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A jam submission

AFTER EARTHView game page

Submitted by Beaver Joe — 18 minutes, 49 seconds before the deadline
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AFTER EARTH's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Visuals#333.9173.917
Sounds and Music#343.4583.458
Overall#1042.8752.875
Innovation#1252.5002.500
The Experience#1472.2922.292
Theme#1812.4582.458

Ranked from 24 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

Nice effort on this game.

There have been a lot of comments about it already, but indeed, taking the character's control out of the player's hands does leave them feeling robbed and frustrated, so it should probably be avoided as much as possible.

Overall, the game feels very ambitious, which can be both a good and a bad thing. I tend to embark on overly ambitious projects for game jams myself, so I know that all too well. It's easy to get lost along the way while working on many different features, and to never really make them come together. If instead you manage to focus on making the core gameplay enjoyable, without any additional fluff, then you have a solid base to build upon, and the whole game will usually feel much more coherent.

In this case, I think just refining the time actually spent on the planets, and trimming the rest for now, would make for a nice game in itself.

Developer

Yes. I think you also have the same experience to want one great game in Jam. This is also my problem during jam. I want to make one game satisfied with myself. Also I want the game complete. In my first jam in Ludrum dare 43 Its hard to work along in the last 24 hours(continuous 48 hours). I can make the art, code while It feels very alone. If I only focus on the core features Also the graphics cannot match on my faviorate. So now I have one team with my classmates while new problems happened. We lack of time management and just combine all elements together. Although We worked in one room for several days while We did not have enough communications. So the third time I cut some teammates and try again. But I still cannot balance the game I wanted with the completed game. 

Your comments makes me feel my real problems I should think about it. Not only for this game, Also for some plans what game I want to make during jam. What game I want to make during daily life. Really appreciate for your comments. Not only for its treasure, But also you point my really thought about it. Very appreciate!!

Submitted(+1)

wow i really like the art style and the overall seems very nice ! but the character movement is so strange and it makes the experience weird so i didn't manage to play that much, sad because it could have been amazing. other bad point : the character, why ??? you did an amazing work (if you designed it) for the main page's and dialogue's characters so why a floating head :( but i think with some little update to fix the bad stuff its really good !

if you want to check and maybe rate my game : https://itch.io/jam/blackthornprodgamejam2/rate/378986

Developer

Yeah All sprites are made by us and some images have references. In terms of the character only have face, first reason is not we want to ignore the leg and hand which can decrease our character animation. The second reason is that we spend so much time on graphics. The order of the character is lowest which caused we did not have enough time to design it. 

Your comments are real treasure for us and each words are the truly great advice for your game. Some problems are happened and We ware not realized. We are willing and going to fix and update later to make the game better. BTW, I am going to enjoy & rate your game now~

Submitted(+1)

yes i understand the lack of time, you can be sure that i'll be testing it when you'll update it !

Developer

Thanks bro~

Submitted

Congrats for finished the game, well done.
I liked the art style, but maybe it's too detailed for such small sprites in the game.
Controlling the player is difficult and cumbersome. If he was faster, he might help.

Please, rate my game too =]
https://itch.io/jam/blackthornprodgamejam2/rate/378954

Developer

Yes. We paid attention to the graphics and ignore leave enough time on game design and the gameplay which caused some terrible experience. The design of the random movement is to simulate the unstable gravity on this planets. While almost every player does not like this design and I respect our coder and allow her to design it. But in the next step we will delete this design and try to realize this function in another way. Sorry for some uncomfortable experience during gameplay. Thanks for your comments and I am going to enjoy & rate your game now~

Submitted (3 edits) (+1)

I really wish that this game could be as good as it seemed... However, I didn't enjoy it, and here's why.

