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A jam submission

aMAZEinView game page

If you haven't guessed already, this game is about mazes.
Submitted by W_illness, ディアンソニー (@DAnthoniWooten), WilliamSalt (@WilliamSalt) — 30 minutes, 45 seconds before the deadline
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aMAZEin's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Mood#34.4444.444
Visuals#74.5004.500
Audio#84.0004.000
Overall#124.0974.097
Gameplay#563.4443.444

Ranked from 18 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Engine

GameMaker

Source
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1RoM92Pl7krBV0tCm20-O_YtvBi1KqoR2?usp=sharing

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Comments

Before the note where Lucid talks about his dad with some stranger you get chased by entities, but if you try to get rid of them by getting the note, it glitches and entities spawn again killing you over and over. And you have to restart the game

A few glitches i've found:

1.) Sometimes when you try to cut a corner you start teleporting to the sides of the hallway.

2.) When you look at the frog and follow it, sometimes it goes to the left side of the hallway and if you try to pass it, it starts to move besides you even trough walls.

Submitted (1 edit) (+2)

So cool game. The art is amazing and the story is deep. But I got stuck in chapter 2 when there is a cute frog, that makes a jumpscare. I couldn't go past it. Maybe try showing a popup when you can interat with items.

Also I love cats too.

If you can check out our game

Developer

Thanks it means so much :D

Im sure to check out you game too.

Submitted(+2)

The story, art and music completely me sucked me in. I was planning to play a few games this night but unintentionally got stuck on yours haha. The bad thoughts are super quick, it’s hard to run past them but I got the hang of it. I’m surprised you all did so much in the month. Good work!

Developer(+1)

Thank you for playing it! I'm happy you enjoyed the experience.

Submitted(+2)

Really enjoyed the music, both in the menu and in the game.  Good job :) looks awesome too!

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for playing :)

Submitted(+3)

Really good game! 
Well done :)

Submitted (3 edits) (+3)

Hey man, there's a problem with the Mac build of the game. When you open the Mac build,  a dialogue will pop up and say the app is "damaged' and asks you to move it to trash https://prnt.sc/stjy4m. You don't do that and the fix is pretty simple. All you gotta do is put the game in Applications folder, then open terminal and type this command:

xattr -cr /Applications/aMAZEin.app

Some bugs(I think) that I've noticed. https://prnt.sc/stgwbg, the "morality bar"(that's what the game hints it to be called) disappeared after some deaths. The game was working perfectly before. Now, the morality bar disappeared(but the white outline plays after I make a choice when I read the scattered messages) and I no longer get hurt by the Lurkers https://prnt.sc/sthgm7(they're pretty chill dudes if you get to know them :p). Addition to this, at times, I was able to run infinitely without getting tired, but that seemed to fix itself when I triggered another event(but I still can't see the morality bar in the office maze). I'm not sure if this is an automatic difficulty setting. Also, I think some tiles are missing or just not added in yet https://prnt.sc/sthe8r. You can pass through the synaptic electric gates you approach it from the top side and just ram into it a couple of times. Then it glitches you into other side of the gate.


Review starts from here(That means spoilers, I highly recommend you to play this before reading):


I'm gonna be honest. Role Playing is my favourite game genre, but the thing I hate about RPG's the most is mazes, cause I think it's pretty lazy game design and frustrating so... yeah... already not looking good for you. But the story really intrigued me and a gameplay around the maze fits the thematically to a whole new level(mainly concepts of anxiety which Forever AFK mentions).

So starting off, you find your self in the MC's room and when you interact with the items, you get a pretty good idea about the MC's mindset. He comes off as a pretty nihilistic character with memories that he wishes to let go of. The interaction with the mirror sets this in place when he says,  "Hello me, do you like what you see", followed by a grim pixel art portrait of the MC. The level design of the first maze, in my opinion, is ingenious. 

The eerie music, the suffocating color scheme, the "bad feelings" coming to haunt you to make your consciousness and judgment dip to black(the first time they attacked me, I figuratively pissed my pants), getting chastised for taking the wrong path, all of this creates an amazing picture of anxiety, low self-esteem, negativity. And holy fuck, this is Jesus vs Satan Basketball ball match level holiness, I am so impressed. 

This is peak story writing being expressed through games as a medium of artistic expression. As I mentioned in the beginning, mazes suck ass. They're lazy, useless, frustrating, they make you feel lost.... hey... Hey... HEY!!! Wait a minute... 'make you feel lost' HOLY SHIT, THAT'S GENIUS. The lack of sense of direction from navigating through mazes is brilliantly used to express the themes of this game in this game. Though I would say this is a double-edged sword because you don't want to push the player to think he can't solve it. That's a big no-no, and I would suggest the addition of a navigating system that points you to the direction of the messages. There must be a balance.

When you pick up the messages, or tidbits of memories, then you're given two options. Now, I don't want to call them the right or wrong options, that's kind of stupid and in my opinion, they're in the grey area. But one option lets you deal with the memory with gratitude, and the other with complete rejection. I chose the nicer messages to see where it goes, and after I chose all the top options in the questionnaire, you return back to the MC's room, and you can notice a change. He appears to be more optimistic and tries to see things around him in a good light evidenced by his interactions with the computer where he wants to message his friends, with the books where he shows eagerness to learn. He appears to show acceptance but not quite. There is still some doubt lingering in him evidenced by the dialogues.

