Godot Wild Jam #24 - Our 2 Year!

Hosted by Bakenshake, Godot Wild Jam · #godotwildjam

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A jam submission

??? ????? ?????? ???View game page

??? ????? ?????? ??? -- Made for the Godot Wild Jam #24 in 9 days

Submitted by Isaac — 10 hours, 54 minutes before the deadline

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??? ????? ?????? ???'s itch.io page

Results

Criteria	Rank	Score*	Raw Score
Audio	#22	3.406	3.933
Originality	#35	3.349	3.867
Theme	#44	3.002	3.467
Overall	#45	2.954	3.411
Graphics	#47	3.118	3.600
Controls	#55	2.367	2.733
Fun	#56	2.483	2.867

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

Godot Version
3.2.2

Source
No (Not yet)

Game Description
No spoilers

Discord Username
stop#9950

Participation Level (GWJ only)
2

Participation Level across all Jams
3

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Comments

WillowbladeSubmitted4 years ago

Ignoring the meme ending, I really loved how moody and mysterious this entry was. I got a small Twin Peaks vibe, with the trench coat detective, dark woods, ghosts... Well done, Isaac! This definitely deserved more plays and ratings. Like the others, I never heard this MacLeod track before so but I think it fit perfectly with your atmosphere. Your detective sprite (and its climbing down animation) was perfect.

I've been thinking of making a 2.5D game at some point as well, how did you find the process? What were the pain points? Especially given you've also included movement up and down, I can imagine you met some hurdles along the way.

Submitted

IsaacDeveloper4 years ago

Thank you very much for giving my game a go and a rating! Very much appreciated!

Glad I got the atmosphere down, it was probably the strongest point of my game in my own opinion.

It's a little hard to explain how I managed the 2.5D since I'm not great at explaining things, but I'll try my best:

A little bit of rules for yourself:
I suppose more of a general game design thing, it's important to have rules for yourself. For me, I didn't really have too many, especially that I can recall as writing this. One main one I had throughout my mind the entire time was that if something was too laggy for my machine, it wasn't allowed in the final submission. I don't have a particularly great laptop, but this rule allowed pretty much everyone to play my game without experiencing any lag.

Atmosphere & Order:
I started with the 2D bits since I personally find it easier, but from there I could better figure out the proportions and how close to reality everything else would be. I moved on to making level decorations and props, trees, boxes, etc. Afterwards, I focused on level layout and design. If you have an open space level, decorations and decoration density are definitely something to keep in mind. I managed to achieve this fairly well in the first level in my own honest opinion, but not so well in the final level.
Having subtle atmosphere details helps too. Far blur is definitely a big friend, and fog too. Near blur is arguably even more important, but I however couldn't do it in my project as I found it laggy on my computer.

Pains:
A main pain point I had was since the game was 3rd person with fixed camera rotation was that I had to make the player always visible. To do this is as simple as pressing the "Backface Culling" check under the material of the level meshes in Blender. This did not come without a lot of tweaking and remodelling. Godot was not satisfied with just this. Instead, Godot would do completely random things. Turn off the setting and reimport? Not in Godot's book. Godot was just not having it, and neither was I. Eventually, through lots of hacking in the level meshes, I finally got it working. Then, suddenly, out of the absolute middle of nowhere, a challenger approaches! Transparency! Unfortunately, after battling the previous pain for a while, I knew that this time Godot would win, and I was right, so I gave up. Hundreds of tutorials and stackoverflows got me nowhere in that battle. 3D isn't just a whole new dimension, it's a whole new system of rendering.

Vertical Movement:
Honestly, this was not hard, but it of course didn't come without it's fair share of glitches. I have several hacks in this game simply battling for the climbing down part, dozens of raycasts, and hundreds of booleans. Each patched glitch gave me about 2 more glitches to get rid of. Eventually though, battling the terrible code architecture I had and the raycasts' refusal to fire when it's meant to and vice versa, I got it working. Sorta. It's probably the most fragile part of the entire game, and each time I revisited the script that contained it, I was scared. You're not gonna believe this, but I was using a state machine too. Some troubles you just can't escape.

