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Ghost on a Loop's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Creativity | #1949 | 3.733 | 3.733 |
| Audio | #2184 | 3.178 | 3.178 |
| Enjoyment | #2368 | 3.289 | 3.289 |
| Artwork | #3036 | 3.267 | 3.267 |
| Narrative | #4102 | 2.289 | 2.289 |
Ranked from 45 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the theme?
There are multiple loops involved: First, structural: You collect crystals different radial space stations. Second, temporal: Your movement creates echoes that ghosts will follow. Each time you collect a crystal a new ghost with your previous movement is created. Over time a frentic mess if moving entities is created, making the game harder and harder.
(Optional) Please credit all assets you've used
Cubemap from: https://www.spacespheremaps.com
Sound Effects: some from Ovani Sound, others created with my beloved Synthesizers
Background Music: Done by Me (Synthesizer, Ableton)
Models: Done by me (Blender)
Engine: Unreal Engine 5.6
UI: Me (Unreal Engine)
Custom Gravity: https://dev.epicgames.com/community/learning/tutorials/w6l7/unreal-engine-custom-gravity-in-ue-5-4
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Comments
Great game! I love the atmosphere!
Thank you so much for playing!
Such a clever take on the theme. The overall atmosphere feels really warm and inviting — great work!
Thank you for playing and your feedback!
Yeah it all came together, when I had the background music.
That's a really creative way of interpreting the theme.
Also has a really nice cozy atmosphere to it.
Thank you for playing and your comment!
I like the gameplay but I LOVE the character! very polished too, great job.
If you dont mind, please consider rating my game as well :)
Oh thank you! For playing and your kind words :)
I will try it out now!
This was really addictive to play. The mini-map is also amazing. I only wished it didn't have to feel so bad having to pick more time over an upgrade. This was really fun!
Thank you for playing! What was your highscore?
I wanted to force going as fast as possible, so you save up time and can effort upgrades. But it's definitely not the best choice yet, I agree!
Awesome job with your game! Love the concept, visuals, mini map and character! The level design on the last level definitely stood out to me and I could really see this game grow!
Thank you so much for playing and your kind words! It's amazing, that you had a good time :)
Fun game, I really like the live mini-map at the top, reminds me a bit of the 3D map from Metroid Prime! Also the game felt clean, didn't run into any bugs or weird behaviors, good work!
Thank you for playing and your feedback :) Glad you had a great time!
Honestly, crazy to put this together in such a short amount of time. Layering two uses of "loop" on top of each other in one game is really fantastic. I got some intense flash backs (in the best of ways) to navigating Brittle Hollow in Outer Wilds, especially on Level 3 where the custom gravity / looping starts to shine as you can take advantage of falling through the map. Pretty mind bending to wrap my head around all of the geometry at first, but once you get comfortable with the map and have ingrained some orientation, it's immensely satisfying. Kind of wish I had the dash/double jump from the start so the fun movement could start earlier.
Thanks you so much for playing! It's actually my first game published anywhere ever :)
The Outer Wilds reference makes my day <3
Yeah i thought about what to activate at the start, but ran out of time trying to test different things. Thanks for your feedback, really appreciate it.
Cool game. But when I have such a good map, I always find myself thinking that I'm starting to play the map instead of looking at the rest of the screen)
Last level the best! But in some places, you want more opportunities and understanding of how to get higher.
A couple of ideas: I think it would be cool to either play this map itself as the main gameplay; or maybe run from the inside of structure to see everything while looking up.
I will be very glad if you play our game too! :)
Thank you for playing and your lovely feedback!
Can you elaborate on what you mean "starting to play the map" and " and your ideas? I don't fully understand what you mean.
Definitely, I'll put it on my list and play it this evening :)
Of course, I mean that during the game I constantly look at the map. That is, in my head I am already playing for points on the map, and not for a robot on a rounded structure.
And the first idea was to change the game so that: the map was full-screen without gameplay with a robot.
The second is to place the robot in an inner circle so that the player can be oriented without a map (so we get a better view). In fact, reducing the value of the map, but the idea is to strengthen exactly one of the features.
Ah I think I see were you are going, thanks for clarifying. Might be a different mode then, or an entirely different game :)
That was a really cute game! Loved the mechanic, it fits the theme very well. Our character is very cute, I loved it!
