Play ARES
ARES - Automated Relay System's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Cleverness | #1 | 5.000 | 5.000 |
| Artistic Style | #85 | 4.667 | 4.667 |
| Playability | #487 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Theme | #916 | 2.667 | 2.667 |
Ranked from 3 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Judge feedback
Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.
- GDD: The game mechanics images are very offset. I think the docx are not showing them properly. Also do not included a placeholder image. Love to see an development timeline and the beyond of the game, however I did noticed it wasnt updated properly to the latest updates in the timeline as you have a lot of "in progress & Not started". Even tho you have put a date. Game: Love to see an setting menu, but I would like to see a return to main menu button. I am very impressive of the game, but I got stuck during the gameplay and I tried everything I could think of to progress, but sadly no. I did not encountered the intruder yet, but the entire game doesnt scream the theme of "spreading" to me at this early state, so perhaps I did something wrong. The art style is amazing tho, and I would love to see more of this kind of games!
- i really really liked this, and tried to get it to proceed past the safezone install for half an hour. Unfortunately nothing i did would progress the game any further. i tried sending it basically everywhere. and looped through the sequence leading up to it several times. I can only assume something is broken. due to my inability to play the entire thing, i cannot say it relates to the theme in the part ive played. and the playability takes a hit due to it not being finishable for me. other then that. It is EXCELLENT. if it truly is broken, fix it :) id pay money for this. EDIT: after looking at other judges play it, this is purely a SKILL ISSUE, got ending 1.
Did you include your Game Design Document in your downloadable files?
Yes
Tell us about your game!
It's a text-heavy puzzle game, sort of click and point, going for a retro sci-fi look. It has horror elements, but no jump scares, I promise.
Did you remember to include your Game Design Document?
Yess
Is your game set to Public so we can see it?
Yes
Extra Notes
I'm gonna pass out for the rest of the week. Thank you for giving us a chance to prove ourselves!
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Comments
Yo ChXris! Do you have a discord for continuing development?
No, I’m kinda behind in the whole discord thing haha
But I’ll post devlogs here in itch, and sometimes share a few things in the RPG Maker channel in the pirate software discord!
Thanks for the interest though! I may have to bite the bullet and make one if the updated version gets traction.
I hope it gets that traction, because it's certainly deserving of it. Either way I'm excited to see how it progresses
Was an honor serving on this Ship alongside you.
I haven’t forgotten you wanted to throw Tronner out of the ship.
bra that was garmr i ended up liking tronner lmao
HOLY CRAP. This is gonna be hard to beat. The story, I felt immersed and so involved. Ending seemed a bit unclear other than that oh my pant creases this was good. Hidden Gem in every definition, Ive only played 16 of 1401 but this one is top for sure. Cant believe one person made this let alone in RPG maker, as it looks like no rpg maker game ive ever seen.
It was such a trip watching you so enthralled in the story, I’m so thrilled to see you’ve enjoyed it! There’s always a lot of doubt on whether the plot and setting works, considering I’m numb to it by this point, so you had me smiling from ear to ear watching you so invested in them, and rekindled some of the inspiration that brought it forward.
Huge thanks for taking the time to stream it! I definitely took many notes on the ending and its pacing, and your feedback was really spot on. You’re doing amazing work giving some exposure and really needed feedback to these projects!
I cannot stress enough how dope this game is. Ive already recommended it to friends and gushed about it to the wife. I think the introduction into what things do could be made clearer but the pacing once things start happening is crazy, even the slow build up and you slowly figuring out whats going on and the format you presented is absolutely wild.
Incredible game. You’ve done something really unique and creative here. I loved the story, and the kinda iron-lung-esque picture system was really neat too. I got both the endings, but I was a bit confused while getting the second ending..
Spoiler
..since I don't completely understand when shutting down the radiators why you need to cancel when there is only 1 radiator remaining, and then afterwards shut down that radiator?Otherwise everything about this game was super solid. The ambience and horror elements were done really well, and the game’s terminal theme and art is perfect. Amazing stuff overall!
Thank you very much for taking the time to leave a comment! I’m really glad you enjoyed it. I’m really relieved that the ambience and look turned out okay, I’m still very new to art direction as a whole. It helped a lot that I actually used terminal computers back in the day, haha.