This is a very good character development expressed through games as a narrative medium. 
I'm genuinely fascinated, and I get the same satisfaction as when I saw the 7 page Muda Muda(w_illness has JoJo fan art on his Insta, that's alpha male behavior).
I haven't completed the office maze so I don't have many opinions on it, but just from the timer I'm given, it's going to be a pretty long maze. And the frog gave me marionette vibes from fnaf(lo and behold the jumpscare). 

I don't like this entry as a submission for the game jam, because in relating to the theme of the jam, there's honestly nothing except a timer, but god damn, I love this entry.

Edit: Just realised how big this is, quite a pain in the ass to read. I really wasn't paying any attention to the word count lol.

Submitted(+3)

Amazing! I loved the in depth narrative and the amount of interactable objects. As an RPG fan, I really appreciated the level of detail you put in crafting the story and the world.

Developer

As a RPG fan fan I'm really glad a RPG fan can appreciate our work :)

Thank you so much.

Submitted(+3)

Wow love the art work and style,  with a  very good narrative  i am very impressed well done.

Developer(+1)

Thank you so much! We really appreciate it :)

Submitted (1 edit) (+2)

Wow. This game is very interesting. The narrative and art style stands out the most to me. I'm very impressed with all the dialogue written and intractable details (for example the intractability with the bedroom mirror, cat, bookshelf). The animations and aesthetics are really impressive, beautiful art where the memory notes are and beautiful splash-art between chapters. Who ever did all this pixel-art is very talented. I have to admit that this game is pretty real for me; as someone with intense anxiety I can relate with the character and narrative of the game. "My Own Personal Prison", "I wouldn't have thought I'd be drinking after living with my dad", god damn I can relate. This kind of reminds me of something like Pixar's Inside Out but for adults with more mature themes.

Sadly though, I got stuck at the second maze of the game. I couldn't get passed this part where the bad-thought enemies would overwhelm the screen. I just couldn't outrun them in time to keep a safe distance, perhaps if the player was given an alternative way to get rid of these enemies besides outrunning them the game could be a little more engaging. Like the frog for example, you just look at it and it walks away, there's some intractability and skill involved, but I felt like the bad-thought enemies were a little too strong because I often had a hard time outrunning them (I'd often try to outrun them but I'd just end up running into a dead-end in the maze). I wish these enemies didn't have the power to completely blacken the screen too. There were times where I probably could have gotten away if the screen was a little more visible, but I would just end up hitting a dead-end wall without realizing because they would turn the screen too dark. If the main character had some other abilities to deal with these enemies, I think this game would have a lot of potential as a standalone game! Perhaps the notes that you collect could give the character the ability to recall positive thoughts to make the bad-thought enemies go away?

I really do wish I could get passed this part of the game because I'm legitimately interested in seeing how the game's story progresses! Really cool jam game!



Submitted: T.I.M.E.

Developer

I'm making some changes based on the feedback we got so far. Thanks for helping us improve :)

Submitted(+3)

The art and music are aMAZEin!! I only played the first maze, but I was really impressed with how challenging and well put it was. I collected all 7 notes and left the dream in 30 - 45 minutes. 

Great job with the shadows. There was a nice thrill when the darkness fades in and they start chasing you. I died about 5 times. 

The snippets of memory are intriguing enough to make you want to keep going. The cat telling you that the path was dangerous made me more curious to find out what memory was ahead.

However, I did feel that the movement was a bit slow and I often wished the sprinting would last longer. Also, I quit the game after briefly starting the second maze. Then clicked "load game" from the main menu, which took me back to the last checkpoint in the first maze. It might be good to make every time you wake up a checkpoint as well.

Excellent work. Thanks for the fun time!

Developer

:D I couldn't ask for better feedback. The responsibles for art and music are incredible artists, working with them was a fantastic experience, but I get that the gameplay might not be that good and that's on me. hehe...

It was our first game and we really wanted to see what we could do. I don't pretend to make many changes in it since our goal was mainly release it in time, but some extra checkpoints and making the game a bit easier is something I might just do.

Nothing beat these messages, though. Our joy in making this is tremendous.

Developer(+1)

Hello! Thank you for the comment and I appreciate you enjoying the music!! It was a really good experience working on this project and we super appreciate the meaningful feedback. We definitely want to improve on it and make it better, but I'm glad that you enjoyed the game!

Submitted(+4)

Wow first game that had a proper installation program, that is amazing :D Such a beautiful game as well, the art work and the story. One thing about games that have mazes like this is that especially when it is slower paced and you go through a long way and end up in a dead end and there is nothing there it feels a bit annoying. Love the game though, but after I died (didn't even know how to escape from the enemies), I just couldn't make myself go at it again, due to it taking so long. 

Good work though and I'm sure a lot of other players prefer these kinds of game, I might not be your target audience, but great game, also the music fit in perfectly.

Developer(+1)

Thanks for the feedback, I'm glad you played it!

Developer (1 edit)

We got that from most people that tried it. I like the slow pace experience and I wanted to do something more simple and relaxing... idk 

But really, thanks. :) These comments are making my day.

Developer

Thanks for the feedback and I'm glad you enjoyed it for the most part. Also, super grateful that you felt the music fit very well with the game! :)

Submitted(+3)

Really beautiful! I have to admit that I've found the file a little too big but that doesnt have anything to do whit the game. Well done! :D

Developer

Thank you for playing it!!

Developer

The file size was absolutely my fault, I had a hard time optimizing the game since most of it I learned to do as I went through.

But really, thanks :D The feedback is great and I'm really glad people enjoyed it

(+1)

+1 rep