While the gameplay is a bit lacklustre and lacking direction, this is far and away the best jam game this time around. It's wholly unlike any other game I've played and it feels like the only game that really took the time theme and actually did something with it instead of just naming a currency around it. Honestly, while this wasn't the most fun or best game submitted, I'm rooting for this to win it. Good luck!
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Sands of Time's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Uniqueness (Originality of the game) | #1 | 4.568 | 4.568 |
| Theme (How well the game fits the jams theme) | #1 | 4.506 | 4.506 |
| Overall | #4 | 3.704 | 3.704 |
| Fun (Overall enjoyment) | #9 | 3.037 | 3.037 |
| Balance (Speed of the game) | #10 | 2.704 | 2.704 |
Ranked from 81 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Comments
I loved the concept of programming clickers to manage tasks and other clickers. Discovering things without much direction also felt really satisfying even though I got a little stuck at the beginning trying to figure out what to do with the box and the clock. I prefer less manual clicking but I guess that's a preference thing.
Fun- Kind of meh. Had quite a bit of fun looking at the graphics and figuring out how to play the game, but it's a bit lacklustre at the moment. I think it's an interesting concept which can be explored further. As far as I can tell there isn't that much content beyond hourglasses. Hourglasses are definitely interesting to work out and do set ups with though.
Balance- Not really great, way too much clicking.
Uniqueness- This is the first incremental I've seen not use any words and has a fairly unique mode of production. It's definitely interesting, and given more care and refactoring could definitely be a nice game.
Theme- Replaying moves fits the theme so well, and it's such an obvious take you'd wonder why there weren't more submissions using the same mechanic. Great job here really.
Submitted
Project IridiumWhen I first played this game, I thought it was a great looking game but with fairly standard gameplay. After reading the comments about how to loop the timers, then the game really unlocked for me.
I think it's a really great implementation of an automation system. Due to the variety of game systems, the player has a lot of agency in deciding what they want their hourglasses to do. Each hourglass earned is extremely meaningful as that not only takes work off your plate, but opens up further looping possibilities.
Ultimately that is the best thing about your game. Instead of just earning money for the sake of earning money or hitting arbitrary goals, you are feeding that effort into a reward that gives the player a lot of value, and is thus worth grinding for. Well done!
Really great idea. I love mouse copy games so this is right up my ally.
Fun 4/5
Really really suffers from no explanation. I didn't even know this was a mouse copy-esque game until like 5 minute in. I kept switching my sands of time around but nothing was happening because I didn't do it in the right order until I figured it out. Some explanation would make this 5/5 imo.
Balance 4/5
Not sure if this falls under balance but it got really hard to create multiple loops due to some loops starting a new red sand while trying to make another new loop. But other then that the game got a lot faster. I eventually maxed out my sands.
Uniqueness 5/5
Very creative! Not much to say here. :)
Theme 5/5
You utilized "time" very well.
Thanks for the feedback! I somehow got in my mind that I didn't want any text or numbers guiding the player, and tried to focus on player exploration.
I know the timers are confusing, and I admittedly tried really hard communicate everything visually. I'll definitely keep that in mind. I definitely don't plan on making games with no tutorials in the future anyhow. :)
Very interesting game! I think the automation system is very interesting. Not sure how Robin was able to make a loop though - you can’t have two hourglasses start each other, because you have to be in recording mode so making one start the other must also reset the other.
I think the game could use some way of explaining mechanics to the player, and maybe having some sort of overall goal to work towards. It’s also a bit click heavy for my tastes, but that’s more of a personal preference.
Love the art. Good job!
Really original mechanics, I enjoyed this a lot.
The grasphism are also cool, I like your style.
I think it's super clever that you can create a loop, the first hourglass calling all hourglasses, and the last one calling the first. Although I ended afraid to create new hourglass, because it could break my loop :D
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