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Dead Service's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Graphics | #3 | 4.318 | 4.318 |
| Overall | #4 | 4.015 | 4.015 |
| Sound | #4 | 3.818 | 3.818 |
| End-of-life plan | #6 | 4.136 | 4.136 |
| Jam Authenticity | #8 | 4.364 | 4.364 |
| Theme relevance | #20 | 4.091 | 4.091 |
| Fun | #29 | 3.364 | 3.364 |
Ranked from 22 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Source Code URL
https://redplanetcat.itch.io/dead-service
End life plan
Source is available on itch.io page
Transparency note
The game itself, artwork, sprites and music were created during the jam. Game uses SCUMM-8, a framework by Paul Nicholas (Liquidream).
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Comments
Incredible, but the squirrel wouldn't be picked up unless I did things in a specific order. Just like old adventure games really. Was fun with a good message.
The only bad thing was the commands seemed to go randomly not work and you had to do things in an exact order. For example if you didn't look at the lock then you couldn't pick up the key.
I just have to start off by saying that I really love the music! The sprites for some elements, I'm mainly thinking of the pigeon, sorta blend into the background for me. It's hard to tell at a moments notice what I can interact with at any given time. I understand there's a pixel limit though, so I can't blame you too hard. Everything looks good too,
By far the biggest issue I have is the fact that I have to click on something after interacting with thing A, before I can select an intent and click on point B. To clarify what I mean:
I'm guessing using an item locks the game into a sort of "thing used" state when you interact with something, and when it's over it resets the game to a default (walk to, nothing selected) state, clicking just skips the current line of text or screen of interaction regardless of where you click. It's easy and simple, but it's annoying having to click an extra time, especially when the verb text does get highlighted.
I adore the music, I always enjoy when jammers make their own music. And the problem solving that comes with a point-and-click game is always fun! The game also fits the theme perfectly, and is generally just a good time!
This is a great point and click game like the old ones in the style of monkey island etc, enjoyed going through it, the sound and the artstyle were impressive to me, keep it up!
As I expected, it's a good game. I loved the visual aesthetic and the 8bit sounds, very unique and interesting. I liked how you used the JAM theme in a direct way involving the very reason of the SKG. Good game!
Yeah, my interpretation of the theme might have been a bit too straightforward :)
Thank you very much for playing the game and leaving feedback!
Impressive work, art and game both were really good, I loved playing this! It really sent me back to playing the point and click adventures of old haha
Thank you for playing! I'm really glad you liked it. Adventure games were a huge part of my childhood, it's actually very satisfying to try my hand at making one myself many years later.
Enjoyed the art style , very nice!
Haven't played a point and click adventure game since high school but this was very well done for the jam!
keep it up!
Hey, thanks! I think point and clicks are cool.
Point and clicks are cool, nice job!
I liked the art, but it was a bit difficult to see interactables sometimes.
The environments turned out a bit too busy and I understand how it can be difficult to differentiate sprites on top of them.
Thank you for playing!
I love the writing, sound, and art. Overall great job! I'm curious about how it was like to develop for Pico-8. It might be something I'll try in the future.
Thank you!
You should definitely try pico-8 if you have even a passing interest in it. There's a free web version available over there:
PICO-8 Education Edition
The platform has its quirks, like the limited lua token count, but some limitations help you keep things simple and get things done instead of constantly growing out of scope.
Thanks for the follow up, will definitely look into development on this!
This was super neat! I’m a big point-and-click fan so I really enjoyed this entry :-) Just one thing - man, that pigeon was hard to see! Overall the gameplay, artwork, and music were great and I enjoyed seeing your take on the theme!
Sorry about the pigeon, I should've made a contrasty outline. But then again pixel hunting is part of the genre staples :)
I don't think I've played something like this before, very interesting!
Thank you!
I really like adventure games, and there's still a whole bunch of classics I haven't played yet.
From the ones I liked the most, I'd easily recommend the Broken Sword series from Revolution and The Longest Journey from Funcom.
The art is amazing. Can't fathom how much work it must have taken.
Thanks!
Not too much, actually. But I did get over the initial 7-day limit. The most time-consuming aspect was drawing backgrounds and wrestling pico8 token limits.
art style is cool
Thank you!
This game was a whole lot of fun, from the art style to the narration and the simplicity of the mechanics! Great job with this and thank you for including the walkthrough!
Hey, thank you for such a praise! I'm really glad you liked it!
Took some time, but got through it. I'm so happy to know that squirrels can contribute to society in such a way, I thought the character was joking in the beginning, was really fun and made me really use my pea brain. Had to look 2-3 times in description for hints. It was a lovely experience!
The funny thing is, when developing game such as this all the puzzles seem pretty self-evident, but from anybody else's perspective it's all silly leaps of logic :)
Thank you for playing!
I wasn't able to figure out what to do without the walkthrough but besides that, its a solid build.
I know what you mean, this style of adventure games can be difficult to figure out sometimes :) I've spent all my childhood playing adventure games from Revolution and Sierra, so things that seem conventional to me might be completely unfamiliar to people new to the genre.
Thank you for playing!
(Full review left on main page)
Seriously, I'm so stoked you used my engine/framework to create is wonderful adventure.
(...and very glad you didn't need to tech support at all!! 😅)
Congrats again and all the best with the Jam 👍