Nice job getting both endings! Ending 2 seems to be a bit confusing I’ve noticed.
Regarding you question...
I suspected it could be a bit vague, but the final choice it's a final attempt at tricking you to relinquish control. So far it has tried to impersonate other crew to get you to cancel, and at the final step, it tries to intercept your program by impersonating the selection window, hence why it's riddled with typos and misaligned and why it freaks out when it doesn't work and you just cancel the fake window, haha.Also, I had no clue you could do spoilers like this, thanks!
Hopefully, a more collected and calm development cycle will bring the game to a more polished experience in the next big patch. Thank you again for your comment!
WOW. Just WOW. This isn't even a prototype, this constitutes as a full-on GAME! This was mindblowing, I spent roughly an hour on my first playthrough and even replayed it a second time. It could be considered unintuitive for any first-timer but it feels very rewarding to figure stuff out on your own and, personally, the "no handholding" way of presenting the gameplay really adds to the inmersion.
<<<<MINOR SPOILER WARNING>>>>
I only got a bit stuck when having to [install the thing]. Spent roughly 10mins trying anything thinking I was softlocked only to then check my reports for the very first time in the whole game.
I managed to get the ending 1/2 and the bad ending and tried to get the good ending by resetting with my newfound knowledge. Right when the locator became usable, I got reports from [the two names]'s locations. However, I tried to use these reports to catch anyone's attention but didn't manage to prevent [the first incident] from happening. Also, I liked the attention to detail when trying to locate [you know what] ;)
Anyhow, this game was an absolute experience. From the strong identity, the well thought out story, the artstyle, the music/ambient, the sound effects, even the jam's theme is well included... I... I cannot understand how this was done in just two weeks! Baffling stuff, keep it up!
Oh my, what a radiant review! How great to hear you enjoyed it so much! I'm thrilled to hear you enjoyed the pacing. I definitely tried to avoid handholding, but there's still plenty of room to improve the experience. The report list being one of the priorities!
It surely was a lot of work to cram into a two week development, but I'm glad it turned out playable. Thank you for the very kind review, and hopefully you'll enjoy the updated version once it's finished!
I'm glad to hear that you're still going full throttle on the game, I'll be looking forward to it! :D
I was absolutely loving this game, for sure one of my favorites of the jam.
But I think I missed something or didn't understand something and hit a wall. (Trying to install something about 30 minutes into the story) I tried to figure out how to do what what it wanted me to do for a little over an hour and a half before I had to give up. I even restarted and played through a second time to try and see if I missed something and still couldn't figure it out.
But it seems like the other commenters figured it out, so I think I just didn't understand a direction for some reason.
But the story was super compelling, the characters were written very well, and the art style contributed to the storytelling in such a cool way!
You may be referring to the SafeZone install. You can actually check a list of your available reports by clicking the "Reports saved: X" text in your main screen. If you select the one you got, you'll trigger the install.
It wasn't communicated properly that you can do that, it's definitely something I'll try to improve! Sorry!
If you plan to give it another go, keep in mind that some text is clickable (as well as the ! warnings) and can give some more information. When you get the audiologs (disclaimer: they're still text), you can read them that way.
Thank you for giving the game a try! I'm glad you enjoyed it despite its shortcomings.
Ooohhhhhhhhh thanks so much for the clarification! I'll definitely come back to this and finish the game later this weekend knowing this! Excited to see the rest of the story!
Best story I've played so far of all the jam games. Fit the theme well. Immersive. I would say in the beginning of the game it can seem a bit overwhelming with your options, and a bit unclear direction. When you only have 2 locations to relay to after the very beginning it seems more straightforward as if that's what the tutorial should be instead of 5 locations. Perhaps before the beginning there could be a small segment added with limited options so players can fiddle around with less options and learn better. Also it seems unclear that you can click the relay message text in root on the bottom left which is required midway and late into the game, maybe make it more clear it's a button? I would love more crew entries, especially hidden easter egg ones you could type in and find, that would be cool. Also maybe add a gallery log of the photos you get? Other than the few known bugs and issues, it is really good. Good work
I'm really glad you enjoyed the story,! I tried to rely on it as much as I could to play to my strengths. Now I have to bring the rest up to par, now that the jam is "over". There is a way to limit the locations known at the start, I just didn't use it, top notch designer right there haha. I'll definitely re-visit the starting sequence, I've seen this feedback pop up frequently. The reports saved button also needs a makeover. I already added a "new!" alert next to it to draw attention, but maybe I should just make it a button, much simpler.
