Coldman

quichi 2020-04-21 00:14

Great game! I love the snow effect in the game and that menu screen is absolutely gorgeous.

I'm a bit stuck in the game though, how am I supposed to get more firewood? I tried planting the trees but interacting with them just gave me more seeds. I tried interacting with it with the _saw_? (or is it a _sickle?) and it didn't do anything.

Also, it was hard for me to understand what the red dots were, the sprite can probably be reworked to make it clearer as to what it is.

The pixel art was great, but I feel like it could be a little more consistent in terms of the pixel sizes. The tent has huge pixels, which makes it really stand out against the other sprites in the game. Some of the sprites were also a bit unclear to me as to what they were (the dirt pits in particular took me a while).

As a side note, when I ran out of Hunger I didn't lose any health - I'm not sure if you intended for the game to lose only when all three important stats ran out but I thought I would bring that up.

I do really like the design of having different mechanics that the player has to manage though, it takes away the repetitiveness of the gameplay loop.

Overall, I had a lot of fun playing - great work! :)

nightjolt 2020-04-21 00:32

@quichi you can get more tree by chopping down it before it turns green. and yes its just a sickle and only intended for farming. you do not need any tools for getting wood :)

pathus22 2020-04-21 01:41

the game is good! the art is what really shines.. good work! the hunger mechanic wasnt working but all other where good. nice work and see you in the next jam!

valdee 2020-04-21 01:54

The game plays well once you figure out the things that aren't explained. This game could reaaaally use a more detailed tutorial to explain some of the steps that maybe aren't logical to new players. For example, i didn't realize you had to cut the tree before the leaves grew before i read this comment thread. I love the sound design and graphics tho, and the menu is gorgeus.

x-c 2020-04-21 11:43

Great art and good game!

jorbits 2020-04-21 12:03

I was able to figure things out without the tutorial. After a bit it get's quite repetitive, it would maybe be interesting to add maybe hound attacks or a day-night cycle to break that up, where you've to sleep in the tent when it get's night. Then you could make the score based on amount of survived days instead of the abstract time. It was fun to play though.

nightjolt 2020-04-21 12:10

@jorbits Thanks for ideas. I am planning to export game to android and I will definitely add new features :)

finn-tr 2020-04-21 12:19

Love the idea of manage and interact with different mechanics. Not having a tutorial so the player can figure things out for themselves is a good touch but maybe some small hints could go a long way. The menu is absolutely beautiful. Really great job!

trexxak 2020-04-21 23:26

This was the very first gamejam game I played, which will make it a milestone forever :D

Really involved gameplay and really atmospheric, but, I don't know whether it is intentional, I had no idea of what I was doing. Somehow I planted a tree, eventually I found out how to get some wood for the fire, of course I stayed HYDRATED at all times, but then I died.

I'm not too much of a survival game connoisseur though, could actually see fans of the genre really fall in love with this! Great job!

pomo 2020-04-22 00:43

Even with the tutorial I had some trouble understanding what I was suppose to do (water the soil and click 2 times on trees for example). Missed something to keep me engaged after a little bit. Maybe let the player build his layout for trees and plants would be nice. Also found the sprites for the "berries" (i think they are berries?) a bit confusing, were they seeds? were they food ? What happens if i eat the only starting berries you get without planting any? Some way to recharge my energy faster would also be really cool, just waiting for it to recharge on its own doing nothing is boring, maybe let the player sleep in the tent for example. Other than that, cool game.

dummydojo 2020-04-22 02:15

First off, art was amazing. I really liked the visuals. The sound design was on point as well. The concept was nice, but the gameplay needed some work. My thoughts:

-It was confusing at first what was going on and what interactions were possible. For example, if I've thrown my axe away, is that it? Do I need to restart the game? Also, I couldn't figure out how to get more wood. I would guess I'd use the axe on the trees after planting them, but nothing seemed to happen.