  • Artstyle that doesn't fit the rest of the game. For example, why do the two main characters look like this?  Why are aliens and plants designed this way? Why am I controlling a floating head instead of character with a body? Why character's weapon is a magic staff, is there some magic involved? Why is there a moon from Majora's Mask? These are the questions that come to my mind when playing this game. I also don't get why would you make a plain gray planet with random mountains and puddles around. I think isometric view makes it look even weirder.
  • No motivation. Nothing to catch player attention. Sure, the goal is to collect some resources, find someone, go somewhere... But it all just feels boring after completing the first level. Going through one gray planet over and over isn't interesting pointless (especially on level 2). You could make dialogs with some story appearing when you explore the planet, or some side quests to reveal more backstory about characters and their personalities.
  • Frustrating character movement. There are a lot more ways to show "unstable graivty" without getting player frustrated. I guess you already understand that was a bad decision.
  • Too much unnecessary content. It seems like you were focused individual sprites too much, not on actual game design that ties everything up. Sure, now UI and menus look fancy and there's lot of detailed sprites. But is it really necessary? You know, sometimes less is more. You don't necessarily need to spend all week to make your sprites look perfect. A lot of developers / designers start with simple mockups, placeholders. For the future I will advise you not to rush making art before you have all your game on paper. And by that I mean you should always have a clear representation of what will be necessary for your game and what will be redundant (not worth spending time on). That way you'll always know what you should focus on. It may be main characters, because they're always on screen, it may be planets, enemies, background, etc. 
  • Grammar mistakes. I know that english isn't your main language, but you should've definitely found someone who would translate all chinese text for you properly. It is important, especially in a game like this, that relies on storytelling.
  • Weird UI. Some of the UI is just broken (for example when you click on your items). Some of the text blends in with the background or too small to read. Inconsistent fonts makes your game less stylized and more random, so that's not what you want.
  • Sound effects design. The music is well done and I think it fits in your game. But sounds effects... They're just too random (not related to each other)  and have different volumes. Sometimes I had to lower my browser volume to 5 just to not get blasted by harsh sounds.

So. to summarize - it could've been an amazing game, if only it didn't ruin the experience in first few minutes... Anyway, all of you did a good job and I wish you luck with your next projects!

Be sure to rate my game and leave some feedback too :)
https://itch.io/jam/blackthornprodgamejam2/rate/379272

Developer

Thanks for your comments and I have rated your game. Very nice game. 

Yes I really much focus on the graphics and ignore the character and the colorless map design. The unstable gravity (random movement) also the terrible game design from many players' comments. Its true that I paid more attentions to graphics and ignore the core design and I have one bad command of English Grammar. I will Update this game and optimized these elements. I really thanks for your comments because these problems really happened and I should fix them. Also the SFX I will low the volume and sorry for any uncomfortable experience during gameplay. Very appreciate for your recommendations. 

Submitted(+1)

The movement of the character didn't feel good.  It felt slow and difficult, which I can understand you going for that feeling, but something more was needed to make the movement feel good.

Developer

Yes, We have been aware of our unstable gravity design is not satisfied with we want. We will in the next update delete this design for comfortable experience. Really influence player mood. Sorry about that and Thanks for your comments indeed. Hopefully next time we can offer one better game.

Submitted

Graphics and sound are nice, but ingame the graphics look a bit colorless. The game seems to be far from finished. Needs a lot of love and attention on playability (palyer movement made me seasick ;)) and overall gameplay. Great start here.

Developer

Yes. The unstable gravity (Seasick Movement) design would be delete in the next update soon. Its really influence player experience; At the beginning we want to make one huge game while we still need to step by step and continue make it. We would first optimize the current gameplay and focus on other continuous thing as well. BTW, colorless graphics is one great advice because I seldom pay attention to the color match while its really important when all sprites combine together. Especial in the maptile I know that the color is full of gray which feels boring and less motion. Very nice recommendation! Appreciate!

Submitted(+1)

The effect the mouse position has on the player's movement is pretty janky now, if instability was what you were going for then I look forward to seeing you develop it in a way that makes movement fun and intuitive to the player on how they can optimize their movement. The size of UI elemeents and how close some are to others makes for a cluttered, confusing first impression

Cute art all around though.

