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The Shadows on Mars's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Graphics | #677 | 2.453 | 3.800 |
| Theme | #816 | 2.066 | 3.200 |
| Overall | #889 | 1.786 | 2.767 |
| Audio | #894 | 1.549 | 2.400 |
| Game Design | #918 | 1.678 | 2.600 |
| Innovation | #950 | 1.549 | 2.400 |
| Fun | #999 | 1.420 | 2.200 |
Ranked from 5 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does you game fit the theme?
You are being stalked by shadows
Did you write all the code and made all the assets from scratch?
Code: Apart from the first person controller, mostly yes
Assets: No (Credits are in the comments on the games page)
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Comments
(I am now in a rush to test as many games as possible to help, so please do not mind the cursory reviewing style.)
Semi-on-the-fly remarks:
(silly detail) The icon for the executable is too cute. X) :)
many options for the graphics, nice (although this is probably somewhat bundled with Unity?)
Some sounds for the dialogues (when a character writes, or when going to the next line) could be nice, but this is really a detail.
(another silly detail) "Alex": as a coincidence, I played a game where the hero has a (poor) friend (?) named Alex, last night. X) "Love Locked"
controls ARE layout-independent!! :D (I have an AZERTY keyboard) Great. Anyway, the arrow keys are enabled too, but this is still potentially handy.
Wow, great scenery! Both the environment and the artificial structures.
great that the interface reminds you of the collecting key!
Low gravity jumps, great. :) … But wait, isn’t gravity HIGHER on Mars than on Earth? :o Nothing serious, though. X)
great indicators for localising objectives! (direction + distance)
Oh wait, the controls are NOT layout-independent for the VEHICLE!! :o On my AZERTY, going forward should be Z, but it is W! Thus using the arrow keys.
The vehicle physics is fun to try out. Feels like a hovering truck!
Leaving the vehicle on the fly reminds me of "Unreal Tournament 2004" X) (Soon after the beginning of my second try: I realize ‘unstucking’ vehicles is ALSO in this game!)
Moving the camera zoom with the mouse while onboard is so intuitive I almost did not take note of the comfort, well done :)
Spoiler: just before collecting last rock sample: oh, so THIS is one of the shadows, sideways behind a big rock! So, the icon I thought was cute is in fact semi-creepy and evil XD
Not trying to see what happens when you go to the borders of the map, since it looks far visually and according to other comments, but I wonder if you made sure no bug would occur.
[gave the samples]
Haha, funny dialogue about where we found the rocks. XD
I think the absence of music is a right choice for the atmosphere; loneliness, mystery, and exploration. ("The Witness" does the same.)
Oh, sunset? Oooooh, you see the Sun move in real time!!! :D Great! Makes me think of "Ocarina of Time".
Nice, automatically leaving the vehicle (near the drone) with a line of dialogue. (Ah, actually, merely a required crossing point! Still, nice dramatisation/narration.)
Oh, graphical bug/limitation: from the place where you leave the vehicule, looking at the giant vertical rock only shows part of it, because it is too far from your line of sight. (Understandable, seeing the graphical quality and the relative flatness of the big map, so I am not complaining.)
Crater: not wanting to spoil it, but the dramatisation is just GREAT! XD Both funny and spooky/eerie at the same time. :)
Leaving the crater: I do not know if this is on purpose or a coincidence, but the shadow (from the Sun going down) covering and bathing the place as I run, this feels great, as an ominous omen. XD
Definitely looks like the general shadow moves according to us, so this is entirely voluntary. Well done. :)
Not allowed to go back onboard, so trying the U key; oh, makes the vehicle suddenly disappear!! <:o I hope it teleported to some nice place and this is not a gamebreaking bug… Oh, it’s all dark! And the vehicle is back, falling from above; frightened me!! XD
Spoiler: steps behind me? Yes! Not turning back… OH, NO!! Was there any way to figure out how not to get caught?! ._.
WHAT?! Are you telling me I have to start all over again from the very beginning?? <:o Oh, no… I feel this is really a BIG problem, because accomplished the preliminary tasks take way too long. You definitely NEED to add CHECKPOINTS. My God, I am really trying hard to be less slow of a reviewer, and this happens. XD
Small bug: pressing Escape during the dialogue then trigger the pause menu after the dialogue, but you can see that the view is moving, so not really paused. (by the way, makes me realize that vision moves a bit when not walking; nice detail!)
Wait, I realize I do not hear my steps anymore in the second try! :o Audio bug? No more sound? But I will need it against the shadows!! :o (Spoiler: my intuition is that I should have looked at the shadow to make it go away, but I am unsure. So, I need to hear the steps.)
