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A jam submission

The Hostile HostelView game page

Scale this zombie-infested hotel with your wits and your ability to not shoot old ladies!
Submitted by Bermisham, redkidd — 1 day, 14 hours before the deadline
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The Hostile Hostel's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Soundtrack/SFX#193.8673.867
Overall#273.8003.800
Overall#293.7333.733
Gameplay#333.6673.667
Graphics#343.9333.933

Ranked from 15 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous.

  • I played this game with a group of friends. We were really impressed with the narrative setup for the game, the individual art assets for each obstacle and character, and the gameplay flowed really well. We noticed that going between floors where you changed direction was slightly jarring to the flow of the game, but otherwise the smooth gameplay experience was well crafted - it was easy to restart once we'd died. The music was really jammin' to use the words of one of my friends. Thanks for submitting to the jam, and congratulations on such a well-polished entry!

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

Love it. The movement and some of the sprites remind me of The Simspsons: Escape from Camp Deadly on the original game boy.

Submitted(+1)

So much personality in such few pixels! Nice intro cutscene, and the gameplay is nicely grafted. Great work!

Developer

Thank you so much! Both of us have learnt a lot about game design in this whole jam and I personally overcame the challenges of trying to express the visuals coherently in the specific restrictions. We really appreciate your kind words!

Submitted(+1)

Very effective facial animations. Small nitpick, got a bit confused when I went up the stairs and the character got turned around, but only lasts for a second or two.

Developer

A lot of people have had issues with the swap, and we intend to fix it in a future patch, but thank you nonetheless for commenting and giving feedback! It is incredibly appreciated!

Submitted(+1)

So much to love. The facial expressions make this for me <3  The tutorial is great and funny, the core arcade gameplay is a nice and tight, and it has re-playability.  Well thought out and executed.

Developer

Thank you for your kind words! Animating the faces was as much of a delight, so I'm glad it added to the experience!

Submitted(+1)

Love the narrative, and the overall mechanic feel fine to use. However it gets a little bit disorienting changing the direction of where to go when you reach a new room, and the overal punishment for approaching foes doesn't really feel that dangerous. Nice sprites though, love the face Wesley makes when he's shooting!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for the comment! We had a lot of problems of players feeling that the penalty for hitting objects was too high so we decreased it. In hindsight, we shouldn't have done that to the zombies too. The objects and the enemies have the same penalty, but we should have kept it the same for zombies since they are your formidable foe contextually and it would also stop players running through hordes like its nothing. Thank you for your insight!

Submitted(+1)

Simple but effective! Dammit Wesley, get rid of the corpse next time,

I accidentally shot nearly everyone I was supposed to save >.<

Developer(+1)

Wesley's a busy man, give the guy a rest! (not that he isn't already taking one constantly)

Submitted(+1)

Great game. The intro story was funny and a great addition overall. I did find the shooting mechanic to be a little frustrating because how long it takes to refire.

Developer

Thanks for the comment! We made the shooting cooldown sort of long to deter people from spamming shoot and being more methodical with their shots, but it could be seen as a bit too long.

Submitted(+1)

Another +1 from me on putting in a tutorial. I rarely have time to put in the stuff to teach the player what they are doing. The art and palette is a great combination in this one. I had a tendency to murder all of the civilians along with the zombies -- the gun sound was making me laugh - you've got a charming game here.

Developer

Thank you for your nice words! We made the game and we even have trouble trying not to murder to civilians hahaha. 

Submitted(+1)

Pretty cool game!
I love that you took the time to create a tutorial level, nice touch. Same with the humour in the story at the start.

The feeling I had with the gameplay reminded me of Home Alone 2 on the NES. I know it's a bit cryptic (big sprite with a high jump running around a hotel filled with bad guys)!! There's 1 thing I wished the gameplay had : a reward when you complete a level (maybe a time boost), and maybe a penalty if you get touched by zombie. I kept running back to the door after entering too. Minor thing but it could probably be fixed easily!

I had a fun time playing. The graphics were pretty cool. It looked like games I used to play on Flash 15 years ago!

Good job with your submission!

Developer

Thank you for your comment! Having a time boost definitely would have added more to suspense and I can't believe how similar our game is to Home Alone 2 on the NES theming wise (I checked it out and you are totally right)!

Submitted(+1)

This was fun! I enjoy the art and animations, and the intro was funny! Background music was great, also appreciated that it changed subtly after the tutorial.

The one minor point that was a little off is the changing directions of the game; I spend a whole level running in one direction, so when I move to the next floor, I accidentally run back towards the door I came from. Not that it's a huge deal since it doesn't take you back, but it's a bit jarring. I don't know the best way to mitigate it though, maybe if there was a larger break between levels or a physical staircase that you need to press the opposite direction on maybe?

Not a big deal though, cool game nonetheless!

Developer(+1)

Glad you enjoyed it! The changing levels whiplash was something that did come up on our radar, but we wanted to keep the game at a higher pace and not extend level transitions to deter the action.

Reflecting on that, we should have made some sort of quick transition that made the switch less jarring but keep up the fast pace. Thank you for your feedback!