itch.io

I had a good time with this! A lot more content than I was anticipating, which is always great.

I also played your previous game, and this is a distinct improvement in style and execution; while it still has some of the same general mechanics as TYPE HELP, it feels much more its own thing, and I can see various direct QOL improvements in the design.

Some feedback/suggestions:

Not that I object to the depiction of colonizers as racists, as such, but it might be worth a brief content note on the itch page or on first load that there will be frequent period-typical racist language. That could be a nasty shock for some.

Was there meant to be music throughout? I got brief snippets every so often, then one track in the later game that played continuously.

(rot13) V frr abj gung gur raqvat jnf nqqrq nf n fvqr fgbel nsgre gur snpg. Abg xabjvat guvf jura V cynlrq, vg jnf fbzrjung pbashfvat gung gur Genpr zrah fubjf srjre gvzr fybgf guna gur gvzryvar. Creuncf gubfr nqqvgvbany gvzr fybgf pbhyq or fbzrubj uvqqra hagvy gur nccebcevngr cbvag va gur fgbel?

V gubhtug gur cnegvny genpr zrpunavp jnf cnegvphyneyl pbby naq bevtvany.

Cool, thanks!

Not to be autistic and overly literal, but I think I need more clarification or examples here of what "customization" means to you. I guess my actual zine has body text in Georgia, but I can't add borders without compromising my design, both aesthetically and in the technical sense that it's optimized for home print, so I would have to add the borders to the active printing area and therefore resize or remove images and significantly rearrange the text to accommodate them. Do images count? Does visibly intentional text formatting, such as footnotes, count?

"For Zines, Tabletop Rulebooks, and other files delivered in .pdf format that are not considered Books/Novels, pages of the work must be customized to a certain degree (something like Arial text on plain white pages is considered not customized)."

1. Can I get some clarity on what the aim of this rule is?

2. How could someone who DID have a draft that was, to use your example, Arial text on plain white pages potentially alter it to be acceptable for submission?

OP your MIND!

Off the top of my head:

• tombstone and gumdrop (aka rectangle + square w/ rounded ends, a lot of hairstyles end up like that lmao)
• classic Shapes™: square, rectangle, rhombus, triangle (...dorito), circle
• pill or bean shape
• teardrop
• organic blob shape

And np, I figured it was likely a file type thing

I think glasses would make for a good prop.

This might be weird, but honestly, a collection of default generic shapes would be kinda useful? Like, if I had a couple organic shapes and basic polygons in the style, I could mock up hairstyles (at least in silhouette) and other arbitrary props/additions, without necessarily having to add much complexity on your end as the artist long-term. Like, for my prototypes, I had a character with two smaller forehead horns, so I resized and duplicated the "unicorn" horn to get something similar. But if I had a vague dorito shape, that would've worked just as well and gotten closer to the look.

I was confused by the purpose of the layers labeled "blush" and "color #13" (the yellow one, in case the name was auto-generated). To my eye, a cloud floating beyond the neck doesn't look like blush. Is that yellow one meant to be for recoloring the character? But it's not in the Base group, so it's just tinting the whole canvas. Granted, I am opening a CSP-exported PSD in GIMP, so maybe something got lost in telephone?

Since you asked for feedback, I would recommend treating the facial expression and the pose as separate. Depending on art style, sometimes people do this by separating the whole head, other times by giving the body a blank face and drawing the face on a different layer. Since you already appear to draw the head separately, you would just not merge that into the body.

The benefit:

Currently each face only has one pose, so you have 6 pose/face combinations. But if you had the heads separate from the bodies, you would have 6 faces * 3 poses = 18 pose/face combinations, and your files would be smaller without the duplicate data.

So you'd set up the PSD like:

• Head
  • Expression
    • Eyes, Hair, Etc.
• Poses
  • Outfits
  • Base body

You might want to update the download instructions to mention that, if you use it as a template, the three values in options.rpy are already set for you :)

Oof, I felt this one.

I think enforced disclosure is the most sustainable way of dealing with AI content long term. I completely understand people wanting to make informed decisions about where the content they consume comes from, and I wouldn't intentionally use AI assets in my own work.

Banning it completely could lead to human creations being unfairly penalized for perceived resemblance to AI (as has happened in academic settings), and removes the possibility of use for criticism and review—or even honest mistakes, as people not educated on the details of AI may not realize some of the tools they use could be considered AI.

