itch.io

I noticed that for some board games, simple Monte Carlo Tree Search is surprisingly powerful. Very shortly (and badly) summarized: just simulate a lot of randomly played games starting from the current position, and pick the move that led to the highest percentage of wins.

Depending on how the game logic is implemented (with clear model/view separation), programming such an AI might be doable, though it works best for finite games, and your game definitely looks more complex than the simple games I tried it for.

Also, doing such a brute force approach might take a lot of CPU power, so doing it server side may become expensive. Anyway, it's just an idea that you might find useful...

Yes, it's absolutely true that it's hard to get any interest. I think I've made a few fun games, but they're all spectacular failures in terms of promotion and getting attention. If you're not constantly promoting, the plays dry up - I think that only a tiny fraction of all games on itch.io get natural, sustained attention (from word of mouth, being featured on the front page or being on top of the "most popular" search lists). Even if people play your game, there's only a small fraction of them that will leave a comment, rating or review...

If you have fancy graphics or a unique, catchy gimmick as main selling point, you might have a chance with your promotion efforts, but if your main selling point is deep and interesting gameplay... well good luck with that.

What's worse: you made a multiplayer-only game. That's just not feasible as an indie. Make sure your game can at least be tried in single player mode, for instance by adding AI (it doesn't matter whether it's truly smart).

All my games here except one are multiplayer (local or online), but I've been trying to make sure they're (nearly) all playable in single player mode, even if that's a lot less fun: either by adding AI opponents (competitive games), or by allowing players to control multiple characters (coop games). For the online multiplayer games, I have no illusions; I'm not even hosting a server. If you want to play them, you need to run your own server. I mainly made those games to play with my friends during lockdown. :-)

That said, your game looks quite interesting. I just haven't been able to play it yet (because of the multiplayer). Make sure to market this to board game fans, like the people who play on www.yucata.de or en.boardgamearena.com  - that's quite a different audience than typical video game players, especially here on itch.io (it seems horror, visual novel and simple arcade games dominate here).

Where to Root

REVIEW:

This is a fun little game! I love the rhymes and cute art style. A lot of different challenges are built around the different monster types.

The isometric controls are a bit unusual, but you get used to it quickly enough. Some of the later levels are hard to beat for me, but it's good that the game stays challenging.

Some criticism: the UI design still requires some attention (fonts, placement and layout - although it's good that everything is animated), and the music sounds a bit "General MIDI"-like. However neither of those things detract from the fun game play, so it's all good.

I got it in a bundle, but this is definitely worth the price if you like cute, wholesome, old-fashioned arcade-like challenges.

This one, for sure: https://devolverdigital.itch.io/pikuniku

It had me smiling and laughing all the way through - dialog, animations, story, sounds, ... everything about it is funny.

Here's a cute colorful puzzle game that seems suitable for children (it's not about numbers, but I guess it trains logical thinking): https://programancer.itch.io/dumpy

Here's another cool puzzle game, probably better for teaching math skills, but less aimed at children: https://danijmn.itch.io/cardinalchains

Interesting, I never noticed it, but it seems you're right. I looked at the local storage for the itch.io address (https://v6p9d9t4.ssl.hwcdn.net/), and there seem to be entries for a lot of different games (including three of my own). This might explain some storage-related bugs that people are reporting. I notice one key (not from my own game) is just "gameJSON" - that might easily cause some clashes!

I guess the conclusion for now for developers is to use better keys, like gamename.valuename instead of just valuename, and to keep the size of the data in mind.

By the way if you want to test: I have three WebGL games that use localStorage: Ostark & Didi, Robo Repair and Trading with Werewolves - just click on my profile to find them. (They only add very little data to the local storage, so don't worry about the 5MB limit.)

EDIT: this does open up some fascinating possibilities for cross-game progress: for instance, if you unlock the FIREBALL in Vampire Survivors, you get it in my game too... :-D

EDIT2: ...or if you're up for using some very questionable marketing strategies: "play my game - as a bonus you unlock all characters in Vampire Survivors!" Hm...

This is pretty cool actually. Once you understand the watering mechanic, the game is fun. Does it show a final score somewhere? Also: replace the screen shot! Use an in-game screen shot showing the nice graphics, not a Unity editor screen shot. :-)

Gotta get that dinosaur! But I keep dying. One day I will have a dinosaur in my village...

Nice game! Short and small, befitting  a game jam, but very polished.

There doesn't appear to be anything here…

REVIEW:

I keep coming back to this game, occasionally playing a few levels. I'm now more than halfway, but there are still many to go (500 levels in total!). Despite its unassuming appearance and simple progression mechanics (solve a puzzle -> unlock the next one), this might just be one of the best puzzle games of the huge bundle it was in.