Developer(+1)

Thanks you. We are going to develop later and delete some wired places such as the movement and some UI elements. Hopes next time will offer better game to you guys~ Your comments are considered as treasure for us~

Submitted(+1)

My feedback after I played the game:

  • It's nice to see an isometric game. Overall the concept is kinda cool.
  • Why does the character move in such a weird way? What were the design processes behind choosing to move in a random, infrequent way instead of just moving linearly and smoothly?
  • The planets on the level selection menu look all the same, and they look dangerously similar to the moon in majora's mask. We all know how nintendo is trigger happy when it comes to lawsuits :p
  • The art for the character is needlessly degrading/sexual, that might cause problems if the game gets more attention. Disregarding that, the artstyle is pretty interesting.
  • The sound effect for the attack is extremely loud and the last bit almost pierces my eardrums, especially considering the frequency and how loud it is compared to the background music.
  • Not only the font in the game's title on this page is jokerman, but it doesn't match the font for the game's title ingame.
  • Having to click an option and wait for it to fill up to select it is extremely frustrating when you're on PC. This is somewhat acceptable in consoles but there is 0 reason to have this in a PC game.

With all that said, it seems like lots of effort was put into the game. The game should be a bit more intuitive though, no one wants to read instructions to know what to do.

Developer

Thanks for your playing and comments

  • isometic game is also one of my best favorite game style.  When I draw some maptile, I check the Don't Starve for art reference.
  • Random Movement is our design to simulate the unstable gravity in this strange planet. But all comments said this design makes terrible experience when playing. I also have the same feeling when i play. But our teammates persisted this design and I respected her. But I will try to decrease the value of the distance or delete it. It's true that it influence player experience.
  • HAHA. Yeah this moon is comes from my Nintendo art sketchbook. We try to use PS to draw again as reference. Thanks for your advice and We will improve our art creativity.
  • For sexual images I feels next time we will focus on this part and try to avoid this. All arts we used Photoshop to make. We will try to makes better next time.
  • Sorry for the loud SFX we try decrease later to make the game feel better.
  • And My habits are using different fonts in one game. But I am aware of this part and try to unite them.
  • Also We will try to make UI Menu and selection part faster and cleaner.

Thanks for your comments and we are considered as Treasure. I will update in this part first after this jam and Sorry for some uncomfortable parts when you played my game. 

Submitted(+1)

Ahh the movement made it really hard to want to do more than 1 level, it was so frustrating.  Nice game  though. The art and music were really nice. The in game list of things to collect were different from the one at the start of the level and then the amount I collected was different again.

Developer

Yeap. We try to delete the random movement later because its really influence player experience. According to the collecting items, maybe we put many unnecessary items in this game. The reason is to offer many items to let the player to choose and drop. But as one demo, I did not realize it would cause troubles to player. I will change and adjust later. Sorry for some confusion during gameplay. And we are appreciate for your comments which encourages and inspires us lots~Have a great day!

Submitted(+2)

Overall a really solid game.

Sound and visuals are really good. Nice art style, but there are a few things that needs some improvement.

  • First of all, I hate this weird randomizer for the movement. I makes me feel uncomfortable.
  • Collecting stuff with E is a little weird when at the same time running to the right. Especially with this movement (gravity) randomizer.
  • The introduction tells me to collect 3 of each, but ingame it is different in the pause/settings menu. Additionaly, the level is over when i have a random amount of things collected. Example, last level: introduction 3 ogres, 3 piranhas. Ingame 5 and 8 and i finished the level when i had 8 and 7.
  • I had no idea what to look for in the second level. Did not expect the scientist to be some sort of robot. Maybe make clear what to look for.

But I would really see where you go with this game. So maybe respond to this message when you have continued to work on it.

Btw, I would really appreciate it, if you rate my game too ;)

Developer(+1)

Hey Thanks for your reply.

  • Random Movement is because we want to simulate unstable gravity in this planets. We have written in dialogue. But this is also one heated discussion in our team. I feel little uncomfortable during game while another think this is one special idea to design. I guess we can decrease the random distance when we update the game. Or delete later. Sorry for the experience confusion.
  • Pick items using E also one uncomfortable as well. I played many times and ignore player experience.
  • Adding some additional items just want to let player have another choice to enjoy game. But also adding some confusion to the game. We will fix this.
  • In terms of the missing teammate, at beginning when I draw the "Robot", I named him one machine. But we did not have enough time to draw another people to recuse so that my teammate looks the machine like the robot scientist and use it. We will update this confusion.

