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Adventure Jam 2022

Hosted by Cassie Benter, Cheeseness, Stacy Davidson · #AdvJam2022

1,217

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A jam submission

Shadow of The MorriganView game page

Help Ruairì, lost in the world of Druidic, in this mystery adventure

Submitted by The Icehouse (@theicehouse_col) — 51 minutes, 22 seconds before the deadline

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Shadow of The Morrigan's itch.io page

Results

Criteria	Rank	Score*	Raw Score
Atmosphere	#8	4.000	4.000
Mental Engagement	#29	2.417	2.417
Overall	#31	2.667	2.667
Lasting Impression	#35	2.500	2.500
Emotional Engagement	#37	2.250	2.250
Characterization	#42	2.167	2.167

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

Morphi / Hot-GothicsSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

This game automatically made me think of an Elder Scrolls game when I entered it haha

Having the little spyglass icons on the map definitely helped with finding things. I wasn't able to finish the game but if you ever released a walkthrough video I would love to watch it. I'm definitely curious how it goes and how it ends since I wasn't able to get very far.

Personally I'd want to add a mission guide for those who get lost in these sorts of games easily - that way we know what we need to be doing. After I found the diary and saw there were specific steps to follow I definitely wanted for that even more as I'd have to go back to the diary to re-read the steps if I didn't write it down.

I really appreciate the field of focus visually too.

Submitted

Potion Making with Morphi! (Currently a Story Demo)

The IcehouseDeveloper1 year ago

Thanks for your comment and kind words! Glad to read that you liked the mood of the game (reminding Elder Scrolls! <3)

Regarding the puzzles to solve and the diary: well I agree, and at the same time it's not supposed to be an easy game that takes the player by the hand. I know that it would make Shadow easier and more accessible to a vast majority of people, but I also wanted to keep the heritage of games like Myst. These games were atmospheric and beautiful but very challenging: you had to take notes on paper, visit the world, come back on your steps, think differently until you realise that you have the answer...

Well, I will think about it. Maybe I will add a menu with a list of objectives, and try to add the diary in the inventory to read it at any time. For the moment I try to focus on finishing the game (the story was developed at 50% during the Jam).

I don't think anyone will make a walkthrough video, but I will write one in the devlog of the game. Take a look if you have the time!

George BroussardSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

Nice effort for 2 weeks. I tried to complete it, I really die. Clocked 1h 15m before I gave up. Here’s what I did:

Got the magic bow
Got rid of crow and got his feather (this cost some time because it’s a small area to actually target the crow to get the scene to shoot it!)
Found both books and read them. Read 2nd book at camp for how to do the 5 fingers (I think).
Got the sickle
I could only access 3 of the signposts?
I could not lower the bridge or get across the river to reach the other two?

I seem stuck at this point.

Most everything is fine for a jam game. But…when it got dark, the game becomes very not fun and unplayable. It’s very hard to see. I waited like 30m to see if it would get bright again. Increasing the collision on the Crow would have helped people maybe get farther? You bump into a giant collider on the path and think you’re blocked when there’s really a small area to the left where you can target the crow.

I still do not know how to “say” or recite one of the 5 words properly (assuming I could even access the other two signs). I tried every type of click/input I could at the 5 finger monument by the crows.

Great visuals and music/sound atmosphere. Design is likely too involved/hard for a jam game. Some of the play is a little obtuse to figure out and player will bounce off it (see the thread).

Don’t take any of this poorly and it’s just meant to be constructive. You could likely fix most of the issues in a day or two. In this case I think you likely got caught up on visuals and maybe spent a little too little time on the scripting. Or you were new to Adventure Creator?

Good effort though and I would at least spend a few days wrapping it up and polishing it so more people can finish and enjoy it.

Submitted

The IcehouseDeveloper1 year ago

Hi George, thanks for the feedback!

Got rid of crow and got his feather (this cost some time because it’s a small area to actually target the crow to get the scene to shoot it!)

Ah yes, I know, I will try to fix it. It's because the hotspot is too far.

I could only access 3 of the signposts

The 2 last ones can be accessed as soon as you break The Morrigan's magical bareer at the end of the misty path (where you found the bow).

I could not lower the bridge or get across the river to reach the other two?

You can't lower it from the side of the river where you start the game. You have to break the magical bareer to access to the Dolmen and the other side of the river.

When it got dark, the game becomes very not fun and unplayable.

