itch.io

We are about 75% completed, and expect to be done in May/June. It's looking and sounding quite good!

Thank you and glad to hear! The second, larger chapter of QFTX has been scripted out and I looking to go into development later this year. I'm currently working through coding the second half of an unrelated thriller-adventure named Pine, which is currently in beta testing. Excited for upcoming releases to show you!

You are actually the first to mention the nod to a now defunct video game company from the 80s in the logo... very nice! The second half of the name is also an homage to a certain individual from Preston High School in Idaho...

Hey cool! Nice work.

Thanks for playing and posting! I have the second chapter scripted and designed and am trying to find a coding partner to work with so that is can be implemented in Lua instead of in Pulp, which the first chapter utilised. It's actually pretty hard to find a reliable partner IMHO, even if I've tried to do so using freelancers.

In the meantime, I have been working to complete a separate game in Pulp that should be done in the next month or two. 

Thanks so much for playing and commenting!

You're very welcome and thank you so much for your well-wrought and generous post. I always hope that my games and stories are creating memorable experiences for others, and it is support like yours that fuels me to continue creating. I hope you continue on with Guy de Canet in his journey as that epic unfolds.

Congratulations to our three submissions and winners!

FIRST PLACE:  Passcode (FunTime) by kantackistan 
 Ranked 1st  (Score: 3.867)

SECOND PLACE:  Shield by SCONIN 
Ranked 2nd  (Score: 3.600)

THIRD PLACE: SKEEDADLE SKEDOODLE by nICOLEdev
Ranked 3rd  (Score: 2.800)

Sure you can.

Hi there. You'll need to find some more air while swimming the final half of the underwater chamber. You'll need a sharp object to find that air, but you won't be able to use your sword as it's too heavy to swim with. Try to use your sword to create a sharp object in the underground meeting room instead.

I like the artwork! And the simple idea of cat and mouse is always an interesting one to work with.  I was a bit confused about the goal at first... was this described somewhere and I missed it? The G&W series moved a bit toward two-player games later in its history, and I think there's alot of fun to be had in a simple handheld for two players to play on the bus, while waiting at school, etc. Great job for your first time attempting a G&W game!

Will do!

Happy questing!

Let me see if I can figure out how to allow it-- otherwise just add your link to the description so anyone can head over to the browser version to play.

Did you use the PD crank?

If the bucket it still sitting at the top of the well, attached to rod and handle, you'll need to do something else with it for it to serve its purpose of communicating to someone at the bottom...

It doesn't, but I'll wait for the browser version.

Fantastic! I'm on a Mac so I eagerly wait :)

I am so glad to hear you enjoyed it-- your comments inspire me to continue creating. 

Thanks so much! I really do appreciate the support as it's what inspires me to make more games. I hope you enjoy questing!

Quite interesting! Thanks for that. I'll check out the link now.

We are now in the voting period for the submissions, so go ahead and have a look, a play, and submit your ratings for the nice work created! You can have a look at the rating criteria on the jam page if unsure of the meaning, or feel free to drop a message here.

Great submission! I left some other comments on your itch page.

Interesting concept, and nice progression of difficulty! I want to know a bit more of the story behind these characters and the conflict they are in... how did you come up with the idea?

I'm looking forward to playing! How to start the game in the browser?

Echoing what kantackistan has said-- you're all good with or without SFX, and thanks for being here. 

And thanks kantackistan for being a good mate!

Looks like you worked it out! Happy questing and feel free to message me here if you get stuck again.

FYI... it's up on the PD Catalog as of this past week.

Thanks for your support and feedback! There are no hints online but feel free to send me a message if you get stuck. Happy questing!

Best of luck to all in finishing up their submissions-- looking forward to seeing your unique creations!

Very nicely finished! How did you create the look of the device, the screen depth/shadows, etc.?

Nice creation! How did you create the look of the device and the shadows, etc.?

I invited you specifically for your contributions and your interesting ideas, Itizso...

I think it may be unhelpful once the jam has begun to criticise the theme/control scheme especially to the degree it begins to look like an argument and a bit off the point of the jam. The 5 possibilities for the control scheme were posted beforehand, and that would have been the best time to decide if one wants to participate or not... or we adjust the jam structure accordingly.

 At this point, I feel the jam's kind of been torpedoed, rather than we've pulled together under the concept to work on it all together positively. It's certainly sapped my interest in hosting it.

...seems pretty clear. It's asking you to only utilise up and down as the movement similar to the two games given as exemplars.

For further clarification, yes, that would mean two "characters", similar to the two games given as exemplars.

One way to show that some great games can come from this limitation, would be to make them.  I was hoping to inspire that in others, as I was inspired to do the same. But I'm not convinced that jam attendees feel they can do this with the given constraint. I'm also not convinced the given constraint is being given a fair chance.

There are some other LCD jams as well as G&W specific ones, so I don't mind shutting this one down. I don't get the sense there's a real supportive spirit for it here as laid out.

Let me say the following:

Please consider that all my designing and hosting of the jam is done with the best intent, out of an excitement I found when attempting to work within the limitations I imagined Yokoi and others did. The breakthroughs I experienced, and the delight in finding solutions and new insights was something I thought was genuinely profound, and was very much linked to the limitations of the genre.

