Hey parquillian! Yes, I definitely want to host another Text-Based Adventure Jam. I am so happy to see that there is still interest in it. I'll look into hosting one the week of October 10 when I will have enough time to be properly involved in the jam.
Thank you so much for your post! Let me know if you have any questions.
Automated pause is a great idea. We have thought about having a settings file where you can toggle things like an automated pause at the end of a line, or maybe automatically typed dialogue. I'll hopefully be implementing that soon, although implementation of variables became more of a priority since it makes writing more efficient. Will update the itch and github soon as we've got variables up and running -- in fact, I believe they work on the current clean-main branch in Github, although the code is a mess.
Glad to see someone else building the "seven" theme into the music! That's awesome!
You got really smooth and intuitive gameplay. I'd only recommend to make it far clearer when the game has actually ended. Since the game can be so short, maybe building in stages to the level could make it longer but still engaging? I know you might not have had time for that, but if you're looking to make it longer, that's my suggestion.
You got a really chill game. I wish I could perfectly understand what was going on -- I have a sort of an idea, but don't quite understand how the squares are updated. It's very relaxing and chill, just like you wanted, so fantastic job with that.
What would it be like if you had letters instead of numbers? As a musician, I feel like I might be able to understand the game a little better if instead of "1" it said "C" or something. Just a thought.
Thanks for making the game! It's a pleasure to play.
No, there's no way to aim in other directions! It was a bit tough to come up with a good aiming mechanic. Funny to see how tough the boss fight is -- I was slightly worried it would be too easy. Thanks for checking the game out!
Thanks for all the feedback! Very insightful, audio/visual feedback for dodging and charging would be great.
Nice idea to tie the dodging and charging together. I thought of something similar, where charging also gave you a shield that would evaporate when you shot. The most important thing, as you said, is to give some sort of feedback for charging. It's not satisfying to press a button and see nothing happen!
Thanks for playing and for typing up your insights!
You got some extremely smooth movement controls, which makes moving around alone pretty fun. The sound effects on the enemies are pretty quirky and gave the game a lot of character.
The movement's imprecision lends itself to making the game somewhat difficult actually, but at the same time there isn't too much danger of losing health and dying. The combination of hard to aim (probably a ton better on mouse, I'm on trackpad, but the sliding movement remains the same) and not much danger of being hit means the levels can take a pretty long time. And on top of that, the enemies don't die in a single shot. I think giving the enemies less health and/or making aiming easier (maybe a full laser beam while aiming and not just an arrow) would make the game less drawn-out.
Well done with music, the sound effects, and the smooth movement. Great job!
Thanks for playing! I admit the mechanic is a bit frustrating -- I thought of some possible workarounds actually, like maybe at the same time as charging your attack, you're also charging a shield? I think the most frustrating part is how little response there is until you finally press it the seventh time. The purpose is to keep the player counting to seven constantly, thus make it a theme.
Thanks for playing! Never made a boss fight before so this was a good learning experience as far as structuring attacks and stages. I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks for playing! Glad you paid attention to the "story"! I totally would have added dialogue with more time -- some pre-fight banter between the player and boss would be neat.
Thanks for the comment! Thought I'd have a bit (a lot) more time than I ended up having -- excited to participate in one of these when I have more time
Dude that was awesome! Love how you ramp up the "weirdness" (that's not a very good word to use but it's the best I have at the moment) until the end! The fact that I feel like there's even an ending that can be spoiled attests to the gameplay/story arc you managed to achieve. Great work!
I love the mechanics of your game! That must be a very complex system, especially in BASIC. Your writing does a great job developing the narrator's character and evoking the settings. You used colors very well to signify who was saying what dialogue. It was tough sometimes to figure out what to do at each moment because of how complex your command system was -- for example, I tried to use the stove in the starting room to make breakfast, or tried to get the saw out of the closet before the closet was open. It really picks up once you get to the town square, however. The "think" command does a pretty good job giving the player a hint at some hidden actions. What if all the interactive items were upper-case? Like DOUBLE DOOR. It took me a long time to figure out I needed to "go" - "double door".
Really great job, Eduardo, developing this immersive system and writing! Keep it up!
You guys got an impressive amount of work done! You have a very engaging writing style that conveys at once the magical/fantasy atmosphere of your game. SUPER creative to have the randomization aspect so that the game can be "endless". The setting in a train and cycling through these drastically different story beats all nail the theme. Some of the beats are much more active and have the player make more decisions, and those tend to be the most engaging ones. I really liked the horror beat in which the text starts to change weirdly, the word "eyes" starts to blink and is written at a slant across the screen again and again -- that was really haunting!
Great entry! I really enjoyed playing it and reading your prose.
