I can see that Wuzzy put some love into making this game and did their best to catch lightning in a bottle and win the Game Jam twice in a row, but I personally didn't really enjoy playing it. As some players have stated, it's pretty difficult and full on, which I suppose is fine if you're into that kind of gameplay. To me however, some mechanics felt ridiculously unfair, most particularly the way enemies spawn. I liked when the shadows seemed to appear out of crevices in the walls and such, but not when they literally appeared out of thin air a mere three or so blocks in front of me. It felt like a cheap way to crank up the difficulty.
Looks wise, I think this game feels rougher and less aesthetically pleasing than Glitch. It felt more clear that to me this time around that I'm playing an ambitious game, but one very clearly built in the Minetest engine. The sound design also was a tiny bit underwhelming.
On the plus side, Wuzzy has undoubtedly delivered a pretty complete game experience, with a proper narrative, distinct characters and atmosphere to the world. I can see some influence from franchises like Zelda and maybe a bit of Lord of the Rings and perhaps Studio Gibli films.
It could have a promising future post Game Jam with a fair bit of polishing.
In the context of a game jam I am slightly conflicted about where to place this entry, but evaluating it as a tech demo and bold statement about what you can do with the engine, I have to say I am very impressed. I don't know nearly enough about the technology used to achieve this, but it definitely is unlikely anything I have seen produced in Minetest.
The 'OS' itself felt very nostalgic and retro with a pinch of humour throughout, perhaps most noteworthy at the initial BIOS screen. The games again were mainly tech demos and don't offer much proper progression or re-playability, but again, looking at Boom especially, you can't deny that what jordan4ibanez has pulled off here is very admirable. The choice of games they drew inspiration and recreated also adds to that sense of comfortable nostalgia. Bits Battle probably brought back the most memories of my early encounters with computers. Also have to give some props to the sound design, it really added to the ambience.
I'll second Zughy and say that I'll keep this installed and see if it gets developed any further outside of the jam.
After 5 minutes of trying to write a review for this game, I'm going to say it: I can't describe how good this game is, and I don't want to spoil the good impression of it, so just try it for yourself! It's great - I'd even say it's mind-blowing (for a Minetest game)! But you will need your head - it's a puzzle, and a pretty difficult one. However, the ambient soundtrack won't get in the way (I liked it, I even added it to my playlist). I won't say anything else - it should be Unexpected for you after all!
Ever played left 4 dead 2? Remember how in some maps the zombie spawn are so hopelessly large you're expected to just run for the exit? this game features a lot of that. very fast paced shooter. melee staby stab is not worth using at all lmao. in the first stage i sat around finding pots and when i went outside, the game is lagging from all those shadow saucers shooting at me. i died. i farmed some souls, uh i meant shadow shards and leveled up my character in bonfire as much as possible. the best stage is the mineshaft stage mostly for parkour + shooter. i never thought i would see this in minetest considering the state of most mob mods being pretty tame. i never expected damage indicators too. i never expected a very fast responsive light orb. i could list more, but there's so much polished features... it's best to play it yourself. my only request is that i'd love upgrades to really beat up the shadow mobs after destroying the boss :p
?/10 a great attempt for the novel concept of videoless video game
i've seen this done before on a different video game, but nontheless i commend the developer's bold decision to implement this idea their own way. I cannot recommend for or against this unique gameplay. Whilst the present mechanics are sound, i do not feel the approach currently is good enough to have fun. one thing i would like to have in-game is to perceive the world differently. human have many senses beside the eyes for knowing our orientation and material properties of the things around us. it may not be fair to convey this information kinda visually though. a cool idea would be to look at how animals with poor eyesight navigate, for instance echolocation of dolphins. aside from that, i kinda question why this is an open world game? i seriously thought i started in an enclosed generated room. anyways, i sincerely hope this game gets an overhaul from the developer.
