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How does the game fit the theme?
Its a military message handling sim game. You decide whether incoming messages are trustworthy and to be approved, or rejected. ~15 minutes playtime, start to finish.
What code and assets did you not make from scratch during the jam (if any)?
I have linked all external assets in the credits in the game. They are links you can click to open in a new tab.
How many people worked on the game?1
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Comments
The blend of Papers Please inspection gameplay with Caesar cipher decoding, radio intel, and map board tracking creates such an addictive, high-intellect military surveillance loop! Incrementally layering tools like the codebook across 3-minute days gives a fantastic sense of progression as a solo dev project.
A few tutorial, UI overlay, and onboarding polish ideas for post-jam updates:
- Visual Onboarding & Hints: Add interactive highlighted steps or diagram-based tooltips during Day 1 so decoding and verification steps click immediately for new players.
- UI Layering & Codebook View: Fix the UI overlap where incoming messages hide behind open codebooks, allowing messages to preview on-screen without requiring window toggles.
- Progression Pacing: Spread new tool unlocks across more days in an expanded post-jam release so players have more room to master each decoding mechanic.
Brilliant cryptography concept, awesome atmosphere, and impressive solo execution! If you get a free minute, I'd really appreciate your feedback and rating on my solo jam entry as well: /jam/brackeys-16/rate/4953523
Thank you very much for the detailed critique; I really appreciate it! I have the visual stuff on my todo, but its not my forte, so I chose to not even try it lol. Your game was pretty fun too, I have rated and commented on it as well.
Thank you!
At first, I didn't quite understand how some of the mechanics worked, but after playing through the game again, everything became more clear.
Thank you for playing! I definitely need to work more on the game's tutorials, and maybe add a hint system.
I had the same issue with mine game, as developer - you take certain things for obvious. Thats where playtesters are super valuable and can they are able to point out what they find unclear or difficult. Still, I'm really impressed that, as a solo developer, you managed to get everything done (which I couldn't do) in given time.
I wasn't entirely sure what I was doing, but achievements just kept popping up haha :D
Thank you for playing! Improving tutorials and making them more visual is on my to-do, but I am glad you like the achievement system!
Cool idea mixing Papers, Please stuff with radio intel and cipher decoding. I liked how the days are only 3 minutes and new tools like the codebook/map board get added over time, it fits the signal theme pretty nicely. It was a little confusing at first from what to check first, but once it clicks it's super satisfying, nice work :D
Thank you for playing! I could have definitely polished the tutorial/mechanics explanation more, but I am glad you liked it!
Very fun has a lot of complexity and replayability, with the first days unlocking new mechanics is really cool as you feel the progression. (If this ever gets expanded however i'd suggest spreading out tutorials/new mechanics a bit as it can still get overwhelming to some).
Thank you very much for playing! I feel like this is something I might expand upon, so I will definitely use your suggestion of spreading out the tutorials/mechanics more!
Great way to hit the theme! The decoding is really cool!
Thank you very much! I took this snippet from my cypher based game ideas because Caesar Ciphers are among the simplest out there and it fit in neatly with the military messages theme!
Had a hard time to wrap my head around it at first but once I got it, it was great! Congratz for the game
Thank you! I ran into issues with exporting to web on the last day that took a lot of time away from polish, I will keep that in mind.
Very good! Love how the mechanics are layered on slowly and not all at once!
Thank you! I erred on the side of slowness rather than put in too many things, because I was not sure if I made them too complex or too hard. Glad you liked it!
This is as it's described, similar to Papers Please, but with a military atmosphere and I love it, I would totally play an extended version of this!!!
Thank you so much for playing! The idea came from wanting to develop a game with cryptography themes, and then the Brackey's Jam provided a nice opportunity to merge it into a Papers, Please! style game! I have several ideas I shelved or deferred because of the time limit, so thank you for the kind words towards its future!
I really liked this game! Very impressive for only one person in this timeframe. Very polished. There was a few bugs I encountered like the message wouldn't pop up if i had the codebook up. Otherwise very nice!
Thank you! Yeah I had to decide how to show the message the best, and I decided to leave the codebook up when you submit one decision and get a new message, versus having to reopen the codebook to check other stuff. Probably needs a redesign at some point.