| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall | #1 | 4.381 | 4.381 |
| Horror | #1 | 4.857 | 4.857 |
| Story | #1 | 4.429 | 4.429 |
| Theme | #1 | 4.714 | 4.714 |
| Gameplay | #3 | 3.714 | 3.714 |
| Presentation | #3 | 4.286 | 4.286 |
| Creativity | #4 | 4.286 | 4.286 |
Ranked from 7 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How did you choose to implement the Theme: Christmas Miracle in your game?
The game is set around Christmas Eve and the main character is beseeching a Santa-like entity for help.
Did you implement any of the optional Bonus Challenges, and if so, which ones?
1 - Your choices matter and there's 3 possible endings. One is what you wished for, the other two are horrible.
2- Definitely snowing.
3- No package, went back and forth on this one and decided to stick with the envelope look.
Did you create your game in RPG Maker?
congrats on winning the jam!!! absolutely deserved, like i said in my comment pretty much every part of the game was amazing. and this was a jam with a lot of great titles, so you should feel very proud!! :D
here's to hope we get more projects from you, this was an incredible display of talent that got the respect it deserved!
Heyyyy thanks!!! You know, I had typed out this whole message to you but felt too anxious to send it, but OH WELL - Of all the titles yours really stuck out to me. I've learned now that the quiet part not a lot of people say outloud is that apparently using RTP assets is like, one of the big "no no"s. I don't think it's a point blank deal breaker, but I've noticed a dramatic difference in views and hits on my projects from now vs back when I used RTP assets. I really really enjoyed your game, I thought the timing and pacing was perfect and it moved right along, no crunching, I never felt lost. It's honestly annoying to me yours got ranked so low/didn't get a lot of votes. This isn't me just being nice. I REALLY hope you keep going with game jams too. I'm brand spanking new to pixel art and it's a bit of steep learning curve, but it's doable. I'm using Asesprite and it's been super user friendly so far. I really think you have such skill for story telling, if you take this next leap it will really help get eyes on your work. I really want to watch both of us learn and grow in this community. BLAH. <3
yeahhh, i know default assets can really damage a game's chances (and as i've recently discovered, ESPECIALLY with jams heh). since i don't really have art skills, i thought about making my games stand out in different ways; eye-catching thumbnails, vague descriptions and screenshots, playing with sounds, a focus on storytelling (obviously i'm not the first person to ever do any of this but it's what i could put my efforts into that wasn't art)... and i'm really grateful for the people who decided to try my games, and the people who leave comments like yours! :> but thinking about what you say, i'll admit it does sound nice to have a bigger chance in people trying my projects lol.
i'm also brand new to pixel art, but screw it i'll try it for my next game! thank you so much for recommending a tool, i'll look into it and see how it works and if i'm comfortable with it. you're def one of the nicest commenters i've found on itch.io so far, and your encouragement to new people here and suggestions for making my games stand out are REALLY appreciated. wish you a great future on this website!! <3
(also off topic, i'm gonna go try sweet dreams now, i gotta see what the fuss is about-)
That was a lot... It's dark and quite unnerving at times, way different in tone from the previous game I played from this dev, so I was quite... shaken? Caught off guard, perhaps. But I liked it! I'll try to make things as vague as possible in the first section, as to avoid spoilers.
Simple story here works well, especially in this medium, by which I mean: interactive games. It's slow, but it works, and is not tiring considering its runtime. The most picky of gripes I have are visual (and only because I am picky and I am a visual artist myself), then there is text scrolling, which I did not enjoy, but I'm pretty sure it's an engine limitation. I liked the wording, writing in general, maybe not the letters and poems in them, but the writing is generally very good, simple and evocative. Cave section felt great, dreadful, squelchy and dark, in between that, there are warm and personal thoughts. I especially like how you describe heat, unbearable, choking and dry, I could feel it on my face, back of my throat and my nose felt brittle and dry.
Sorry to compare it to Sweet Dreams, but I'll do it now! All I Want is way better technically, no apparent bugs or weird and uncertain sections, the small scope probably helped lots. You're definitely growing fast as an RPG Maker developer, I'm actually pretty excited for more of your games, but it also was simpler? More tropey? I got the "what you wished for" ending on my first try. I liked it the most, too. The other endings did not feel very good. I think it might've worked better as a linear experience. The choices and instructions leading to them felt a bit arbitrary.
