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A jam submission

Dear PenpalView game page

Decrypt a killer's letters to save their victims.
Submitted by adafish, jeff.harper.games, Ariadne Games — 2 hours, 17 minutes before the deadline
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Dear Penpal's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Innovation#6223.1384.000
Gameplay#7782.9423.750
Enjoyment#9142.9423.750
Overall#10002.8113.583
Theme#10812.6483.375
Visuals#10922.8443.625
Audio#12292.3533.000

Ranked from 8 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

How does the game fit the theme?
The player must decrypt a series of messages and identify the locations inside of them correctly. Nothing can go wrong, because if the player fails to identify even one location then they lose the round (and their streak).

What code and assets did you not make from scratch during the jam (if any)?
We did not make any of the audio or fonts; a full list of where each asset is from is in the game's credits page under "Third Party Assets."

How many people worked on the game?
2

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Comments

Submitted

Oh, my goodness. Many years ago, this kind of mystery games was so popular. I didn't expect that I have any chance to play this thing in present date. I like mysterious solving game. This game quality is good. Environment and elements are well blended. Nice job.

Submitted(+1)

Wow, very impressive. You've created a game with depth and a mysterious atmosphere. Actually, our team also wanted to create a game that conveys this kind of emotion to players, but our skills aren't at that level yet. I want you to know that your game has greatly inspired our team. For the puzzles, I'll have to come back and play again this weekend. I think I'll need to spend quite a bit of time with it.

Developer

Thank you so much for playing and the really kind feedback! We hope you enjoy the puzzles.

Submitted(+1)

I like playing these style of escape games. This is a really well made and polished game. Haven't solved it yet. But definitely will be coming back to solve the case. Keep up the good work!

Developer(+1)

Thank you for playing!

(+1)

Nice game keep it up!!

Developer

Thank you for playing!

Submitted(+1)

This was so cool, it may not be for everyone but I think cryptography is so interesting. This is possibly the best game I've played from this jam. It's simple but so well executed. Two small things I noticed, you spelled San Francisco wrong (its missing the second c) and the music didnt loop for me so the game got very quiet. Incredibly well done!

Developer(+1)

Oh my gosh, thank you so much for playing and for the great feedback!  We'll take a look at those issues you pointed out. We had a lot of fun making it, and it makes me happy to hear that another fan of the subject enjoyed it.

Submitted(+1)

This was so my jam. As a kid I loved code breaking books, and mystery books by Enid Blighton, Robert Arthor Jr and the Hardy Boys.  This really took me back.  Great idea and very well polished. Only thing I'd maybe suggest is that the letters you have assigned by a different color in the translated text just to make it clearer which you've  entered solutions for. One of my favourite games so far! Great work!

Developer

Thank you so much for playing and reviewing! That's a great suggestion; I'm adding it to our board for post-jam tweaks.

Submitted(+1)

This was so cool! Found all 11 locations first try. Felt like a really polished/finished game!

Developer

Thank you so much for playing and reviewing! We're glad you had a good time.

Submitted(+1)

Hello, so the game is a detective game in which we will have to decipher the texts in order to find the place where the person is, this game is original and this is hard 💀or I'm just bad lol

Developer(+1)

You're not bad, it's meant to be challenging! Thank you for playing.

Submitted

Wow, you made it! That was really challenging, bravo! By the way, if you're interested, feel free to try my game too!