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Fathers Farm (ScreamJam2025)'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Story | #112 | 3.242 | 3.242 |
| Aesthetics | #162 | 3.864 | 3.864 |
| Creativity | #328 | 3.015 | 3.015 |
| Horror | #363 | 2.379 | 2.379 |
| Enjoyment (Best Game) | #364 | 2.788 | 2.788 |
| Sound Design | #665 | 1.636 | 1.636 |
Ranked from 66 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
What game engine did you make this project in?
GB Studio
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Comments
Nice game i really liked the pixel art it’s simple but super effective. The story is also good, it’s just a bit sad that the game has no music or sound effects. With a nice musical piece it would have been soo good.
But still pretty solid, good job.
Thanks for playing and thanks for the complement! I'm happy to hear that the simple pixel art worked as intended to captivate you. Thanks again for playing!
There's a good sense of building tension in the story, things not being quite right, your character occasionally saying some odd stuff, but the abrupt ending leaves most of the tension dangling. I liked the character's many little comments on different things and how those fleshed out the story and were able to build the sense of things being off. The artwork was good as well, and I think you could certainly craft a compelling story with more time.
Thanks for playing and thanks for the complements! I do agree that with more time, this definitely could have been presented as a more finished product, but time is a funny thing so who knows. I'm glad you noticed how much the character you play as says and believe it or not there was supposed more, a lot more, dialogue that the player would have had the chance to see. Thanks again for playing and I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Great game. The design is the absolute highlight of this. Everything in it is just so interesting and lovingly crafted. But you can tell in many places that you ran out of time (music/ending). It plays like a demo for a game that I would definitely love to play.
Thanks for playing! Ending it at a demo was an idea I had before I realized that I could present something passable as a very short but full game for the jam, I kinda just didn't want to do a demo since It seems like a lot of people do that for jams (even though that basically seems to be what I did anyway). This seems like a shameless plug but if you would love to play a full version of this game then follow me on itch, I can't promise the full version will come out anytime soon but it will definitely happen and in the mean time I've got a hell of a lot more projects on my roster for the future. Thanks again for playing and I hope to see you stick around!
nicely done :) the ending is abrupt but definitely surprised me! I encountered a bug at the begging, goat led me to haystack but when i got there she was standing on top of barn roof and i couldn't interact with anything, only after couple reloading of scene she sowed up next to it. besides that all works good ;)
Thanks for playing! Another bug marked down, don't get me wrong I can't get enough of people finding bugs, it only helps me out, buts it's such a damn shame that I can't do anything about it since the game files corrupted. Regardless though I appreciate that you didn't let that ruin the rest of the game for you and I'll try to look more into getting the game files back in working order so I can make a bug patch after the jam ends. Thanks again for playing and I'm glad you enjoyed it!
No worries, my game doesn't play music one of my friends spent week making ;/ it's always bummer but that's how jams go :) gj finishing your game!
Fun game
Very strong pixel art. This felt really aesthetic and complemented the game feel
Thanks for playing and thanks for the complement! Pixel art is always been a tricky subject for me because it's very hit or miss whether I am able to make a sprite "look good" or not so it means a lot that you thing it complements the rest of the game! Thanks again for playing!
Beautiful pixel art style! It looks very nostalgic and really captures that retro feel. Like others mentioned, the lack of music and sound effects is one of the major downsides, unfortunately. Other than that, everything else is great, it’s a solid game overall.
Thanks for playing! I'm happy to hear that you think the game is still a solid product given its obvious and major absences. To be honest, music and sound effects is one of those categories that I don't have a lot of knowledge or skill in and one that I'm really hoping to get better at for my next major release, Night at the Laundromat. Though with the limits of gb studio you do need to get creative about how to make things sound good over clunky. Thanks again for playing and thanks for the complement!
Same here! I will need to learn how to work on the sound and music design. That's the only thing I'm lacking.
A very good sense of dread leading up to the end, which was unfortunately a little abrupt, but understandable due to jam time constraints. The muted colors work really well to evoke a sense of decay around the farm.
