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Paranoia's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| MUSIC | #26 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| VISUALS | #123 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| INNOVATION | #186 | 3.429 | 3.429 |
| SOUNDS | #196 | 3.286 | 3.286 |
| THEME | #197 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
| OVERALL | #234 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
| DESIGN | #359 | 3.143 | 3.143 |
Ranked from 14 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
Neat game! I included it in my Blackthornprod GAME JAM #3 compilation video series!
I got the good ending. I loved your art and music and especially the ending. I think the psychic powers weren't needed and this could have been a stealth game as most psychic powers felt pretty weak. The story and your take on the there were very interesting. Thanks!! It was a great game!
Please take some time to play and rate my game as well. I would really appreciate it!! Thanks!! Cheers!!
Yeah, we didn't do enough to highlight the way the damage output is affected by your sanity. Having it as a stealth would have made thematic sense, but the way we had chosen to implement the theme was directly tied to the shooting mechanic, so it wouldn't have really worked without it.
Thanks for playing, and for the feedback!
Oh, I understand. I didn't notice that as I just kept running. I might have noticed it if I fought enemies. Still such a great game. Your art is phenomenal!
Take some time to play and rate mine too. I would like some feedback too! Thanks!!
Sounds like it worked reasonably well as a stealth game anyway, haha! Yeah, I worked with a couple of really great artists :D
I've played and rated yours already 👍 really enjoyed it!
Interesting take on the theme for the jam! The game really came together well with the theme, art style and music, and I'm not sure if it was meant to be 'deep' but I felt it was quite a fitting game relating to things such as mental health considering what has been happening this past year!
I did notice that you're able to shoot through walls, so it made some of the content a little bit trivial as I never really felt in danger of my sanity dropping too low at any point, but I expect difficulty could scale over a larger game. For the time constraints of a game jam this is a really well made submission. Nice work from the team involved, I certainly enjoyed the experience :)
Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it! We didn't want to emphasise the current situation too hard when we were considering the narrative and world of the game, but it was definitely present in our minds as we were making design decisions.
The shooting through the walls was one thing that I never got round to fixing, but it never occurred to me how much of an effect it would have on the difficulty of the game. I'd just walk around and not shoot things unless I had a clear line of sight during play testing!
Haha I did my best to avoid cheating the game too much I promise! :p
Fantastic game!
Theme:
The use of less sanity being more power was a great take on the theme. I would really have loved to see some sanity effects in the game when you had less, like eternal darkness, that way there was a risk/reward for having less sanity. Plus most monsters could be cheesed by just staying far away and shooting. Rendering the losing sanity for more power, useless. Still a great use of the theme though!
Visuals:
The visuals were fantastic! This actually reminded me of the very first game jam I did with my teams game "out of Sight". Honestly such a cohesive style throughout the entire game (except for the purple bullets) lol
Sounds/Music:
You had great creepy and atmospheric music with decent sound fx in place. So it went very well with the overall design of the game!
Overall:
The game was a great 5-10 minute experience with appealing visuals and an intriguing atmosphere. I honestly wanted more from the game, such as a fuller story and more interesting level design. Also the utilization of the sanity meter could really help make the game pop even more! I enjoyed my play through of it!
I streamed it here, starts at minute 14:
Gosh, it's always so surreal watching somebody else play your game on video. Such comprehensive feedback too, thank you very much!
Yeah, there were a number of art assets intended for changing sanity, and a number of different peace tasks (the things you do to restore sanity), but unfortunately I didn't get time to put them in. Also, I'll give you a guess as to the single artistic design choice I ended up making (as the programmer) haha!
I really did feel like the game was setup to have more! lol That makes sense you had to cut content. That's always the shame of jams, but also the beauty. What are you willing to sacrifice to get a playable game out the door.
Yeah definitely. I also find the smaller scope and time frame means you're a lot more likely to get stuff done. You never really get time to reach a point where your motivation runs out! Plus, even if you're not super into an idea, you're only dealing with it for a short time, so it's not a huge burden to just run with things!
