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A jam submission

Head Ache (GMTK 2019)View game page

Created in 2 days and our submission for GMTKJam 2019 ( #gmtkjam )
Submitted by Late Panda (@latepandastudio) — 57 minutes, 9 seconds before the deadline
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Head Ache (GMTK 2019)'s itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Design#10263.0423.042
Originality#12023.1693.169
Overall#12643.0893.089
Adherence to the Theme#14123.0563.056

Ranked from 71 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

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Comments

Viewing comments 20 to 1 of 41 · Previous page · First page
Submitted(+1)

Way to use RPG Maker to its fullest! You don't see a lot of RPG Maker games in a jam but I think yours has some polish to really help it stand out. Neat concept and clear vision. Great job!

Would love if you could check mine out too! Or not, no pressure ;) https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/462672?after=20#post-876644

Developer

Thanks! 

It was our first time trying RPG maker and we wanted to try have a full of a game as possible. We are glad you see it so polished because we certainly don't XD

We will give your game a try later today, we are doing one last push for plays later tonight and tomorrow to see how many ratings we can get done before the deadline. 

Submitted

To be honest, it's my first time with game made with RPG Maker and... it was a pretty fun experience :D

Developer

I'm glad you enjoyed it, I would recommend seeking out other full developed RPG maker games.

They will be similiar in terms of gameplay but due to being more RPG focused there will be a different experience. 

We wanted to try develop something that wouldn't just be seen as "another RPG maker game" hence the theme of mental health.

Submitted(+1)

Very cool idea for it to be only one character in an RPG. Nicely done!

Submitted

The initial idea seemed to be cool. But then I got soft locked after I moved the furniture and had to restart. Also the sudden boss fight with the action soundtrack felt a bit out of space. It felt like the sudden fight sequence in the beginning of To The Moon, but in  TTM it was more like a joke. here it din't really work, I think. 

But overall a good experience with a cool mood, I really liked the topic and the nice art style. 

If you want to, please check out my game as well. Would be cool to hear your thoughts about it :)

https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/462544


Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing. We should have definitely made it more obvious that leaving the room would have reset the furniture. We also ended up running out of time and couldn't implement more of a lead up to the fight along with other things we wanted to do. 

When I'm back at my PC I'll give your game a go. :)

Submitted

I kept thinking of Squall from Final Fantasy VIII as I played the game. Something about the sprite and the music made me feel like I was in Balam Garden and the effects of the room slowly revealing itself is pretty neat. Haven't seen that done before in an RPG Maker game. 

Submitted

Really admirable that you took on something clearly pretty ambitious for a limited time game-jam, I like the atmosphere of the piece. I do feel like the boss fight was a bit too repetitive, I don't mind that it's difficult but it was also kind of rote, which was the main problem. I really like what you were going for though, well done. 

Developer

Yeah, the boss fight was something we spent the least amount of time on and was the most rushed to complete. We wanted it to have a bit more depth,chatting to boss during fight and mixing up the battle a bit during it.

We had to spend extra time on the room furniture mix up puzzle as it turned out much more complex than it needed to be and took much longer than we wanted it to take. 

Regardless, I'm glad you enjoyed it, thanks very much for playing.

Submitted(+1)

Interesting. Though the controls did give me a little bit of a headache (well, that was a bad joke...)

Submitted(+1)

I was thinking this might've been an RPG Maker game, but was still surprised to see a boss battle at the end lol. I have to say, I was pretty confused with the movement in the hallway though. It seemed like you couldn't move backwards, but when you're in the room moving the furniture you could. I spent longer than I'd like to say, looking at the room trying to figure out how I could move everything without moving backwards xD

Submitted(+1)

This gave me some nice flashbacks to To The Moon and Finding Paradise. Kudos to your artist for Scott's sprite and animations!

Developer

Flashbacks to "To The Moon" is some massive compliment, thanks :D

Submitted(+1)

I found the boss fight a bit too repetitive and too hard. Some indicator on when to defend would have been nice. I tried to predict the "Doubt" move boss throws at me and tried to guard in time but I failed.

The artwork and the sounds are nice. I also liked that you are trying to tell a story which doesn't happen very often on a 48h game jam!

Overall I enjoyed playing the game. Thank you for making it!

