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Jackanope's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Lore | #1 | 4.382 | 4.800 |
| Theme Interpretation | #3 | 4.199 | 4.600 |
| Build-Up | #4 | 3.286 | 3.600 |
| Camera Usage | #6 | 3.469 | 3.800 |
| Overall | #7 | 3.172 | 3.475 |
| Sound Design | #8 | 2.921 | 3.200 |
| Level Design | #9 | 2.556 | 2.800 |
| Horror | #9 | 2.739 | 3.000 |
| Polish (Bugs. 1 star is many bugs) | #19 | 1.826 | 2.000 |
Ranked from 5 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN. I love EVERYTHING about this game except for the moment-to-moment quality of life. The setting (a disincorporated town?), the mystery, the scenario (crime / mystery podcasters!), the main characters, the visuals and vibe, the split in gameplay between direct control and point and click through the VHS - it's fresh! I really like your approach to cinematography, though the emphasis on panning cameras during the direct control sections is a little annoying - I really prefer some carefully chosen static camera angles over the view slavishly tracking the player...
But the bugs. I could barely turn the character without getting visual glitches. I'd get stuck in points of interest, or trapped trying to climb stairs... sometimes I was phased through walls. At one point, just after the Diner conversation, I ended up controlling the red character through town, unable to interact with anything until by chance I triggered a cutscene in the trailer park. Eventually, when the snow started to come down, I lost complete track of the red character and went out looking for her with the blue character, eventually losing track of that character too. Sadly, I was forced to give up and close the game.
What you have here could be REALLY special, I think. I'd love to see more. I'm sure the folks at the Fixed Camera Appreciation Society would love to see more of this. What you have here is amazing for the time you had in the jam - but if you decide to continue past this jam, I think you need to spend a lot of time making sure your basic systems are really rock solid.
Best of luck taking this forward!
Thanks so much for the feedback! We probably bit off a bit more than we could chew to get everything in place AND bug-free by the deadline, but we do very much intend to get everything cleaned up ASAP when the judging is over.
I think I agree about the cameras tracking Christi. Some of those were thrown in very last minute to cover some corners, and could definitely be replaced with more thoughtful angles.
Thanks again for all the feedback, we'll be addressing all of that!
Awesome! You did great work!
That intro cutscene was fantastic! As was the one once I got the breakers on. The actual gameplay was kinda buggy. Animations didn't line up, like facing the wrong direction when peering through the window or sitting a couple feet to the left of the chair, holding turn right causes you to make a quarter turn and then start walking while holding left makes you make a quarter turn and start moonwalking, and I couldn't seem to get any progression triggers after I talked to the lady in the diner and reset the breakers. Instead of continuing the conversation, my character said an intro line she skipped about there being a lady behind the counter and then everything stopped. The premise and framing are fascinating and I really want to know more, but I couldn't get any further. I love the characters and the snappy dialogue. This is great, just needs some polishing up is all.
Thanks so much for playing! I'm painfully aware of all those bugs you mentioned but fortunately already have a fix for most of them. We plan to release a cleaned up version after the judging is over, with some extra cut content as well.
Most sequence breaking bugs can be fixed by quitting and continuing, but that's also a potential source of new bugs, depending on where you are ...
Thanks again for all the feedback!
Very well crafted cut scenes! I loved the atmosphere and premise. The character animations were good too, liked the various idles, added some realism to them. I will say there were a few bugs that made progression a little stunted at times. Nice game overall.
Very good intro! It is scary as hell, and I really want to know what happened there!!
But, I haven't be able to navigate inside the VHS store... It is a black screen, and I really don't know what I am suppose to do (I know I need to find the light's fuse, but I haven't been able to do it). I have also gone out of camera a couple of times, but in both I have been able to return to focus.
Can you tell me what I missed? I want to play again and go on with this story!!
Thanks for playing! I'm glad you enjoyed, this was a lot of effort to get here haha.
There's a hint in another spot you can miss, but F will turn on your flashlight!
I will put the basic controls on the itch.io page so others know too.
Thank you! I will play it again with the flashlight!
Really interesting story! Good game!! It is a little buggy (my character sat on the desk over the computer) and sometimes E doesn't work. Please, solve those bugs and expand, because you have a very fine game with a good story to tell.