There was a couple of entries that do not get activated in the locator! I was so bummed when I realized. Try entering "cognis".
Content is definitely the direction I'm going for the next release. Thank you for trying it out and for the detailed review!
Oooo, this was something else. So simple looking and so intense and captivating!
What a nice thing to say! I don't have a lot of experience as a visual artist, so it means a lot. Thanks for playing!
To be honest, this got me on the edge at all times. Amazing stuff! Very well done!
This could very well pass as a formal NES game.
I was definitely going for a retro vibe, and the sound effects were indeed pulled from a 'NES-style' asset pack, so good catch. I'm really glad you enjoyed it, and thank you for the kind review!
Serious trip this one was. Damn, well done. What a way to tell a story. I got the bad ending :(. I loved this.
Thank you so much for the kind review! A lot of work went into story, so I'm very glad you enjoyed it. The bad ending is just around the corner to the other two! Though I admit it gets a too frustrating there, so it'll definitely be made easier once it's properly revised. Thanks again for the review!
Now this is what I call a game!!! Loved the art and the story!
What a nice comment, thank you very much for playing! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Fantastic game. The ambiance is amazing and I got sucked by the story in need of wanting more.
I just had a little hard time to guess what to do at the very beginning of the game but once I got a hold of it, it went smoothly.
And all of this comes from someone who cannot play horror games. You did great !
Just a tiny point ( and maybe it's because I didn't finished the game) but I don't see the link with the Jam Theme but that's all.
Hope you'll continue on that project, you have a solid prototype here !
I tried to make things intuitive, bur as far as I've seen, I may have ways to go still, haha. I'm really excited to hear you enjoyed it!
The theme may be a bit subtle at first, but it gets more evident as you keep progressing.
Thank you for playing it and taking the time to comment!
What a fantastic entry. I got the 'bad ending', and not entirely sure what I could have done differently. But the atmosphere, the premise, all of it had me completely hooked. I think you really have something worth making here. I won't pretend to know the best direction to take it, only that I want to play it when you finish it.
I'm really glad you enjoyed it! I do intend to finish this one, I really liked how it turned out.
As for the bad ending, I bet is the sentinel getting destroyed one. I didn't do a good job explaining it at all. It's basically a choose the correct choice thing, with the 'drone status report' giving you a hint of which one is. The hint is too vague though, I goofed there haha, but the hint/answer pair is always the same, so you can eventually learn the answer.
Thank you again for testing it!
This was great! It took me a moment to figure out what I was supposed to do, but once I got into the swing of things I was able to follow along with the plot well enough. Some parts were a bit ambiguous as to what my goal was for each message which led to a lot of random clicking around on things (the safety system install comes to mind). For this reason I would have definitely enjoyed less 'loading' screens. haha.
Overall, it is a really solid entry! Barring a few grammatical errors, everything was super well polished and clean! I really enjoyed the story and it fit the theme of "Its Spreading" quite well with the narrative. I might have another crack at it after playing some other entries to see if there are some other outcomes since I pretty much immediately killed the drone on the first 'snapshot' mission. haha.
Great entry!
haha yes, the 'loading' screen. At some point I scrapped them but it felt really weird for things to just pop up. I definitely should make them faster. Thank you for playing! Balancing a puzzle game is a true challenge when you already know the answers, so it helps a lot to know where players get stuck.
What an amazing game, at least as far as I got to play it but the whole thing kept looping at a certain point (which I'd inform you about over DMs since I don't feel like spoiling things in a comment).
Everything from the sound design to the art to the systems themselves for solving the problems are fantastic, and though I was only able to reach one ending the fact I put a full hour into this shows that it's great, though I'm not sure how much it matches the criteria of "It's spreading", though the horror elements are done fantastically. Excellent job dude!
Thank you for playing it! I'm really glad you enjoyed it! I was going for the "spreading virus" angle, but it may have been lost in translation. Do let me know where it looped, I caught a few very last minute bugs that I fixed just minutes before the deadline, so I'm interested in checking if there's something else I didn't catch.