-The moving using energy mechanic was really weird to get used to. I thought it was just buggy movement at first, but then I realized that there was an energy bar tied to it. You're basically punishing the player for doing anything. I would suggest having a walk/run mechanic instead.

-Gameplay is mostly just waiting around it seems. Maybe add something that is more active and keeps the player engaged. I think it would be fun if you had to micro-manage the camp with urgency, but right now every thing is really slow, so most of the time you're just standing around.

Good jam game though and it would be a cool idea if worked on further.

alex-karev 2020-04-22 23:02

It is very cool survival game. There is a very dynamic gameplay for survival game. I like this concept. Main menu looks really cool. I really enjoyed playing it!

barret 2020-04-23 01:27

I liked the concept but I couldn't figure out how to use the axe. I picked it up with spacebar tried to use it on wood but it didn't do anything. I was able to drink water successfully after pressing space several times.

I can see the potential but since I couldn't figure it out , I didn't have as much fun.

nightjolt 2020-04-23 01:31

@barret sorry for bad experience. I should have incloduded better tutorial. in case you still interesed its a hoe so its only intended for farming. you do not need any tool for tree just gather it when its green to get acorn and if you want wood gather just before it turns green

pips 2020-04-23 01:55

-the art is amazing(im a big fan of pixel art). I missed some sound, I took a minute to realize what to do, but once a figured out the game was really cool!! Congratulations!!!

notan-lemon 2020-04-23 07:01

This is a great game. Finding out what to do was a tough but fun challenge. Also nice pixel art, and the glowing effect on text was really cool. It would have been better if the resource bars had more noticeable visual effects when they run out.

god-colo 2020-04-23 15:42

It really felt windy out there! :laughing: The post processing in the menu is awesome!! Great Jobu! :smile:

lungtakumi 2020-04-23 15:57

Great game, simple but fun! Can add more challenging features later.

tudvari 2020-04-23 16:08

The **atmosphere is great**, the **ambience**, the **snow**, the **colors**, the **graphics**... **Very well done**!

**Glad you didn't make a tutorial** about what you can do with what, because that would **decrease the fun** factor of the game by a lot. **Exploring** the **world** and the **possibilities** makes this game **feel good**.

**Some elements/interactions** are **straightforward**, but some are **misleading**: For example plating the seed, and THEN watering it, destroys the plant. There could have been also an axe for chopping trees, so you wouldn't have to "quickly grab the acorn, put it down somewhere, and run back, so you could get a log before it grows leaves again". But I think that you had this in mind, but you were out of time.

For me, the **berry sprite was obvious**, but the **log sprite** was a bit **"hidden" on that trunk**, maybe better **contrast** would have helped.

**Great entry, had fun**, which is a rare thing for me with these jam games! Thanks for the experience!

Here are my playthrough experiences in detail, maybe it's useful to you:

**First playthrough:**

Didn't really know what to do with the acorn, maybe I can catch a squirrel with it. Grabbed the hoe, sowed the fields planted those red seeds and watered it, and also drank some water myself, the game is pretty intuitive. Then I started doing nothing, so had a look around and found the log, which made me a bit warmer. I tried getting some more seeds from the grass around, but they did nothing.

Then I realised that maybe I can plant the acorn as well, so I tried, and I could. I planted a new acorn, and burnt the log again. Sadly a grabbed the tree before it would spawn an acorn, so after a minute of trying to figure out something, trying to walk out of the map, or into the tent... I restarted the game :laughing:

**Second playthrough:**

Now I see, that those red seeds weren't seeds, and when I "planted" them, I ate them. Now I can't "plant" them, because I'm not hungry enough. I sowed and watered the fields again, but don't know what should I plant there. I planted lots of acorns, so I got no problem with warmth. But sadly my hunger increased and increased, I tried cooking the berries, the acorn, but nothing happened. Then I ate my only food, so I died after 5 and a half minutes maybe.

Now let's check what I missed :laughing:

Okay now I check the screenshots, and obviously, there is something planted in the soil.