And we can promise you that this game will update after rates and we will make the game complete. Your comments are really honest and encourage us lots. Most problems are really appeared for us and some problems we aware but we ignore it during this four days. but we will update and willing to offer one better game in the next time.

Very appreciate your treasure comments and have a great weekend! (I am going to enjoy and rate your game as well)

Submitted(+2)

I would write a comment, but I would say exactly what Fire Totem Games says here. Keep working on this game!

Developer(+1)

Thanks bro. We have decided to continue to make the game completed. At least make the game plot complete and makes player happy & comfortable during gameplay.

Submitted(+1)

The game looks really nice and I like the art style very much. Only thing i did not really enjoy was the player movement. But for the rest the game was amazing great job.

Developer

The design of the movement is due to the unstable gravity in this planet. Perhaps this is not a great experience during play. After the jam we will try to decrease the random movement distances or delete this effect. Sorry for some confusion during the game. Appreciate your likes our efforts as well. we will try to update later and hopes you can enjoy it. Have a great day ~~

Submitted(+1)

nice!

Developer

Thanks for your likes. And hopes you enjoy this game jam and Have a great weekend~

Submitted(+1)

Game looks great, I love you art style - I think I've told you that already on one of your entries.

The idea is nice, I have a question regarding the controllers, I sent it to you on discord, so I'll await your response.

The UI at the top seems to be cut out for me, perhaps it's the webGL resolution on the site?

Anyway, that issue aside, good job!

Developer

Yeah I found the same problem The top part is covered. But I cannot re upload again when i found this problem because the system is closed. Firstly before the system is closed, I try to change the background color makes looks not clear. But it cannot solve the problem. Thirty minutes ago I try to change the default webGL resolution from 640x360(default) to 960x540. But also one top part cover my game. My teammate said some game canvas size would change a little bit when the game is compressed to WebGL.(Maybe true I am not sure). She said 1024x768 would be best choice next time. 

Thanks for your likes and recommendations~have a great weekend~

Developer

This game was created for BTP Game Jam #2

Controls

  • Move: ASDW
  • Fire: Left Button
  • Collect: E
  • Press ESC to call Menu System
  • Hold Back Button image between each System scenes
  • Other detail buttons will hinted during game 

StoryTelling(Game Plot)

Almost 200 years later, earth is out of resources. NASA frequently commands spacemen explore to unknown planets. You are one of them. During the process, you would face many missions such as collecting rare resources, finding previous missing teammates or fighting with aliens. After all missions completed(our game stop on that, but we will update later after this game jam), you would bring hopes back to the earth and rebuild the uncompleted homeland. Then you have to explore again and again for human. Earth would possible get revenges from other explored planets randomly. How to balance and maintain earth with other planets is one deep question in the future.

 Tool used

  • Unity 2018.3
  • Visual Studio
  • Photoshop CC
  • Adobe illustrator CC
  • Garaeband
  • Audacity
  • Flstudio

Graphics

All the images are created by our teammate Zheyuan Zhou which used Photoshop CC and Adobe illustrator CC 2019 to draw it. Some images have been referenced by other images. But we can promise that all images in this game are created by ourselves and we keep the original files.

Audios

All the BGM and sounds effects are created by teammate Dan Zhu which used Garaeband Software created.

Game design

  • Level 1, Your mission is to COLLECTsome resources for research.
  • Level 2, You have to FIND one of your missed teammate for security.
  • Level 3, DEFEAT creatures are your final mission.

Because This is one demo, We have unlocked all images in Gallery. Also We add the guild icon during the game. You can follow the UI around the canvas to find the resources in the game. 

Next, our team decided to continue updating and improving to make our game more organized and perfect after the jam.

*Hints*

We have attached the screenshots for player who may be lost  in the strange planet.

Team member

  • Zheyuan Zhou(Game Design and Art Graphics)
  • Yulei Sun(Coding and Animations)
  • Dan Zhu(Audio and SFX)

THANKS

First, respect BTP to offer much tutorials on his channel.  Then appreciate all players which spend time playing and rating our games. Yes, I said YOUYOU ARE AMAZING. Both of you improve & inspire us and update the game world.