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Unfortunately I suffered the same fate as Aleifericsson. At the end of the hospital cutscene when Trisha mentions 6pm the scene transitions immediately back into the first dream sequence with the silhouette and the game will continue looping through those scenes. It really may be as simple as having accidentally set the wrong scene switch.

With that said, of what I did play it seems you have a really rather unique setting that feeds into this theocratic fascist parallel to modern America, add on top the utter delirium it seems the main character is suffering and a little bit of incomprehensible exploration of the self and I'm hooked. I very much wanted to see Pale Eclipse through because of the potential in what you might do with all of these themes, so I do hope you continue developing it!

Making games is magic. :)

Admittedly I didn't quite realize it at first. In my few beginning turns after recognizing the enemy I had searched for an 'overwatch' button to no avail. It wasn't until a bit later, maybe even after the first time it occurred, that I realized you'd implemented a reaction fire type system, and it very much did remind me of the original Xcom's. Without trying to retread my prior comment, some messaging or camera focusing would probably have made my inattentive head realize this function sooner. It goes without saying that I did not read the manual, I like to learn on the job so to speak.

Regardless as soon as I understood it existed as a system, it definitely changed the way I approached heading onward from there. Always having a squad member watch potential enemy insertion points as we moved throughout the ship, in that way I really think it fed into the gameplay/narrative marriage.

I wish I had more feedback to give regarding it mechanically, I think I'm going to need to play through a few more times to get a better sense of what I might want to say on that subject. I do wonder if a more distinct method of being able to tell when, how often, or at what distance individual squad members are able reaction fire would be warranted or not, so long as the implementation wouldn't mar that immersion that I feel the accuracy cones give versus numeric percentage.

I'm curious, as both it has been a while since I've played a bit of Xcom and I haven't quite had enough time in Breach Protocol observing the system yet -- How did you end up differentiating it from the OG Xcom's? What was it that you disliked about it's way of doing?

My cat refreshed my page and deleted this entire feedback, so forgive me if my re-write of it is a little less full than I'd like.

This is exactly my type of game! Right on I love the atmosphere of trudging around on a derelict ship in the dark, uncertain of just what lurks around each corner, having to use the characters and their vision cones peeking here and there to get a better picture of the situation. You did a very solid job capturing that type of methodical tactical gameplay. At first I did not realize the truth of the foes we were facing, originally seeing only the humanoid types with weapons of their own, I thought nothing of it. But then. . . The bugs, for lack of a better word. And soon after the swirling crimson rifts no doubt linking whatever horrendous plane these beasts originated from. And finally the BIG one. . . It was a great progression and very much found me invested in what my squad may be thinking about the situation.

I really enjoyed the weapon accuracy cones as opposed to the much more common percentage chance to hit that one would normally find in these types of games. It was novel, and visceral in a way that seeing '87% chance to hit' isn't. At a glance it was clear and concise what my odds of striking were without breaking that little immersion and tying it to a numerical value. And further it was a very pleasant surprise to see other weapons, at least one I noticed that wasn't available to be selected at the start that you could pick up.

Humorously three of my squad members rolled rather low stats and each had below 100 hitpoints, all to be carried by the godlike shotgunner in my first slot.

Something to look at that might take the fit and finish to the next level would be a more in-depth message log that could describe what might be occurring during the enemy turn, or at least focusing the camera on the action when needed. There were a few moments that due to me splitting my squad in two that I hadn't realized a member had perished or how it occurred.

Overall I really like Breach Protocol, and I would be more than willing to pay for a future version should you choose to make it a more robust experience and extend the great foundation you already have. Awesome work, thanks for making this game!

Genuinely novel conceptually to me. That thumbnail of yours is very compelling and evocative, it definitely drew me in to play. Personally I enjoyed the process of observing the silhouettes of the characters below and figuring out what would best fit their creation, making more than enough oozes and glitches along the way. A solid job, I'm really rather curious what an evolution of this project could look like, as there are so many different directions it could be taken in.

