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Play;Test's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Creativity | #1 | 4.667 | 4.667 |
| Judges' Pick - Best Narrative | #1 | n/a | n/a |
| All Judges' Picks | #1 | n/a | n/a |
| Overall | #3 | 4.107 | 4.107 |
| Enjoyment | #4 | 3.952 | 3.952 |
| Impressiveness | #4 | 3.952 | 3.952 |
| Presentation | #16 | 3.857 | 3.857 |
Ranked from 21 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Judge feedback
Judge feedback is anonymous.
- I was initially put off by how meta it seemed, like when writers write fiction about writing. But I was pleasantly surprised! An excellent concept well-executed! I like the very naturalistic dialogue and the concept of causing changes to the game is clever. Given how exciting it was to see the game change, I was slightly disappointed that the ending didn't include more text-based references to the "finished" game (something like a game name that is generated from the changes made during feedback, or a description making reference to its development.) It reminded me a lot of 'The Beginner's Guide' which I love. It's a very memorable, clever and sincere jam game. --- The premise of Play;Test is really cool, especially in the way that it interprets the theme. I think a more developed game is definitely something that people would buy; maybe if there were several games that you needed to playtest over the course of a campaign, and your reputation grows if the games do well? I can see a huge amount of possible design space for a game like that. Somewhat ironically I don't really have much constructive feedback - everything works really well, supports the theme, and any rough patches are excused by the narrative! Excellent jam game.
Number of team members
1
Please credit all external assets you have used.
Dungeon Tileset by Calciumtrice
Ghost monster by ImogiaGames, remixed from Ghost and Skeleton by Balmer.
Weapon Sprites by 59naga
Fireball Sprite by Umblix
RPG World Houses and Interiors by Szadi Art
Retro SFX by cyberleaf
Medieval Combat Sounds from GameDevMarket
Bebas, Chomsky, Creato, Gontserrat, Imperator from Dafont
Please credit any external plugins/packages you used.
MMTools by More Mountains
What engine or toolset does your game use?
Unity
Please provide a full playthrough YouTube video for your game.
https://youtu.be/fwEH-z33yo8
Please provide a link to a 30 seconds gameplay YouTube video of your game.
https://youtu.be/XLVRH1C8LKc
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Comments
An excellent concept well-executed! I like the very naturalistic dialogue and the concept of causing changes to the game is clever. Given how exciting it was to see the game change, I was slightly disappointed that the ending didn't include more text-based references to the "finished" game (something like a game name that is generated from the changes made during feedback, or a description making reference to its development.)
It reminded me a lot of 'The Beginner's Guide' which I love. It's a very memorable, clever and sincere jam game.
Thanks, glad you liked it! Having the ending be more in-depth and flesh out how the game ended up is something that I planned to do and had ideas for, but unfortunately that was one of the things cut just so that I could have a finished game in time.
Really enjoyed this, I feel like you really nailed the theme with it too, awesome work!
Thank you! I've done a lot of playtesting over the years, so I thought I could try to make the most of that since it meshed with the concept of a "Feedback loop" well
Wow im shocked you did it alone! Its really amazing. Congrats!
Thanks, hope you enjoyed! I've been training as a solo developer for a while now, so if anything I'm annoyed that I didn't have time to make the level tilesets and character sprites myself
I really, really love this! You nailed the feedback loop theme, and I got a good few laughs with some of the responses from the game dev. A well-executed narrative, even when my gaming ability was being called into question. The kind of game I'd recommend to a friend :)
Thank you so much, that's great to hear!
I was immediately drawn in by the lovely voice acting — the narrator had a very soothing voice and it was nice to have them talk me through the whole game. The minimal, stylized presentation worked really well too. The world felt rich and intentional without needing much on screen.
The only real critiques I had were polish-related. Early on, it was hard to tell if I was moving or where I was in space due to the lack of textures or edges. A bit of visual feedback would help with orientation. I also accidentally killed the NPC - oops! I loved that it was part of the feedback loop.
Combat felt a little heavy for my personal taste as a cozy gamer, but I recognize that might be part of the design. Overall, this was a strong and memorable experience!
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it! I definitely agree about the movement visual feedback, it was intentional to have it like that so it would be improved in the second playtest, but it does make the first playtest a bit disorienting sometimes. I had hoped to implement more fun hidden things like killing the NPC, but unfortunately time was constrained.
The game has a fresh and engaging concept that immediately caught my attention. The addition of voice lines added a whole new layer of immersion, making the experience feel more alive and interactive. Good Job!
Thanks! I recorded over 200 voicelines for the various choices you make, so I'm glad it was worthwhile!
Great use of the theme! I completed the game 3 times just to see what would happen with each feedback approach! I think that's a good sign of how much I enjoyed the game. So what i'm saying is...You should have made a MMO sorry :p In all seriousness, great game loved it :D
That's great to hear! I wanted to make sure that the runs felt distinctly different, so I hope you got to see a decent amount of unique content!
This game is sooo cooll! I love the concept so much! The narrative feels so natural and make me feel like I'm a real playtester making actually changes to a real video game, what a unique and brilliant idea executed masterfully.
This is an amazing entry! Well done :D
Thank you so much, glad you liked it!