Chess... ehhh. Now chess with random events? Sure. I'm not a chess expert by any means, but i did find the random events fun regardless. Very polished implementation, along with its own engine! Sometimes the game can be unfair but that's a major part of the fun, seeing a random horsey just disappear only later on to not matter because i lost from a queen spawn. Another fun round is at turn 3, it became a showdown. didn't even get a chance to play chess normally lmao. Another fun thing that happened is how i'm definitely losing in the endgame but it doesn't matter cuz the chess gods smite the leftover computer's rook, leaving me for an easy queen promotion.
8/10 A truly unique puzzle game, not meant for everyone :)
(I have not 100% the game) This is a puzzle game that involves parkour, lots of thinking ahead (and i guess behind too?!) and familiarity with the map. I expected for the music to have overstayed its welcome but it is still very nice to listen to. The story is pretty neat. The idea of time travel and using growth and decay to parkour and explore regularly inaccessable areas is very unique! The level design here is very well made, even if there's some jank here and there.
btw, i destroyed the crystal with only 3 stones and 4 plants. is the fourth stone necessary? i couldn't find it even with fly and noclip hacks.
Saw this mod in another game and decided to try it out in my own server and i am surprised in a good way!
The microwave has a working door, theres an alarm clock and like so many other cool stuff!!
I dont think i need to write any more about this. This is the best decor mod ive seen right now!!
edit: after i leave and rejoin the server, the decor is messed up: like the stuff in cabinets are gone, and when i click on them it crashes and wont let me join until i remove the mod, join and remove the unknown thing, then enable and rejoin and replace it. :( this is really dissapointing because the decor is so well made....
This sadly didn't work for me(android user). not sure if this is some bug only on android or not, but it just didn't work. . . the courser changes and indicates that I can place something, but NOTHING happens on place... what's more, it SEEMS to have somehow disabled my fast and no-clip privileges. not really sure if it was maybe me that somehow toggled that off on accident, but it happened after I used this mod. gave me quite the scare, I actually thought maybe the mod had broken something as I turned off the mod, checked my privileges and I COULDN'T figure out why my fast mode wasn't working... when it finally occurred to me to check the toggle for those modes in game(lol). STILL weird that happened though. something like this mod would be so great especially on mobile, where controls happen to be a bit weird. ultra bummer man! oh well. . .
A very neatly execution of a short adventure game! Love the story, love the charm of the music, love the classic feel of playing an RPG title. The NPC dialogs (or monologues i guess) and narrative sets the tone for the game. Game mechanics wise, it's lame. The "ominously float like a ghost" wand is a bit cheesable by spam clicking, unless that's intended (the parkour isn't bad imo, since it's at least more predictable to control compared to Glitch's dash). The blue fireballs wand is meh combat. The shrinking wand needs more ideas to expand on it. The boss room should make me use all three wands, and there's probably lots of ways to execute this. Overall, i was convinced by the premise wholeheartedly but the mechanics bores me. However, i still recommend players to try this game solely for its charm, plus it's very short.
Additionally, of course, a combination of engine limitations and bugs. The room transitions could use work. Falling into the murky water(?) sends you below the world, kinda ruining the experience. HUD animations for deaths would be neat. The boss cinematic bars don't work right with the hotbar.
I've been using abripanes (https://content.minetest.net/packages/mt-mods/abripanes/) for the longest time, but the lack of texture on the bocks/panes has been bugging me for the longest time. Just found this mod today, and it's great!
The connected textures in the blocks are a really nice touch too. It would be amazing if the panes could also have connected textures (they don't currently), but this might be a limitation in Minetest (don't know, haven't looked).
All in all definitely worth installing - great job!
This mod does exactly what it is supposed to do without bugs currently. It is easy to configure to your likeing. My only problem with it is that it isn't compatable with the areas mod. If it was that would be awesome.
Dialog boxes are too big and you can't re
Also every upgrade is too easy to get (expect the health upgrade, I barely got the first level with all these shadows, I can't imagine how hard would it be to get the last one.)
And I have found a place (66, 52, 492) where you can get stuck and basically softlock yourself.
So, yeah, no.
P.S. Sound design is also kinda mid
OVERVIEW - Very cool to see such a big game made in a small amount of time. Some of the visual effects were out-standing!
+2 for the visual effects.
