itch.io

Really like the light in the portal, backlighting the giant creating the rim light. And the beautiful light reflection on the water, too. Just can't keep my eyes off  these two. Which asset is the water surface?

I like the cinematic feel. I can see you have put in thoughts in details for the scene to create the mood of doom -- there are even creepy hanging men at the top.

I like it better without the text. Also, It took me a little while to figure out the lower legs of the king. At first glance, I didn't see his lower legs, and he looked like a dwarf. :D

Really like the epic film feel. Wish the image were not as fuzzy -- at least be able to see a sharper focal point (perhaps the dark character in the foreground) that could be sharper and in focus. It almost feels like the screenshot was resized from a lower resolution or the depth of field setting is off.

Feel like a comic -- very fun to look at, or "read" each character, almost like looking at Where's Waldo. It also gives a feel of the movie Shrek -- not just the ogre-like characters, but the color scheme and the crazy atmosphere of a chaotic crowd.

Does this reference the room where they mentioned "prophecy" in Harry Potter - The Order of the Phoenix? I have just seen it on TV that's having Harry Potter re-run and thought it looked familiar. The screenshot looks pretty close to the scene. :D  I like the lighting.

Ooo... I learn a new term from you... "dutch angle"! :D  The horizon was initially aligned with the bottom of the frame until only a day or two before the submission. I added two extra images on my project page to show some early experiments of ideas. Those were... hmmm... not "dutch angle". Is there a term for non-dutch-angle? :D

Wow, you really picked out my design decisions of this piece -- the composition, camera placement and angle, and color choice for the knight! Thank you!

I am basically a total noob non-gamer with slow reflex. I am not a good playtester to tell you about new features as I am not really the target gamers of your game. You may want to take my feedback with a grain of salt. It's just that only money and different weapons make it feel like yet-another-space-shooter. Ok, here you go…

I could not play at the level to experience any special weapons. Maybe you have already implemented these... To make your game stand out, I think the weapons should be able to do things beyond just causing more damage or requiring longer cooldown times. Maybe some projectiles could fly around in loopy directions, unique patterns, and not just straight lines? Or, allow the player to lock on to a specific type of enemy and it will chase the enemy automatically after being fired? And maybe some fired projectiles could spawn bullets or have a blast zone, either at random timing or upon the player's key press, to help cause more damage?

And, maybe instead of money, it's some specialty weapons you can pick up after destroying a certain enemy? The player can use the newly picked-up weapon immediately to get out of a tight situation. Any accumulated unused picked-up weapons can then be traded for upgrades later. This way, the player can use the picked-up weapons as either instant or delayed gratification; it would be the player's decision. Players will enjoy the game more if they feel more empowered and in control. But money is delayed gratification only. If I can't live through the wave, money is meaningless to me.

The reason I don't play shooter games because as someone with slow reflex, I can hardly pass the first round, and then everything restarts all over. I forever get stuck at the beginning. In order for me to want to play a space shooter game, I want an abundance of shelters or shields to get me out of tight situations so I can continue -- to see all the cool stuff the developer has prepared for the game. I also want to be able to clear all the enemies within a distance in one blast, which, again, can get me out of a tight situation. Perhaps you could add a no-fail "zero-skill" level that allows players to practice everything without a game over. A total noob like me can just keep playing it with occasional venturing out to the actual level. The game can keep a tab on how many times I would have died, but I could just continue, regardless, to experience all your cool stuff you have implemented in your game. So my motivation could be trying to break my own records to have the least would-have-been-game-over as possible. Yep, it may sound pathetic. :D  Experienced shooter game players could use this as a tutorial or practice at the beginning.

I agree with the other comments that the flying objects are too small. I don't know if there are any non-enemy objects, but I just tried to shoot everything in sight.

I like the way of using the mouse to aim, as keyboard controls will greatly reduce my already-slow reflex. I would like to see unique visuals of the enemies, and flashy particle effects and sound effects of different enemies. Even if I know I won't be able to beat them, at least I'll have something entertaining to see and hear.

The full screen button at the lower right corner overlays on top of the end of the slider, making it impossible to click to set the slider button there, or if I slide the slider button all the way there, then I can't drag it to a different position without triggering the full-screen. When in full screen, the right side of the game got cropped off.

