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The Ballad of Blue Oak Valley's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| OVERALL - Is the game just objectively good? | #7 | 4.130 | 4.130 |
| THEME - Does this game represent the Autumn theme well? | #7 | 4.609 | 4.609 |
| AESTHETIC - Does this game have a great atmosphere or mood? | #9 | 4.478 | 4.478 |
| TECHNICAL - Is the game poorly put together, or is it technically well designed? | #12 | 3.913 | 3.913 |
| ACCESSIBLE - Does the game have good OS platform support? | #16 | 4.217 | 4.217 |
| FUN - Is the game enjoyable or satisfying to play? | #29 | 3.565 | 3.565 |
| CREATIVITY - Does the game include something unexpected or innovative? | #30 | 3.652 | 3.652 |
Ranked from 23 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
What a nice game you have here! The graphics are nice and cohesive and the music fits well. Great submission!
Nice game, I really liked the aesthetics and the interactions with the characters :)
Good job!
I really like the artstyle and the music! Good Job!
Great game! Very polished! Keep the development to expand it to a full game.
Congrats!
Loved the art, the animations and the mood in this game! Great job overall :D
Really cool game, love the art style and the exploration gameplay. Did find it hard to fight stuff and 3 hp made it extra difficult, other than that a very nice entry :)
I think your entry is pretty solid. The artwork definitely gives it a unique feel among others, and I particularly like the way the character runs...having extra frames for animations gives more detail I think. I found the combat to be a little too clunky for me. Overall great job though!
Thanks for playing! You're right on the melee combat, I was hoping the slingshot would help with that and I should probably have just given it to the players at the beginning instead of having them find it. I think it's the most fun part.
Love the art style and the level of polish!!!! Super cool!
Awesome game! The art looks great, combat is satisfying, and it really feels like something that could become a full-on game. Maybe different music based on the location, but I know how hard music can be. Great job!
Thanks! Yeah music can be tough. I only have the main menu theme and then the three overworld themes that do change with location, but more for each unique area was my stretch goal. I think distinct musical themes make each area feel more unique and help players subconsciously build a mental map sometimes.
Excellent submission! Great art and animation, and the combat worked well. Thank you for putting the checkpoint by the pumpkin patch. :)
Thank you! I tried to be somewhat generous with the checkpoint placements, glad to hear it was helpful.
For sure! I hope you get a chance to check out my game, rate and leave a comment!
The art is so simple yet so stunning! Congratulations on a great entry!
Thanks! Your game is a vibe.
Love the atmosphere and graphics. Very old-school, but very fresh as well. The player character and wildlife are well-animated.
Due to the size of the world, it would have been helpful to have some kind of navigation aid, like a map.
I found it a little difficult to get started--the walking stick was near the beginning, but I didn't realize it. (Come to think of it, I had this same issue with the original Legend of Zelda. I didn't realize the sword was in a cave...)
Also, at one point after pausing my controls got stuck (the player was traveling right). I couldn't get them unstuck until I got killed.
Thanks! Excellent suggestions all around, I would definitely like to have features like that in a more complete game with a little more development time. The controls freezing issue is interesting, I haven't seen that happen to anyone before. Were you playing the browser based version?
Yes, browser based. It may well have been some sort of interaction with popping out of fullscreen mode.
Gotcha. Yeah it could be the fullscreen setting. I tried testing what I could before officially submitting but I'm pretty sure I didn't do that specifically. I will try to recreate this later and I will probably patch after the voting period. Thanks for pointing that out.
Great game and art, it's very polished for a game jam game
Absolutely loved the game! The art was good, the music and the sound effect on point. My only complaint was that I felt like the player wasn't moving fast enough to my taste. But that's it!
Thank you! I've gotten a lot of feedback about the player move speed and I think you're spot on. With more time I think maybe a sprint function would have been nice.
Cool little game! LOVED your pixel art so much, it drew me in right away when I saw your game on the submission list. And your colors were prefect. One subtle thing I'd recommend is adding some type of small popup or other way to alert the player when they're near an interactable object. I didn't see controls listed anywhere, so when I walked up to people or things I thought I could interact with and left-clicked, I just figured it wasn't unlocked yet. Probably took me longer than it should have, but I finally figured out that pressing 'e' interacts with stuff haha. Other than that, your game is very well polished and fun, especially for 3 weeks. Great job!
I think you're right about the popup, that would totally help with readability. And good catch on the controls, I have changed the game page so many times now that I completely forgot to list them. Thanks for checking it out!
Awesome game!
Great game, only the combat could be a little less unforgiving with the stick (pardon, the hacking implement) stopping you and taking its time to swing. Or maybe it's just me being bad at it. Graphics are really good, and there's humor and atmosphere in it.