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A jam submission

Ante AnimaView game page

Fantasy adventure
Submitted by Wandering Peak (@WanderingPeak), renard_sound, Red Tree (@redtree8888) — 2 hours, 18 minutes before the deadline
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Ante Anima's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Characterization#523.3533.353
Mental Engagement#543.1183.118
Atmosphere#623.7063.706
Overall#643.1763.176
Lasting Impression#693.1183.118
Overall#723.2353.235
Emotional Engagement#1002.5292.529

Ranked from 17 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

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Comments

Submitted

It's highly atmospheric and has plenty of cute characters. Unfortunately, I had some glitches with the mouse cursor not appearing, and I don't think I understand what I did to solve the four elements puzzle. Did make it to the end though.

Developer

Thank you for playing! The last puzzle is indeed kind of esoteric and needs either more clarification or a noise level reduced with a more straightforward action/consequence link.

Submitted(+1)

A very interesting puzzle game, I really like the art style and atmosphere of the game!

Developer

Thank you for playing!

Submitted(+1)

Nice job! Congratulations on getting this complete, it has a lot of elements working well together

Developer

Thank you for playing! We are working on improving the game for it to become something more than an interactive story :)

Submitted(+1)

The artstyle, setting, and atmosphere are incredibly impressive and captivating.

Awesome!

Developer(+1)

Thank you very much for your kind words!

Submitted (1 edit) (+2)

+1 for Bao. Another +1 for Goose. Very cool artwork, setting, and atmosphere. Opening dialogs in the bar set the tone well, though it does feel a little heavy-handed with the 'call to adventure'. As some others mentioned, the cursor disappears frequently, seemingly when you're not on a hitbox of some kind and there is no image for the cursor. I must admit I truly had no idea how to make it past the first puzzle. I was expecting some kind of visual or audio cues to indicate the correct choice. After dozens of trial and errors I got too frustrated to keep trying.

Edit: Playing PC version btw, also it seemed the resolution was slightly  too large for my monitors, overlapping to the second.

Developer

Thanks for playing. We are sorry that you had a problem with the cursor, and we are looking into how to fix it. Unfortunately, we don’t have a Windows machine at our disposal, only a virtual one. The mostly tested versions are for Web and Mac.

In the spell puzzle, you need to grab (by left-clicking) spells from your inventory at the bottom and then right-click on a scene to cast them. You are absolutely right: we need a better explanation of the process.

Submitted

That part I was able figure out, but I only had 3 available spells with 4  objects in scene to interact with.  Every time I used my 3rd spell it told me to try again, and there was seemingly no right order of execution that would allow me to proceed.

Developer

That’s strange. Two evil spells are close enough to be destroyed with just one of your spells unless there is a bug related to the screen resolution.

Submitted

Ahh this went right over my head! I was clicking directly on each 'card' on the trees and didn't pay much attention to the circular area after using the spells.

Submitted(+1)

OK you'll have to forgive my initial ignorance haha but it is a bit of lesson on how to teach dumb players like me. I really enjoy the sun spell puzzles and would love to see lots of these, but the puzzles at the shrine as others have said feel very trial and error-y. It was nice to return to the bar and speak to characters again. I would really like to see Bao involved heavily in the story as he seems like quite a knowledgeable character, and also because he's a talking kitty.

Submitted(+1)

Cool visuals! Love the setting, very stylish design.  

Maybe there's too much text, but I believe it can be solved (if decided to) with hiding the previous text, when the new paragraph appears.

Didn't get that spells have some kind of a force field at first, so stuck for a while in the beginning. Maybe it wasn't too obvious...

Text and dialogues are asking for more choices and freedom, but it's the matter of time and for the jam it's best to get your story straight, which you masterly did!

Wished for a change of music on locations (or maybe a switch to some ambient/drone scapes). But that's already asking too much.

Still had some time stuck finding the best way to put a spell (and oh so hard to get the Shrines done, although it's understandable - yet hardcore doable) but really enjoyed the flow of your game. Very cool journey in the Japanese setting, somewhat cute and entertaining, thanks!

Submitted(+1)

It looks wonderful. The visuals are great and the music is very fitting. I really enjoyed visiting this world, it's an interesting setting. The puzzle mechanics have a lot of potential, but I have to admit that I was a tad lost during the four elements puzzle ... I could practically hear Bao making fun of me. :)

It's a very promising start into a new adventure. I'm curious to see what happens next.

Developer

Thanks for playing! We are glad you liked the game! We are also looking forward to developing the game. The four elements puzzle is indeed esoteric at the moment. We need to place a better explanation of its logic.

