itch.io

This really isn't bad for a first game.  A lot of decent polish.  It did seem quite repetitive and the challenge didn't increase.  A variety of enemies would help.

Fun little variation of the pacman formula.  You could add points depending on how quickly the player finishes a level.  When time slows down, I felt that the screen got a little too dark though.

Nice aesthetic style, really stands out a lot.  I especially liked the designs and the colour scheme.

The story and mystery were good.  The puzzles were varied and interesting.

A custom mouse cursor would have been nice.

Some sound effects would make a good addition.

The subtitle fonts could have been better.  Also, was the voice over altered in some way.  I thought it sounded as if it had been slowed down, no offence if that's just how your voice sounds.

Overall, the game was good.  The ambient sounds and mood was decent.  I enjoyed exploring the building and finding clues.  It was nice and short, as expected of a game jam entry.

There were a few issues in the windows version though:

I'm not sure why you added a second top down perspective.  It started glitching as soon as I entered the building and later just showed me the car park, which wasn't helpful.  Personally, I think it breaks immersion, which is important in a horror game.

The dialogue text started flickering, so I couldn't read it properly.

The collision detection on the stairs is off.  I kept getting caught on it.

Thank you so much.  It means a lot. 

I absolutely understand the issues of getting games finished by such tough deadlines, believe me.  

I look forward to playing your fixed version.  

I liked the character forms and animations.  Perhaps you should make the scene darker.  It would enhance the horror atmosphere.  I liked the quirky dialogue.

I couldn't see any UI for my health or power recharge, so had to guess when it was charged.  The game is pretty tough, during my first fight, enemies kept spawning directly next to me as I tried to make space while recharging.  There were so many of them.  I tried manually setting the difficulty to normal, but it was the same.

I played the windows version.

Did you get one of the real endings?  If not, you must have been very close.

Thank you so much for the feedback.  This really helps me out.

I played your entry and left a review.  I hope it's helpful.

The art and animations are amazing.  Music is excellent.  The whole thing creates a nice 19th century horror atmosphere.

I'm not sure what a Velocipede is?  Is that a French bicycle?

I couldn't see what value my health was at, was that intentional?  Or the other meter, is it sanity?  I could only see how much money I had and the bottom 3 stats.  Also, the cult's influence could have been shown in some numerical way.

There was one section where I thought I had a choice of 2 shops, but they were both the same club (act 2, Le Chat Noir).  That might be a bug.  Another issue occurred with a club in act 2, the card was labelled Deadstock and the 4th option was off screen, so I couldn't read it.  Going to fullscreen mode in chrome didn't help.

It felt like the pace was too fast.  I think I only got into 3 fights and entered 1 shop before I was whisked into a catacomb to face a horror.  I only had one opportunity to upgrade something.

I think it could do with more sound effects.  There were moments where I expected them, but they were absent.

I think the game should have had a screen explaining how to play, at the beginning.  A menu providing basic volume options and ability to restart the game would also have been welcome.

The writing was of a very high calibre.  It was very descriptive, but not over drawn, thankfully.  Just short and sweet with lots of nice details.  Excellent mystery horror narrative. The story really sucked me in and I wanted to finish the game, but unfortunately it ends with a to be continued message.

It's a great start to a horror adventure game.

Thank you so much for the useful feedback.  This is very helpful.

The narrative style is very different from most other games.  There's no actual story in a conventional sense.  You have interactions with characters and your reactions determine what happens.  It's a bit like in real life where there's no story, no neat and tidy beginning, middle and end.  It's just a series of interactions with consequences.

The first two symbols represent your standing with the government (police badge) and the cult (cult guy).  The last two represent your wealth and sanity.  The decisions you make affect these meters.  If any of them become empty or fill up, you will lose.

