount of robots to level 4 and 5, so you might be stuck with only 10 robots on levels 4 and 5.

Then I was also afraid of the general confusion since I didnt have time and strengh left to think and make proper instructions. It had helped a lot had I after level 2 just displayed a message "Due to bug with slower machines, levels 3,4 and 5 plus game complete are now all open. Feel fre to try levels 3 - 5, but you can also just complete the game by clicking execute plan". THat had helped a lot with confusion I believe, since I was very much afraid people would wonder what happened, why are all these places open, and then they click "execute plan" and suddenly its all over. What happened? Hu?

This was one of my biggest fears that people would punish me from that, as there was no explanation why that happened. But if they did, then either game was really so much fun it still did fine, or they didnt punish me. Either way, I am happy.


My placing #3 - 3.389

Sure I was hoping for higher spot, but I knew it would be tough fight between top 3. Each had their strong points and failings. Radiant Evil had been a clear winner, had he been able to polish all the bugs and small things out, which really affected the game a lot. Shine On on the other hand was very much in shape and felt mostly complete and professional, however, while the concept was very interesting, it didnt have much replayability value in the end, or to put it otherwords, it didnt work out as fun is it seemed. On top of that, they had made it too difficult and some things that would tell what was happening (and to be able to figure out why) were missing.

My problem was the general confusion, bad bugs, having failed making levels 3-5 with no time to fix them properly or even test them, lack of features like save game (took me maybe 15 minutes to implement when i did afterwards making me feel very unhappy not giving a thought to it during competition time), overall, while it was strong in many ways, there was lots of shortcomings still in the game at time i submitted it. Basically one more day of time, and I might have won the whole competition.



Anyway, I am happy for this years result, While it could have won, it on the other hand could have went much much worse due to all the problems I still had in that game. So not bad at all ending #3.

that is actually funny to hear since I thought those two first levels would be too easy and people might not like it due to that.

But heres a little secret, To beat the first level, you probably can win it just by clicking the red button "Kill people" and then keep spawning robots from the bottom right spawn location when ever you can.

I am suspecting level 2 might be close to something similar as well.

Basically Idea was that third level would be first difficult level to beat, and first two be both easy just to get hang of the game. Third level is not difficult actually, as long as you are willing to sacrifice some robots, since there are lots of people trapped in that left top corner place, but that place is surrounded by weapons and some of the robots will get destroyed before you can freely kill the people, which will affect next levels too since only survived robots transfer to next levels.

Levels 3-5 are pretty much untested. I was making them last day, and when i finally took first test on them, i noticed some serious problem with them and decided to focus on something else instead since I didnt think I would be able to solve the problems in time that I had left anymore. That is also why "execute plan" which completes the game opens after level 2 already, otherwise it hadnt opened until beating level 5.

I am not sure but there is even a chance levels 3-5 are impossible to complete, since they all have coders in them that you are supposed to kill all of them to get through, however, I might have made mistake in code that it puts one too few coder in each level. Hence it might demand you to kill 3 coders, while only 2 coders are actually available to kill. On top of that, these coders are randomly placed, so they might well end up to a location where they escape the screen right at start of level, making it based upon luck if it is even possible to get them all killed, even if I didnt mess that before mentioned code.

Anyway, levels 3-5 are there just to show what I had in mind, not to be seriously played. You beat levels 1 and 2, and click "Execute Plan", and you have completed the game in its speedgame submitted form.

(1 edit)

I think you pretty much hit the sweet spot there by making them not too big, not too small. As long as Problems are out, like unintentional confusion on what actually killed you, this game is great.

By the way, I forgot to mention about that blur effect (or whatever it was). Basically I liked that one, it came the game more dreamy feel which suited it well. However, There was downside to it too, which had to do with my machine being too slow. For at that candle place where I had maybe 3 FPS speed, it actually made things worse, especially when I was still thinking that I had died because of having lit the wrong candle, which belief by the way was forced even more by only one of many candles actually getting lit. But otherwise I liked that effect, it was good idea to try something like that, making it also set itself apart from the rest of first person perspective games.

Thanks for encouraging comments about writing reviews. Although, it is easy to be the best when you are only one, making me also the worst.

Regarding my game my biggest fear is that it might be confusing in its current state. Just like you said, it took you a while to figure it out. Afterwards, finally looking from outside without time pressure anymore, I really should have put more priority to having better instructions. On last day I should just have abandoned levels 3-5 completely and just make other things better, like instructions. Then if Had time left, start making them one level at a time. Now I made all the levels as first thing, and when i started testing them, they even failed in the end, creating actually extra confusion when they all open after completing level 2 without any explanation inside game as to why. Just two lines of text at start of game telling that, and push mousebutton to continue would have helped already, but didnt do even that.

