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Death is just the beginning... for those left behind's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Story | #9 | 4.282 | 4.282 |
| Theme | #16 | 4.295 | 4.295 |
| Music | #36 | 3.962 | 3.962 |
| Aesthetics | #107 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Mechanics | #229 | 3.308 | 3.308 |
| Sound | #237 | 3.051 | 3.051 |
| Fun | #439 | 2.782 | 2.782 |
Ranked from 78 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How many people worked on this game total?
1
Did you use any existing assets? If so, list them below.
Music from opengameart.org and HR Utilities (made by me)
Link to your source?
https://github.com/NancyJames/deathisjustthebeginning
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Comments
Such an impressive atmosphere you created with this, and the mechanics were super effective at conveying the feeling. Thanks for sharing your experience with us
this was lovely.
This is one of the most unique and intimate games I've played. Thank you for sharing something so personal and I'm very sorry for your loss.
As a game, the choice of music and the mechanics are particularly outstanding. I felt frustration and despair when I would repeat a level. At first, it didn't seem to make sense. But I also felt encouraged and stronger every time the level was overcome. If these mechanics were meant to represent how you felt during that time, then it translates really well.
My only suggestion is about the text. I found that the text tends to disappear too quickly, especially during the Anger and Acceptance stage. Maybe you can share the game's story in a separate text format or as a devlog for those who are interested?
Thanks, again.
Thank you for sharing this. I think it was very well done. I really liked the way you captured your various emotions and the honesty you put into the experience. I hope building this was helpful for your healing.
I found this very effective in conveying the ups and downs that are a of depression. Very will done. Competing environments really nailed it too. I struggled to progress at one point though. Mostly I found that sometimes I could jump and other times I couldn't. Usually it was when I was moving that I couldn't jump. Not sure if that was by design or not. Regardless, I thought it was well put together I got the meaning across very well.
You really get it when it comes to depression and it shows. Reading the game page it's also clear why you get it. I think many of us who have had periods of depression will find that this experience resonates well with them. I gave this game a generally high rating but I don't know how to properly rate the "fun". I just went neutral since fun isn't the point. Properly well done, cheers!
A very good experience that depicts the highs and lows of life in game form. Some small suggestions is that for the first level it would be cool if you were able to change the music to a slight upbeat version when you are at the top of hill, and then to a more depressing when you are at the bottom. I think that the musical shift would have a cool effect as you roll down the hill. This would add to feeling of slowly going up the hill to feel happier then crashing back down to depression. From a mechanic standpoint, I would add some air control for the ball after jumping. Other then that, great job!
That would have been impressive in just 10 days! I might have to steal that idea for v2. I had wanted the slope to get less steep based on your health or energy but it just wasn't possible in the time.
This is a fantastic representation of grief, I love the parallax background and the changing saturation depending on how high you are and how it represents the highs and lows of grief, even if it might be a bit frustrating how slow it is at the start, I feel that given the reason behind the game, it's perfectly fitting. Excellent job, I am so sorry for your loss, but I am proud that you've come this far and have in a roundabout way, made this in her memory. 5 Stars all round.
So sorry for your loss. Playing this was a very emotional experience for me, bringing me back to my own struggles with loss.
I wish there was a way to give you more than five stars for story and theme, this definitely deserves that.
Well thought out and traversed the range of emotions really well. The atmosphere was great. Congrats.
Whoa, I actually went in blind, and as a result, this was a lot deeper than I had expected. You really nailed the feel of overwhelming depression (and how, once it hits, it's extremely heckin' hard to do anything)--not only with the writing, but with the movement mechanics, pickups, visuals, and music, which all contribute massively to representing this feeling.
I've never seen depression portrayed via these kinds of game mechanics before. Very well done.
Reading your game's description shines even more light onto how much thought went into this, such as how you describe how the game manages to represent the feeling of the ground falling out from under you when one wrong thing catches you off-guard.
I am so sorry for your loss, and you have a real talent for conveying very real and very difficult feelings through this medium.
Wishing you all the best.
Very touching. I enjoyed playing it and the change between different worlds, the aesthetics, music, and everything else was amazing. Unfortunately, I couldn't pass the anger stage because I kept dying and being revived with low health and energy. I didn't know if the crying was voluntary or not but I pressed the mouse button for explosions until my energy ran out.
It was an exceptional experience for me. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Did you not get the tutorial hint at the start of the level? E to explode, Q to cry (although LMB also worked for explode), when you run out of health you should have dropped back down to a lower level where there were pickups to recover health and energy. There was a bug during my dev build where when your health dropped to 0 it went back up to 5 or 10 but didn't trigger the level drop but I thought that I fixed that
Oh, sorry I must have missed the hint at the beginning of the level. Maybe you could add the controls below the game just in case.
I did drop to other levels and collected stuff but I kept doing the same things and going back to the anger stage and dying so in the end I stopped trying :)
I will play it again since now I know how to beat them :)
The transitions between the emotions and the harmony with the music were good. character a little bit probably due to slow browser
quite a few people have mentioned the character movement being slow. Its supposed to be slow in the first level but normal in the others. Just had a play myself of the WebGL build and the trail renderer might be making it a bit sluggish but its not too far off what I designed. Hard to know what others are experiencing though. I did upgrade my RAM to 32GB because Unity 2021 is so slow!
Sorry for your loss. Playing it was an emotional experience.
This was a very powerful piece. Thank you for making us think on ourselves dealing with loss or about others dealing with it.
Very touching game, good job
Sorry for your loss
Well done one bringing a number of different levels together, each one with its own unique feel and vibe.
Best of luck in moving forward.
It's been a number of years for me, but it can still be a struggle at times.
Very well done! I like the background. I've learned things about grief from playing this game - thank you!
Thank you for sharing this.
This absolutely made me feel things. I'm sorry for your loss.
I would have liked to have been given a bit more information on the controls/energy system before we got it, but it was really told a story. Thank you again for sharing this.
You treated the theme in a very elegant and minimalistic way and that's really nice. I'm sorry about your loss too, we've all been there in some way or another and I really hope that making this game has helped you to feel better by telling us about your experience ^^