**Third playthrough:**

Found out that I have to water the soil FIRST, and then I can plant the seeds. Previously when I planted the seeds first, I destroyed them by watering them after the planting. Now I can survive forever (I think), so after 2 minutes, I quit.

nightjolt 2020-04-23 16:53

@tudvari Thanks for amaizing feedback. I really enjoyed reading it. Will take your suggestions into account and change things when I make android export. Glad you liked my game that much ^_^

nonumbersgames 2020-04-25 14:15

Really nice ambient storm sounds, nice low health indication sound, good interaction sounds (water pump was a bit weird, but still satisfying).

Nice menu, also nice transition from it to game.

Wish there was menu/restart key or button when you realize you messed up and death is inevitable.

Figuring stuff out for yourself is ok (if you dont want too many instructions), but it would have massively benefited from highlighting interactables - I have eaten the berries instead of planting them way too many times (if carrying seed near tilled and watered soil, highlight the soil, else highlight coldman).

After figuring out the mechanics, there is that feeling that everything is done and you can survive forever, even though after a while it becomes really difficult to manage everything, but somehow doesn't give that push to really try hard. Maybe removing the energy limitation, water refill timer and adding progress bars on dying plants might help smoothing things out (feels like energy and water refill timers are more realistic, kind of, but take time to implement and don't really add much to gameplay - maybe could have omitted them in favor of polishing other content). Don't actually know, just throwing things out there.

Overall, liked the game, especially the sounds and visuals. Good content, figuring out the mechanics was fun, but difficult to keep playing after. Smoothing out some mechanics and adding access to menu/restart might have helped.

convg 2020-04-25 15:04

This game is really cool. The graphics look really nice. I like the sound, both in the background and from the player's actions. The movement controls occasionally cut out but it didn't cause too much frustration as they came back quickly. The system of having to carefully manage your resources is really cool. I love the way you have to figure out how not to lose them, and if you do lose them, then all hope is lost. It forces you to think and plan your timing, which makes the game really enjoyable. Really nice job, I'd love to see what you decide to do for LD47.

nightjolt 2020-04-25 17:25

@convg movement controls cut out bcuz your energy run out :smiley:

convg 2020-04-25 17:26

@nightjolt That makes so much more sense. Thanks for clarifying, that's a really cool feature :smile:

a333 2020-04-29 18:19

Cool survival game =) You've managed to do several production chains and balance them together quite nicely. I figured it out relatively quickly, although the watering part took some time. As I said, the item/time/movement balance was pretty tight, and since you have no inventory, you have to constantly manage items in various states - so at times it felt a bit like Alaska juggling simulator =) It's a good thing for a core loop, it makes player constantly busy. The only thing is that this high-agitation state couldn't be mantained for too long, so if you'd want a longer playtimes, you might need to add some breather rest periods and maybe some kind of higher-level progression, like unlocking new tools / seeds / inventory logs / ground patches.

artemftw 2020-05-03 14:42

Well done!

What I liked

The graphics are very good for the most part, and the snow effect looks great. The sounds are nice, but I think this game could use some background music. I also love how the UI looks. The game is pretty fun until you figure everything out.

What I didn't like

For a jam game, it's a bit odd not to have any player animations. The energy bar is pretty annoying and doesn't serve much purpose. Maybe there should be a way to beat the game, because after I figured out everything there wasn't much else to do. Also, there should be a way to restart the game, because right now it seems like you have to quit the game, then re-launch it to try again.

**Overall I think this game is great, and maybe if done right, it could be turned into a very interesting game if you decide to work on a post-jam version. Nicely done!**

nightjolt 2020-05-03 18:25

@artemftw Thanks for amazing and honest feedback :smile: I am already working on android version with new features and surely I will consider your suggestions ^_^

jdk2209 2020-05-05 10:39

Pretty cool and well designed concept. I love the graphics and the sound. Although I would've loved to see a little more interaction within the systems (maybe thirst or hunger affecting how fast you can move, or the low temperature making the crops grow slower) but overall a pretty solid gameplay and great job!!