Play game
Foregathering: Exordium's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall | #84 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Gameplay | #88 | 3.750 | 3.750 |
| Originality | #109 | 4.063 | 4.063 |
| Presentation | #118 | 4.188 | 4.188 |
Ranked from 16 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
What do you like about your game?
The characters. They each have completley different backgrounds, personalities, and I hope the care I poured into each of them shows!
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Comments
This game is SO HARD, but it has so much charm! I was really impressed by your models, effects, and animations! I hope you keep working on this one, the mechanics were really intriguing.
Great design! I love the story. I got briefly stuck in the first room when it told me to talk to everyone, even though I had. Eventually I interacted with the coffee pot and it let me continue.
I think the combat model is good. I wasn't very successful with it, but I'm not an experienced gamer. So, I'll put that down as operator error.
It seems like the early stages of a really fun and compelling game. I hope you stick with it!
Very complex strategy game with a lot of abilities relying on each other, and with most of them being useful and needed from what I saw, which is nice
The problem is when you start the game with 20 abilities you're not familiar with, and have to deal with that in realtime; definitely too much, and the game should be progressive in obtaining abilities and/or characters
The main room is beautiful, and the characters look good too, having their own lines and originality being a plus
The battle part and more importantly the menu can be improved
Better not doing a menu if you don't have the time, than doing one very quickly
Also, you can prepare one in advance before the jam
Remove the button for the dialogues, and they'd look clean and nice
Thanks for the input, both here and on your stream! Foregathering was a huge step in my development, using a lot of tools I was unfamiliar with. It's great getting feedback and having the palces to improve pointed out, and im hoping to address a lot of it after the jam in a handful of updates!
i am incredibly interested in this game! the characters are really fun and i rly like them, the fights are hectic, the graphics are really charming and the story has me very intrigued! i am a bit held up on just how much there is to keep of track of in such short time though, which might really just be because you have to select "ready" when their action cooldown is over for each character to gain stamina so you can have access to more (any) moves. however, i am also very used to slower paced turn-based combat so perhaps i just need to adjust, but besides that i actually really like a good amount about the combat! i'm definitely going to be trying to push even further into the game (only on the second fight lol)
Although I'm not very keen in how the story is presented so far (I'm only at the second monster), the gameplay is hectic and the animations are fun to look at. Because of how complex it is to pay attention to everything, I keep trying to find the ideal ways to fight, especially with the warlock, which is fun. I think this is one of the few games in the jam that I am definitely intend on opening back up and continuing to play so I can go further in.
Great to hear the battle menus are engaging, and it means a lot that you want to play the game even more beyond the jam :'3
Hopefully I can surpass the bar I'm setting here and turn this into an awesome series that you and everyone can indulge in
I've actually finished the game now, and I can say for sure that the gameplay was fun and hectic! Trying to match the flash shoots with right before the enemy attacks is very good since it keeps the player on their toes. I do have two important critiques based on the time I spent playing that I think would make combat even better if addressed:
The other characters, especially the shaman, really do feel like they do their proper roles. The decision making you need to do in whether to save your energy or cast an earlier ability WHILE being pressured for time makes the combat engaging. You feel like every decision you're doing is important and could make or break the fight, such as waiting for a bit more energy with the nun to cast her blessing or reviving someone to stall for time. Betting on the shaman landing some of the luck abilities is also exciting!
The premise of the story is interesting, as well as the implications behind the information we're given, but after the halfway point it does feel like dropping into the middle of a world and being given lots of jargon you don't know. If the "main" perspective of the player when this is happening was Devin rather than Bao, the confusion would feel fitting rather than, well, just confusing.
Of course, all of this is just how I viewed the game myself, and possibly there could have been a way to play the warlock that I missed while experimenting. Overall, I give this game a proper 8.5/10, plus my recommendation as a game good and interesting enough to play multiple times rather than just once!
