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A jam submission

The Mysterious Gear ChestView game page

An odd point-n-click pixel-art adventure game with kids, gods, and even stranger people
Submitted by Marco Giorgini (@marcogiorgini) — 1 hour, 23 minutes before the deadline
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The Mysterious Gear Chest's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Characterization#73.7273.727
Mental Engagement#83.2733.273
Lasting Impression#113.5003.500
Overall#113.3183.318
Emotional Engagement#202.7732.773
Atmosphere#293.3183.318

Ranked from 22 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

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Comments

(+1)

Beyond the huge amount of content and big story, there are so many great details that show the effort put in. The heads following the cursor, how the photographer follows the player but not too closely, they seem minor but go a long way in immersing the player. I'm so impressed all this got done in 2 weeks!

Developer

thanks -) I'm really happy you played it and liked it :-)

Submitted(+1)

This took me a few sittings, another big game this year! Only just finished before the voting deadline :). Marco being so disdainful of books/reading was really funny. Nice little character quirk. The map was very good to have, but I liked how the city connected up between rooms as well. 

I agree with a few others that the story was a bit hard to keep track of. Probably partly because I played a bunch of others between starting and finishing it. But I liked the scope of the story (ancient evil gods, magic seals thrown into space, etc. cool stuff!). 

Your art is really polished, you have your character workflow down perfectly, they're all really varied, and fit their personality, and you have a great sense of colour, really bright and visually appealing.

Developer

Happy you were able to play and finish it :-) and thanks for your kind words and feedback
But yes - I've tried to go a step forward (as game complexity and story) compared to Villa Apate, and reading users' impressions it seems that not everything was as smooth as I hoped.
Thanks again .-)

Submitted(+1)

Yeah I think it's good to be testing our limits in the jam though! I tried going bigger this time and had to stop short of getting the whole story done. Learned a lot doing that though.

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

I'm always impressed by how much content you manage to put into a game on such a short time frame. It works well and the dialogues are natural sounding except a few English translation inadequacies. Some jokes are a bit too much "in your face" for me, like the General, but you had a nice balance of humor, plot and characterization.

Difficulty was high for me because I always forgot to talk to a character again or look at an item again that was basically the road block to something else happening and the story progressing. Not my best day.

Well done!

Developer

thanks! and yes :-| - my English is far from perfect and it reaches even lower levels when I'm in a real hurry - and yes - I should adjust at least some elements to make things easier or at least more natural
thanks for your feedback :-)

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Once again a huuuuuuge game by Marco. That is beyond crazy what you are doing in two weeks! The characters were fun, the graphics great and the story interesting, but maybe a tiny bit too convoluted for the (already gigantic) frame of the game. (or maybe I just didn't understand everything)

And I guess it was the size of the game that made me feel a bit overwhelmed at times and let me wander about without an idea what to do next, so I chose to refer to the walkthrough a few times. Once or twice I had the right idea, but had to talk to a character first, so the idea would work. (printing pass) These kind of triggers are a bit frustrating, because in your head you already made the connection but are unable to execute the solution. 

But I am nitpicking here. It is a great game! And I had a lot of fun. If you have the time (and energy after this undertaking) to refine and polish some of the puzzles and dialoges, it will be an incredibly awesome game.^^

Developer

thanks :-) really happy for your kind feedback -) - and I really hope to be able to improve/polish the things you said .-)

Submitted(+1)

Marco, that was a crazy amount of content. Must have taken me near 2 hours. Almost too big for a jam game, really. Slower start with a lot to read before I’m into it. I admit to skimming your walkthrough and even a YT video to complete it but I wanted to see it all. Again, crazy amount of content to play through. Solid engine and design style here should you decide to do a commercial game. No reason you couldn’t do something like Lamplight City as you have all the elements here already. Impressive for 2 weeks. Or even longer. My nitpicks would that it was probably too wordy and could be edited down and some puzzles were sort of rough (easy to forget who all to talk to, to get that magical progression event). Well done though!

Submitted(+1)

Also special callout for the art style. Like the large character sprites and backgrounds. Easy to read things. Music was great too.

