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New Terra's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Atmosphere | #15 | 3.700 | 3.700 |
| Lasting Impression | #21 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Emotional Engagement | #22 | 2.700 | 2.700 |
| Overall | #25 | 2.840 | 2.840 |
| Mental Engagement | #30 | 2.400 | 2.400 |
| Characterization | #37 | 2.400 | 2.400 |
Ranked from 10 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
very cool game! very much dug the setting, the art style, and the overall tone. very good job of conveying another world and all the mechanisms and factions.
the writing was absolutely top notch. i was very convinced by the world building, and you dug deep into fleshing out the world. there was quite a depth of content. music and sound were spot on as well.
as for the gameplay itself, very strong at the start, but diminished quickly around halfway through. the initial mechanic of scouting locations and waiting for reports back was so great, that it was a shame that once everything was discovered there was nothing further to do with that. would have enjoyed a further level where maybe re-scouting might reveal something new about whatever location.
the decision making mechanic was very captivating, and i like that very old school mechanic of choices and consequences. though i'd say the choices were almost too easily telegraphed as to any sort of motive, and they mostly seemed to have effects right then and there. usually that sort of mechanic is most fun when the best course is more ambiguous, or when what seems like the obvious best choice ends up having repercussions several turns later.
i suspect the 'what kind of day is it?' question played something to that, but if there were any late term consequences they were either very subtle or i managed to avoid them.
towards the end i was starting to seem the same choices multiple times and by that point i had figured out which ones had the effect of increasing or decreasing the population and that's when the magic started to break a little. again, this is where some complexity might make that tail end more interesting. maybe the 'correct choice' 10 turns ago is a very disastrous choice on turn 20.
very much enjoyed this one!
I love management games like this! The look-and-feel of this one was really nice (the regions are so creative and enigmatic!) and the writing is excellent--it's hard to create expressive writing for game status reports like this, but you have a very evocative voice. I definitely wanted to learn more about this world, the factions, the mysterious lifeforms, and so on. And you took a lot of care in the execution, such as randomizing the response options, which I appreciate.
Two things:
First, I definitely want more feedback on how I'm doing and why--either more metrics (Food, Science, Morale, what have you) or response blurbs explaining what happened as a result of your choice ("You were unable to deflect the meteor and it killed 200 people"), or ideally both, because I found myself just learning which options had the best results through trial and error, because I really have no sense why, say, "I have heard a sound" causes 200 people to die.
Second, the ending seems bugged--it gives me the "How do you want to be remembered?" prompt, and then it starts over with the opening text, and then goes to the planet still with your previous population but with all the regions unexplored, you take one turn, and then right back to "How do you want to be remembered?" Surely that's not what's supposed to happen.
Thank you so much for your thoughtful and helpful feedback! This is Spencer Truett the writer:)
Nice submission! Was that generative music or something like that??
Hey there Javier! This is CM Adams the composer/sound designer for New Terra. I've worked with generative music before, but due to time constraints, I decided to opt for a more meandering organic piece. The music itself is basically one long synth improvisation that came together through continued recording and rerecording with heavy post production to make it sound more complex and through composed. In general, the aim was to make something self referential and melodic but complex and layered enough to help with atmosphere since the game is mostly text.
Nice overall vibe but for me if text is going to be the main thing then the writing needs to be fire
Nice - even if after the exploration part I'm not sure to have understood what's best (or how better handle the various events). Anyway, the overall feeling is good - and it's a nice game
nice audio :) the athmosphere was good but sometimes it was a little bit repetitive but nice story .. only con imo is that the agent has nothing to do anymore when u explored everything ... would be awesome to use him for other stuff too :) nice work :)