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Watcher of the Ages's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Fun | #23 | 3.524 | 3.524 |
| End-of-life plan | #30 | 3.857 | 3.857 |
| Sound | #32 | 3.333 | 3.333 |
| Jam Authenticity | #43 | 4.048 | 4.048 |
| Overall | #45 | 3.452 | 3.452 |
| Theme relevance | #62 | 3.476 | 3.476 |
| Graphics | #128 | 2.476 | 2.476 |
Ranked from 21 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
End life plan
It will be playable on itch.io for as long as it remains active. Also, I will add the executable as a downloadable option for windows.
Transparency note
The whole game was done for the jam, I think I started on Sunday 13th.
I did not have enough time to think and come up with all the text I needed for the ideas I had, so I ended up using generative AI for some text generation for the random events, which I then edited until it I felt satisfied with it.
I also used AI to help me with UI elements and inner workings of the Godot Engine. A bit of coding and debugging as well, although my experience with Python translated well to GDScript and did a lot of heavy lifting :)
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Comments
It is visually simple but I think that is a strength of these kind of games to get your fantasy working. There is definitely a lot of potential in here if you build on this concept.
That is a very good point, although I would like to add some art in key places like another comment suggested, for example in the choice popup, to enhance the experience. Thanks for playing!
This is such an evocative concept! It's a little bit like reading history chronicles from world generation in Dwarf Fortress, always loved that stuff.
Oh that's a cool comparison, I feel honored! Haha, thanks for playing, glad you liked it!
Lots of potential, love the idea. Please continue working on this!
Thank you for playing!
neat idea! i did two runs: one with good affinity, and one with EVIL haha.
good job! :D the texts are definitely original, and the battles were such a nice addition too!
Niceeee I was waiting for someone to comment if they did an evil run, what did you think of it? I gotta be honest, I mostly tested the good decisions, and just made sure the evil ones worked. I couldn't think of simple things to add that would make your run feel evil though, any ideas? And thanks for playing!
This has so much replayability and so many options it's kinda crazy! If you ever decide to continue developing it in the future, I think if you add more pictures or graphical content to the game for each decision that would make it top tier.
It's funny how many different perspectives I got haha, for some there is a lot of replayability and for others not that much, and it makes sense! I will definitely take that idea into account, it's such a simple addition but I agree it would make it soooo much better! I suck at art though so I'll see what I can do haha thanks for playing!
Year 1969: You see a dog in the street
A) Pet the dog
B) Nod politely at the dog
C) Kill and eat the dog
I think this is a rather interesting idea, but I wish the choices felt more impactful. I played the game once and although there are multiple choices I didn't get the feeling that the experience would be much different if I went down another path.
I get you, that was the one thing I kept trying to improve throughout development, basically how impactful choices were, but had to stop at some point to make sure the game was playable haha. I'm stand kinda in the middle, some branches feel more interesting to me than others, so maybe depending on what happens on your playthrough it could result in a better or worse experience! I tried to add some events that wouldn't rely on rng that much but it was almost at the end and didn't have much time to add more interaction with it. Thank you for the feedback and playing !
Your project reminds me of a text-based game I came across in college, Colossal Cave Adventure. The soundtrack brings back memories of Ultima VI, which I played during my childhood. Congratulations on the project! From my point of view, it’s on the right track and has room to grow. I have no idea what your code looks like, but try to keep it simple and reusable — it’ll make it easier to implement new mechanics.
Thanks for playing! I don't know that game, nor the soundtrack of Ultima VI, but Kevin's music never disappoints haha.
Code looks clean if I'm being honest, I tried to keep everything as modular as possible to avoid hardcoding stuff (already had many bad experiences with that), although it started to become a bit more spaghetti towards the end because of time lol. I'm satisfied with the event structure I came up with, which is all stored in a json file and is very easy to add more events, flags, modifiers and such. I doubt I would have been able to add so many events if I hadn't made that decision early on. It was a real pain to get it to work though, but the experience was worth it :D
Very interesting entry! It's so chill and calm, everything is concise and uncluttered - I really enjoyed it!
Thanks for playing! Yeah I tried to keep it as clean as possible, I did try out different layouts until I reached this one which I liked, but was unsure, so I'm glad people liked it as well!
It's impressive how many events you wrote. The UI might be barebones visually but it's very quick which is especially nice in this game because it enhances the feeling of watching all these big historic moments sail by and fade into obscurity. Even though the choice making gameplay isn't much to speak of you still created a really grand and haunting tone.
Thank you playing and your words! Yeah, there are a bunch of events... and some don't even show unless you pass certain thresholds, but that's what makes it fun! I did feel like towards the end you kinda run out of new interesting ones so that's definitely something I'd like to expand upon.
Cool game that actually reminds me of a mobile game I played a few years back and really enjoyed it :D. I like how there's a lot of depth in the game that actually motivates player to try different ways of ruling. Good job!
Oh nice, do you remember which one? Thank you and thanks for playing!
Lapse: A forgotten future and Lapse 2: Before zero. They are both similar but have different themes.
Very cool concept! I had a lot of fun with this and hope that you get the chance to expand it some more! It really got down the feeling of just watching history repeat itself. Great job overall!
Thank you for your input! If I get the chance I'd like to improve the later years with more storylines and branches, which could depend on what you chose earlier on. Glad you liked it!
I'm not sure if I did well or not but I think having an affinity of "good" is probably a good thing.
Interesting concept! I enjoyed making the choices, but it would have been nice to see some more direct impact.
Nice entry!
Haha yeah, definitely on the "good" side of history, preservation wise. Yeah, if I ever continue this or other similar projects I intend to try and add more impact later on so it feels like your choices matter more, thank you for playing!
I really enjoyed this, getting to make my own choices while a lovely piece of music plays. I've seen a lot of story games, but this one was quite interesting; also because of the speed of it. It's an enjoyable little story telling game, with lots of fast choices; and potential consequences. Well done!
That's an interesting point I hadn't thought of, the speed! Thank you for playing, I still need to check yours, will do when I have time!
Just to clarify, the speed part was a really nice thing about it. Not being bombarded with a million lines of text; but getting it fast in small bites. I liked that a lot! :D
A good concept to expand upon, enjoyed the stories, thank you.
Thank you for playing!
Cool game! I love to see the branches of ideas off of the theme! I would not have expected something like this :D
Thank you for playing, glad you liked it !
I’ve never played D&D before but I imagine it’s similar to this. I enjoyed seeing the story unravel differently as I chose positive and negative actions along my journey. Impressive work!
Haha yeah pretty much! The only thing lacking is the story going towards the complete opposite of what you had planned for the session lol, if I ever make a D&D themed game like this I might have to implement that outcome. I also drew inspiration from Frieren, with the whole "elf outliving the world" theme. Thank you for playing!
Fun game idea and unique take on the jam theme, but I think your actions should affect later events more
Thank you for taking your time to test and comment! Yes, after testing it a bunch of times I noticed the same, but I had to focus on fixing bugs and didn't have enough time to add more branching paths towards the end haha
Surprisingly Fun Game! l enjoyed it, but feel like it would've been cooler if my actions affected the future more. Also combat idea was cool but a little finicky. Overall, it was honestly a pretty great experience!
Thank you for playing! Yeah I noticed the same on my playtesting, but I ran out of time to expand the decision tree towards the end. I had some problems with the combat system and couldn't figure out how to make it smoother, I'm glad you liked it though!