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A jam submission

Spleen.View game page

Little unsettling adventure game where the hero is in the grip of his panic attacks
Submitted by Dark Peace — 20 minutes, 4 seconds before the deadline
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Spleen.'s itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Presentation#9723.5893.589
Overall#13223.2053.205
Originality#15823.2883.288
Fun#20172.8082.808

Ranked from 73 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

How does your game fit the theme?
(SPACE TO INTERACT, NOT ENTER) A Panic Attack is being out of control. You can't be rational. You can't escape the attack. In my game, the héro can have Panic Attacks at anytime. Deal with it. ( bugs : chests don't work and don't talk to the Guy near the trash cans))

Did your team create the art for this game during the 48 hour time slot?

Yes

We created all art during the game jam

Did your team create the audio for this game during the 48 hour time slot?

Yes

We created all audio during the game jam

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Comments

Viewing comments 56 to 37 of 56 · Next page · Last page
Submitted(+1)

Great art direction, and very impressive scope for a project made in 48 hours! It would have been nice to have some sound design and I wish the panic attack was a little more interactive than just freezing the player. The visual effect for the panic attack was fantastic and the amount of unique sprites was unbelievable!

Submitted

It seems like you're adapting to all the feedback and fixing all the bugs (I couldn't progress far because I kept getting issues where I couldn't hit anything anymore and text wasn't progressing when I pressed space) - the idea for this game seems really cool and you have a great art style to back it, but I do agree in that the panic attack aspect could be done a lot better, if done correctly you can also create some good insight into how to de-escalate from a panic attack - to "gameify" it in a simple way, maybe if movement or doing "stressful" actions e.g. talking to folks or attacking could increase a stress meter, you become paralysed like it is now, but by doing something like a "breathing" activity e.g. deep breaths by pressing a button, you can decrease and manage that stress meter.

Celeste's anxiety themed minigames are great examples of how you could implement something like this!

Apologies for any backseat gamedeving, but if any of these suggestions are useful, feel free to use 'em.

Submitted(+1)

Making a huge open world RPG is probably not a best idea for a 48 hour game jam :D seems like you were trying to put in as much content as you could, but had to cut at some point, leaving everything "as is" (which is understandable, I had to do this with my game too), but the core mechanics suffers from this approach. Fighting is not fun and don't get me started on the panic attack :P

I like the simplistic art style, the tone, and hell, I'd even like the visual part of panic attack if it wasn't so over-exaggerated and dragged over for so long! :P

There are some bugs, e.g. when I first started the game, I tried to destroy all grass on the first screen, but at some point objects stopped reacting to the hits, making me unable to progress, therefore, having to restart the game. Later, when I died, the game just closed - not sure if that was a crash or it was intended.

I'm sure it's all easily fixable though and you'll make a great game out of it :)

Developer(+1)

oh the first bug you talk about us weird, i wasn't aware of it. Thank you.

Yeah, the post jam version will be great !

Submitted

The art style is unique and there's a feel of epic exploration.

Submitted(+1)

The art direction is pretty much on point, especially the little touches when it comes to cutting the grass and breaking stones. Controls could have a bit more feedback, especially when there is no sound. Game crashed a couple times when dying  and sometimes the character gets stuck just for no reason at all :)

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

I see great potential here, unfortunetly due to time limitations it s not quite there. I miss the music and sound effects, I like the inclusion of the secret rooms with chest in them (but I dont know if you can actually open them).  I Also really liked the humor in the game, it kept me going. Great job, I would expand on this porject to make it better :)

Developer(+1)

Sure, the post jam version will have a lot more features like... A game that works XD and the original soundtrack.

I'm glad you liked the dialogs.

Submitted(+1)

I thought your game proposal was really cool. The look resembles a game called Minit, you know?

I believe that if you adapt to joysticks, add more motion animations, and room transitions, as well as investing in background music, your game will improve a lot!

I saw here that you, like me, intend to continue developing the game after the jam! I'm quite happy with that! Congratulations on the good project!

Developer

My composer made whole musics and sounds but due to the lack of time, i couldn't add them ;-;
Yeah Minit inspired me, thx to remind me the game's name XD

Submitted

That's a lot of content for a 48h jam. Impressive

Submitted(+1)

Really liked the exploration and the minit-inspired art style! There's quite a lot of content for 48 hours, would love to see this expanded into a full-length game :)

Developer(+1)

Your dream will come true ! I'll work on the post jam version as soon as the votes are ended

Submitted

Love the art style!

Submitted(+1)

the art is nice, the gameplay is fun though I do think the panic attack effect can be played a bit more, maybe make the player the source of the effect. The dialog and overall humor of the game is pretty great, it really kept the game interesting. Good job :D

Developer(+1)

Thx, i'll see what i can do for the post jam version :)

Submitted(+1)

Nice game ! the art was good , remind me a Game boy game XD keep it up  ! -Ivory-

Submitted

I wish I could get past the bugs and explore your world properly. but still, I enjoyed what it has to offer. Well done :)

And if you had time, I'd be thankful if you try my submission <3

Developer(+1)

thx
i have a long to-play list but i'll try :)

Submitted(+1)

This is a really solid submission! I like how you can swing the sword with the mouse, that's a mechanic I've been experimenting with recently and it's very well executed here. Nice submission!

