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Of course, I am just glad I was able to witness the birth of a modern day classic before my eyes. I appreciate this simple explanation of tracks 5 and 6, as, for the sake of focusing on the adventurer's story, I wasn't quite able to delve into their meanings, and I didn't want the uninitiated thinking they were completely irrelevant to the rest of the story (just that they aren't fully necessary to understanding the overarching plot). Though, in the case of track #11, a detail that even I didn't quite catch, is that the events of track #11 actually occur during the adventurer's time as as the Hiker. This alone adds an entirely new depth to the story, and ties in the idea that the fish itself is not evil, posing the interesting moral question of whether or not it's right to remove the fish at all. If we keep this detail in mind, we now know it was the fish who was able to change the adventurer's outlook on life: allowing him to regain his confidence and eventually become the hero who saves the town from the Dragon, and subsequently the world from the Demon. It also seems like the towns-people and the fish both have a common enemy, and, learning from the mighty adventurer, are going to unite and work together to fight the Demon, as you have teased a little here (though, this has the optimistic assumption that the towns-people are wise enough to do so, so I'm most interested to see what happens in this regard). 

Keeping all this in mind, I'm very curious (and very excited!) to see how everything turns out in the next installment, notably how you're planning on tackling the moral-quandary of the fish (as we now know it's not simply a disease to 'cut-out', so to speak, or an enemy to rise up against, but, at potentially even, a way of life that can be embraced) and we will see how the towns-people are able to respond to such a situation. I am very much looking forward to what you have next! Best of luck, and I hope lightning (such as this) does indeed strike twice.

I can't tell if I actually like this project or if I just have developed stockholm syndrome from listening to all the 13 tracks. I do very much enjoy the story progression of, what appears to be (at first glance) a very simple story, but it has a surprising amount of story, depth, layers, and meanings that comes from listening to all the tracks in the story very carefully. First and foremost: I don't believe that all the tracks are completely different characters (for some tracks it makes sense), but I believe there is a repeating story and theme taking place all throughout. Take tracks 2 - 4, for example. If we look at it through the lens we simply see 3 very different people experience something very similar to each other, who all feel very differently to another. The adventurer is upset at their new found situation and wants to remove the fish; the castaway sounds raspy and aged, as if the anger towards the fish has built up in time, and they wish to remove it too (albeit in a very different way to the adventurer); finally the Hiker has an outlook which completely opposes the other two, as they have now grown used to the fish and like it. 

Separately, the story may be interesting, but quite it is disparate. However, by putting it all together and viewing it from the lens of one single character, you get a completely different, and much more interesting, perspective: The character starts out as an adventurer, but gets a "stinky" fish between their toe and must put their active life of adventuring behind them; moving on to a more mundane life (Now, this is where the most interesting parallel of the story starts: The Legend of Beowulf. Now, we will return to how this parallel affects and relates to the story in track #12, but for now just know that Beowulf is a mighty adventurer who had to quit their life of conquest after becoming old with age). Here the adventurer is not able to move on properly from their old life, neither physically or emotionally, and have become a castaway -- coping with no longer having the glamorous life they once had. The castaway's despair is shown through the hoarseness of the voice, and their attitude towards the fish, referring to it as "smelly" and "fatty" (notice how the fish retains similar qualities from the adventurer to the castaway, showing they are the same character). Then, in track #04 (the final track of what I believe to be the adventurer's current arc) they become a hiker; now content and happy with their simple life. Going place to place and viewing the world from a more humbled lens as they have now learned to live with the fish. This is shown through how the Hiker has now embraced the fish as a part of their life, shown in this line: "It (the fish) is going to help me find my way!"). We also know for a fact that the Castaway's fish were both shiny and bright and where one saw it as an obstacle, the other saw it as a tool. The repeating characteristics of the fish between all 3 of these seemingly 'separate' characters (as well as the clear arc and growth that happens between them), is what allows us to infer that they are all the same character (something which we will touch on towards the later end of the tracks).