Like the other commented, there were times I clicked through the whole slider and still could not find the station.

Is the game about clicking through the slider fast enough plus with some luck to find that secret position before time's up?

I am basically a non-gamer, so you may want to take my feedback with a grain of salt… :D

I think the story is interesting. It reminds me of a manga called "Delicious in Dungeon," in which the heroes run out of money and food on a mission and decide to slay and eat the monsters along the way. So, I was excited to see a similar story in a game.

I was excited to see a tutorial as I am a total noob for this genre of games. I really appreciate the details to learn more about this type of gameplay, but it feels like a lot of information to swallow in one big bite. I feel it would be best to space out the information and build up gradually. For example, you may first start with the very basics to pass an easy baby-step first round with just two slimes (better yet, just one) as the initial journey. Then, the second round comes with a new challenge that needs new knowledge. You provide the relevant instructions at that point.

Introduce the 3rd and 4th slimes in the later round when the challenge calls for extra members in the team, and so you introduce the new and relevant tutorial information at that point. Maybe the slimes find the others from the previous party, so they join forces and combine loots; or some newcomers decide to come catch up with you. This will also give you a team with unique individual experience or skill levels, basically right off the bat.

In the dialog, it would be nice to add icons/graphics. For example, add the slime color image next to the name, for example, Helen. So, I can quickly identify which one is Helen by the color icon shown in the dialog. A sprinkle of graphics in the dialog helps break up long sentences and helps players pick up key points more quickly.

I played maybe 3 or 4 battles, and felt I want to experience something else in-between at least to replenish the health and take a break from the battles.

And visual and sound effects… You may already have them in your plan. Use visual and sound effects to spice up the attack/defend. Give each type of action a different visual and sound effect to make them more memorable.

About the weapons collected, maybe I overlooked the information in the tutorial… but what do I do with them? Can they be converted to health? When and how do the slimes eat them? Battle after battle, I see the slimes' health decrease but don't see how the loot gives them any instant gratification in return.

I can feel you are excited about your project and have been working hard on it. I look forward to seeing the improved version in the future!

Wow, thank you SO MUCH for taking the time to write up such thorough feedback! And there are really actionable items to me.

Yep, I did think of storing the photos. In fact, I already have the code to save the photos to the computer or photo gallery on the phone. Some screenshots were actually snapshots during my playtest. But I disabled it in the posted game for both technical and privacy reasons. I will rethink keeping this feature in the final game.

As for the spyglass, you don't need it to see the dwarf. To use it to see "things," click on the spyglass, it will be placed on the side of McKenzie's head. Then, my secret "algorithm" of scoring the photos will be revealed! The key objects to be scored may be rendered in solid white with a black outline, like an ink drawing. All the hot spots that my code checks for scoring are shown as tiny hot pink dots. In general, the more pink dots are included in the photo, the higher the score will be, although each dot may have a different weight and even directional weight. Note that Grandma gives McKenzie the spyglass when she says she wants to get a higher score. So, the spyglass has something to do with getting higher scores. Player may or may not be able to figure it out, but it does not affect the game flow in any way, regardless.

With the spyglass turned on, you may also see some random flying particle trail effect, like what Finn (Grandma's golden retriever) sees in the barn intro scene. (The story in the final game will later reveal that Finn has been sneaking into the game so many times that those magical things follow him out of the portal, and they need to do something about it.)

Click on the spyglass again to toggle it on/off anytime. However, as Grandma tells McKenzie, once you take a snapshot, it will disappear for that run. This constraint makes the player to weigh spending more time watching through the spyglass searching for hot spots vs. just capturing the current fleeting moment they don't want to miss.

But I should (and plan to) add more stuff for the player to see with the spyglass, in case the player never looks in the direction of the photo hot spots. Perhaps some collectibles, like spinning coins.  :D

Yep, I started making the game solely to, as you say it exactly, "be able to just wander and enjoy looking at beautiful things for the sure joy of it." And I even plan to make those worlds into VR for myself to go in to just chill. :D  The photo-scoring was added only to make it more like a game, so it's more likely to be shared with others. Well… I am really glad my game found you!