Submitted(+2)

Your game is decent, and could be much better with some changes.

Here's what I think should be changed/problems I encountered:

* The sword is too short.

* Your speed abruptly comes to a halt when you attack which is jarring.

* Checkpoints aren't visible and respawn triggers for dialogue.

* The game crashed when I was killed by a red enemy once.

* The panics take too long

* I got stuck in dialogue after making my way past the sign which requires the paper

* I couldn't tell I picked up the paper in the first place


Here's what you did right:

* Being able to aim the sword while attacking adds a bit more depth because it allows you to get more out of each swing with more effort.

* The dialogue was interesting and kept me wanting to play the game more.

* You showed dangerous enemies in out of reach sections in rooms to demonstrate that they're dangerous without hurting the player which is good design (though you could make the enemy appear more obvious).


I was very intrigued by your game, and I think most of your problems could be fixed easily. I wanted to keep playing but I got stuck in dialogue and decided to quit. I still enjoyed the experience and I think you still did a good job with this game.

Developer(+1)

thank you for the huge feedback !

I got other comments saying the same or the opposite about sole points you made so i'm gonna see what do change. I'm also aware of every bug.

I'm glad you appreciated the small part of the story it was supposed to have. I'll make a post jam version which will be complete and as perfect as possible !

Submitted

You'r game is really nice! It's fun, but i think it have better ways to "get out of control". But like an RPG, it's a really good game!

Submitted(+1)

The presentation is polished, VFX is great, the premise is pretty rich, with enemies, interactions and multiple panels, unfortunately I've had some game breaking bugs along the way :( but that's just one of the drills of jam games: we don't have a lot of time for debugging.

Maybe being able to anticipate panic attacks in some fashion would be interesting too!

Developer

yeah, the game is unfinished

Actually, when the animation (red-blue without distorsions) starts, you have 8 seconds before being unable to move.

Submitted

Ohh right!  I missed that for some reason!

Submitted(+1)

Great idea for a game and I think it fits well in the theme. Gameplay wise I thought the panic attack aspect of it is a good idea however I'm not sure about the player not being able to control the knight at this point.

I noticed when the panic attack starts and I try to move that the effect responds to my input, this would an interesting thing to incorporate while playing and the player having difficulty seeing where they are going. 

The only other thing was the sword, I think for a melee game like this it's best to just have the angle set to the player locally as opposed to having to drag the mouse to various parts of the screen. Something more like old school Zelda where it's based on the player's facing direction.

Other than that this is a really good game with a fair bit of depth to it. Great job on getting all this done the 48!

Submitted(+1)

Hey, hopefully you won't mind me opening my review with some critical feedback. In my opinion, the combat system felt clunky. The sword would sometimes be inside the enemies, and not kill the enemies. My guess is that some enemies have multiple health, but this wasn't clear, I'd attack an enemy expecting it to die, then get wrecked when it didn't. Enemies with more than one health felt very unfair, you had to attack from close quarters, but since you have to stand still for half a second to attack, the enemy basically got a free hit on you. 

Looking at other comments, this is an unpopular opinion, but I'm not a fan of the panic attacks. I don't think they add anything to the game, and I'd imagine the game being the same without them. It was confusing on the first few panic attacks, then when I realised there was a warning, I'd just go off screen until the panic attack ended. There could have been more to the mechanic to make it interesting, perhaps prevent you from leaving the room? I think it'd be neat if you escaped the panic attack when damaged, so that panic attacks aren't an instant death when in a bad position. That way, you could also create some interesting arena shapes that provide minimal cover, and if you do fail to take shelter, the panic attack wouldn't be the end of you. 

It seems like there was a lot of stuff that I unfortunately couldn't get to, because the game broke when you tried to get the new knife. Otherwise though, the graphics are nice, and I like the red highlights on enemies. I like how obstacles have an animation when you hit them, and I just wish enemies could have a similar effect so I know I'm damaging them. I also appreciate the warning and effects applied to the panic attacks. Congrats on completing your game, I really hope the feedback above can help with future projects!

Developer

thank you for the huge feedback !

Yes, the sorta ghost has 2 health and i saw streamers playing the game and saw it was an issue.

I had a lot of opinions about how to improve Panic Attacks and i'm definitively going to make some changes. But there were a bunch of features supposed to be there, some metaphors about the Panic disorder. At first, with the comments,  i was like, "how can people enjoy my game with so little features ?!"

But the post jam version will sure be something great.

Submitted

Very creative and cool! I found some bugs and maybe the attack system needs some work, but overall it's a great game

Viewing comments 56 to 37 of 56 · Next page · Last page