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A jam submission

HaikouView game page

Uncover the mystery of Tazawa Gakuen, an abandoned school in Northern Japan.
Submitted by Despa Development (@Despa_Com) — 8 minutes, 15 seconds before the deadline
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Haikou's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Interpretation of the Secondary Theme#404.3574.357
Gameboy Soul#1083.8573.857
Graphics#1253.8573.857
Overall#1263.5293.529
Soundtrack/SFX#1443.2863.286
Gameplay#2952.2862.286

Ranked from 14 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

How does your game meet GBJam's theme?
It is a horror game with a dark and spooky atmosphere. It is also playable on the Gameboy as a rom!

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Comments

Submitted

Cool game with an interesting story setup. The Gameboy feel is on point, and it reminded me of Pokemon mixed with Maniac Mansion. I hit a SoftLock where the aberration kept getting me whenever I would search the school for the keys to escape.

Submitted(+2)

This game I just awesome, Love the inclusion of those realistic still frames and the spooky atmosphere was top.

Unfortunately I got stuck in the toilette because an invisible wall blocked my path. BUUUT this game is still my favorite Entry so far

Submitted(+1)

i have to echo the other sentiments -- infinite fuse in nest; couldn't get past fuse part; and, collision seems off.

i wonder if the dialogue could be changed so it's more informative bc i mostly felt i  was wandering aimlessly and hoping to find "something". overall i think this is a good first jab at this style of game. the art style is great and i can see the intention behind the game so i'm keen for what you have in store post-jam.

Submitted(+1)

I'm really digging the art, the title page especially looks amazing and immediately caught my attention! Unfortunately I couldn't get past the fuse part. Already got one of the fuses but heading to the box it only said that they were all blown.  Have to give it a second try when I have more time, I'm very curious about what's inside the house 

Submitted(+1)

"Surely there is something edible after 40 years" for the fridge sent me.

Developer

haha glad to hear it! i started putting in a few jokes after i was around 10 hours into a dev day and losing my mind

Submitted(+1)

I really dig the mood and music

Submitted(+1)

The idea is great and visually the game is already really nice! I also have to agree with what others have said, the collisions are sometimes off, making it difficult to really estimate the walkable paths. Also the dialogue on the fuse doesn't seem to be working properly, for me it always went back to saying that the fuses are blown and when I walked up to the door it suddenly let me in.

And maybe some visual hints that give an idea where to look for items would help give it a bit more direction, I was walking aimlessly until I found just one fuse and then basically accidently stumbled into four. With keys it was similar. I really liked the dialogue boxes popping up to give some atmosphere/storytelling, but maybe it would be better to have them only appear the first time you walk through an area, when it appears multiple times it slows down the game.

But overall I can really see the vision and I'm excited to see where you take this! The monster chase sequence sounds great and I really like the vibe of the game already! A solid proof of concept for a horror visual novel on the gameboy!

Submitted(+1)

pressing j simulator sorry i had to say that

Submitted

btw how do I get the fuse? i cant figure out how

Developer

Hey i tagged it as visual novel! Nah i wish there was a better way to display the text, i just wanted the conversation to sound real i guess?

The fuses are hidden in the forest. The game itself isn't finished and needs a lot of polish but i do plan on making the path a little bit more obvious.

Submitted(+1)

Cool game, has a lot of potential.  Only criticisms are the text boxes and collision.  The text as it stands right now is very big in such a small box, you could try making it less wordy.  I ended up skipping the second half of the conversation at the start as it drug on a bit.

Developer

This is a limitation of the default text mechanic in the GB Studio engine, I do plan on making a smaller font and having the text boxes be smaller. The text boxes borrow a good chunk of the VRAM in the Gameboy so its going to be worth it in the long run, even if just to be able to squeeze out a few more pixels for sprites and backgrounds. I do want to keep the dialog, but i might space it out a bit so its not just a text wall when you start the game. Also plan on adding a skip dialog button!

Submitted(+1)

The filtered and detailed cuts in the game are really nice! thought I do have to agree with the others about the bugs and text. I would also add that the tree placements seems a bit weird as well with how some gaps are walkable and some are not with not much of a visual difference between them (basically there is not much of a clear path to follow). The vision is clearly there though.

Submitted(+1)

The right aesthetics are there, but definitely needs more work. The text is too big and there's just too much of it. Placement of things is completely illogical and seems random. I replaced all the fuses in the fuse box but nothing happened so I couldn't even get in the school. 

Submitted(+1)

i wanted to love this game but it's so rough around the edges. it has the atmosphere of a proper horror game demake, and the photo-filtered graphics are soo cool. 

but on the other hand, it has too much text, too many bugs, there's no graphical indication of where most items and events might be. i got 5 fuses and couldn't even get past the door, then i proceeded to get infinite fuses from the tree nest and couldn't get past the door either.

i tried one more time and it turns out that even if the game says and shows that the fuses are blown the light is up. got stuck in the bathroom tho.

i just know that if the jam lasted one more week this would have been pretty good.

Developer

Thank you for the feedback! Yeh i was burning the midnight oil and submitted what i had with about 8 minutes to spare. I also encountered the bathroom hard lock. After the results are graded i do plan on addressing all of the things people have mentioned here. This is my first stab at a narrative game and im thrilled you all like the vibe of it, it is very encouraging!