Removing one's own limbs to take actions in combat? Now if that's not aberrant, I don't know what is! The enemy design is really fun, I'm Eyefist's #1 fan. I'm fascinated but what you could do with this concept on a larger scale, especially given the sense of permanence cutting off one's fingers to attack might have, haha. Could be an interesting resource management game in that regard. Good stuff.

Agreed regarding the dialog for sure. At some point during development they were much more digestible but foolishly before shipping I had left on my faster text to make testing go smoother. Looking back I simply cannot reason why I chose not to allow the dialog to finish scrolling and hang until the reader confirmed to the next one. Truly an enigma.

Regardless, I'm glad you managed to enjoy it in spite of that and the sub-par clarity of gameplay!

These were all solid entries! Bumping this thread to see if anyone else has found some neat little RPGs, whether stylistically or mechanically.

Really have to echo what you like about your game, I'm a sucker for garbled character 'voices' for lack of a better way to describe it. I found the slow, deliberate movement to be a solid touch for the type of tactical shooter you were going for, the controls feel weighty in all the right ways.

I really like the concept of the squad mechanics, although my fellows found themselves caught on terrain fairly often. Aside from that I think a feature that could really bring the experience to the next level would be exploring some more in-depth enemy AI behaviors. Taking cover from fire, patrolling, that sort of thing.

All in all an enjoyable little experience!

Anxiety. Anxiety is without a doubt the feeling one gets when showing off their work. Art, whatever it is, something that has come from the heart, something wherein the deepest parts of us come out. Our desires, that which we enjoy, that which we hate. . . Of course one would feel anxious when revealing such things to others, for ours is a world of masks and hidden selves.  My first work was of little merit, base imitation, it didn't speak to that which I truly felt in that moment. I felt anxiety's kiss, but only just.



When an audience had found itself to me, small though it may be, I felt the weight of their expectations. Should I maintain the course and continue painting what I had always done? Or should I branch out draw something deeper out from within myself? What I truly desired to paint. Falling. The loss of self. That sense only grew as more Eyes fell upon Me.

Eyes upon me. How they observed.  Eyes upon me. How they demanded. Eyes upon me. I am molded by their whim. Eyes upon me. I have lost the self, I am only what they wish me to be. Else. . . I might lose their gaze. Eyes upon me. Paralyzed by them. I am left with nothing to speak of, I have again adorned a mask of my own creation.

So right off the bat I need to say I really find this concept engaging! I've played a ton of physical card/board games in my time and I'm really actually surprised that I haven't played something quite like this. After just two turns the concept really clicked with me and I was off! Ended up stacking Lumen Golems (My beloveds) and Alchemists to help fuel their production.

The card art, though simple, I actually quite enjoyed, each of the creatures have personality and are distinct enough that you can tell what they are by sight and don't need to do much hovering around reading them to strategize.

Since the player and their opponent play by slightly different rules when it comes to card positioning, it might be wise to delineate the front five spaces that the player can play cards in and the back ten that the opponent's cards move through. And just as well I do wish there was a way to either remove cards from my deck, or at the least, skip selecting new cards in-between rounds. This is because very quickly your deck becomes thick and somewhat unreliable. The only reason I believe that I lost was due to this, I ended up pulling several high cost cards in a row and could not play anything before it was too late in my last two duels.

Overall I really liked it! And I would absolutely play a more fully realized version of this, perhaps a little too much haha.

36!? Wow, you're a legend! I've got to up my game and catch up!

I really click with these controls, the deliberate. slow movement of the player character as well as movement relative to the look direction. I personally attempted something similar to your vision cone system in my own project though I believe yours came out quite clean, especially with the way shadows are rendered. The vision focusing when you aim is a nice touch as well.

A fine job, I could see a future version of this with more interesting variety and its action made a little more visceral and responsive really working out!

Though Circling Different doesn't stay for long, its short puzzles and fine timing when it comes to shifting are fairly engaging.

More importantly though I think is your messaging. I think it goes without saying that we all will put on masks throughout our lives, maybe multiple times per day. For some of us, like our circle, it's necessary to even survive.

It's cynical, but very real. A shame that the squares can never seem to find it within them to truly accept a circle, even when the latter can find it to fit within the other.