Developer

thank you so much - I'm really really happy you like it (and you've been brave enough to finish it)  .-) - and you're right - wordy should be my second name, above all when I'm in a rush :-| 
After jam end, I'll surely try to fix at least text errors - and I'm tempted to try to polish and work more to finish it with missing parts I couldn't fit in time  - thanks again for your kind feedback (also with my engine)

Submitted(+1)

Epic Game! It truly is a great piece of work to have made in 2 weeks, I really like the character style and the music and atmosphere gave me Thimbleweed Park vibe.  Bravissimo.

Developer(+1)

ah! thank you so much :-) - I'm really really glad you liked it :-D

Submitted(+1)

Yet another masterpiece in two weeks. You really are a talented storyteller.

Developer

thanks :-D - I'm really happy foryour words

Submitted(+1)

This is an amazing achievement for a two-week jam! The scope really is on par with those classic adventure games from the 90s--it's very extensive and satisfying. I enjoyed the story and the puzzles were tough but fair. The English could be smoother, but that's something you can polish more after the jam. I also appreciated features like item highlighting and quick travel.

I like the mechanic of switching between the characters, but it felt underutilized because almost everything falls on Marco anyway--I'd suggest either removing the mechanic and just making Sara and Andrea NPCs, or finding a reason to have Marco be stuck somewhere for a while so someone else can walk around for a while. But that's just my opinion.

Developer

thanks .-) and yes - you're right - I'm sorry for the poor English (I'll release a more polished version after the jam period) and yes the original plan was to have Sara and Andrea able to move more (I've cut at least four areas - Andrea was supposed to go back to the Villa with Artemis Statue, and Sara to help Enrica to find the other two pieces needed for the wand - already set in the game).  The game was supposed to be bigger - but then I've seen there was no hope of finishing it in time and I've got to cut and cut :-|
Thanks for playing - and for your feedback - really appreciated.-) 

(+2)

I tried this again with a clear head and managed to finish the game. I liked that all 3 characters had their strengths and no one felt like filler (even if 2 had a much smaller role). The fast travel map was a cool feature, reminiscent of Gabriel Knight. I do feel that the game was a bit too wordy. There were a lot of short lines of dialogue that would have flowed better as one longer paragraph. Then again, I'm a click-to-advance-text player, so I understand that longer text would be frustrating for other players who can't read it all in time. 

As always, you have made an astoundingly content-heavy game, rich with lore, that defies the 2 week working period. Good job, Marco! 

Developer(+1)

thank you so much - you spent really a lot of time playing :-) and I'm really really glad you liked it
Yes - you're right - I put long texts in a sequence of short pieces for that reason (not everyone checks options and reading speed is a really personal thing as I've seen). Still, I should have shorted some (or more than some) dialogues / lines that were too long globally AND I should provide an alternative text for a second check so to make it easier&quicker the player's life when one's simply trying to get a missing clue looking or a using again something.

Thanks for your words

Submitted(+2)

truly impressive amount of content for the time available.The story is interesting, some puzzles are a bit obscure, at least for me.

great work!

Developer

thanks for playing :-) - and yes - I should try to add some in-game hints (or change some interactions - I'm writing down feedbacks about that)

Submitted(+1)

For me there was too much dialogue before the gameplay began. If there's going to be that much dialogue upfront then the writing needs to be really on point imo

Developer

thanks for your feedback - I'm trying to improve that

Submitted(+1)

Great game! This Adventure Jam project has the potential to be turned into a full-fledged adventure game.

Developer

thanks :-) yes - I really hope to improve it after the jam

Submitted(+1)

nice game, impressive work in short time, funny character and nice story. congratulations!

Developer

thank you very much - really happy for your words

(+1)

It looks like a movie where we can interact. I liked that style.

Developer

Wow .-) thanks .-)

Submitted(+2)

An incredible and imaginative story, complex enough for a full feature game, let alone a jam entry, a very impressive achievement for a 2 week jam! 

Developer(+1)

thank you very much :-)

(+1)

WOW! It's really great to have done it in such a short time... impressive!

Good idea the system to choose the characters, 3 plot lines for the same story, it looks like a movie, it's ingenious 👏

Congratulations for the work and good luck! 😉

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

:-) thank you :-D

Submitted(+1)

Really nice game. The characters are funny. The 3 players system is nice, reminds me of Day of the tentacle. Really impressive for a jam game.

Developer

thanks :-) glad you liked it