Closure:
Sorry for the novel. I suppose when someone asks you how something is done that you're quite passionate about, you just can't stop rambling. All in all, it's your average game jam game with countless glitches and excessive amounts of ambition. Hope somewhere within the literal 4 paragraphs you found something of use, whatever that may be.

Once again, thank you very much for playing my game, and even more for rating! I really do appreciate it!

VikfroSubmitted4 years ago

I WILL NEVER GET OVER THE ENDING

0 / 5

Ok maybe now I can make a real review.

Theme is respected but did not feel like was a big inspiration for the gameplay. I mean it’s a story-based game and the story revolves around the Millers, but you could change the theme by something else and it would be the same game basically.

The controls were alright, there wasn’t many mechanics so I can’t judge much on that. Would have loved if there was a lil point & click puzzle.

The audio was cool but it’s freaking MacLeod so I can’t give a high rating when you compare to people who compose their own music. But the moody detective ambiance was really well transcribed, with the typing machine sound. So good job on the design/track choice. Also it’s not one of the most famous MacLeod tracks that you hear all the time on YouTube.

^I like the graphics with the mix of 3D and 2D character (I guess because it’s much easier to make and animate? :D ), especially with the “dropping down” animation that was scaled properly.

I think that was the strongest point as well as the originality!

Here’s the cut playthrough: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/722304415

Submitted

Family Traffic-King

IsaacDeveloper4 years ago

That's some totally fair criticism and I 100% agree with everything!

You're totally right about the theme not being very well attached. I unfortunately have a bad habit of not tying in the theme very well. I'll try for my next jam my very best to base the game around the theme instead of vice versa, no matter the quality!

The controls definitely were I suppose a bit lacking. I wasn't really going for much in that department, but there still could be some improvements nonetheless.

I definitely tried to go for a MacLeod track that isn't often heard just so the player doesn't really think twice about it too much. But you're right in the sense that it doesn't match the tier of quality and effort that a track made specifically for a jam game holds.

I'm glad to hear you liked the 2.5D look! I wouldn't say it's particularly easier to animate in 2D, but I am much better at it than 3D animation. The dropping down effect took an entire day, I suppose that wasn't a particularly good use of time, but I'm super glad how it came out in the end.

Thanks for playing my game! I really appreciated actually seeing someone else play my game, I felt nervous but proud throughout the entire play through!

(Little funnish fact: ??? ????? ?????? ??? has something to do with the end of the game 🤔)

VikfroSubmitted4 years ago

Good that you take the criticism well :) I try to use the French Critical Thinking (TM) while staying polite. And also I take in account the fact that you were alone etc. Imo people should have to precise the amount of work put in the game, some people have the time to spend 70h on it while others barely 20.

????? ????? ???? ??? ??

whatismikedoingnowSubmitted4 years ago

The music, typewriter, and graphics set a great ambiance for the game. The 2D on 3D was pretty interesting, especially during the perspective switch of the cave tunnel.
First time seeing this meme format ;)

Submitted

Family Planning

IsaacDeveloper4 years ago

Thanks! Super proud of the ambience I set as it matched perfectly what I had in my mind for the first little bit!

Somebody had to introduce you to this one, so I took up the task. ;)

JestemStefanSubmitted4 years ago

What?! :D The ending ruined it LOL! I mute my speakers because I expected something spooky!

I really like the atmosphere and 2D/3D styles together. Very nice saxophone.

I also pushed the box into the wall at the first time. It could be game breaking for some people. Consider fixing it!

Come and rate our game! We would love to get your feedback! See you in the comments!

https://itch.io/jam/godot-wild-jam-24-our-2-year/rate/737609

Submitted

Family Traffic-King

IsaacDeveloper4 years ago(+1)

Ah, it was my plan from the very beginning. You can't say it wasn't at least a little spooky, though.

Thanks, I get a lot of comments about the 2.5D effect, it seems many people really like it. I personally love it.

Very nice music credit goes to Kevin Macleod, of course. Proper talented fellow.

