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A jam submission

A Bug's HikeView game page

Take a stroll through a desert landscape.
Submitted by rabbytt, fishgrandpa, ipwu — 5 hours, 32 minutes before the deadline
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A Bug's Hike's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Community's Voice#213.8573.857

Ranked from 21 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Creative Vision / Rationale / How Did You Incorporate the Theme
We wanted to create a relaxing game, where the way players played the game could affect others.
Players are allowed to take photos of their journey, and then share them at submission boxes. These photos will then go on to a server, and then will be randomly shared with other players that load the game. The idea is that past players may share an interesting location that other players may want to explore.
Additionally, as our game takes place in a national park, we wanted to incorporate the “leave no trace” practice by scattering garbage around. Players may choose to go out of their way to pick up the garbage that already exists with no other incentive than to keep the park beautiful. We have a mechanic where garbage is also linked to a server, so the more trash that players pick up the cleaner the park will be for future players.

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Comments

Submitted

Cozy and soothing. I enjoyed walking around and snapping a few pictures. It would be nice to have more to interact with along the way, but I could also see an auto-run feature where your character followed its current path to the next point of interest, and have it be more of a background activity.

Developer

Thank you for your feedback!

Submitted

Sharing views with other players is a very neat idea! The park also seems to be pretty free of garbage so I might be late to the garbage pick-up party.

Developer(+1)

Thank you for playing! And yeah we tried balancing the number of garbage with the estimated number of players we'd get during the voting period. So at this point, there's not much garbage left haha.

Submitted

Wow! First thoughts - the cursor, the loading screen - wow! Looks amazing! 

The game is very relaxing, with a unique look, beautiful music and a really nice feel to it! 

I truly adore the main character that you guys made! What a pretty little bug!

The only things I find a little frustrating is no objectives (but I can see why - it's a whole genre) and return from Tab button. Why it's not like camera and map?

Overall, it's a great game! I wish to explore this world whole and get to know all its secrets! ^^

Developer(+1)

Thanks for the feedback! We had originally planned on adding mini objectives but unfortunately had to cut the idea due to time. Glad you enjoyed it overall at least!

Submitted

This game feels like a type of meditation with lots of interesting areas to explore! The social aspect makes it worth discovering new places. I found lots of trash near a giant dinosaur skull thing and it was satisfying to clear it out. Great job! I did feel a little bit slow, so I would suggest some more flowy movement (flying or super jumps would be peak, especially for exploring those floating islands!)

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing! Yeah lots of folks seem to wish our little bug character could move faster, so it's definitely something we'll take into account for a future update! But we're glad you enjoyed playing, and that you were able to explore the landscape!

Submitted

Loved: Loading animation, menu, character design, concept, details like the sound effects like on the bridge and wall carvings, how well the art was implemented into the game, and of course the CAMERA - so cool and smooth implementation. I love the "leave no trace" concept and how you incorporated the social aspect with photo sharing and trash. 

Notes: I would increase the player speed and maybe add boost/flying to help movement feel more natural and fun. I felt a little lost and it felt tedious to walk large expanses of nothing only to get to a city I could not interact with. 

I would also like some objective or something to unlock to bring satisfaction for playing, maybe the park was cleaned by other players so the large areas seemed baren, but I love working to the end of a game and seeing its story start to finish. An intro scene for the story would be fantastic. I loved the world you created, but I am lost as to what the ice / blue gems are and why they are here. I feel the sense of history and like the park ranger character, but there was no clear questline that could progress the game or hint to more places to explore. I thought if you picked up all the trash you could melt the ice haha but at least the park is clean for future players!

Bugs (pun indented): Only bug I found was when taking a rest on the bed it just went black and I had to restart the game, not sure if this is intended but text prompting to wake up or indication that taking a rest is saving and ending the game would help.

 That being said, for the scope of this jam I think you all did a wonderful job polishing what is in the game, and props for creating an immersive world with a fitting soundtrack for this lil bug. I would play this again if there was more to do, I love a Bug's Hike! 

Developer

Thank you for such thorough feedback! Glad you enjoyed it, and we'll definitely take your notes into account for future updates!

Submitted

Interesting concept, it was fun exploring! Would have been great if you could explore in the lighthouse and other points of interest like the houses. I like the scale of the world compared to the bug, although I do think the player should move a bit faster to get to points of interest sooner. Otherwise, very cool idea!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing, and for the feedback! Lots of folks seem to think our little bug is a slow walker, so it's definitely feedback we're listening to.

Submitted

You're welcome! Cool, I'd love to see an updated version in the future!

