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A jam submission

Road to Self-AssuranceView game page

Short game about bows and freedom. Made in 48 hours for Pizza Jam 2019.
Submitted by @houkime@translunar.academy — 1 hour, 11 minutes before the deadline
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Road to Self-Assurance's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Innovation#143.2003.200
Feel#203.0003.000
Overall#342.8672.867
Aesthetics#412.6672.667
Use of Theme#472.6002.600

Ranked from 15 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)

Love it! Bow games are fairly well worn ground, but you made something fresh and interesting here. Well done!

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Thx for playing!.
I wish this were a little more about precise and tricky shooting though to be a more of a bow game. 
Right now the narrative part overwhelms actual shooting drastically.

Submitted

I'm usually more interested in a good mechanics driven narrative than i am in gameplay so am probably the wrong person to ask.

Submitted(+1)

Not gonna lie i have a soft spot for bow base games. This reminds me of a "bow and arrow". And for what to improve apart from the sound maybe make the wind less chaotic 

Developer

Wind for sure wll be rebalanced in the future.
In fact, since I've alredy rested from jam itself, I can start upgrading this stuff right now for v2 release (but without uploading here until voting is over).

Developer

My favourite was "The Arrow of Time" back in the day.

Submitted

Oh man i forgot that game existed i was never able to finish it maybe ill try it again

Submitted(+1)

Cool idea, I love how it evolves and the story that comes with it is pretty cool. I found the randomised windspeed a bit irritating - I just ended up spamming arrows which didn't feel so good. Maybe it could stay fixed per shot that you need hit on target? Also could do with some audio! Great job otherwise :)

Developer (1 edit)

Yeah wind feels imbalanced.
I think that if both wind and bow made stronger, wind dispersion made lower and policemen made faster to compensate that should strike a better balance.
Won't do it _now_ for jam version though since time is already up and voting has not yet ended.

I plan to have an enhanced version to post on Newgrounds or sth. On the list is rebalance, better ui visibility and sounds.
Probably no new levels.

Developer

One more possible solution is to make a better indication of windspeed and make changing a bit slower.
Wind lines are dynamic and DO reflect current windspeed but probably not that good yet.

Submitted(+1)

the gameplay works well it's nice is nice but it lacks sound :)

Developer (1 edit)

I know. Sorry!

I'm not that confident with sound yet and I thought that sound bugs/imperfection and solutions would have thrown me away in schedule and waste too much time. Time is too critical for 48-hours envelope.

I do think of upgrading this with sound and stuff eventually since it really turned out quite sweet and it would be a waste!

Thx for playing!

Submitted(+1)

Not really understanding how the theme is used but the gameplay is kinda fun.

Developer (9 edits)

Thx for playing. Because the level title is rather abstract it's usage ned to be kinda deep and might not be always obvious (though I TRIED to obviate this and permeate the theme as far as possible through the game).

 The gameplay is the Road from an Archery Fest casual bystander to a (false) self-assurance that the problem is solved.
+ The level of self-confidence of protagonist (a self-ssurance in his capabilities) is obviously rising from the start to end.

+ This level of self-assurance is constantly contested by oppressive practices to the point that conflict between external oppression and internal self-assurance in general is the main conflict of the game. 

+ Even working with the randomly changing wind, esp on the last level demands the self-assurance that the level is winnable.

On the last level for example the need of self-assurance is obvious since the King says that this level is _unwinnable_. Moreover  for a fact he is RIGHT and it actually ISN'T winnable it is just you assured yourself that you won it.

Developer (2 edits)

Basically the game is composed in such a way that NO LEVEL EXCEPT FOR THE START seems like it has any purpose (win has a meaning or even can be assured that is achievable).

The player is just being plainly stubborn and more and more so towards the end even with criminal charges mounting overhead
(SPOILER ALERT! They don't do anything but YOU DON'T KNOW THAT and that's the main point!).

Submitted

Aahhh pretty clever now that I saw you explain it! The wind is annoying at times but it does add an element or realism, since in real life archery it's not like you just point the arrow at the target and have it go the same exact trajectory every time

Developer(+1)

Realism is not that important in non-simulation game development. Like in Kerbal Space Program you DO need it and it is a good goal.
If the design goal were a correct archery simulator it would also be  desired.

But not here.
Here the wind should have been an external element that cannot be controlled, be a variable element of the puzzle that you need to dynamically adjust to and also have a metaphorical plot role in the final level.
However for these tasks it turned out imbalanced and bad.
Ideally for example that almost for any given windspeed there were a shot trajectory that does hit the target except for some plot exceptions, but right now it is not so.
Basically the wind may be somewhat punishing only in it's first occurence and in the last level.
Having a situation when you need to spam arrows in one direction is dull and should be limited to where plot really needs it.

I will need to rebalance it later.