itch.io

Jane Notes:

It's hard to judge this game on its own merits considering each piece of it comes from a pre-existing thing, but I do think it was a well-though-out application of the theme to a historical event. However, the internal monologues tend to line up with the things that nixon is already saying-- he's repeating the same thought in words and mind, and the benefit of a visual novel format would be in the way those two contrast. Still, interesting material, and I appreciate the content warnings.

Alex Notes:

• The theme feels a bit like a rough fit to the jam
• The writing is good quality
• No issues with the transitions and the sound effects were well incorporated
• Not the most gameplay as decisions don't matter
• Interesting but I dont have the background for the game

Alex Notes:

• Really great sound design
• Was able to figure out how to move around and interact with the portals quite intuitively
• Had some trouble with the goal and knowing that the doors were portals (they seemed like other rooms and it took some messing to see the portal mechanics
• Lost of physics issues with the blocks collisions
• Managed to fall out of the world after exploring for a bit
• Wasn't able to figure out if there was any more gameplay I missed 

Jane Notes:

This is more of an experience then a game, but it's certainly a fun one. You've nailed the aesthetic and ambience of source games, the music is really ominous and well-done, and the portal mechanic is sick. I know it's all imported from earlier projects, though, so I can't give it a higher rating than this.

Alex Notes:

• Really fun gameplay loop (my favorite)
• The enemies especially at the start were quite frequent and it was hard to fight them
• Items were fun but they started to feel very cluttering in my inventory and combining items could be fun
• Theme was good but a bit more explanation for it/worse items could help with the vibe
• Teleport was cool but I feel like it didn't quite work as I would expect from a player perspective (could have just been the items I got)

Jane Notes:

Lost Arcana has an astounding amount of juice for a jam game made in 48 hours. The basic mechanics of play feel really damn good, the controls snappy and the UI fun and easily-readable, the particle effects and flair of explosive attacks have great weight behind them-- but I think that the implementation of your main mechanic doesn't work in the way you'd hope it to. Combining and merging wands never produces something better than what you've already got, and seems to increase the cast times by level to some extreme degree. I was only using it to merge chaff I couldn't ditch, not on anything I actually cared about.

That's a balancing issue though, not a game issue. The mechanic is cool, and the design is fun, and I'm really, really impressed by the work at hand here.

Alex Notes

• Impeccable vibes
• The text entry system was a bit difficult to deal with although it did add to the remembering mechanics
• Very good background music
• Got stuck really hard after getting into the movie tunnel
• Misspelling things specifically the key was an issue for me
• Very good application of the theme with the lack of inventory and remembering your items
• Some of the click points were not where they felt like they should be and when moving quickly I missclicked a lot

Jane Notes:

This is really, really cool. The central premise of having to write down your inventory ties in well to the jam's theme, and I think it's something executed properly. The use of photographs was well-done, and the writing was excellent. I ended up taking a page of notes and I think still getting the bad ending because I forgot to write down the name of the tool. Either way, great job!

For a few more specific criticisms, though--

Sometimes I couldn't tell how two places lead to the next; I only picked up on the 'bottom-of-the-screen as back' format later into the game then I'd like to admit, and the downwards staircase in the main room tripped me up more than once. Maybe adding some kind of outline to what, exactly, you're clicking on in a room would help? There were also a few areas where I could pick up the same item more than once, a flag never tripped to stop me.

The text ui occasionally would go past the end of the screen, mainly in the final conversation- I ended up missing the last of some of the text, and I think it was an issue with how you set up your unity canvas. Make sure you're accounting for alternate screen resolutions by setting the UI Scale Mode to "scale with screen size"

Finally, there were a few reaction texts and blurbs that didn't amount to anything more than a "wow, this is crazy" on the part of the character, and they never felt much like the contributed to their characterization, or anything about them. If you want this to be a subjective, personal dream-hell-dimension, I feel like the supernatural things need to tie more directly into the character's, well, character. This one's a lot more of a subjective take, but I feel like jellyfish clouds should mean something to whoever I'm playing as, if they're going to comment on it.

