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A jam submission

Annihilation PartyView game page

Four suspects, two aberrants, 31 days. Can you find them in time?
Submitted by Rian (@RianShinozaki) — 3 hours, 23 minutes before the deadline
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Annihilation Party's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Judge's Choice#1n/an/a
Overall#84.4234.423
Presentation#184.6924.692
Gameplay#264.2314.231
Originality#484.3464.346

Ranked from 26 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

  • Fantastic character writing, really enjoyed it! The art complimented it well, and I enjoyed the detective element of the experience.
  • Pretty strong and engaging visual novel! Not only were the characters and writing well paced and fleshed out, there are actually mechanics for you to keep tabs and, and enough hints so that everything isn't so cryptic. Also, out of all the games, I think this one made the best use of the theme so far. I do wish it had a "skip day" button.

What do you like about your game?
Honestly, I'm proud of everything... I really went out of my comfort zone with the dialogue, graphic style, and general game design.

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Comments

Submitted (1 edit)

I don’t play many games where the gameplay is mostly reading, but I found this to be very enjoyable. the art has a pretty “raw” style — probably the result of time constraints, but in my opinion it turned out really nice! I especially liked how the characters were just sketches at first, like they’re out of focus until dialogue starts. the split-screen transition between the suspect board and the different locations was my favorite piece of this game, it gets out of the way in the best way possible: with efficiency and style.

when it comes to the writing, there’s a nice balance between character building and “getting to the point”. I never felt like I was reading padding, everything felt relevant or interesting in some way. each character seemed a bit linear on their own, but this was well masked by the parallelism of effective detective-work. the subtleties of some of the interactions really intrigued me, and it was fun to piece things together with the log.

just like in real life, I didn’t manage my time very well. I didn’t have time to figure everything out, so I had to make an educated guess in the end… and I got it right! I had confirmed one and ruled out two, so it wasn’t just luck, but I’m still curious about what was on that broken phone. the game was very lenient with time, which was probably a good call for a jam entry. the replayability just seems very low without some sort of randomization. I wanted to see the bad ending as well, but after realizing how much clicking that would require, I decided not to. anyway, as a one-and-done experience, I enjoyed it a lot!

Submitted

Awesome work, humbling to see how much polish and work can be done in a short time!

You clearly have a talent for story telling and atmosphere/style.

Submitted

Loved this, beautiful graphics, amazing polish, and soundtrack too! This game absolutely has the best writing I have seen in any game from this jam that I've played so far. It's so nuanced, detailed and interesting, really great job with the dialogue, and great entry overall.

p.s. good luck on your midterms :D

Submitted

really great little game :D

Submitted (2 edits)

Great detective game with a great artstyle.

I don't play much visual novels but the writing felt really good. Only in one instance it seemed out of character, when talking about fishing with the Butcher. If I remember correctly he responded "Where have you been all my life?", which felt too similar to one line the Engineer said a bit earlier.

The gameplay is also really good. The log and dialogue options really put you in the detective's shoes. I kinda felt bad for faking interest in the anime the Engineer was watching. I liked all the characters and the fact that some plot elements connects them. Maybe the Butcher had a too central role in that.

At the end I finished all the dialogue options with some days to spare (and I wasn't even optimizing my schedule). Maybe you could add an option for submitting your answer early in case that happens. Apart from that the progression felt natural and the events interesting.

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing! I'm glad you enjoyed your time with it.  

These are all good points of criticism -- some parts of the script aren't as polished as I'd like, and there's definitely some pacing and balacing issues. I'll make a note that the Butcher is proportionally more central than the others -- ideally, I'd actually like every character to have as much influence on each other as the Butcher by introducing more events and items that crossover. 

The event balance is definitely wonky -- right before release I lowered relationship threshold levels on all the NPCs and boosted their availability times in the hopes that anyone playing the jam would be able to see all the game's content. Unfortunately that means even slightly optimal play can leave you with a lot of waiting around time, so I considered adding a skip-day button but ultimately didn't implement it.

Thanks for your thoughts! I hope to make an expansion of this game and I'll definitely take your feedback into account when I do.

