Perseverance

shess 2022-04-05 01:54

Oh wow, greetings from another text-heavy game developer! Although yours is definitely heavier, in more ways than one. I actually failed almost at the very start (guess I didn't hold SPACE for long enough), and then I failed again because I kept shaking one button, like it told me to do, until the next one appeared, and my clicked might've not registered well. And then I failed because I let go too early. Am I the one at fault? Or is it psychological warfare against the player? I'm starting to think that might be true. Just what do you want from me, game?!

~~It reminds me of the all toxic relationships I had in the past.~~

I lasted enough to at least pass the calculus bit, and then I believe I failed the QTE because I panicked and needed to look at the keyboard. And after that, because I used both of my hands to hold keys and ran out of fingers to click on yet another button. Arggh!

So, among the bugs I noticed, sometimes the '15+7-1' field doesn't clear, so when I click on it and type, I get 'answer21', which of course doesn't register and makes me fail. Sometimes the 'shake' and the 'hold space' options trigger a bad end even if I'm doing everything as told. Sometimes I'm not sure what the rules are: should I let go of 'space' to click on the next button? Should I avoid shaking it over other buttons? I'll investigate more.

At least the narrator believes in me and is proud of me.

2022-04-05 03:21

letter.png

Less of a test of perseverance and more of a test of reading cursive.

After repeatedly getting to this screen and mashing every button on the keyboard, I was ready to start decompiling the binaries to find out what this letter was until I realized I'd be better not staying up till 2 am when I have work tomorrow.

kaiyaki 2022-04-05 05:16

Awww I loved the message at the end! I played it with my partner who was handling the keyboard and we still failed when getting to the screen with the 4 clicks and "shake". However it was quite sweet and the message was cute. One thing I would suggest is a slightly more readable font and the ability to click to advance text (I occasionally wasn't reading fast enough and would miss a few words).

katasunder 2022-04-05 10:49

Loving The art Style <3

kazuren 2022-04-05 10:50

Would love it if the gameplay was a bit easier and the game had a more readable font. Other than that it was a very nice game, loved the music.

bentekiller 2022-04-05 11:26

This game nailed the theme, nice sentiment and unique idea for a game. Visuals and sounds really help set a good mood for the game. Some nitpicks are the cursive writing which takes you longer to read because of it, yet assumes other wise, and some rules which are not fully explained and understood. Failed "Press space" like 5 times until I understood that it was that command that I failed on, but hey, I persevered through it. I enjoyed the game in the way I believe was the intention, great game!

forgin-bits 2022-04-05 11:33

Beautiful work, the visuals are stunning. The music and SFX fit quite nicely. However, I had trouble reading the font sometimes and had a few issues with the usability ; just typing the answer to 15+2-1 for exemple was tedious and made me fail multiple times. After which I only wanted to try again but had to go through a few unskippable lines of text... Nice entry still, good job !

szym 2022-04-05 13:45

Nice game ! a bit heavy on text, but the art is lovely. cheers !

trexxak 2022-04-07 13:19

Clever and very enjoyable!

First up: Artistically, this game is just beautiful. Loving the colours, the music and, of course, the image of Perseverance. I found the extensive text from Lady __Patience__ very fitting, added with the cursive font and the roll moving on a bit fast, talking (or rather listening) to her even felt like a gameplay element.

I had to adjust to the game overwhelming me and started skimming the text patiently, not worrying about details too much. This exact learning curve worked out greatly for the game, as the more I got used to how the text would appear, the more I understood what the experiment was about, the more I got the feeling that there will come a point where execution of the task will become impossible. I still insisted on completing it, even while knowing that it is futile, but at some point I truly gave up... I think it was 2 trials after she stopped talking to me. Which was another fantastic trick - letting me get used to her just to teasingly take away the sole motivator of the experience. I was not shocked nor disappointed by what Perseverance had to tell me before letting me go :)

What I think you did brilliantly was hinting and foreshadowing that the player cannot win and has, in fact, almost no control over the situation... something I really would've needed for my game this time around.

tl;dr: I loved this experience! Thank you for your lovely entry <3

pandore 2022-04-07 19:42

First thanks to all of you for the time you took to play our game. We know that it can be rought around the edge and that some mechanics could have been polished, thanks a lot for taking the time to highlight where improvement can be made. We plan on potentialy perfecting it a bit after the jam and making it freely available.

@trexxak This is a message from me to you more than a message from the team. Thanks. Thanks for getting it, for not letting go long enought to fully appreciate what the game was about, and above all thanks for taking the time to make us know how you've experienced it. To be honest this Jam was not easy for me (I'm the art and writing guy by the way ^^) as I'm usualy a 3D artist and this was way out of my confort zone. Going fo a pretty simple esthetic was simultaniously an artistic choice and a confession of my own inhability to do pretty things in 2D like animated sprite etc... So my part on the visual was quickly dealt with and I passed most of my time on the Jam working on the narrative and the feelings it was supposed to bring to the player. I really tried to do my best to make it touching and it was hard for me sometime as I felt like I was a burden for my mates asking them things like "I need this to do that very quietly with a ease of" or "No really, it's important to have her talking almost each try at the begining", having to justify my demands to them will they were already struggeling on their side. So when the game was finished and a lot of player complained about that fact that Patience was talking to much, that they just wanted to retry faster, that the font should have been simpler, that some things were too hard... I really felt useless and I began questioning if I was even able to transmit anything with my writing or my art. So thanks for letting me know I touched at least one person as I intended to. You just rekindled my own perseverance.

I'll make sure to experience your game with the same attention et open mind you bestowd upon mine.

icxon 2022-04-09 03:51

Clicked for art, stayed for art! It seems my laptop is not a big fan keeping 5+ buttons held while using touchpad :smile: Oh well! I think if I had "3 lives" during each restart I would beat it eventually.

Here is my attempt:

https://youtu.be/LN8wLd3ENb0

cubanfrog 2022-04-19 20:09

It looks and sounds fabulous -- you really got the mood right! It gets the theme across quite well, too. The writing is nice and really helps establish the atmosphere you're going for, but sometimes there's not enough time for the amount of text on screen at once before it fades out automatically. Some prompts were also simply unattainable for yours truly (thanks, bad hands!). All in all, it's a coherent, enjoyable submission with a nice message as well.

ollie-d 2022-04-20 00:27

The font is absolutely terrible. I get the aesthetic you were going for, but it's unpleasant to read. Music and sfx are solid.

she-wrote 2022-04-20 19:24

I LOVED the game, the music and mood are great! I just wish I had more time to read the text. Perseverance Screenshot 2022.04.20 - 15.37.13.04.png

4ahizon 2022-04-21 02:21

Love the art in this game. The game design reminds me of a rhythm game meets a multitude of mini games. The task ask is cool and has a time sensitive feel giving users the pressure to do well. I like the game and was beautiful to look at.

langotriel 2022-04-21 07:02

Hey! Told you I'd review :smile:

Anywho, first off; I really appreciate that you went for more of a narrative game. I always do narrative design for the projects I work on, as well as casting direction etc. It's nice to see other games go down a similar path!

On the note of casting direction, if you are in need of voice actors for a future, similar project, let me know! My pro voice actors are always down for jams!

Right, back to Perseverance. The visuals are largely quite pleasant, though I did find the text a little hard to read at times and with no control over how quickly it passed, I missed a couple of words here and there. Art direction is very pretty, though!

Sounds are simple but effective. The best kind of sound design is that which doesn't get distracting and yours blends nicely!

wobbleblocks 2022-04-21 07:25

That was pretty awesome and well done! Good work! also ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)