The terrain was nice too. I think the game just needs a bit more drive in it, more purpose? More lore?
Anyways, very impressive game :)
RATING SYSTEM:
1 - Not a fan
2 - Meh
3 - Okay
4 - Good
5 - Love it!
GAMEPLAY - 3
GRAPHICS - 4
PLAYER-FRIENDLY - 4 (didn't know the goal of the game -1)
(Disclaimer: This review was made in the context of the game jam 2023. May contain spoilers. Edit: And most/all issues reported here were fixed in the meantime.)
Having a light orb in front of you for lighting is quite clever.
The damage indicator is really nice. Until yesterday, I didn't even know the compass hud element existed, and on the next day I already see a game use it in a hacky way.
The footstep sounds on the floating stone platforms in the stone level have reverberation. This is genius.
The dialogue text was cut off sometimes.
In the floating stone platform area, there's a spot where it's not deep to fall down, and you can see the ground. It's unexpected that one dies there, but unexpected in a bad way.
You can easily get out of the level in the first level, and directly go to the last level. This doesn't seem intended.
There are too many enemies at once. They spawn faster than I could ever kill them, even with full weapon upgrades. This makes the game too hard. There should be something like a limit of enemy count per space.
The goal and overall plot could be communicated better.
Picking up items by walking over them doesn't work reliably.
I haven't seen anything fitting the "unexpected" theme.
The boss fight was boring. There was no boss music, and all I had to do was run in circles and shoot for minutes.
There was no feeling of progress thorough the game. Finishing it didn't feel satisfying.
(Disclaimer: This review was made in the context of the game jam 2023. May contain spoilers.)
Note: I haven't found a player to play an actual round, I only tested with a 2nd minetest client.
Interesting mechanics. Has the potential to work out and be fun.
The mechanic where treasures take up multiple inventory spaces is interesting, but needs more work.
I.e. one needs the functionality to rearrange and drop treasures. Also, the inventory should probably be made smaller.
A bit buggy. At my first try, the players ended up in different maps.
To few sounds. Textures are nice.
In-game explanations would also be good. The statues, for example, are very non self explanatory, imo.
(Disclaimer: This review was made in the context of the game jam 2023. May contain spoilers.)
It's fun! But some parts a too unforgiving, more checkpoints would be good. (I ended up cheating with fly.)
Fits theme.
Got an "attempt to index a nil value" crash at regulus_mobs/boss.lua:240, when some projectiles hit me.
And there are error messages due to dated API use.
The cinematic screen widening effect at the bossfight is innovative, I haven't seen this in minetest before.
You made the music and models yourself, right? They are pretty nice!
My favourite entry for this year's game jam.
You encounter ruins and a ghost. You find things that make you go to the past, then to the future and there is 5 time periods of a citadel.
You then have to use the seeds of plants and timetravel to reach different parts of the citadel. Each time period unlocks new speeches of the ghost which is a nice touch.
I played this game for like 2 or 3 hours because I also wanted to find all 7 artifacts. (and I did. Woohoo!)
The map is well-made and must have taken ages to piece together.
Using plants to rise in height feels awkward. What I did was I placed an acorn and jumped to the corner and made future travel hoping it'll let me, then I move quickly back to the tree. Only takes me like 50 tries but it works somehow. Awkward. Unless this is cheating?
You'd think that standing on top of a small tree then going to the future would work but no.
The challenge is to obtain several important items and reach tricky locations by clever exploring and timetravel. The final goal is basically to reach the top with a special item.
But that's not all! There are artifacts! These are a clever addition and they kept me hooked a while longer although they were completely useless. And some artifacts had really clever locations. Sadly they don't unlock anything, not even a secret dialog.
The music is simple but sets a good tone. I wish there would be more sound effects. There isn't even a footstep sound yet.
Shadows seem to not work in this game? Every block seems to glow?? It looks certainly a little weird but you get used to it.
I don't really understand where the "unexpected" comes in but whatever.
The submitted game jam version sadly had a lot of small bugs and it crashed when I destroyed the crystal (but this was the end anyway). I really want this game to become bugfree and more polished in future versions.
