Really cool story here! I legitimately wasn't sure who to trust/who I morally agreed with right up until the end when you learn more about Finn and then it was out the airlock with him. The characters were super well written and the dialogue was well delivered with the simple but well executed gameplay. Only suggestion as I think at least one other person has mentioned is maybe add a run option or just up the base movement speed, considering how much you have to move around the map to retrieve all the components/information
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Subject #26's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Story | #2 | 4.231 | 4.231 |
| Theme | #7 | 4.154 | 4.154 |
| Enjoyment | #8 | 3.846 | 3.846 |
| Overall | #9 | 3.821 | 3.821 |
| Concept | #12 | 3.846 | 3.846 |
| Audio | #17 | 3.154 | 3.154 |
| Graphics | #17 | 3.692 | 3.692 |
Ranked from 13 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Did you use any optional theme? If so which one?
Pizza lover
Break the 4th wall
Under da sea
What game engine did you use?
PICO-8
Did you have fun? :D
So much fun!
Discord username
WordyRobin#5207
Comments
I agree with a couple other commenters here: It'd be nice if the movement speed was a bit faster. I want to see the other ending, but it's basically impossible to speed run :(
I also agree that the music got repetitive, but if the walk speed was faster I might not have noticed? It was during one of my walkabouts trying to figure out which door opened that I started to notice it looping. It was pleasant background before then.
I really liked the Finn and Mother characters, a lot of games that do the "You don't know who to trust" are either too opaque or too transparent. (See: Myst, "Which brother do you trust" for too transparent, and... I don't have an opaque example on hand) but I felt like you did a solid balance. I had reasons to trust or distrust either. You did a great job building those characters while also doing your worldbuilding. I also loved the moral quandary you presented with the final choice. Nothing new, but still fun.
(SPOILERS AHEAD for anyone reading through comments first:)
Having the main reasons to distrust Finn coming up at the very end was effective for me. I'd gotten used to him being the Hero, so even though the information you give at the end is a pretty strong "no he's bad" statement it conflicted with what I'd already decided on.
It was a very interesting choice to have Mother trying to figure out what was going on with Zele as the story progressed too. I started distrusting Mother because she was _obviously_ the bad AI, but Finn and Mother were foils for each other, and then swapped sides over time, but not enough for me to _know_ what to do. Well done.
Final thought: Holy references Batman! I got at least 3 Disney, 1 Bioshock, and I'm sure there were some that I missed. If that was your 4th wall break, then it was very subtle, but if that was just for fun it definitely took me out of it a bit. Like when you start counting "Umm"s from a public speaker, haha
Submitted
Porko's QuestThanks for the comment! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I've already implemented the run feature and will be updating the game as soon as the jam eval period ends lol.
The Bioshock reference was supposed to be the blatant 4th wall break, since the narration changes to 2nd person for that one sentence. The Disney stuff was just for fun. ;-) My initial story idea was "Bioshock meets Tangled" but it didn't really go that way in the end due to technical limitations lol. That is where the names came from, though (RapunZELE, Eugene Finn, Thelgo<->Gothel).
Ohhh! I missed the switch to 2nd person on that.
Hahaha, I love that idea though. I caught "mother knows best" and Finn as tangled references, I completely missed the Gothel anagram (and I kept thinking about Zelle, the money transfer app, haha)
I also caught "slimy, yet, satisfying", though I'm sure I missed some others!
Nice game! Writing was super well done to keep the conflict interesting while walking around and interacting with things.
Mother had quite a bit of nuance to it rather than being completely deceptive, which I really liked! Cool sound FX, but the music did get repetitive after some time.
I personally think it'd be cool if the dialogue prompts took a couple seconds to show up to give some time to take in the room. I found myself beelining for those prompts.
- Josh
Submitted
Tour of the DeepThanks for the notes! With a little more time and design, I think hiding the prompts and engaging the user with more of a "hunt" for the story would be great. Always leave them wondering if they've found everything, you know? As it was, though, I wanted to make sure nothing got missed. And yes, some varied music would definitely enhance the experience, particularly as the plot turns.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I don't think the interpretation of the theme is particularly novel or interesting - you have some classic unreliable narrator's and that's it.
But the execution is perfect. This entry wants to tell a story, and it tells it well. No gimmicks. Best story I've experienced so far. Nice.
Submitted
SubspiciousOoh, a very nice little game.
The interactions between the characters are narrated very well, and how the story advances slowly but surely with the reveals is orchestrated very well. Some good dialogue moments, and the descriptions really helped.
And despite the dark nature of the story, it has some lighthearted moments that lets the player smile, especially the pizza moment. And i can see the little references here and there. Mother knows best...
The presentation of the game is so good! Lovely pixel-art, and little animations that there are.
There's some back and forth between rooms that may take a little while, but isn't too problematic in the small scope of the game.
There's even multiple endings, which is awesome!
A very solid entry, and a nice experience of a game.
Submitted
Vetro and the Dark Crystal's TrickVery nicely done! Your narrative was quite entrancing! And I particularly like the Bioshock references ;)
Some feedback
- I didn't particularly like the walking and backtracking sections, but I guess mainly it was because of the slow speed of the character. If I had some sort of "run" option, then it would have been fine.
- I would have loved to see (or read) more lore of the area, as it was very interesting and had gotten me hooked.
- I'm not too sure of the colour scheme; I would have wanted to have each room a different colour scheme, but that's just me.
Overall, I wanted to explore more and keep on playing! :D
Great job!
Submitted
Come to meThis is proof you don't need an excessive amount of assets to make a compelling, complete narrative. Well done!
Submitted
you are in charge
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