It also was submitted to like 10 other jams and uses AI art

Almost Home

First impression

I want to download the linux version of the game on itchio and already receive a warning this might be a scam. Not a great start but not usually within the fault of the developer. Quick research seem to show real humans behind the project, so let’s go ahead

Cover Art

I saw the statement regarding that the game cover art is AI generated. I was thinking the same originally. The creator says no AI has been used I want to believe them. But then I have the question: Why the art is misleading? The game is on a highway as you can see ingame on the guardrails on the street. The image shows a rural road. There are hands trying to fetch the main character, while there are no aspects of that in game. So what was the artists intention? The best explanation I can come up with is that the artist heard the brief of the game and drew the image without having ever played the game, which is a bit sad for an indie game of such a small team size.

Playthrough

I have recorded a video but as this game doesn’t have any gameplay, it wouldn’t be very useful to show something. I am just walking with my music along the road where nothing happens. Well, three things are happening

2:30 minutes

Dad calls me. My character says it will take 15 minutes. The horror if having actually keep the W button pressed for 15 more minutes

7:00 minutes

I can use a flashlight for the dark street. I can actually see more without the flashlight than with

10:00 minutes

Battery dies with the music and the flashlight

11:00 minutes

There is a low poly car. I get the prompt to hide. Hide from what? Why? Any option is better than keep on walking. I “hide” seemingly that’s my death and I get the end credits

Music

I understand this is a vibey game. The tracks working well and it’s appreciated that the tracks can be changed and the volume be adapted. That’s convenient. Sadly every track started to annoy me when the percussion starts. I would love to hear the intent of the composer of what function the percussion serves

Summary

Total playtime of 12 minutes. It’s a pure vibes game. Although little bit more of a game then the DeadLane submission but PixelDraft has been aware that it’s not really a game more of a movie. Games like this remind be that we aren’t thinking about the same things when we are talking about what a game is. Although this might belong to the walking simulator genre. But thank you for the subtitles!

Ascension.exe

First impression

I start with the Linux version. No settings, no menu. While trying to tab out, I can see that the game aggressively holds my cursor and doesn’t let me access anything ony my desktop while the game is open. I guess I have to commit to it

My first two deaths

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvaoquFkZWQ

Its nice that all the controls are shown in the beginning. The way makes it clear where I have to head towards. It is confusing that I’m lead into a building but my task is to destroy a stone shrine. First I missed the main room in the building, the hole. So I was lost. Then I found the hole and… fell in. In my second playthrough I interacted with the hole and I just died. Not really a fun mechanic

The playthrough

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjqH7cl5TlA

It took me additional 5:30 minutes (after dying twice) to finally being accidentally on the right track. It feels very good to not be completely lost anymore and the journal helps with the step by step manual. Then I get the quest to collect 7 poster and I’m feeling dread. More walking aimlessly. It goes on kinda well. When finding the poster on the table I have a choice. Do I walk towards the light on the left (maybe the broken stones) or the random tree on the right, which maybe is just an off area tree under a lampshade? I give a try with the tree and it went well. Feeling relieved. Doing the burning in the house goes all smootly. Sitting at the computer now. I like that it asks me if I want to proceed and I genuinely state “No”. I’m not sure about the consequences of my actions but it lets me proceed. The way out was a bit tense but ending was still quite abrupt but still well implemented.

Overall thoughts

I’ve spent a lot of time being lost and wandering around very slowly. I saw some visual cues but finding them involved the walking anyway. I read the game page after playing the game and saw the credits (4 people team?) and some hints for the game

This is a submission to Beginner’s Jam Summer 2026

This is spam. Also the Liminal PD was for “This is a submission to Pixel Forge JAM #2 | Haunted Edition [ $5000+ in prizes ]”

Are the character and the last screenshot with the green car exterior (?) seen in the game?

It worked without issues for me with the linux build. Here my review: https://itch.io/post/16527697

Preamble

I enjoyed it! I recorded my first start and playthrough of the game here:

First contact and install

I was glad seeing a real submission for the jam. Different supported platforms were also nice to be seen, I’ve played the Linux version. There is no web version but that is more important for the casual audience. The main menu was clearly structured. Just by seeing the buttons I knew it was a Godot game. Nothing out of the ordinary in this regard, so I hit start game

Day 1

The start was a bit rough. All the calls with the boss are not intelligible to me. Subtitles would have helped. The walking speed was very slow which made exploring the area not fun. But the team did a good job to restrict the size of the world. The developer also made it clear that the truck and the post box are the primary things to be interacted with. Although it took me some time to see that I was supposed to only deliver one package and not all of them. After that it was smooth sailing gameplay wise
I felt something like fun when I encountered the round package. It was very well executed how it made a sound and jumped out of the hand and got hurt a little bit. The shock with the package station itself wasn’t really worth my attention, it’s too cliche. Putting things into the locker works well. Didn’t had any issues with putting something in or closing the doors

Day 2

Boss is telling me something again, I don’t understand anything. At the second delivery I enjoyed hearing the wailing man although I was not knowing where the sound came from. Rewatching my gameplay shows me that I haven’t seen the large wind turbine in the background, my brain filtered it completely out. After delivering the first package of the day, the women was greatly implemented. The appearing sound effect worked and the woman looks great, including a clear animation. Although the voice is a little bit “old witch” style and not really fitting to the age of the character, but I put that under placeholder asset which survived the release

I saw I had to deliver a bottle. While running to my truck I knew I have no bottle and I was a bit lost. Luckily by accident I saw the (proably previously wailing) man with his bottles. So this problem was solved before I struggled. When delivering the bottle, the joke with the opening door was just greatly executed. Again a spark of fun appeared. Walking back, time to complain about the slow walking speed again. After the locker mixer started, I enjoyed having well working light and sound effects

Day 3

I already optmized my time unloading the truck while the boss is calling. I always saw the “End call” button but I was actually curious if there is something to be heard or understood from the call. By the time the call endeded I had moved most of the packages already to the locker. When fixing the locker it was clear what happened, so that was executed well. When doing my final delivery, it was clear what had to be done. A good ending

Summary

Good game, playtime 10 minutes when stretched. The credits run too slowly and I think it would have been more practical to put everything unto one page and not scroll it. Also thank you for the confirmation that no AI art was used. A worthy entry for this jam!

Is there a reason why you removed your prior submission “Resident Evil The Lab” from this jam? I made a recording here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C-29671mUU

Can you give us a bit context? Are you active on the Discord channel?

This was submitted for Liminal Game Jam 2026. I mistakenly gave it a try. This game wants your microphone and camera access. It’s unplayable without. Not trusting this one.

When you start the game it says Unity. The .exe file has the unity logo.

This is a submission to Pixel Forge JAM #2 | Haunted Edition [ $5000+ in prizes ]

Done

This was a submission to Made To Be Played

I just played DeadLane. I also recorded a video but I think it’s not necessary to show as this game doesn’t take any user inputs.

So first off this game advertises itself as windows, linux, mac. But there is just an .exe file. So this game is only for windows.

I enjoyed the Microsoft SAM TTS voice as I have played around with those TTS aswell. I understand it in 50% of the time. But why you didn’t decide to give the TTS also subtitles?

The narration itself is a bit cheesy and seems only fit for american sensibilities. Also the game would actually been better if there was something to be seen on the street, to have at least a bit of visibility. I was waiting for something to happen and then… the crash! But then the game crashes? That was it? I am not sure if that is the end of the game. I really don’t have the motivation to go through the unskippable cutscene/game to see if I had any possible input in this game.

I am very proud of this project. It was for 2 full months in development with no prior work done on it. No AI. No stock assets.