itch.io

Yeah, surreal was definitely the angle on this one. I wanted it to just be lots and lots of ways to subtly alter things from the norm each time, and to have the lack of normality be where the unnerving (spooky) vibes came from.

If there was more time I had a lot of other plans for ways to mess with it.

Thanks for playing/commenting!

Just really solid all around. The difficulty feels very right for a gameboy game, especially when you have to redo some longer platforming sections. Really appreciate the checkpoints right outside each boss room though.

I did die once on the first boss because I had learned bubbles were safe to stand on, and that was quickly disproved, haha. I can see from your lower comments you originally hadn't planned to use bubbles as a travel thing, so I get that it was more of a jam requirement than a design choice.

It was very satisfying to learn the boss patterns, and beat the game.

Your gameboy vibe was excellent, but you did have a couple things (like the rock smash spell) that really break the resolution requirements. (Don't worry, you're not in trouble.) Hope you're going to participate again next year because you really get that gameboy feeling.

Really like this premise for a story. You can do a lot with it (if you aren't inhibited by the length of a game jam.) You show the potential of it really well.

Hard to say something that hasn't already been said, so I'll just add that I'm a fan of the hands grabbing for you when you get near to them.

That definitely wasn't just you. I got a message in the mod channel telling me my game broke before the first screen loaded, haha! 

Thanks for your feedback, I'm glad you liked it.

I really enjoyed the random chat messages between... the events...

I had to look up pictures of Yume Nikki, and from what I've seen, I think I understand exactly what you mean. Thanks for commenting.

Thank you, that's a very nice comment. I'm glad the feeling came through - the feel of it was a focus of mine.

Couldn't agree more with this.

Before moderating a jam, itch notifications were the most exciting thing for me to see on the website. It usually means someone has commented on one of my games, and that's information I want immediately - every time.

But since being a mod, notifications have swapped from being the most important, most interesting thing for me to see when I open the website; to the most boring, most disappointing things for me to see. 

I don't care if 3 new people have joined a jam with 4,000 participants. It's not information I need. 

I appreciate the way it could help someone hosting their new jam for the first time. Watching the first 20 participants roll in would be as good as recieving a comment. But there comes a point where it's too much - and needs to be turned off.

Please, please, please act on Polyduck's request for this setting.

Thank you :)

You can edit everything about your page, except for the game you uploaded.

Do NOT remove your game! :)

What you can do is:

- Make another itch page for the new download

- Link to the new page from your old one. (That way people can still play and rate the old one, but the new version is available if they want it.)

Unfortunately, the deadline is final. There's a thread for people to post games that missed out, so you can still share it here: https://itch.io/jam/gbjam-11/topic/3170473/failed-to-upload-post-here

This game might not have a Gameboy aesthetic, but it absolutely follows the jam rules. The resolution appears appropriately limited, and it only ever displays four colours on screen at a time.

The jam allows for 8 buttons actually - D-pad, A, B, Start, Select.

Played your game initially because I saw the screenshots and though, "That might need to be disqualiied because it breaks the rules." I was very impressed to see that you followed the resolution/colour rules perfectly! My map used the red/white/grey/black colour scheme though, and wasn't showing me elevation changes so I couldn't finish the last 3 levels.

Played it again after the jam so I could rate it though, and the map worked properly this time - looked just like your screenshot. Finished all of the levels this time and I think it's a great puzzle mechanic.

Although you are within the rules for graphics, and controls - you are likely to find people saying it isn't GameBoy-like.  I'm sure you already know how your aesthetic isn't GameBoy-like. As for your controls, you do only use d-pad + 4 buttons, but the regular use of all four of those buttons doesn't match my experience of how a GameBoy game would utilise Start/Select.

Still, it is a good entry regardless :)

Edit: Thinking about it, I think that opening the map/menu is a completely normal use of either the Start or Select button, and it's really only the pick-up/place button that might be a little unusual.

Was very skeptical about how a one-dimensional game would work, but I loved this. A great use of simple mechanics, and it's really fun to see what happens to your character when you fail (is that a weird thing to say?)

Only managed to complete it by losing momentum by accidently bouncing off the obstacles, but being lucky enough to not have it game-over me, haha. Thank you for making the last level obvious. I would have given up sooner if I didn't know the end was so close.