All of the puzzles are solvable; you're never truly stuck for a long time. Nevertheless, they all require some thought and it never gets trivial. If you're searching for the perfect relaxing puzzle game to get you into a flow state, this is it.

REVIEW:

This is a pixel art platforming metroidvania, with a play time of about one to two hours for all three realms (depending on how fast you find your way, your platforming skills, and how fast you beat the bosses).

So no originality points here, but that doesn't mean it's not a fun little game: the controls are smooth, there's a good variety of enemies, and it's fun trying to find your way through the maze, while getting upgrades.

Two warnings: there are no save games, so you must play through it in one sitting. Secondly: don't press escape: it doesn't pause the game, but just resets your progress...

So this game would be a lot better with save games and more content, but still it's a short enjoyable game.

It has some platforming mechanics, but it's not a typical platformer. So if you're looking for another Super Mario clone, look elsewhere. But if you want to use some of your platforming skills in a different type of fast paced arcade game, you can try this... :-)

I just uploaded an update to one of my webGL games, and all the local storage data is still there. No problems... Maybe it's not a problem with itch, but with the builds your engine creates?

Trading with Werewolves

Mmmm beer... This game made me thirsty. :-)

Good game, with great music!

https://paulsgames.itch.io/trading-with-werewolves (free browser arcade game)

...and if you're interested in more recommendations, just check my page: https://paulsgames.itch.io/

These recommendations include (excellent!) paid games, but you may already own them from recent bundles.

Okay :-)

Free browser games:

https://gsgames.itch.io/solar-blaster-challenge-stage

 (Short Pico-8 high score shooter)

https://eriban.itch.io/bumble-bots

 (Very challenging action puzzle game)

https://paulsgames.itch.io/trading-with-werewolves

 (High score action / trading - one of my games btw)

https://paranoidcactus.itch.io/ufo

 (Short but great Metroidvania)

https://1029chris.itch.io/toxic-invaders

 (Juicy Pico-8 shooter with excellent sound)

Paid, but worth it!:

https://inarisoft.itch.io/micro-dash

 (Incredibly deep retro Boulderdash metroidvania variant)

https://vlambeer.itch.io/nuclear-throne

(A juicy action rogue-like - you can waste hundreds of hours on this game alone...)

Did you not play this game yet...?  https://teamsalvato.itch.io/ddlc  It sounds exactly like what you're looking for.

Also, some paid games that I really liked, which are relatively  short experiences: 

https://devolverdigital.itch.io/pikuniku

https://sodaraptor.itch.io/hypnagogia-boundless-dreams

Hello all, I just uploaded a new WebGL version of an older game jam game:

https://paulsgames.itch.io/angry-neighbours

 It's a local multiplayer action game for 2 to 4 players; a bit like a crossover between Bomberman and Pacman. Gamepads (like XBOX controllers) are recommended, but it's playable with keyboard too (at least for two players).

I'm looking for feedback, for instance on the following points:

 - which map is your (least) favorite?

- are the abilities balanced, or if not: which do you think is the strongest / weakest?

- are there any bugs or confusing elements?

- any suggestions for improvements?

So if you have someone to try this with, I would be very grateful for feedback! And if you like it, feel free to rate the game / leave a comment on the page / put it in a collection. :-)

https://paulsgames.itch.io/angry-neighbours

This is a local multiplayer action game for 2 to 4 players; a bit like a crossover between Bomberman and Pacman. It's very quick to learn (one button + directional controls), but with a lot of replay value (there are currently four different arenas).

Gamepads (XBOX controllers) are recommended, but it's playable with keyboard too.

Any feedback is very welcome, just leave a comment on the page! Have fun!

There are some general principles for designing good and intuitive levels for any kind of game (like push pull, adding landmarks, using Gestalt principles), but these are very generic by nature.

Mostly, I design my levels around the game mechanics. For every level I have a vision, a certain idea or interaction that I want to explore. For instance: there are enemies that chase the player as long as they can see the player. Then I create a (stealth) level where the player has to lure the enemies to different corners of the level in order to escape unseen. That's just one simple example - if your game mechanics and interactions are interesting enough, you can come up with dozens of such ideas. I start on paper drawing a general structure (for instance: the enemies start in these corners, and the obstacles are distributed like this, so this is the general path that the player should traverse...).

Then I create a greybox, for playtesting. For this it's important to be aware of all the details in your mechanics. For instance: in a platformer, the player can jump at most X tiles, and your enemies can only walk through corridors that are at least Y tiles high, etc.

