itch.io

That's the plan!

File uploads are locked at the end of the period right? It's not possible to cheat anyways.

Hey, I publish games when they are (more or less) ready. Right now the page is empty. 

Is it allright to publish at the end of the submission period?

Achievement unlocked! :D

That's an amazing start. I wish you luck with your next projects!

Right, so it would be like two worlds - platformer in the book and top down outside. Sounds good.

Yes, the old couple meeting again would definitely fit the celebration part of the theme and bring the story to a satisfying closure.

Good luck with this project!

Wow, congratulations! Is this really your first game?!? (at least for this Itch account)

The sounds and visuals work together to create a very specific athmosphere. Thank you for making this!

Thank you to everyone who rated the game high on the creativity criteria! It means a lot to me and it encourages me to continue working on the custom engine.

I've uploaded a new version of the game which contains many accessibility additions: https://beseda.itch.io/last-mine/devlog/1675766/1-post-jam-update

Stay tuned for the next game which is planned for release by the end of the month: Phronesis Petroleum.

I wish you a bright day!

Thank you for the intriguing world building! The animations and visual effects really contribute to the immersion. 

It seems the game has potential but it very much depends on how you develop the gameplay further - is it going to be a grid based top down game and the platforming remains a mini game? Or is it just the introductory cutscene in a top down style and the rest of the game is a side scroller? 

Maybe you will find my take on the tactical genre interesting.

Good luck!

The Itch page is beautifully made, well done! 

It's nice that the levels automatically change whenever the character dies and the player restarts. Keeps the game interesting.

I started with the ranged character. Either I wasn't playing "correctly" or it is very underpowered - I could not clear the 2nd wave. When I switched to the melee character I was able to clear 9 waves easily. I guess some balancing is necessary.

Does the game wait for all enemies of a wave to be "cleared" before spawning new ones? I guess it is based on time and if the enemies are not cleared they just become too many to defeat. Maybe it would be good to have a hybrid logic that at an interval checks how many enemies are alive currently and based on that spawns new ones.

You can check out my submission to explore a unique take on the tactical genre. After the file upload is unlocked is the best time to try it. ;)

Good luck!

Thank you for playing! 

The resolution does not adapt because for some reason the map(s) gets cut when when the resolution changes. My apologies for the inconvenience.

Great! Showing which islands want the resource is a nice touch!

Hmm, I assume you're proud of using AI. If you did not disclose it at the end of the message it would not have crossed my mind. Kind of have mixed feelings about this. It's praiseworthy that you are transparent but on the other hand - do you need to use it for everything? Who are you at the end of the day? Because of the proliferation of AI, people start noticing and appreciating little mistakes that show them there is a human on the other side. This is my personal opinion.

Interesting concept but unfortunately I wasn't able to experience it as designed.

I was evading the falling sweets and getting the hirosontally moving cakes. I noticed that the cakes give health when health < 3 but confusingly they also took it away when health === 3. 

I hit a bug where when I am right next to the edge of the screen and there is a cake which comes the game loops and sends infinite cakes. Which allowed me to confirm the observation above.

The game only triggered the rainbow eggs mini game. 

I will wait for your update after the jam to play the whole game.

Good luck!

I saw your profile and it is apparent that you have perfected the action type of game - very polished submission. Thank you.

The game is very accessible - animated guides, detailed descriptions of icons. Very nicely done! I admit I have much to do in that regard with my games, already implemented a tutorial just waiting for the file upload to be unlocked.

One serious issue I had was that the trigger was delayed - tried with the mouse and with the spacebar but it's the same lag. It made the game a lot harder. Even though the delay itself was more or less consistent so I could somewhat adjust. Still, considering that this is the core loop it's disappointing. Maybe it's just me: running on Chrome.

A couple of minor notes:

The offers by the king/queen are easy to miss. They could be made into a separate window/prompt maybe?

It is very useful that you added a comparison when chosing to replace a guest. However when I left the mouse on the button to select the guest to be replaced a tooltip pops up and clutters the UI.

Good luck!

Well done! 

I have a couple of suggestions how to improve it further: the first time I wanted to go back and see the level I was searching for a restart button and could not find it. So I thought that if I go back to the main menu maybe I would have to start from the beginning?.. You can avoid evoking that anxiety by including a restart button.

They way they are currently, the controls are a bit of an awkward combination of keyboard and mouse - move with WASD then at the end of the level get the mouse to click on continue. It would be more engaging if some keyboard button was mapped to continue (like Enter for example).

It's an interesting concept. Maybe you could introduce some character ability to reveal (a part of) the map for a short time? That would incentivise the player to keep going.

Good luck!

Thank you for this tight experience! The pacing is well balanced. 

Maybe if you present the weapon and boss earlier it would hook the player to stick to the end? It can be just showing them as part of the story introduction. Or just having the upgrades for the weapon grayed out which would evoke curiosity in the player - what are those for? Why do I not have access to them? etc.