====!! spoiler section !!====
======================
I'm not sure if I got all the endings? Do both "bad" endings end in decapitation? Only in different points of the story? They felt abrupt, a little forced, they felt like they were implemented just to have multiple endings and a way to fail. The newspaper leading to both of the "guilty" people was a nice thing (I noticed it only on my second playthrough, since I skimmed the text and got lucky on my first, oops). The red text above, was a nice addition for sure. The kettle was a really small thing, but I liked how it works a lot, and the infinitely scrolling forest!! That was fun!
Another thing I noticed. If you do not select an option to sleep in the lava room, but you still click enter, it makes a funny error sound.
== !! personal section (boo!!) ==
Sorry to rush the second part of the comment, but I got quite tired (it's pretty late here) and I wanted to post it today, so I won't forget anything. Also, sorry if I sounded bored, I tried very hard to be constructive, and it's hard to write good sentences. Hopefully it's pretty useful...? Game was fun. Glad I played it. You did a good job on this one!
Hi! Thank you so much for playing it! It's so cool to hear the perspective of someone watching me along my dev journey, haha. This one is a HUGE shift from my previous one, it's true. It's funny, one of the biggest critiques I got (outside of the battles being a slog) is Sweet Dreams wasn't scary enough, and I'm realizing that just maybe I overcorrected a bit with this one, haha. Also, my young nephew really wanted to play Sweet Dreams so I kept it pretty PG, whereas he doesn't know this one exists so I let myself lean in a lot more. I really appreciate you giving it a go and trusting me with this MUCH darker story/theme.
(SPOILERS!) There are three endings and two ways to get one of the endings (the bad one). There's a happy ending if you manage to follow the instructions perfectly, where she gets what she actually wants at the end. The Medium ending, which ends with her wish but with a sick twist and the bad ending which you experienced. I wanted it to intentionally feel a little unfair, kind of in the thread of, people who are taken advantage of in a time of heartbreak or need because they're willing to try Anything (like psychics who offer to find your missing kid and that kind of thing). I wanted it to be cagey and hard on purpose and for most people to stumble into the Medium ending on their first go. I went back and forth on making the poems longer with more explicit instructions but I know most people don't like that kind of thing and the concept was risky enough so I decided to keep them short. AND I had a whole plot where it was a friend of a friend who comes over and introduces the main character to the concept of the letters and that would have probably given more context to the Bad Ending, but alas, time being what it is I just didn't have time and again, tried to just simplify it. So hearing your thoughts on it is super helpful and super fair. You're right that it kinda comes out of nowhere.
I am SO EXTATIC you noticed the newspaper thing!!! I was so worried no one would realize what I did there, haha. I knew that the last puzzle was too frustratingly unfair and last minute (it was one of the last things I drew) I threw that in as a gift to anyone who would replay it. I REALLY hoped it would be something you specifically only noticed on a second playthrough. I am so thrilled that's how it played out for you. Also the kettle! Haha, it's one of those things where I'm up at 1 am drawing a silly sprite thinking "no one is going to notice if the steam is rising, I'm being silly", so hearing you liked the kettle interaction just brings my heart warmth, lol.
Sorry for the wall of text, I just so appreciate your thoughtful feedback and giving my game a go! I imagine my future games will still be scary, but maybe a little less dreadfully sad in the future. This one was a little hard to work on, if I'm honest, haha. But I've got many many more stories in my heart I'm stoked to share with the world. <3
I actually liked the battles in Sweet Dreams, but that's me probably being a weirdo haha. Also I realized I did not get the best ending. Got the medium one and assumed all endings are super dark (I kind of liked the idea of all bad endings, it's extremely depressing though. I'm glad there's some hope) I'll definitely try getting the good one tomorrow!!
Also sorry I kind of did not connect the theme of con artists getting advantage of vulnerable people... Which I should have. When I look back it makes so much more sense, all they do is make weird things up (usually completely unconnected to the situation) to make you believe and trust them to get what they want. Those instructions from envelopes are very reminiscent....
I really enjoyed reading your reply. I hope you don't mind my own wall of text hah. I'm looking forward to your next project! Good luck!!
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