We had such a great time hosting our first Game Jam, and are excited for the next one! We'd love to get your feedback regarding what you liked and what we could improve on for next time. Thanks in advance for your help!

Submit your feedback here.

Really love the concept and gameplay!

Most of our feedback here is more to do with polish:

• Given the time constraints, it probably would have helped to reduce the scope of the game early on and focus on what you know you could finish in time. Specifically rather than leaving in things like the Tavern and other aspects of the game that you didn't have time to finish, you could have removed them entirely and focused on the parts you knew you could finish so it felt more like a complete experience rather than an unfinished one.
• Consider the user experience and design for the worst possible scenario. The font size in most areas is very small and hard to read - so be sure that anyone playing your games will have a good experience regardless of their setup.
• The gameplay is really solid and cleverly designed. Again consider reducing the scope of your games in the future so you can more fully flesh out things like card designs (giving them more visual variety so enemy cards look different from item cards or attack cards, etc).
• We would have loved to see loot have a greater impact on gameplay. Definitely understand that the time constraints were a major factor, but would offering different cards that added new items (health potions, one-time-use spells, etc) or weapons that you could use in battle could have had a more meaningful affect on gameplay and would have better aligned with the theme of the Jam.

We can't wait to see how this turns out once you've had time to flesh it out further! Thanks for participating, and we hope to see you in our next Jam!

We loved the gameplay and art style here! The alien-invasion idea was really fun, and provided for a really great gameplay loop.

Love the simple art style and the way that the upgrades impacted the gameplay, we just didn't feel like there were enough (the rules required 5 unlockable loot options, but there are only 3 - Big Laser, Energy X2 and Slow Motion) and they didn't impact gameplay as much as we would have liked.

We wouldn't consider the items that you are picking up during gameplay to be "loot", as you're not doing anything to "unlock" them and they aren't affecting gameplay except in that you collect them like currency to then spend on the "loot". Would be great to have a better sense of which items you should pick up to earn more points, like a cow being worth more than a small plant. 

Or, as in Katamari Damacy, you could make it so that you can only pick up small items at first and then as you get further you can unlock the ability to pick up larger things that are worth more points with permanent upgrades that last until your round ends - with the player deciding whether to upgrade their ship for more points down the line or using a temporary buff to get more points in the short-term.

Overall, we had a great time with UFO Madness and hope you'll join us for our next Jam!

Really fun concept! The gameplay was a little clunky, likely due to the time constraints you were under, but it was really fun trying to see how much further you could get with each gameplay session.

We felt that it didn't totally land the "loot" theme, as you were really only collecting one item (keys) during gameplay and they only served as a barrier to entry to the next part of the level. We were looking more for items that you could earn/unlock through gameplay that would in some way affect the gameplay (making you stronger, giving you new abilities, allowing you to change your appearance, etc). It seemed like maybe that was what you were going for with the different types of light that you could choose at the beginning of the game, but they only marginally affected gameplay and were available from the start of the game so there was no "unlocking mechanism" like we described in the announcement of the theme.

If you were to flesh out this game further, we'd love to see you dig into the loot side of it. Maybe make only one light source available from the start, with others becoming unlocked as you perform certain tasks or get further into the game, and having different affects on the gameplay like making it easier to find certain types of keys or giving you more time to search but making the keys smaller/harder to find.

Great work, and keep it up! We can't wait to see what you make next.

Really great work!

We loved the style and thought that a rogue-like was a perfect direction for the loot theme. Our feedback is mostly centered around polish. 

• Keeping the map to a single location was a great idea for limiting development resource needs
• Multidirectional attacks were really useful in fighting swarms of enemies, though movement and attack speed felt a little slow so it was a little cumbersome. You might try speeding these up to see if it makes navigation and fighting off enemies feel a bit more intuitive.
• The loot system was nice, and being able to unlock new characters with different skills was great. Adding more variety in how they play (right now they feel basically the same with slight differences) would likely make the loot feel more valuable and with more of an impact on the gameplay.

Keep it up, and we hope you'll join us for the next Game Jam!

Congrats on first place!

Overall our team had a really great time playing Loot of Piracy, which was one of the core judging criteria. We also thought it had a very classic take on the "loot" theme, creating a very fun from a gameplay perspective (loved battling other ships and exploring the map) and in making the loot feel valuable and essential to the experience.

Adding multiplayer to the mix was also a gamble that paid off and was a lot of fun for the team!

If you decide to flesh this game out further, we'd love to see more cosmetic loot options, allowing you to upgrade the look of your ship and your character or even giving you alternate gameplay opportunities like alternate projectiles (other than cannon balls), etc.

Thanks for participating!

Great work! As you mentioned in your submission page, most of the judges were unable to get the game working in-browser, which was one of the requirements of the Jam. I did, however, end up downloading it and checking it out.

LOVED the graphics and overall visual aesthetic. It fit the gameplay really well, and served to make it very easy to understand where you were going and which surfaces you could interact with as you traversed the level.

The colored collectibles were a fun addition and we can see how you would interpret them as loot, and in a lot of ways they function as such. Would have loved to see them better integrated into the gameplay, rather than strewn randomly about the level. As they are, they feel more like collectibles (RE: Banjo Kazooie) that happen to boost your stats, versus traditional loot where you are actively unlocking something or equipping something that then affects gameplay.

