I really love the atmosphere in your game, it's really nice with elements of surprise, creepiness and mystery. I think I am understanding some of what your trying to do, leave me with this dreamy theme impression on what's going on, and I appreciate and like that. I think in some ways you did a good job on it, but it still seemed easy to feel a bit lost and confused, only because I feel we need to be told a little more about the situation or have our main character react a bit more to her thoughts on why she ends up in these different places, more of a reaction from her on her past where you brought it up too. You can keep us not knowing much, but we need to see something more from the main character and get told a bit more so we don't feel a little too lost or too confused if that make sense? This isn't too hard to fix though, I think just reveal a bit more, not everything, you don't have to reveal much either, but just reveal a bit more to what's going on is the answer. It was quite short but I enjoyed the dialogue, walking around, the mapping, and I wanted things to be a little clearer on what's going on outside of that. Overall I enjoyed your short game. I wish you the best of luck with what you choose to do next! : )
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Receptivity (Introduction)'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Playability & Innovation | #11 | 2.000 | 2.000 |
| Fun & Appeal | #11 | 2.000 | 2.000 |
| Overall | #12 | 2.000 | 2.000 |
Ranked from 1 rating. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Judge feedback
Judge feedback is anonymous.
- Lack of intro is jarring. Very little music. Silence wasn't used to good effect. No crossroads (A fork in the road isn't technically a crossroad)
Game Name
Receptivity (Introduction)
Developer Name(s)
Ivy, Vasilva
Comments
Receptivity is a short game which is more a story than a game. It's also very linear and there isn't a lot of choices to make.
I don't really know what to say else, so I'll go straight for the points I think deserve attention.
- The title of the game seems to be actually "receptivity" without capital R. Where is the mistake?
- You really want to check the door when the character leaves work.
- So you can take the bus only by interacting with one of the two tiles on which the bus stop is present? At first, I thought it was because you wanted the player to access it by the opening which could have been a nice detail. But it fell flat when I noticed you could also access the bus stop by the side.
- The "It's getting late. I should get a place to stay." event. You can trigger it multiple times by moving up and down at the border. You might want to try avoiding that, this is unnecessary. Maybe every time the player is "trying to leave", but not every time the character makes a step in the wrong direction.
- Speaking of which, there is not this message for the North path? Why? And also some signs can be interacted with and some that are visually identical cannot? Without explanations? That's a clear case of lack of consistency.
- When the character enters the house, the door visually closes in front of her before she gets teleported inside.
- If you insist a bit to go upstairs, the character can basically walk on the ceiling. If you really didn't wanted this to happen, you could have just make the character go back downstairs instead of just turning it away.
- OMG! I disintegrated her! (The same thing happens if she is interacted with from the left too.)
- Interacting with her from the right and decide to hold her hand, the game softlocks. (The cutscene is a little weird when interacted from the left, but the game doesn't softlock.)
- Something less easy, but if there is no use for save files, you might want to try to get rid of the "Continue" option on the title screen.
- Now I want to know... WHO KILLED THE FIRE? RESPOND!
*hem* Anyway, this is all I have to say. I think it could be nice if there were more polish and maybe an... actual game in all this. Like... I know visual novels are a thing... But even in that domain, Receptivity (or receptivity?) falls flat. On top of that, there is a clear lack of quality check: there is inconsistencies, characters disappear for no reason when interacted with from a certain position and a softlock near the end that could have easily been fixed.
Verdict: Receptivity is very very flawed and would have required a lot more care. Now, don't let this get to you the wrong way. I know I pointed out a lot of negative points, but this is what constructive criticism is made for. Pointing out the wrong so you can eventually get things better. You have a great artist on your side, the artwork she did is splendid. But to me, that's not enough.
I wish you to improve your skills and eventually come back with a better project or maybe an enhanced version of Receptivity/receptivity where it will be... more than it actually is.
Good luck!
Hey! I really appreciate the fact that you went out of your way to play my game. Seriously. Having actual outsiders playing and looking for value behind it is a breath of fresh air.
The lack of depth and excessive bugs you reported happened due to poor time management, which I apologize for- I was SUPER hyped for RMMZ and decided to do this game while in ANOTHER gamejam. Entirely my fault, of course. I’m just saying this for context. (the capital R was a mistake on my part, again! the title is supposed to be entirely lowercase.)
That said, I’m writing everything you pointed out down and will make sure to correct every bug in the short term. I plan to re-release both of my gamejam projects as fleshed out games before the end of 2020, so, if you want to keep up with that, I can promise progress!
Again, thank you so much for your time and honesty. Hope you have a good day!
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