I saw your page saying that itch had made your graphics weird - you should add some screenshots to show off what your game really looks like, and it'll be easier to appreciate the artwork when you aren't flying along at mach speeds as well :)

Such a tough game. Can't believe you can actually beat the last section, I can't even get my ship to the right place in time!

It's a nice efficient use of the buttons you have available (I just wish I wouldn't forget to let go of A when I want to start moving again ^^ ).

I found the ramping speed really well done, and I managed to do better each time I played. It's really a game where you can feel the benefit of getting used to the controls, and recognising the shapes (especially those opposing Y-shapes!) and I like the way that makes you feel accomplished for getting further.

Fantastic, as long as you fixed it, that's what matters :)

Try rendering your game to a 160x144 render texter with your current camera.

Then make a second camera and a canvas set to "screen space - camera" . Add your render texture to a "raw image" component on that canvas (or a child of it), and have it fill the screen.

(Alternatively try changing the pixels per unit of your assets, but this may break other ways that your game is set up)

Submissions are private until the rating period starts.

Versión de Google Translate: los envíos son privados hasta que comience el período de calificación.

These are the settings that my friend has found works for their camera. Perhaps these options will work for you too :)

Yes, the palette can be any 4 colours of your choosing.

The most typical gameboy-like palette is going to be one that looks like this: https://lospec.com/palette-list/nostalgia

But you can also use that website to find any 4 colour palette that takes your fancy (giving credit where needed), or make your own palette from scratch!

I agree with this 95%, except I prefer X & C over Z & X. This is because I've had people mention to me that X & C is better for the relatively common AZERTY layout (which would obviously put Z up on the top row. X & C stay where they are, however.)

I have no idea what the actual legalities at play are...
But my general advice would be: Absolutely do not do this!
Haha

I think this answer from the FAQ might answer your question :)

Can I use a resolution which isn't 160 x 144?
You may use a smaller resolution if your game engine of choice does not produce 160x144. The play area should fit within a gameboy screen. Black bars or 'super gameboy' frames around the outside of the gameplay area are fine.

Being so embarrassed you evaporate on the spot, how relatable.

Really great entry. Simple mechanics that play well and feel gameboy-ey.

It was pretty easy, but can't really fault the balance of a game jam. It was nice to be able to see it all without being frustrated by an impossibly hard game.

Had a fun time learning how the game functioned.  The tutorial on fancy moves was a bit ambiguous but decoding it added to the things to discover. After getting to grips with the system I found that winning seemed like something I had a positive influence on 'cause I got a high streak pretty quickly. (But perhaps that's because the AI wastes time on healing when I attack every turn.)

The UI was helpful and contained all the information I needed in a fight.  But I definitely had problems with being able to take in the options.  I'm sure if it was a turn based game I would sit for five minutes at a time working out the probabilities for a favourable outcome for each move based on the opponents possible combos and my own; so having the timer to keep me moving was overall quite nice, but I think I would've liked at least 1 more second. 

Understanding the current chain of combos could do with slightly nicer feedback though.  Some animation of the relevant part of the diagram causing the appropriate move to animate down to the bottom to join the queue as you get hit would really clarify why things were happening.  Sometimes I wouldn't realise a 2nd combo was happening, and sometimes I wouldn't realise that I'd missed my turn because I was waiting for the combos to finish resolving but they'd already finished a while ago.  In general I did really like the combo system though, and it added fun depth to the combat.

Getting outfit changes was a nice way to see the progression of your characters, but also serves to make you attached to them because they have unique visible progression, and it isn't just a high score of how many people they've killed.

Also the music reminded me of Gatherers. Which I thought might be interesting for you to hear.

Thank you so much for this lovely review, it's really interesting to see that you could identify with the story yourself.  I appreciate your kind words about the story and the art, both of which took me a lot of effort and time.  

Unfortunately the time aspect prevented me from bringing the interactable possibilities to other scenes, or exploring options with branching dialogue.  I'm glad you liked being able to learn their character through their items, and I can actually say some of the descriptions do change as you continue on.  The bed has a new caption everyday, along with the plant.  The monitor doesn't change though, so if that was your test to see if things changed it's a little unforunate, haha.  (If you're curious you can actually use the numbers 1-5 to swap the days without having to play through.)

Again, thank you. This was a very nice review, and you (and everyone else who's been so kind) have really validated the effort I've put in.  And made me wish I had more time so you all could've played something even better!