Thank you for playing my game and giving me the feedback.

I have bought Alba but forgot about it. Will definitely try it out.

Each spawn point in my game does have an objective: to take pictures that look or give a feeling as close to the particular sketch as possible--the sketch that the player has just selected before going into the wardrobe portal. The closer the photo to that sketch, the higher the score. Every spawn point is right at where you could find what's in the sketch you have selected. Once you get at least a score, then grandma will give you a spyglass that can see "things," and then encounter a new NPC, which will be a key character in the storyline that I am going to implement. But the player does not have to follow all this and could just wander around, take whatever photos they want, and admire their photographs, if they so choose to.

Glad you mentioned the zoom and framing feature. I did experiment with adding zoom and pan sliders, but decided not to go forward as it  made the UI quite busy/confusing. But since you mentioned it, I will re-think the design of it.

I will check out your game later today. I didn't try it earlier because words "chess" and "roguelike" kinda of scared me a little, as I am not a chess or roguelike game person. :D

I don't have fast reflex or precision skills that the game requires... (the least difficult option is Normal) and so I couldn't play more than two rounds (waves?) The game certainly has a familiar space shooter gameplay that most gamers can quickly pick up on and start playing. It's responsive to the mouse click to shoot and aim. I think some new and unique features/gameplay besides money and different weapons could be added to make the game stand out.

Thank you very much for playtesting my game.

As the player continues to play the game, they will spawn at different points in the scene to explore--thus overall there will be more time  to explore, just happening gradually.

And, in the photo-scoring cutscene, you can click on the green or orange pagemarkers on the side of the sketchbook to page through those spawn points already open for you. That is, if you want to replay the ice place, you could choose to return to it. But one minute won't get you to explore everything. It's intentional... The 1-minute feels short but intends to make the player wanting to return. Plus, I want to make a game that does not require a long attention span.

Thanks for your comment about the controls. I have got comments about the controls before. I have been scratching my head as I thought the current control scheme was the basic 3D 3rd person type. But to a non-gamer total noob like me, what feels natural does not necessary feel natural to average gamers. So, would you mind telling me if you use the virtual joystick, what feels weird, and what the ideal controls to you would be? I will appreciate that. :D

It's intended for mobile. The keyboard controls are added only because of WebGL that can allow for more potential playtesters, who, I have found out have been expecting WASD and seem to refuse to use the virtual joystick by dragging the handle with the mouse.

The A/D and Q/Z keys use the exact same code as the virtual joystick. So it should feel the same as the virtual joystick, well... at least to me. Note that the A/D and Q/Z keys are for direction control or look only. You have to hold the W key with the A or D key together to control the direction. You press/release the A/D key when needed to change direction while holding the W. Or better yet, simply hold the W key and use the mouse the drag the virtual joystick. :D  Yep, to a total noob non-gamer like me, what feels natural does not feel natural to the average gamers, and vice versa.  :(

Is there any future plan to add some unique gameplay and narrative to make your game unique? :D The current game feels like a beginner tutorial shooter game.

I really like the black-and-white visuals, the animated visual effects of the actions, and the interesting narrative provided at the opening that makes it feel like there are some deep messages like in some anime films. I would love to hear background music and sound effects to go with the actions, which you have probably already thought of.

As a total noob non-gamer, I don't have the average gamer's trained intuition to spot the hot spots in games. I managed to uncover the thing that looked like a castle ruin. But then, I don't know how to interact with it, and nothing new I could uncover.

I played the game in the Web browser. This is just from the point of view of a non-game who has never played this type of game… The music matches the game very well. The attack feels pretty snappy. I enjoyed seeing the visual effects of the attack. I just kept clicking the mouse and used WASD occasionally, and I could defeat the boss in the second trial. Wish it did not take so many strikes. But, since your game is about boss fights only, I guess it has to be this way. The surrounding rock walls could use a shader that will make it somewhat see-through when they block the sight to the player character. There are two health bars on top of the screen, which I could guess which one is the player/boss. But I am not sure what the bar at the lower left corner of the screen is. Oh, and I am not sure what the Q and E do. And for the purpose of playtesting, it would be nice to have a replay button or something to allow replay without having to reload the page.