Submitted(+1)

i stopped playing p3 reload to participate and engage with the submissions in this jam, thank you for helping me deal with my persona withdrawal xd.

hoooooly, i can't find the right words to describe how absolutely amazing this was! everything about this was the perfect package in terms of gameplay, visuals, audio, and storytelling! there is just so much here that i fear to even think about what it was like trying to complete the development of this game within the span of the 14 day jam period!

first of all, love this gamified detective mystery we have here! the information building in this game is super well done, especially with how the log functions. you can use it for multiple things: to keep note of talking points, to identify weird behaviors, and also to keep track of everybody's weekly routine, its implemented so well! also like how some characters require interactions from others characters first to progress through their storyline, makes the player feel rewarded for paying attention to character details and knowing who to talk to! small nitpick is that i wish there was something i can do on my downtime if i don't have anything to do on a particular day, maybe giving the option to let the detective take a break to spend the remaining time of the day would help (also would fit in with one of the conversations you had with the old detective where they mention that you shouldn't be completely focused on your work). this could also potentially open up more ways to spend your money since it feels like you have a good amount of excess cash before the end of the week comes. also love the small extra detail where the currency changes depending on the country your device is set to. it was funny seeing it for the first time, since i saw the preview image show that the player starts off with 200 dollars, but since i live in the Philippines my currency is set to Philippine peso, but it still reads as 200 pesos which is equivalent to 5 USD in my country, my man is STRUGGLING xd.

the visual presentation of this game is absolutely stunning! everything is stylized as hell. from the big bombastic UI layouts of the game, to even just some of the smaller details like how the main cursor has a color shadow that has a small delay in returning back to the cursor when moving! the visual identity of this game feels so realized. really love the character work in this game, love how they appear as sketchy outlines when you first enter the scene, surrounded in a singular blob of color almost blending into the background, and its only when they turn their focus on to you and engage with you is when the different colors and details come into view, matches some of the messaging in the game where you only really get to know someone and have someone open up to you (like showing their true colors) through genuine human one to one interactions! the character artwork pops out really well against the beautifully drawn backgrounds that just blur from view! also the music is amazing, really fits the vibes of the game and is just a fun listen in general.

and at the heart of it all is the story, this was such a fun read! the characters feel so grounded in the world that they live in and are really engaging to learn about! each of them has their own personality quirks and struggles that were grappling with, with most of them connecting to the general state of affairs within the civilization that they live in! we get to learn so much about both the characters and the world throughout our time in this game, and it just fits so seamlessly into the main mystery itself, its really nice stuff. all the dialogue is thoroughly engaging to sit through, with each scene having a mix of existentialism and humanism to kind of process and chew on at the end of the conversations! loved all the characters to bits by the end!

this already feels like a complete game that i would buy on steam, definitely one of my favorites of the jam submission so far, this is so well done! also apologies for this word vomit of a comment xd. good luck on your mid terms!

Developer(+1)

Thank you so much!! I don't know where to begin -- your feedback makes me really happy. 

I also dropped p3 reload to make this game... you can probably tell from the game itself.

I'm glad you got a lot out of the investigation mechanics! Those were most of the features I had planned for it -- learning about suspects, finding aberrations and learning their routines -- though I wish I'd been able to include more examples of each in the actual game. I'd planned to include more ways to spend downtime but didn't get the chance to implement them this time. I can definitely take some of your ideas into account if I end up expanding on this game. Also I had no idea about the currency thing actually  LOL-- must be a function of the method I used to convert the number into currency. I'm glad I know that now.

I feel pretty lucky that the artstyle came together as it did since I was worried it'd take too long to make presentable illustrated artwork, but I was able to find a workable style pretty quickly. I owe everything to the Procreate Terraleah brush. A lot of the visual identity comes from compromise but I don't think that's a bad thing -- it helped make it unique. 

I'm really happy you connected with the characters so well! This was the first game I ever released with a focus on dialogue and story, and I wasn't sure my writing would be up to snuff. The time limit forced me to write without second-guessing myself, and occasionally sloppy dialogue aside I think that helped me pull the script together.

Thank you again for all your feedback!! And thanks for wishing me luck on midterms -- they're in god's hands now.

Submitted(+1)

WOW this was insanely good. I loved everything about it - the art, the soundtrack and the dialogue. Kept me invested the whole time. I could easily play a full game like this.

Developer

Thank you!! I'm really glad you enjoyed it!

Submitted(+1)

Beautiful game, lovely story, and polished mechanics. Great work! Very much enjoyed my playthrough.  

Oh, and good luck on midterms ;)  

Developer(+1)

I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for playing my game!

They weren't my strongest midterms... but it was worth it to finish the game.

Submitted(+1)

Wow that is a crazy amount of content for a game jam. This is fully realized experience through and through. You did an amazing job with the writing and world building, each character felt real, memorable and unique. I love the whole investigation setup and getting to know each suspect more every day. Also I was touched by the message in the end. A truly thought-provoking and very fulfilling experience.

