JackBad

ThaumOS by grasstypefire 2021-04-29T21:11:18Z

Wow, this is great. The interactivity of the OS was what easily took the cake for me. The art, audio, and gameplay bring the whole thing to life surprisingly well. I was a little wary after reading that I'd need to be taking notes myself, but for some reason seeing it presented as a Notes app on the OS immediately made it more compelling & easier to get behind. Very impressive. The variety of tasks on the OS is also great. I LOL'd every time I got to smash my keyboard to type a report & always enjoyed reading the way these mini-games(?) were tied into the theme.

In regards to feedback, the only thing I really wished there was more of was a tutorial/training-wheels section towards the beginning so the player is guided through the expected gameplay loops before being dropped in the deep end. That does sort of challenge the immersion of being able to just boot up the "OS" & hop in & out, so who knows. Being that this was a game jam, it's totally understandable why there wasn't a tutorial. Would be stoked to see what future updates could bring to this!! Hats off!

Jaws of Earth by IceEye 2021-04-29T21:36:26Z

This was a cool interpretation of the theme, and kudos to the team for working under even stricter time constraints. I would definitely play again if you all decided to develop further or patch what's there in the future.

Feedback: + The shader on the walls when they collide with(?)/pass the camera is awesome. Y'all have a cool minimalist art-style. I was hoping for some more props/scene dressing, as well as ambient audio to reinforce the tone, but was still generally satisfied. + The SE & NW direction animations are broken for the 8-way-directional-movement

+ JOURNALS: - I wondered if I would've been more compelled by the story if we received the journals not in chronological order? - I felt that 'E' should also be able to close the journal entry, and I kept tapping it once I finished reading. - Once I was about halfway through, I started wishing for a notebook that I could refer to & re-read past journal entries. - Towards the end, I also wanted more media type to interact with, other than journal entries. The "Prayer?" got me excited, but I think expanding the variety of interactable objects could help keep players moving forward intrigued. (Like an empty water canteen, a photograph, a makeshift map of the cave structure, markings on the walls, etc.) It would also create an opportunity for the person we're playing as to provide feedback, share opinions, and clue the player in on what this means.

Deeper Daddy by AguaHervida 2021-04-29T20:36:45Z

Love the art style, 2D assets in the 3D environment look great, and the pink contrasts against the darker color in a nice way. When all the text is pink, its a little hard to figure out what to read first (especially with the uneven font).

The mechanics are simple and fun, but I found that the difficulty spikes pretty quickly and I'm not able to save more than 1 or 2 eggs before I am hit & lose. I would consider either slowing down the rate acceleration for how fast the rocks drop, or maybe allow the axolotl to take more than 1 hit before losing?

Regardless, I had a great time playing and can't get over how cute the axolotl sprite is (and their lil paper-looking eggs!). Great work!

L1-S0N by Beardmage 2021-04-27T23:33:49Z

First, the art & interpretation of the theme are great here. Robo-guy is cute, and having the jetpack-fill meter on the back is a nice touch. I really like your jetpack mechanic, and would be interested to see what kinds of puzzles/levels could be built around it, given more time.

In regards to feedback, I think the text explaining the objective went away too fast. I’d maybe consider adding a “continue” button so the user can decide when the text on the screen should go away. Or, maybe have the lines voiced?

If you decide to continue working on this, I’d consider adding more environmental hazards that the player must navigate around. I liked the deadly fog above the player, but it never really became a hazard for me while I was playing. More parkour/platformer with the jetpack, please!

Egress by SirDuck 2021-04-27T22:15:38Z

The aesthetic here is top notch, great interpretation of the theme. I love the music!

In the way of feedback: I wish I knew what the program attributes did for me at the start when they're introduced (hovering over for more info?). Then, the tutorial jumped further into the HOW before explaining the WHAT, so it's a little confusing to keep track of what "egress, ingress, programs, and directories" are in the game as I’m told how to use them. With an expanded tutorial section and some variety in decryption/hostile encounters, I could easily sink a ton of time into this as a mobile hacking game. Awesome work so far!

Condemned by JackBad 2021-04-29T01:52:24Z

@maxr00 Thanks for the feedback! For sure, tightening the feedback loop for combat is top on my priority list when it comes to revisions I hope to make. I'm also planning on pulling the camera back some to make it 3rd-person-perspective, so that should also help register actions.

@bmacintosh Thanks for the feedback! I completely agree. Spent far too long working out some enemy pack-hunting AI that I neglected the actual damage-dealing aspect a little too much. Should be more fair in the next patch, sometime this next weekend. Also, using your fists deals slightly less damage, but consumes significantly less stamina. [EDIT: Just verified that this is not the case in the current version. Oop!] The floors didn't really encourage using anything other than the sword, but I imagine developing further to create scenarios where the player may want to punch enemies instead of using the sword to conserve stamina for running away (or using a dodge, which didn't make the first cut).

@full-wash-and-set Thanks for the feedback! That's definitely part of the mood I'm going for. I liked seeing the whole horde of skele-bois crowding around you towards the bottom floors, and want to leverage the thrill of mowing them down in future updates. I may add a beefier, deadlier enemy to contrast the weaker skeletons & manipulate the flow. To your specific pts: 1) For sure, valid point. There are, basically, just collision boxes on each enemies hand that, if the player collides with/touches them, they are dealt damage. Admittedly not the best setup for an action game trying to keep the player pushing forward, and something that will be amended in the next patch. 2) I'll have to make some other revisions that polish gameplay before I decide if taking stamina out is the right move, since (see above) there were originally plans to flesh out the punching & add a dodge. But it would definitely feed into the rushing-thru-the-dungeon vibe it currently has going for it. 3) Yeah, enemies were all spawned towards the back of their respective rooms, but their AI is set to have them walk towards the player. So, by the time the player reaches the door, the skeletons are already at the front. My way around this will be to only allow the skeletons to chase the player if they are within a certain distance in their line of sight.