Plus, there are legitimately creative human works, including on Itch, that have used AI assets. The early builds of The Roottrees Are Dead, for instance, used AI art. While I think the AI art was the weakest part of the game, the game was fully written, coded, and performed by humans, and the version now in development with fully human-created art may not have existed without those early builds.

So I think this is a healthy choice, and I'd like to see more clarity on what "generative AI" is considered to be for the purposes of tagging, as well as what the appeal process would look like if work is incorrectly reported as untagged genAI.

This code snippet is what I needed to get it working on my Windows 10 machine, thanks!

This game is very cool but I do wish it had true control remapping. I got the vibe from a keyboard and mouse test that the intended play style is with controller, but my one fully functional controller is designed for the Switch, and long story short, the only way to get the game to show accurate controller prompts was to launch it through Steam, even though I bought it on Itch.

IDK about Reddit, but they also address this in the pinned comment of the YouTube video at the top of the page. Basically, they want to have custom characters eventually, but it won't be at launch. Other custom files, like backgrounds and items, should be available before custom characters are, though.

This is really cool! I think it would be useful if it had note-taking functions so it would be easier to apply more sudoku techniques.

I think this is an interesting premise and for 72 hours you really got a lot done!

That being said, I have some feedback on the execution. For context, I was streaming this to a friend who loves creepypastas.

From an environment design perspective, I found myself asking why the area was so cluttered with items. Wouldn't it be better to reveal them day by day as they became relevant?

We both feel like the reveal would have been more impactful if there had been more to build up the illusion of a peaceful town life. If we could get to know the other residents or engage in other activities, I think the player would have more of a bond with them and so it would be more shocking when something happens to them.

Also, it's possible to miss the dead body clue (or perhaps it doesn't spawn for everyone?); I found out about it from the comments section, and I did attempt to explore the entire map. Neither I nor my friend noticed it in my playthrough.

My friend said the danger was too obscured for him to understand what he was supposed to be scared of: did they do this to themselves? Is there some kind of monster that made them do this? What does the danger intend towards the player character? After all, now that everyone is dead, what can they do to hurt us?

He also thought (once I told him about the dead body) that there isn't a narrative justification given for why the previous resident died early if the point of the Harvest Festival is that everyone dies by suicide. If, for example, the previous resident had said "you should get out of here, I'm leaving tomorrow" on Monday, been missing on Tuesday, and showed up in the water on Wednesday, then we as the audience would have understood this was retaliation for trying to leave and we would've felt trapped.

This has a lot of potential if you choose to expand it—I'd love to see more of these characters and the world they live in.

Thank you so much! :)

Made it in 4 minutes 57 seconds!

I played this demo on a Windows 10 laptop with trackpad and keyboard.

Most satisfying level to beat: 1-4.

Level I skipped: 1-7.

Since I wasn't familiar with the mechanic, it took me a while to figure out how to open a door. I thought I was aiming close enough for the magnet to "catch" the field of the chute, or that there was some other trick like jumping or pressing an interaction button, until I realized you have to stand directly under it and throw the magnet directly up. This was tricky with my trackpad. I did not like opening doors. I also found the hub to be clunky.

The low-sensitivity mode helped with my aiming issues but did not fully alleviate them: sometimes the trackpad would completely lock up while aiming.
I thought the aim toggle might help as well, but is there something I'm missing about it or does the toggle not allow precision aiming? All the throws seem equally weak when it's on (I couldn't start a level with it because I couldn't throw the magnet into the chute) and I don't feel like I can aim correctly.
Another commenter said they wish throwing worked like Angry Birds, which I would also like, but mostly I wish I could control the entire game with keyboard alone.

I was a little disappointed to find out that throwing the magnet into the chute in normal levels does not return you to the hub.

Sometimes I'd get separated from my magnet when it locked onto something and I was trying to go with it (usually the angle doors), which was jarring.

I was confused by the keybindings not mentioning that the arrow keys are also assigned to motion, as my movement preference is arrows over WASD. Also, for reference, a common Windows accessibility setting is to make a circle around the cursor when pressing Ctrl. If pressed repeatedly, it darkens the entire screen except the cursor. This happened to me a lot trying to reset before I messed with the keybindings, as I didn't understand why pressing Ctrl once wasn't working.

