Game Writing SIG Arcjam

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A jam submission

Trench PigsView game page

An adventure-puzzle game about mental resilience in war.

Submitted by jee7, aaandu — 22 hours, 7 minutes before the deadline

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Trench Pigs's itch.io page

Results

Criteria	Rank	Score*	Raw Score
Gameplay	#1	4.533	4.533
Overall	#5	3.956	3.956
Theme interpretation	#21	3.600	3.600
Storytelling	#28	3.733	3.733

Ranked from 15 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

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Comments

CdragoonSubmitted176 days ago(+1)

The gameplay is great, the sound design is really on point with the eerie and foreboding feel to it. The color coding really helps with the puzzles and keeping track of different characters.

I did get confused by Anton coming back, but then examined the dates and saw that the next scene was from before that happened. Implementing a scene select to easily replay parts of the game is also a really cool addition. Bob was very intimidating, even from the brief glimpses we got. Since the wedding rings were green I presume he kept them as a trophy of his kills, which is pretty unnerving, and then Jessie stole them. And the inclusion of a radio was also a really nice touch, as it symbolized their connection to the outside and it was quiet for most of the playthrough except near the end.

Amazing work and congrats on the win! ^^

Submitted

jee7Developer176 days ago (2 edits)

Thank you so much for the detailed feedback and for enjoying our game! ❤️😊

My teammate worked on the audio design, and I came up with the colors. 🙌
You are right that the time jump can be a bit confusing. We probably should have put the date right on the cutscene or somewhere more prominent than just typing it in text before the chapter title (and, ofc, it's visible later in the report view). Thank you for noticing the scene selection. It was easy to do, and we hoped it would allow people to replay the scenes, yes. It also helped with testing a lot. 😊

The wedding rings... I'm quite certain they are always red. 😁 We wanted to show all the characters somehow (mentally, morally) break, except Carl (who was resilient ..?). So, Jessie was looting the dead, Anton couldn't handle seeing the pigs eating the corpses, and Bob, well, had power go to his head and lost his sense of reality. 🤯

Thanks for playing! I'm still astonished that we were voted #1 in the Gameplay category and #5 Overall by the jammers. That really is the win for us that so many of you enjoyed our small game so much. ❤️

CdragoonSubmitted175 days ago(+1)

Thank you for sharing more background on the portrayal of the characters, was very fascinating to read more ^^ You are right, my memory painted the rings green (which made me think of what if someone who was playing was colorblind, how would they distinguish the subtle lore hints). It is a haunting detail that not only was Jessie pilfering valuables off the dead, but also keeping track of the names and the couples.

pvthsSubmitted183 days ago(+1)

The gameplay here was great, and the dour mood was really well put together.

Submitted

jee7Developer183 days ago

Thank you! Happy you liked the game and that the mood came across! ❤️😊

Rick VelezSubmitted183 days ago(+1)

Wow, this was amazing. I really loved how it captured the feeling of being in a remote base in a tense situation for a long period of time, as it helped to immerse me in situation. I do think that some parts need to be a bit more clear around the middle of the game. Aside from that, it was a blast to play!

Submitted

jee7Developer183 days ago(+1)

We're so happy you enjoyed our game! Thank you! ❤️

Glad that the isolation and tension of the story came across. When designing the game, we wondered how remote the base should seem to the player. My teammate said that realistically, four people would not be able to hold too large an area just by themselves. So there would have to be many more bunkers nearby. But from the narrative experience perspective, the feeling of isolation was definitely something we wanted to convey. So, Bob taking Anton's radio and kinda limiting the contact with other bunkers seemed like a good choice. It is only in the fourth and final scene that the player learns the characters are not as isolated as they seemed. 😊

I completely agree that the middle part is a little rough, though. Good to hear that you still had a blast despite it! 🙌

Rick VelezSubmitted183 days ago(+1)

Yeah, I agree, you guys definitely got the the pseudo sense of isolation down perfectly. You guys did great!

Mountain MistSubmitted185 days ago(+1)

Oh boy, this one was really awesome. It reminded me of Case of the Golden Idol. There is very little writing, but the design and atmopshere was awesome. And I laso really liked the art, and the fact that you even had animations. This is one of the best entries I played so far.

Submitted

jee7Developer185 days ago (2 edits) (+1)

Thank you so much for playing and enjoying our game! ❤️

Yep, The Case of the Golden Idol was one of our main inspirations for it. 😊
Last Arcjam, some years ago, I saw another entry that also had animations. So I wanted to try making a few this time myself. I'm very glad they enhanced your experience. My teammate is also happy that you enjoyed the design and atmosphere he created. Thank you again! 🙌

Pong's PlaygroundSubmitted187 days ago(+1)

The game is really fun to play and I really like the art style. It looks really cool. Great work :)

Submitted

jee7Developer187 days ago (1 edit)

Thank you! We're glad you liked it! ❤️😊

MaxwellStevensonSubmitted188 days ago(+1)

WOAH! This was a blast!

Everything was on spot! The jagged geometry of the art, able to perfectly communica the scene while perfectly conveying the dehumanizing aspect of war, covering the identity of the soldiers with shapes and colors.
The narrative design is pretty much flawless, with a very clever use of the Arcweave tool, mixing some deduction themes (as seen in Obra Dinn) and some point and click ones.