Anyway, this game definitely kept me busy from start to finished including bonus items, so good job!
The beginning of the game looks like an outright bug. After a first briefing, the screen is (almost?) completely black. I thought the game is broken because I couldn't see the vent I am supposed to open. It is VERY dark and I had to find it basically blind. And the vent glows but it is VERY hard to see. Not a great start.
Once I finally entered the facility, the real game began.
There are a couple of very basic rooms to explore but they're mostly useless. Lots of robots move around but they're harmless vacuum bots or mini-tanks? There is an adventure-game-like interface of inspecting, reporting, using things you see. Sadly, much of it is unfortunately unused.
The game has a lot of dialog but using chat for it is a terrible idea: Font is too small.
Eventually I found some kind of "robo-labyrinth". You try out some very basic puzzles where you can guide robots through mazes with instructions (move North, South, etc.). I wasted my time "solving" the puzzles but the actual goal is to just start the puzzles and pick up the robot that looks different because it's the battle robot. I solved all puzzles but it's no challenge at all; you just need to count the squares, basically.
Once you picked up the battle robot, you must reach the exit and that's it.
I have died like 2 times for no apparent reason. Suddenly a screen showed up telling me a robot killed me. I don't know where it came from and it was an insta-death. Very confusing.
The game idea is relatively unique and hasn't been tried out too often. Trying to explore the world (almost) only by sound. Interesting, but I find it to be very confusing in practice. The README explains things well, but I still didn't get very far.
You're not entirely blind. Blue particles float upwards from blocks, so they're an useful indicator of the landscape while still leaving much ambiguity. I like that concept, so you're not staring at a completely black screen all the time. XD
I managed to dig a few blocks like dirt and sand. But the pickaxe seemed useless. I tried to dig stone for like 1 minute but apparently stone is unbreakable in this game, even with a pickaxe. There are "achievements" but I only found 1 for digging lots of sand, maybe? I don't know what the other achievements are.
My biggest success is killing a few chicken for food.
The world itself must be very barren. I walked 1000s of blocks but all I found is dirt, sand and stone, and what seems to be the occassional cave. Leaves and woody-like blocks exist but are rare. I don't think I ever found a forest.
Item selection is confusing. You have an "audible" hotbar, meaning by switching tools, you hear a sound. Each thing has its unique sound, which is nice, but you still have to guess what each sound means. And I think this is where the whole item system kinda falls apart, sadly.
Low health is signalled by heartbeats but I find it stresses me out so I just restart the game when I take damage lol.
The sound design isn't that great. The sounds that are in the game are pretty good, but there are too few of them overall. There's music, but it plays too rarely. If you don't do anything, the game is often silent. There is a lack in ambient sounds which for a game like this is a bummer.
I get the game is supposed to be about blindness but I think the whole UX needs to be reworked entirely cuz I simply don't have any idea WTF I'm doing lol.
Promise Undone by Punishing Difficulty
Rating Scale: 🔗
1-10 for each of the 6 categories, 1 being a thumbs down, 10 being a thumbs up. Max total being 60.
Gameplay: 6 | Innovation: 7 | Graphics (Content) 6 | Music & Sound (Content): 6 | Theme: 9 | Stability: 10 |
Total: 44
I can see that Wuzzy put some love into making this game and did their best to catch lightning in a bottle and win the Game Jam twice in a row, but I personally didn't really enjoy playing it. As some players have stated, it's pretty difficult and full on, which I suppose is fine if you're into that kind of gameplay. To me however, some mechanics felt ridiculously unfair, most particularly the way enemies spawn. I liked when the shadows seemed to appear out of crevices in the walls and such, but not when they literally appeared out of thin air a mere three or so blocks in front of me. It felt like a cheap way to crank up the difficulty.
Looks wise, I think this game feels rougher and less aesthetically pleasing than Glitch. It felt more clear that to me this time around that I'm playing an ambitious game, but one very clearly built in the Minetest engine. The sound design also was a tiny bit underwhelming.