Submitted

I absolutely love this game, it's such a fun, cozy experience! I spent a good amount of time just exploring around the map and taking pictures of everything that caught my eye. The camera feature is one I really enjoy, so I'm glad that you incorporated it into your game.  Admittedly I did spend more time collecting photos than picking up trash and I think there should be some sort of incentive for the player that encourages them to collect it. Wonderful work, kudos to your team!

Developer

Thank you for playing and glad you had fun! And thanks for the feedback on the trash feature. We didn't want to provide too much incentive to pick up the trash besides keeping the park beautiful, but there could definitely be more polish there!

Submitted(+1)

This was so cute and fun, the camera feature brought me back to my pokemon snap days trying to get the perfect shot.

I spent a while playing trying to get the perfect photo! The submit thing in your home didn't seem to work for me though. 


I loved hiking around as a bug, this game is awesome and relaxing.

Developer(+1)

Thanks for checking out the game, and glad you had a fun time taking photos! And sorry you weren't able to submit any, there may have been some networking weirdness you experiences that we didn't account for.

Submitted

I actually love this, I was playing it for half an hour. I wanted to see as much as I could! I really like the style and concept, the chill music makes you feel relax. To be honest I wasn't picking many trash, I just focused on exploring and taking photos.
On the gameplay: I had some issues with the jumping, moving, I got stuck in some places, but I assumed that I could go there, but maybe I wasn't? I wish I could run faster as well. I was pressing shift all the time, maybe an autorun would be nice since this is a big world. Also, there was a bug (not the player heh) with the pause menu. I hit esc, and then I accidentally pressed C, and the camera opened and I wasn't able to hit the X in the pause menu. Thankfully it was fixed after pressing esc a few times. Just wanted to let you know. 

Overall, I really enjoyed it! One of the best games I played atm :)

Developer(+2)

Thanks for playing, and glad you enjoyed it! And thanks for the feedback and bug (haha) reports. We tried setting up colliders and barriers as best we could, but there were always going to be places we missed. We'll also definitely look into that weird UI bug you ran into once the voting period is over!

Submitted

Cute little game!! I wish I could take a selfie or see the character more, but the ambiance, music, and post-process really makes it a coherent experience!

Developer(+2)

Thank you for playing! We thought about incorporating selfies, but felt like it would take away from the experience where every one is a unique visitor. We have ideas for character customization in a potential future version that would work nicely with selfies!

Submitted (1 edit)

like a short hike, but it's a bug's hike! it's so wonderful - a good amount of polish for a game made in 3 weeks!

the idea of being able to share photos is a concept with a solid foundation!

this is also cleverly tied into the idea of going out of the way to picking up trash because you have already given them the opportunity to invest a little in this world by giving them ability to share photos with other players; while letting them roam around in a shared space.  

my only concern is - how much will a player care about keeping a virtual ( albeit beautiful!) world clean? also, i wished there were more gameplay elements  because this was a world i really wanted to interact with!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing! The idea is that players don't have to pick up trash, only if they feel like it they may. Just like in real life, no one has to clean up after others but those little acts of kindness help keep parks beautiful!

Submitted

yess, the idea i did understand! generosity is when you go out of your way to help people even when you don't need to - especially, when you don't need to! 

well done, again!

Submitted

Lovely game ! Love the atmosphere and the concept

Developer

Thank you!

Submitted

Wow! Really lovely and ambitious idea! I love the art style and the set up. It's a really fun game and well executed! Good job!!

Developer

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it!

Submitted(+1)

A very lovely and cozy experience!

Developer

Thank you!

Submitted(+1)

an exceptional exploration experience, I loved exploring and discovering, because it is an open and vast map you think there is little to explore but it is the opposite, the more I looked the more I discovered new things on the map, well worked on the details, I only had a silly bug in the camera when I went to pick up some trash on the floor I had the camera activated and it got bugged when it returned to the character but then it returned to normal when interacting with something again, overall a great job!

Developer

Thanks for checking out our game! And for reporting that bug! Definitely something for us to look into once the jam's over.

Submitted(+1)

Loved the environment and various set pieces :) really wish I could go faster than the sprint speed or fly or something so I had time to see it all!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for checking it out, and glad you liked the environment! ^.^

Submitted

Looks beautiful from the screenshots and I love the character design, but the game was stuck on “Beginning journey” for me.

Developer

Sorry to hear you're stuck on the loading screen! It may be that the loading time is super long due to the game fetching data from the server at start.

Submitted(+1)

I see, I’ll try it out again and give it some more time :D

Submitted (1 edit)

Couldn't start the game (missing icu.dll I need to install it so I can check it out), but leaving a comment as the game looks very cool!

Developer

Thank you for checking it out even if you can't play the game right now!