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A jam submission

Big Top Little TrunkView game page

Submitted by bytron, lillipadd, sbard — 5 hours, 45 minutes before the deadline
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Big Top Little Trunk's itch.io page

Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous.

  • Gameplay What a great game! It has a clever theme interpretation. I loved the puzzle aspect of it. I struggled a bit with the lever. I think the game would benefit with a quick tutorial, so you can familiarize yourself with the game mechanics. GDD GDD is well written. Love the prototype art and the timeline. Art The sprites are beautiful. Animations are masterfully done. The color palette creates a creepy vibe that fits well with the atmosphere of the game. Great job. Sound design The sound design is great. You have done an amazing job creating a tense feeling. Sound effects give you the ability to anticipate when the ghost is coming. Overall, this feels like a complete game. Great story and implementation. I believe this shows real promise. Keep up the good work.

Link to your Game Design Doc on Google Drive.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSIkyzasM1Fg6IOOORdGGbjRwy9WC0w6ZaK9Bsc4FA96GJVoeQxNhYvbSI-QQE3ivyxvF07A7nAgTno/pub

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

Summarize your game!
Big Top, Little Trunk is a blend of top down and side scroller puzzle game about a little elephant navigating a haunted circus to find it’s mother, challenged by its limitation of only holding one object at a time to complete puzzles. Protect yourself from the ghost with the power of flashlight!

Please explain how your game fits the theme.
You can carry only one item at a time.

Is there anything you'd like the judges to pay particular attention to?
All art and music are original! Created during the jam.

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Comments

Submitted

I really love the atmosphere in this one. The sound design really sells the tension. I love the idea of only being able to pick up and use one item at a time. Doesn't just fit the theme of the jam for the sake of it, but really provides additional challenge and tension, and results in fun emergent strategies for putting the flashlight down a certain way while you're doing something else to protect you. I was really confused by the Ferris wheel mechanic. I couldn't figure out how to turn them on. Tried clicking and right clicking the switch-like looking thing, so I didn't really get very far. But then again, I'm terrible at puzzles in games, so maybe it's just me. Maybe in the first tent, the elephant's self-dialog could give more of a hint on how to get the Ferris wheel working, like it does with the flashlight.

The enemy jumpscare is still scary even when you can see it's about to happen, and you can avoid it with skill. Well executed, I'd say. 

Oh, and was there fullscreen support? I couldn't get it to go fullscreen. I was clicking outside the game a lot by mistake. 

Developer

Thanks for playing!! Alas, fullscreen support is on the list of things that didn't happen because we ran out of time! To get the ferris wheel up and running, you need to right click the switch while holding the broken off lever (which could definitely have been made clearer).

Submitted

This was great! really creeped me the fuck out, and I’ve gotta say this sound design is incredible!

Developer

Glad you enjoyed, thanks so much for playing and commenting :)

Fun game, I enjoyed each tent as they got harder. I actually found the blue one to be the hardest for me to wrap my brain around but each one was great fun.  I thought the chairs were just set dressing until I died multiple times because of them!  The Ferris wheels and their interactions with the keys and flashlights were also neat, I lost the key in one and it threw me for a loop. Keep up the good work!

Developer

Thank you much for playing! 

Submitted

This was really great and had fun with it! The music and art are great and create a very creepy atmosphere, and I really jumped the first time the ghost got me haha. I think everything works great, and the juggling of items create a certain tension while keeping an eye out for the ghost. Placing the flashlight in a certain way to create a "Safe spot" to grab a key and then run back was also a kind of Ah-ha moment.
Sadly I couldnt finish, the tent where you have to throw the key while being on the ferris wheel was too hard for me. I tried a couple of times but couldnt get it right, and there seems to be some sort of hidden timer I think? So the ghost kept coming at me faster and faster to a point I couldnt get a throw in. 
I did read that would've been the end though so I experienced the full package :D
All in all, super great work peeps!

Developer

I’m glad you liked it. Thanks for playing and commenting. I think if we had a better/working ending we may have lowered the difficulty of the final level.