On the plus side, Wuzzy has undoubtedly delivered a pretty complete game experience, with a proper narrative, distinct characters and atmosphere to the world. I can see some influence from franchises like Zelda and maybe a bit of Lord of the Rings and perhaps Studio Gibli films.
It could have a promising future post Game Jam with a fair bit of polishing.
Pushing Minetest and this Game Jam to Its Limits
Rating Scale: 🔗
1-10 for each of the 6 categories, 1 being a thumbs down, 10 being a thumbs up. Max total being 60.
Gameplay: 5 | Innovation: 10 | Graphics (Content) 10 | Music & Sound (Content): 9 | Theme: 9 | Stability: 10 |
Total: 53
In the context of a game jam I am slightly conflicted about where to place this entry, but evaluating it as a tech demo and bold statement about what you can do with the engine, I have to say I am very impressed. I don't know nearly enough about the technology used to achieve this, but it definitely is unlikely anything I have seen produced in Minetest.
The 'OS' itself felt very nostalgic and retro with a pinch of humour throughout, perhaps most noteworthy at the initial BIOS screen. The games again were mainly tech demos and don't offer much proper progression or re-playability, but again, looking at Boom especially, you can't deny that what jordan4ibanez has pulled off here is very admirable. The choice of games they drew inspiration and recreated also adds to that sense of comfortable nostalgia. Bits Battle probably brought back the most memories of my early encounters with computers. Also have to give some props to the sound design, it really added to the ambience.
I'll second Zughy and say that I'll keep this installed and see if it gets developed any further outside of the jam.
The best game of GJ2023 (in my humble opinion)
After 5 minutes of trying to write a review for this game, I'm going to say it: I can't describe how good this game is, and I don't want to spoil the good impression of it, so just try it for yourself! It's great - I'd even say it's mind-blowing (for a Minetest game)! But you will need your head - it's a puzzle, and a pretty difficult one. However, the ambient soundtrack won't get in the way (I liked it, I even added it to my playlist). I won't say anything else - it should be Unexpected for you after all!
9/10 save the trees! very fun magic shooter
Ever played left 4 dead 2? Remember how in some maps the zombie spawn are so hopelessly large you're expected to just run for the exit? this game features a lot of that. very fast paced shooter. melee staby stab is not worth using at all lmao. in the first stage i sat around finding pots and when i went outside, the game is lagging from all those shadow saucers shooting at me. i died. i farmed some souls, uh i meant shadow shards and leveled up my character in bonfire as much as possible. the best stage is the mineshaft stage mostly for parkour + shooter. i never thought i would see this in minetest considering the state of most mob mods being pretty tame. i never expected damage indicators too. i never expected a very fast responsive light orb. i could list more, but there's so much polished features... it's best to play it yourself. my only request is that i'd love upgrades to really beat up the shadow mobs after destroying the boss :p
?/10 a great attempt for the novel concept of videoless video game
i've seen this done before on a different video game, but nontheless i commend the developer's bold decision to implement this idea their own way. I cannot recommend for or against this unique gameplay. Whilst the present mechanics are sound, i do not feel the approach currently is good enough to have fun. one thing i would like to have in-game is to perceive the world differently. human have many senses beside the eyes for knowing our orientation and material properties of the things around us. it may not be fair to convey this information kinda visually though. a cool idea would be to look at how animals with poor eyesight navigate, for instance echolocation of dolphins. aside from that, i kinda question why this is an open world game? i seriously thought i started in an enclosed generated room. anyways, i sincerely hope this game gets an overhaul from the developer.
7.5/10 anarchy chess
Chess... ehhh. Now chess with random events? Sure. I'm not a chess expert by any means, but i did find the random events fun regardless. Very polished implementation, along with its own engine! Sometimes the game can be unfair but that's a major part of the fun, seeing a random horsey just disappear only later on to not matter because i lost from a queen spawn. Another fun round is at turn 3, it became a showdown. didn't even get a chance to play chess normally lmao. Another fun thing that happened is how i'm definitely losing in the endgame but it doesn't matter cuz the chess gods smite the leftover computer's rook, leaving me for an easy queen promotion.