Hey jammers, I've reworked the UI and introduced a tutorial mode https://beseda.itch.io/uplifting-9/devlog/1671837/devlog-1-post-jam-update

Stay tuned for a new RPG game at the end of September: "Phronesis Petroleum". I wish you a bright day!

Thank you for sharing!

Actually you control the penguin with WASD. I will double check that the mouse point and click controls are disabled.

I am speaking only for myself (personal opinion) - the idea of game jams is to try out ideas and get feedback.  I've been to many game jams (started this year) and this is perhaps the first submission I see focused entirely on graphical realism.

The choice of making a large Windows build already limits the accessibility of the game => smaller amount of players who are going to give you feedback. By using high polygon assets you limit that pool of potential players further. Disclaimer: I could not play much because of lag which was most probably caused by running the game in a sandbox (in other words I make no comment on how optimised the game is). 

So before we even get to the important part - your ideas, there is already a very small portion of players who can access the game to give you feedback. 

Unity is a popular and proven technology. What matters is how you use it. What is the creative idea? You wrote that the main goal is to have the player sail to an island and then walk inside the island (movement from point A to B). What distinguishes your game from other pirate/sailing games?

I advise you to strive for graphical realism only after players have validated a stylised version of the game. 

Good luck!

I'm not a Unity dev - so I might be wrong. But it's a fairly simple operation with JavaScript so I assume that it should be possible with Unity too. And from a cursory Google search it seems that it is.

Good luck!

I would say this is more of a toy or instrument than a game. Definitely a unique submission for this jam. Thank you for making this!

At first I was playing it on the web page but the menus were cluttered - once I opened it in full screen mode it got fixed. 

It would be nice to be able to export to an MP3/4 file to listen to later. I found that you can convert a Unity Audio Clip to a byte array and export it using the “audio/wav” mimetype.

Maybe in a bigger version of this game it would be possible for players to share files, maybe even make it into a rhythm game?

Good luck!

Hey, sorry to hear that you got stuck. 

You can reload the page, open the settings and turn on the sound, open the levels menu and select level 3. It is straightforward - notice the audio visual signals, press [E] to dig and click on a mine to clear it. Thank you for playing!

The implementation needs more work. For example - the pathfinding didn't work (in my playsession?). Instead of going through the opening, the whale tried to go through the wall (like it is trying to reach the target in the most direct way without understanding that there are obstacles).

Nevertheless it's an interesting concept. You should continue working on it. Good luck!

Thank you, Arreles.

I am going to make the interaction area larger. 

And I'll start troubleshooting the transition between the levels - I guess it escaped my playtests because I know when the area is going to change and  don't make the character move. :D

Thank you for sharing the exercises you find useful. 

I think you could integrate some of them more into the virtual world - like for example "Name 5 things you see" can be turned into a small point and click game. Another opportunity - 3 things about hearing. The other senses are physical and not relevant to a video game.

The same applies to the breathing exercise - it could be a small video game. Maybe even include microphone sounds - I have been researching that option and will come back to it some day.

This is not criticism but a challenge to do more. I think there are a lot of (mobile,web) self-help apps, including the famous SuperBetter which was among the first, that fail at making the exercises actionable and instead rely on self reporting. But video games are a medium that is more interactive! It has a lot of potential to be very impactful. Unfortunately game studios predominantly focus on violence but we as indie developers can and are changing that little by little. There should be more games that include such useful exercises as those you refer to.

Good luck and keep going!

Thank you for playing and sharing your impressions!

"creepy in a good way" <== Hmm, this is the first time I'm hearing that... In what way is the atmosphere creepy? Maybe the top down character models are a bit too dark for the story but that's what I could find on Craftpix.

Really? Wow, you did fantastic for your first game! Congratulations - achievement unlocked! ;)

This is a well made survival and crafting game - thank you! 

It's nice that you included a "How to play" section within the game.

I hit a bug where after I got away from the tab and returned the pointer did not get recaptured and I could not look around. But then I opened the crafting menu (Tab) the pointer was recaptured.

It is nice that the purifier, the grill and the beacon are also light sources - a mechanical way to uplift (keep up the spirits). 

I was relieved that the character was about to be saved + the repeating alarm of the beacon => I ignored his thirst and he died 30 seconds before the help arrived. This caused the ending to have the opposite effect of uplifting. You can see on the image the activated beacon in the background.

I'm thinking this can be avoided if either the thirst and hunger needs get suspended when the beacon is activated or make them as noticeable as the alarm of the beacon.

Mechanically the game is well made, but I don't think it manages to evoke positive feelings... Maybe that is why there are 8 ratings but no comments? Personally, I'm not bothered, but I guess you can make the game even more uplifting by including some appropriate music and more "juice" when beating the odds - for example when placing the purifier, grill and beacon play some cheerful tune, render some cool animated UI, etc. 

Good luck!

Oh, congratulations on your first game - achievement unlocked! :D

Thank you for playing! 

After the jam I'm planning to make the protagonist have a thought bubble to indicate that s/he should speak with the NPC.

