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GitHub repository URL
https://github.com/devAdaid/SecretGrid
Game description
Become 'The Secret Hero', keep your 'secrets', search for your 'secrets.'
You can use the mouse and space bar to proceed with the game.
You become a secret hero and solve cases. Enhance your strength, agility, and intelligence to successfully solve cases. However, be careful not to let your 'secret' stat reach zero. And uncover your own 'secret.'
Theme interpretation
The theme of 'Secrets' is the core concept of this game. The protagonist becomes 'the secret hero,' striving to ensure that their 'secret' stat never reaches zero, while also seeking to uncover their own 'secret.'
Additionally, there are hidden 'secret' cheat codes in the game.
If you press the spacebar rapidly in certain situations, a cheat mode that helps with speedrunning will be activated. By clicking a hidden button in the settings screen, the secret stat (lives) will not reach 0, making you invincible.
Secrets exist not only within the game, but also in the GitHub repository of this game. By solving the hidden ARG(Alternate Reality Game) on GitHub, the identity of the protagonist can be revealed.
Without the theme of 'Secrets,' this game would not have existed.
Wildcards used (optional)
Limit your colors to 4
Let players break the rules with things like infinite lives or invincibility
Make time the enemy
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Comments
Wow, my favourite game so far. The presentation is polished (love the overall aesthetic and subtle animations) and the story is intriguing. The stats mechanic is also interesting. Well done!
I'm happy to hear that you enjoyed our game! I've been working hard on polishing game, and I'm glad it worked out. 😊
Awesome game! Gameplay is easy, but I nearly died at the beginning. The story is fascinating, and I'm sure that everybody had second ending first. The way you control player trust is just undeniable. For me, it was the most interesting game on the jam to play! Will sure look for you next games!
Thank you for playing and enjoying our game! It’s an honor to hear that you found it the most engaging. I aimed to design the gameplay to feel challenging at first, gradually becoming easier as players learn and adapt, so I’m glad it seems to have worked as intended.
I wanted to create an experience where players slowly begin to suspect Dr. K and then wrestle with a tough decision at the end. I’m thrilled that you appreciated this storytelling approach!
This is a great little game. I eliminated the Doctor and I'm not sure that was the right thing to do lol. I like the effects you created. Given this was Unity would you mind sharing what packages you use to get the text to scroll in that like, as well as how you achieved the sort of retro TV post processing effect? It looked really great! Good job team.
Thanks for enjoying our game. I want both characters and endings to be meaningful, so feel free to interpret and decide as you see fit!
For text typing effect, I use Unity TextTyper open source package. ( link: https://github.com/redbluegames/unity-text-typer )
This package is awesome because it supports rich text tags and callback for character/text printed.
For the CRT TV effect, I use post-processing feature of URP (with Unity 6) by referring to this tutorial video.
The following post-processing effects were used: Bloom, Film Grain, Chromatic Aberration, Panini Projection, and Vignette.
However, I encountered a challenge: implementing a scanline effect using a custom Film Grain effect like the video doesn’t work well in WebGL. (This might be due to certain shaders not being supported in web browsers or a bug of Unity engine.) I experimented with various solutions, but the simplest and most efficient approach was to use multiple scanline sprites and animate each line to create the illusion of movement. ( You can check out the three scanline sprites from our repository here: https://github.com/devAdaid/SecretGrid/tree/main/Assets/Sprites/Scanlines )
Hope this helps!
that's awesome feedback, thank you. The final result looked amazing so good job once again. Going to check out those links!!
Very good video game : I like it!
Congratulations
Thanks for playing our game and for giving us positive feedback! 😊
i love it!! great job ✨
Thanks for playing our game! I hope our game brought you a lot of joy.
That was a super fun detective experience. Using the repo in this way is really cool. Loved the leaderboard nicknames. This is by far the best theme interpretation, that I played so far. Awesome entry, great work!
Thanks for various feedback!! I'm glad to receive positive feedback on the parts I worked on.
This is a solid submission. Creative use of the theme. I didn’t fully understand what I was supposed to do outside the game. Maybe something to do with that text in the description. But the art, audio, and presentation/polish were all top notch!
Thanks for positivie feedback! I worked on a lot of details to deliver a good experience, including sfxs, animations, presentations, etc. I also put a lot of thought into the theme interpretation with game design, and I'm very happy that you noticed my hard work!
As I mentioned in the game description and in my other comment, I hid the big secrets of the story as an ARG in the GitHub repository. I think it was a good idea for theme interpretation and the game jam, but it's a little regrettable that this made the story unreachable for many people.
ahh shoot! I didn’t even think to check Github but now that you mention it, it seems so obvious!
Loved it even tho i didnt understand the story a lot
Actually, important part of story (backround and twist of story) is not in this game. It's outside the game. I feel a bit regretful that hiding the story too much might have made it difficult for many people to access... But I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed our game!! ☺️
Hint about story and secrets if you want:
(SPOILER ALERT: If you don't want to see it, skip this!)
To give you a more specific hint, secrets are hidden in the bottom of some files located in GitHub repository of this game (this file is accessible via the QR code shown during the game). You can access these files by using the 6-character codes hidden in the multiple position of game screen.
I tried this ARG because this was secrets themed game jam hosted by GitHub... 😉
that is so cool
Wow! What a perfect game, I'll have to come back and try for some more endings once I'm done rating some of the other entries. =D
Thanks for positive feedback! I'm glad that you enjoyed our game 😊
I really enjoyed this experience! The chance-based gameplay makes it surprisingly addictive. I think that there definitely is a good foundation for an expanded storyline or even side quests, if you ever plan on either adding more to this game or create a spiritual successor of a sort. Well done!
Thanks for positive feedback! I actually had several additional ideas for this game, but unfortunately I didn’t have enough time to include them all. (I dropped the initial game concept and restarted from this concept, so the actual development time was around 10 days - excluding I work at company) If I have the opportunity to develop the game further in the future, I’d love to add more features (like items, branches of story, side quests, so on), as you suggested!
A game of mathematics and chance! This is great and you stuck to your wildcards well. I think it could have been improved by a bit more chances to improve your HP. The color scheme works for you though!
Thank you so much for playing the game and providing feedback! As you mentioned, I implemented a system where player could get HP as a selectable reward, but unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time to polish the level design so it wasn’t included in this version... If I get the chance to update the game in the future, I’d love to add it! 😄
Seriously stick to it! This game is really solid and could absorb more features cleanly