8/10 A truly unique puzzle game, not meant for everyone :)
(I have not 100% the game) This is a puzzle game that involves parkour, lots of thinking ahead (and i guess behind too?!) and familiarity with the map. I expected for the music to have overstayed its welcome but it is still very nice to listen to. The story is pretty neat. The idea of time travel and using growth and decay to parkour and explore regularly inaccessable areas is very unique! The level design here is very well made, even if there's some jank here and there.
btw, i destroyed the crystal with only 3 stones and 4 plants. is the fourth stone necessary? i couldn't find it even with fly and noclip hacks.
The best decor mod ive seen! but its glitched
Saw this mod in another game and decided to try it out in my own server and i am surprised in a good way! The microwave has a working door, theres an alarm clock and like so many other cool stuff!! I dont think i need to write any more about this. This is the best decor mod ive seen right now!!
edit: after i leave and rejoin the server, the decor is messed up: like the stuff in cabinets are gone, and when i click on them it crashes and wont let me join until i remove the mod, join and remove the unknown thing, then enable and rejoin and replace it. :( this is really dissapointing because the decor is so well made....
Doesn't work...
This sadly didn't work for me(android user). not sure if this is some bug only on android or not, but it just didn't work. . . the courser changes and indicates that I can place something, but NOTHING happens on place... what's more, it SEEMS to have somehow disabled my fast and no-clip privileges. not really sure if it was maybe me that somehow toggled that off on accident, but it happened after I used this mod. gave me quite the scare, I actually thought maybe the mod had broken something as I turned off the mod, checked my privileges and I COULDN'T figure out why my fast mode wasn't working... when it finally occurred to me to check the toggle for those modes in game(lol). STILL weird that happened though. something like this mod would be so great especially on mobile, where controls happen to be a bit weird. ultra bummer man! oh well. . .
6.5/10 One of the few in Minetest...
A very neatly execution of a short adventure game! Love the story, love the charm of the music, love the classic feel of playing an RPG title. The NPC dialogs (or monologues i guess) and narrative sets the tone for the game. Game mechanics wise, it's lame. The "ominously float like a ghost" wand is a bit cheesable by spam clicking, unless that's intended (the parkour isn't bad imo, since it's at least more predictable to control compared to Glitch's dash). The blue fireballs wand is meh combat. The shrinking wand needs more ideas to expand on it. The boss room should make me use all three wands, and there's probably lots of ways to execute this. Overall, i was convinced by the premise wholeheartedly but the mechanics bores me. However, i still recommend players to try this game solely for its charm, plus it's very short.
Additionally, of course, a combination of engine limitations and bugs. The room transitions could use work. Falling into the murky water(?) sends you below the world, kinda ruining the experience. HUD animations for deaths would be neat. The boss cinematic bars don't work right with the hotbar.
I like tumble weeds
It makes the desert a bit more lively.
Some great coloured stained glass right here!
I've been using abripanes (https://content.minetest.net/packages/mt-mods/abripanes/) for the longest time, but the lack of texture on the bocks/panes has been bugging me for the longest time. Just found this mod today, and it's great!
The connected textures in the blocks are a really nice touch too. It would be amazing if the panes could also have connected textures (they don't currently), but this might be a limitation in Minetest (don't know, haven't looked).
All in all definitely worth installing - great job!
Whole new worlds
fantastic biomes, creating beautiful dimensions. In particular, cave biomes provides great views
A must have minetest mod
This mod does exactly what it is supposed to do without bugs currently. It is easy to configure to your likeing. My only problem with it is that it isn't compatable with the areas mod. If it was that would be awesome.
Meh (Game Jam review)
Dialog boxes are too big and you can't re
Also every upgrade is too easy to get (expect the health upgrade, I barely got the first level with all these shadows, I can't imagine how hard would it be to get the last one.)
And I have found a place (66, 52, 492) where you can get stuck and basically softlock yourself.
So, yeah, no.
P.S. Sound design is also kinda mid
Funny
A bit buggy (throws red text at me for some reason), but cool overall. Looking forward to play this in multiplayer
Broken (Jane Gem review)
10 stolen hand dryers out of... 100.