Sorry. It is meant to be like this, just like the game series I used as a reference (Myst). More recently in the genre you had Quern or Call of the Sea. You have to be careful to the details around you because there are clues hidden in the environment, that is useful to progress in the game. I'm quite aware that this kind of game is not very popular nowadays and that, as a Jam project, I probably failed to create the kind of experience that I wanted to, but I'm sure you could beat it easily with a bit of help.

For example: The Morrigan's magical bareer must have a device or something to be disabled. If you search around the bareer, have you found the red hand painted on a stone, with numbers? You should go find it, then try to find where you can use this information. Isn't there another place in the mountains with "fingers" that you could use?

I still do not know how to “say” or recite one of the 5 words properly

I'm pretty sure that you'll find out after breaking the magical bareer. It's one of the first stages in the game, after finding and using the bow (both can be done in any order: first use the bow, or first break the bareer. You have used the bow, very good!).

Once you find the 2 last signposts, use the diary to see how to compose each word, then use the full incantation made of 5 words.

Design is likely too involved/hard for a jam game.

I don't think so, I make difficult games all the time. Being a Jam game or not doesn't matter in my opinion. It's an experience and an experiment, for both the dev and the player. You like the game or not :) But I'm glad that you appreciate the effort I put into it! Thanks!

Some of the play is a little obtuse to figure out

Well this is probably because you've not played a Myst game before. Or maybe my interpretation of Myst game has been wrong all the time ahah (I've released several commercial Myst-like games and the amateurs of the genre seem to like them in general?)

Don’t take any of this poorly and it’s just meant to be constructive.

Ah no, don't worry, it's great. I like to read feedback to progress. It's not easy to please everyone when you make a game (including myself ahah). What you said is interesting. I thought that Shadow of The Morrigan was quite easy (compared to what I did in the past), but there are actually several issues that came to my mind through all the comments:

1 - the island is vast and it's easy to get lost, and to miss an important clue

2 - some people like the current gameplay with keyboard, others would prefer a point and click gameplay

3 - players nowadays don't seem to like too much a challenging puzzle game ahah.

4 - if I want to make the game more modern (with the use of full 3d), then I need to make also the gameplay and game design more modern, and not just do it in the old way like I always did. For this I would need to play more of the modern puzzle/adventure games in 1st person view, and see how they are done.

Or you were new to Adventure Creator?

Yes and no. I have never done a polished commercial game with it but I have already created several Jam games. However it was the first time that I was using Adventure Creator for a 1st person experience, and it was quite different of what I did in the past.

I would at least spend a few days wrapping it up and polishing it so more people can finish and enjoy it.

Absolutely! I will continue to work on it in the future until it is more "finished". Cheers!

George BroussardSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

I missed the stone with the red hand, will look for it. Thanks. In such a detailed environment you likely need something to draw the player’s attention to smaller hotspots they can target? I assumed all were marked on the map and that’s likely incorrect, or I just missed it.

re: getting dark…some things are just objectively bad and poor game design, despite other games doing it. Myst etc are 30y old and were never really that well designed to begin with (just new and very pretty at the time). Call of the Sea was on my list to play soon. Not to debate, but that darkness just breeds player frustration here. You may be able to tweak it and polish it (maybe make items glow a little in the dark etc) but I’d advise against it. It’s 100% ok to make hard/challenging games, but you always have to factor in fairness and having the player blame themselves and not the game or developer. In the case of the time of day, they will all do the latter.

You can certainly make a modern adventure game with FP view and items and walking around solving puzzles. That will 100% work and will actually be an order of magnitude more successful than traditional point and click games if done properly. 3D is just more popular and mass market. It’s a valid path to pursue.

George BroussardSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

Well Icehouse, I’m stubborn and beat the game ;)

Lost 30m more because of the font. RAT = NAT, R = N! Man… ;)

Enjoyed the vibe and overall mood. Would play a very polished up version of this sort of game.

The IcehouseDeveloper1 year ago

Thanks for taking more time to play and for the detailed feedback.

re: getting dark

What do you mean? Like it's the night suddenly? The lighting or darkness are not changing in the game, there's no weather or night cycles, so I don't get it.

George BroussardSubmitted1 year ago (1 edit) (+1)

What do you mean? Like it’s the night suddenly? The lighting or darkness are not changing in the game, there’s no weather or night cycles, so I don’t get it.