Originally those command buttons were just for testing, meant to have picture or text or something there, but in the end decided to save time and leave them as they are, after all, color coding was actually somewhat telling already when you just figured their purpose out first.

This was my first try on AI, although in some sense I did do it last year too, but in different way. This was very good learning experience, and although I would now, knowing better, do things differently and better, I think it came out quite well in the end considering it was trying out for first time. There are naturally problems, like when you attack buildings, units actually move faster than when doing those other two things. This has to do with the pathfinding system I did (theres different method for buildings and the rest), but issue like that is a minor issue, and important part is that it anyway works.

Putting this message in case you missed I also posted review right after this one. It is message number 21, so it went to next page, so you might have missed it.

Review time. It is a real shame I couldnt make the video this time, since I think you would have benefited greatly from it, especially on level 3 which was extremely frustrating to me.

So, you set to make the winning game this year, and you almost did it, or maybe you even did do so, since this years entries are in my opinion not as strong as usual. That It seems there was not a single complete game, but all ran out of time. Your game was actually only one I at least thought was about complete, although shorter than it was originally supposed to be, but based upon the bugs and problems i encountered, I guess you ran out of time too. Well, this might still end up being the winner. Or actually, right now any game can end up being a winner since it seems to me that You and Me are only ones voting, so if one of us happened to like some obscure game a lot, it might end up winning the whole thing, unless more votes start coming in.

But to game itself. Fame itself, the idea etc. was very good. I liked the puzzle nature, mood etc. in this game a lot. However, some bugs and flaws however downplayed this game surprisingly much actually.

One issue was about how to play the game. I first test accidentally picked the light saber and didnt even realise I did so (when i tested if it works without video recroder) then next I played for real and started looking for that light thing, then saw stick on floor and figured i need to pick it, but how? Well eventually i went on top of it and got it. I however wasnt sure how i got it, but at later in game I realised that everything worked automatically just by going close to them, which was a good choice by the way.

However, this issue was quite minimal issue, since you had chosen to use very small sized levels, so sooner or later the player will accindentally figure out how to do things. A very good choice in my opinion.

This small sized levels helped in future levels too, since while there was somewhat lot of confusion on things, like in second level I didnt at first even know to what I died for when I went close to first door, and this was naturally confusing, it didnt really matter much, since level was anyway small enough. They were small enough that this kind of confusion was affordable and it actually helped with building the real puzzle nature of the game that you actually had to discover what to do in them, and they could basically be pretty much anything, making it a very fun discovery.

You could even say that what you lost in confusion, you won in making the puzzles more puzzle nature, instead of straightforward puzzles with rules. So in the end they balanced each other out.

But then there were some real issues that would sometimes make even despite the small level size, puzzles be hard to figure out.

In first level if you went first to door, you saw the message of not enough light. But if you didnt, and even worse, didnt even check the sign, you could pick up the lightsaber and then hear sound of locked door when you go to door. Now what is there to do after that anymore? Well, in first level you would probably sooner or later try the door again and get through, but in second level this was much worse.

I saw the sign, and then I looked at floor in front of that wrong door being different, so i figured maybe I am supposed to walk at some right spot to that door. So i tried and "you chose wrong way". Well okay, "try again" and a new plan. hmm. Perhaps not by sight means one if these rocks are a fake rock. So i started going through rocks until I got to that beginning opening that I hadnt noticed before. Ah, heres another door. Now I found another door, ha, this must be the right one, this was clever. Except... locked sound. Hu?, it wasnt the right door, then what am i supposed to do.

After some time I come to conclusion that perhaps there is bug in this game that I actually need to read the sign first. So i read the sign first, then go to door, and voila. Now I got through. But this isnt something player should need to figure out. All player should need to figure out is to find that second door. Not that you need to read a sign too first.

From second level, we get to the most frustrating level in the game, the level 3. Oh boy, this was so frustrating it probably took one star out in many categories.

First of all, Dont put that many candles. Part of the frustration came from FPS being maybe only 3 or something at times when there were so many candles, especially since there was no use for that many candles, they actually created some extra confusion there, for first I didnt realise I was dieing for the chest, but it seemed to me like I died trying to lit those two candles right beside the sign. Not even sure how I ended up touching the chest in that.