Thanks for playing! Hearing that the feeling of weather and decay came across is music to my ears since that's another vibe I was going for so thank you for that, maybe I could have amplified it a little more with some cobweb sprites or dust textures strewn about here and there. Thanks again for playing and for feeling the vibes!
It reminds me those short horror stories that you can watch at night on the television every Saturday, those are very creepy horror films and very quiet. It's very strong and has great potential in whatever form it takes. I would love to see this one made into a film, probably go straight banger!
Thanks for playing! Honestly using old Saturday night short horror stories as the premise for the future of my jam games (or small games in general) would be a fantastic idea, it would definitely give me a theme to stick to. Though I doubt this game will ever be made into a film, I am a comic writer and animator so who knows, maybe if a full version of this game doesn't come out then a comic or full-length animation will. Thanks again for playing!
A GBSTUDIO GAME!!! Dude, no way I found someone that made a submission using GBStudio. This is unreal. A very charming game. I know how much effort must've gone into that tile count limit LMAO. I loved the art and the ambience definitely harbored eeriness. Great job!
Thanks for playing! Yes you already know the tile limit was a struggle, luckily I've already made one gb studio game (and interesting that you used the word "harbored" since my other game is titled Night at the Harbor, curious) so I know how to work with it. I'm glad to see someone else in the gb studio community comment on one of my games, it's always good to see another one of us in the crowd! Thanks again for playing and I'm glad you enjoyed!
I really liked this one. The story-driven gameplay is a nice touch. Good job making this.
Thanks for playing and thanks for the complement! Story-driven gameplay is the modo I live by since I always make games to tell a story. Thanks again for playing and I'm glad you enjoyed it!
The art is pretty good, and it does have a creepy vibe. My main problems would be the lack of sounds and the long walk between the barn and the house, but I think you did a very good job on the area as a whole! Great job!
Thanks for playing! I was almost ready to call it day and finish replying to comments for the morning until your comment came in. I totally agree that the lack of sounds is a big problem and if anything, I shouldn't have added any at all to make it less obvious that there are supposed to be sounds in the game. Originally there would have been a lot more to the walk from the house to the barn and barn to the house that would have made the walk less boring (like dialogue, interactable's, etc). I'm glad you enjoyed it and thanks again for playing!
The lack of music and sound effect made the game creepier than it is supposed to be. One moment, I'm strolling around the farm, feeding the goats. The next thing I know, I hear this weird sound coming from the house, and I'm wondering what the heck is going on in that place. Every time the player had to visit the house, I would go, "Oh heck no." and wish that I could explore the barn or the fields more.
I wish the game gave you the option to get a good ending, but it looks like you ran out of time before you could finish the game. Still, I enjoyed playing this game from start to finish.
Thanks for playing! That feeling of "oh heck no" is a very interesting thing to note since that's almost what the main character is feeling as well, except they don't want to go in the house for different reasons. It's also interesting to me that you described wanted to explore the farm area more since that was another thing that was originally planned. In the original version, you would have been distracted from the house a lot more than just twice (and by more things than just Marcy) meaning you would have been away from the house a lot more which I feel would have given the player more freedom to chose an ending for the character they play as. Thanks again for playing and I'm so glad you enjoyed your experience!
Hey, I really enjoyed this! The level of detail you put into backstory of all the little items around the house made it feel alive and lived in. Even more so when something wasn't quite right, like the tables being too clean, making things feel subtly unsettling. I grew up helping out on our family farm and this really felt like a little bit of home!
It's too bad you didn't have time for an ending, since I was really drawn in by then! Great work!
Thanks for playing! I'm glad I was able to land that farm feel for someone who actually knows what that is, I was worried I wouldn't even be able to hit the board of what "farm life/farm feel" is since I personally didn't grow up on a farm or near farm life really. I'm glad it drew you in (even though it didn't really deliver in the end) and thanks again for playing!
Something about the fields of hay waving in the wind got me. Like it was literally nothing but a one scene you walk through, but something about that look and feel of it just left me standing and feeling this dread. Anyways, style here is on point, writing and art style, I liked small subtexts given and well, it was bit relatable to me so I might also give you some bias-points here. The ending, bit abrupt as it was still managed to have some built up and got me pretty well. Great work.
