I liked looking for clues to solve the puzzle of getting more levels.
The level design is fairly well executed as well, even though it's fairly simplistic.
One of the best implementations of the theme, I would argue. Though it is a little unsubtle because it shows that there are more levels at the beginning.
The thing I liked the least was the narrative. Lots of dialogue that I wanted to skip to get to the action. Tutorial included. In fact I clicked as fast as possible, then deduced how to play on my own.
There's no audio at all in the game, which is a shame. Just a few sounds would have helped.
Graphics are very simple. Coherent, but a bit too simplistic for my taste.
A solid entry. I enjoyed playing it.
Viewing post in The Game With 8 Levels jam comments
Heeyy! Thank you for the feedback! Indeed, the unsubtlety was because of me getting too worried that people would think its a broken jam game and REALLY quit after the third level...
I'm curious about the dialogue thing, is that something you dislike personally? Or do you think you skipped the tutorials and the initial dialogues because of a low quality writing? Or maybe a low quality UI?
I'm glad you enjoyed playing it, thank you again for your sincere critique!
Hey there, a bit from all columns really.
I'm not a fan of dialogue for dialogue's sakes. Most people are not Steven King's children, so their writing isn't anything to (ironically) write home about. Yours at least didn't have typos that I recall, which is a plus, but I am generally skeptical of people who write things.
Secondly I don't like tutorials and similar stuff that interrupts gameplay. I understand why it sometimes works, but I think it's an anachronistic position nowadays. It would be a much better situation if the tutorial were optional or situational. There is something magical about earning your own understanding of a situation. That's a valuable aspect of games and puzzles. Don't take it away from me.
From my perspective you used dialogue to contextualise the theme, pretty much. And you succeeded at that. In fact, I liked your take on this more than many other games I've tried. Most other people went for unpleasant, sarcastic AI. You went for scared, self preserving AI. More original, but not believable. An AI has no thoughts or feelings or anything like that.
I made an analogy on my stream about this. When I was in my 20 or so, Microsoft invented a tutorial system with an animated, cute, interactive paper clip in it. Every time that little bastard popped its virtual head on the screen, I wanted to click on his little cross icon for him to go away faster than I could get my cursor to it. The infamous paper clip is now something that those who remember clearly refer to as a ridiculous idea. Now tell me, does it sound like a good idea to make a video game with the very same paper clip in it?
Now, with all this said, many people interpreted the theme as "make a game that is deliberately obnoxious to the player". Big no no in my view. You avoided this to some extent, by having the obnoxious paper clip not behave like an arse. So kudos. :D
Hope this makes sense.
Yeah, it does make a lot of sense. Though I didn't like my cute lil' game face being compared to the paperclip of doom... Hahahaha!
By the way, the final version of the game would include a lot more dialogue and dialogue choices where you could influence the AI to different endings, resisting death in many ways or accepting it in others. The actual puzzle game with the little square is just a simple game I came up with so there could actually be a game to push the story forward.
Thank you for your patience in writing and explaining your point of view, this conversation has been very useful for me!