Regardless of all of this, great job! I had a blast playing through it, and my criticisms are much more nitpicks then they are greivances.

Jane Notes:

This game feels like it was made by someone getting accustomed to Godot's functioning, but it certainly has some high points. The wall-climb mechanic is fun! The story is cute, and the game is complete in a way that's impressive for any first Jam. The parralax effect for the backgrounds is pretty and never distracting. The mini boss-fight was fun, the enemies are well-thought out,and I enjoy their random jumps. They kept catching me off guard midway through movements arcs.

I feel like there are a few things that hold it back, though. I can't tell how much further I can climb up a wall, and wish there was some sort of indicator. The level design also has a lot of blind jumps- you never want to expect the player to go offscreen in a way where they can't see where they'll land. If you add some element of consistency - ropes always leading down to a platform, for example, players can learn from that.

All in all, great job, and I hope you keep making games after this. If you could put together a full platformer in this time, I'm excited to see what else you might be able to do!

Alex Notes: 

• The wall walking mechanic was very creative I have not seen that kinda idea in a platformer before
• The level design was conducive to me learning the wall walking fast which was good
• I had a lot of issues with jump timing. (likely could be fixed and made feel more fair with coyote time)
• The enemy cat was not clearly an enemy at first when I first saw it and I had to take damage to realize that
• Respawning caused a movement bug in the first stage
• Pretty fun game overall
• Not sure if there is a third level?

Alex Notes:

• Impressive story
• The command prompt was actually a nice graphic touch it fit the vibe really well
• Love how it just teaches you to use the command prompt
• The instructions are a bit long and could use some writing polish
• Merge seemed to not work to initialize a new file
• Grading didn't quite make sense, some more direction on that could have been good.

Jane Notes:

I wasn't expecting anyone to make a game played entirely in terminal, let alone one as well-executed as this. The story is fun, the UI-terminal theming works great for a stripped down project, and the conceit of media manipulation is really, really well done. I have no clue how you got things like the loading bar working properly, or the sub-terminal versions of normal bash commands, but it was sick. Fantastic work all around! If you're intending to keep working on it, I bet you could do a lot of neat things with this premise.

Two criticisms- I was never sure what, exactly, I was being scored on. I tried to pick what I thought the most interesting / important / inflammatory part of an article was, but I couldn't always tell what that was, and more often then not when I failed, I wasn't sure why.

Also, I think more of the dialogue should require you to press a button to progress, and same with the game's fail state. I couldn't read most of the text because it would immediately get launched up into the next section, and I couldn't read the failure text because the game closed immediately afterwards.

Regardless of those, though, fantastic job!

Alex Notes:

• Pretty nice navigation system
• Puzzle was creative!! (I couldn't figure out the birthday month)
• Well made especially with the time constraint

Notes from Jane:

It's a bit short and scrappy of a project, but sometimes that's all you have time for.I do love the premise, but I could not for the life of me figure out what the password was. WigglesonStrawberry31415 with a date in front, or something? That would make sense. Still, good job submitting at all!

Notes from Jane: 

Lost genuinely scared me, and I think that's one of the best things I can say about a horror game made for a jam. It doesn't need particularly high-fidelity art, because the lighting is so effective at what it does, and more importantly, the sound is. The game *sounds* scary - the staticky fizz and low buzz of nearby enemies are effective, and pay off tenfold in the shock ending. Awesome job all around!

For more critical notes, I'd say that the sword doesn't work the way you intended it. It only shows up properly one in five clicks, even though the hitbox works every time. I was able to work around it to finish the game, but it was frustrating in a way I don't think was intentional. Same with corridors that are entirely empty of purpose-- better at the end than the start.

Notes from Alex:

• The download seemed to be broken for windows
• When the enemy showed up I was very freaked out, great job!!!
• The sound seemed to be broken when moving
• The first open area not having the trees I was following was a very nice game choice as it was unnerving to step out into the open
• Attacking didn't do anything so wasn't sure how to get past the first enemy
• The light source on the player added a lot of atmosphere

I think this, more than any game, fell victim to scope creep. I know for a fact that you had a massive number of interesting ideas to do with the project, but a game jam is more about doing one tiny thing really well than it is about doing a lot of things. As is, it's pretty difficult to play (Enemy ai not working sometimes, the game trailing off into infinite sidewalks with no enemies), and the pieces don't quite fit together.