A submission to the Playtest & Feedback Exchange Jam, this game  is a photo expedition to an open world “game” to do recon by taking snapshots.

https://curiouser-kate.itch.io/expedition-cosplay-snap-playtest-jam-edition

It's a PHOTOGRAPHY type of game. If you like Pokemon SNAP! and wish it's more an open-world to roam, come check out my game.

Ooo, nice catch! I had been using the Spacebar for jump, and the jump button was like a last-minute addition for the original submission for the mobile; did not test it extensively. Actually, jumping wasn't even in the original game plan. It's only during the game development that I found it impossible to walk across the Himalayas and Andes Mountains. :D

With the jumping bug, it sounds like you have really got a nice "satellite" view of the Earth. I have fixed the bug now. But, good idea to let the player go to the Moon.

BTW, as a total noob, I don't use gamepad. I mapped the gamepad control to the different actions in my game as best as I could by googling. So, if you have suggestions of how the gamepad control should be mapped, please let me know.

Thank you so much for your kind words! So glad you picked up my intention of creating a cozy, lighthearted, carefree kind of atmosphere.

Actually, to a total noob like me, the setting and the music provide quite a soothing and tranquil atmosphere. Not a bit scary. The name of the game, on the other hand, feels a dark implication, not matching my feeling of the game at all. That's why I did not play your game sooner. And yes, I pinged the ship. But even if I didn't ping it (to save oxygen/time -- as the ship seemed to be always at the upper right corner), I still don't have enough oxygen to reach the ship. Would love to see a playthrough... to see the astronaut live!! :D

How to run out of time? Time stops at 17s, 12s,... But I never got to zero? When can I get off work? Is that how Happy Corp keeps their employees? :D

Really nice visual. I don't think I will ever be skillful enough to get to the ship, though -- if the red dot is supposed to be the ship.

But I really like the gameplay, and I would enjoy having much abundant or unlimited oxygen to float around and explore if you add some points/objects of interest around in space so I can explore or collect before reaching my ship. Could be collecting parts of the ship that got blown out? Well, of course, that is... if you are going to develop the game further, beyond the 20-second jam.

BTW, the name of the game does not give the kind of nice slow-paced search feeling of the game, i.e., the journey -- but sure... asphyxiation is the end game that you want to avoid... but sounds a little horror-themed that I might not click on it to play.

The black and white drawings look very nice! The voice-overs sound very comical and fitting.

When one of the monsters opened its mouth after I gave the undesirable answer, I thought it's going to come forward and eat me! If you are going to further develop the game... perhaps this could be one of the endings when you are trying to date a monster unsuccessfully -- kinda sound reasonable, right?  :D

Nice visual memory game! 

I would love to have a longer time at the beginning to see all the colors and patterns. Once light's out, it really does not take more than a few seconds to click to get dressed. If having the light on for more than a few seconds would make the game too easy, maybe you could make the light flicker a little before totally dark.

The what-to-wear yellow text on pastel purple is a little hard to read when the light is back on. Maybe the text color could change to darker when the light's on?

Thank you for the tip! Shortly after I posted my last comment, I noticed your game's filename and used it... kind of bypassing the riddle  :D

Sound like only Chrome without errors. Androids' default browser is Chrome. I am attaching a screenshot of one of the exceptions. It does not seem like complaining about your script specifically...but about downloading a png image. Do you need to put the images in some special folders in order to export to a Web build in renpy? When I clicked Ignore, it let me continue. I guess for the case of the error shown in the attached screenshot, it make sense the shrine was displayed as large blocky pixels...you know...like on TV when they try to block some obscene content :D  So, now I know it's not an obscene content but the download error...Hahaha!

I may try again in Chrome later.

Your game's visuals really give out the creepy vibe of Japanese female ghosts with vengeance.

Thank you for the kind words!

Thanks for playing my game!

Yep, the banknote images are fuzzy. And the spinning makes it worse. But I could only use what I could find. Hi-res may not be easy to find as it may cause suspicion of making counterfeit. :D I thought of making it smaller so it would not look so fuzzy. But I decided to keep it gigantic (so the player won't miss it) and thus silly. Tip--If you take an in-game selfie while the banknote is spinning, at least you can capture a still to look at.

