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Thanks for the kind review, Katz!

I'm glad you had no issues with networking because we're migrating the game to Steam right now.

I hope you can give it another try once we have more content (and a better learning curve, haha).

Thanks again for the feedback, and happy 2024!

I'd buy this on steam.

"Endless Jam" but "ends in 11/30"

Can I detect mouse movement to rotate the camera like in a FPS, for exmaple?

that would be great!

True :(

Any Discord server?

Is Anti-aliasing okay?

Hey guys. I tried to make some rather different map mechanics for Burden on this jam. Instead of a whole, solid map, the only existent rooms are the ones the player is making eye contact with. That way, when the player closes a door and opens it again, the room on the other side changes. See below:

Player is inside Room 1

Player has opened the door and is now looking at Room 2

Player has closed the door to Room 1

Player has opened the door again and is now looking at Room 3!

Because of this system, I couldn't just make the monster physically chase the player, because whenever the player would enter another room, the previous room would just disappear from existence! That's where the "monster apparitions" algorithm comes!

Monster's "soul"

That pink sphere you see in every picture isn't the player model. It's actually what I call the "Monster's soul". It's just that: a floating sphere that follows the player varying it's velocity (according to a perlin noise function). It also has some sort of no-clip mode, so it can go through walls, charting a straight path to the player.

It stays invisible during the gameplay. The trick here is: the monster has a greater chance of spawning if "his soul" is closer to you. However, having no idea where the monster is could be a problem. According to the lore, the monster has the ability of slowing down time, so I've implemented a mechanic where the player can look at his wristwatch and observe how fast time is going.

This is an indicator of how far the Monster's soul is. The closer, the slower the time goes. The speed of time (distance between the player and the monster) is calculated using the Pythagorean theorem:

The apparition of the monster is random but it also depends on the position of "his soul". It usually happens when the player opens a door and another room is generated. At the moment I'm writing this, these are the probabilities that seemed to work fine:

• If the soul is inside your room when you open a door, the monster has a chance of 30% of spawning in that room;
• If the soul is inside the room that just got generated when you open a door (that usually happens when you're going back), the monster has 70% of chance of spawning in that room;
• If you leave the room where the monster is,  it has 10% of chance of respawning in the room you just entered. (Usually behind you. However, you get to hear a different sound when that happens so you know you can get killed by behind);
• The monster has also 5% of chance of randomly spawning anywhere.

That way you can keep track of where the monster is so you don't just get randomly jumpscared. However, these probabilities also add unpredictability to it. I also had to add some buffs to "his soul" to avoid some exploits. For example, the soul is teleported to a random radius nearby the player every 30-40 seconds (you get to hear a special sound when that happens so you know what's going on) in case the player is too far from it.

At least for now, this algorithm is working perfectly for what I needed. Now it's time to implement the actual (in-room) chasing system! Don't forget to play Burden as soon as the Jam ends so you can feel the sensation of getting scared but knowing what is happening!

See you in 5 days!

Nice game!

It would be better if you used the "nearest neighbor" interpolation to keep the integrity of your pixel arts, so the sprites don't look that blurry when you resize them, kind of like what you did with on the thumbnail. The platforms also have some "holes", where I was falling into all the time. The intro is very funny and I like how the game style suddenly changes. You could also take a look at some tutorials on animating walk cycles. This one is very good: 

Best jam ever!

yes.

<3

quack, quack.

Thanks a lot! We've put a lot of effort into it!

I simply love the story but it's too bad I couldn't enter Emily's house because I died while I was in the middle of a dialog and it got bugged. But nice story and mechanics! I just feel that I didn't need to use the hiding spots that much (at least during the city part, since I wasn't able to play the rest), evading the lights was enough for me. I was also a little confused about what could possibly be a hiding spot, the city was very detailed. Overall, great game!

The fact that you get bigger and it gets harder to hide is a super cool idea. But I don't really get why you can proceed to the next level without taking the bread. This way, you're rewarding the player to not waste effort on getting points (because it will be easier to sneak around) specially because you have to begin from the first level if you get caught. This, combined with the short loop music and the slippery movement makes it look like a rage-inducing game (which isn't necessarily bad, depending on what you were aiming). But overall it is beautiful and very polished. Nice job!

I love the gameplay because you're gonna have a very hard time to pass the level if you don't play it stealthy, so, nice use of the theme! However, I feel that this is a game that you could die a lot, so the fact that you have to return to the main menu and pass through the tutorial every time you die is annoying. I also feel that some graphical elements could use a little bit more detailing, like the germs and the platforms. But overall, it's a fun game!

I just love how unique it is! Nice style and gameplay, but I'd suggest adding more conventional controls like SHIFT to run and E (or some other key) to steal. Btw, was that a plumbus? hahaha

?

"[...] Everything must be created during the time frame of the game jam.
Using assets that are not your own is OK! Be sure to properly credit people."

So, I can only use assets created out of the time period if they are owned by other people?

Nice theme, I'd love to join the jam, but there are too few people participating on it. I think that the main reason is that the briefing is a little intimidating. Game styles such as Battle Royale require a lot of programming/design skills and also a lot of time and dedication. In fact, making a multiplayer game, as simple as it can be, is already challenging. I'd take down this jam, postpone it and add a more friendly description. Let beginners know that they are welcome, they just have to make a multiplayer shooter game. I'm pretty sure you'll have many jammers interested.