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I'd love to hear more about your thesis, actually! Will it involve any empirical experiments? Or is it going to be a more theoretical discussion, where you bring together various authors to work toward some kind of answer?

No doubt, it really is a thorny subject! 😅

"Immersion" can be a dangerous word, especially in the TTRPG context. I often see it invoked as an excuse to shut down conversation at the table, or to keep certain rules deliberately vague, which tends to just breed frustration.

In videogames, though, what people usually mean by "immersion" is the sense of being present in a world and/or an event. Plenty of factors feed into it, but it stays deeply subjective, and that's probably why it ends up feeling like a synonym for "everything I happen to like." For me, less reliance on extradiegetic cues and less visible designer interference is enough to feel immersed. For you, it might take some other factor entirely, or none of the ones I just listed. For someone else, it could be something completely different. That's the magic of it. Even so, the more recent literature has been making a real effort to pin down the factors these experiences have in common.

There's already an ongoing discussion around an "ideal level of guidance." Too much, and players get bored because everything is obvious; too little, and they get frustrated because they're lost. Personally, I think the sweet spot is a balanced use of diegetic and non-diegetic guidance. But narrowing the research focus, for now, to diegetic means lets us look at something useful in both scenarios: games that want to rely on diegesis alone to orient the player, and games that lean on markers, minimaps, and the like. In that second group, the two actually can reinforce each other.

To me, immersion sits right alongside "realism" and "living, breathing world" as terms that get thrown around pretty loosely. I often catch people conflating immersion with flow, for instance. But, nonetheless, it still is a very interesting subject to delve into!

I gotta give Torque Arena a try one of these days! The game has a pretty good artwork, by the way 😄

How long is a Master's program over there? Here, it is something like 2 years. After it is published, I'd love to read it. It was a really good theme, this one you've picked.

Mine is about level design, actually. So, it's more of a video game subject xD. It aims to research if level designers and players evaluate environmental guidance cues the same way, and discuss about the results. The idea is to, based on its findings, discuss how the videogame environment can be used to guide players seamlessly, improving player's immersion without the use of intrusive guidance systems (like those '?'/'!' marks you see everywhere, or those illuminated trails/arrows that lead you somewhere).

Despite it being videogame related, the theme of immersion itself is something that i love to read more about. I've stumbled into Fantasy World in my search for a more fluid TTRPG gameplay experience 😂. Something not rules-heavy, but also not rules-free, to the point of causing disorientation on where to proceed in more complex situations.

Speaking of Fantasy World, I'd also love to know more about its development process! When/how did you guys decided to create it; if you guys still play using it; what would you guys change in a 2nd edition, etc.

It's in a brazilian federal university, from where I live! Are you doing yours in Italy? By the way, what are you researching, especifically? I'd love to know more 😅

Would you wanna exchange contacts, like Discords, to talk about it?

Awww, so sad to hear this 😭

Anyway, I wish you guys the best! I Gave the SRD a chance and it was truly something unique that you guys managed to craft. It deserved WAAY more attention.

Only complaint, though, is that when I search for "Fantasy World RPG" in google, it shows me results for EVERYTHIIIING fantasy-related 😂

Hope to hear more about you guys soon. Keep up the good work and best o luck with your master thesis! I'm currently doing mine, in games aswell 😅

Hello, Alexander and Alessandro.

Glad to know this situation! I've been searching for this pdf like crazy these last days 😅

I would like to know if you could be able to share this PDF somehow. Even if though we have the full text on the SRD, the layout/illustrations facilitates the reading a lot!

No problem! I tried again with another version and was able to play it. Congratulations on your game, guys! You did a very good job.

Had a lot of fun with the sound effects and the gameplay! Good game!

Thanks a lot, FoxByte! We tried to make him feel grumpy/heroic, a sort of "fine, I'll do it by myself" type of guy, hahaha

We had a lot of fun trying yours aswell! Thanks for checking it out. It means a lot to see people playing our project!

Thanks a lot, Rosen! We would love to add more features to this game! Initially, the idea was to have multiple levels and upgrades for the character, but, sadly, due to time constraints, we had to give up on them for this jam :/

We are so glad you played our game! One of our team members said yours was his favorite game, hahaha! Hope to hear more about your productions in the future!

Wasn't expecting to spend THAT MUCH time playing a game in this game. You managed to make me play this for, like 1:30 hours straight. Loved the RPG aspect of the game. I'd suggest a checkpoint system, so, if you die in the second level, you'd be able to keep your progress from the 1st.
Nice job! It was, by far, the game I played the most in this jam, ahahah

Fun game and good idea! With a bit of polishing here and there, it will become even better! Maybe it would be nice to familiarize the players with the mechanics in the start of the game, and then gradually make it more complex!