Thank you for playing and your kind words!
Thanks, I added it last minute <3
Not my kind of thing, but while simple it was pretty polished so well done
Thank you for playing and your feedback!
The last level was actually really fun and kind of beautiful. I honestly think the different upgrades and stuff aren’t needed, because this is just a nice calm platformer.
Thank you so much for playing. I'll keep that in mind and maybe add a different mode. Already thinking about different versions :)
good game! I would personally remove the arrow and focus more on the minimap which looks really nice, a bit more game design polish needed, maybe try to do less overall next jam, but focus on making things perfect, Levels felt good, first to easy maybe and last a bit hard, nice idea and interesting where it could go from here, well done
Thanks for playing and your feedback! I will think about that :)
At first I only had the minimap but that felt disorienting some times.
This is a pretty cool twist on an endless runner :D with the jump upgrade I was able to just barely make it to the other side of the ring by jumping off, which felt really satisfying to do. -Kaylee
Thank you for playing and your kind words!
Yes, nice! Good job Kaylee!
Really charming concept! The movement feels smooth and satisfying, and the visuals have a nice, cohesive style. I especially liked how the level design gradually introduced new challenges — it kept me engaged the whole time. Great work!
Thank you so much for playing. I am glad, you had a great time!
Simple idea executed well. I really like the way the minimap is visualised in this game. The little robot is cute and the later levels are interesting visually.
Thank you so much for playing and your feedback!
Kinda relaxing! Does get pretty tough later on and I kept feeling like taking anything but extra time would result in a loss, but otherwise very cool idea and well executed! I really wanted to skip to the other side of the loop by jumping off the side, but that doesn't appear to work.
Thank you so much for playing and your nice feedback!
Yeah haha, I wanted to force people to play fast, maybe a bit too fast. I will consider that and tweak it a bit more, maybe different difficulty settings.
It does work, but I haven't found a reliable way yet. Only worked for me 1/10 times. I will tinker more with that so it does work properly as a risky strategy.
I love seeing other Unreal games! From what I understand circular gravity like this isn't the easiest thing to do in Unreal, so I'm curious about how you pulled it off! This is a really relaxing game and I wasn't ready for so much jumping in level 3.
When I played the first level and accidentally fell off and saw how the star affected gravity, I tried jumping off the side a few times to see if I could use the gravity to quickly slingshot to the other side. I got close a few times but it never worked and I was a little sad. I wrote this down as my suggestion for you but then I got to level 3 and the platforms being closer to the center let me do it and I was really happy about it.
Awesome job!
Thank you for playing and your kind words!
Since 5.4 it actually is :D I leave the guide here:
https://dev.epicgames.com/community/learning/tutorials/w6l7/unreal-engine-custom...
I had to tweak it a bit, because I did not need circular but "cylindrical" gravity. But worked very smoothly.
Jumping off the side does work, but I also didn't manage to do it consistently. It's right on the border of impossible. I think one has to get really close to the sun, but I will definitely tinker more with it, so it does work more often.
My favorite level was number 3 - fun movement due to the well-implemented gravity. I agree with the commenter below that spawning multiple green crystals at the same time could work well (at least in level 3). That, or the green crystal could be displayed more prominently on the minimap (or in-game with some sort of waypoint). Had fun with this!
Thank you so much for playing and your kind words!
Yes, I will tinker more with it for sure.
Really cool concept. The idea immediately clicked for me and I had a lot of fun. Impressive work for a jam. The jump in difficulty on Level 3 was quite harsh though, but very cool to see the possibilities this idea offers.
Have you tried spawning more than 1 crystal at a time? Travel times could be quite long, but I can also see why you chose to spawn only one, since moving around the map is the main mechanic.
Anyways, really cool game and to see someone else joining the jam with Unreal Engine. Always feels like we are at a disadvantage :D
Thank you so much for playing and your kind words! <3
I didn't try but had this in mind, but ran out of time at some point and was more focused on a stable game :D Will keep it in mind and got lots of more ideas for the game. I didn't do more than once crystal in the end because it also affects the balancing. And I was happy that it somehow made sense (to me)
Yeah, Level 3 is rough. I tweaked the gravity and some parameters to make it more possible haha. Like the idea, but the execution is only okayish so far. Just wanted some variety for the Game Jam