Interesting premise, and well-executed for a game jam. However, the gameplay feels a bit underwhelming compared to the concept. The mechanics and environment could benefit from improvement—being unable to run and constantly staring at repetitive floor tiles, while the view is restricted by darkness, detracts from the experience. It doesn’t capture the depth or tension I expected after reading about the theme. With some adjustments, it could better reflect the emotional intensity of the story.
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Spiral's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Audio | #217 | 3.413 | 3.413 |
| Innovation | #225 | 3.370 | 3.370 |
| Graphics | #252 | 3.739 | 3.739 |
| Overall | #292 | 3.366 | 3.366 |
| Game Design | #322 | 3.348 | 3.348 |
| Fun | #407 | 3.196 | 3.196 |
| Theme | #469 | 3.130 | 3.130 |
Ranked from 46 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the theme?
Spiral is a story of anxiety and perseverance. Every day with anxiety is a battle, some scarier than others. Spiral is about the calmer moments of anxiety and building up the courage to fight your biggest battle of the day, the storm that is the outside world.
In Spiral you battle manifestations of your anxieties in an effort to stop your spiraling mental health. But once you finally conquer your anxious paralysis you find that the world is still as scary as you thought it was. But that's okay, you're ready to face the storm now.
Controls:
Movement - WASD
Attack - Left Mouse
Parry - Right Mouse when enemy shines or to block projectiles
Did you write all the code and made all the assets from scratch?
All of the code and assets were made from scratch by my fantastic team and I
Comments
Got to the first boss fight, but failed :D I think the game needs faster movement or some kind of dash, I wasn't able to dodge the attacks, I was simply too slow. Also one enemy glitched out of the wall in day 2, the centipede looking thing. But otherwise really nice art style, simple game mechanics and nice sounds and music. Good game!
Submitted
Quiet Before the QuotaPeople experience anxiety differently and this is a good way to show how hard it is to even just get out of your home; Others even find it hard to get out of bed.
I think one way to really show the anxiousness of the game character is having the monsters speak "bad, catastrophic" thoughts to the player as the game progresses. At first, they're just whispers (small, illegible font), but as you keep getting killed (or every time you restart a level/day), the thoughts get louder (or bigger in font) and players can clearly see what the anxious thoughts are (e.g. "You're not enough", "Nobody likes you", "It won't make a difference")
That way, the game really represents anxiety spiral, where your thoughts are just getting worse and it suffocates you... but I think it might trigger others if it does happen in the game.
I like how the small light seem to represent some sort of "sanity" or "hope" (This is my interpretation, but I could be wrong), and so it fights off the monsters for you.
Thanks for sharing this game :) Work on the feedback the others have already given to improve the game. It has a lot of potential. I hope your team continue to work on it.
Submitted
Final BroadcastA pretty neat game. Really wished that you had more time to make small animations for the enemies :)
Submitted
Typhoon TheoryPretty nice tight game. I didn't realize you could parry and thought the final boss was impossible until I came back to read the controls. I'm not sure if I couldn't click through to the ending or something but it just ended on a screen which seemed like a kinda downer ending if the idea is these are manifestations of anxiety lol. I liked the music and its nice there are unique themes to the room vs fighting vs the menu. The game over screen I think was my favorite part lol. Great job to the team.
Submitted
Self DefenseThe boss is kinda hard to beat, I don't know when to block and where to block. I feel like I block it but it's not sometimes.
Maybe some transition when the day change would be great.
Other than that everything is great.
The aesthetic of the game is really good, I really like it.
Submitted
Ella's alone nightThis was a cool game and I liked the concept of battling your anxiety. Shame the world is so scary after all that, but it will be alright. All the assets being done from scratch is impressive, and the parry mechanic was done well. My only gripe is the movement being a little too slow, everything else was good though. Great job everyone!
Submitted
Can't Clock OutThank you so much! We interpreted the Storm as being the outside. While anxiety can make leaving the house hard, or at least it does for me, the battle does not stop once you leave the front door, if anything it's worse. Taking those first steps of leaving your house though is what prepares you for facing those challenges in the outside world. In the end the character is still facing anxiety but with confidence that as long as they keep trying they can succeed. Also I am sure the artists on the team will be glad to hear you liked their work as well. Thank you for your input.
The hand drawn style was great. I liked the atmosphere and the fire felt good to control. My one gripe was that the hitboxes felt a little too large and I often took damage in places I didn't feel like I should have.
Submitted
Web Of TimeI loved the aesthetic of your game! The progression was good and the final boss was indeed a challenge. I couldn't beat it, and I did try so many times, but it was very hard to either parry or dodge those projectiles. Nonetheless, the game is great, loved the art style and the particle system of the weapon!
Submitted
Tidal StormThis game is quite a challenge! I mean I didn't kill the boss, because I figured it's going to take too much time and effort as it seemed his projectiles are faster than my character. I wished it told more about what is happening and what can you do, I learned that I could parry the projectiles with RMB only after I closed it and looked here, but the progress is already lost. Also I wished it was more rewarding to explore the house, it looks pretty barren right now. But overall good job!
Submitted
Fishing for StormInteresting interpretation of the theme! I like how the main character has to do daily battle with his own anxiety just to leave the house, past me would find that very relatable. The atmosphere fit the main character's mental state, well done there!
Constructive feedback:
- The player's hitbox could be more generous, a great deal smaller than the player graphics.
- Sometimes the enemies would spawn on or right next to me, giving me no chance to avoid damage. This happened often in the third level.
- The last boss was very difficult, took me at least 6 tries.
- It could be more clear visually that the right click is a shield capable of blocking ammo, not just a tool to freeze enemies. It looks more like something that does damage.
- It was not obvious your goal was to get to the door. On the first level I thought I had to kill all enemies and spent several minutes trying to find the last one standing.
Submitted
Bittermiff Family DinnerNice game and contains valid mechanics but the hitboxes for the player can be adjusted to make it more playable.
Submitted
The Chasing Stormgreat concept and artstyle, the game was nicely thought out, the problems i cought out were that the main characters hitbox was so big and it could get you killed easily, and enemies could spawn too close without any indicators so you could get damaged when you least expected it, and also it could have been better if there was a score system so you could have a reason to kill all of the monsters...but now that i think about it, that wouldnt fit nicely with the main character dealing with depression and as someone who has been depressed in his life, i can understand running away is so much easier than dealing with the problems until you find out that you have to deal with them so maybe lack of score tracking can actually work.
aside from all of that, i think the game also fits the theme pretty well and i had a good time playing it!
Submitted
Empty ShiftCool atmosphere and idea, reminds me a bit of omori. Last boss was very challenging, probably too difficult. The idea of spirals could have been more fitting through gameplay, but to be fair I didn't manage to beat the last boss and maybe there was something I missed. One more little critique: Ground traps shouldn't hit you if you graze your head on them, it just doesn't make sense in terms of perspective. Other than that though, this was a cool game and with great aesthetics.
Submitted
TYPES OF GUY
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