As for music...it's a good idea to invoke a feel of local culture with music, but I'm also limited to what I have access to. I did think of using the local language in the greeting and goodbye phrases in the dialogue. Just need to download all those necessary international fonts.

I could not find anything that the NPC's ask for. I picked up only one brownish item--something looking like two baked potatoes :D. I could not get to the screens of all the screenshots you show.

I could not even solve the first riddle.

Nice visuals. When I see games with this art style, I automatically expect certain village-themed background music. But it was quiet. Does the game has sound or maybe my computer just not play it?

Interesting way to tell a historical event through postcards and dialogue of the persons involved.

I would suggest giving a one-liner description/title of each postcard when you buy it. The first thing I've got a postcard in real life is to flip it over to look at the back for its title/description, which would pique my curiosity to find out more about it. That one-liner could served as a title to the full text segment related to the postcard you are going to tell in your game. It's like...when you read a story or a chapter, it feels a difference with or without a title.

Wow, that's lots of arts! Did you draw all these? Must have been putting in a lot of time!

I am playing the game in the browser. I got runtime warnings and exceptions popping up frequently. Do you get those too or just my computer?

3D Open-world world travel on a tiny version of the Earth, based on real-world geographical data, but stylized and romanticized to make it a game.

https://curiouser-kate.itch.io/its-small-world-travel-after-all

Main Goal and Gameplay:

You play Mackenzie, who is a world travel journalist taking time off to travel the world.

Freely explore the world (whole planet Earth) in any order you want. There's no win/lose, time limit, dying, or killing. :D 

Just run around the Earth to visit different countries--especially places that you have always wanted to go but never possible in the real-world, talk to the cute NPCs to learn some factual information about the locations, fly a hot air balloon, witness THE asteroid hitting Yucatán Peninsula, or simply watch interesting sunrise and sunset at the poles...

It's ok--game jams are a good way to test out ideas quickly as a prototype. I did read the description but did not feel or see any easier or faster to loot, whether I had pinged the jewelry case.

Here are some silly ideas you may think about… Perhaps the player needs to tap (ping?) the glass several times to break it open. (I am not a professional robber :D , so I am not sure what ping does.) The more you tap, the larger the crack gets. The crack in the glass will serve as visual feedback to the player. So, if you crack it once during the day, you will have one less tap needed during the night when you loot. And if you crack it too big during the day, you risk being arrested by the security guard right there. To build on that, you could also have thicker glass that requires more taps for higher-value jewelry.

Another silly idea for the entrance and exit at night… as your game reminds me of the old 'Mission: Impossible' movie… :D  At night, the player could come in from the top, hanging on a wire like Tom Cruise's classic ‘Mission: Impossible’ stunt. Then, exit using the same wire, reeling back up. You could still play the truck-escaping cutscene animation after the player has exited the top. The wire-reeling up and down could be another gameplay mechanic, too, not just a passive animation. Besides being a silly cinematic, this wire act could distinguish the vibe between daytime and nighttime visits even more.

BEAUTIFUL visual, particularly the blue vegetation! And I love snapshot games! I noticed my completion level went up only when my snapshot was labeled as having 'Major Finding'. What are the features that the player can observe to judge the scene having a Major Finding or not, so they can get a higher level of completion?

Very cute art and music! Interesting 2-part 20-second game. Not sure if I played it right. I think sometimes I could ping something ok--saw it's outlined. Most of the time, pressing E did not seem to do anything. Similarly for night time, sometimes I can press E to steal something, but most of time did nothing. Also, not sure how to escape...I thought I got onto the truck but the game still says the driver left without me. Seems there's only a special spot on the truck I need to go? Oh, and can I still steal something without pinging it? How does pinging help stealing faster?

I didn't think of using the landmarks from afar to help the player's navigation, either, until I tried out the 2d map.

I still like the 3d globe idea better and plan to continue on the 3d globe to make a more leisure (without time rush) travel game with more in-depth narrative and photography assignments. I'm even putting in some real-world astronomical data/algorithms so the player can follow the path of the lunar and solar eclipse around the globe on specific real-world dates.  :D