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Lackluster Video Store's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Theme | #219 | 3.859 | 3.859 |
| Innovation | #361 | 3.397 | 3.397 |
| Overall | #406 | 3.391 | 3.391 |
| Audio | #468 | 3.192 | 3.192 |
| Game Design | #477 | 3.346 | 3.346 |
| Graphics | #534 | 3.436 | 3.436 |
| Fun | #597 | 3.115 | 3.115 |
Ranked from 78 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
In what way does your game fit the theme?
The games core mechanic involves rewinding VHS tapes.
Did you write most of the code yourself and made all the assets from scratch?
I wrote all of the code. The character and NPC sprites were purchased and a sound was obtained on CC3.0 license, they have all been referenced on the landing page.
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Comments
Fun classic store-vendor type game with easy controls and good execution. Graphics were a bit lacking but the actual game and gameplay was fun 🙂 Good job!
Our games are similar! I've been playing all of these similar games and enjoy seeing what some do better than others, and I like your upgrade system! You also make great use of UI telling the player where to take the tape.
This is a really nicely made game! My only nitpick is that it doesn't feel frantic, I don't get feedback that the line is getting too long, I move slow, I don't feel clumsy or that I'm messing things up. If you add something like that that could incite a bit of panic to the player, I can see this game doing well in the mobile market!
Nice game, good times in video stores. Good submission.
Whoa, it's not easy being a video store clerk. :D Nice game!
Great game, it reminds me of the classic Dinner Dash, I would say the only thing missing is to split the game into levels or days, and to have the customers get angry over time
Great game, I won't say anything new but same problem with collider as its been told.
Interesting game. It's something different. The graphics are good, also the movement feels good. At the beginning I was not sure how it works, but after some time I managed it. I don't know if I played it right, but mostly I was outside the sales table. Maybe put the shelves behind/below the salesman? Or change the layout a tiny bit. The Upgrades were good, they gave me a temporary aim.
Another suggestion: Remove the colliders from the customers or change it a bit. The first problem was that the collider was too large (y - scale), so I couldn't run past them if I was right behind them. The second problem:
But things like that are normal in a game jam :D
Everything else I didn't mention was fine and well executed (UI, Introduction, red Arrow which points at the shelves etc). Overall good job.
Yeah if you stand in front of the customers then you get pushed into the counter and cant get out, luckily only a few people have discovered this xD You're absolutely right about the customer hitboxes, I don't know how I managed to miss that during all the playtesting.
Thanks for playing, hope you had fun despite those 2 bugs!
The game is very fun to play, the concept is interesting. One thing from me is the sfx when you have to put the VHS tape back, consider changing it. The gameplay itself feels a bit repetitive after a while, but it was still fun (☆▽☆)
ok iwas for a while the only employee in the only lackbuster of a big town, the line jus grows like all tapes in town must be returned today or wold ends!!!! nice graphics, real retro feel rewinding VHSs but i have to say i lost and dunno why, anyway i enjoyed it
Hey thanks for playing! I didn't manage to add any kind of game over cut scene but the reason you lost is because the queue reached outside of the store and you got fired. I added the lose condition to the main menu 'cashier wanted' ad but it is easy to not see it
all right, now i know i lost for not reading LOL, i deserved it. cool game.
I also had the idea to create a VHS rental store. My game is a bit different but I believe you implemented the idea better and your game ended up being more fun.
I think your idea is pretty cool but the difficult progression should be slower... I was not even close to the $400 necessary for an upgrade!
Anway, great job! I'd to love to see some updates!
Played a game with a similar setting, but very different execution. I like it that you chose to have your character be controlled actively, as opposed to doing just point and click.
I found the store layout frustrating. The L shaped till impeded my movement to the point that I would avoid going behind the till and instead stand next to the customer to grab their VHS. The multiple rewinding machines appeared to be rather useless. Whenever I inserted a new VHS it would remove the old one, which in turn made me go to a shelve and by the time I am back the first cassette has already been rewound and was ready for pickup. I see two options here first you could make the rewind process longer or you could allow the player to hold multiple items at the same time. If only you had two hands to grab stuff with...
Also the store seems a little empty, maybe some pesky customers strolling about and getting in your way would have been a nice addition?
Thanks for playing! having multiple TVs is definitely not useless depending on your approach to the game, I have discussed some of them in the comments for the game but I understand now why certain playstyles would believe that to be the case since hearing about other peoples experiences. They also have great synergy with the storage shelf for tactics such as storing further away returns when the customer queue is growing longer.
I did play around with people being able to carry more than 1 tape but the feel of the game was completely different and not the direction I wanted to take it.
One piece of feedback I received is that instead of having a desolate shop, I could have had a storage area behind the counter instead of shelves in the storefront which I think might have been a better approach and would have meant people would always be behind the counter. What are your thoughts on that?