Submitted

This was a great horror puzzle game! I loved using the ferris wheels to move items and the risk/reward aspect of dropping the light to move something else. I actually got pretty scared when I went to pick up the light only to realize I grabbed a chair instead by accident. Great job!

Developer(+1)

Thank you for playing and commenting.

I’m glad the chairs burdened you the way we ended up intending.

The chairs kind of just evolved into that. They started only as decoration, then we decided it would be a neat idea to make them interact-able just for fun, but during level creation we realized their use as an obstacle.

I’m glad their journey paid off!

Submitted

This was very spooky! The jump scare got me a few times at first. The need to manage which item to carry forward kept the tension going. I finished all three tents but got a gray screen at the end. The last tent said mother wasn't there then just cut to a gray screen so I'm not sure what the ending was if I got to it... anyhow this was a great concept and well-made other than the issue at the end!

Developer(+1)

You got the only ending! Congrats! We ran out of time for a proper ending, I put in an image of a mother and baby elephant, but for some reason it cuts to a gray screen.

Thank for playing and commenting.

Submitted

Very sinister, I was on edge the whole time! I did get taken out of the experience a bit by the throwing mechanic, it felt quite random when it did and didn't work, and while I didn't really have any trouble completing the blue and red tents, I couldn't quite nail the final throw of the yellow one, which is really sad 'cause I was excited to see the (presumably traumatic) end!
All in all, amazing work on the atmosphere, the music and art were awesome, great job by the whole team!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing and commenting. The throw mechanic was hard to dial in. It’s much better than the initial version, but it was hard to perfect with the timeline.

You didn’t miss much. We didn’t have time for an ending. The ending I did add has failed and the only thing you get is a grey screen.

Submitted

It does seem like a really finicky mechanic to balance, for what it's worth I thought the elephant's trunk was a really charming way to handle the items (outside of the general horror vibes it was surrounded by!) and it was satisfying when it did behave, so I think it was well worth the ambition! 

The design in general was well-balanced, the tight ropes were great for forcing risky decision-making and I was really impressed with how well the ferris wheels worked for transporting loose items, I fully expected my torch to tumble off the first time but it stayed perfectly put.

Oh! I did get the grey screen, I managed to land the key in once but then got caught and jump-scared a few seconds later, so I assumed it was part of that. In that case, though, I'm a proud BTLT completer!

It's always frustrating when some final touches inevitably fall through in jams, or the timer runs out, but I hope it was otherwise a fun and positive experience, and you're all rightly proud of what you made!

Developer (1 edit)

Thanks for the kind words and I’m impressed you beat tent 3. I was hopeful it was too hard so people wouldn’t find out it was lacking, 😂. 
I just realized you made From Space, I think that was one of my favourites from last jam!

I haven’t played Lonely Stones yet, but I’m excited to try it soon.

Developer

This is the last minute attempt at an ending that you missed, but deserved: 

Submitted

Ahh that's a classic game dev trick ahaha

Awwh thank you, I was really proud of it, that means a lot!

Thank you for sharing the intended ending, my journey is now complete, I have found closure 💚 and thank you for checking out Lonely Stones too, and leaving such lovely feedback!

Submitted

Nice and creepy. I loved the art and music. Only problem was that it was super awkward to throw items. Overall I'm happy to see a horror game with a very unique mechanic

Developer

Thanks for playibg and commenting. In future iterations, maybe we’ll improve the throwing mechanic.

Submitted

The art and lighting are so good. 

Developer(+1)

thank you 

Submitted

Really nice concept! Loved the art and the gameplay.

Developer

thank you

Submitted

I actually jumped from the scare with this one! 🤣

I loved playing it. The atmosphere and how creepy it is make it really intriguing.

Developer

Thank you, glad we scared you.

Submitted

Super creepy and unsettling in a good way! The art, animations, and the music in particularly are great at setting the vibe.

I wasn't able to play too much being on a mac with a touchpad since I can't hold an item and click rmb at the same time

Developer(+1)

Unfortunately we didn’t think about Macs when designing the game. Hopefully we can do an update with alternative button options after the jam is done. Thanks for playing and commenting.