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BluEyes's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall | #1 | 4.309 | 4.309 |
| Gameplay & Mechanics | #1 | 4.818 | 4.818 |
| Polish & Release | #1 | 4.818 | 4.818 |
| Aesthetics | #3 | 4.455 | 4.455 |
| Writing | #4 | 3.909 | 3.909 |
| Use of Themes | #16 | 3.545 | 3.545 |
Ranked from 11 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Artistic Statement / Use of Theme
BluEyes takes the theme "Natural and Unnatural Disasters" both literally and metaphorically. In a metaphorical sense, the game exists in a world where AI has become extremely widespread, and the energy costs of such activity has had adverse affects on the environment as a manmade disaster. In a literal sense, the game's plot revolves around the AI creating artificial natural disasters with the intent to curb overpopulation, and the player's in-game goal is to stop a particularly large artificial natural disaster that would kill countless people.
Development Summary
We had a very interesting development journey with BluEyes. When we had the original concept, we concluded that the idea was too big for this game jam and trashed it, but when making other ideas, we kept wanting to come back to the idea of BluEyes, and we eventually decided we would find a way to make it work. Our scope ended up being very large, which had us working many long days, but in the end we made a product that we're both extremely happy with.
Funnily enough, even though we barely completed the work in time, we still shortened many sections and simplified a few ideas. It was new for us making systems like cutscenes, and writing characters with personality-filled dialogue. Between our team of 2, we both put a heavy amount of work in, with my partner doing all of the art, and me doing all of the coding and level/gameplay design.
Release Plan
Our project has good length as a game jam game, but we have bigger visions for the game in the future. We plan to add more missions and length to the game, with big gameplay and story expansions to explore each characters backstory and write an overall story that the player would play through. We certainly want to work on it in the future, but want to take a little break first. Once we expand the game and explore our vision fully, we'd plan to make a new trailer and release the game on steam.
Topic Tags
AI Abuse & Misuse, Overpopulation, AI Environmental Impact
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Comments
This was super fun to play, and I think all the game mechanics were super clever and clear despite the fact that my skill prevented me from getting far enough to experience more of the lore. I think being thrown into gameplay right away is preferred over lore dumping most of the time, but I think if it's possible to add more context/narrative or use of theme throughout gameplay or even at the beginning it would be even more immersive. The atmosphere and worldbuilding visually is very unique, absurd, and captivating. It was a vibe, I just wish I could have understood it more narratively/contextually sooner.
Thanks for the feedback! I think you have really valid feedback about giving context earlier, it's certainly hard to grasp what has happened to the world early on, and we definitely could have put some more obvious storytelling elements in the first half or so. Still, I'm very glad you had fun and I appreciate all of the kind compliments! :)
I felt like your release was really well polished. I have difficulty with platformers so I did not get far enough in to see much connection to the theme besides the setting.
Thank you! I understand not being able to get very far as this game is definitely more suited for those familiar/good at platformer games. Still, I very much appreciate you playing the game and the complement! :)
Played this game during the prototype, and I'm astounded to see how far it's come! I hope you and your partner feel proud of the work you did, because everything is incredible. Tagging onto some of the other comments, I would definitely love to see some more material engaging with the theme, and perhaps a stronger lean into environmental storytelling instead of the dialogue-based approach some reveals took (e.g. the AI-generated disasters being revealed at the end).
I would also like to recommend having the dialogue controlled by a button press rather than being timed to skip, cause my friends and I love to read through game conversations but struggled to pick up key points when the text disappeared. Otherwise, I LOVE everything about this, and I hope you guys work towards more great projects in the future!
Thanks for the feedback! You have some really good points here. Originally the game had dialogue scroll on a timer as the only option, but it was too slow for many players, so we added the dialogue skipping, but it makes sense that when button skipping is available, timer skipping should be disabled - very good call. And I really appreciate all of the kind compliments! That's what makes us feel proud of our work :)
This was a 5 star across the board for me. Was fun with the right amount of difficulty.
I'm super glad to hear it! Tweaking difficulty was a big part of our polish phase so we're glad it turned out just right for you :)
Loved how fluid the controls and movement felt, while I could see the rocket arm controls to be somewhat unintuitive, it turned out to be very fun to actually use for platforming. I also appreciate you guys including an alternative control for people to make the game more accessible. Overall, I felt that the game was super polished and was a fun experience throughout. It was also a nice touch that the story was reflected in the game mechanics as well.
