Very cute art, simple but challenging gameplay. Overall well done, I had fun playing your game! As several comments already mentioned - there's too little time to react to new information (where the hand is spawning, what the new keys are). Also, perhaps an easy way to make the game easier and also more interesting at the same time is to add health and health pickups. Then the player will have some leeway if the key switch messes them up, and it also gives them incentive to switch lanes other than just dodging obstacles.
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E,S,C,A,P the wrong game's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Theme | #3 | 4.143 | 4.143 |
| Overall | #10 | 3.652 | 3.652 |
| Aesthetics | #13 | 3.964 | 3.964 |
| Gameplay | #22 | 3.429 | 3.429 |
| Sound | #35 | 3.071 | 3.071 |
Ranked from 28 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Comments
Very original entry, I like the idea although I'm not really good at the game. The music and the art style are superb! Great job overall keep it up :)
Submitted
PrisonlympicsI Think that the concept is really good, but the difficulty is too hard at first. The collisions are too big, games like this make the collisions slightly smaller than the sprite to get the near-miss feeling. The shadow is unavoidable, and the switching of the letters happens right when you need to move and thus don’t really know which key to press until its too late.
Cute though.
Submitted
The Great Riot of 93My brain just can't handle the keys switching, i'm probably not the target audience :D. Pretty brave core mechanic. I'd like to see some kind of a leeway mechanic, maybe three lives before you're dead-dead?
Art assets are nice and very readable. Could use some more sounds, and more balance between background audio loops.
Submitted
Lightless (scorejam 29)Yeah, I think we made it a little too hard, I want to tweak balance a bit. But maybe proper introducing of the mechanics would help.
Currently, we have an Escape ability, which charges with every 2 stars and allow 2 seconds of invincibility (doesn't save from hands tho).
We also thought to give some fast typing QTE to survive hands if they got you, but didn't have time to do it.
With sounds we definitely need to make changes smoother and add a few.
Thank you for playing and for your feedback!
Very original idea, pretty cool! I liked the creepy hands though I didn't know how to avoid them at times
Submitted
Spyder ByteSuper creative take on the game! I was on the edge of my seat anxiously looking between the letters changing and the hero dodging obstacles. Great work!
Submitted
Asteroid GreedSuper cool entry!
The concept was innovative and pretty cool for the theme.
Gameplay wise, I feel like there are some things that could be done to make the game feel a bit fairer. There are moments when you are just dead and there's nothing you can do. I think the escape invincibility mechanic helps a lot in this regard, but it can feel a bit unreliable given how there's no indication for when it's about to end. What if maybe it was on a clearer timer, or if it relied on a meter that drained at a set rate and then the player can choose when to stop using it? Idk, just ideas that came to me.
The art is beautiful and feels very coherent all throughout the game, great job!
In terms of sound, I really liked the music you chose, but I feel like your choice of sound effects could have been implemented a bit better. For example, the cue for the evil hand pops up a bit late, by the time where either you've seen it and dodged it, or missed it and died. Some other things might include a sound when you switch lanes to give the player some more visceral feedback to their actions.
Overall, great job! Keep up the good work!
Submitted
Quick, Escape!Thanks a lot for the feedback! Visual timer for the ability is a very neat idea and could be implemented easily, we'll look into that.
For both music and sounds, we were lacking time and experience. As with the hand example, it's not that the sound is misplaced, it's the absence of sound for the "hand is coming" bit. It was very close to the deadline and I was unable to find or create something suitable. We are planning on putting some additional hours into that after the jam rating phases end. Like the "ability is charged" sound indicator, etc.
This is the coolest take on the theme that I've seen so far. This game would be PERFECT for schools that teach people how to type. Like instead of just the E.S.C.A.P keys.... it could be all the keys and you just have to keep your hands on the keep board and watch for when the letters change and quickly press that key. Also, the art!!!!! Wow.. I loved it. Fantastic job... And submitting it with only 22 minutes left. Nice! ---- I made the Top 10!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Submitted
Score Space Jam #29Very cool take on the theme. Almost at that perfect point for me where I want to go again and again to try and get onto the leaderboard. But I feel like sometimes it's just really bad luck of where/when the hand spawns and when a swap happens.
Being very nitpicky here... Phenomenal job!
Submitted
Get AwayReally creative take on the theme and really engaging.
key swaps alone are killing me but then you also send random hands of evil at me :D
Submitted
Make your Escape!Good game. I liked the music and art style. You approached the idea of a runner in an interesting way.
Submitted
Bon voyage office ladyPretty hard but super fun! my biggest struggle was the monster behind with the audio cue only happening as it strikes so its hard to notice it coming sometimes. Otherwise great and very cool to try and get higher scores!
Submitted
Dante's RebellionYou was really creative with this mechanic, amazing job! The gameplay is very well made, and the art and music brings the game all together. this is one of my favorites so far :)
Submitted
No Escape from DarkReally clever twist on the classic infinite runner genre. I think maybe the visual cue that the keys are about to change could be a bit more clear but otherwise really nice! Also like the art style and music choice.
Submitted
Escape VelocityYeah, we didn't have time to make any kind of tutorial or introduce the mechanics in a clearer way.
Tried to explain everything in a description.
But I think it's part of the fun to try to understand how systems work on first 1-3 playthroughs and one run is short enough to start over quickly. Than you catch the grasp of it, it's really skill dependant to get to the higher score.
Anyway, thanks for the feedback!
I understand that the game was a little confusing without a tutorial. However, I think that the first deaths (caused by not understanding the mechanics) are the most fun and that learning how the game works while playing is better and more interesting.
ps. I’m on the team that doesn’t read tutorials and takes 3x longer to be able to play XD.
This is great. Nice spin on the typing genre. And the look is cool!
(Submitted Escape Velocity https://itch.io/jam/scorejam29/rate/2663194)
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