Hmmm, weird…I have these shots I took when it was dark. No idea what I did but seems like a bug then, or maybe some timer issue with any weather asset you may be using? Maybe the game needs to run a while for it to happen, but on the second playthrough I was loading from a save game, so I don’t know.

The IcehouseDeveloper1 year ago (1 edit)

Uh weird, this is not supposed to happen. There is no setting in the weather effect to make the world become dark. This never happened to me or to anyone else that I know. I think it could be related to your pc maybe? Are you sure your GPU is not overheating, which could explain that kind of trouble?

Well I don't know. I'm taking your screenshots very seriously, so thanks for sharing them. I'll check everything in the game to try to discover if something's wrong. But it's really weird that it never happened to me or to anyone else who played.

Could you please edit your comment and delete the 2nd screenshot, as it gives the answer to the puzzle? Thanks.

George BroussardSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

I don’t think it’s overheating. I regularly play something like Escape From Tarkov for 6-7 hours. Deleted the shot. Sorry about that.

Machine is pretty updated and always on new drivers, never crashes on me and is stable. Just weird development issues that always seem to happen. Let the game run for an hour or something and run around and see what happens when you get time. I remember the game being fine, then it just went dark and I thought “Ok must be some day/night thing or I triggered something”. Only other thing of note is that I saved/loaded a bunch.

Good luck with it.

The IcehouseDeveloper1 year ago

I think it might be the save system then, I might have forgotten to add a script or something. I'll take a look for the next update! Thanks for your help.

CarenalgaSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

The atmosphere of the game is great. Like the click-to-move mechanic with the walking animation, but sometimes it is confusing to know where you will go to. The story looks interesting, but I couldn't get too far (in my first session because the PC get stuck, in my second one because despite I had the bow with the cursed arrow, I couldn't get rid off the crow). I'll try it again after playing other submissions.

Played both the jam version and the 0.6 version. Rated the game based on the first one (because of the rules 🤗😉 ).

Submitted

The IcehouseDeveloper1 year ago

Hey! So good to read that the atmosphere was great!

The Jam version is full of bugs. I spent a lot of time on the point and click gameplay but it doesn't work well. And I didn't participate during the 14 days unfortunately... As a result you can't finish the game in this version.

Version 0.6 doesn't seem to have a game breaking bug (at least nobody told me), but it is indeed difficult to kill the crow because the hotspot on it is too far and hard to reach. I will fix that later. You can however get rid of him, it's possible (in case you were wondering). You need to combine the bow and another item in your inventory (so find a bow if you don't have it). Use the minimap and search around the areas with a magnifying glass.

Thanks a lot for playing and leaving a comment!

z10Submitted1 year ago(+1)

The atmosphere of the game is very nice and the druidic story surely has potential. Sadly the jam release version had a game breaking walking bug so I did not manage to get very far. People with motion sickness would probably appreciate a teleport mode. Too bad you could not get to a further state of the game because of migraine, I would have loved to explore more of your world.

Submitted

The IcehouseDeveloper1 year ago

Thank you! Sorry for the game breaking bug in the jam release. It's full of bugs and it's impossible to finish the game in version 0.1...

There are various gameplay issues anyway. Not sure what I will do for the final version (point and click, teleport, walk with keyboard...). It would seem that most people usually prefer to play with mouse+keyboard, that's why I included it in v0.5 instead of the failing point and click gameplay. But on the other hand I am one of these people who suffer of motion sickness so my preference would go to the teleportation system. I just tried to do something "for everyone", but it's not possible.

Anyway that was fun to work on this project, I learned many things!

Congrats to you for the release of Oh My God! I love the work of Esmeralda and together you've created a very nice game that I finished with delight.

G.C. KatzSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

Really beautiful environments. You have put a ton of work into all the atmospheric stuff--fog, rain, water, waving grass, as well as the fonts and the really lovely music. The map is large, but I didn't mind because it was so clearly meant to be wandered around in (and because you helpfully included so many navigational aids, much appreciated).

The keybinding problem really is something you should pop in and fix though--it would only take a few minutes!

Submitted

The IcehouseDeveloper1 year ago (1 edit)

Thanks a lot, I'm glad you liked the work on the environment so much! Ok well maybe I will take a look into the key issue today then... I wanted to wait for the end of the Jam votes before I post a new update, but I'll see what I can do. It's true that it could really help several players to enjoy the experience more. Sorry for that!

JaggerSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

It's a great work!

A world like this in two weeks? Respect!