Loved the story and the twist! Only suggestion I'd give is to maybe make the part in which you deposit the solar energy more distinct in relation to the rocket one. People may think they are only one thing, instead of two. 
Nice job! I'd love to see a part 2, or something like that, hahaha

Nice concept and implementation! Personally, I'd improve some things, though:

• I'd improve the readability of the tiles, making more clear what tile is dangerous and what is not
• When the character shrinks, I'd recommend you guys to not zoom that much on it, show more of the environment. When the player has a grasp on what is around them, they can make more informed decisions, avoiding subsequent frustations of getting into a dangerous tile without noticing
• Speaking of tiles, I was able to walk through some that were supposed to work as the level's boundaries, the black ones. Being able to go from one level to another I wasn't supposed to go.

That's all! Congratulations on the submission, guys! Hope to hear more of you in other jams!

Wasn't ready for buff geko and sexy mantis. 5/5 would play it again.

It has a lot of potential! Hope to hear more about it soon. Wanna know what is this Leo, hahah!

Congrats for the submission, friend! Hope you could new learn things from doing this project! Does the game have an ending yet? I've reached the tip of the bottle, but, sadly, nothing happened :(.
That's it! Hope to see you again in other jams.

Loved the aesthetics and atmosphere of it all! Good job! I'd only suggest improving the platforming mechanics, though, like adding a coyotte time when jumping from edges, etc. Congratulations on this projetc, it is amazing you were able to do it all by yourself!

Fun project! Loved the aesthetics of the racers! I was able to bug the game by alt-tabbing in the middle of the "racers, to your posts" part. Speaking of which, I'd suggest to speed up this part a bit!
Congratulations, y'all, for what you managed to create!

I had so much fun with the dialogue! Missed an ending, though, but enjoyed the experience from the beginning to the end!

Nice concept and cool minigames! Liked it a lot! Just couldn't get past the homerun minigame, hahaha! I'd suggest to maybe add a checkpoint system to save the progress every 1 minigame or 2. Congratulations for your entry!

Loved the game! Such a cute little fella! I saw that people had already commented about the issues I've noticed during gameplay, but I'll point them out anyways: I'd suggest a rework in the poisonous plant, or at least a replacement of it. Felt that many of my runs ended in that first poisonous plant. Other than that, another thing I'd point out is that you should put some kind of way for us to see when our charged jump is about to reach it's limits, like a meter, or something like that!
I've spent a good time playing this game, and it talks a lot about its quality! Good work you guys!

Rest in peace, Leonarda! Very well-made game that fits perfectly in this jam. Loved the song in the end too, hahha!

Good level progression and puzzle design! A problem that kept happening to me - and even costed me a game - was that, sometimes, i was locked from moving into some avaiable directions and had to press W-A-S-D randomly until the game accepted a valid input. Usually, I'd just move in a invalid direction, such as a border, and the game would go back to normal, but, in the puzzle with the invisible things, the game forced me to move into a direction I knew had a trap.

Liked the concept a lot! Wasn't able to land in another planet, though! It looks cool and it's no nice to see people managing to make 3d games for this jam! Especially in your case, in which you did it all alone. Congratulations!

Cool game! Got the Fromsoftware inspiration and it also reminded me of flash megaman games you'd find in the internet back in the day! I think I'd only work more in the responsivity of the game, to give a sense of impact (such as a screen shaking effect or some particles, slight pushing, etc.) and visual feedback to some attacks, for the character and for the enemies aswell. 

Clearly you guys have been busy with this game! Cool attention to details. You were able to make a complex game in such a short timespan. Congratulations!

Laughed my ass off when you guys started cracking up during the first cutscene, ahhaha! 

Cool and simple idea! Loved the trippy black+neon aesthetics. Sadly, couldn't get far, due to motion sickness, but is a personal problem of mine!

Great concept and execution! Loved that we are the bad guys in this one, hahaha! Good to see that you guys used your own sprites aswell. Wasn't able to get past the first level, though. After I reached the nucleus, the game froze. Gotta retry now, to see if will freeze again.

Sure! Will be joining you guys soon

Thanks a lot, Gabe! We can tell the same about your game. We really loved the experience of being a good doggo, thanks a lot for your work!

Thank you, guys! Really. It means a lot to know that we have been noticed by you. Your game was just *chef's kiss*, SUPERB!

We are glad we were able to provide this experience for you! Thank you, Kaltrie, a lot, for these supportive words! 

So sad to learn about this whole situation. Thanks for spreading this message, though!

This game hooked me from the beginning to the end! Fun, Simple, Theme-fitting. I have a question, though. Why isn't the Cursor Warmth already enabled by default? Wouldn't it be more intuitive? I lost the couple first tries because I wasn't able to gather stem cells in time to buy the Cursor Warmth. The little black square got me first, hahaha!
I hope more people check and play your game! It is really that good.

Nice, fun and simple game! Loved that you managed to insert a voiceline of your own aswell. I think I ran into a bug in which the chickens were killing themselves without even touching me. Don't know what triggered it, though.
It was fun to just run around, too! 

One of my favorite projects from this jam! Very well-made and with a nice concept! Had some minor problems trying to link some cards, even though they were relatable (i.e. the match and the help sign).
Congratulations on the game you managed to make!