4-bit'n support
Air Game uses textures that are already included in 4-bit'n, so I don't need to do any additional work. Also, it supports Ukrainian
I would say it fits the theme rather well ...
If everyone expects something unexpected the most unexpected thing is to make something entirely expected :p
But to be fair if this is the theme and you're good enough with words you can make everything fit ^^
Does what it says
Stop leaving negative reviews , i needed a game with just air (queue server base) and it gave it to me . if you want gameplay use another game
Impressive game
OVERVIEW - Very cool to see such a big game made in a small amount of time. Some of the visual effects were out-standing! +2 for the visual effects. The terrain was nice too. I think the game just needs a bit more drive in it, more purpose? More lore? Anyways, very impressive game :)
RATING SYSTEM:
1 - Not a fan 2 - Meh 3 - Okay 4 - Good 5 - Love it!
GAMEPLAY - 3
GRAPHICS - 4
PLAYER-FRIENDLY - 4 (didn't know the goal of the game -1)
PERFORMANCE - 5
SOUNDS & MUSIC - 4 (really good ASMR)
THEME - 2
TOTAL - 24 (Love it)
Pretty cool
OVERVIEW - The Velvet crystal is pretty cool. It's lacking a bit in sounds and graphics, but seems to have a pretty cool storyline.
RATING SYSTEM:
1 - Not a fan 2 - Meh 3 - Okay 4 - Good 5 - Love it!
GAMEPLAY - 4
GRAPHICS - 2
PLAYER-FRIENDLY - 5
PERFORMANCE - 5
SOUNDS & MUSIC - 2
THEME - 2
TOTAL - 20 (Good)
Clever and polished details
(Disclaimer: This review was made in the context of the game jam 2023. May contain spoilers. Edit: And most/all issues reported here were fixed in the meantime.)
Seemingly endless
Have been playing for a few hours, and still keep finding new levels and stuff...
Has potential to be fun, but not without players
(Disclaimer: This review was made in the context of the game jam 2023. May contain spoilers.)
Instructions unclear, do I live here now?
(Disclaimer: This review was made in the context of the game jam 2023. May contain spoilers.)
It's fun
(Disclaimer: This review was made in the context of the game jam 2023. May contain spoilers.)
Very inventive!
(Disclaimer: This review was made in the context of the game jam 2023. May contain spoilers.)
Chess with wild rules
(Disclaimer: This review was made in the context of the game jam 2023. May contain spoilers.)
time_speedto 0,viewing_rangeto 50.Haven't completely played through yet
(Disclaimer: This review was made in the context of the game jam 2023. May contain spoilers.)
Far too short, but polished
(Disclaimer: This review was made in the context of the game jam 2023. May contain spoilers.)
Just offensive
(Disclaimer: This review was made in the context of the game jam 2023. May contain spoilers.)
Very innovative
(Disclaimer: This review was made in the context of the game jam 2023. May contain spoilers.)
No gameplay
(Disclaimer: This review was made in the context of the game jam 2023. May contain spoilers.)
Nothing to play
(Disclaimer: This review was made in the context of the game jam 2023. May contain spoilers.)
Just a redistribution of the airsword mod
(Disclaimer: This review was made in the context of the game jam 2023. May contain spoilers.)
A pleasant surprise
My favourite entry for this year's game jam. You encounter ruins and a ghost. You find things that make you go to the past, then to the future and there is 5 time periods of a citadel. You then have to use the seeds of plants and timetravel to reach different parts of the citadel. Each time period unlocks new speeches of the ghost which is a nice touch.
I played this game for like 2 or 3 hours because I also wanted to find all 7 artifacts. (and I did. Woohoo!)
The map is well-made and must have taken ages to piece together.
Using plants to rise in height feels awkward. What I did was I placed an acorn and jumped to the corner and made future travel hoping it'll let me, then I move quickly back to the tree. Only takes me like 50 tries but it works somehow. Awkward. Unless this is cheating? You'd think that standing on top of a small tree then going to the future would work but no.
