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A jam submission

Mental LoadView game page

Allocate your mental energy wisely to accomplish your tasks while avoiding burnout.
Submitted by StrangeJourney — 1 hour, 28 minutes before the deadline
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Play Mental Load

Mental Load's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Narrative#24542.6813.222
Artwork#44932.8663.444
Audio#50532.4963.000
Creativity#51392.9583.556
Enjoyment#82481.7572.111

Ranked from 9 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?
Mental health is something important that we must take care of on a daily basis. It only takes breaking the loop once to see your life fall apart.

(Optional) Please credit all assets you've used
BBC Orchestra VST
Super Mario 256 Font
I did everything else

(Optional) What would you like to be called if GMTK features your game?
Oxymore

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

Really cool idea. I survived a day :) Don't make me process a recent breakup twice please, that will kill me haha!

Submitted(+1)

Very interesting concept! I also love the graphic design in the game. I'm a huge fan of "paper textures" and that's always a style I've wanted to move toward in my games, either as just UI or maybe throughout other parts of the game. 

However, I could be wrong, but I didn't feel a sense of progression in the game, like there are additional challenges or things to consider as you go on. I'd say the emotions you picked reminded me of Inside-Out, so maybe there could be progression in terms of what its like to grow up and experience new emotions. So perhaps, you start with only a few emotions and then more get added later on or something like that.

I also found it odd that Joy is the only positive emotion explored, so perhaps you could add other positive emotions/states-of-consciousness such as peace, hope, fulfillment, etc. if you choose to develop this concept further.

Overall, it was a great jam entry though!

Developer(+1)

Thank you very much for playing and for this feedback ! 

You're absolutely right about the sense of progression. Due to a lack of time I didn't have time for perfecting the gameplay loop. But your ideas have a lot of potential ! I love the idea of adding new emotions ! 

And about the positive emotions you're right too. I'm going through difficult times so I focus more on the negative emotions I guess ^^'

I'm stil wondering if I want to go further in the development of this game. Maybe I will thanks to your ideas 😊

Submitted (2 edits) (+1)

That's understandable, I know there's a lot of "would'a, should'a, could'as" in game jams since we're so pressed for time. But I see potential in the concept for sure, and it's also understandable why there's a focus on managing negative emotions, since you're right that it is difficult to remember or hold onto positive things when they seem overshadowed by all the negative things. So a lot of the time when you're in that state, the question you ask is "why can't I be happy?" though it's not the right question to ask. And no problem! Thanks for the feedback on my game as well! :) 

Submitted (2 edits) (+1)

I liked the concept, but I could only pass the first level, at the second level I lost all my tokens, the transitions are really clean and all the ambiance was good, I liked the game.

Developer(+1)

Thank you for playing :)

Indeed, there is a bug at the end of the day that I only noticed afterwards :/ 

If your concentration tokens are placed on a task when the day ends, they will be removed along with the day's tasks and do not reappear. You can work around the bug by retrieving your tokens before the end of the day.

(+1)

Interesting concept. Was confused as to why I lost all my tokens

Developer(+1)

Indeed, there is a bug at the end of the day that I only noticed afterwards :/ 

If your concentration tokens are placed on a task when the day ends, they will be removed along with the day's tasks and do not reappear. You can work around the bug by retrieving your tokens before the end of the day.