Pirate Software - Game Jam 16

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A jam submission

Swordy's Tale (Game Jam Edition)View game page

Lay down your arms

Submitted by pythagos, keemnt — 1 day, 11 hours before the deadline

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Swordy's Tale (Game Jam Edition)'s itch.io page

Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous.

I immediately love the design of the sword... it's so cute! I think it would be great if a volume slider were added to some sort of options menu. I appreciate the fact that the player can speed through dialogue in case they've seen it before. The animations are satisfying, though I might add an option to speed them up slightly to make it feel more responsive. Overall, very cute game and I like the gameplay loop and writing! The GDD is extraordinarily detailed! It would be great to see some sort of section that documents the progress along the way, but everything that is there is fantastic!

Link to your Game Design Doc on Google Drive.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11DXER9y1Hbm1m_4Z8IIl8KQk2epTUPNvTGSHVJaDXUs/edit?tab=t.0

Have you checked that your GDD is publicly accessible ?
Yes

Is your game set to public on itch.io so we can see it?
Yes

Summarise your game!
You're a sword (Swordy!) who has been abandoned by the hero who died to the final boss. You've gotta go find your friend Shieldy and build your little village together.

Top down game, controls with WASD. Space to interact with trees, rocks. B and I open the inventory because people kept asking us why it was B so we just also made it I. C shows/hides the controls list. The mouse is required to start the game and also to close/select in the trading post.

Your main mechanic is chopping down trees to get wood, which you can then trade for stuff, and eventually trade for more stuff, and eventually find and recruit Shieldy!

Please explain how your game fits the theme:
You're a weapon (Swordy!) that was used for many years to fight against the forces of evil. But now that your hero has died, and you've sat alone on this island for many years, it's time to do something. You act as a sword, chopping down trees and breaking rocks, but your fighting days are behind you.

Is there anything you'd like the judges to pay particular attention to?
The whole game/demo is less than 10 mins. If you can, try to finish the whole thing and see the end!

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Comments

RobC_DevSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

Nice cozy game with really charming pixel art! :-)

And also, seeing the trees regrow was a really nice touch.

Submitted

SoM (Game Jam Version)

pythagosDeveloper1 year ago(+1)

Thank you so much! I've heard from several people that they felt better after deforesting that the trees grew back :D Thanks so much for taking the time to play the game!

Strawberry Mountain GamesSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

Such a cute cozy game! Absolutely gorgeous pixel art, the writing was excellent, music was beautiful. One of the best bite sized slices of what could easily grow into a full sized game. I think my only critique would be to include an option for holding space to continuously hit rocks or trees until they're chopped down. I've got carpal tunnel and a less button mashy choice is always nice. But that's a personal preference for sure, fantastic job!

Submitted

keemntDeveloper1 year ago(+1)

Reading this means so much to us! We definitely want to make gathering more interesting and fun than it already is. We've got some ideas and hope to be able to share them once we decide on what to implement.

Again, thank you for taking some time to play our demo and share your thoughts on it!

pythagosDeveloper1 year ago(+1)

Thank you so much! As keemnt alluded to, we have plans to make deforestation easier (i.e. you don't have to do it). We wanted it to be slightly annoying at the beginning of the game so that you get excited when it's less annoying later. That being said, we probably overtuned the number of resources you have to gather at the beginning and can make that better :)

grantlerrSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

Nice little game! I can't resist a tiny grinding game. Good job!

Submitted

Pogo Boy Saves The Day!

PLASTUSSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

The game was very fun xD
I also love that the first thing Swordy thought about when waking up was "I could build a trading post here" xD
Just one question: Where did the trader come from? :O

Submitted

1360 A.D. No Scope

keemntDeveloper1 year ago(+1)

I’m glad you enjoyed it! Giving the Trading Post some anthropomorphic qualities is on our to-do list but time was limited and unfortunately did not make the final game jam version.

BanMedoSubmitted1 year ago (1 edit) (+2)

This is such a nice and cozy game!! You should definitely complete it and publish it as a full game. The initial cutscene, story, color palette and especially the sound are all amazing! EDIT: I forgot to mention the "hero didn't level up enough" part cracked me up lol

Submitted

That Body Is Mine

keemntDeveloper1 year ago(+1)

That means a lot and thank you for the words of encouragement. We want to expand the cast of characters and make the gameplay loop more varied so this is definitely a project we will be seeing how far we can take it.

SubLuminarySubmitted1 year ago(+2)

I get why other people like it, but resource gathering just isn't really my thing so I wasn't about to get chop down 40 more trees after unlocking the trading post just to get the bridge. Nice humor and aesthetics though :)

Submitted

Math and Guns: First Shot

keemntDeveloper1 year ago(+1)

Understandable and no worries at all. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to give it a try and leaving the compliments!

ForkedBugsSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

I deforested an entire forest just to get that shield polished lol Bu jokes aside this is cool, reminds me of an anime I watched

curbsideaudioSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

I loved this! Great sense of humor, nice graphics, and just enough resource gathering to scratch the itch. Just when I was starting to feel bad about deforestation, I noticed the trees grow back. Nice touch!

The shop UI should probably be navigable with keys, since the rest of the game and menus are too. But you noted that in your description. My only other quibble is the speed of the water animation. Makes me a little dizzy, but I'm particularly susceptible to that.

Keep going! I love the characters and, with some more interesting geography and tasks, I'd be compelled to play further chapters!

Submitted

pythagosDeveloper1 year ago

Thanks so much for taking the time to play and let us know what you thought!

Yeah, we wanted to make the shop navigable with keys, just ran out of time amidst other stuff :(

Noted on the water shader! It looks way better on Windows than on web unfortunately, will keep the speed in mind for any future updates or games.

curbsideaudioSubmitted1 year ago

Totally get it. We ran into similar dilemmas due to time. Cheers!

SpamFauxSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

Agree with everything said here! This was a lot of fun. My only comment is the audio loop can get a little rough depending how long play. Otherwise, good fun. Love the character design.

pythagosDeveloper1 year ago(+1)

@SpamFaux - Yeah, the web export makes the audio loop randomly start over occasionally. It's been a thorn in our side. Also I did notice on my last playthrough that the music should just be more ambient/quiet rather than in your face.

Thanks so much for playing and giving feedback!!

RastaGrzywaSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

OMG! Why does it ends in such a moment?!?

At the beginning I was skeptical about this slow pace and wonder how many trees I have to chop etc. but when storyline starts to get interesting I felt that I'm now missing something.

Really nice game, I love the music and the art style.

Keep on going - I''d love to see this project extended and complete storyline ^^

Submitted

Enemies in the box

steelrooSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

Nice, I finished it. I am definitely curious what could happen next.

Submitted