Your idea is similar to our 5th place winner, Stellar Raid, though in their game the collectibles serve as currency which you are then able to use to purchase the "loot" in the form of upgrades. It's a subtle difference, and one that I think we could have been clearer about in announcing our theme and explaining it.

Thanks so much for participating! We hope you'll join us for our next Game Jam, and you can be sure we'll be better prepared with clearer direction on rules and the theme.

We loved this game! It was just barely nudged out by our top 5, and really just came down to the individual voting from our judges and how they scored each game.

The graphics and gameplay were both excellent, and the shop where you can buy items to customize your Cafe was a great twist on the "Loot" theme. Really great work, and very solid gameplay given the time constraints of the contest.

If you were to build this out further, we'd suggest fleshing out the shop with more items to earn/purchase, and a greater variety in tasks to carry out during gameplay. Animal Crossing is a great place to look for inspiration - including letting players upgrade the size of their cafe as they progress, weighing the value of more room for customers and potential cash flow vs. the added complexity of keeping all of those new customers happy. Similarly, adding a multiplayer element like in Overcooked would be a really fun addition. :D 

Great job!

Unfortunately itchio doesn't let you update your submission after the deadline has ended, and it was in the rules that no updates will be admitted after the deadline. Don't worry - we are keeping an open mind as we play through each game since we know 72 hours isn't a lot. :) 

LOOT THIS!

Armors, weapons, outfits, skins, backgrounds, consumable items...You name it, they can loot it. Whatever kind of game you create, it should satisfy the hunger for that sweet sweet taste of loot by offering a mechanism for players to unlock multiple digital in-game items.

*There should be 5 items at minimum that can be unlocked via gameplay.

Just a reminder that the "Secret Theme" for Kalorian Jam will be revealed at 9PM PDT tonight (May 7, 2020)! We'll be sharing it in several locations to ensure that nobody misses it and you're all on the same footing when it comes to getting a head start on brainstorming your game. Keep an eye out on the below locations to see the announcement as soon as it's live:

• Official Kalorian Twitter
  • We'll also share it on Facebook and Instagram, for what it's worth
• Email - sent to the email address that you used to register for the Game Jam on http://kjam.io
• Be sure that you're registered there so you don't miss this email, and add "info@contactsystems.io" to your contacts to avoid having it go to spam
• Official Kalorian Discord
  • Feel free to join us now on Discord to discuss the Game Jam and show off your progress, or anything else you want to talk about!

This evening (around 6:15PM PDT), we sent out an email to everyone who has registered up to now on KJam.io. Please check to make sure you received this email, as it includes some important updates about the event. If you don't see it, you can wait an hour or two to see if it's just delayed - or check your spam/junk folder to see if it's there.

If you don't receive it, please be sure that you've registered at KJam.io, or feel free to reach out to info@contactsystems.io so we can investigate further!

We want the process to be as simple as possible, so PayPal is definitely on the table. Once winners have been announced, we'll be reaching out to each individual team member separately via the email that they provided at registration to discuss prizing. Winners will need to fill out some documentation first, and then we'll work with them to figure out the best way to deliver the reward.

We'll have more specifics in an email we'll be sending out later today to all who have registered so far. Please look for that and feel free to respond directly to the email if you have any further questions!

If you haven't done so already, please be sure that you've officially registered for Kalorian Jam on our game jam homepage: http://kjam.io

Official registration is done via that website, and final entries/submissions will be done through itch.io - so joining our itch.io page does not mean that you are automatically registered.

Thanks to everyone who's joined so far! We'll be sending emails with more info about the event this week to all who have registered.

Let us know if you have any questions at: info@contactsystems.io

- Fitz

It was an addition that we made in response to some who were concerned about the validity of the contest. We added it as a way to let teams know that we aren’t going to do anything shady once they submit their games. If you are concerned about being disqualified for not submitting a Twitter post, don’t worry. 😀 We will be sending out an email this week to everyone who has registered - feel free to respond to that email and we would be happy to discuss an alternate means of submission.

Using Twitter was also just a way of having you guys get your work out there, and it makes it easier for us to help promote your projects with you. But totally understand where you’re coming from and we’re happy to work with you!

Yep! http://discord.gg/WBrcbEV

Are you a solo developer looking for other devs to team up for KJam? Post a little bit about yourself and what you can do right here to let other devs know what you have to offer - or try our #game-jams channel on the official Kalorian Discord server!

Of course, there are also countless Indie Developer communities across Discord, Facebook and Reddit, and there's still a week left to find and build your perfect team. Good luck!

Hello all! 

Per your feedback, we've made a few updates to our Game Jam listing here on itch.io. Please take a moment to review the updates, and let us know if you have any questions! We're only about a week away from the Jam - so stay tuned for further updates!

Updates:

• Clarified some details in the "Rules & Regulations" section, specifically parameters for tools/game engines/pre-existing assets, etc that are relevant to the challenge
• Added more details about how we'll be announcing the "secret theme" and where/when/how it will be revealed
• Altered the submission process to require submission to itch.io, unless your files are too big - in which case we're open to having it sent via an alternate route (Google Drive, etc)
• Now requiring all teams to share a link to their submission on Twitter and tag the post with "@KalorianMarket" and #KalorianJam - ensuring that they get proper credit/attribution for their project and so we can help them get more eyeballs on their work (we're excited for people to see your games!)
• Now requiring all team members to register separately so we can ensure we're able to notify every winner and properly distribute prizing (not that we don't trust the team leaders, but hoping this simplifies the process for everyone)