With this very slow speed, trying to lit the right candles was very difficult, since there were dozens of candles, and only one of them would lit. Especially at beginning when I thought most candles were there to kill me this was specially frustrating. On top of that, you had some really strange movement system I couldnt quite figure out even in the end. I guess idea was to prevent player from moving too far in to darkness, that you had to have light to get there. But at statrt this invisible wall was simply confusing, and on top of that, it seemed to move the player real strangely and I could never make sense to it. At some point it looked like it would automatically move me towards that chest, but that wasnt true. Then it seemed like there were some blocks. Like first candle need to be lit on left side of chest. then second and third on right side. THe fourth would be on left side, but you could get there from front of chest, but had to go from behind the chest, and all this starnge restriction.

When I finally got way to door open, I go open the door, and I am stuck behind the open door, on left side of it, and I simply cant move. At this time I quit and go check your playtrhough instructions, which says I can open the chest in the end, but actually I dont think I can, or at least I didnt, but got finally through the door after lot of struggle and frustration again, even I already knew what I had to do. This level really failed your game badly since I liked that levels idea, but its execution was simply single most terrible experience in all of these speedgames, and that is a real shame, since this level too was actually good in its design etc. just its execution was horribly frustrating experience.

4th level was somewhat funny idea. I also first missed that money graphcis, thought they were some bricks, so i figured, apples or bricks, well, i guess it is bricks. But cleverly it was actually the apples. I first thought you sort of made mistake there, until i realised the other one was money and this was a clever playing with our imagery, that basically we think apples as bad (although it was actually unmentioned fruit in reality), but here we see that here we have like God giving instruction on you can take these, so this direct command goes above the idea that something is bad. Like Dont kill, but when going to promised land, kill them all.

5th level didnt feel very natural. It was important from storywise point of view that you had to choose cross. But main problem was that you never really thought about them locusts as a bad thing. It also felt very much glued into game to get the Joel verse there to justify it as basis for the game. 5th level was definitely the least clever of all the levels and only one that didnt quite seem worthy of being in the game.

From this I get in to the christian message part. This was basically A great example on how to put christian message in game and mechanics. Great implementation basically, however, I am going to rate only 3 or 4 in this case, not because the message part wasnt grat, I actually think you made best implementation of christian teaching this year, but there is one problem competition wise. As we were supposed to use at least one of those given verses as basis of our game, then while I think you had great implementation of teaching, it was actually teaching something else than any of those verses, and for that I need to punish you a bit. If we had had one of those light verses that you are already using, I might have given you 5 stars actually. But understand, only reason you are not getting that many stars from me, is because you sort of didnt get it done in competition rules so to say.

I really liked how those levels played out, that there was mechanic and allegorical sense in them. You need more light (scripture) to see the door(way).

Second level you dont pick the obvious and easy road, but you have to search for the scriptures for the right road which might not seem natural to flesh and you might not see the goal until you reach it.

Third one you shouldnt go for earthly riches, but light your way with scruipture, and more light/scripture you have, further you can go and finally reach the door.

Then at fourth came the idea that apple which we generally thought bad was okay, since you are clearly said you are free to take it. On the other hand, money on the ground we were not told we can take.

In fifth you go to christ even when it is scary and you get there.

Great teaching in mechanics and game itself. Really great one, and bit of a shame having to punish you on that, since this was such a brilliant christian teaching implementation, just from wrong verses.

I almost forgot to mention one thing, there was some responsiveness issue with clicking "yes" or "no" after dieing, which also affected the fun a bit, especially after already being frustrated not figuring out what even killed you, then having to click several times or for long to make sure it reacts to it, makes you frustrated even more.


All in all, if this game had worked better, this had been a clear winner in my mind. Right now these bugs are actually affecting the game a lot. Thanks to this years entries all being very unfinished, you might still end up winning. But man, had this been bug free, I would have very much enjoyed playing this, such nice little puzzles that i enjoyed every single one (even the last one despite it not being that good compared to rest), only frustrating bugs destroying the fun, especially on level 3. Having this good puzzles alone is a rarity in games, especially with such a variety and in combination with supporting scriptures. Graphics, music all working well together. I do think this is worth fixing, since this will be nice little game for christians to play out as a snack even in future.

Found the problem. Seems it is my screenrecording software that somehow interferes with your game. For some strange reason it doesnt slow the game down, but it makes it so that things happen only when i click a mouse button. Like pressing "ESC" doesnt do anything, unless I press it at same time with left mouse.

Unfortunately wont be able to make a gameplay video for you.