The story really starts developing once we move past the adventurer, and really move from character based progression to one based around plot. It all starts from track #07, where the sheriff has had his deputy pass away from a fish between their toes (now, he uses the word 'knocked-out' but by him urgently going to see a Doctor (which we'll discuss more of, as it is fairly important to the plot) we can logically assume that the interaction was fatal, which would warrant him needing to see a Doctor in the first place). The Sheriff sees a doctor, who pronounces the disease as uncurbable (serving as foreshadowing that the disease is other-worldly as well, as we learn in track, #09). Everything up to this point has been carefully leading and building to this point of the story, as it's where all the pieces start to fit together, and the rising action begins. (Unfortunately, we must skip over tracks #05 and #06 as they more or less serve as an interlude to show time has passed since the Adventurer's story, and are less relevant to the overall plot). 

First in track #09 we learn who the villain of the story is, a great other-worldly demon who has unleashed this 'plague' upon the world (we call it a plague since it's referred to as an 'uncurbable disease' by the Doctor, which as we went over is uncurbable because it's not of this world). Now, I'm going to quickly move past track #9, because it is quickly overshadowed in importance, by, quite possibly my favorite track: #10, The Hero, which server as a return of The Adventurer from the very first track (yes, the first track, since track #01 serves as a prologue to the story) and represents his call to action (Remember: this follows the Legend of Beowulf, again we'll get back to that soon). Here The (old) Adventurer picks up his sword again and declares himself as The Hero, which helps to show he was able to regain his confidence through his story arc. Now, this act of declaring yourself as a hero, would otherwise come across as egotistical or very cocky, but we do know that he's now humbled through the life he went through, so it comes a across more as a humorous play on himself, if anything (Note: as we will get into, The Dragon the adventurer will face, is symbolic of Death, meaning the hero knows this will be the last of his quests, which is why I believe he puts on a false show bravado, as Beowulf does when he is about to go on his last quest, also against a Dragon). Now track #11 is quite possibly the most complicated and in depth part of the story, so we will have to move past it unfortunately, but it is worth looking into discovering the nuances behind it. Tracks 12 and 13 represent the climax and falling action respectively, and gets into the more bitter-sweet ending of the story. Here, the story becomes more open-ended, but by following everything up-until this point and keeping in mind the stories themes and draws, we can fairly definitively infer what happens. 

In track #12, titled I am the Dragon, we are introduced to the second villain of the story, who, in a fit of rage, goes to burn down the nearest town (now, as we touched on earlier, the Dragon represents Death and is the final enemy that Beowulf faces before his demise). Because we never hear from the following characters again (that being the Dragon, the Hero, and the Demon), I believe they all either meet their demise in this final track or go dormant in some way. The Hero, in one final valiant act of selflessness, comes and faces the Dragon, slaying it to protect the town where they once hailed from, -- but dying in the process and saving the lives of thousands more, making the ending bitter sweet. We can infer that the Demon's influence is limited to some extent; we know that he's very powerful, yet he can't interact with the world directly. Instead, he must interact with the world indirectly in order to exert influence over it, hence why he spreads a plague upon the world and uses dragon as a part of his plans instead of just blowing up the planet: because he doesn't exist in our realm.  Following this, we can assume that by The Hero slaying the dragon, he has also thwarted the plans of the Demon as well, but we don't know for how long (again, this half-happy ending is portrayed through the death of the Hero).

Now, the reason why I believe all this happens within track #12, and is not simply pure speculation is because of the final track (and conclusion to the story), track #13, I am the Singer. Here the story is tied up very beautifully through an almost 'meta' lens, as it's where we learn we've actually been listening to the story from the perspective of an audience member listening to the story of the hero! This is so well done and a stroke of story-telling genius from multiple different perspectives. For one, it very well accurately represents how stories were shared and told in days of old! The idea that we are an actual audience member is confirmed in the final line of that track: "Thank you for coming to this show!", as it would be common to collect tips from the audience. Now, more importantly, what this does is tie together everything in the story. I believe in this world, the Hero has actually saved the day, and the singer is telling the true story of the Hero; how he started as an adventurer, lived a quiet life, and then returned again to save the world. In sharing the story, the singer is able to celebrate The Hero and commemorate his honor. 

