Obviously from a technical standpoint, this was ambitious and amazing that it all came together. It made for one of the most kit-bashed experiences I have ever had (besides actually bashing kits together).
I think it's length is a hindrance though. I loved the core concept of switching genres and engines a bunch, but when there were long sections like the RPG quest or repeated FPS levels, I was just desperate to see what the next surprise would be.
Also, I had a legitimate crash but couldn't tell at first due to all the tom foolery of the software switches and error messages.
All in all though, this is a mammoth of a jam game. Very impressive and has plenty of badness around the good.
Nice job!
Viewing post in RiftBreak jam comments
Thanks for playing!
(spoilers ahead for anyone else reading this)
Technically, it's probably the most complicated game I've ever made, possibly the most complicated software project I've ever made. It was a risk but I'd done some proof of concepts and some thought experiments in the weeks and months leading up to the jam and I was 90% sure it would work.
I can definitely see where you're coming from. One of the core concepts I was working with was to build a game that made you want to keep playing and pushing forward while also disappointing you at every turn. I was trying to play with the so bad it's good, um, -ness, by promising an epic game and then handing over tedious, broken garbage. I may have gone too far in that direction- as you've said and I think I've brought up in some feedback on other games there's a point where it becomes too tedious to press on.
The tedious quest in the RPG section evolved organically, while the annoyingly repeated FPS level is actually based on a real level from Halo which I'd played
I think more shorter segments might have made a better game but I was really pushing it, time-wise, with the three segments I did. There's a certain fixed cost to creating each segment which making them shorter would not have reduced. I could have maybe squeezed one more in if I pushed it but five was right out.
You're not the only one to report an actual crash. It's unfortunate but I'm not surprised that these issues are popping up; there's a lot that can go wrong and testing this mess was a nightmare. The upcoming version 1.1 will fix some of the issues.
I'm planning to go over some of this in more detail in my postmortem which will be posted after the jam is finished (hopefully sooner than later).