itch.io

This is a really ambitious game. The cooperative storytelling aspect requires all players, and none, to simultaneously act-in as the GM. The story revolves around The Team and The Commander, the former doing the latter’s dirty work. Who, where from, what is the Commander? These are the kinds of questions this game will have your table asking, between missions where you fight aliens and save humanity.

For this concept to be easily realized at the tabletop, I see two prerequisite developments -

1. A conflict-resolution mechanism for players to mutually control the Commander. Perhaps each player represents a faction who has a stake in the Commander’s choices - e.g. his family, the civilian government, the alien parasite slowly growing in his brain, perhaps? At present, it’s not clear what motivation the players have to pull the Commander in opposite directions, nor what internal glue is keeping him together.
2. The creation of some kind of artifact. This is just my opinion, but I find that cooperative storytelling games work best when you create something tangible together - be it a map, journal, etc. It doesn’t even have to be permanent. But creating something together, beyond just words, helps moderate and cement the activity.

All in all, an interesting concept that is well on its way to being a complete game.

This is awesome! Movement feels great. It took me a little while to get used to the bike’s response - which is quite fast - but once I did it felt great, except for the bike rotating from one fixed point (i.e. like a unicycle, not a bicycle). Love the variety of moves you could pull off.

Falling off the tutorial level, and trying desperately to save it by bouncing back and forth between buildings, was almost as much fun as actually pulling it off - the hallmark of really buttery-smooth control schemes and sandboxes. 10/10

Super slick and stylish entry. Very well put-together, although the layout is not optimized for printing.

Bold presentation, lots of user-friendly layout choices (e.g. the Pilot Traits table being right there when you first read about it in character creation). The fonts, design, and narrative all gel together very cohesively. The narrative (and it’s two endings) is compact and rich.

Would have preferred good and bad traits being two tables, each pilot having one of each.

The dice notation is explained, but it’s not clear to me what the X(Y) notation is. Am I missing something?

All in all, great work!

Cute and easy to read TTRPG!

The rules cover a mechanism for advancing the narrative, taking actions, and the essential outcomes (progress, damage, death, etc).

The main content is the mechs, flora and fauna to encounter, and some Odin Corp landmarks.

The layout is clean and straightforward. Some unconventional decisions such as zero-margin layouts, lack of an inside cover, TOC, etc. mark this as a “web edition” not ready for print.

There are essentially 11 pages of rules, and 11 pages of content. So, the production is very balanced. In that sense, it seems best suited for a one-shot with minimal preparatory work done beforehand by the Manager. It’s not simple enough to run as a pick-up-and-play or GM-less game, and longer campaigns would require the Manager to create a lot of content.

The module-mech connection needs improvement. Some modules give numeric bonuses, others can only be used for relevant action rolls. Consistency here (all-narrative, or all-mechanical, preferably both) would improve the balance. Core modules available to all mechs shouldn’t be needlessly duplicated, and an advancement or tech tree would be really welcome to create progression.

The “narrative track” is a solid mechanic but needs some kind of twist.

Overall - well presented, excellently illustrated. Very clean and coherent package. Working purely with the content presented, a fun story about plucky Mecher bushwackers delivering cargo on the final frontier could be charted. Nice work!

Thank you!

Very fun and cute concept. Like the sound design and graphic design, outside of the hard-to-grok symbols and mathematical equations in lieu of a proper tutorial level.

WHy do we mine things with sludge guns in the future??

Really great twist on classic concepts! Love the atmosphere and flexibility of mining. Pretty tough in this version!

This is really great work… love how many interactions you added.

A block or dodge, or even the ability to meditate in a safe place and slowly heal, or a presave, would make the combat easier to get through… the enemies have a good amount of health, and very large hitboxes on some of their attacks.

The floating eye onis are fairly easy to get once you realize how slow they move, but their auto-damage without an attack animation is frustrating.

