A Thousand Islands, and One

bangthewall 2022-04-04 08:14

Really cool concept. I like that it has procedural generation built into it. The pixel art and animations look amazing as well, no clue on how you made them though (are the trees procedurally animated?)

Right now the game lacks a bit of depth, as as far as I understood, I just had to wander the island until I find the treasure. I think adding a series of minigames to find treasures would benefit the game a lot, but that is not something one can achieve in a jam.

Overall, good direction. Keep working on it, seems like it could end up as a really cool game.

lucas-guimaraes 2022-04-04 08:15

A bit slow and a bit... not feedback enough? But ambitious. Definitely ambitious. I ended up playing this game on the idea alone.

esayitch 2022-04-04 08:21

@bangthewall "Right now the game lacks a bit of depth, as as far as I understood, I just had to wander the island until I find the treasure. I think adding a series of minigames to find treasures would benefit the game a lot, but that is not something one can achieve in a jam." This is indeed in the game, a few islands in. There is a surprise in island 5, and another in island 9, if you get that far... that aside from the various types of natives you encounter.

iluvatar 2022-04-04 09:10

It seems like a simple-minded game at first, but the longer you play the more interesting it gets. I really adore the graphics and a relaxing mood of colorful island exploration :) Pretty solid entry especially for a COMPO category.

moonblast 2022-04-04 21:07

Looks like a fun game, but is it just gathering and walking? I really like your retro images that remind me of the coast at hometown

darandin 2022-04-04 22:55

I liked this game, but it lacked purpose and I'm not sure if there was a theme part that I missed other than just not being able to "win"

The art was good and the retro style worked great! I actually spent a long time playing.

Great compo game and thanks for uploading!

esayitch 2022-04-05 05:29

@moonblast ... And dodging projectiles from volcanoes and slaying dragons, and... ;)

@darandin You've actually found my (maybe too experimental, maybe too meta) interpretation of the theme - it is inevitable that players will leave the game at some point, never to return, I try to delay this as much as possible by:

1) Having countless islands, which is not enough by itself as they need to be compelling enough to be discovered... Which brings me to...

2) Hinting at great depth in terms of what there is to discover by careful management of "discovery", first of treasure types, then of different inhabitants, then of some preset surprises, then by combinations of all of the above. Naturally content is the main bottleneck during a 48 hour jam, so the illusion of depth was the trickiest part.

I'm glad you've spent time with it :D

brusi 2022-04-05 17:58

This game definitely got me intrigued. Feels a bit slow, but exploration and discovery are key words here.

Procedural generation of islands is absolutely amazing, and the pace and the story tells me something about the bigger picture, I'm not sure what it is... I plunged about 12 islands by now, will definitely come back to it later to see what treasures and secrets this game holds...

esayitch 2022-04-05 17:59

@brusi That's more than what the vast majority will reach :D (and it is safe to stop now without losing much :X)

team-watt 2022-04-05 23:54

Whoa. This is really a treasure to play! I love the minimalist style that has so much depth, even when natives are a couple of pixels, I can feel emotion coming from them. The islands are great, the constant sound of the sea keeps me immersed. In my opinion, this is a masterpiece for a compo title.

the3rdhunter 2022-04-06 00:59

Love the minimalist artistic style, and procedural generation of islands. This is a super cute, chill, exploration game with a great retro vibe. I'm going to enjoy having this game around, popping it open, and relaxing while collecting some treasure every now and then. It's amazing for a jam game, let alone a Compo game. Really amazing work!!!!

thepelranthean 2022-04-06 02:59

I enjoyed looking through your content generation code. You put a good amount of work into it and it's fun to see the results as I played through island by island. Thanks for sharing the game!

nebiros 2022-04-06 14:30

I enjoyed it a lot visually, but I've got to say the gameplay was a bit slow for me. Nice entry though, good job

frostbiiten 2022-04-07 00:30

Really nice job with the graphics! It was a bit simple, but cool nevertheless. I read that you used procedural generation, which is very interesting!

conradoclark 2022-04-07 01:28

It's always delightfully peculiar to see procedurally generated stuff in games, and I dig the style of this one. Interesting entry!

potatolain 2022-04-07 01:45

The graphics and procedural generation were both really impressive here! And yes, I did manage to slay a dragon (two, in fact!)

That said, I did kinda feel like the game lacked something. It felt a bit repetitive, even with the added features in later levels. I don't honestly know what I was hoping for, or if it was even feasible in a weekend game jam honestly. (maybe some story, or explanation around the mystery?) But still an interesting entry.

triggthediscovery 2022-04-07 12:36

Really liked the procedural generation on the islands! Also how well it fit in with the rest of the graphics. The blocky graphics and simple sound effects had almost an Atari vibe to it.

frib 2022-04-07 21:41

I love the islands and the simple exploration on it. There's plenty of small details in your game that make it feel quite finished and polished, so good job!

I'm not really a fan of the sound effects, I found them to be too harsh sounding for the mood that the rest of the game has. Otherwise it would have a very relaxing vibe (if not for the dragons etc).

bastienre4 2022-04-08 18:21

Impressive graphics, I really loved it. Procedural island generation is neat. At first I was a bit lost, but I guess that's on purpose. Good job!

nick-rafalski 2022-04-10 20:59

I really liked this. The proc gen is so pretty I could just flip through a slide show of islands all day. The gameplay is pretty sparse, but I really just enjoyed being in the world, listening to the sounds, and seeing the different islands. Nice job!

nusan 2022-04-21 13:07

Pretty intriguing game, I found a dragon but no idea how to kill it, I gathered around 6 of each of the 4 items type I found, but no idea what to do with them. I liked the sense of discovery, first not finding anything and after a few islands knowing what to look for to get items, I wish I found a way to actually use the items (maybe trading them with the people living there?) or transforming them somehow into higher tier items. The visuals are cute and works well for the game, everything feel really polished so yeah, great job!