Submitted

Nice work, one thing for the design, I was hoping "Guard" option during the fight would give me more Guide, otherwise I think is kind of useless to have it as an option.

Submitted

At first I couldn't figure out why I could only go forward in the loopy hallways, the symbolism didn't completely connect. I had to restart game due to furniture next to the wall, but no biggie. Boss fight I failed at first, got it on the second try with a bunch of defense thrown in and mostly heals. When I was offered to leave, I wanted to see if I could talk to Nega Scott, but he wouldn't react and I couldn't leave the room then. Is... this symbolic or?

Developer

Forgot to remove Nega Scott after you beat him, and I do have a version on my PC where you can leave the room after and Scott just has a short message for you but we had a lot of trouble getting this version uploaded at the end of the jam.

We will most likely upload a new version of the game during the night at some point if we really want to improve the game for others. 

Also if you attempt to leave the furniture room before completing it then it will ask if you want to reset. We have heard other people have refreshed after trapping items in the room and know that we definitely needed to make that clearer :D

Regardless, we are glad you got the symbolism, we debated during development if we should have made it clearer but given that you and others have understood it I'm very glad we didn't.

Submitted

We wanted to compliment a particular thing; the dialogue in the game is pretty patient with the player, rather than applying pressure or being rude. In any game that touches on mental health, handling the player with respect is important. Well done there.

Submitted

I like the concept in it.
I can see the possibility of it!
I don't play RPG Maker's game very much, this one is quite unique to me!
Good job!

Besides, please try my game and rate it!

(+1)

The design in interesting. I thought rearranging the room was very clear as you saw the objects moving out of place and had the shadows to show you where they should go. 
I had a lot of trouble with the fight as it wasn't clear what the special moves did. I also couldn't seem to find a pattern that the enemy employed so it was hard to predict when to use guide on healing etc.
The game looks and sounds great, it it very loud though

Developer

Thank you.

We purposefully made the end battle difficult as it's supposed to symbolize Scott fighting past his inner negativity which would be a difficult challenge to overcome. Our bad about the sound levels though, we could only test the audio on 1 PC. 

Submitted

I think the design complements the mental wellness theme pretty well, except the rpg style battle feels a bit out of place (since usually you have it as a part of a full rpg game). It would also be nice if htere was a way to reset the furniture (I pushed it into the wall because I was dumb and didn't realise what I had to do)

Developer

So if you try to exit the room it will ask you if you want to reset the room items. We definitely should have made that more obvious. Thanks for the feedback.

Submitted(+1)

I can tell that you really wanted to do more in the game.....but of course, time would not permit but you still made something wonderful

[Spoilers !!!!!!!!!!!!]

At first....I was a little confused about what to do and sort of arranged the table with the computer by chance and then realised about the other pieces of furniture ( but I guess that's just me XD )

And the music in that final battle........OMG

Really great man. Really great

Developer

Thank you :)

Submitted(+1)

Nice work, that was a really great way to tackle mental health in such a tiny game!

Developer

Thanks, we didn't know if we'd be able to convey the message correctly or not.

Submitted(+1)

Really liked this one! Also dealing with these issues in games is already difficult, doing it in 48 hours, well... you nailed it!

[SPOILERS FROM NOW ON]

I don't know if it's intentional or not, but the only battle in the game is the final one (or maybe there's another but I couldn't find it). The game designer in me would tell you to put at least another battle before the final one to let the player learn what they can do before battling their fears and doubts. But all in all, it's adherent to the theme and the timeframe was tight too, so I don't see it as a problem. Just wanted to give my two cents.

I would love to see an improved and expanded version of this. Good job!

Developer(+1)

Thank you xx

[SPOILERS]
You are correct, there is only 1 battle. This is because he is fighting himself and we were trying to stick to the theme for the jam. We planned to have so much more in the game but ran out of time.

Submitted

[SPOILERS]

So it was for the theme! It was a good call, after all. I beat Nega Scott at the second try, when I actually started to use a strategy after trying different things the first time, but I still had so much fun! The second one was soooo close!

Submitted

I haven't seen any RPG style games yet in this game jam so well done for trying something different. I like the assests they're cute :)

Developer

Thanks, it was certainly a challenge to get an RPG style finished within the time frame :P

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