The only riddle which was kinda off was the third one, but I guess it's a minor inconvenience when the theme and the atmosphere are so haunting and horrifying.

Praises for this team which made such a nice gem!

Submitted

Persistence of Pain

jee7Developer188 days ago

Thank you so much for playing and the high praise! We are very happy that you enjoyed our game! ❤️

We completely agree about the third riddle. But it's good that you still found the experience haunting and horrifying. This is what we went for. 😊

Mykhailo BohdanSubmitted189 days ago(+1)

Very creative use of the tool in such a short time. Great art, the broken geometry of it really adds to the atmosphere. Really enjoyed the Obrah Dim-esque approach to the narrative. Theme hits close to home for someone whose country is at war and who has acquaintances close to the trenches. As far as I know their comrades care for each other much better though. People from different walks of life coming together in the time of dire struggle. I wish all of them resilience.

Submitted

BB's Last Gambit

jee7Developer189 days ago(+1)

Thank you! We're glad you liked the narrative and art. 😊

Yes, the current situation in your home country definitely influenced our interpretation of the theme. When we were ideating on what the situations are where resiliency is important, war and trenches were one of our first ideas. We wanted to explore that often, the resilience against the enemy is not the only resilience needed. That mental resilience against the witnessed horrors (like human corpses being consumed by hungry domesticated animals) and amorality (like looting and bullying) can be as important. There can be an intense internal battle as well as the external one. And what happens when people lose that internal battle. That is also why we did not want to show any specific external enemies and tried to make it ambiguous from any real-world references or countries. 💡

Of course, we wish resilience, strength, and camaraderie for your people. Stay strong! 💙💛

Mykhailo BohdanSubmitted189 days ago(+1)

I see, it makes a lot of sense. War is really a final judge of character in many respects. Thank you very much for your support!

Zylphia CarronSubmitted191 days ago(+1)

This game was so fun to play! I love the puzzle games where you have to explore your surroundings to figure out the story. And it pushed Arcweave's uses to its limits and used a gameplay style that I honestly did not expect to be possible via a narrative game software! I've been a huge fan of the Rise of the Golden Idol for a while, so when I saw this game's presence for the first time, I IMMEDIATELY locked tf in! Nice use of an original animation video in the beginning as well!

My one criticism is perhaps more lore of the pigs is needed (SPOILER ALERT). For one of the puzzles that said the medic was threatened by the Sarge with the pig, it wasn't TOO clear to me as I had assumed it was the knife. I'm sure it was supposed to be a red herring and I'm big dumb when it comes to figuring out puzzles, but it might have been a bit too confusing to figure out due to the lack of information related to pigs outside of them eating the bodies outside.

Anyways, fantastic job with this game! Would love to see another puzzle game made by you in this format UwU

Submitted

Hold On, Valor!

jee7Developer190 days ago(+1)

Thank you so much! We are glad you liked our game. ❤️

Yup, your reference to the Golden Idol games is spot on. I saw the developers at a games convention giving a speech about The Case of the Golden Idol and The Rise of the Golden Idol games a few weeks ago. They are from Latvia, we are from Estonia, and the convention was in Lithuania (these are all three small Baltic countries in Eastern Europe). I was inspired by the game mechanic and wanted to try making something similar in this jam. 😅
If you're curious, they just put the recording up on YouTube.

You are totally correct in your criticism. The third scene/puzzle is not that well executed. We thought that might be the case, but ran out of time to test it and improve it. 🥲

Would love to try creating more puzzles in this format. I hope there will be more Arcjams in the future to further experiment with it. 😊

BaalHSubmitted191 days ago(+1)

Wow, what a great game! It's so cool to see people bending Arcweave to this extent. The puzzle mechanic is super well executed and the puzzles ranged (like in most games in the genre) from easy to frustrating to just perfect. The art style is inventive and the writing is subtle but super effective. Reminds me of the Rusty Lake games in the best of ways.

Submitted

jee7Developer191 days ago(+1)

Oh, thank you so much! I feel honored that our game reminded you of such a beloved puzzle game series as Rusty Lake! 🫠

Thank you also for the feedback. The puzzle mechanic turned out to be surprisingly complicated for us to design puzzles for. Like how much and in what ways the information should be conveyed. If all the chars just say what they did, then it becomes too obvious. But then, how much should be implied by chains of secondary events... Probably, the red scalpel on the ground is simple enough. But Jessie sharing a watch with Bob, because Anton refused, because he was rattled, because they saw the pig the day before. And then Bob rattling Jessie with the same pig on the next watch and later with the poster, due to Jessie stealing.... All that turned out to be too much. 😅

We also did not manage to playtest it during the jam with other people. And this was quite eye-opening for us: That even with adventure-puzzle games, playtesting is really important. 😊

Thank you again for describing how the puzzles seemed to you, and thank you also for your comment on the art style and writing! ❤️

artechmisSubmitted193 days ago(+1)

Loved the gameplay! Investigating for info was fun. Great game!

Submitted

Down the Alleyway

jee7Developer193 days ago(+1)

Thank you! 😊