I completely understand. There was a jam I did that was about 2 weeks along, and the theme and the game direction was not the most fun for me at that time, so I burnt out pretty quick doing it.
I loved the character design :D I think you did a pretty good game. I espacily loved the lowpass effect when getting insane. Like other comments said walking animation is not properly alligned. And shooting mechanic felt a bit odd for me. Other than these small complaints i enjoyed the game well done :D
Thanks for the feedback. Yeah, I can see why you'd pick up on the shooting, you can tell the difference in power of the projectiles in your game from a mile off! :D
I think you really nailed the ambience of the game, art is coherent (the only thing that got me intrigued is the walking sprite animation is moving left to right, I'm not sure it's supposed to do that?) and the music / sounds fit the ambience :)
The shooting mechanic was a bit lacking, there was no feedback to let you know you hurt the enemy (projecting it backwards or making it flash could be enough). So for a while I didn't know you could destroy the statues, and sometimes it took me 2~3 shots to destroy them, while some other times it took me 10+. Not sure what's up with that.
So overall, a cool game idea that's a bit held back by a lack of player feedback, I don't know if you had the occasion to get it playtested by people outside of the team, it can really help pinpoint the stuff that doesn't feel obvious to someone who didn't make the game. Regardless, I still had a nice time playing it, kudos to the team :)
Yeah, not communicating the way the shooting mechanic works more clearly is definitely the biggest issue we're getting feedback on. Basically, the lower your sanity, the more powerful the attack is. The fireballs get larger, and their colour is lighter, but the effect is quite sutble, except for at the extremes. The lack of enemy hurt feedback was an oversight on my part, I naively thought the projectile exploding particles were sufficient, but by the time we got chance to have playtesting outside of the team it was too late to add any more. Early play testing, and planning player feedback during the initial design stages are definitely the big take homes from this one!
Thanks for your feedback, and I'm glad you enjoyed playing! :D
Very uniqe idea and characters! The music and visuals are really nice, however I think the animation could use some work. Also an indicator on what I can destroy with my current sanity level would be helpful. Overall I liked the game and I think you and your team did a great job!
Thanks, yeah, I was working with a great team!
Anything that can be destroyed at any sanity level, it's just that the attacks get more powerful. Some sort of indicator would have probably made that more clear, though.
Really interesting concept! The vibe was great with the combination of music and art. I can imagine this being fleshed out into something bigger giving him a backstory and more impact when he gets stressed (distort the music maybe) Great work!!
Yeah, there was a lot more story and mechanics we had planned, but just didn't make it in in time. There's a low pass filter that gets put on the music when you're stressed, but it didn't quite have the effect I'd hoped for. Thanks for your feedback!
It was interesting to play. Great idea and good mechanics! Good job!
Please check my game as well ;)
Thanks, just played yours. I'm a sucker for 1-bit pixel art, haha :D
All of the individual elements of this game were great. I loved the art, music and sound effects but I wasn't quite sure how it all fit the theme. It seemed like the main idea was the more enemies you're near, the more stressed you feel and the faster you lose your sanity which seemed like more is more. Aside from the theme application though I think the concept is good and I only wish that there were a few more things you could interact with. I would have also made the enemies have much less health because I got pretty tired of spamming space. Overall it was a really moody and cool game and I especially enjoyed the art style and how the music changed when you got stressed.
Thanks for your feedback! Your attacks actually get more powerful as your sanity gets lower, which was the intent behind the theme, it just didn't end up coming across very well. Our awesome level designer kept coming up with interesting ways to highlight that side of the design, but I didn't get chance to implement any of them :(
I've just replayed after your reply and the game makes so much more sense now. It's a real shame that wasn't mentioned in the game anywhere but once I got my sanity down a bit then the game was much more enjoyable. I've amended my ratings accordingly ;)
Awesome, thanks! Yeah, it's mentioned in the text on the game page, but nowhere in the actual game! I wonder if I'd just added one more tutorial popup to each that if it would have made all the difference...