| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Writing | #21 | 3.077 | 3.077 |
| Sound Design | #24 | 3.231 | 3.231 |
| Overall | #25 | 3.058 | 3.058 |
| Gameplay | #26 | 2.769 | 2.769 |
| Creativity | #29 | 3.154 | 3.154 |
Ranked from 13 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Extra Information about your game
This is the first game I've created so I wanted to thank you for putting together this game jam. If you have any issues completing the game, check out Fractal Burst's main page for a strategy guide I typed up. Thanks!
What themes did your game use?
Not what it seems, Time-Travel, and Babies
I didnt know this was your first game, so great job!! I'm not going to delve much because other ppl said it already. There is a lot of room for improvement but you have talent, the design of the four room and the switches and one of them having multiple switches was a good puzzle IMO. You need to think of making a more cohesive story , but it was...ok.
Also, you had me on "I see, humans are still stupid." XD XD XD
Couldn't find you on discord so I notified you here
I made a playthrough video of your game with my feedback:
https://youtu.be/xJ0OtFGdTTM
Appreciate your feedback on the game! It was my first time making a game, so there were definitely going to be a lot of rough spots. I think a big critique was on the bare-bones battle system, and that is something I’ll focus on more next time. My main concern was making it too hard for a game jam.
I’m glad you were able to piece the story together. I tried to drop hints without force-feeding the story the entire time. Not sure it was the best tactic, but I’m happy to know at least someone was able to figure it out.
Once again, I appreciate you taking the time to play and provide some feedback. I’ll be sure to check your game out as well!
Also, the browser is pretty terrible on itch.io! I have it hosted on my GitHub repo, it functions much better. I’m guessing itch probably buffers loading times for the game, as I definitely don’t have anything crazy going on in mine.
It's a fine first outing, but there's much room for improvement.
The story doesn't really introduce its concepts well. What is time splicing? What is involved in the process? Why do we need to kill this emperor? Questions like these should be answered early in the game to give the player a better idea of what is going on and why they are doing what they are doing. The "what is done is done/what is undone is undone" line should have appeared once or twice at least before being presented in the quiz; as it is now it comes out of nowhere and lacks any significance to the player.
I really don't like the trend I'm seeing with games not using battle backs in their battles. The fuzzy background just looks bad and makes the battle action hard to see. The battles themselves are very straightforward, and that's fine for a first game in a game jam, but I would like to see more strategic elements in the battles. Things like enemies that are weak to certain attacks and battles that go through various phases and require certain attack patterns to conquer are examples of how you can achieve this.
There are good points in the game, too. The maps are compact so it's hard to get lost, and while the directions provided in the dialog might be a bit too direct they do a good job of telling the player exactly what comes next. The puzzle in the room with the time agents & switches was clever. Battles, as straightforward as they are, don't last too long nor are too difficult to clear. Cutscenes don't last too long.
Congratulations on completing a project! I hope this is only the beginning for you and you continue to improve your game development skills.
Thanks for the critiques! I think I had the story in my head and I thought I was giving enough “hints” for the player to piece it together before I explained it in the end. Looking back, I didn’t give a cohesive enough story, and it left some players confused.
I agree on the battle-backs, it’s much better than the fuzzy backgrounds. I left the battles pretty barebones mainly due to time constraints and inexperience. I wanted the battles to take more of a backseat, as I knew I couldn’t deliver an incredibly interesting battle system on a short timeline.
To give some context, I only owned RPG Maker for about 2 weeks before making this game, which also took about 2 weeks. The game is rough, and I know I have a lot more work to do, but I was happy to just getting something done and out there. I really appreciate you taking your time to give some constructive feedback, as it will only help me out in the future. Thanks again!
Not too shabby for a debut game, I had fun playing it. The story was entertaining and I especially liked the infinity clue puzzle room.
I loved that you personally produced the BGM, well done there. One of my favorite things about game dev is that it encompasses so may creative disciplines, and it's great to see devs leverage that with custom elements.
If you get a few tough critiques don't let it throw you off of gamemaking, just consider it as input for making your next game better. Be proud that you created a new world and dared to share it, even if it's not perfect.
The story was very interesting and I like how "off" the world seemed. I do wish the central hub room was a little smaller though. Great job!
I like Teff, he is a great robot. I was a little confused sometimes. Btw. you totally missed to insert music in the lift!
It was a challenge for me to eke out bits of the story to keep things mysterious, but there’s always the risk that it becomes too confusing. Hopefully it’s something I get better at with experience!
I never really considered adding music to the elevator, it’s a pretty short scene and I kinda enjoyed the low hum for it. Thanks for playing my game!
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