itch.io

Fantastic concept and charming execution, very impressive first trijam!

Hullo! Just wanted to comment as I purchased this last night to run for some friends a few minutes before our first-ever game of mothership and it was incredible. Well worth the asking price, for 6 hours of non-stop ramping-up tension and riotous fun up there with the best we’ve had at the table. Combining multiple axes of danger creates a narrative that feels like a slowly-derailing train, and the evocative playground of the maps, characters, and situations was top-notch. It’s my first time running any session from a module and I think DHHS has set the bar unreasonably high; thank you for making this and well done!

Oof, I’m sorry about the restarts! I really wanted to implement some preview/UI of ‘the object you’ll pick up if you press e’ and ‘where the object you’re holding will end up if you press e, and if that position seems occluded’, and of course to tune the various hitboxes to make them less likely to conflict, but ran out of time :/. it’s top of the list to fix once the rating period’s over.

Thank you for playing and sticking with it anyway! I’m really glad you enjoyed seeing the spirits take soup; immersing the player in the experience of watching the procession move by, and in your own small way improving the experience of those within it, was the guiding light of the project.

Delighted you had a good time. If you know what specifically felt off about the movement, I’d love to know how to fix it in future, but obviously no worries if not!

Thank you for playing and commenting!

Thank you so much for playing! I’ve passed the art feedback along!

Incredible work - beautiful UI, simple but solid gameplay, and a really impressive interpretation and execution of the theme, and a fantastic way to do asynchronous co-op gameplay (something I’ve realized I’d love to see more of from games, and might have to investigate making myself, because I love the way it lets you feel like a part of a team/community, without requiring friends in a compatible time zone…)

Runs felt a little too short/samey to me (perhaps a starting-weapon-type choice might help, and/or increasing the base irrigation rate, and/or up the effects of both sacrifice and upgrade, to make upgrades more run-defining?) but that’s like, in no way a genuine complaint, just mentioning the barest hint of friction for my experience. This is just really impressive all-round, thank you for submitting it!

That was wonderful! I love the decision to make all the assets with crayon, that was a really charming touch. I didn’t quite get the hang of talking to people in time – I kept thinking that typing, or playing with the marbles, etc. would result in people being friendlier to me but I realize now that of course that’s the whole point of the game! Very true to my real-life experience though; I’m only ever really capable of making friends if there’s a shared activity (and even then only quite slowly).

Really well done on all the art and sounds (getting to draw on the wall was a little messy at my resolution but really impressive!), good simple design with a lovely story, thanks for submitting it.

Amazing job. Lovely story, incredibly polished, absolutely gorgeous art! Some of the platforming was a bit tricky, but that just made me feel really delighted I got to the end. Most of all, the way there was a new shiny thing around every corner – a new item to pick up to fulfill an old quest, a new character to be charmed by, a new type of puzzle, a new scripted event type, a new twist in the narrative… it all hangs together extremely cohesively. I hope you enjoyed working together and I hope it’s the first collaboration of many!

Really glad you liked the story and characters!

I think simple mechanics was a really useful choice for us here – cutting any sense of making the game challenging really helped with the short dev time, and let us focus on that polish… and for me the challenge of generosity/volunteering/etc. in the real world has never been that the act itself is difficult, but that it can be hard to carve out the time and find/build the infrastructure required to do good!

Thanks so much for playing and commenting, and congrats on getting to the end!

Some other testers have mentioned it being hard to pick up certain things – definitely could configure the hitbox better there, and make it more obvious when you can interact with something vs. when you can’t! Some tuning of that will definitely be on the task list once the rating time’s over.

Really glad you enjoyed the art and story! And haha yeah it was definitely a wild dev period, but we had to try. Thanks for playing and commenting!

Thanks for playing! Glad you liked the elements; atmosphere is always what I’m shooting for. Definitely agreed on the sounds and music, it’s a big weakness. Cheers!

Thanks for playing!

Thanks so much for playing, glad you enjoyed! The procession as a constant dynamic feature was a goal of the design, so, glad that worked out!

You’re so right about the sounds; a list of basic sfx was at the bottom of the to-do list for the whole dev time. Definitely something I’d add once the rating period’s over; I’d really like to actually make some soup and record the sounds of that process. Thanks again!

Loved the music and art. The scene nearish the end, getting small as the music changed… that felt genuinely intense and cosmic/eerie! Oh, and the animations were incredibly smooth. Well done!

Hi there – just coming back after four months to say that a) Transsiberian has remained a weekly listen at minimum since your recommendation (I actually playtested this game recently with it!), b) I recently found Raising Steam at the library and enjoyed it very much! I have always adored Terry Pratchett’s ability to care deeply and genuinely about his topic-of-the-week, and there was the strongest sense of ‘this writer understands what makes trains so unbelievably compelling’ as I read it… so the comparison you have drawn is about the most complimentary feedback I could imagine.