I really appreciate how the tutorial level was designed - quick, clean, but with dynamic reveals - but I couldn’t find the path through level 2 after a couple of tries where I kept not finding keys and dying to the big guys…

The art style, music, and overall production on this is really impressive!

Hey Wolfer, there isn’t a direct message feature on Itch so I can’t send you a note.

What questions do you have?

To get very specific, I want to create a playground type game or LARP that relies on athletic prowess and/or spoken word. There won’t be any programming or dice involved. My current working idea would, however, involve arts and crafts on the players’ parts as well as graphic design for the developers.

If you are still interested, please let me know what you would bring to the table and if I think we’d be a good fit, I’ll reply with my email address to connect privately.

Thanks!

Seeking honorable comrades-in-arms for the creation of a battlefield reknown called “Samurai Turf.” Inspired by the ancient art of Ninja, this game shall embody the essence of Bushido – a code of honor, dignity, and chivalry.

The mechanics, yet to be forged, shall wield weapons instead of bare hands in the pursuit of victory. Envision lyrical elements such as challenges, dying words, and the presence of Shoguns. This endeavor yearns for multimedia mastery, blending the harmony of music, the artistry of videography, and the strategic dance of gameplay.

As a seasoned game designer, adept in layout, illustration, and the poetic art of hip hop, I seek partners who, upon reading this call, feel an immediate kinship with the vision. Those capable of testing the game in the physical realm, capturing its essence on film during the jam, and editing with precision before the voting period’s end.

Together, let us craft minimalist game mechanics yielding a maximal impact. In the spirit of collaboration, may we convene over Zoom or another noble video service.

Gratitude for your honorable consideration. 🌸

The page says “Does my project have to be a game? We accept non-game entries. Books, comics, tools, game assets, etc are also permitted into the bundle. We do not allow adult / NSFW content.” so I think we’re good!

based

This is dope

Unfortunately I get an error when I hit enter to spawn the first wave.

The error

Love the music and concept art!

I appreciated the uncertainty, it added a lot to the atmosphere.

just gotta kno when to give two luvbirds privacy!

Barely made it with two of my dogs left… They’ll name their kin after the fallen

The book download has been added! It’s 9 pages

I got a litttle ahead of myself, it’s a work in progress! Download should come Saturday :)

Features:

• Additional rules for hearing, starting, and using Rumors

• Three kitchen upgrades (guaranteed not to explode!)

• Six hauntingly delicious Italian dishes (one of them is even real!)

• Six hungry Spirits (five of them Travelers…)

• Illustrations and writing

• Four of the spirits are animistic, while two are based on Italian folklore.

Submitted 8:30pm feb 11, just in time hahah

I like your layout and style a lot. A lot of information is packed in but it’s not overwhelming. The color choices are really good, although some of the smaller font or pixelated text fades out.

I wish the alien loot was a little better, it’s basically the same as standard equipment but with the radiation drawback. Not something the party is likely to hold onto.

The layout shift from rectilinear to arcing is really cool. Some interesting machinery must be there for one topside lift to go to three bottom side lifts, laid out in a triangle. A skilled DM could describe a very interesting, otherworldly setting with this material!

Hello, I am learning about this jam pretty late but I reached out to A Couple Of Drakes and they have released the following titles for the jam:

Spirited Cafe

DISASTER/Peace

DISASTER/Wing

No God’s Country

Court of Blades

They also have their requirements for fan content clearly laid out on their website

I am excited to make some content for Spirited Cafe and looking forward to all the other submissions!

Indeed, it’s true that many narrative gamers think strategically and narrate tactical approaches.

What I mean by tactics is the “Yes, but actually no” approach. In a tactical situation, you are trying to restrict the opponent’s options. Whether you are outmaneuvering them in a business deal or cutting down their foot soldiers, you want to expand your options while narrowing theirs. That’s just what it takes to win. This is fundamentally different from a narrative game. You might narrate a loss to your character for the purpose of a narrative arc. You’re still “winning” even as your character suffers, because it’s all about the personalities and events.