Yeah different play styles can have vastly different experiences. That's why we have playtesting :)
I understand that you made a conscious dissension with holding only one tape and this is completely fine. Can't make a stressful game relaxing just because some people want to have an RPG pocket.
Duno about the storage room. Abandoning the shop doesn't sit right with me. Perhaps making a two phase game could be a better idea.
In one you stand behind the counter take returns and sell new tapes with customers asking if you have a certain tape in the back.
In the other you're having to stock the shelves as quickly as you can.
Oh and what I also noticed, maybe give the cassettes some colors or other identifying mark to associate them to a particular part of the store?
Really nice game. Love the concept, visuals and sprite characters.
Some feedback. It felt a little bit unbalanced. I ended up playing it 4 times.
I like how the third tape location on the far right is the annoying one. You can either run behind the counter or you can run around the customer line. Makes it tricky but these details add an extra dimension to the gameplay.
Anyways good job on the game and please try my game too and let me know what you think ^^ Thanks and keep on jammin!
Thanks for playing! post in my thread here and I will play your game, I am working through the thread in order :)
This is working as intended from my design point of view, I wanted it to be like an advanced mechanic that you discover as you become more accustomed to the game. I did play around with people being able to carry more than 1 tape but the feel of the game was completely different and not the direction I wanted to take it. An indicator for which VCR has a rewound tape inside is definitely something I should have added.
Cool game! I don't really now how to survive this for too long, because the people just come too fast for me, but I like that you can buy different shop upgrades and so on. One thing I would change is the prices, they are a little too high for my taste. Other than that, fun game!
Thanks for playing! appreciate the feedback.
Nice game! Looks good and really fun to play.
Thanks for playing, glad you enjoyed it!
Art style is nice, and the speaker system was great. the game got pretty repetitive after a while, I'd perhaps add slow helper upgrade which could also cut some of the income (maybe make it free to get, and as more of a "payment" it gets in your way?)
Thanks for playing and providing feedback!
Fun game! I wanted to keep playing. It could be addictive. My only feedback is using a keyboard control as an option as an alternate to the mouse. Like spacebar. That would have made it a little smoother I think.
Thanks for playing! I did consider that because something similar would also be needed for controller support but the issue I kept coming back to was how to prioritise what item to interact with, for instance if you stand between the two TVs then both would be in range and one might have a tape in it that you don't want to collect yet.
Hmm yeah, good point. Maybe an indicator in the direction your char is facing and whatever is on top of that or closest to that, but yeah I could see that being tricky.
This game was really good! It fit the theme well and the art style and menus looked very nice. I liked the little touch of the music playing from the speakers at the front of the store. The only issues I had was that I seemed to get caught on the corners of obstacles and it made dashing to put stuff back quickly a little more challenging, also $600 for some trainers?! wouldn't catch me paying those prices. ;) Overall a very nice game, Good job!
Those trainers are worth every penny! you can get to the furthest shelf and back in the time a video takes to record :P
Man I thought I had fixed that... I spent a good 15 minutes just running into things trying to get myself stuck and nothing happened. Unity has a serious problem with 2d box colliders.
thanks for playing and I'm glad you enjoyed it :)
Fantastic game! I actually had a lot of fun with this. Those damn customers bringing in 3 tapes.. who do they think they are? lol I really should have started with the returns upgrade I started with the TVs but I don't think that was the most efficient route to go.
Thanks for playing! glad you enjoyed it.
They all have their pros and cons but I personally prefer the boots as they allow exactly enough time to reach the furthest shelf and get back as the next tape has finished rewinding.
The returns storage can be great for storing tapes when you are either being overrun by 2-3 tape customers and the queue is getting too long or for storing tapes that need to be returned furthest away as you can wait til you get a few 1 tape customers and clear the queue.
My favourite trick with the TVs is to return rewound tapes in the period between a customer leaving the counter and another joining, if it's one of the closer shelves then you free up an entire space without losing time AND if its far away and you have the storage then you can just put use the previous storage tactic and mitigate the downside.
The fact that you've created a game that allows you to go in depth about the strategies to max efficiency like that is so awesome! lol
Thanks for the kind words, I appreciate it. It's the first game I've ever finished so I'm quite proud of what I achieved despite there definitely being areas for improvement.
I am working through a backlog of games in my thread here so give me a post if you want some feedback and a rating :)
Nice play on blockbuster. Cute. Liked the over gameplay. Good entry!
Please play and rate my game as well! https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-4/rate/723414
Thanks for playing! If you post in my thread here, I am playing every game in order and providing feedback.
This game stressed me out more than it probably should have, lol. I'm never good at these customer management games. But the theming was really nice, and once I got used to the gameplay loop it got fun to try and optimize it. I do wish that the customers went slower at the beginning, and curse that first customer that keeps on giving me three tapes!
Must be the second customer, the first one is hard coded to only give 1 so the tutorial part I added was easier :P Glad you enjoyed it!
if you post in my thread here, I am playing every game in order and providing feedback