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A jam submission

Helter SmelterView game page

Help out a blacksmith in this stressful time management game
Submitted by UnseenFaith, envy, Junpei!, awwknee — 8 hours, 56 minutes before the deadline
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Helter Smelter's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Theme#64.5594.559
Graphics#64.5764.576
Overall#233.6733.673
Audio#233.6273.627
Accessibility#263.2543.254
Fun#493.3563.356
Controls#493.4243.424
Originality#962.9152.915

Ranked from 59 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Godot Version
4.2.2

Wildcards Used
n/a

Game Description
A Blacksmith forging game in an overcooked style genre

How does your game tie into the theme?
A blacksmith forges all the unique weapons that his customers desire

Source(s)
https://www.github.com/unseenfaith/godotgamejam

Discord Username(s)
blobeeblob, amiomoe, bea_, nv__fp, junpeixix, ki_t_

Participation Level (GWJ Only)
1

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Comments

Viewing comments 47 to 28 of 47 · Next page · Last page
Submitted(+1)

Great job on this! I found it a little confusing at first as to wear I should put the complete item but after re-reading the instructions it made more sense :) 

Developer

Thanks for the comments. It is a little confusing at first but I'm glad you got the hang out of it.

Submitted(+1)

Sorry Bart, my planet needs me!

Thanks for sharing this, that was fun ^_^

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing our game. Our team enjoyed playing as Chip as well.

Submitted(+1)

Cool take on the Overcooked concept. The presentation is superb, though! Great tutorials, everything is easy to understand. Props!

Developer

Thanks for the feedback! The tutorials were more well received than I would have thought.

Submitted(+1)

Fun use of the theme, and great graphics for a one week jam

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing our game! Appreciate the comments.

Submitted(+1)

The art and music is great, the game loop is fun and thematic, the controls are nice, the only thing I didn’t understand at first even with the tutorial was where to submit items. After one session it’s very easy to get into and very charming. Great work!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I think the "deliver to rack" was on the very first card, but it's not mentioned anywhere else, so I can see how you could get confused about it at first. I'm glad you figured it out and still were able to enjoy it though.

Submitted(+1)

Graphics are super polished which is nice. The gameplay felt kinda too repetitive, idk if its because I've played too many Overcooked style games this jam or not. The explanations were very nice. Good job on the submission

Developer(+1)

Thanks for the feedback! I know our artists really appreciate it. It can be a bit repetitive. We tried to keep it simple and straight to the point for jam purposes. That being said, maybe there is room to expand on it and make it less repetitive and more enjoyable. I am unsure of how much you can actually change to keep it the same style.

Submitted(+1)

Definitely 5* for the graphics! Are they drawn for this jam? I especially like that your tutorial steps are drawn out in a flow, with cute sprites! It's also amazing that you came up with multiple stages for a 9day Jam! But it was a great design, as it gradually teaches us recipes and tuned up the difficulty and complexity, without overwhelming the player.

I like that there is some degree of strategy in terms of "multitasking". Once my slow brain figured out I can leave stuff in the forge while doing other things, the hectic-ness went up a notch, and so did the fun.

While there are a few overcooked games this jam, I do think this is one of the most polished, robust entry. If there is some way to build in multiplayer, I can see this as a really strong Overcooked contender on console.

Developer

Thanks for the kind feedback! We definitely liked texture of adding the anvil as a bottleneck while leaving the forge, quenching station, and crafting bench as places where multitasking opportunities. All the art was done for the jam and I was deeply impressed -- I hadn't worked with bea previously (she did all the iso perspective work) and was blown away by her volume and the quality.

"Real" multiplayer might be a bit much but I think couch co-op mode isn't totally off the table as a post-jam addition. Right now we're working on some other QOL changes that didn't make the cut so we'll see when the energy runs out :)

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

The graphics are awesome, very convinvingly pixely.

[EDIT:] Would be cool to be able to arrange your smithy shop in between levels.

Developer

Thanks! I agree! That's actually something I've talked about as an idea going forward. I thought it would be really cool if you could design and lay out your shop however you wanted. Whether or not that sees the light of day is a different story, but it's cool to see someone else having a similar idea.

Submitted(+1)

Almost assumed it was a joke submission and walked away after the intro xD

Great game! The game play is easy to grasp which is nice, but it also gets a bit repetitive after a while.
The art and sound assets are also very nice.