Big grats on beating it! I do agree with you on several points, such as interactivity. Its moreso the roles they fill rather than the specific moves, for example Bao is prone to damage, so you need Autum to heal them, and Ya'Ctu or Devin to distract so the low-health Autum doesnt get beat up herself. I'm hoping when I come back to Foregatheing I can flesh things out a lot more. As for being dropped into the middle of a plot, again I agree. It's a symptom of trying to set up the grander story with only a few days to do so .-. Perhaps a Game Jam wasn't the best time to work on a series setting up a scope that large!
Regardless though, It means a lot that you are wanting to not only play through it, but actively want to come back! I have some ideas cooking for some small updates to impliment after the Jam. QOL such as a brightness slider, and some content regarding a very...plush...individual........I shall speak on that no more. Regardless, huge thanks again! I hope to create a series you and everyone else can continue to enjoy :3
I can absolutely tell you put a lot of work into your characters and fleshing out the world, I was really getting into it. I enjoyed the artstyle as well, not to mention "nuns with guns" is an unbeatable trope :)
Personally, I'm not huge on turn-based RPGs, even real-time ones (I made a speedrunner FPS for heck's sake), so take the following with a grain of salt! I messed around with the dummy a bit and gave the Hellioness my best college try, but the system just didn't hit me hard enough in the hummingbird attention span to compel me to learn how to use it. I feel like an info screen to read up on all the characters' abilities outside of combat, or even a pause ability during combat, would have compelled me to try a bit longer.
Thanks a bunch! As odd as it sounds I'm actually kinda glad someone is having a hard time! Balance was hard to tune, but everyone in my playtest beat each boss after only a couple tries and I started to wonder if I made it too easy 😅
If you ever want to get back in and try to get to the end I can give some pointers, but I appreciate the constructive feedback! Woulda made more player resources if I had the time, guess I gotta save that for the next game!
There are many things that I want to say about Foregathering: Exordium, so let me start with the shallowest. I LOVE AUTUMN. Well honestly I quite liked all of the characters and their distinct designs/personalities/backgrounds. Soul is right, the game has a ton of style to that REALLY makes it stand out on its own in my opinion. The 3d models of the characters both in the 'overworld' and during combat were simply excellent and just OOZED personality.
Speaking of the combat, I very much enjoyed how each of the four had very distinct and defined roles, after a few rounds with the dummy it became very clear what each character was capable of and what they could do in concert with one another. Here I think my opinion diverges a little from Soul, I found the balance of acting versus waiting to get out a specific ability, especially after internalizing what each character could do with each stage of stamina, was an interesting experience. If I had but one gripe with it, I felt characters starting with one stamina in combat might have felt more intuitive to a first time player.
Adding on to that, I'm conflicted, but curious what the game would have felt like were it to pause whenever an ally's stamina had filled, allowing the player a little more time to consider. But on the other hand, as it is it promotes a faster paced almost stressful form of gameplay that I actually think suited it quite well. I suppose I'm not fully convinced either way, the former would definitely make the battles easier, and I think difficulty was just about perfectly on par.
Narratively speaking I found it really refreshing that rather than some grand an epic adventure, this was more a couple of friends and an odd ally were huddled together to simply help one of their own. Devin's secularism in comparison to his allies' very clear spiritualism was a good juxtaposition and as someone with not so smooth familial relations the final plot thread struck a fine chord with me.
Overall one of my favorite experiences of the jam so far, I'm really impressed, especially given that you'd mentioned you have little experience with the genre in the RPG Thread. Without a doubt on further cleanup and expansion mechanically/thematically, I'd play more of Foregathering: Exordium in a heartbeat.
Thanks for making this game!
Thank you so much for all the insight! Im glad the characters are conveying their stories and personalities. I wanted to set the stage to be able to build up and expand upon the world and everyone in it, and it seems I did a pretty good job. The hardest part for me was the balance. I recently came off of The Desolate Hope, and that game kicks your butt five ways to sunday. I wanted something similar but that was more clear and distinct. Offered a challenge, but rewarded you when you took the time to learn, all without taking away time from the rest of the jam! Its definitely something I want to do some tweaking with, and I already have some ideas for the next game in the lineup. Hope to see you there :3
It’s very stylish!