The parts that do exist and work are sick! Sticky notes, for example, and being able to pick up weapons, but I couldn't really engage with others of them, such as the combos I knew existed but had no way of learning. I hope this doesn't dissuade- that you made a complete game is always going to be admirable, and there are a bunch of interesting ideas that I think you could flesh out if you were so inclined- but for next time, start as small as you can possibly go and work your way up.

You mentioned during the meeting that you were a bit disappointed in how the writing turned out, but I don't think I could disagree more. The writing sells this game in every way it needed to. You're able to set up interesting characters through, while perhaps a bit too much internal description, internal description that I wanted to read regardless. Having to retravel through old dialogue can get tedious (maybe an ISAT style nod button? Or focus more on character's internal monologues over the actual dialogue, so each perspective is a different experience, like Bad End Theatre.), and the RPG-maker visuals cut against interesting characterization, but at the game's core, I see something really interesting. If you wanted to, I could absolutely see this made into a larger, gripping story.

I can't really comprehend how you made this one. It scares me. I discovered pretty much no bugs, you've successfully pulled off local multiplayer in a game jam, and the game is, most importantly, FUN. It might need a good coat of paint and a checkmate detector, and your adherence to the theme might be iffy, but those first two are things I couldn't possibly suggest were achievable in this timespan. I sincerely hope you make this into a larger thing- I could see it becoming the next 4d chess with multiversal time travel. Great job!

There are a lot of really compelling pieces here, but I think some of the polish that would be necessary to sell them is missing. The game is currently impossible to win (the cat's score can get in the negatives,) and the text is pretty difficult to read. However! I get legitimately stressed out when clicking on a card, and the pieces that are here really do work. You could take this really interesting places (maybe the cat notices if your cursor gets close to the card? Or maybe you need to move slowly to not wake them?) And you made this one in like, half the time! Don't let my negatives dissuade you. The art is well done, the music, even if it doesn't loop, slaps, and you made a whole ass video game. Great job!

I'm still a little astounded that you were able to make this in the 48 hours, but DAMN it turned out well. The intro art is jawdropping, and your fight scene looks pretty much ready to ship.

A bit short (not that that's necessarily a bad thing!) and I wish that the mechanics of combat were more laid out? A tutorial would have suited this well- I didn't realize that yellow signified that they couldn't heal until my third runthrough- and maybe some sound effects to signify attacks could make that more clear. However, 48 hours. That this is finished and playable shows you did know where to focus your time well, even if it came with some caveats. Fantastic job!

Certainly the goofiest of the bunch. I enjoy the mouth sound effects, and the two characters that are very blatantly Cait and Vi arcane. Is this self-insert fanfiction? Plausibly.

IN my professional game dev opinion? Skill issue

Glad you enjoyed it! TYSM for playing.

Thank you! the pauses when you hit an enemy are intentional to add crunch, if I work more on it after, I'll add a setting to disable it.

Super dang fun. Simple, easy to learn, hard to master. Full marks to enjoyment.

Super fun! The game is incredibly difficult, but looks great. I would love a bit more control on the dice, but it is a jam game.

Funny and interesting! I haven't seen anyone else do this mechanic. Great job!

Funny and interesting! I haven't seen anyone else do this mechanic. Great job!

Funny and interesting! I haven't seen anyone else do this mechanic. Great job!

Love the throwing dice physics, the game is super fun to play!

Super fun to play, love the ideas!

This game is fabulous! I love how animated all the characters were, and their characters and dialogue made the game really enjoyable to play.

This is so dang fun.

I love the visual flair the game has, the music is great, the game feels good to play, and it's a really neat interpretation of the theme! good job!

I love the artstyle, the gameplay is super fun and original, great job!

It's super polished and fun! I love the artstyle.

The game looks and plays fabulous! This feels like it could have been made in a year, not a day.

Love the visuals! it's really fun to play.

Thank you!