This isn't a paid role :D

Here's my proposition:

Please consider my responses in this thread. As a long-time teacher and designer, I do have a method to my madness, and for this jam its intended to find a particular gold I think that is within the very constraints we are discussing. 

If you feel the chosen control scheme constraint is too limiting for you, then let me know here and I'm willing to add the second layout of the 4-POSITION buttons as well. But we have an entire month to make a game... so please at least give the chosen constraint some real brainstorming time. I really think there's alot more potential in there than we may be giving it credit for.

One way to make art is to have every colour of paint and then to paint whatever you want from this. Another way is to limit yourself to blues, and paint what this inspires. I do feel I'm trying to push us into Picasso's blue period but we are wanting more colours :D

"Okay, but then you're imposing an additional constraint over and above the control scheme -- in this case, the mechanic of moving a playable character over 3 positions."

I used 3 positions as an example from the aforementioned games, in contrast to how the other scheme in question does not move the character in such a way. I wasn't implying you must use 3 positions... although in my experience 2 characters/3 positions is challenging to  work with on its own!  

"But there shouldn't be any reason the up/down control couldn't move each character over, say, 4 positions, or 5, or 2. "

Agreed.

"In addition, as you pointed out, just because Lion and Mario Bros. happen to control "characters", doesn't mean the playable object under control by the control scheme couldn't be something else entirely different, like in your examples, a vehicle or a door. "

Agreed, as long as those two "characters" are independently moving on screen.

"Which also means, even the implementation of the up/down control as moving something "up" or "down" is only one possible mechanic. It could just as easily be used to accelerate and brake, open or close, jump or crouch. "

As long as we don't  discard the two independent "characters" I am in agreement, and I'll explain further why below.

"So, by logical extension, having two characters, one for each up/down controller, is just one possible implementation of the control  scheme, but not the only one.  As I pointed out, Egg and Manhole (just to name two) use the same control scheme to control only one playable character on the screen." 

So here's my explanation: 

I don't think one can separate the scheme from the gameplay when talking about design... meaning the 2 independent rocker D-pads (UP/DOWN) were always linked to two independent characters in the G&W games., while the 4-POSITION buttons were linked to one character.  In conceiving of the jam, I wanted to try working under one specific constraints to see what we might create. So I listed the two control schemes we are discussing (among others) as separate and said we would choose one to work with, along with examples to see beforehand. Technically, in terms of hardware, you are right... these are four inputs. But In designing the jam, I connected the scheme with the gameplay, and in this case, two independent "characters" are always used. 

"Of course, as the host, it's your prerogative to add limitations to the game design on top of the control scheme,"

So I'm not adding limitations here, I'm adhering to what was described previously in the jam description. These two schemes relate to different approaches to gameplay design in the two independently moving characters on screen. 

"but I think allowing participants to work within the constraint of the chosen control scheme (and the other limitations of the Game & Watch technology), without imposing limitations on the game design, is likely to produce far more interesting and innovative games." 

I think I'm being unfairly judged here! Please take my words to heart.

There is always a balance between limitations and freedom in creativity and there are alot of possibilities to mine in just one of the schemes as I described them in the original jam description.  It's really a challenge, though, because we are used to being given more possibilities than we will ever use. In this jam, I wanted to push us the other direction. 

"In fact, I would argue, it was this approach to game design by Gunpei and his team that was able to produce such a wide variety of games in the Game & Watch series, rather than just variations on a theme, even though many of the games share the same control scheme." 

There was a wide variety in the G&W series, and I think it's up for discussion which of these were really great or not... is this based on sales? How fun is Ball today? Was trying to replicate console games a good idea, as in the Legend of Zelda? Which are your favourite games, and why? But I'll leave that for a different thread. 

BTW... you don't have to move two characters up and down, although I think there is plenty of creative territory to be explored there. 

Here are just a few examples of how you might use this control scheme:

1) Two vehicles on a horizontal road.
2) Crane arms picking defective items off a conveyor belt.
3) Opening/closing doors in a Five Nights at Freddy's type scenario.

They actually are different...

For the two UP/DOWN D-pads (i.e Mario Bros.) there are three positions that each of the two onscreen character can be in (bottom, middle, and top), and since you can move the two characters independently, you've got 9 unique positions for the two of them to be in at any given time. 

For the 4-POSITION button layout (i.e. Manhole) there are only 4 unique positions for a single character to be in at any given time.

What I found when I designed Area 51 using just the LEFT/RIGHT D-pad was that there was alot of variety that could come from the "hazards" in the environment.

Using the two UP/DOWN D-pads I think offers even more possibilities, and requires some very clear design thinking to make a good game using it... I think it's certainly a worthy challenge!

Correct, the two sets are both UP/DOWN + UP/DOWN, similar to Lion and Mario Bros.

Don't worry :) Out of limitation a lot of creativity can come. I'm looking forward to seeing what you do create!

Instead of a jam theme, a control scheme has been provided:

• UP/DOWN + UP/DOWN (i.e. Lion and Mario Bros.)