But that goes against the very point of a tactical game: winning according to the rules of the system. This is why tactical games like DnD have so many min-maxing players. That’s what the game encourages and supports. You can still make subpar choices for narrative reasons, And DMs can reward those choices tactically. So I was being a bit dramatic with the post title and the question “Do we even want these players in the same room?”. Most RPGs combine both narrative and tactical play and many do it well.

But there is a fundamental tension between these two. Tactical play is the stuff of board games and wargaming. Narrative play is the stuff of RPGs. Even many hexcrawl RPGs play more like wargames. Players can make tactical choices and fully enjoy the game without any in-world narration or roleplaying whatsoever.

This is very cool.. I just started taking an ASL course and I am excited to discover this. Thank you for making this.

This is a fun little adventure! The ‘feral’ Opossums are an interesting enemy with unique defense mechanisms. The presence of possible live Opossums are a fun way to embarrass trigger-happy military times while at the same time setting them up for a vindication, after the party is lulled into a false sense of security… there are lots of possibilities for suspense, humor, and inverted expectations with these mooks.

Some things I wish were explored further is: how the survey equipment operates, perhaps with some kind of puzzle or minigame instead of just a dice roll, and what happened to the rest of Mikey’s team. This could be a good setup for a second adventure, when you are finally headed offworld and call Kowalski, only to hear about the beautiful bouquet of flowers the last team brought back…

Thanks for publishing this little gem.

This is a cool project!

Your gothic aesthetic is sooo good!

damn we suck

Hahah I didn’t feel that bad, but it was very challenging, and funny

I would spend some coins on it in an arcade!

This game was very rude to me and made me feel like I’m bad at videogames

Great art tho

Fun game!

I managed to get stuck between my house and the outbuilding… gotta hold back on that nitro.

Also saw a stranded tank at the northern spawn point when another tank spawned right above it and blew it up. Seems accurate.

I’m really interested in this game as a companion to develop settings for Ryuutama. That game strongly emphasizes “aspect of place” which I found difficult to convey as DM. Sights, sounds, smells, all the sensations. I’m more experienced with the “aspect of action”. Planning to pick this up soon!

They look so good!

Wow, I love this! I’m honored you took the time to do that, it’s really cool to see you make it ‘yours’ as well.

Cool

Thank you for taking my criticism so well :) sorry if I was too harsh.

I do see that you tried to downplay combat. My thoughts are that combat is so pervasive and automatic in roleplaying games, I don’t want to see your game slip into that mode, whether it be a single Security character who always turns situations hot or a party who thinks Team Rubicon’s go-to approach is to send a team of two medical personal with a four-man security detachment.

Of course, people can play games how they want to play; and any party playing an indie disaster relief game is probably going to be more thoughtful, anyway. I guess it just rubs me the wrong way to see strictly humanitarian missions represented as having security/violence as part of their mandate. That’s why I reacted kind of strongly.

As far as a character to fill the same role - thinking about a similar real-world project, the Chinko Reserve, a big part of their anti-poaching mandate, which also includes armed park rangers, is negotiations between different shepherds over trail and water rights. So those negotiations are a security element. However, it is covered by your Diplomacy role.

Another big aspect of both security operations and relief operations is of course building or repairing shelter, both for survivors and responders. However, that is covered by your Engineer role.

Likewise security forces will have medical teams and logistics teams, that you already have covered. So, I’m not really sure what role security forces play could be added that you don’t already have.

For my part I often think of society’s functions as being agriculture, housing, security, transportation, healthcare, and communication. Four of those you already have, but a Communications role could definitely be added and is very relevant to all kinds of humanitarian responses. Certain ad-hoc response groups like Mutual Aid Disaster Relief also identify food autonomy as a part of healthy responses to disasters, so an Agriculturalist role is conceivable. However, that is very far from the mandate of traditional NGO responders that you are trying to model.

Again thanks for taking my criticism so well! And thanks for putting out this game, even if it’s flawed, it’s awesome and an honor to see the thought put in!