For further a11y options, may I suggest a higher contrast/reduced motion mode? I honestly skipped the last level because it was dizzying to look at and I couldn't follow what was going on.

My review in two words: holy shit.

(ROT13) V ubarfgyl sbhaq guvf n ybg zber vzcnpgshy bs na rkcrevrapr guna n ybg bs bayvar "ubeebe" tnzrf orpnhfr vg'f tebhaqrq va gur ernyvgl bs gur fhogyr, vafvqvbhf jnlf gung gurfr crbcyr bcrengr. Vg'f cflpubybtvpnyyl hafrggyvat, juvpu jbexf gb lbhe rssrpg, rfcrpvnyyl jvgu gur zhfvp naq grkg znavchyngvba.

Oh no, how odd! If you want to see the rest of it, the random seed is based on the date and time you start a playthrough, so if you hit restart, that may appease the pantheon.

I'll keep in mind for future projects that a "bad luck bonus" may be useful, to prevent the seed messing with someone's experience like that.

I don't plan to update the game at this time—my challenge to myself was to make something quickly and call it done—but thank you for your feedback.

Thank you for the comment! :)

Thank you for this! Not that you have to do all of these if you don't want, but I'd definitely be interested in seeing more about:

• main menu
• settings
• quick menu
• choice menus in-game

Maybe something like scrollbars and sliders, too? There are a lot of different things you can do with those.

Sorry, is the pack released under CC0 as you say on itch, or the more restrictive license ("You may NOT redistribute the resources themselves, or derivatives thereof - neither for free, paid or otherwise. You may NOT transfer this license, or issue sub-licenses for the usage of the resources (or derivatives thereof) by third parties.") found in the zip download? CC0 doesn't restrict usage at all, so the two licenses conflict.

Thank you! :)

Hi, what is the license for these assets?

Hi, I'm developing a game in Ren'Py, which requires that all font files be placed in the game folder in a way that a player could easily extract. Would this be an acceptable use of your fonts, and if so, would there be a commercial use restriction?

Interesting premise! I like the granularity of character customization and the phone interface. The few uses of color really pop against the grayscale.

I got this right before I went on vacation; what a nice way to start it off. :)

I'm considering doing more with these characters; be sure to spread the word if you liked it!

Jan. 20, 2018

IT'S POSTED. It's missing a good deal of content. But it is up there. Little victories.

https://aliengeometries.itch.io/in-memo-demo

Jan. 19, 2018

Well, in a very convenient turn of events, after losing most of the time to sick days, my scanner is broken. There goes my "all physical assets" plan. I'll type up what I have for the rules as a .TXT because if I try to make it anything else I'll overthink the presentation and upload that. Again, I will be finishing this, just not in the span of the game jam.

Jan. 13, 2018

So I was sick, as said previously. I then spent a good part of yesterday recovering from some UNRELATED stuff, whoops, but GUESS WHO FINALLY GOT SOME WORK DONE AGAIN THIS MORNING. (Me.)

I've written up part of a draft of the rulebook (very final, I know). But hey, it's something! Now I have things written down that I did not previously.

It's looking like what I publish for the jam is going to be incomplete, and if that's the case, I will be updating it after the jam ends to get it into a playable (or, dare I dream, polished) state. Y'all can follow me or add In Memoriam to a collection once it's up if you want to see my after-jam edits; I might announce it on the Discord as well.

Thanks! I don't know how much of this I'm going to be able to do by the deadline since I lost several days, but I like what I've got so far!

Jan. 10, 2018

Welp, being sick got to me more than I thought it was going to; I've spent a lot of time on the couch, not so much working on the game. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be feeling better.

Thanks!

I feel ya, gravity is a pain. Good place to start, though!

Thanks!

Jan. 8, 2018

OH HEY LOOK A PICTURE.

This is most of what I got done today; I'm still sick. But it's something!

Some PbtA games do and some don't, so it's a good question! GM PbtA works pretty much how you'd think, generally, but I'll be doing GMless. Avery Alder has some good (free!) examples of GMless PbtA in the form of Perfect, Unrevised and Dream Askew. (The PDFs credit her by a different name; she's since changed it.) 

The Law players from PU and the Psychic Maelstrom/Society Intact/etc from DA resemble the Lost Love/Memento/etc I have in mind.

Note that these games are not exactly like mine is going to be, lol!