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Logical Choices's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Gameplay/Usage of the medium | #6 | 3.538 | 3.538 |
| Story & Plot | #8 | 3.692 | 3.692 |
| Overall | #10 | 3.288 | 3.288 |
| UI Design | #13 | 3.154 | 3.154 |
| Usage of Theme | #14 | 2.769 | 2.769 |
Ranked from 13 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Team Members
Randy Fluharty
Program
Unity (C#)
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Comments
Very cool concept! I enjoyed reading the entries and getting into the MC's mindset, even if the general ending of the entries was a bit sad. I would have loved to see the wife's perspective, too, as I know that what the MC was going through can have a profound effect on one's family. I'd go into more detail, but I don't want to spoiler anyone - I did find the hidden option to be very satisfying, though. Overall, a fun little game, and my only critiques would be looking into lowering the volume of the game (I had to turn it off because the sounds were pretty loud on my system), doing a little bit of general proofreading (there were several places with dropped commas), and definitely implementing a way to skip over the text being written out if you've already visited the passage.
Great game, congratulations :)
I really enjoyed it, the aesthetics / concept both amazing. The text speed with holding down space was pretty well paced too on repeating menus, I think I went though all of the paths, so encountered some menus more than once, and didn't find it annoying (I can see how it would wear on you while playtesting though if you didn't disable the animations).
I liked the way the entries lead towards the conclusion of the two unknowns, the virus and the MC's motive for creating it. It felt very cathartic to reach that ending screen after feeling sad from the diary entries ^^'
Thanks and well done for creating this!
Apologies as well for the ramble :P I tried to be vague with the spoilers also.
Okay, if I had known what your story was about, I would've checked it sooner! The initial choice where you need to gather context is a pretty neat idea. I wanted to like the computer terminal UI, and while I understand it was due to lack of time, it quickly became annoying (especially on 2nd reading). Other than that, I think a simple loading screen when deploying/deleting would give the proper gravitas to your final decision.
The funny thing is: I actually guessed what the hidden option is without realizing what the clues were! (It couldn't be this, so what if I try this one? It was my first guess on the proper screen too—although I kinda fumbled a bit with the ask questions menu trying to figure it out.) So… that probably ruined the experience for me. I did look through the entries again because it felt like I cheated, but yeah looking back I did overthink the clues.
…Which unfortunately made the ending kinda fall flat for me. I mean, it was a hidden ending, so I guess I was expecting a twist that would reframe the whole choice, but it just made the choice easier. I also don't get why it needs to be hidden in the first place?
That said, I like the MC a lot (I also had a bit of experience with someone like them), but the sudden fast pace and focus on the virus near the end kinda took away from the story a little. I would've liked an additional entry that showed the MC's feelings and condition near the end—I was interested to know more about the MC's backstory, like their kids and earlier relationship with Fel.
I had a few more suggestions about the ending but it felt unwarranted so I took them out. Overall I liked it, but I guess I kinda ruined the experience for myself. Whoops. :3 Anyway, cheers!
Thank you so much for playing and your honest feedback.
It was a HUGE HUGE HUGE risk doing the "hidden ending" in the way that I did. I knew there was a chance someone would stumble upon it, but to me, I found that to be a risk worth taking. If you've ever played "Her Story," there was a very similar risk that the player could figure it out within seconds, and that actually happened to me. MY experience was worse as a result, but the experience as a whole I felt had more depth, and to me, that's worth alienating a few players. That sounds harsh, but that's where I landed.
As for the CONTENT of the hidden ending, yes. That was a struggle. That was something I knew I wanted based on the theme, but getting my point across and making it land was very difficult with the time constraints. I wish I could have done it better, but I'm still of the mind that the hidden choice is meaningful to the character's arc, and "different" based on the context of where he started. I agree it could have been done better.
You need not apologize for hating the UI. As someone that was very intimately aware of what the story was, even I find it annoying to navigate. The reason I did it this way is because the engine is actually very customizable. Each one of those screens has the potential for a different sound, different text speed, different text noise, different background noise, and so on. It was so customizable, but as the story took shape, it didn't make sense to use any of those features, so it ended up being more of a hindrance making sure the stuff was identical from screen to screen. By the time everything was in place, proofreading took priority over code/UI, so the "instant text" thing had to be scrapped.