I'm really glad you had fun with the original rocket arm (it's my favorite way to play too!) I'm glad the polish felt good to you as it was a very big focus point for us and I think the phase where the game really came together. I'm happy you had fun with it and very much appreciate you playing! :)
This was amazing! I really enjoyed the gameplay mechanics and the movement. I appreciate all the small things that you guys did in creating this game like placing the checkpoints at great spots, allowing customization for the rocket arm, being able to skip the dialogue coming on screen, and the binoculars. I had a ton of fun playing it and you guys did a fantastic job!
Thank you so much! I'm glad to hear you had so much fun, that makes all the work worth it :)
This was so fun to play! I loved the movement mechanics and I appreciated the flexibility of the options on the rocket arm! You truly made such a jump in quality in such a short time it's really admirable. Overall great game feel and cool narrative plot, it felt a bit like the Joja Mart storyline in Stardew Valley at times. For such a small team, you guys did great! Congrats
Thank you so much! It's really nice to hear positive feedback like this, and although unintentional, in retrospect I can definitely see the Joja Mart comparison lol. I'm very glad you had fun with it, thanks again!
Awesome job! It's been a while since I played a platformer, and this one was very nice!
I appreciated the options to adjust the mechanics of the rocket launcher, as I did find the default settings a little difficult, but overall the mechanics were great, and I had a great time playing it!
My only piece of feedback is that the theme wasn't abundantly clear. I think the whole 'BlueEyes' thing is a great concept, but you could've gone a lot farther in connecting it to disasters and climate change in general.
That being said, if this weren't a themed jam, I wouldn't really have any negative notes, so overall great work!
Thanks for the feedback! I'll say getting the theming across was definitely our weak spot, but I'm glad you enjoyed the game otherwise! I appreciate the kind words :)
Great game! I beat the whole thing and was very impressed by how addictive it was despite having only a few mechanics. Great polish and amazing gamefeel!
- I'm a bit confused as to how this relates to the jam's theme; the "Blu Eyes" glasses concept felt a little Sci-Fi Dystopian and not really realistic, and the idea that a corporation is manufacturing disasters felt a little off color given the jam's focus on climate change and natural disasters.
- I feel like rocket arm's default controls should be towards mouse cursor- played it with that setting for the whole game and felt it was a lot more intuitive.
- I couldn't really understand that the game's theme was about AI abuse and environmental impact- only knew that from the itch page- and felt like the game could have dealt with it more seriously, for example highlighting the toxic gas and emissions from GenAI server upkeep.
Thanks for your feedback! I'm glad you were having fun with the game until the end! In terms of theming, we did struggle to portray our theme intentions in-game and definitely think we could have been more clear/tackle the concepts better. I appreciate you calling it out, and we'll definitely keep that in mind when continuing development. We aimed for the player to notice the environmental damage visible when BluEyes is off, such as the smog filling the sky, but we should have tackled the topic more head-on for sure. Either way, I very much appreciate your comment, and thank you taking the time to play our game!
Hello again BluEyes, I enjoyed playing your game every sprint of this Jam, and enjoyed watching it evolve every step of the way. Thanks for listening to my feedback, as I see it was taken to heart and included several details which I appreciate. The Rocket Arm ability was greatly improved from the last sprint, and I greatly appreciate the option to toggle the shoot direction and angle center in the options menu. The ability to change how to aim the rocket arm was really helpful in playing the game this time. Once again, the art and music is spot on, and love the new additions you made, such as the billboards reading "Thrive" and propaganda in the tower advertising how BlueEyes is "helping humanity prosper" all amazing additions. One little detail I especially loved, was the new NPC dialogue you added, with the lady talking about BlueEyes purchasing the coffee shop outside your house, and I especially love the man with the supposedly thriving garden only to see garden dead when turn off your Blueyes. I would love to see more of this in the future of the game. The new cutscene at the end is also nice, and hints that there's more to come. I love the game so far, and can't wait to see where you go with it.
Thank you so much! It's really reassuring to see that we solved most of the issues you had with the game and reading this comment definitely put a smile on me and my partners face. I appreciate you being super involved with BluEyes' development and the game is certainly better because of your feedback. Thanks again, the game wouldn't be as good without you!