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@Jupiter Hadley: Thanks Jupiter! Keep up the good work with those vids, they're great for the indie/gamejam community!

@Galejade: You're most welcome!

@Galejade: 'Preciate the request to clarify. I sometimes like when figuring out controls are part of the game, seemed apt for one like this, but not so for this particular jam; I was remiss not to explain further.

The game page has been updated with instruction/explanation.

Thanks for the second look, I know you guys have quite a task with all these entries!

@Norbez: No prob, thanks for coming back to it! Picking up all the clues at once will be pretty intimidating at first, but by using the click and WASD, you should be able to pull out a few Clues at a time from the pile, which you can then sort accordingly. In hindsight, I probably should have cut the pages up into 4ths or 6ths instead of 12ths, to turn the total number of pieces into 52 or 78 rather than the unmanageable 156. Sadly, assembling the journals will reveal the story, but there's no other game reward for doing so; once you collect them all, Holmes can find out where he needs to place his watch to reactivate the time machine. I was hoping to make a cutscene of the machine being activated, with flashing lights and a thunderclap and whatnot (as described in the book), but all I managed was this fadein:

Quite fun! I love games that can give you both the "man, I'm bad" and "man, I am amazing" moments. This one certainly qualifies; the U-turn mechanic can make for some really smooth escapes (as well as explosive blunders), and the enemy variation keeps you on your toes (especially those tri-spinners, woof!).

Background art is excellent! Making the cloud layers may not have taken long, but the beauty lies in the culmination; scrolling, opacity, background details, everything combines just right to really nail the mood, and the music complements both the gritty haze of the background and the intensity of the gameplay. Well done.

Also good onya for the lesser known source; I'm looking forward to reading the rest of it!

@stephen.gurnett: Thanks a lot for the detailed feedback! I definitely would've liked to extend the solving/ending given more time, and fixed the gun bugs. Quite right about the controls for review mode too, sticking with the arrow keys instead of the mouse would've been much more intuitive. 'Preciate it!

Twisted as the Grimms, I dig it! It's a simple mechanic but makes for very fun puzzles, and well polished to boot (pun intended). Also a very clever way to stay true to the source, good and dark, but in an unreal goofy way. Well done.

Buckets of fun, sweet sound, and truly excellent pixelart, everything from the character design and animation to the background and particle effects.

Well done balancing the characters too, that's not easy when dealing with unique mechanics, but I think you guys really succeeded here; Merlin's tricky at first, but once I got the hang of him he became my fave to play (though my favorite sprite is a tossup between Joan and Blackbeard, both some top-notch low-rezzing).

Fantastic entry! The art is really great, the sprite style works nicely with the ragdoll-physics and the other visual effects (I especially like the torch particles and the time machine activation effect. Sound fx and music are top notch, and the game's good fun to boot. Well done!

Really excellent submission.

I've been hoping someone would take on some Shakespeare for this jam, and you certainly did the bard's tale justice. Great animation, art coupled with the sound and music really capture the dark mood of the murderous plot. Best of all is the game design, especially the blood/ghost mechanic; most innovative use of source I've seen so far.

Hope you participate next time around too, looking forward to more ideas like this...Maybe somebody needs to do a Shakespeare gamejam?

@Jupiter Hadley: Thanks! Good onya for playing them all!

Nifty strategy game! Great example of asymmetric level design; each path a slightly better option for certain pieces, different patrols. Minimalism was the right choice for a game like this in my opinion, though it might benefit from coloration of the pieces (maybe shades of green or pastels to keep them distinct from the reds). On the other hand, a good general should be able to keep track of their troops without the aid of visual confirmation, so perhaps you were right in keeping the pieces identical. Guess I'm on the fence on that.

Absurd. In a good way.

Splat animation is great; with more pixels it might look a tad disturbing, but in this low-rez it has a cartoony shel silverstein vibe.

Simple mechanic but pretty darn fun.

Also, thanks for sharing the initial plot design in the comments; nice to see the dev's pre-jam vision, some great twists on the source material in there!

Baloooooo!

Really cool mechanic! A bit tricky at first, but quite fun once you get the hang of it and can traverse the level quickly (not unlike some of the 3d spider-man games). Great job on the mood of the music too, really conveys both the jungle rhythm feel and the immediacy of the machines' impending destruction.

Sweet, a bard game!

Really outstanding sound design and art! I especially love the fire and sleep effects, along with the bone animations (zombies bobbing and flailing is hilariously perfect) and the strings/drums/chanting, it makes the whole experience mesmerizing, quite appropriate for the source material. Kudos!

@Kara Jayne: Thanks very much for the detailed feedback! I quite agree about the Review Screen, Shift as toggle with the mouse would've worked much better. As for the gun glitches, you're absolutely right too; didn't take me long to find the out-of-bullets-bug, sure is a gamebreaker.