This confirms all the aspects of the story that we had previously assumed and inferred, and it does so in a very succinct manner: (1) The story follows a primary character - Specifically, the Adventurer, the Castaway, The Hiker, and The Hero are all the same person, that goes through a series of events, because if they were separate characters, they would not be mentioned in The Singer's story (Note: I do feel like I need to at least mention The Jester and The Game Developer (tracks #05 and #06 respectively), because I do not believe the Adventurer is either of those characters, they just serve as an interlude period The Adventurer's story) (2) The hero died valiantly  - If the Hero hadn't died valiantly (instead choosing not to fight the dragon, for example) then they wouldn't be singing about his heroic death. (3) The Hero slayed the Dragon and thwarted the Demon's plans - If the hero hadn't stopped the Dragon, the town would be burned and no one would be left to sing in his honor of his accomplishments. If he hadn't thwarted the demon's plan, then the same would also be true; there would not be a cause to celebrate (4) The Demon may return - This is confirmed by them still having a fish between their toes, and furthers the bitter-sweet ending, as the world is saved, but at a cost; it's forever changed. This is where the story most deviates from that of Beowulf, as this presents a darker, more cynical ending.

Now this review is certainly not fully comprehensive, and I would encourage others to dig into the many nuances present in this story. Here I simply wanted to highlight the through lines of this story that I think is the most interesting and powerful; that being the story of the adventurer. Unfortunately, as mentioned, this means certain aspects were ignored and left unanswered. The Jester, The Game Developer, and the Fish may all be unrelated to The Adventurer's but what is theirs? 

This is just what I have found: a single through line through an intricate web; one exit to a labyrinth with a thousand more. This may possibly be one of the greatest pieces of fiction ever created and I am excited to see what's next; if we see a continuation of the story unfold, what masterpiece would we see before our eyes? One where you look up from the piece and ask yourself, "Is it not beautiful?"

This game has a ton of enviable polish, which alone makes it really fantastic! I think the overall gameplay is really solid and fun; it's just the small things here and there that would really push it over the top. I would say what the game needs is just one more element of complexity to bring everything together and make you really think more about the minute-to-minute decisions you have to make while playing. Currently, you just punch until your stamina is low, then dash away in a corner until its full again. Repeat until all the enemies are dead. Additionally, I felt the difficulty was never quite right; being far too easy from the first level to the final boss, with at no pint in-between did I ever feel like I was in danger of dying -- if I ever got to low-health, there was always a health drop just around the corner.  Furthermore, the combat system was fairly easy to exploit; your max attack range is larger than the max-attack range of melee enemies. Meaning if you attack enemies just at the edge of your attack radius, they simply stand there and can't fight back. It's also easy to get your fists stuck on walls, which at first glance may seem inconsequential, but is very noteworthy, as it allowed me to position the fists at the corner of a wall, where I could safely punch all the enemies to death without being in any risk of taking damage, as none of them seemed to have the forethought to walk around. In a sense this was kind of cool, as, if an enemy came from behind, I would be caught off guard without the use of my fists, but overall, it did trivialize the experience in terms of difficulty (beyond being already fairly easy). The final weak-point of the game would have to be its upgrade system, which felt fairly uninspired at best. The stamina recharged very quickly already, so I felt like there wasn't a reason to upgrade it at all (though this may just be a me thing), so I ended up specking into an all damage build, which was pretty fun two-shotting all the enemies, but I really didn't feel excited to receive a new power up, because it didn't change the gameplay (or the way I played the game) in any meaningful way. It was still 'punch until my stamina is low, then dash away to recharge'. I really liked the game setting, and while the story was short and disciplined, it added a lot of depth to the game and gave me a reason to playing and something to look forward to; giving me a light chuckle everyone once and a while. 

All in all, it was a  very enjoyable experience from beginning to end, and I would be disappointed to not see this game on Steam in a few years. Story was simple, yet really added a lot of depth for me, and I can't stress the level of polish this game has; with there only being a few minor bugs here or the entire course of gameplay. I will add personal preference note on the ending however: for me I think it would've added to the overall tone of the game an ending where you just get terminated regardless, where you're not the main character; you're a tiny gear in a massive machine -- maybe if you're lucky -- you fight your way out completely on your own, and escape into a world unknown, unsure of the fate that lies ahead of you. I feel this way, since being busted out by some mysterious figure didn't really strike me as that interesting of a plot point, and felt more regular and uninteresting, compared to, an otherwise, very unique setting. Take all this with a pile of salt, as this is one of the more subjective things, of this already fairly subjective review, but did however affect me enough to want to write about it (despite being only within the last 10 seconds of the game, literally). 