I got to level 2 where I managed to forge a weapon that nobody wanted and did not know how to put it down, right before I no clipped into the backrooms by walking into the top right corner : X
But it wouldn't be a jam game without some funny glitches :D

Developer(+1)

Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad you didn't exit off of it and got to enjoy what we made.

Thanks for the bug report as well, I'll be sure to fix it post-jam along with some of the other QOL stuff that has been suggested.

Submitted(+1)

I think this is the best forging-weapons-simulator I’ve seen this jam!

I did manage to create an impossible situation. I picked up some gold while I had something else in the smelter, and then I could neither put it down or get my thing out of the smelter.

Developer

There should be a trash can on every level to get rid of stuff in your hand if need be. BUT we're also about half the way to having counter-top storage in place post-jam so soon you wont be in a place where you need to throw away partial work!

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

I loved the graphics, truly a professional job.

I had a bit of difficulty finding where I should perform each action, but it became easier over time.

In the later stages, it got a bit harder to make different items, but I liked the idea of progression that you implemented, great job!

Overall, the game is incredible and very beautiful indeed, congratulations on the delivery!

Developer

Thanks so much! Bart has always been a big fan of Bert considering him a true master of the craft so he was very pleased when I relayed your compliments lol :D

But yea, you nailed on the head one of the things we missed -- teaching some of ancillary mechanics was difficult to convey in just the tutorial cards and a live tutorial was a step beyond what we were able to get in place for the jam. Glad you enjoyed the experience, thanks for the kind words.

Submitted(+1)

Incredibly well made, especially the artwork.

I was able to walk away from the work bench when I expected it would have been like the anvil sticking you there, but I guess I needed the time to keep restocking the furnaces, I guess they're magic tools :)

Developer

Thanks for checking out our game! Yeah, we made it so that the anvil was the only task required that you would have to stand there and do. We were considering removing it as well to allow full multi-tasking but opted to keep it in for jam to see how it went. It's not immediately clear that is the case so it's a bit awkward once you figure it out.

Submitted(+1)

Really great game! It looks good! The pacing feels great. There's a lot of content. I had a bit of difficulty following the provided ingame instructions, but the game was pretty intuitive so it didn't matter that much.

Small note, I think I may have found a small bug? There was a time I managed to start a furnace with three iron and remove an item at the same time? I still was able to make a shield, and somehow ended up holding an extra piece of raw iron? (was playing the web build if it matters). Didn't really break the gameplay or anything. Was just strange.

I really liked the scaling of the game and the introduction of each new item. That worked really nice. If there was one thing I could have different, it would be to be able to place down items that I'm holding rather than having to throw them away. There were a couple of times that I wanted to go work on some other part that was in progress and hold on to something until later and just was unable to do that.

I liked how I was generally able to multitask as that allowed me to have some levels where I could complete most if not all of the tasks. Not being able to do that for the anvil was a nice touch as that does technically require someone to sit there and actually do something. The ending credits with the pan up from the smithy was also a really neat way to handle that element.

Really well put together and super impressive for a 9 day game jam!

- Jedi

Developer

Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad you enjoyed it as much as the team enjoyed making it.

There is a small bug that you described. I unfortunately couldn't squash it before the jam finished. It doesn't meaningfully break the game, and it's probably more of a detriment then it is a help since you can't store items anywhere.

The number one thing that people have been saying is that it would have been nice to store items somewhere, either on the counter or otherwise, so I hear you there. I think that will definitely be something added in after the jam.

Submitted(+1)

Oooo, pretty game~! Always appreciate the work towards isometric 2D art. Could never figure it out myself so ups to y'all for not only getting it done for a jam, but also having it look super polished. 

Embarrassingly, even with instructions, I could not figure out what to do. Took me a couple of replays to understand that the furnace needs more than one resource to start it lol. Will say, I was kind of hoping for some obstacle or enemy to prevent me from cooking. Unless I missed it, it didn't seem like anything could stop me from cooking (or I just didn't notice). 

Regardless, good stuff and polished submission!

Developer(+1)

It has been a joy to see our art get such love here as we felt bea really knocked the iso stuff out of the park (IIRC it was also her first stab at pixel art!)