As Acerola himself said, this is phenomenal work and you should indeed be very proud, this is one of the highlight of the jam for me. Thank you for bringing this piece of content to the world and good luck on your midterms!

Developer

Thank you!! I'm really glad you enjoyed the characters and the message of the game. I'm glad I made a highlight of the jam for you :)

Submitted(+1)

Wow, how did you managed to do all that work in so little time? You are crazy good at it. All feels so polished, the art, the dialogues, the interactions, the UI transitions. If you expanded this a little bit more, you could easily publish it on steam or something. You nailed it with this, I really can't say much more about it.

Goated game, you should continue developing it in the future, good luck with the jam mate <33333

Developer(+1)

I think I must have been a little insane to decide I'd make 31 days of content for a 2-week jam but fortunately I got it done. I'm glad you enjoyed it! I'm really interested in doing a full steam release with better pacing, deeper mechanics and a tighter ending.

Submitted

Hi, I'd love to see it! Good luck with the development <3333

Submitted(+1)

That's a great vibe in the visuals. Interesting characters and exciting dialogs. Really great job!

Developer

Thanks!!

Submitted(+1)

Dialogue was super good! The characters  all had different personalities which made them fun to talk to.  I liked that I was able to take the broken phone to the engineer and also take the meat I bought to the occultist, being able to influence the interaction of one character with another like that just felt pretty satisfying. And I actually did get both aberrations correct so I definitely felt a pay off for everything I did. The art and the characters all built the atmosphere of the game very very well, awesome work!

Developer

Thank you! Crossovers between the mechanics of different characters was an important mechanic and one I want to expand on more. It was a good way to improve the pacing by encouraging players to spend an equal amount of time with each character.

Submitted (2 edits) (+1)

Okay what the hell. I played a lot of games in the jam and this is very much my new favorite, and I'm not even a visual novel guy at all. First of all, great stylish UI, amazing art, awesome music. Loved the characters' sprites, had a lot of personality. 

I liked the writing as well. Had a perfect balance between funny and serious; more importantly, it all had a coherent theme which is always nice to see. Was delighted when I got the option to sacrifice a rib-eye I bought with the Occultist. The characters are very, very well written, I got attached to them all impressively fast. Although I didn't get any good dialogue choices with the Teacher until day 16 which felt strange, basically knew nothing about her while being best friends with all others. Occultist was my favorite, she's fun to hang around and had a great ending. Engineer is the close second :)

Having money was a nice interactive element and I'm fine with it just being there as a thing to look at, but makes me wish there was anything to think about when spending money; maybe you have to waste a day to replenish it and there's some balancing act there.

My only complaint is that the pacing felt a little odd. It took me 18 days to get my first aberration and basically any meaningful agency over what I'm doing. It's nice to take the time to set up the stage but by day ~12 I felt like my actions don't really mean anything.

I'm a fan, thank you for making this, hope you have a nice life. Always make positive changes! :)

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Thanks!! I appreciate your detailed comment and I'm really glad you enjoyed your time enough to play through to the end :) Since this is my first real dialogue-driven game, I'm really glad to hear that the writing hit the mark I was aiming for. I know the pacing can be a little wonky, I was attempting to balance around both players who understood the mechanics quickly and players who had trouble figuring out what to do, and ended up in a bit of a limbo. I've also heard from a few people that the Engineer and Occultist were a lot of fun but the Teacher was hard to get to know -- I'm certainly going to look at the ups and downs of my character writing here and use that to improve my next work. Thank you for being a fan, and always make positive changes :))

Host(+1)

this is phenomenal work thank you

Developer

Thank you!!

Submitted

Awesome work! Felt like a cross of Persona with the gloominess of Disco Elysium (both games I very much enjoy so this was super fun to play through). Nice work, I'd definitely play more of a game like this :)

Developer

Thanks! Those were two of the biggest inspirations for this game actually

(+1)

I love the artwork and the personality of the characters. I think the butcher and the occultist could nominally similar since their work both deals in death, however while the butcher has this sinister self-assuredness, the occultist is a firework of doubts and good intentions. Reminds me of the best parts of disco elysium

Developer

Thanks broski

The Disco Elysium vibes were the sauce bringing the whole thing together

(+1)

Thought it was a genuinely fun and creative game. I very much so do not play this genre much if at all but I found myself keeping interest the entire time. The art style was cool and nothing felt confusing or cluttered.

Developer

As someone who also doesn't play a lot of VNs, hearing ppl say they enjoyed the game despite not playing a lot of VNs feels like a very high compliment to me. Thanks for playing!