The challenge is to obtain several important items and reach tricky locations by clever exploring and timetravel. The final goal is basically to reach the top with a special item.
But that's not all! There are artifacts! These are a clever addition and they kept me hooked a while longer although they were completely useless. And some artifacts had really clever locations. Sadly they don't unlock anything, not even a secret dialog.
The music is simple but sets a good tone. I wish there would be more sound effects. There isn't even a footstep sound yet. Shadows seem to not work in this game? Every block seems to glow?? It looks certainly a little weird but you get used to it.
I don't really understand where the "unexpected" comes in but whatever.
The submitted game jam version sadly had a lot of small bugs and it crashed when I destroyed the crystal (but this was the end anyway). I really want this game to become bugfree and more polished in future versions.
Anyway, this game definitely kept me busy from start to finished including bonus items, so good job!
Incomplete game?
This is the whole gameplay: You click on two things, then walk to the finish line and it's game over. Yeah, it's disappointing.
BONUS: The only room you'll ever see has eye-cancer-inducing colors lol.
I have no idea what this game means and what it was supposed to be. Looks like a last-minute panic submission to me (for the Game Jam). Sorry. :-(
Offers too little
Another sad case of "author ran out of time"?
The beginning of the game looks like an outright bug. After a first briefing, the screen is (almost?) completely black. I thought the game is broken because I couldn't see the vent I am supposed to open. It is VERY dark and I had to find it basically blind. And the vent glows but it is VERY hard to see. Not a great start.
Once I finally entered the facility, the real game began.
There are a couple of very basic rooms to explore but they're mostly useless. Lots of robots move around but they're harmless vacuum bots or mini-tanks? There is an adventure-game-like interface of inspecting, reporting, using things you see. Sadly, much of it is unfortunately unused. The game has a lot of dialog but using chat for it is a terrible idea: Font is too small.
Eventually I found some kind of "robo-labyrinth". You try out some very basic puzzles where you can guide robots through mazes with instructions (move North, South, etc.). I wasted my time "solving" the puzzles but the actual goal is to just start the puzzles and pick up the robot that looks different because it's the battle robot. I solved all puzzles but it's no challenge at all; you just need to count the squares, basically.
Once you picked up the battle robot, you must reach the exit and that's it.
I have died like 2 times for no apparent reason. Suddenly a screen showed up telling me a robot killed me. I don't know where it came from and it was an insta-death. Very confusing.
Overall, the game is too short and not fun. :-(
Confusing to play, not much to do
The game idea is relatively unique and hasn't been tried out too often. Trying to explore the world (almost) only by sound. Interesting, but I find it to be very confusing in practice. The README explains things well, but I still didn't get very far.
You're not entirely blind. Blue particles float upwards from blocks, so they're an useful indicator of the landscape while still leaving much ambiguity. I like that concept, so you're not staring at a completely black screen all the time. XD
I managed to dig a few blocks like dirt and sand. But the pickaxe seemed useless. I tried to dig stone for like 1 minute but apparently stone is unbreakable in this game, even with a pickaxe. There are "achievements" but I only found 1 for digging lots of sand, maybe? I don't know what the other achievements are.
My biggest success is killing a few chicken for food.
The world itself must be very barren. I walked 1000s of blocks but all I found is dirt, sand and stone, and what seems to be the occassional cave. Leaves and woody-like blocks exist but are rare. I don't think I ever found a forest.
Item selection is confusing. You have an "audible" hotbar, meaning by switching tools, you hear a sound. Each thing has its unique sound, which is nice, but you still have to guess what each sound means. And I think this is where the whole item system kinda falls apart, sadly.
Low health is signalled by heartbeats but I find it stresses me out so I just restart the game when I take damage lol.
The sound design isn't that great. The sounds that are in the game are pretty good, but there are too few of them overall. There's music, but it plays too rarely. If you don't do anything, the game is often silent. There is a lack in ambient sounds which for a game like this is a bummer.
I get the game is supposed to be about blindness but I think the whole UX needs to be reworked entirely cuz I simply don't have any idea WTF I'm doing lol.