Oh no, gamebreaking bug: if you inspect the drone from a bit too much sideways, changing orientation apparently does not trigger the rest of the events, and you are stuck there without any walking allowed!! <:o
Stopping my test here is more reasonable…
I am VERY curious to know what the gameplay with the shadows is. So, could you please tell me more so that I get a better idea of the rest of the game? My judgment will reflect this, I do not want to be unfair to the game! Although I rather like what I saw up to this point. :)
Takeaway: great idea, great atmosphere (especially the choice for the smiling shadows!! Same phenomenon as people afraid of clowns, I guess XD), a lot of subtle interface/ergonomic details. My main criticisms would be that distances are a bit long (as others said), the lack of a checkpoint/saving feature (highly needed here, especially considering the previous point!!), and perhaps a lack of clarity (! Pun not intended XD) about how to deal with the shadows — although it may be your will to let the player figure it out, but then again, in this case, see point 2: checkpoints.
I enjoy those Mars exploration games and this one is no exception. :) Just still curious about what the gameplay has to offer. Thanks!
Hello Mossieur Patate!
Thank you for playing and thank you very VERY much for the extremely long and detailed comment with all your experiences, thoughts, criticisms and kind words!
Thank you as well for reporting the bugs you found, and I'm sorry that you encountered them, especially getting locked in the crater and the vehicle controls not working with other keyboard layouts.
Regarding the gravitation on Mars, it is in fact less than that on Earth because of the planets lower mass (according to the internet, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_of_Mars)
There are invisible walls around the area which the player moves around in, so it should at least pose a little challenge getting past them to get to the edge of the map. In case the player falls through the ground / would get past the walls and fall off the edge of the map, they would respawn back at the Main Base along with the vehicle (definitely can cause a problem if you fall off in later parts of the game, will need to add checkpoints as you suggested).
Sorry to say, but so far, there is only one ending to the game, with no way to avoid the final shadow. I am planning on expanding the game a little bit (more reason to add the checkpoints), but I'm still very new to game development (this being my first published project, my first one being worked in since the beginning of this summer) and just started a new school year, so I'll probably at first focus on fixing bugs as soon as possible, and make bigger / more detailed changes later.
The idea of looking at the shadows to make them disappear sounds fun (maybe even something like getting rid of the dark, so the shadows can't be there?), I might try implementing that if you wouldn't mind me using your idea (I would also add you to the credits / am planning to add credits to the end in the game).
Once again, thank you for your comment, I'm very happy you enjoyed my game and took the time to give so much feedback :).
Have a great day!
Thanks for the answer!
I wanted to check, but forgot to do so. :S (Wikipedia is often misleading if not dead wrong on touchy subjects, but I believe it may well be right on this one. X))
Great safety detail!
Aaah, I was convinced I had blundered! X) In this case, I think you should make it clear in some way that it is not the player’s fault. The good news is, this is what enticed me to start again and thus find the big crater bug to report. :)
Wow, I do not mind at all, actually, this is great! :D (… Well, if my idea is fine; I hope not to lead you astray!) On my way to become famous and take over the world. ^^
I go where I please, and I please where I go. B)
Impressive work for one week, even if you used some assets. Those rocks are true beauties.
Even when using the vehicle (and its availability also is pretty impressive), the area is too big. Well maybe not to big but too empty to catch interest for people in the jam. In my first try I walked to the crater by foot and it was quite boring.
Thank you so much!
The feedback helps a lot, I'll take it into account when updating the game after the jam.
I liked it, the only thing I would say was that the vehicle movement was a bit strange and it was difficult to go in one direction
Thanks for the feedback!
You're right about the vehicle movement being kind of wonky, I'll try making some changes.
The landscape and the floating vehicle is nice.
Thanks for playing! Glad you liked it.
game involves lots of walking, and the move speed is so slow making the walk feel boring. The environment is nice, but the atmosphere doesn't feel like mars atmosphere. Only saw the shadows once. Good job though!
Hi Jayden, thank you for playing and thank you for the feedback! I'll try improving the game once the jam has finished.
There is a vehicle to the left of the start point (it's being driven in the first screenshot), which is needed to progress when arriving at the crater.
It does look very similar to the surrounding models and I was afraid it might be passed without noticing it's intractable, which seems to be true.
If you missed the vehicle, sorry you had to walk the whole way, I'll have to make the vehicle stand out more.
ah yeah i didn't notice the vehicle. still, good work though!