It looks as if your .pck file is missing from the build. Or at the very least my system won't run it unfortunately.

Tombs of Mirituhg It's a tight, simple, little rougelite and does just about everything you'd want out of that type of paired-down experience.

I've done two runs each with the three weapon types, which drastically change the way you approach the game, the radial balls are easily my favorite.

I'm actually quite fond of the visuals, the 1-bit type player and enemies are distinct on the backgrounds and thus nothing gets lost in translation, it's straightforward and precise. The titular boss has a fun design, though I found them to be somewhat easy after a run or two, I'm interested in what you could possibly do with a roguelike concept in an even greater time scale.

Solid work!

Rough is definitely the word, haha.

No need to linger on my account, there's piles of great games out there to play that need some love. Go get em!

That was a rather fascinating little jaunt. I'll be honest, I really don't have the words to describe it, at least not ones that would probably be of any real value towards the creative process. At the very least it certainly did evoke that dreamlike state one finds themselves in the midst of half-waking and half-sleeping.

I am reminded of a dream that had stuck with me, though I don't believe it had any real meaning. A corridor of doors, doors that led into other doors, and yet doors that I had left unopened. Purposefully. There was fear in opening the doors, perhaps not of what lurked behind them, but rather what I might become after having passed through the threshold.

Turns out it was mostly brought on by others in the house entering and leaving multiple times in a row, it was the sound perhaps, the creaking that invoked the dream. But isn't it interesting what the mind can drum up in those in-between moments of life and the catatonic state of sleep?

Thank you for the memories, yours is a game of self-reflection I think.

These are great critiques, the UI was without a doubt (one of) my least developed aspects. I have absolutely no disagreements with your proposed changes, they're getting filed away for the next update. Post-mortem I do wish I had spent more time on the UI/UX, though I suppose in a Jam you might always wish that, haha.

In a future build, I do very much intend to include potential formation mechanics, as well as some actual unit-on-unit avoidance, which I think is one of the worst achilles for the gameplay. I have a LOT to learn about navigational coding and vector math to iron that out.

Zero-K looks a lot like Supreme Commander which I've loved for years, surprised I've never heard of it. I'm definitely checking it out. Thanks a ton for the feedback!

There are many things that I want to say about Foregathering: Exordium, so let me start with the shallowest. I LOVE AUTUMN. Well honestly I quite liked all of the characters and their distinct designs/personalities/backgrounds. Soul is right, the game has a ton of style to that REALLY makes it stand out on its own in my opinion. The 3d models of the characters both in the 'overworld' and during combat were simply excellent and just OOZED personality.

Speaking of the combat, I very much enjoyed how each of the four had very distinct and defined roles, after a few rounds with the dummy it became very clear what each character was capable of and what they could do in concert with one another. Here I think my opinion diverges a little from Soul, I found the balance of acting versus waiting to get out a specific ability, especially after internalizing what each character could do with each stage of stamina, was an interesting experience. If I had but one gripe with it, I felt characters starting with one stamina in combat might have felt more intuitive to a first time player.

Adding on to that, I'm conflicted, but curious what the game would have felt like were it to pause whenever an ally's stamina had filled, allowing the player a little more time to consider. But on the other hand, as it is it promotes a faster paced almost stressful form of gameplay that I actually think suited it quite well. I suppose I'm not fully convinced either way, the former would definitely make the battles easier, and I think difficulty was just about perfectly on par.

Narratively speaking I found it really refreshing that rather than some grand an epic adventure, this was more a couple of friends and an odd ally were huddled together to simply help one of their own. Devin's secularism in comparison to his allies' very clear spiritualism was a good juxtaposition and as someone with not so smooth familial relations the final plot thread struck a fine chord with me.

Overall one of my favorite experiences of the jam so far, I'm really impressed, especially given that you'd mentioned you have little experience with the genre in the RPG Thread. Without a doubt on further cleanup and expansion mechanically/thematically, I'd play more of Foregathering: Exordium in a heartbeat.

Thanks for making this game!

I am The Spiked's #1 Fan.