Just released it as a relaxing narrative game.  It's my very first attempt at a narrative game and I'd like to get general feedback on it.  The gameplay, narrative design, style, etc.

https://sundle.itch.io/swipe-stream

Swipe Stream: revolves around a mysterious book, De Vermis Mysteriis. What is this book? Why do people want it so badly? How are your dreams connected to it? Is it real, or just a fantasy? So, many questions - can you find out the answers?

https://itch.io/jam/mystery-game-jam-2024/rate/2689325

Menu - first version:

In my second version, I made the side info more distinct by using different colours.  This was after getting some feedback on the design:

Menu - first version:

In my second version, I made the side info more distinct by using different colours.  This was after getting some feedback on the design:

There were quite a lot of interesting points raised in a discussion. People suggested that using gibberish as a substitute for voices is a viable alternative, examples included Banjo-Kazooie and Animal Crossing. Others recommended using musical instruments used in games like Don't Starve. Both appear to have a long history in gaming. Not only are these solutions quick and easy, there's no cost to making them. So, it's perfect for my entry to an indie game jam.

Having trouble finding free recordings of gibberish, apparently it's a lot harder to create than you'd think, I made an attempt at the latter. I used music notes. I'm certainly no musician, so I simply opted to randomise the pitch and wait time between the notes. Changing the latter had a huge effect on the outcome. Short delays produced a very comical effect. Other suggestions are highly appreciated.

I tried a variety of different instruments. There are 6 in total. Some seemed to work better than others. I'll make my final decision after reading through feedback. Right now, the violin works the best. I believe I heard somewhere that the violin owes its popularity to being close to sounding like a human voice.

I wonder what other people think...

Having trouble finding free recordings of gibberish, apparently it's a lot harder to create than you'd think, I made an attempt at the latter. I used music notes. I'm certainly no musician, so I simply opted to randomise the pitch and wait time between the notes. Changing the latter had a huge effect on the outcome. Short delays produced a very comical effect. Other suggestions are highly appreciated.

I tried a variety of different instruments. There are 6 in total. Some seemed to work better than others. I'll make my final decision after reading through feedback. Right now, the violin works the best. I believe I heard somewhere that the violin owes its popularity to being close to sounding like a human voice.

I wonder what other people think...

There's a discussion on voicing dialogue on Reddit's gamedev sub.  Someone there claimed they got over 50 voice actors interested in participating in a game jam.

Added a whole bunch of visual effects.  Some using Godot's WorldEnvironment node and others are shaders.  Went for a CRT effect to give the game some texture and a slight retro vibe, which is very popular and well appreciated by gamers.  I felt it needed a little more texture, so I added some noise created using Gimp's filters.  On top of that, I turned on Godot's glow feature to give the game an ethereal, surreal, dreamy look.  

This all helps create the right kind of atmosphere.  It's not dark and gloomy like blatant horror games, so people don't get the wrong impression as I'm going for a more lighter vibe.  It's more of a thriller than a scary game.

All in all, I'm happy with this as the final look of the game.

Added a whole bunch of visual effects.  Some using Godot's WorldEnvironment node and others are shaders.  Went for a CRT effect to give the game some texture and a slight retro vibe, which is very popular and well appreciated by gamers.  I felt it needed a little more texture, so I added some noise created using Gimp's filters.  On top of that, I turned on Godot's glow feature to give the game an ethereal, surreal, dreamy look.  

This all helps create the right kind of atmosphere.  It's not dark and gloomy like blatant horror games, so people don't get the wrong impression as I'm going for a more lighter vibe.  It's more of a thriller than a scary game.

All in all, I'm happy with this as the final look of the game.

Thanks a lot.

Added some character sprite images.  I think they suit the style.  They look quite a bit like Nerial's Reign's characters, yet distinctly different.  Not having eyes adds to the surreal and mysterious atmosphere of the game.

Lots more cards added to the game. They're quite straight forward to write. I'm using a gd script for them instead of a spreadsheet, as I'm trying to get it all done by the game jam deadline. I might switch to spreadsheets post-jam and thereby let people mod the game.