I'll keep an eye on this game and see if anything comes next from it, because I think there is a lot of potential that can come from this game and its very well done in multiple aspects that clearly has had a lot of love and attention put into it to get it to its current state.

Hello! We'd love to have you have you! I know it's short notice, but we'd be hosting another round of brainstorming today, 7 pm GMT if you wanted to join in and feel out the vibe, as well as help us settle on the great ideas we came up with on Sat! If you're interested here is the server link, and if you decide you're not feeling it, no need to feel pressured to stay, and you can back out anytime -> https://discord.gg/8tD3YztZ

Apologies, I realize I didn't specify in my post! Our project is in Unity, which uses C# as its programming language, and we use GitHub for our source control! Hope that helps~

Hello! I'm a programmer in a team that's currently looking for an artist and second Unity programmer to help with the project! Our idea for the game is to brainstorm it as a group and treat everyone's ideas equally and fairly! Out group consists of a programmer (me!), a sfx engineer, a writer, and a designer, and we're all just looking to have a fun time and make a cool game. Scope, genre, and pretty much everything our still up in the air, and we'll decide as a group on what we want to do! If you want to join our team and help come up with a game idea, get in contact with me and we'll be holding our first meeting on this Saturday,  Oct 7th, to make introductions and come up with a cool concept and game! There are no strong commitments required, and if something doesn't feel quite right, you can feel free to leave and explore other teams (no hard feelings~), but otherwise we'd love to have you!

Total hours in 2 weeks (14 days) is: 336h

Total hours in 2 week jam is:  312h (14h +288h + 10h) (day 1 + day 2 to 13 + day 14)

Hours slighted (336h - 312h)  = 24 hours

Jam length by hours (312/24) = 13 days

So by calculating the exact hours you would get that the jam length is only 13 days, though it lasts from the 6th to the 19th, which is 14 days. The solution (to get the exact right amount of time in hours) is to start the jam at 12:00 am on the first day and end the jam at 11:59 pm on the last day, adding exactly 24 hours to the time-frame and you would keep the date exactly the same by doing so. 

The argument of 'how many days till tomorrow' doesn't make sense to me at all because there are 0 days in-between today and tomorrow, but there are 2 days total. Though, I think you can make an argument for counting the hours and feeling like you don't have enough time. This is fair but the post title is misleading because the jam lasts for 14 days worth of dates, just not 14 days worth of hours (kind of confusing). An example is that from the 6th to the 9th there is 4 days; the 6th (1), the 7th (2), the 8th (3), and the 9th (4).  But, from the 6th starting from 10 am to the 9th ending at 10 am is only 3 days; 14h (1), 24h (2), 24h (3), 10h (4). Total hours: 72, total days: 3.

TL;DR: By counting the hours you get 13 days, but by counting the days you get 14 days. If you feel this is really important I would recommend directly messaging the jam host through social media (he links it on his page) about receiving a time extension for the jam. Also I think the post title is misleading, but that's semantics.

Feb 6 - Day 1 (10am - 11:59pm)

Feb 7 - Day 2 (12am - 11:59)

Feb 8 - Day 3 (12am - 11:59)

Feb 9 - Day 4 (12am - 11:59)

Feb 10 - Day 5 (12am - 11:59)

Feb 11 - Day 6 (12am - 11:59)

Feb 12 - Day 7 (12am - 11:59)

Feb 13 - Day 8 (12am - 11:59)

Feb 14 - Day 9 (12am - 11:59)

Feb 15 - Day 10 (12am - 11:59)

Feb 16 - Day 11 (12am - 11:59)

Feb 17 - Day 12 (12am - 11:59)

Feb 18 - Day 13 (12am - 11:59)

Feb 19 - Day 14 (12am - 10am)

Bumpin