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A jam submission

The windmakerView game page

Dust Storms rule the earth.
Submitted by GureenuDev (@gureenuDev) — 20 hours, 44 minutes before the deadline
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The windmaker's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Use of theme#62.3062.306
Concept#62.4722.472
Scare Factor#91.6941.694
Presentation#102.0282.028

Ranked from 36 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

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Comments

Windmaker does sound like a creepy experience from the name, And initially it did. But then I felt lack of direction and lack of plot/story buildup. Felt a bit boring.

Still, it could be used as a base for survival game if you plan to extend it further.

I think I found a bug: on day 1, I got curious, explored the desert, and found a note on another bunker. On day 2 nothing happened, I wasn't prompted to do anything, waited a bit, and was prompted to sleep. I assume I was meant to try to meet the person on that bunker and find the note? I suppose it's a more than understandable glitch given the time given.

That said, I still felt like the game lacked a lot of story. The protagonist's tiny, one-room bunker seems meant to be claustrophobic and sad, but together with the lack of expanding upon the plot (only mentioned in the description) it just made me confused. Where does the protagonist get food?  What is the windmaker for? Does it create electricity? Food? Does it just fight off sandstorms? Why do sandstorms matter underground? Day 3 felt like one big letdown, as the protagonist's reaction to the windmaker's malfunction made me just lose interest in the concept, as the worldbuilding felt empty.

This game seems like it wants to be a walking sim- carried by the plot, without much challenge in the gameplay, only an interesting world to explore. The problem was, there just wasn't a plot.

Developer(+1)

thanks for the feedback man, I understand your dissatisfaction so next time it will be better than this I promise :)

also the man with the note offed himself but before that he threw his armchair at you out of spite lol

Damn, Note Dude doesn't mess around.

(+1)

its good 

you are going to win i just know it

Submitted(+1)

I liked the idea with the dust storms and the windmill. It fits the horror theme well, but I don't think it fits the isolation theme. 

I learned more about the lore from the description than from the game itself. Because there is no narrative in the game, the player has to perform random actions that have little basis in the story. As long as I understand what's going on and have a strong goal, I won't close the game.

The hero gets tired of doing nothing for only 1 min. Think of other reasons to direct the player to a specific place or to do a specific action. For example, the phrase "I'm scared, I want to go back to the bunker" would eliminate this ridiculous situation.

Level design should make an intuitive walkthrough. It is very easy to get lost in the fog and not very interesting to walk knowing that almost all the space is occupied by emptiness. In such places you need some landmarks, such as connected flags, a row of bushes or footprints of the main character showing the way from the bunker to the windmill and back.

Readability always comes first for the font. I couldn't read the note. Sacrifice style and make the font standard if you're not sure if the player can read your text. I'm not saying about overall 3d style here since it's a jam game and getting correct 3d models could be really tough task.

Still think the concept is nice and you can make more of it. Good luck.

Developer(+2)

thanks for the criticism dude, I will take your feedback seriously  and make sure future games will be  more interesting <3.

https://youtu.be/7kW8HftRUJ0

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Great concept,presentation,use of theme and athmosphere! :)

Tho i got lost in my first playthrough and had to play it twice ;v;