This was really nice. Very old-school point & click with mostly not-too-challenging point & click puzzles. Very clean design, the pixel-art is very well done. The voice acting is really well done and very welcome. There are some slight technical problems (like a missing pick-up animation) and the ending feels a little abrupt. But I had a very good time in my lunch-break! I like that it was a clean, self-contained story that completely stands on its own legs.
Play game
The Alignment Paradox's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall | #3 | 4.052 | 4.052 |
| Mental Engagement | #5 | 4.229 | 4.229 |
| Overall | #5 | 4.143 | 4.143 |
| Characterization | #6 | 4.114 | 4.114 |
| Emotional Engagement | #9 | 3.714 | 3.714 |
| Lasting Impression | #11 | 3.857 | 3.857 |
| Atmosphere | #15 | 4.257 | 4.257 |
Ranked from 35 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Comments
I'm always a sucker for true point and click adventure games and yours fit the bill nicely. Like so many here, I'll say that I really liked having Luna in there. Very nicely done!
I really like this game. It was mysterious and engaging. I liked the use of the sidekick Luna in the game and all the puzzles. Really the kind of game I like to play in Adventure Jam. Nothing to say. Super solid entry.
Excellent game! Really enjoyed the puzzles (the computer password had me stumped for a while but in a good way, felt great when I finally figured it out). The story was slightly predictable but I still enjoyed it. The voice acting was well done and the graphics are pretty nice too. Loved Luna! Wish I had such a compliant dog!
Fantastic game overall, great job!
Great game! Love the canine companion, Luna. Great puzzles and a nice twist! The voice acting is top notch and really draws you into the game. One of my favorites this year!
Nice story and dialogue! Impressive mechanism about dog fetching and sniffing. Got stuck for a while but overall experience was fantastic.
This game was awesome! I loved it. The music/mood was perfect. The puzzles were great (won’t spoil them here). I got stuck 3x and the game took me about 35m to complete. The writing ad story was great. The art was good. I liked Luna a lot. The voice acting was very well done and lifted the game a lot. I’m glad you added it.
Very very well done effort and enjoyable game.
This game is an extraordinarily complete package. The writing and voice acting are uniformly excellent. The soundtrack is great too. There's a bit of an equalization issue sometimes where the voices dip a bit too low below the music, but of course that's a small thing under the time constraint. (After all, my game doesn't have any sound at all, so who am I to talk? 😅) I think the graphics are really well-executed, and perfectly evoke the LucasArts era while still creating its own unique style.
One suggestion I'd say is that the story needs some kind of denouement. I think many of Megan's lines during the climactic scene could be moved to take place after the action is over, so there's something players can do to 'come down' after the excitement of the ending, while getting answers about the world. And it would be nice if there was something to tie a ribbon on Luna's story as well. (Maybe she's Megan's dog who ran away?)
Once again though, this game is very impressive, top to bottom, and I'd love to see you expand this universe further!
I actually recorded my playthrough. If you want to see my impressions as I played, you can see it below (timestamp for your game in the description). Hope that can be useful!
Nick, thank you so much for taking the time to record your playthrough and provide such detailed feedback. It’s the first time I’ve actually watched someone play it, so it’s really interesting to hear your thought process as you play. I’m glad you liked it overall, and all the suggestions you made were spot on. Some of it is down to time constraints, and some of it is just things I hadn’t considered, but it’s all really helpful. I’m planning to release an update at some point, so I’ll keep all of your feedback in mind as I work on a few improvements.
Thanks again! Dan
The best game I've played in this jam so far!
Everything about this production is well polished and decent (pun intended :)
Has interesting plot and twist about AI alignment and the identity of the main character. Nice music and well polished text and art for the atmosphere build-up. The point & click mystery solving is a bit hard for me but the Atmo and story sure helped me stick to the end.
5/5 overall.
One of my favorite point and click games of the jam so far.
The voice acting is excellent ,the puzzles are great, not too easy not too hard. Luna is the best partner!
Overall, I spent a really good time playing it :)
Congratulations :-) I really like it :-) - nice story, good graphics, and animations, intriguing sounds&voice over. I've just struggled with the computer password - but even that puzzle was more than fair.
Ah - your dog is too cute :-)
Good job!
The voiceover is very well acted, graphic is simple but work well for the purpose of a jam game.
The distopic narration is simple but good
I enjoyed it!
The puzzle difficulty was just right for this one! I got stumped for a couple minutes forgetting Luna might have a powerful sniffer, but other than that I didn't have any issues. Tidy graphics, good voice acting, and some nice speculating on AI. Luna's super cool too, I wish she made more cute noises. Definitely one of my favorites so far!
Great atmosphere, nice acting. A little bit of extra signposting would have made the experience perfect, but I mean, these are things we need playtesting for - and when you get playtesters, the jam is already over :D
The idea of using Luna as an "external inventory object" is great. It kinda reminds me of the use of Max in Sam&Max Hit the road
Very entertaining game. The pixel graphics look neat and the voice acting is superb. I liked the puzzles very much. Not too difficult, but not underwhelming either. And Luna is just cute. *sniff sniff*
Personally, the blackscreens didn't bother me at all. The only problem I had was the aforementioned volume of Meg's voice actor. With the music and all, it's a bit difficult to hear at times. Otherwise, a great game all round. :)
Wow, that was really nice, the game was fun, thé theme was cool and the sounds designs were really well done, congratulations !
What an excellent game! I love the theme and the story you crafted. Even when I saw the twist coming it was very well executed (excellent voice actors) and had enough of an impact to be memorable. Puzzles were fun, too. One of my favorite games so far!
(If a may nitpick a tiny little bit: the audio volume of Meg was a bit too low in comparison to the other voice. But you already said you will fix that post jam. And I think you overuse the blackscreen to hide nonexistent animations. I prefer not seeing an animation and just imagining it over seeing a black screen that screams "here should have been an animation if I had more time". ;-) But that is a personal preference.)
Good game! The audio mix made the dialogue a bit quiet and the socket puzzle felt a bit arbitrary but the rest of the puzzles were great and the art and atmosphere were top notch. Also July 31st has a special significance to me so it's fun that that was the circled date in the calendar.








Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.