PS: We indeed planned for Bao to be a part of this puzzle, but ran out of time during the jam :)

Submitted(+1)

This was such a treat! I was totally engrossed by the dialogue, story and setting. All the art looks great, and the spell reaction puzzles were really cool. Maybe in post-jam versions there could be something that punish the player for getting those wrong repeatedly rather than just getting an opportunity to retry it over and over. Like people have said earlier, the shrine puzzle might need a hint, but it was still pretty neat. Following you, I need more of this!

Developer (1 edit)

Thank you for playing! We are considering making the supply of spells finite and then requiring players to spend time replenishing it. Making this game a blend of adventure and team management was a part of the initial idea :)

However, the mechanics of team/resource management is quite different from the mechanics of point-and-click adventure—that’s what we understood clearly during the jam. And they don’t fit easily together. But we’ll still think about how to blend them :)

Submitted(+1)

Never been in a honking contest with a Goose before :D  Well written story. I truly hope you keep working on this, after the jam. This game has great potential. Good job!  

Developer(+1)

Honk-honk!

Submitted

Honk-honk! :D

Submitted(+1)

Very neat environment. Can defiantly tell you put work into it! Wasn't sure if some of the moments did not allow me to click were by design or bugs, but overall gj!

Submitted(+1)

This game has such a lovely atmosphere, it's a treat to play. I had a few technical issues, the cursor would disappear sometimes and I was unable to get the browser version to load at all so I downloaded it instead. When I beat the game, I couldn't figure out a way to close it; I had to manually shut down the program. If there's a button to close the game I'd suggest making it more apparent, or otherwise including one if it doesn't exist.

For the gameplay itself, the puzzles were fun to solve once I figured out how they worked. Not obvious, but not overwhelmingly difficult -- aside from the 4 elements one. That felt like a lot of trial and error; that's not a bad thing, but it did feel a bit like lucking into the right answer. For the general talk/interact segments, it was sometimes difficult to tell what could be clicked on since background elements mostly blend together. Aesthetically, it makes it all look cohesive -- but it makes the game a little more difficult to play.

It was very enjoyable overall, I have to say! The art and music are beautiful, and the characters and story are really interesting. If you plan to continue the game after the jam, I'd love to play more.

Developer

Thank you for your comprehensive feedback. The cursor has a problem, but we noticed it only in the web version. Thanks for reporting it! The “close game” button is indeed something we forgot to add XD.

We are thinking about how to improve the 4 elements puzzle with additional hints. Interactive characters and objects are indicated by a cursor change. Maybe here, the cursor wasn’t working for you? I don’t know if an outline or highlight is needed. It looks a bit off. A hotkey to highlight interactive objects may do.

Thanks for playing. Glad that you’ve enjoyed the game :) We indeed plan to continue working on it.

Submitted(+1)

Put a talking cat in front of me and I will be satisfied XD Nice puzzles and great atmosphere!

Developer

Thank you for playing! Bao is our chief PR manager XD

Submitted(+1)

WOW this was awesome, loved the arts and the puzzles, gg ! 

Developer

Thanks for playing!

game not loading, froze Chrome

Developer

Are you on Mac? There is a known issue with the Godot4 engine (which is used for Ante Anima) and Macs. We will try to find a workaround.

Yep, Chrome on MAC

Developer (2 edits)

Please try this link with Safari: https://ante-anima.herokuapp.com

It is the same version available on itch.io now but fixed for Safari. It should load on Chrome as well, but on Chrome/Mac it takes a few minutes to start, so better use Safari.

Thank you!

Safari is evil, don't use Safari.  Tried downloading your game, but it doesn't meet the security guidelines, so can't play 

Developer

Safari is evil, don’t use Safari

😭

Developer (1 edit)

Unfortunately, Google still hasn’t updated Chrome to use Metal for shaders. You can work around it, if you start Chrome from the terminal (command line):

/Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome --use-angle=metal

This way, the game shall work from itch!

PS: Please first quit Chrome before starting it from command line.

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

The art and the soundscape are really pretty! The worldbuilding is great as well.  I managed to beat it, but I wasn't 100% sure about the logic of the temple/shrine puzzle at the time of beating it, so it felt a little accidental.  I think I understand now, but still, beating it partly by accident doesn't feel ideal.  The chain-reaction-of-spells mechanic seems neat, would've liked to see a bit more than that.  Overall, it gives an impression that you didn't get around to implementing everything you intended to, but the base is solid!