Ah yes, I understand.  I agree that those questions are good ones to just leave ambiguous.

I was pretty far through writing when it occured to me how supernatural it seemed, and in the right framing you could probably turn the story to horror (or at least a creepypasta) pretty quickly.   It was never intended to spook though (despite my choice in handwriting style).

Thank you very much.  It's really nice to hear the story engaged you enough that a line from the second scene (out of over 30) felt like it payed off all the way at the end. 

But yes, the game ended up with far more writing than I expected going in, so I'm glad that for all the time it took me it wasn't a waste.  I don't want to risk getting into spoilers on this page, so (regretfully) I can't ask you about those questions you have.  I just hope none of them feel like missing content or plot holes.

I'm sorry you ended up finding one of my debug controls. I perhaps should've hidden that one a bit better than the right mouse button.  At least it sounds like it didn't cause you too much trouble.

Thank you again for the kind words. Everyone that enjoys this game absolutely makes my day.

No offence taken, thank you a lot for this feedback.  I'm really glad that it seems you understood exactly the story I wanted to convey.

It doesn't surprise me that some of it is a little overdone.  A significant portion of it was done with only time for a first draft (and some with scarcely even time to proof-read) so it doesn't suprise me if some of it lacks nuance or refinement.  I'm aware that it's very likely for me to construct a written sentence to make it as clear as possible (which takes away the spontaneous conversational feel sometimes). I say this not as an excuse, but an agreement that it could've been higher quality. And if I'd had more time, being able to make new drafts, and edits, to improve the reader's experience would've made me very happy.

Thank you so much, that's a very nice review.  I appreciate the note about sound though, and I'd also really like to see what a version of my game with music/light ambient noises would be like.

It is approximately 4,000 words, so I was a little worried it might've ended up too expansive for  game jam attention spans, but it means a lot that you made it through regardless.  Having written it, I don't really know what an average playthrough looks like, so if you know roughly how long it took you to reach the end it'd really help me out if you could share the time you spent on it. (Have to do that full playthrough video y'know   :c  )

If you notice any mistakes with my spelling, punctuation, or a word appears to be entirely missing, or present when it shouldn't be; please let me know by replying to this thread.

Thanks for your feedback.  This is actually my first attempt (edit: potentially second, depending on definitions) at any significant narrative like this so your comments are really nice to hear on that front.

I also totally agree that there isn't enough to do.  The game would absolutely benefit from either some simple narrative branches (even if they're just illusions), or a mechanic that represents the working day that the rest of the story happens around.  Nothing necessarily as involved as a Papers Please kind of game but - something.

Yeah, I wish we could've got a little more done. But there's a lot of solid stuff to turn into a code library for next time at least :`D.

Thanks for giving it a play, and the nice words.

I rang the bell and was deeply unsatisfied by the pathetic blip that came out of it. Zero out of five audio!

(Just kidding. About the second part anyway.)

I was so ready for more when I beat the dice wars champion; ready to further my applications of the RNG manipulation. I was crushed to find out there was no more game left. Good job, Mr Ducks.

When you look at your game's page you should be able to see this "Submission to -" lable in the top right, if you want to verify yourself.

You are allowed to bind your keyboard however you like. I have seen concerns raised over using the Z key however, as some keyboards will ignore the Z key depending on the number of other keyboard inputs currently given, and also the AZERTY users will have it significantly displaced.

"You can change your palette mid-game so long as the new palette is four colours. You cannot change your colours mid-scan-line or any other sneaky trickery. If you have more than four colours on the screen at any one time it is not obeying the rules."

If you want to know more about the four colours rule a good place to look is the GBJam discord where there is an extended explantion on it.

My recommendations are you get a pixel style font (you can find many here https://www.dafont.com/bitmap.php), and then if you're planning to use unity you can follow this tutorial ( https://pavcreations.com/pixel-perfect-fonts-in-unity-the-practical-guide/ ) on making it stay crisp (read: not anti-aliased). As for making sure it doesn't travel across pixel subdivisions, if the viewport is stretched, that's another matter.

So many were accidentally sacrificed in the name of getting all the colours at once. I really enjoyed it. Loved the glowstick visuals. And those tank enemies were a terrifying surprise but an excellent ramp up in the challenge.