Then it's time to playtest and tweak, to make the level "flow" (for instance: not bumping into walls or ceilings while jumping, and making sure escaping enemies is just difficult/easy enough). When that's done, it's time to decorate it, with the final art.

For my little "arcade" games, this workflow works well...

Ah, we're actually doing real recommendations now. :-)

You can find excellent games by sorting by rating: https://itch.io/games/top-rated (they may not all be to your taste, but there are many real gems here.)

My personal candidates for the possible best games:

Paid (though you may have gotten them in a bundle):

https://vlambeer.itch.io/nuclear-throne  (action roguelike, infinite replay value and high skill ceiling)

https://dinopoloclub.itch.io/minimetro (mostly relaxing high score puzzle management game)

https://adamgryu.itch.io/a-short-hike (awesome short adventure)

https://devolverdigital.itch.io/pikuniku (very funny short adventure)

Free:

https://teamsalvato.itch.io/ddlc (Doki Doki Literature Club: beautiful and disturbing - not for children or for the faint of heart)

https://ninja-muffin24.itch.io/funkin (Friday Night Funkin': high quality rhythm game)

For more recommendations (both free and from bundles): check my profile: https://paulsgames.itch.io/

Thanks! Did you play it?

Trading with Werewolves

I used Tiled for all my games until now. Eight of them - though not all on here. Two Unity games, six in a custom engine.

I'm using all layer types, and I'm extensively using object, layer and map properties. I use it mostly for levels (showed as parallax levels by using a depth property. Mostly orthogonal, sometimes isometric maps). I also create UI with it sometimes. In object groups, I use sprite objects, geometric objects (like polygons) and text objects.

I sometimes use Tiled's terrains, but I also created my own tools for "decorating" Tiled greyboxes, which serve a similar purpose. Here's an example:

I've never used Wang sets, infinite maps, or Tiled's tile collision system. I made my own way of encoding tile collision types more efficiently (e.g. marking climbable, destructible tiles).

As a nice bonus of the way I'm using Tiled: all of my games are easily moddable: the Tiled maps are parts of the (streaming) assets folder, not encoded. So if you're interested in the details, just have a look. :-)

You can find my games here: https://paulsgames.itch.io/

An isometric game that's not on itch is here: https://globalgamejam.org/2017/games/rolmops

If you want to know more, let me know. I can also upload my biggest Tiled game here for reference (which is all about modding using Tiled). I was planning to do that sometime anyway...

That's funny, because I also created the best game on itch.io!   :-D

Anyway, excellent marketing effort. :-)

If you view the top past (ranked) jams here, and check the top games in the results, you'll usually find some games that are actually fun: https://itch.io/jams/past

That said, here's a random selection of jam games that I really enjoyed:

https://joecreates.itch.io/world-collector

https://kz.itch.io/edna

https://paranoidcactus.itch.io/ufo

https://daem-on.itch.io/holosaur

https://z-richman.itch.io/maze-of-the-mini-taur

https://thesmetter.itch.io/square

https://leko20.itch.io/restless-wing-syndrome

https://vlambeer.itch.io/nuclear-throne started out as a game jam game: https://vlambeer.itch.io/wasteland-kings

Um, just use LocalStorage. It works.

What engine are you using?

Is it? The subreddits I follow do have some quality discourse, though there is a bit of a "hive mind", where you have to say the same things as the majority if you care about your internet points. So I wouldn't go as far as implementing a point and reward system, but just upvotes or downvotes to highlight or hide threads, as quou suggests, would help. That seems to be the way it's already implemented in the Release Announcements subforum. Because the itch.io forums are indeed filled with immature and useless content, it often makes me wonder why I'm still occasionally checking them...

I got one: many game engines (including Unity) are trying to dumb down game development too much. It's okay to require some basic math and programming skills from game developers. We don't need a premade solution for every possible problem that might come up.

That's cool, nice work!

I didn't check all operations yet, but some remarks:

1) Depending on the operation, I would put the vectors at different places, or add extra things. Some examples: vector addition is best visualized when vectors are put head-to-tail. If you show reflect and use one vector as a plane normal, it would be helpful to visualize the plane as well (just add a quad).

2) Despite the fact that the camera can rotate, it remains hard to visualize 3D vectors this way. (What is their "depth"?)

3) How does dragging a vector (Right mouse button) work exactly? What happens with the third coordinate?

4) I wouldn't use a cube to visualize rotations. With all the symmetries, it can get confusing.