I also added loss conditions and managed to die 1 minute, 13 seconds into the game!  Looks like I'm going to have to balance it more carefully.

Lastly, added a week (turn) counter.

Added some character sprite images.  I think they suit the style.  They look quite a bit like Nerial's Reign's characters, yet distinctly different.  Not having eyes adds to the surreal and mysterious atmosphere of the game.

Lots more cards added to the game. They're quite straight forward to write. I'm using a gd script for them instead of a spreadsheet, as I'm trying to get it all done by the game jam deadline. I might switch to spreadsheets post-jam and thereby let people mod the game.

I also added loss conditions and managed to die 1 minute, 13 seconds into the game!  Looks like I'm going to have to balance it more carefully.

Lastly, added a week (turn) counter.

Added bars to indicate the four main statistics used to control the game's outcome. The bar meters deplete or fill up depending on the decisions made. The player needs to keep this bar between 0-100%. This is what really helps make Reigns such a compelling game.

Entry for the 2024 Mystery Game Jam on Itch.io.

Added bars to indicate the four main statistics used to control the game's outcome. The bar meters deplete or fill up depending on the decisions made. The player needs to keep this bar between 0-100%. This is what really helps make Reigns such a compelling game.

I thought this style of game is a nice fit for the 2024 Mystery Game Jam.

Added a pixel texture for the character, a modulated background image and some text.  It's starting to look much better.  It looks more like a game now rather than just some UI element.

Added a pixel texture for the character, a modulated background image and some text.  It's starting to look much better.  It looks more like a game now rather than just some UI element.

When browsing, we can filter in games, but consider letting us filter out games too.  

For example, let's say you want to look at action games, but no sports games.  Currently, there's no way to do this.

Very short game and simple, but compelling as you added each item to the pentagram.  Maybe something could happen at the end, instead of a congrats message.  Like something appears.  Not much else to say.  You managed to do a lot with extremely little.

Making a start:

Check out my play through, the game is actually quite easy on easy mode: 

Check out my play through, the game is actually quite easy on easy mode: 

Check out my play through, the game is actually quite easy on easy mode: 

It's not as hard as people have been saying.  Just search the tents, load the gun with bullets, take medicine and use the mini map to navigate around until you have searched all the graves for the 3 relics and the book.

Warning: spoilers at the end.

Evil ending version (17 minutes):

Nice fast, snappy movement.  FOW works well.  Enemy AI is good.  I like the water effect.

The difficulty is very high.  Enemies swarm you and the limited space means it's hard to run away and avoid getting cornered.  They also seem to get tougher, but your player character doesn't.  Do they always know where you are or only when you're in their range?

Some music and sound effects would be a nice addition.

Perhaps consider a skip turn function?  Otherwise, you're forced to keep taking out enemies and increasing your trace level.

In one level, I needed more keys than were available.

You're forced to move into the enemies when they block your path and so die quite often.    

Consider adding some music and sound effects.

The game's difficulty is very high.  Seems like luck plays an important role in advancing.

Fun game though, the concept is really good.  

It's a really nice 3D top down game.  A real delight visually.  A good effort for a short game jam.  

I do have quite a few suggestions:

- Add continuous movement.  You have to move one tile at a time and wait for the animation to finish playing.  Consider a faster movement animation and queuing the input.

- The camera got out of sync with player's position, so I couldn't see what I was doing.

- Add a HUD to display the player's health, gold, and other stats.

- The footstep sound effect is too regular.  Randomly shift its pitch and volume a little to vary it, as you hear it so often.

- Add a pause function.

- Add a basic menu.

- Dungeon generation takes place in view of the player camera.  Should really place tiles ahead of the cam so that it looks seamless.  Perhaps you meant to make it that way?

These are all easy things to fix and I'm sure will make your game more enjoyable.  Once you've done them, you'll be much quicker at them in your next jam.  

The best of luck to you.