Just thinking about it -- one thing you did very well is maintain a lot of interesting interaction from the player. The feeling that I'm taking actions that are having some effect and are important is undeniable.
Well done! The images add a lot to the feeling of traveling from one area to another. They also give a cool stylish feeling to the game, as well as the font! I also like the feeling of having a quest -- it makes the game feel very adventurous. Keep it up!
Like everyone else has said, your prose is stunning. I really appreciated the moments of designing the tapestry, let alone when the designs you pick are laid out at the end. And of course, thematically, your game overflows with the sense of a lone wanderer. You also had a profound message about the nature of stories.
As awesome as it was to go through the tapestries choosing a color and a reason for that color, it became a bit of a daunting task near the end to scroll through each color and reason, and it could take long enough to make a break in the story's flow. What if the colors and reasons were already matched up? I think that would help maintain the flow of your game and ease the player's decision-making. So instead of looking for yellow, then looking to say that it evokes gold, you do both of those in one action.
And lastly, the amount of care you were able to put into seemingly each word was amazing. The whole experience felt so precise. Great job k.w.!
P.S. You are very welcome for hosting the jam! It's been my absolute pleasure to see all our amazing submissions coming in!
What a delightful game! It made my mouth water! Your imagery and descriptions are very well done. You paid a lot of attention to detailing the foods themselves, but I also loved the descriptions of each island you give before checking out the restaurants. Giving the player a mission of being a "foodie" was a very unique idea; this mission filled in for the usual conflict or tension in a game by providing the player with a purpose, but not raising any stakes. Overall, you took a very relaxing approach to the theme of "traveler" and made a calming, even meditative, experience. Great job!
P.S. It was very creative to have that one restaurant that was closed! Did you run out of time for it?
Great entry! I love the separate endings. Your decision to classify each ending as good/bad/neutral at the end is a really nice touch for a jam game since it qualifies the result of the player's actions and indicates that there are one or two other endings to get (you also mention that explicitly). Really cool to play it twice and get wildly different results! You also used pauses that wait for input very effectively, and you have a great arc to the story: it begins super emphatically mundane, and the player has to manually decide to even get out of bed, and then to wash up in three parts (the washing up sequence was really smooth). And then by the end there's a strange girl screaming insane things and it feels supernatural and creepy all of a sudden!
Hey great job! I love the aesthetics and sound design, and your dialog bubbles are very funny! I would recommend to, in your next game jam, pay attention to giving the player a stronger sense of progression, which feels like it is missing in this game. It is there -- the music speeds up, the mummies spawn faster, and the score is increasing -- but it isn't strong. The more you can make the player feel like they are getting somewhere -- and really bash them over the head with the idea that they are progressing -- the more fun it will be!
The idea is that there are three main reasons people enjoy video games: feelings of competency, autonomy, and relatedness. A lot of games focus on competency, and that's the one related to your game: you have to make the player feel like they are really good at the game. You want stakes to feel very high, but you also want the player to succeed. For this game, I didn't have a hard time avoiding the mummies, so as far as making sure the player can succeed, you're good; but how can you then make the stakes feel higher? That's up to you! One thing is adding that sense of progression; if I feel like I've gotten somewhere, then dying will feel like losing all my progress! The stakes will increase as I play the game! There are plenty of other ways to raise the stakes, I'm sure, but that's just an example.
I'm no professional game designer (as you might find in my own entry); however, I hope these ideas have been helpful!
I had way too much fun spamming the enemies and going around off the screen. I got to 375 before I stopped, and even then I could've gone a little longer
Well done! You made something so polished! The animation and movement make the UFO feel float like a UFO should, picking up skeletons is super smooth, and when you pick one up and then try to squeeze through somewhere it won't fit, even the enemy dropping feels very polished and smooth. Music is also very appropriate and engaging; Well done you guys!
Wow! It's funny and I fun! I love the concept, and the execution is great: fun music, stylish art, and it feels good to play! I might recommend some lives as far as enemies entering the pillar, like three enemies have to enter the pillar before you lose. That means I get more play time and more time to get a feel for the time-freeze ability. Great job guys!
Ah, I added the current to try and make the game feel a little more substantial and different, as well as to add some difficulty.Thanks for the feedback!
I loved your game! It's fun to see when people have similar ideas for a jam, and especially how they are executed. We both thought to add a bit of acceleration/deceleration to the boat's movement which makes the water feel more real (I hope). We both also have the exact same obstacles, which is pretty funny!
It feels really good to move actually! Someone paid a lot of attention to the acceleration/deceleration I think, because that feels very natural and satisfying. I'll say that sometimes the rocks would be coming faster than the alligators, even though they are in theory stationary. That means the alligators would be... going backwards? XD