Sorry that the instructions didn't convey the need for multiple ores better, we considered a more interactive tutorial but .. you know how jams are. And, yea, right now the primary enemy is the clock though that could always change if we continue development. For the jam though our goal was to have it tuned such that it was fairly approachable to get 1 hammer on every level and harder to get 3 just based on time constraints though I expect there was a lot of massaging left to do if we want a good skill curve.

Thanks so much for the feedback -- we'll def fold it into any future work that gets done.

Submitted(+1)

Awesome game! Beautiful graphics and sound, with intuitive gameplay and clear tutorials. I was already impressed before it went to the second level, then the third, and the gorgeous ending credits. Really fun throughout, lovely job to all!

Developer

Thank you so much! It was a big learning experience for the team and we're glad you enjoyed the results.

Submitted(+1)

Nice visuals and especially very nice tutorial. The gameplay was good but not that much innovative. Overall good. Well done!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for the feedback! We kept the gameplay intentionally simple for the jam. Looking past the jam there might be more opportunities to innovate in that space.

Submitted(+1)

First… gorgeous artwork, both in the game as well as with the Credits screen! Not to take anything away from the game itself, but that Credits screen was very beautifully done, especially for a game jam!

The game proper is also, absolutely lovely! If the artwork for this game was made during the jam itself, then you have a great artist on your team! Audio, as well, fit the game very well, I think. A nice, relaxing (from a soundscape point of view) workshop that pairs excellently with the visuals!

I’ve said this on my stream (which, thank you for stopping in and sharing your game!) but my biggest issue was the time (or lack there-of) I felt I had to complete orders. This could most definitely be a skill issue on my part, so take this comment with a grain of salt, but it did feel like a very very unforgiving window.

On another note, and this could also have been me, but I do remember thinking that it felt like my key presses didn’t always land… then again, I might not have been lined up properly.

Over all, excellent work!! Here’s a link to me playing your game on my stream, if you’re interested in reliving the experience :)

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Thanks for checking out our game on stream. It was really fun watching you play!

You are right in that sometimes key presses do not stick or work correctly. It was very hard trying to figure out a good way of giving the player the ability to interact with things. Some of the objects simply rely on collision areas which only work in a specific way, and then towards the end of the jam I came up with a better way using ray casting that I attached to a few objects but did not have enough time to fluff out every single one. I think the combination of these two and the fact that the game is in an isometric view can lead it to being confusing/unintuitive sometimes. I also think that a proper feedback system for what you're currently looking at or can interact with, something that isn't just a button above the player, but more of a like a highlight around the object, would also make it more clear about what you are interacting with. 

We're open to any suggestions! This was, for about half of us, our first time participating in a game jam, and first time working on a game in general. This was a really fun experience and has led me to wanting to put more effort into this and polish it up even more.

Submitted

User input feedback can definitely be a tricky thing some times. I just want to reiterate you and your team did a wonderful job!!

Submitted(+1)

The first thing I did when I opened the game was click the credits button. At first I thought you forgot to implement the credits screen and accidentally mapped the credits to the "start" button. I thought I was watching an intro cutscene, but no, apparently this game is just so dang polished that this is the actual credits screen.


The game itself is also very good. It was a bit difficult at first to memorize the recipes, which made the first couple of attempts a bit frustrating, but once I memorized the steps it made a lot more sense.  It definitely got a lot more fun once you had multiple furnaces, forcing you to prioritize and schedule your activities.

Overall very good!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for the feedback! Envy put a lot of work into the credits and overall general UI of the game to make it appealing and intuitive.

I definitely think that having the recipes available after they show up for the first time somewhere, either on the pause screen or otherwise, would definitely made it more friendly to people trying out the game. That's something that I think will definitely be added post-jam.

Submitted(+1)

Great work, you definitely nailed the stressful running around feeling of Overcooked. As others have said, I'd love to be able to just set down some in-progress pieces to better prep for stuff. Overall though, well done to everyone!

Developer

Thanks for playing our game! I agree. The single most common thing has been wanting to set items down/store them for later use. I think that is definitely something I will add after the jam. It's a shame I didn't get to it before then.

Submitted(+1)

Really great game.  Very polished, with nice art and game mechanics.  One of my favourites from the jam.

Developer(+1)

Thanks! The team really appreciates it, especially our artists.

Viewing comments 47 to 28 of 47 · Next page · Last page