Very, very strong entry! Really loved the atmosphere - obviously some BioShock vibes but the carnival theme makes it feel like its own thing. The ambient sound design is great, although volume wise seemed a little loud on my end. And just in general, the level of mechanics felt really polished - definitely feel like this could be expanded into a longer game. Nice work!
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Siren's Wharf (Game Jam)'s itch.io pageComments
This is a pretty solid horror shooter and you've done a decent job of merging it into a whole, cohesive experience. As you've commented, this is a game that was cut a little short, but as it stands it's pretty enjoyable and honestly quite a lot of work to assemble together between two people for a jam.
As others have noted, the stylistic cue for the game is Bioshock, but I think that's a good thing - having influential reference points can help players pick up on whether they think they'd like the direction. As it is, having played it, it isn't specifically too indebted to the game at all - if still very inspired!
The gameplay is pretty standard but you've added quite a lot for a jam: dialog menus, pickup ammo, and a health system. I like how you've taken the direction of including some minor puzzles which make the gameplay a bit more nuanced. This could easily be fleshed out into a more full experience.
Constructive criticism for this game would mostly just be me saying, I'd be keen to see more! There's a lot more potential for games like this and some better variety in the levels and weapons, as well as more dynamic monster spawns, and I think you could do everything you can hope for with this.
I did a playthrough below:
Keep it up! This game is a solid foundation for something really good. I think you've done super well :)
- FSV
Thank you! I'd love to expand it and be able to add the full story in, the other monsters I designed (didn't have time to implement), and the other areas of the park we had planned. But, I don't think Entropy will go for it unless we get a big positive response. Ha ha.
I'll probably convince him to do some other games with me in the future though and he is doing a solo full length project (though I usually do some minor editing/playtesting on his solo stuff) called Ad Infernum at the moment as well! :)
Thanks for doing a video on it! Glad you had fun!
There were definitely a lot of things we had to cut back on, but we're happy with the core gameplay we managed to fit in. Expanding on it would be cool if we weren't already hard at work on a different project. We've got a few past games that are sort of similar, as well as an upcoming one that's a couple years in to development. It's like this sort of this style, but a full game, with a lot more polish. Those are all on my itch profile. Thanks again for checking it out!
Reminded me a lot of Bioshock.
The premise of the game is a bit blurry, although once you get into the action, it kicks you off with a fantastic fast paced shooting and well created environments. The navigation is kind of odd, you constantly have the pop-up bar about the objectives, I wish that would have been changed for a better immersion, but other than that, I really enjoyed my time.
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