As a long time enjoyer of the Megaten franchise, especially the oldest of the bunch, Monastic Inversion was right up my alley. I've been following your excellent posts in the Acerola Discord since the beginning of the jam and it has been rather insightful to see the complete thought process of another dev so clearly laid out. Truthfully I wish that I were to have created such design documents before jumping headlong into my game, I imagine the experience would be a little more focused as yours.

The combat system is interesting in that I desire to see how you might develop it from here on, ultimately it's a card game, something I don't think I've seen in this specific context so to me it's a novel idea. I rather enjoy the potential concept of modifying your 'deck' of spell sigils as you traverse the game, stumbling upon new and interesting things to incant behind hidden walls or through other interesting interactions.

Ultimately as it stands in its current form, I found myself near exclusively using flare and not considering any particular strategic implications of the other sigils I had, though I very much imagine that with greater enemy variety, new spells, and other mechanics you might implement into what I see as the potential of a 'Deckbuilding RPG' of sorts, this could be alleviated.

I do have to echo your own thoughts from Discord, the movement is a small bit on the sluggish side, I do rather enjoy grid movement in first-person dungeon crawlers so to speak so I'd hope you stick with it, though I realize I have some niche tastes haha.

All in all, I like Monastic Inversion, more for what I am certain you can (and will) make it into than anything else. It's promising conceptually, and I think your solid structuring of thoughts in your design documents will really pay off. Thanks for the experience!

Agreed! Were I to write it all again, without a doubt I'd have the ability to skip scenes completely. Skipping dialog with space/enter speeds it up, but it's definitely still an issue.

Excellent. This looks simply gorgeous. Can't wait to sink my teeth into it tomorrow.

No doubt the pathfinding could have used some better fit and finish. This was the first time I'd ever tackled that concept in code, and it did not go well to say the least, haha. I could not seem to rightly get avoidance on other actors working to any level of satisfaction before the time was up.

As for Daiga, the archer. Originally I had intended to set the enemy AI to be able to target you should you damage them outside of their sight radius, however a playtester of mine found so much enjoyment in 'cheating' the game so to speak that I left that interaction in as is. I'm still somewhat conflicted, but I don't think I actually mind giving players the ability to 'cheese' through some rough spots if they desire to.

And Marcis. . . Marcis was a last minute addition, quite literally. Nearly didn't make it in the final countdown. He does soften up ever so slightly if Oskars should meet with them though. c:

Thanks a ton for the feedback friend. I'm glad you managed to find some level of enjoyment in the experience.

Absolutely the kind of thing I'm looking for. 100% Going on the list for after work tomorrow.

I am having a somewhat difficult time filtering through the submissions for genres I am interested in, and so -- Do you have an RPG made for Acerola Game Jam Ø? Does your game have stats, whether they be strength and speed, or perhaps machismo and chutzpah? Is it traditionally turn-based? Real-time and action pack? Even first person perhaps? Does it have a battle system? Combat can be more than just swinging a sword or flinging spells, maybe yours is choosing the right words to raise your would-be date's meters or maybe conserving resources as a sous-chef in a cooking gauntlet before facing the final boss (Gordon Ramsey).

Whatever your game is like so long as you feel it hearkens to the trappings of an RPG, whether classic or aberrant, I desperately want a crack at it! Please use this thread to collect all that RPG goodness and share it around! Or at the very least collate them for me so that I don't have to search so hard.

Here's my brutal take at the genre for starters.

Viridis Infaction is an interesting one, without a doubt I feel it deserves five stars for originality. I have a certain love for these somewhat more free form simulation type games, and given the theoretical (bio)diversity in how you can approach 'building' for lack of a better word I can see it holding up on multiple run throughs.
Top that off with a visual style that I find exceedingly appealing and you've got yourself a contender! I don't have any particularly well though out criticisms yet that haven't already been levied, I'll mull it over for some time, and see what I can come up with on future revisit.

Since you mentioned desire to continue developing it I look forward to exactly what this idea will bloom into. Keep it up!

