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A jam submission

Icebound MachinesView game page

Finding community in a frozen hellscape
Submitted by futur_null — 17 hours, 38 minutes before the deadline
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Icebound Machines's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Overall#53.7173.717
Creativity#54.0834.083
Art#63.9173.917
Gameplay#63.7503.750
Sound#73.3333.333
Use of Theme#103.5003.500

Ranked from 12 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

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Comments

Submitted (3 edits) (+1)

Overall, one of the better entries of the jam. Definitely larger in scope befitting and month-long jam. I recommend it.

  • Use of Theme - 4
    • Involves both physical and mental recovery themes.
  • Gameplay - 4 [SPOILERS]
    • I'm not a huge fan on visual novels TBH. But this kept me going to the end.
    • I thought there might be some puzzles given the calendar entries - but it seemed to all play out without needing the information
    • The main character and Laura character portraits were strange - I started thinking you were trying to do a split personality thing but wasn't convinced
    • The Laura conversation dialogue fit in-game thematically but limited the text so lot's of abbreviations and stuff that made me think she was half brain-dead - which opposes the story-line that she could be ascending
  • Creativity - 4
    • Good job on trying something unique and interesting
  • Art & Sound - 4
    • Both added value to the game
Developer

Thank you for checking it out, and for the in-depth review! About the situation with Laura - I wanted to leave that one somewhat open. There isn't one single "right" way to read it. Her being delirious is a valid interpretation (and one that would lead you to not leaving her there.) I'm glad you found the story engaging!

Submitted(+1)
  • Use of Theme - 4
    • At first i thought that the game didn't have much to do with the theme other than the mission to recover Laura's body. But after reaching the end i understood what you went for and i liked it. Not the most alusive but it worked.
  • Gameplay - 4
    • The game was well done, it was engaging, fun and kept it interesting through constant changes of scenarios and objectives, which i find can make or break a game like this one. Only one thing i did not understand was the different portraits in the messages when the character or the "narrator" was speaking. The portraits were really blurry, maybe intentionally, idk if we are supposed to figure out what they represent but i couldn't.
  • Creativity - 5
    • The story was very well written, as well as the characters and the different storylines (i played it twice). So good job on that end.
  • Art - 4
    • I think the art was all very homogenous which made the game very immersive, it was not the prettiest game but it conveyed the message and that's what matters.
  • Sound - 4
    • The sound was good, i appreciated the changes in the BGM everytime the mood shifted.
Developer(+1)

Thanks for checking out the game, and for leaving an in-depth review! The feedback is very helpful. I did want the portraits in the speech boxes to be abstract, but I think I overdid it, haha.

Submitted(+1)

I had a lot of fun playing the game. I love the story and the decisions. If I find the time, I will play it again with another ending. 

The only thing I can think of that would make the game better would be voiceovers, but you can't expect that from a solo developer.

Great job.

Developer

Thank you for checking out the game! There's a lot of small variations in the dialogue, and of course the one big decision that leads to the three different endings.

Voice acting is something I'd love to add in the future, if I can find the right people for it. I've found that bad voice acting can actually hurt a game, so for now it's just the little voice barks. It's a good idea though.

Submitted

In any case, I want to try to convince Roza easier, even if I think that the other options will also be blocked. And of course I'm interested in the other endings.

Yes, I understand that. Better the sound effects than bad voice acting.we worked with voice overs in the last 2 game jams, this time we decided against it because there were only two of us, it would have limited the number of characters a lot and it just takes a lot of time.

Submitted(+1)

I really enjoyed this visual novel. I don't think it fit the theme to incredibly well, but I found the story and overall feel of the game to be really enjoyable. I enjoyed the humor scattered throughout the narrator at the SFX were extremely well done. The SFX really made the world feel alive and lived in. Great jop!

Developer

Thank you for checking it out, and for the kind words! The theme mostly comes into play during the endings (which offer three different interpretations of what "recovery" could mean for the characters), but it could have probably been integrated more strongly. Thanks for the feedback.