I made similar Unity tools to teach 3D Math, so here's how I solved the second point:

a) Add arrow models for the vectors, that are physical objects that interact with lighting (shading), and have a bit of perspective.

b) Put a light straight from above, and a plane on the bottom where shadows are cast.

This way, the orientation of the vectors is more clear intuitively.

For the fourth point above: I used a public domain space ship model to show transformations ( by Kenney).

Below are some example images. 

Also, my tool is meant for use inside Unity, so then you have all the scene tools (gizmos, keyboard shortcuts) and inspector ready to use, ready to manipulate things. That saved me a whole lot of UI implementation. :-)   But that only works for experienced Unity users. Good job on the implementation of all of the UI elements!

It's the same as for 2D jams: make sure you know your tools, and that you can make a good estimate how long a task will take.

Especially for 3D art, there are some tasks that may take longer than the entire jam if you go in depth (like sculpting, retopologizing and texturing a detailed character, rigging and animating non humanoid characters, etc), so cut corners there. You can use low poly style objects, or non animated objects (like vehicles and robots).

Regarding programming, there's not that much difference between 2D and 3D in terms of workload. Just make sure you know the how to work with the engine's 3D tools, and with 3D transforms.

(I'm assuming you work in an engine like Unity or Godot here - if you're creating your own engine it's a different story!)

Background: I prefer making 2D games, but two of my games here on itch.io are 3D games that were made during two day jams, with a group of two or three people (one artist), using Unity. All art assets were made during the jam, and we hardly used any starting code, though one game was extended a bit afterwards. Check them out on my profile if you're interested.

You can also look at the results of past jams here on itch.io, and see what's feasible in a short time period, though you never know how much was premade.

Just do it, like everyone else. These are not cookies, no data is collected on any server, so there are no privacy laws or other reasons not to do it. Except that you're using a tiny bit of memory on the player's computer (I believe 5MB), but no one will mind. If you encode your data well, you'll probably not even get close to 5MB.

EDIT: Actually, if you're sneaky about it, you could read data from local storage, and based on what you find there (like high scores, or time played), send information to a server, still tracking the user that way. That might be against strict European privacy laws without user consent.  So don't do that, unless you're aware of all the implications and laws. But that's not what you were asking about - just storing progress locally is always okay.

It may seem like a silly question, but it actually isn't (for Unity). If you google "unity download", depending on which site you land on, you need to navigate a bit to land on the proper (free) version...

Anyway, if you're interested in Unity: just go with the free "Personal" plan. It's free until you make more than $100K in a year with your (or your company's) Unity activities.

Download the latest LTS release (it's currently 2021.3.1f1 - next week it may be different, but don't worry about that - don't try to chase the latest versions unless it introduces something you really need). You should install Unity Hub first to manage your Unity versions and projects. Just go here:

https://unity.com/download

REVIEW:

It's hard to believe that this game was mostly made by one person. There's an incredible amount of high quality content: 12 completely different, beautiful, immersive dream-like worlds.

The game uses a retro, PS1-style aesthetic, with low res pixelated textures and low poly models. Nevertheless, it's very beautiful, with excellent lighting and beautiful VFX. The sound design and music is excellent too, and helps to create a unique atmosphere for each world. The dialogs are well written and engaging: each NPC has its own character and "voice" (not literally - there's no voice acting), and interesting things to say.

The gameplay by itself isn't very deep: most challenges are key/door challenges, sometimes literal, sometimes figurative (help an NPC by fetching an item for them). You have some choices in dialog options, which mostly give different, interesting responses, but in the end it's still a mostly linear experience with no major choices. You always get further by being friendly and helpful, which is something I like.

Then there are jumping challenges, sometimes with moving platforms. Jumping challenges rarely create good gameplay: either they're relatively simple and boring, or they're tedious and frustrating. Fortunately, the former choice is made here, although there are still a few places where one missed jump requires some tedious backtracking. Tip: learn to use your sprint button, also in mid air.

This may sound negative, but I think the forgiving gameplay is actually fitting here: it rarely gets in the way of enjoying the sensory experience and exploration, which is what this game is all about, but it provides enough interaction to keep you engaged and interested. The level design is excellent and clear: despite needing to search for some items, you're never really lost, and there's very good, subtle guidance throughout, though also enough space to explore some side paths, and some hidden secrets.

I said "dream-like worlds" above, but be warned: towards the end it gets quite nightmarish instead, with some truly scary and haunting places to explore (especially if you play it as recommended: with headphones in a dark space!) The game doesn't rely on cheap jump scares, but instead, crafts an excellent, tense atmosphere, where some things are clearly not as they should be.

If this sounds like your type of game, then I strongly recommend checking it out - it's a masterpiece in its genre.