Yes, take a look at the entries and you see, that there is a wide range for games called "Adventure"!

Yours Sir, is an adventure for sure. And a good looking one with a perfect atmosphere, thank you!

Submitted

Die Villa - dem Villa sein zweiter Teil!

JaggerSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

Just tried the 0.5 Version.
The movement is wrong. a and w are reversed. On purpose?

btw in my oppinion, the click-movement was, I don't know how to say it correctly in english, more chill and more matching to the mood.

The IcehouseDeveloper1 year ago(+1)

Thanks for the feedback! Ah yes other people told me about the A and W reversed... No it's not on purpose, I did a mistake here :(

I think I will try to change back to the point and click gameplay, but in a different way. I still need to learn and try various techniques to find what works best.

For the moment I'm not posting any new update before the end of the voting period of Adventure Jam. And to be honest I don't have any free time to spend on this project right now unfortunately D:

Anyway I'm glad you liked the world of the game and found that it is indeed an "Adventure" game!

AnonymousDuckSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

I liked the idea of finding oneself having driven to some mysterious place and the resulting juxtaposition of the car and the wilderness. I found the game to be a bit forceful in getting the player to experience it in a particular way, with lots of text at the beginning, lots of invisible wallsand preventing you from walking backwards from the starting position.

Submitted

The IcehouseDeveloper1 year ago

Thanks for the feedback! Interesting. I don't know if there's so much text? It's an adventure game so for me there has to be a story and some narrative elements, but I enjoy reading, and I love games with long stories. I agree about the invisible walls, but I didn't have the time to do more in the Jam :( It's not an opened-world, but isn't there enough exploration already? It is true that everything is thought to force the player to follow the paths that exist, but on the other, even with the invisible walls the island is vast and there's a lot to explore, and it's still easy to get a little lost. The purpose is more to focus on solving the puzzles, which are not so easy if you're not used to that kind of game. I don't know, it's just my opinion. I've tried to make a kind of mix between recent narrative games like Dear Esther and old puzzle adventures like Myst, but maybe I failed, or maybe you just don't like that? :D (which I totally respect)

DwarvenJesterSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

I agree with the commenters below. Very atmospheric, and a great environment. I can see why people would want it as a VR experience!

Submitted

The IcehouseDeveloper1 year ago

Thanks! Will keep it in mind for the VR. Interesting... I need to find a headset and learn how to use it in development. That was also one of the ideas behind the point and click gameplay that I first tried to do during the Jam. So why not! I'm just not ready for it right now :)

BlurredGames1 year ago(+1)

A very atmospheric experience... like a dream... beautiful enviroments, interesting and mysterious story... as I read in another post it would be a very cool experience for VR.

Very good work in such a short time! 👏

The IcehouseDeveloper1 year ago(+1)

Yes, it's true, but I can't do VR :D I don't have a headset and I think I would be nauseous haha
Thanks for your comment! Very appreciated.

DaniMSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

Very interesting and immersive experience, so dreamy, this would be very cool in VR!

Experienced a bug when exiting and loading a saved game, had a tutorial pop up and couldn't get rid of it.

Submitted

Last Christmas (Game Jam Version)

The IcehouseDeveloper1 year ago

Many thanks for playing and leaving a comment! I'm glad you liked the experience. VR would be a great addition, I agree, but I don't have the hardware.

Sorry for the bug. Will try to fix it for the next update!

Brian VictorSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

Very beautiful scenery, super cool environment.

I saw a problem, the 'W' key moves to the side and the key 'A' to the front. moving like this is very strange.

But the game is beautiful.

Submitted

The IcehouseDeveloper1 year ago

Oh good to know, I'll fix that with the next update then. Thanks! Can you play with the arrows in the meantime?

KethramSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

Looks very nice.

Didn't play very long though, the camera movement was very sensitive, made me seasick. I only tried the Jam release version, using the updated version would defeat the whole 2 weeks deadline of the jam

Submitted

Underground Adventure

The IcehouseDeveloper1 year ago (3 edits)

Thanks for playing and for the comment!

Oh weird that it is sensitive, I took a long time choosing the cursor options. We might have a different mouse sensitivity on our computers? Might also depend on the resolution, I don't know.

Technically the new version 0.5 was made in less than 2 weeks. I joined the Jam on Tuesday of the first week (while it started on the weekend before), and I also didn't work during the next weekend because I was sick with migraine. But I totally understand, just wanted to give my opinion about this :)