This is awesome. The mechanics are simple and stellar, the design is minimalist and evocative… I don’t know if I’ve seen a ttrpg capture the feeling of all of subterranea’s wonder and longing and loss and darkness and dread as well in a thousand words as this does in 36.

Here’s my playthrough:

It ended in a Grave (loss), which I decided to interpret not as my explorer’s grave, but the grave of the person they went looking in the dark for, now forever out of their reach. I wonder when, if ever, they’ll finally turn and leave the tomb behind.

Re: email, still setting up that sort of thing properly, but for now mar.malade.1066@gmail.com should work to get in touch.

Ah, nice, that makes a ton of sense for Flying – that goes so well with the fact that you’re playing on a kitchen table, which likely has the stuff on it that kitchen tables seem to gravitationally attract. Thanks for clarifying! I’ll let you know if I ever ‘get it to the table’ :P

I really liked this! I’m getting more into designing games that have kind of an inbuilt soundtrack to them, so this is kinda my jam. The idea of sharing invented memories implies that this game could be about playing a now-dispersed high school friendgroup at a reunion or something – or a good game to play along to a character playlist by yourself, fleshing out backstory as you go before you play a different TTRPG. Could be a great game to pass time on a road trip, too! Thanks for submitting it :)

I’d love to know more about your own creations that include music as well!

Well, since you ask! It was on my mind because one of my submissions to this jam, Space Banjos, asks the player to play some of the titular space banjos genre; mainly because the game was very much inspired by listening to a playlist of that as work music while working on the art for one of my other submissions. Useful for efficient tone communication.

But the main resonance I felt with your approach here was a game I made a few weeks ago, Dreamlined, for the Tabletop Train Jam. Dreamlined is about playing as a sentient train, and I wanted to give the journeys between stations a feeling of progress and meaning and time, without being too prescriptive about duration or mood and without that time stretching on into boredom. I ended up with the idea of marking the time between stations with songs – It’s about the right length of time to wait, it gives the imagination a sense of movement, and it resonates with how often I listen to music while staring out a train window.

Of course, reposting now.

I really liked this! I’m getting more into designing games that have kind of an inbuilt soundtrack to them, so this is kinda my jam. The idea of sharing invented memories implies that this game could be about playing a now-dispersed high school friendgroup at a reunion or something – or a good game to play along to a character playlist by yourself, fleshing out backstory as you go before you play a different TTRPG. Could be a great game to pass time on a road trip, too! Thanks for submitting it :)

Nice! Love the duality here between hunter and hostage; the combining emotional prompts are a nice dose of unpredictability, and the final question evokes the doubt at the thematic heart of this genre really well. Great name and icon, too!

Loved the name and theme, the three-act structure, the use of domains and a crux of conflict to help players get into character.

Minorest of notes - ‘exhausting’*

This has a lot of promise as a worldbuilding game, too - I can see a fascinating campaign/oneshot spiraling out from the central idea of ‘the barely-holding-it-together gods are wiping the slate clean to begin again’! Nice job.

Oh this is very exciting. Short and sweet. I’ve only just learned about bookmark RPGs and this is a really evocative example; I love how each table option so clearly bloomed a different story in my mind’s eye – and then of course the penny-drop at the end is clever and heartwrenching all at once.

You’ve nailed the essence of these stories – an single terribly impactful decision, and then the experience of watching how the out-of-place grows up where they Do Not Belong. Thank you for submitting it!

Neat, I really enjoyed this. I have a real fondness for dead-simple wargames that use what people have lying around (I respect those who go all in on incredibly detailed miniatures as well, but, there’s something delightful about seeing that and going ‘nah what if it was just anthropomorphised dice’). If you’ve never heard of the BrickWars project, about a wargame designed around repurposing LEGO collections, that might be up your alley.

I’m a little unclear on what the mechanical effect of training a die into a flyer is? But other than that it’s solid, creative, and well-illustrated. Nicely done. 36 words is short enough to stick in my head, next time I see a huge pile of dice I’ll have to talk someone into giving it a try with me!

Oh this is very nice work! It’s simple and straight to the point; I love the efficiency of language and design but there’s an evocative and heartfelt core… I can see this being an excellent game to pass time while waiting on a platform, alone, late at night - I’m struggling to find the words to describe that particular environment and state of mind, but I suspect you might know what I mean?

Focusing on the arrival-interlude-departure loop, those intermittent bustling moments of activity… yeah, this is really clever. Thanks for making this (and for hosting the jam, obviously!)

Immediately listened to that album and it was excellent, thank you for the recommendation! I’m still working my way through Discworld and haven’t made it to Raising Steam but it’s one I’ve definitely looked forward to.

