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This was actually my first game jam too. It was a bit stressful at times, but seeing the game come together and finally finishing it felt amazing.

What really surprised me was the feedback from people playing it. That honestly motivated me to keep working on the project after the jam, and I’ve started sharing some progress and thoughts in a devlog.

Overall it was a really great experience and I learned a lot. Congrats to everyone who participated!

Just sharing progress after the jam.
Rover physics improvements, rocks added, upgraded day/night system.
I’d genuinely love your feedback on the atmosphere if you’re interested.

Here it is:

Post-Jam Update: Physics, Rocks and Atmosphere - Rover Drift by Atipix

Damn, this is such a clever idea,  and so hard, but in a good way 🙂 I’m at level 3 and the mouse coordination… grrrr… I love it!

Thanks a lot for playing!

You’re right about the mouse controls, the current setup is definitely more optimized for controller. I’ve already prepared a mouse sensitivity fix and will push it very soon.

And yes, chasing and photographing moving lifeforms is something I’m seriously considering for future updates 😉

Cheers!

It was fun to play your game :)

I love Flatland, which I read a few years ago and I really enjoyed your game :)

I activated the little train, placed the coin, balanced the scales, and when I tried to make the recipe, the flour went through the wall and I couldn’t pick it back up 😢

Excellent game though. Très beau travail !

The main issue comes from relying on a horizontal raycast for ground detection. That’s always fragile at edges. A cleaner solution would be to use 2 or 3 vertical raycasts pointing downward spaced across the player, or even better, an OverlapBox or OverlapCircle slightly smaller than the collider in width and placed just under the feet. That makes ground detection much more stable without losing the ability to jump at edges.

For the walls, the simplest approach is to separate layers (Ground / Wall) and make sure your ground check only detects the Ground layer.

And for moving platforms, like I mentioned before, you can simply do:  player.transform.SetParent(movingPlatform.transform) when grounded on it (and set it back to null when leaving).

It’s a bit overcomplicated, but that’s totally normal at the beginning :D

Hey, just tested your game. For moving platforms, you could parent the player to the platform when grounded so they properly inherit its movement and don’t slide off.

You could also add a small coyote time, allowing the player to jump a short moment after leaving the ground. It makes platforming feel much more responsive and forgiving.

For your first game, you did a really good job, keep going like that.

Oui, je vis du dev.

Et bravo pour ta motivation, enchaîner les jams c'est une bonne technique. Ça force à finir, à prioriser et à prendre des décisions.

Si je peux te donner un conseil pour les jams : réserve toi toujours du temps à la fin pour les détails. L’UX, un mini tuto si la mécanique est compliquée, des derniers réglages pour optimiser le gameplay, les petits polishs, ça prend toujours plus de temps que prévu. Et c’est souvent ça qui fait qu’un joueur reste au lieu de fermer le jeu au bout de 3 minutes. Le cœur du jeu est important, mais la clarté et la sensation globale le sont tout autant. Voilà voilà ..et ravi de faire ta connaissance aussi :)

Haha, oui c'est cool de voir qu'on est quelques-uns ici :).. Je suis développeur sur unity depuis 8 ans,  sur des projets de serious games. Mais fin 2025, mon dernier contrat s'est fini et là comme j'ai du temps, me suis dit que j'allais faire des jams pour voir un peu ce que ça donne :). En tout cas merci pour les compliments, c'est top. 

PS: la sensi de la cam du rover c'est pas voulu, comme je dev le plus souvent en utilisant le manette, j'ai complètement oublié de calibrer la sensi de la souris, c'est un peu con parce que ça va me couter quelques point de gameplay tout ça :D.. Et toi ? 

Oui

Merci :)

The next AAA for sure ;)

By the way, did you play with a controller or mouse & keyboard?

Thanks a lot for your comment, I really appreciate it!

I’m planning to keep developing the project after the jam, so if you enjoyed the planetary exploration vibe, feel free to follow. I think you might like where it’s heading :)

Thanks for playing it.

Nice fall-and-retry game. The atmosphere is really cool, and the outside view looks great. It’s so frustrating not to have beaten it yet… I’m sure I wasn’t far from the end. Well done on your game!

Nice little game!

Hey, I just tested both the downloaded and the web versions. I ran into a movement bug in the downloaded build (the character kept running to the left) , which didn’t happen in the web version.

Anyway, the game is really interesting and I like the concept a lot. Solid entry, well done!

Sorry to hear that! Maybe I went a bit too heavy on the particles :D. Thanks for giving it a try anyway!

“And so, once again, the Dream Savior saves the day. Or… the night?”

This is really polished work. The gameplay feels great, and the idea of using mini-games to embody the dreams is such a cool concept. I was actually disappointed that it ended so quickly.

Maybe you could improve the character navigation a bit so they can properly pass behind scenery elements like trees and other objects, but that’s really a minor detail.

