The music fits really well and the gameplay is nice and smooth. But i felt the need for some subtle indicators to where i was heading, it starts getting a bit claustrophobic when you're stuck to the view and you don't see any signs you're going in the right direction.
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Cozy Island Drive's itch.io pageResults
Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
Adheres to jam theme | #207 | 3.267 | 3.267 |
Presentation (visuals) | #225 | 3.033 | 3.033 |
Overall | #244 | 2.944 | 2.944 |
Concept (gameplay) | #296 | 2.533 | 2.533 |
Ranked from 30 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Comments
Whoops, definitely didn't want to make it feel claustrophobic but you are absolutely right. The way the camera doesn't show movement well really does add a drop of claustrophobia. I'll definitely work on making the camera more dynamic or have some other indicator that you are moving to help counteract that.
Pretty simple concept but I spend quite some time just driving around, exploring, so you hit the theme fully :D It looks super cute, music is on point and I like the idea that you mentioned in a comment about a "hot/cold" kind of indicator when you're approaching the objective, so you dont get too lost. I dont know why but the car animation made me smile, I hope you'll add more things like that if you keep working on it so everything else also comes to life, keep up the good work!
As others have mentioned, there's the obvious issues with the camera and things clipping.
I enjoyed the music and atmosphere established here, but it became kind of hard to tell where I was going in some parts due to lack of landmarks (like am I moving or driving against an invisible wall endlessly and need to turn around?). The suggestion for a dynamic camera or a way to zoom-in/out would probably help here!
The camera issues are probably due to the camera near/far plane. Other than that, neat little game! Definitely exploring feels.
I'm glad you liked it despite the weird camera! You're absolutely right on the clipping plane, just had a chance to jump back in the editor today and I've got that fixed now so I'll have a post jam update that takes care of that issue. First time I've done an isometric game in Unity so didn't think to adjust those values ahead of time, whoops xD
Cool game, very good vibes. There were some glitches with the camera though when passing around tall buildings.
Completed it! Had a good time, I was a bit confused at first, but once I collected the first vista I understood the assignment.
The game would win a lot from a more dynamic camera, I really recommend Cinemachine in Unity Engine, easy to use and almost no code required.
Good entry, congratulations!
I'm glad you had fun and made it to the end! Big agree on the camera. I actually started with Cinemachine but I was having trouble getting the iso-camera to work with a virtual camera. It's kind of a weird set-up with the camera and the holder and trying to get cinemachine to follow the same rules was proving more difficult than I expected so I scrapped it for time. It's an orthographic camera that's tilted 45 degrees on x and y, but it's nested under a holder which is what actually moves. Trying to make cinemachine follow the same rules so it would stay at a consistent distance and not rotate as the car rotated was... difficult. It's one of the first things I want to look into post-jam because you are absolutely right that the dynamic camera would make it better. That alone would probably fix the feeling of not moving that happens a lot. Thanks for all the feedback and giving the game a try!
Fun to drive around exploring!
I found the controls a little jerky, maybe using a car controller tutorial instead of a character controller would be a better choice in future, but they are a lot harder so I understand why you went with the latter!
Visuals were nice, however I think you could change the camera's near clip plane to prevent the weird effect when buildings are loaded in and cut off.
All in all good submission!
Thanks for the feedback! I noticed the clipping issue on the buildings but at that point I didn't have enough time to look into it, that's definitely something I want to look into for any post-jam releases. I might look into making it play a little more like a car but I wanted something very simple that wouldn't get in the way of exploring so that's why I went with a more simplistic isometric control scheme. Thanks for playing and the advice on that!
Cool game, great asset usage swell! Feedbacks if you continue development; visuals(renderer settings and lighting settings) can be improved, missing some vfx like you can add tire marks, smoke particle etc. and please change font :) Very successful for 48 hours!
a fun entry indeed!
firstly the game looks so beautiful!
visually you did a great job, the choice of assets is nice and the implementation too, the colors pop and lighting gives the game a polished!
smart concept and Idea, the gameplay loop is well done, I personally enjoyed being lost (its part of the theme of course) but I would have liked a little bit of guidance on the general direction at least,
overall a great entry, the best one with a car I have seen yet! great work!
I sadly can't get out of the main menu because the scaling of the picture is broken and I can't reach the start button :(
Pretty chill game, would be nice to have some indication of a nearby vista to know if you're in vageuly the right place.
Thanks! That's actually a great idea, I wanted to avoid an indicator so that it pushed players to explore more. But a short range one would have been such a good idea. I might go back and add something after the Jam like an arrow that points towards it once you get near it, or I can always have a "hot/cold" kind of indicator that just tells you how close but not the direction.
Pretty simple stuff, but perfectly well realized - I understand how long it can take to make a world, and this uses the assets really nicely. I think it could've benefited from fewer long stretches of road with literally nothing on the side of it, or perhaps a slightly more zoomed out camera angle! Also the controls could've been 'car controls' (W to go forward, S back, A and D to turn left and right) rather than direct directional....then again, I have those same controls in my game so hey :D
And finally, of course, some kind of indication of where to go would be nice. I did find a secret and all but 2 of the vistas though!
I'm glad you liked it and thanks for the feedback! Definitely a problem with the long roads. I couldn't decide on the camera, I tried moving it further out but then it made things feel a bit too small, although maybe for an open world exploration game that actually would be better.
I didn't put any indicator in because I wanted to lean into the exploration theme a bit more and force you to explore but after reading the comments, I realize there was a much better way to do that with a short range indicator. Plus, the secrets like the one you found also reward you for going off the beaten path.
The game looks very nice, however there are clipping issues with the camera. Also, sometimes the buildings would disappear (1st area, to the south). I did like the concept, but I would appreciate some hint as to direction in which I should go.
When going down the long road, some hind of street lamps or a texture would be useful to give a sense of reference for motion. after a while of going on a long road, you don't see anything moving on screen and it's weird - as in I'm not sure if I'm still moving. Overall good job!
Thanks for the feedback! Bummer to hear about the town pop-in being off there, I noticed the issue right at the end and I upped the numbers right before pushing out the build but I guess I didn't go high enough on the draw distance.
I would definitely agree on it feeling too much like you aren't moving. I didn't end up having enough time to add grass/fences/lamp posts like I wanted to make those long areas feel better, I probably should have started with a smaller map to begin with. Originally I wanted to use a follow camera that would 'catch up' to the player so it felt more like you were moving but I couldn't figure out how to make it work with the isometric camera. Something I'm hoping to re-visit to try and fix.
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