Super sorry about no recovery mechanism for the box! Unfortunately I can't exactly upload a fixed version of it now since it's not technically a "Game breaking bug" as it's avoidable, but I would if I could. Once again, super sorry about that!

A thousand thank yous for playing my game and reviewing it! I'll be sure to give your game a look!

VostSubmitted4 years ago

That was a cool game. The atmosphere is very well put together until... The WTF ending! The sunset light in the background is very cool and the audio mix is reeeally cool.

However, I struggled with controls, especially in the crate-moment (eventually got stuck and restarted the game). I also think that mixing 3D background and 2D character sprites is a bit confusing, but that's a personal opinion (apparently other jammers enjoyed it).

Congrats for your submission!

Submitted

IsaacDeveloper4 years ago(+1)

Hahah, the ending gets a lot of people! Don't worry, it was my terrible plan from the start.

Glad you appreciated the environment of the first level! I'm aware there's not much to marvel at later on, so I don't blame you for maybe not being as excited about them.

Sorry about the box getting stuck! I was aware about the issue as soon as I implemented it, but I ran short on time and I was feeling real beat towards the end.

Super sorry you weren't as big a fan as the 2.5D feel! It's not for everybody, and I can understand how it can be confusing.

Thanks for checking out my game! I super appreciate the feedback as well!

KrisBijnensSubmitted4 years ago

Hey,

nice little game you made, really like it. Reminded me a lot of these old 80's -90's detective series on tv. Same music, same narative story, same typewriter sound. played and rated.

please feel free to play and rate my game:

Submitted

IsaacDeveloper4 years ago

Super glad you liked the game! I worked hard just like everybody else, and I'm both glad and disappointed by the outcome, which is the only downside to game jamming in my opinion.

I'll be sure to check out your game if I can get it working! I believe I was having some troubles with it earlier. I'll try and figure something out.

KrisBijnensSubmitted4 years ago

unzip end double click the .exe file should make it work. to bad I can only check windows build, so if you are on a mac or linux I can not check if something is wrong. I did try the HTML build to make it playable on the site but that fecked up my lighting.

about your own game, don't be to hard on yourself, people who can manage to make a AAA-studio game in 9 days are not existing :).

dardanbujupajSubmitted4 years ago (2 edits)

I wish the the typewriter-effect would be a little bit faster (or adjustable). The Dialogs/Monologs are a bit too long in my opinion this way (not the amount of dialog, but more how fast it is shown :)).

I also got stuck with the crate pushed against the wall like minic-h, kind of a bummer.

Otherwise the graphics-style and the music are great, love it! Well done!

Will try it again later this evening without getting the box stuck :D

EDIT: Just tried it again right now. WTF is this ending, hahaha. Well done!

Submitted

IsaacDeveloper4 years ago

Super sorry about the box getting stuck, I also wish I could've done more about the text speed, too. There were a lot of things that needed fixing, but unfortunately I ran short on time. Text could've definitely been faster, but I had to make sure that at the very least most people would be able to read it.

I hope you liked the ending, too.

minic-hSubmitted4 years ago

This was pretty neat! I had one issue though. I accidently pushed the box up against the wall and was unable to continue. Had to start over.

Was really looking forward to finding out what happened to the ??????? family, but that ending was the exact opposite of my expectations, got a nice laugh. Great work!

Submitted

Anniversary Tail

IsaacDeveloper4 years ago

Hahah, sorry about the box. I knew of the issue from the very start, but I ran short on time so I couldn't end up implementing a way to counteract this issue.

Super glad you liked the ending!

Kenneth DodrillSubmitted4 years ago

I really liked the graphical style, and I'm a sucker for sax so I enjoyed the music. I think this game could really benefit from a "run" button, but I understand limitations of art / the sprite used (or made). The ending made me laugh.

Submitted

IsaacDeveloper4 years ago(+1)

Thanks for the input! I was really hoping to add a run at some point but unfortunately making art in such a short time whilst trying to handle everything else is ridiculous. I'm really glad you appreciated the ending, too.