I had a great time. Well done on your game

Sure! I’ll check out your game and leave a rating. Feel free to take a look at mine as well if you get the chance : https://atipix.itch.io/rover-drift

Brilliant! I struggled at first to figure out where I was supposed to look for the coordinates (bad eyesight on my end :)), but I loved it.

Your game really stands out, and the slightly condescending “access denied” messages add that little “hold my beer” feeling :D

Thanks a lot!! I’m really glad you liked it.

Your ideas are really good. I’m getting a lot of cool suggestions like yours and it’s super motivating.

There is actually a sensitivity setting (it’s explained in the menu how to adjust it), but even at the lowest value it wouldn’t fully solve the issue because the scaling wasn’t correct. I’ve fixed that now, and I’ll release the sensitivity update along with other improvements after the jam.

Thanks again for the great feedback!

I absolutely loved it! It’s quirky, simple, the visuals are beautiful, the gameplay isn’t too difficult, and it fits the theme perfectly. Well done to the team!

Maybe just consider adding a small control guide, as I sometimes had to figure out what to press.

I had a great time playing your game. It looks beautiful and the gameplay works well (I might have preferred a less floaty character, but that’s just personal taste). It might also benefit from a few more sound effects in addition to the music. Congrats for your game :)

Damn! This is really  good and I enjoyed my play session. I can’t say much about combat balance yet since that would need longer-term testing, but everything feels very polished: gameplay, visuals, audio, UI… One of my favorites so far. Congrats to the team!

I struggled a bit with the prepare/aim/attack mechanic at first, but after a while you get used to it. I enjoyed the experience. Good game!

That’s actually exactly the kind of input I was hoping to get. I hesitated between putting acceleration on the stick forward, like it is now, or mapping it to a separate trigger. Right now, pushing the stick diagonally (45°) gives both max acceleration and max steering angle. I intentionally kept the turning radius a bit wider to lean more into the drift feel. Personally I like it that way, but I don’t have a strong opinion set in stone.

Since the right thumb is already used for the rover camera, moving acceleration to a trigger (like RT) would make sense, and it would still allow analog control over acceleration because the trigger returns a value.

I think what I’ll do after the jam is publish a version with acceleration on a separate trigger and compare feedback. Your comment confirms it’s worth testing both approaches. And noted for the invert Y-axis option as well ;). 

Thanks a lot for the feedback!

I had a good time. The mechanic with objects disappearing in the light deserves to be pushed further. And I can definitely imagine adding a few more atmospheric effects to strengthen the mood even more. Well done :)

Thanks a lot for the amazing message, I really appreciate the energy :)

Don’t worry at all, I’m not taking the feedback badly. On the contrary, I agree with many of your points. The camera angle, the sense of speed, and the lack of indicators are all things that can definitely be improved.

For now, a first run is meant to take around ten minutes on average, so that partly explains the current map size and pacing, but I agree there’s room to make the experience tighter and more intense.

I’m planning to continue developing the game after the jam. I still have quite a few ideas I didn’t have time to implement, and despite the camera technical issues, the overall feedback has been very encouraging. That really motivates me to push it further and polish the experience properly.

Thanks again for the thoughtful feedback :D

Hey, I just rated your game. Really solid work. Congrats!

I managed to complete the 3rd and 4th worlds, but I didn’t fully understand what I was supposed to do in the first two, especially what to do with those green things you can carry in the first world. Let me know what I missed.

I’ve set it aside to give it another try later.

Quick bump. Still looking for controller testers if anyone’s interested

What a game! I loved everything : the atmosphere, the music, and the gameplay. Congratulations. Truly.

I see you made your game for controller too, that’s great to see. I’m currently looking for feedback from players using a controller, so if you’d like to try mine with a gamepad, I’d really appreciate it :)

Thanks a lot, I really appreciate the kind words!

I’m glad the driving across the dunes felt good, that was one of the main things I wanted to get right.

You’re right about the camera issues. The sensitivity fix is already ready and will be released after the jam. It would have been great if you could have tried it with a controller, which doesn’t have this issue.

Regarding the energy system, I had considered something like the rover charging in full sunlight and slowly draining at night. And about restricting the camera to forward-only: I actually had it that way at first, but I found it practical to allow looking backward too, especially to take photos without constantly repositioning the rover.

Thanks again for the thoughtful feedback!

Really challenging! Nice game!

Haha, j'ai adoré cette petite exploration sous marine. Bon visuels, bon audio, bon gameplay et bonnes refs. Bien joué!

Hi! I’m looking for players who would be willing to try the game with a controller and share some feedback.

I developed and tested it mostly with a gamepad, and there’s a mouse sensitivity issue in the current version (fix is ready for after the jam). So I’d really like to confirm how it feels on controller.

In exchange, I’ll gladly check out and rate your game as well  :)

Thanks!