A kind reminder that there is a level select which you can use. I made it in the hope that if someone got stuck they would use it to see the rest of the game.

Definitely there is always more polish that can be added. I'm working on it.

I also made my game engine in straight JS - you can check out my game. I think you were streaming on Discord but I missed it...

Anyways - apologies for diverting the attention.

Thank you for this game. It's awesome that you made everything yourself.

I wonder why you classify it as an RPG...

This is the first jam I'm participating in that asks participants how many games they can rate. And I think the amount of ratings is higher than the average jam. 

Is there a correlation? I believe so - because when asked openly about it people commit to it => they put more effort. Well done! I think it is useful for everyone.

Ah, I see. Nudging me into ever more reviews! :D 5, 15, 25... 74? Maybe I will beat my personal record.

You combined elements in such a way that the whole is larger than the sum of its parts. Well paced, the level design was constantly shifting keeping up the challenge.

Near the end, by introducing to the player the text "overcome fear" you set the expectation that what follows is dangerous which is a clever trick to evoke a specific interpretation of the aesthetics. 

The final part managed to merge the identities of the player and the character - what was suspected was uncovered but was that the motivation or was it the journey itself? Introducing a seemingly important choice at the very end is another clever trick - this time used to invite replaying.

One potential game breaking bug - I naively made the character collect all the heavy creatures and he just could not move. There was no way of knowing that would be the consequence. So I quickly thought to press E to drop them but since they dropped on the same spot the next time he returned, the character picked all of them at once getting himself overburdened again. After a few loops the items fell through the ground and luckily fell near whey they needed to be. I think an easy solution to this would be to limit how many of them the character can carry at a time.

Thank you for this experience. Good luck!

Thank you for playing!

Oh, that sounds like quite the adventure - the travelling debater!

Yes, that is the main loop - perform basic actions to gain power and then use that power with advanced actions to move the conversation forward to completion.

About the sheep - please keep in mind that you are not pushing them but rather pulling them. They will go in the direction you are facing (up, down, left, right). I plan to make the shepherd NPC appear and assist after X minutes.

Just a kind reminder - you can select the levels. In case you got stuck on level 1 you can continue to level 2 which has a more elaborate mode of dialog (trust building) or level 3 which contains a surprise mini game.

Yes, there are a few systems in the back end. My ambition is to create a full fleged RPG focused on social interaction. I'm slowly getting there.

You're welcome and stay tuned for a new game in October! I wish you a bright day.

Thank you for the game - it's got a chill athmosphere. I was thinking it would be spooky, creepy or scary but I don't think it is (well, I did not manage to progress much so I might be wrong).

A couple of notes from me:

About going foward and going back - if I go foward and enter the new corridor, then turn around and check the door it says go forward again. It can be confusing because it is constant rather than relative. Maybe it would be more clear to name them "Closer" and "Further" to the targer room. Or maybe that would be confusing as well? Ah, maybe it's because the doors as a mechanic combines two things - movement and assertion. If they are separate it would be a more streamlined experience. Like pausing the game or entering  a special mode to input if the player believes there is an anomaly.

The notification "You missed something" appears whenever a mistake is made. But the mistake may be false positive - thinking that there is an anomaly when there isn't. In that case it's not missed but imagined. Maybe it would be more clear to add - "Your observation did not match" or something like that.

Good luck!

Nice game - challenging but fun! The thumbnail could be more exciting to reflect the game itself.

About the iframe size - it's easy to fix by setting the height.

One minor issue - when the ship is at the top of the screen it goes behind the toolbar. Considering how much stuff is going on on the screen, this can be disorienting.

Good luck!

Cool game, thank you.

Perhaps it would be more clear to make the bright time of day after the rocks switch a little longer to be able to orient. The animation of waves crashing on the rocks is a critical addition - the game would have been irritating without it.

It's also fantastic that you put options for the ship speed and beam width. It would be great to include a setting for the screen brightness too.

I got in a few situations where the large ship was bouncing off rocks from the left and the right. I think it was around 30 bumps - can a ship sink? I think it's just keeping track of the bumps - as far as I can see there are no bad consequences... I don't think a ship can go backwards even though that is a natural reaction (and they can go backwards in real life). Is it worth adding? Maybe if the bumps have an impact on the score.

"The largest ship comes home last. It always does."<== No, it didn't in the game! :P

Good luck!

Thank you for this silly game - had a good time!

One suggestion from me: it would be easier to read if you separate the screens for the controls: mouse+keyboard or gamepad.

It is an interesting decision to make the character move at the bottom of tiles, not the center... I'm curious to know what is the thinknig behind it.

I assume you are fans of RPGs - I invite you to try my game. I'm trying to innovate how social interaction works in games. Would appreciate your feedback on it.

Thank you for this game! The messages from real people are a nice touch.

One suggestion: when there is a message in a bottle, pause the game and remove the event listeners for the hook. This is in line with your design goal of making the game relaxing and the player slowing down.

Good luck!