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A jam submission

9 Circles, 6 QuestionsView game page

Decide the fate of a little girl as a Judge from Hell.
Submitted by Stopsignal (@stopsignalart) — 1 day, 11 hours before the deadline
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9 Circles, 6 Questions's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Engagement#14.0004.000
Theme adherence#14.7144.714
Creativity#14.1434.143
Overall#23.9293.929
Game design#42.8572.857

Ranked from 7 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 edit) (+1)

For some reason, I emphasized with the Imp. I wonder why... 

Anyway, that was a really interesting concept. I really wanted to get the truth out of her, but right from the start I kinda knew I'd never really get a straight-forward answer from her... And then I got the most unfortunatly straight-forward answer she could have given me, ripping it of all context. We should really teach kids how to communicate better. (I'm realising as I write this how I misunderstood at first and took a wrong decision... Powerful feeling ^^)

And the way you only get one chance at it... Nasty. I love it! (Edit: cracked open a way to retry, just to confirm how much of a fool I can make myself :p)

Developer(+1)

Haha, that imp! I love him, he has been modded into doom, has been part of a bunch of comics of mine, and it's one of my favorite characters. I love him, hehe. Glad to see other imps like him as well!

Glad it made you feel something! That's awesome, then i did what i wanted, heheh

Though i do feel i should have given an bit more info on those frustratingly not straight forward answers, oops

I did want it to make it a "only one chance to do this" kind of thing, but you can try it a bunch of times if you download it or try it on incognito. Well, if you want to see the other ways it can go, who am i to tell you not to! hahaha

Really glad you liked it! <3

Host

This game has potenssshhh. I really liked the concept, it would be nice if you could continue it after the game jam. We should judge several characters, and at the end we might have some kind of score, I don't know. With a little music to accompany us in the game and immerse us in the atmosphere ! Good job =D

Developer

Thanks a lot!!! I'm considering it, though i feel i should continue another project i have first, hahahah

The concept indeed is really fun to think about. I'd love to add some characters that would try to lie to you, and some other things like that. Make it more straightforward and more detectiv-y

Thanks for playing, pal!!

Submitted

It was frustrating that she didn't seem to give much information regardless of what I asked.  It definitely seemed like she was lying when she said she was 13/14, but I couldn't possibly send her to hell for that.  It would be nice to know the truth of it after making my decision, and it would be cool to have more people to "process" afterwards.

I loved the design of the demon with the cigarette, especially his reactions as the girl's story got more and more upsetting.  At first as the game set the scene I was confused as to whether I was the person being brought in, or if i was the demon with the cigarette, or some other bystander.  It became a bit clearer once i was given choices to move the game forwards.  What the game is lacking is communication of consequence for those choices - sure i know i decided to send her to purgatory for suicide - but was that the correct deduction of her fate?

There's definitely a lot of potential here.  You could focus a lot more on the detective aspect, discovering how each person met their fate and how they should be properly judged.  But I personally found the edginess of the initial soul's story a bit uncomfortable.

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Thanks a lot for trying it!!! I really think the concept's got a lot of potential if you make the end option a bit more objective and bring in more people to judge, and i'll probably end up doing it one day. For now it's just this experiment!

Had to cut back to just one story for the jam, and the idea of a case where if you feel good or not of your final choice entirely depends on your morals was interesting to me: some people wouldn't be okay with sending her to purgatory, for example, as they play by the rules! Others sent her to the lower circles, and yet the true circle for people who commit suicide is the 7th, which has quite a bad eternal punishment, so some people would feel bad about doing that. I find that fascinating, hahahah

To make that idea happen i had to write quite an edgy story indeed: i'm not a good writer and usually am really self concious about when something's being dark just to be dark, however i had no choice if i wanted to make it seem tragic to make the multiple options appealing. A better writer would surely knock it out the park, i just had to rely on tropes, hahahah, but well, that's me putting excuses here.

Thanks a lot!!! I think if i were to expand i'd need to give way more information on each question and maybe avoid making people have to ask something twice, which is quite frustrating. This kind of writeups help me a lot to make a better idea of the design!

Gonna try your game too when i come back from class today!

Submitted(+1)

I think you're right, more information from each answer would be great.  On my second play through I got barely any information because asking if "she believed" ended up having to have a follow up question to clarify.  Felt like I got punished for choosing the outlier question, and lost two overall for no info gain. Then again... I probably should've seen it coming from such a vague question.

Personal preference for story aside, I think your writing was fine overall, just this particular scene didn't end up communicating much.

Thanks so much! Hope you enjoy it :)

Submitted(+1)

I liked that game. It is simple yet engaging. There are a few things I regret, the fact that you don't know the truth at the end or just the fact that you don't really win or lose. It makes it less of a game after all.

I would have liked a game based on this exact principle but with multiple characters

Developer

Me too would like that! I had to cut down on everything hard because i really didn't have much free time, sadly.

It's more of an experiment, hahahah

the thing is, do you really feel like you did the right thing? I think that's the more interesting part! After all, some people would go by the rules, others by their own internal justice and fairness, and who knows where that can lead. It's all too personal to have an objective win, at least this case. I do think it's a concept worth expanding and making it more of a hell-themed papers-please, maybe, with the same 6 questions mechanic but maybe with less ambiguity on the final decision.

Thanks for playing! Gonna play yours tomorrow!

Submitted

The main point for me, in this game, is that we don't have that many ways of having information about the little girl. So we can or cannot know why she's here, what did she do. 

We, as persons, would only know if we feel like we have made the right choice, only if we knew the real story in the end. I agree it would be a cool idea for a game with more refined UI and extended graphics.

Submitted

I think this game is a top contender, even though it is simple. I love the way the dialogue evolves depending on what you ask. I can never seem to unlock any sort of new information; just feeling more detached from the girl because she is miserable and does not say much. (she looks younger than what she says her age is) It would be nice if there was some sort of ending that let you know what was the right and wrong decision (maybe I did not unlock it). I kept coming back to play this game a few times to explore different options, but sadly I did not learn anything new.

Developer

Hey, thanks a lot for playing!!

The idea of the game developed quite a bunch as i was making it, as it was more of a papers-pleasy-thingamajig kind of thing. However, as i had no time i decided to cut on the stories i wanted you to be able to choose and just make a big one story. And the idea that got most of my attention was this: what if you can really never know if you did good or not?

 You literally can't, however: on one side, it's your duty to send people to their right circle (in this case, it would be the 7th one, as it's the one for people who commit acts of violence (in this case against herself) but then again, some people wouldn't find that fair at all for the poor girl.

I know a friend who told me "as a loophole i sent her to the first circle" and i find that fascinating. As for myself i send her to heaven. So i think as an experiment it succeeds. If i were to expand it i'd totally need to make more objective win states though, that's for sure!


Thanks for playing, and taking the time to review! It's really sweet of you! I'll play your game tomorrow, as it's three AM and i am dying, hahahaha