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A jam submission

AkuView game page

A platfomer about a future priest who enjoys his first time outside the shrine.
Submitted by Thuleanx (@neuthalz) — 1 day, 1 hour before the deadline
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Aku's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Most Compelling Narrative#14.5004.500
Best Use of the (optional) Theme#14.5004.500
Most Innovative Narrative#33.0003.000
Most Compelling Character#33.5003.500
Best Use of Ludic Elements (Game Mechanics) To Deliver Story#33.0003.000
Overall#33.7003.700

Ranked from 2 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

One small detail I really loved: Ao says the "dogs" of Venkalth are coming, and then when they appear they're a bunch of floating hairy eyeballs. I don't know if there's a term for this, but I really love it in fantasy stories when characters use mundane terms to refer to fantastical things. I find it way more compelling than making up a new name, or using recognisable fantasy monsters. The word "dog" suddenly takes on a strange new meaning, and the image of the eyeball also takes on a strange new meaning, as my mind is trying to connect the two things.

Developer(+1)

Ayy. I'm glad you like it. It's easier on me as well. Because of the length of the project it's not possible for me to really think of a lot of meaningful names, especially since the plot is a somewhat iterative process of me accessing how much work I could do with the time left. There also wasn't enough time for the player to start getting used to / associate names with a particular meaning. So I kept the list of names minimal (Vekalth for instance was $mountain_god internally).

Submitted(+1)

This is a solid little platformer that does a good job of making its gameplay and story feel related! Having the mysterious elements occur while you're running from place to place doing your errands was a smart move to make said mystery that much more mysterious. I also like how those journeys between events give you time to think about what's going on. It's simple, and there's admittedly still a teeny bit of a disconnect, but it's effective and still works overall! It also helped me feel like I was getting better at playing it as I continued to ponder the mystery at hand. :P

I enjoy the pixel art in this one, as well. You make some pretty good color choices here, and those particle effects paid off, even if they could be a little distracting at times.

I have but one small nitpick: at the initial murder scene, I feel like the effect would have been helped if the blood was actually visible. At the perspective and scale, this might have been a little difficult to pull off, but having some of the ground around the body being colored red - or maybe even some red on the body - would have done wonders for the moment. 


As it stands though, you did a bang up job! 

Developer(+1)

Thanks for the detailed response.

I agree with your assessment here. The lack of blood was laziness in my part, but then again I finished the game without time to spare (due to unexpected change of plans). I initially wanted to build a second scene where there are visible blood instead. Telling the player outright that the blood leads to the right was neither natural nor subtle

Submitted(+1)

I can understand that; time is a fickle mistress! I certainly had more ambitious visual ideas for my game that didn't go through due to time -  I could have assessed how much time I actually had a little better.

Aaanyways, I'm glad to have been able to give a detailed response here!