Yeah, interesting! I've definitely started enjoying a lot more old movies/music myself even though they're before my time and I never watched/listened as a kid. But something about the style I like, even though it's outdated. So can definitely be an appeal to older styles even when nostalgia isn't a factor
Oh yeah, not all VGA games for sure, but a lot of adventures at the time went to scanned and downscaled art, lots of anti-aliased lines. I do love them too of course, but there's something really evocative about the lower pallete stuff I really like as well.
And 90s CRTs were plenty crisp! Especially at 320x200 like most games around then. I think 1024x768 was a pretty common desktop res on CRTs. When people talk about pixel art being designed for blurry monitors or with big scanlines, I think it's more console games on NTSC TVs.
Its a pure indulgent nostalgia thing, lots of people love it! I actually prefer it as pixel art than the blurred stuff you get in VGA era games. There's just something about crisp pixels I love. Plus, dithering masks my shoddy gamejam art haha.
Honza, this is amazing! Your best yet! I'm in awe! I loved the setup and world building from the demo, but you doubled down on everything, it just all works so well. Truly masterful plotting. It was just so satisfying to get to the resolution, have all those pieces fit together so wonderfully. And god, that music and sound design is supurb, really stand-out stuff. You've gotta make a commercial game. If you made something this quality, two or three times the length with VO, you'd be topping GOTY lists for sure. You're all just too damn talented! :D
Thanks Honza, that's really what I'm going for :) Those novels tend to expand in scope the further you get in, so its been tricky trying to keep that vibe while still fitting an instalment into a jam sized game. I probably need more smaller chapters but don't want to have to keep waiting for the next jam and then to only do a tiny section!
I thought I'd see your game much higher in the rankings, but I suppose it's just a demo, I really want to see more of the world it was one of my top games this time around even though it was just an intro!
Great atmosphere, simple but gives a great eerie vibe. I couldn't get far I'm afraid... But mainly because I'm trying to give as many jam games a go as I can so not really giving it enough time ;)
Finally got around to playing! Your game has a great setup and structure to it the way you did the intro section before the plot and puzzles open up when you get inside. Your puzzles were nicely signposted and I love that they fit in the story, giving backstory to the characters and things. (only issue being the pixel hunting you know about ;) The artwork fits the atmosphere nicely too, gritty and bleak, but colourful enough to make it enjoyable to play too. Great stuff!!
**spoilers** The way you used mushrooms in the first room to give a sense of time passing with your actions was cool. Reminds me of old infocom text adventures where time passes and events change, feels really immersive to me, and not something you see a lot in these games. Loved the ambiguous morality of wiping out a sentient race and that you got to choose at the end. (long live our mighty fungal overlords). All around awesome!
Just echoing what others have already said, the ZZT style somehow made the story even more raw and honest. Games like yours really hammer home how powerful a game narrative can be, well done :)
Was fun piecing together the backstory as you walked around the abandoned hospital, got more and more creepy as you went on, and really all on the back of the strong writing, nice job! I think all the others that used PQ had a lot of help from me and each other on the discord, so you did well to get by on your own!
Thanks! Was on the right track, just missing the first of those ;) Great game! On top of what I already mentioned, character art and of course the music were highlights too!
Charming :) It was more challenging than the art style made it look! The puzzles were fun to try, I got few wrong on my first guess though! I think there were two correct answers on the last one ;)
Loved the juxtaposition of the sfx in a certain scene with the lovely piano music! XD You picked a really interesting setting, using a unique inspiration, and I loved the style of the character art too.
Loved the little moments that threw a spanner in the works in this game! The voice acting is charming, makes me smile :D I'm stuck though. Can't work out what to do when have control of the 3rd character. Think I went everywhere, and found who i was looking for, but can't interact. Really want to hear the song!
This left me HYPED! Love the world and characters to bits already, can't want to spend more time with them! Such a great setup for an adventure game, fascinating world, investigative gameplay, got it all. Your artwork is so creative, beautiful set pieces, nice parallax. Music and audio ramps up the atmosphere, plot is intriguing and writing is spot on, with some nice dry wit. It's really next level, not surprised it didn't quite make it for the jam.
Your team always delivers, but this has been my fav so far! That exterior art is really evocative, the puzzles were varied, interesting and didn't feel contrived, and they helped build the characters, which is rare to see, but super important to me. (though I think the ah... reversal thing was a bit mean, I had to look that up :P) Would have loved more moody lighting in the interior, like the exterior shot (and when the lights are out) to make it more atmospheric, but hard to think of anything to improve on this one! Really amazing job!
Fantastic art style, high contrast pixel art like this looks so good, and its so atmospheric, along with the sound design too. Really impactful. The writing was great, added another layer of atmosphere, though I'd say you're usually better off avoiding the amnesia thing in future, its a big trope, and imo an unreliable narrator is more effective for plot/exposition than having the protag with amnesia "remember" things. It was fun playing with the little devices to solve puzzles, though going back and forth a number of times could have been sped up.
I'm honestly only being critical though because I really love it, and they're really only small flaws in a great game!
Thanks, yeah the final chapter is really where the "main" part of the game was going to kick off, so it was just the kind of opening "setting the scene" puzzle for her section really. But I was way overscoped already so didn't have time for more :) Planning to tackle it later this year.
Thanks! Yeah I felt like multiple POVs was a natural progression for the fantasy theme. Though I don't want it to become as sprawling as WoT! The Breath stuff came out of liking the way Robert Jordan and particularly Brandon Sanderson come up with a "magic system" that's based on core rules, it seemed like something that'd translate well to a game. I need to read more of Brandons books. I read mistborn like 10 years ago but actually never read more until last week when I read Tress of the Emerald Sea. But his writing podcast is amazing to listen to.
Let me know any recommendations, hard to know what to pick up next, but I'm in the mood for more fantasy atm!
Super funny! The wierd and wonderful set up for controlling the game worked great, the first tv I had as a kid was like that and got the game vibe switching channels :D Love it!
No worries, it's my own fault, you did provide the option! Mainly because I'm trying to play as many jam games as I can with limited time too :P I see others posted vids so I still get to see how it ends :D
Bit late to the party, but I just played this after your advjam 2023 game, since I noticed it on your page. Really great! Extra ending that you had to work for was good, and worth the extra bit of thinking involved. It think it's my fav of yours after spyquest (but can't beat a parser for me so that doesn't count :P)
The art style and art in general was great, made for a really atmospheric game! Loved how nicely the characters matched their portraits, in 1-bit art too! I was probably silly to chose normal, as I basically skipped all the fighting and was super under-prepared when fighting the final boss the 2nd time and got 1 hit killed ha ha. But really nice all round!
Current plan is to continue making a book a year, then wrap them all together for a steam release at some point in the distant future after I get The Drifter out ;)
Yeah 100%. Bit of an experiment doing a "middle" part of a story for a game jam. Resolving previous stuff and set up for future stuff without the payoff haha. I realise now that the next part planned is actually perfect scope for a standalone jam game, following one character with a standalone story arc... Ah well! Side effect of trying to do a big story in little jams, but always learning!
Yeah, I'm really leaning into the nostalgia for this series which means you really need to use the Look command on everything like in those old games 😅