Thanks for giving it a shot and for the kind words, hope you enjoy :)

Enjoyed this a lot - love seeing what people do with (mostly) system-agnostic setting descriptions, it’s a neat in-between genre I have a lot of fondness for. The world here is very specific and evocative, and I love the work you put into describing its influences and vibes. On a thematic level, the paradox of trains as progress and trains as destruction is compelling, while on a mechanical level, trains as hexcrawl analogue for an OSR playstyle? Excellent excellent…

The presentation and writing are really impressive (though image credits would probably be a good idea!) and I saw you mentioned this is just a beta? I’m glad you decided to share it, best of luck with any improvements you’re planning!

This is fascinating! I really like what you’re going for here; the real-life integration of rolling to see when you get out (and framing ‘getting out’ as running from an enemy) is a great way to make a game about trains. Having this as framework and excuse to wander places you’d never normally go, and see those places with an eye to reinterpreting them through a fantasy lens… right up my alley! The list of secondary worlds is extensive and evocative, too, nicely done!

This is really nicely put together. I remember adoring the periods of silent waiting in Artefact, the way they convey the passage of time; I love how rather than that game’s lonely sadness, this evokes a more hellish horror/tragedy… feels like this approach would be at home with conveying the bleaker side of a time loop narrative. Thanks for making this, it was an enjoyable read :)

Thanks for playing, and commenting, I really appreciate it! And absolutely - I actually programmed a full dialogue-tree system into the game with plans for a bunch of additional retroactive conversations between the player and their partner, launching off of specific items. It would have taken maybe an hour or two to write those scenes in a spreadsheet and just copy-paste them into the game’s database - then I looked up and realized I had fifteen minutes left. So, unfortunately, had to cut back to just a hastily written one-sided conversation with minimal testing to figure out the clipping problem. But the tech’s still in there if I get the chance to improve it.

Definitely wishing I’d planned things a bit differently! I’ve never played Unpacking but what I’ve heard about it was probably an unconscious inspiration. Glad you found the core concept compelling and I’m sorry for the poor rendering of that idea!

This is fantastic. Good system (phases, face card question pattern, epilogue), excellent prompts (as someone who’s written a 52-card prompt game before, though suit+number combinatorial prompt games are valid, I will always have mad respect for folks who will also write a prompt for every card), deeply compelling premise (who hasn’t wanted to be part of a semi-symbiotic micro-ecosystem??)… genuinely loved reading this, well done.

Really polished and fascinating approach to some intense subject matter. The slow back-and-forth of the cardplay seems like it would really let players steadily simmer in the emotional state you’re aiming for - and I always appreciate when games that have a lot of freeform in their roleplay hang that on top of a robust mechanical process-framework, to take the pressure off of players who aren’t universally comfortable just spontaneously generating narrative content - lets them shine when they can but relax when they can’t. Congrats on submitting! [Love the TTS screenshot :P]

That’s what I was going for, delighted it worked. Thanks for reading!

Apologies for never responding; this comment made my day back when it arrived! Glad it made you laugh, and if you do ever end up using this I’d love to hear about it sometime.

Thank you! The appropriateness of the day is right; it is interesting to me, in retrospect, how the game is literally unplayable for around 9 months out of the year.

Intriguing! Sort of a Countdown roleplaying game. I’m someone who quite enjoys the operations of these sort of small maths puzzles (though I’m not always good at them, they are fun) so using mental math as the resolution mechanic for a hard-sci-fi oneshot game is compelling!

(As an aside, I’m curious why you start the players in a stadium - is this a station large enough to house sports events?)

Clever stuff! Love the physical components and freedom inherent in the design, I’d be very curious to see how this plays out.

(One note - in the order of events, there’s nothing saying that the LOOKOUT should respond with ‘Roger’ to the confirmation of the All-Clear card, but failing to do so is noted as an event that informs security. Is this an accident or deliberate obfuscation?)

Gave it a quick try, started with only 1+1+1 = 3 carriages but 5+8 = 130mph, made it to 0 speed by 1 stop remaining. It’s an interesting little gambling game, and the decision of detach vs. slow down has a neat push-your-luck statistical implication when you bring the take-lowest-but-all-6s-mean-derailing idea into account. I’m a little disappointed with the lack of any real roleplaying elements in a TTRPG jam, but I still had fun!

Real impressive minimalism here. I like the way the questions are pretty general, but contextualized to the specific (deeply compelling) theme of losing a company-town relationship. I think some example/archetypal factions might help players who are unsure about how to embody interesting groups in this setting? (the way that helped my group’s first session of Beak, Feather and Bone is where I’m drawing this advice from, if that helps explain what I mean). Nicely done!