Everything you said is completely valid. The game is the game, no matter what conditions they were made in or the reasons were as to why it was made that way, and your experience is no less valid than another. If it fell flat for you, that's a fault of the game, not the player. I appreciate your honest response. Thank you so much for playing!
i loved this!
i'm most of all surprised by how much i ended up liking the main character for such a short game (and how i honestly agreed with their therapist and wife!). this was very fun to read & play, and i loved how you used the jam's theme & how you built the puzzle.
this was very satisfying. thank you for sharing it!
It was very tricky to juggle the unlikable viewpoints of the character while also trying to make them likeable. The character is not DIRECTLY autobiographical, but I struggle similarly in a "set in my ways" mindset, which can be off-putting to most, but I'd like to think I'm not ENTIRELY unlikable! The fact that I was able to pull that off for you makes me very happy as a game creator... and makes me feel better as a human being!
Thank you so much for taking your time to play it and I very much appreciate the feedback.
I felt sucker punched by the end of the game, holy hell...
The use of starting on the choice screen rather than a main menu seemed weird at first, but after going through all of the options, it makes so much sense. (I did play the choices before reading everything xp ).
The way you describe the MC's life was just gut-wrenching. I've known people afflicted like this, and man, this hit too close to home. It was beautiful and real and sad... I was feeling vindicated when the doc's result came out (having figured it out much earlier), but by the time I read all of the entries I just felt empty and embarrassed.
Truly a great game. Even more knowing you only used 2 weeks to do it (and on a different system too).
Wow, I'm so glad this worked for you. It is always very encouraging to the thing that you focused your efforts on paid off for someone like this. You hit exactly what I was going for, and that's awesome!
I didn't mean to use the "I made this in two weeks!" thing as a brag, but more as an excuse to allay my potential embarrassment. I've seen a lot of stellar games in this game jam and I am very much punching above my weight here.
But for everything I knew I wasn't able to do, I knew there were things I could put effort in and use to display my strengths, and you justified that decision with your comment alone. It is very heartening to see, and I very much appreciate you saying this.
You can def brag about this. I've done 2 weeks jam and it's hard.
Just a warning but my review for you isn't going to be anywhere near as good as yours was for me. I'm not good at jam reviewing. ^^;
I'm a sucker for "fighting against AI" stories and for green-and-black UI schemes. And I like how the game starts in media res in a way; technically, you could finish the game right away, but you can also go back for context which explains the endings that you began with, So on a conceptual level, I love it! But there was a big part that kind of held me back...which are parts that involve heavy spoilers, and I wish itch.io had ways to hide spoilers, but if it does then I don't know about it so I will try to explain without spoiling anyone who happens to be reading this. The context I mentioned earlier has a certain theme. It also has a certain surprise spread out over several days. Considering the theme, how is the surprise able to exist? UGH, that sounds so vague and confusing, I do apologize.
Also, commas didn't always show up. That's an extremely minor thing, but as a stickler for commas I feel I am required to mention it. xD
All in all...I think I like it, it was well made, I just don't know about that twist.
(Review was going to be longer but dog jumped on keyboard and erased many parts :-/ )
I struggled with avoiding spoilers when reviewing your game, too, and I'm struggling to respond here as a result!
As I'm certain you understand, there were a million things I considered when writing it. I honestly was thrown for a super huge loop with the theme reveal, and this is what I could come up with that played with it in an "interesting" way. Most importantly, I wanted a story to explain who the player was, and why they were presented the choice the way that they were. A month may seem like a long time for a game jam, but with my schedule, it was barely enough time to scratch the surface!
And yes, comma errors and typos I'm sure are aplenty. I didn't have time for anyone to actually playtest it, so I had to review it all myself. Once the text was in the game, it was too time-consuming to put it back through a word processor, so I just wanted to make sure the message wasn't lost.
Thank you for playing.