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A jam submission

Shadows of BurdenView game page

A game about the luggage we carry on.
Submitted by oddgoo (@oddgoo), Heeny — 4 minutes, 51 seconds before the deadline
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Shadows of Burden's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Presentation#24.4764.476
Concept#93.5243.524
Enjoyment#143.1433.143
Overall#173.2983.298
Use of the Limitation#552.0482.048

Ranked from 21 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Team members
@oddgoo and Heeny

Software used
Unity, Bitwig, Audacity, Affinity Photo

Cookies eaten
2

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

Very nice :)

It's very visually appealing and well put together, although I did get stuck between platforms a couple of times with no clear way to escape. The theme is nice, you put in a lot of effort and it shows.

Submitted

Incredible game! The visual art style and music fits to the story vert well, and the core inner story is so deep. Everybody need take a breath~

Submitted(+1)

Very nice scenic game! Well made for 3 days only. This could definitely be expanded into a full release. 

Submitted(+1)

That was unexpected. Really awesome design, a simple but matching mechanic, a beautiful music.

I guess this is more a narrative game than anything else, but really cute to play with!

Developer

Thanks Dakhaimie, it was a lot of fun brainstorming on the music and atmosphere. Glad it somewhat delivered :) 

Submitted(+2)

What a deep game, i think that everyone could connect with this in one way or another, you two made me shred a tear, really...

Submitted

It's awesome how you did that, when your vision grows, problems look smaller, you really can take readings of almost every event in the game. 
The only thing i can say being critical is that the character looks like a human, nothing else.

Developer

That's so sweet. To be able to relate on this level with another is so wonderful. Thank you Elvendwarf!

(1 edit) (+2)

Heya I am doing video first impressions / feedback / my thoughts. Really awesome entry, especially for a 3 day game jam. Strong aesthetics for sure. it got me contemplative. I dont talk as much in this video as I probably should, I kinda got caught up in my own thoughts for the early part of it.

Developer(+1)

We watched the whole video and very much enjoyed your thoughts and comments! We are very glad that you engaged with a lot of the elements we put in (specially that music box haha), and gratetful that you played it so many times!

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

In terms of limitations and gameplay,  I think this was most wonderful and sent a deep message. The music, the art, the presentation of this game was extremely astonishing as well. It really showed me to take a breather and relax sometimes and try not to carry so much weight all the time(literally AND figuratively). Amazing job on this game!

Developer

Thank you Rykuzu. Such generous words! We had so many ideas and it was a challenging to fit it all in. But we are happy that it resonated to a certain extent.  

Submitted(+1)

Beautiful concept and experience. I especially enjoyed the beginning  and how the movement and scale increased little by little. I also liked how you revisited it, like a false sense of defeating the burden.  Nice simple enjoyable game experience. I think some nice narration as the words appear could even enhance the experience.

Developer

Thank you for your kind words, Jordon - Narration is a good idea!

Submitted(+1)

very  nice art and animations. and the idea of growing to be able to complete parts of the level is cool. nicely done!

(+2)

you made me cry and smile

thank you :)

Developer

Then the whole thing was worth it for us.  Thank you for sharing ;__;

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

New version with improved / less slidy controls now live.

Submitted(+2)

I like how emotional the content is especially complemented by the music and it's aesthetics. The story being told somewhat makes up for the lack of gameplay but that means it is more accessible to a broader more casual audience. It's like reading a short story book that a lot of people could connect with in a spiritual level. Nice use of animations as well.

Developer

Thank you very much for playing :). Feeling like a short story book is a big win for us!

Submitted(+2)

Truly excellent stuff, topped off by phenomenal music. I liked the way the player gets introduced to the experience as well. Only thing that felt a bit off were the overly "slidy" controls. Otherwise, 10/10. +1 for hommage to a great book.

Developer

Thanks a lot s0lly! Heeny is very happy to hear that as she made the music. We went back and fixed the slidiness.  Yeah, the book made a difference in our lives and wanted to make this to keep reminding us of the lessons. 

Submitted(+2)

I like the more story-driven approach here, but the gameplay is a little off. The collisions and physics feel a bit off-- in this kind of game, you don't have to do anything extremely in depth, but here it feels slidy in a way that distracts from the experience. Nice job with the vibes, though.

Developer

Thanks a lot for the feedback! We went back and re-did the controls to make them more responsive and less slidy. Collisions are slightly better too but drastic improvements there will require too much change at this stage. Thanks again for playing.

Submitted(+2)

I think the metaphorical concept of being literally consumed by thoughts being manifest as this huge ball of stuff is pretty neat. I was able to recognize the influence of CBT even before reading the description so it's conveyed well in the game. I do think the execution of the concept does make it a bit more sappy than it has to be.

The raw gameplay itself is pretty dry as all you do is move left and move right but I do like how at the start the glasses are just within reach so the player knows where to go. It was also pretty cool to walk back to where you once were storywise now that the character is bigger. The visuals are pretty neat too. I do think the writing feels a bit sappy though.

In terms of the limitation, the game does remind me of like a reverse katamari damacy where the ball gets smaller and smaller, so it's clear an inanimate object is a huge influence on the game but I do feel like I was playing as the human character.

I really like that you listed the estimated time to complete the game as ten minutes. I think that's a pretty good thing to include.

Thanks for making this game

Developer(+1)

Thank you Clementine for the very thought-out review, and the kind words you have given us.

Based on your and others' feedback, we have substantially changed the controls to be less floaty and slidy. I was constatly feeling the "reverse katamari" too!

Thanks again for playing and happy new year!

Submitted(+2)

Muy buena presentacion gráfica, me gustó mucho

Developer(+1)

Muchas Gracias!