Of the games whose primary fashion is 'Chromatic Aberration' - Red and Blue is quite possibly my favorite. For as short as it was, I found myself wholly engrossed during the entire experience. In all the best possible ways, the puzzles and style were disorienting, in a sense that spoke to me of dissonance with one's self.

In that way, the Ludonarrative of Red and Blue was honestly touching in that respect, certainly one that most people can identify with. I think we all have multiple facets of ourselves, masks perhaps, imperfect copies that are at odds with the others at times. But accepting that, accepting those [Shards] of ourselves despite their differences is what truly makes us whole.

Thank you for making this game, I can't wait to see if you one day develop the concept of other abilities that shake up potential puzzles in the future. But more so what kinds of self reflective narratives you can drive home within them. Phenomenal.

Echolocation, that coupled with the oppressing darkness really makes one feel as if they are a mere bat flitting wildly about the complex in search of keys and crystals. The fine shader work really exemplifies that I believe.

I'll admit, I am not the stoutest of heart, more then once when I came upon the creature did my adrenaline spike. It really is a wonder that one can create a piece of art as such that elicits that kind of visceral response in such a short time.

Ah, and of course I loved the voice recordings.

Excellent work.

Ambitious is right, haha! I should certainly have spent more time tweaking the balance and finely polishing the aspects of the game rather than engorging the content. But over-scoping will do that to you.
Thanks a ton!

It speaks more to my own poor skill when it comes to hard platformers more so than the game itself, but man for me, Ashenworld was HARD. The section with the moving void encroaching from the left side of the screen nearly gave me an aneurysm. Now that's hardly a critique! I'll definitely be coming back to lower my time for another run, as it stands now my time was so poor I'm embarrassed to type it out, haha!

Since you mentioned being fond of your art, I have to say I've taken a liking to the little guy quite a bit in my time playing it. It looks as if though he has a pompadour, and you know what, I dig rocking that style at the end of the world.

Thanks for making the game!

SHAHARAZON

I have an endless amount of nostalgia for so-called 'Boomer Shooters', so Shaharazon simply does not disappoint. The iteration on the formula by the sake of timing grenades perfectly (which really feeds into speedrunning, a sense of timing is so cathartic.), Is honestly a breath of fresh air. Every time I managed to perfectly lob a grenade by way of the enemies just for it to explode in precise fashion whilst I ran through the explosion to grab a key on my way to the door in one fluid motion was simply exhilarating.

And that's to say nothing of the music! Simply and catchy is exactly what the doctor ordered, and I really feel like I could find myself humming the first level's theme just as I would Doom's.

With all that praise put, unfortunately my machine is an aging one with very low specs. Level the Second, and Level the Third all suffered very low FPS on my end. Despite that, I played them to completion and still very much enjoyed them, honestly the lower performance during those gave it a kind of charm in of itself.

Simply put, I loved Shaharzon. I loved it enough that I spent the last hour speedrunning Level the First. I realize this is not some masterful runtime, but hey I'm under par at least by 23.90! Due to the way damage boosting works, I can foresee MASSIVELY lowering this time with all the potential skips. So how about it? Anyone want to beat my time? Reply to this comment with your own times and let's lower this as far as we can get it!

Thanks for trying it out! Clearly I ought to have had more playtesters give me an idea of the difficulty haha!

But I suppose that's part of the 'charm' if you could call it that.

Haha. Seems as if though text being too fast is a unified thought as it stands. I knew I should have put in a feature that makes it pause rather than tweening away when the text box is full. 

Ahh well, hopefully it won't break the bank. Thanks a ton for trying it out!

It could be argued that 'The Heir' is horror. At the very least I intended to get across a dreary atmosphere as you're away from anything familiar and comfortable. Awash in the 'other'. To me, that plays into the theme of aberration.

Anyway. I hope you all find it of some interest. I'll be playing your games here on. o7

Godspeed friend. Here's 'The Heir'

Your challenge to beat your time in Ashenworld is tempting. I might have to take you up on that after work tomorrow! 

Let the mass playong and rating of these fine near-1000 works of art begin!

Everyone grant me your energy, I'm about to play every game on the list starting tomorrow, can't wait to see what you've all cooked up. o7