@andyman404: Why thank you!

Oh, good stuff! I love it when an adventure game adds a little humor for the player willing to try strange combinations like talking to furniture. "Spirits, are you under the bed?"

Also the little variations on the text, like the boy in the window about the turkey, nice touch. Had to use the Ivy from Tim's potion to make the place a bit more festive, hopefully he won't miss it ;)

@donboody: Thanks for the comment! If I'd had more time, Holmes would've had an internal monologue describing his theories as you piece together the clues. If you can manage to put them all together, they describe how to use the machine to revert the temporal field and restore the timelines. I had intended to include watches that need to be positioned properly and a date/time dial that need to be set correctly as well.

Poor greedy captain Hook, got back all his pieces-of-eight,

But in a while, the crocodile, returned to seal his fate!

Good stuff though, I dig low-rez pixelart, and even though you only used two frames per direction, I think you really captured the Cap's essence. Ending animation is hilarious by the way.

Oh, looks like you've already rechecked my game page! Thanks for that!

You can disregard the second part of my comment :)

Very clever interpretation of the theme! Traditional art in a gamejam game is very refreshing, and the poetry works nicely with the illustration (I especially love the colors of the painting on page 2. Good onya for using a lesser known source too.

By the way, I responded to your question about my game regarding the clues. My original instructions were somewhat lacking, so I quite appreciated the comment :)

@JohansenIndustries: Thanks very much! I quite appreciate the feedback. I'd gotten so used to the review screen that I didn't realize how tricky it is. I wanted it to be challenging, but no so much! Next time I'll try to get some playtesters before the deadline. :)

@Norbez: Thank you! You've picked up the clue after the exclamation point disappears, and by holding SHIFT you can look at them (mouseover+WASD then moves them, SPACE+WASD to shift everything)

I quite like your Quixote character design, especially in the Windmill's win page; really great style!  Neat use of the microphone, and well done on the theatrical narration!

Finally got around to playing this one. I quite enjoyed it!  The page cut mechanic was very neat, and regarding the platforming/puzzle elements, I think you came up with a successful progression of difficulty.  Well done!

@Shortee: Aye, perhaps I should've explained the timing mechanic explicitly: Each obstacle has a few "danger" frames which it's unsafe to pass through during.

In Act I, the fire flares up when the rum drop lands on it.  in Act II, the duelists are dangerous during the slashes. Walking by right after these events happen gets you safely past.

In Act III, the overhead icons are Eyes, indicating that an officer is close enough to see the first mate Arrow (and any Black Spot being handed him).  If a Watcher is Watching when you give the Spot, Arrow's thrown in the brig and Israel never makes it to the mutiny scene in Act III.  Furthermore, Arrow drinks from his secret bottle when out of sight of the officers.  You get a different outcome if he's drinking also, so "beating" this level requires patience as well as timing.

Hope that cleared it up!

Thanks all!  Appreciate the comments and glad you enjoyed it!

Nice work on the music, good stuff!

A little strange, but actually pretty fun!  Some neat graphical effects as well, good work!

Quite a unique and entertaining experience!  The surreal atmospheres complimented the poetry nicely, job well done!

Finally got to playing this one, really liked it!  A very unique combination of narration and visual space; quite surreal, and I think it definitely succeeded in capturing the mood of the piece.  Kudos!

Nice sprites and effects, I especially liked the storm in the intro, clever use of panning and opacity!

Some really good pieces of writing here!  I especially like the hacking slang and imagery, really gave the setting some depth.

Well done!

Very neat pop-up effect!  This would be a great format for many children's books!

Really quite neat!  I especially like the star map bit; really nails the "keep-land-in-sight/check-skies-at-night" style of pre-compass sailing.

Cool game!  The cards were a real neat mechanic, and the frequencies seemed well balanced; my victory over the final boss was a close shave indeed!

Well done coming up with fun gameplay that illustrates the story's mix of blade-crossing and word-tossing!

Nice work! Good writing, true to the story, and I especially like the font/formatting, made it very easy to read.

Very neat!  Once I got the hang of the timing, the pickpocket mechanic was quite fun!  Well done!

Excellent artwork, guy really knows his Mignola!  This is a nice format for the Choose-Your-Own adventure comic; I hope more indies follow your lead!

Nooo!  Somebody submitted a 'Neon Sky' before mine was finished!  

Seriously though, nice work!  I really like the title screen and the music, and the minigame was a nice touch.  Also, the Microsoft Sam voice was hilarious; "lives were lost."

Well done, keep jamming! 

http://7drl.roguetemple.com/ http://proceduraldeathjam.com/