Thanks for playing and thanks for the complements! Dread is kind of the secondary feeling (behind nostalgia) that I was going for when developing the levels and such, originally there was supposed to be random goats in the wheat (that the main character wouldn't recognize if the player chose to interact with them) that would just stare at you to amplify that feeling of dread. Thanks again for playing and I'm glad you enjoyed it!
I am really impressed how environment is not just mere set pieces but a tool to tell the story. The contrast between the cuteness of the Marcy (and the others) and the eerie atmosphere was also nicely balanced. I would restart for another ending but i realized your warning. I was worried to find my back to the house but thankfully unnecessary roads were not used as a maze. It would be great to see the rest of the story. I did not encounter any bug. Some audio would be nice. It is a gem in jam, i am genuinely glad that i played it. Excellent!
Thanks for playing and thanks for the complements! What you mentioned in the first part of your comment, the world being used as a tool to tell the story, I'm so happy that you see that because that is what I try to do the most with my world building and art, especially in games with level design, since I only ever make games to tell a story. It's funny that you mention the extra roads being a maze in the farm field area because originally they were supposed to be exactly that but I ended up not doing that in interest of time and I didn't have a creative idea for what would happen to the player if they "failed" the maze or chose a wrong path. As mentioned in another comment of mine, a full version of this game is undoubtedly going to be made but when it will be made is not a card in my deck right now. I'm glad you liked the game so much and thanks again for playing!
Nice to see a fellow GB dev~~ ^^ Really liked the concept of the story and the art. Very Stephen King In The Tall Grass/Midwestern yeehaw horror which I love!
Got unnaturally attached to the goats. Thank god, they weren’t killed phew. Would love to hear some SFX especially for crunchy scenes but nice work overall!
Thanks for playing! I had not really noticed that you were a gb studio dev until now, always cool to see another one of us in the crowd! I really like the game concept overall as well which is why I'm a little bummed that it had to turn out the way that it did, I'm glad that most people (yourself included) seem to like the art and story the most though. Thanks again for playing and thanks for the complements!
This was some really good pixel art. Im glad you stuck with all the rules and requirements of a Game Boy game. I only wish there were more sounds and music.
Thanks for playing! When working in gb studio, you pretty much have to stick to the rules of a Gameboy for your game to come out functioning. Glad you liked the Gameboy structure and thanks again for playing!
The art style is pretty consistent and almost unnerved me in certain parts, likely due to the lack of music. But on that note, I think the game would've GREATLY benefited from music or at least some additional sfx from movement/interaction/etc. I did indeed beat the game, but it definitely felt like an abrupt ending. I understand that the gamejam time constraints likely meant you needed to end the game a bit earlier than intended. But I couldn't help but feel that the end of the game was a moment of "oh shit, we need some horror quick throw this in". That feeling likely stems from the fact that I feel as though us being on the farm and completing tasks didn't exactly feed into the horror aspect in any way. I am curious to see how this game would turn out if more time were given to expand on the story. Still, for being made in one week, this is very impressive. Great job overall and great game!
Thanks for playing and a very big thanks for the in-depth comment! Yes, the game was ended sooner than intended but the main important things that needed to be cut out in interest of time was the build up (which I think really damaged the end product personally). Honestly, if past me were a smarter man, he'd spend more time on the game leading up to the ending and cut it off at a demo instead of trying to present this as a full product (which it isn't) and as mentioned in other comments of mine I am planning on expanding and remaking this into a full game. I'm very happy that you still thing what I was able to pull off is impressive though because I had and still have severe doubts, but if other people like it than that's most of what matters in the end. Thanks again for playing and thanks again even more for the in-depth comment, it really means a lot!
I tried replaying the game on my phone to enjoy the GameBoy interface, and it’s very nostalgic! Maybe a little 8-bit atmosphere could add something extra to the story.
Well done!
Thanks for the complement and thanks for playing! I'm really glad you enjoyed the nostalgia feel that newer Gameboy style games bring on!