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A jam submission

Notebook BattlesView game page

Nostalgic virtual recreation of my once vivid imagination.
Submitted by Auer — 6 hours, 35 minutes before the deadline
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Notebook Battles's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
INNOVATION#32.4002.400
THEME#82.4002.400
OVERALL#212.0402.040
THE EXPERIENCE#341.8601.860
VISUALS#401.9601.960
SOUNDS AND MUSIC#791.5401.540

Ranked from 50 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

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Comments

Submitted

Definitely unique idea, but implementation is not the best. You could've worked more on tutorial, UI and fixing bugs. But for 7 days game jam this is a fun game :)

Submitted

Interesting concept! I liked the idea of drawing my own stuff!

However, it took me some time to figure out what to do. A quick in game tutorial would be great.

Good job!

Submitted

I liked drawing my own stuff, it really made me relate with the game better. Sandbox mode  works great, I especially liked that 1 screen was enough to make your level, draw your characters, and play it. Simply amazing, good job! :)

Submitted

The notebook style is damn too unique. It is such a new experience for me, to play with my own drawings. I would say that it is a perfect blend of creativity and gameplay. The levels are a little too tuff for me. Other than that, this game is simply cool in its own way.

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Nice one! I needed some time to figure out what to do, the instructions on the gamepage weren't as helpful because the boxes where you put in the sprites didnt show up for the player and the enemy at first, only after a reload of the game in fullscreen. But then it was fun! It would be awesome to to save and load your own creations. But I understand that the time boundries of game jam make it hard to implement such things. The art is good. I kinda dislike the music, it does not really match the theme of the game and it could be more relaxing (music that the game patch-it-later chose, would fit much better imho).

Some suggestions if you want to continue your work on this project after the jam: 

- Players, enemies and weapons should be permanent in your level and don't vanish after one playtrough.

- Make placed objects deletable one-by-one and not just the entire level.

- Make a semi-transparent preview of the object you want to place, so the player can detect overlaps before they place it.

This is my creation, featuring the protagonists of my game ;D:


Submitted(+1)

I very much did enjoy the attention that was put into what I can only imagine was a very difficult drawing system, but I do feel like that the general experience was held back by confusion and some overly hard levels. Specifically I think that you could better teach your players about the menus (as I spent the first two minutes just figuring out what was going on), getting more player feedback about the levels before you release (I felt that some of them were near impossible), and maybe polishing up the visuals and sound a little bit (the shooting sound has an odd annoying pop at the end of it). Overall though, I think that it's a pretty solid idea that could use some more polish.

Submitted(+1)

Hhhhhhhella good game. Not gonna give it a perfect score because if it wasn’t for the description teaching me how to play I would never have learned but is damn good overall

Submitted(+1)

Clever and interesting! It was a little difficult to play on a trackpad, but the concept is solid and it really took me back to plotting out little wars on my notebook margins. Great job there.

Submitted

I don't really like this game. The pre-made levels are too difficult, and it's just not my type of game. Plus, if you're going to add sounds and music, make them ones people haven't heard a million times before, if you can't make your own

Developer

I put in the music last minute as I had ran out of time. Sound Design is definitely not my strong suit. Sorry you didn't like it!

Submitted(+1)

Very clever idea! Was difficult to draw with a mouse, but then I figured out a could zoom :D

Submitted(+1)

This is a very interesting and creative game!

It is very unclear what your supposed to do and took me a while to figure out that you have to draw sprites in the spaces under the names. Once I figured it out it is very fun.

Great work!

Submitted(+1)

I was unable to play this game I think on my mac. It seems like it can't handle secondary click that you need (I suppose) in the game to begin. 

But by the look of it it seems interesting. Maybe you can add a youtube "trailer" or something :)

Submitted

If your using a trackpad you can press with two fingers to do right click. Also I think holding ctrl and clicking works as well.

Submitted

Didn't work tho :( 

Developer

I have a trailer for the game I added it but it seems that it’s not showing up on the game page. If you draw on the sprites you can go through and play all the levels. Right click is only for samdbox mode stuff on the home screen so just ignore the play button and click lvl 1-10 after you draw the sprites. Instructions are below the game window

Submitted (2 edits) (+1)

Very clever! Really gives people a sense of ownership and agency in playing this small game. Evokes a nostalgia of the  early 2000s for me. My critical comments are below.

Some improved usability and UI clarity would go a long way here for the player. It is unclear what is and what isn't interactable. I was not sure how the pens at the bottom worked at first, and didn't know that I needed to draw a sprite for the player too (although I know you gave some instruction outside of the game). I think that this is a wonderful idea for fitting the theme of "game development" from an artist's point of view. But for your next game, make sure that you spend a good amount of time on usability! It gets in the way of experiencing how fun of a little game this is. 

For example, you could have had the player start the game by "flipping through" a few "pages" (the tutorial) before getting to the actual game. The first page could say something like "draw a picture of yourself." Then you draw on that page and click to turn to the next page when you are finished. The second page could say "draw your favorite weapon"... Then the next, "draw your worst enemy, your first home" etc. Your UI would be less cluttered (i.e. when you are in the "drawing mode", you literally just have things on screen for drawing, and not any other buttons). It would also give people a sense of what the game is trying to evoke here, that game development can be a very personal process! Once they get to the main menu page, you can allow people to go back and change their drawings or proceed to the meat of your game using their drawings from their own experiences.

Overall, great work on the idea and great execution! Best of luck.

Submitted(+1)

What to do needs to be clearer, adding a walkthrough video would help a ton.  Once I did figure out what to do, though, it was fun.  I am still not sure if I figured out how to do everything but this was super creative and is 100% on theme.

Submitted
Deleted post
Submitted(+1)

It took me a while to understand what i have to do. It was a different experience and I really  enjoyed it. Great art! 

Submitted(+1)

This game is awesome! It was well made, and the puzzles are very interesting! Thank you for bringing back childhood memories! <3

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Your game is awesome! I has a great fun with it! even tough its really confusing in the beginning on what to do and how to play it...  the music is good too....

Developer(+1)

It's important to read the instructions first! :)

Developer

It's been a long time since I had my notebook out and in full force. The very first of my "Game Dev" experiences was playing turn based and  puzzle games in my notebook with scraps of paper. Now I pass the experience on to you, the pc generation , in hopes that you may grasp a part of the joy that is paper and pencil gaming. 

Instructions: When starting the game make sure to first draw out all of the needed sprites. It will be difficult to play the levels or in Sandbox Mode with everything invisible. The "home page" is like a Sandbox Mode and if you click on the word "NOTHING" (left click) you can access the ability to place objects (right click).  The levels are all available much like with a real notebook and you may play one that fits your ability. Kill all enemies and spawners to win each level, I hope you enjoy.

Controls: While Editing in Sandbox mode move with WASD/Arrow Keys or Click Scroll Wheel and Drag like Unity Editor.  Middle Mouse Scroll to Zoom . While Playing use WASD / Arrow Keys with mouse to aim and shoot.