| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Engagement/Fun | #1 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Originality/Creativity | #3 | 4.083 | 4.083 |
| Overall | #4 | 3.903 | 3.903 |
| Theme Interpretation | #4 | 4.250 | 4.250 |
| Magical Girl Concept | #7 | 4.083 | 4.083 |
| Presentation (Aesthetics, Audio, etc.) | #10 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Gameplay Polish | #16 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
Ranked from 12 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the Magical Girl Genre?
This is a Magical Girl Nezumi, a Tactical Espionage Thriller set on an island filled with The Enemy. Nezumi, as a magical operative of the Natin's military, is tasked with retrieving a magical wand stolen by the duplicitous Magical Girl Byakko, and will used all the magic at her disposal to do so. Nezumi and Byakko are magical girls- young women blessed with incredible magical power, and a duty to protect those they care for in the face of overwhelming odds. What happens when their goals misalign? When their missions cross the line? Find in Magical Girl Nezumi!
Which theme(s) do you pick?
Sons (Children) of Liberty, Snake Eater, Guns of the Patriot
How does your game fit those theme(s)?
we, admittedly, chose a very literal interpretation of the themes, opting to adapt the Metal Gear framework to the magical girl genre. There is a cutscene early on that gives lip service to the themes of the jam, but as you progress through the game, you'll find more and more references and allusions to the themes above. Plus, there's a scene rather reminiscent of a certain interrogation scene that will definitely fit the Snake Eater theme!
If you follow any of the optional challenges, elaborate as you like.
Alas, we scoped our project pretty early on to focus on the game mechanics that mattered for stealth game play. As such, we were not able to really play into the optional challenges as hard as we would have liked.
Were the assets for your game made during the jam? Elaborate as you see fit.
Nearly every 3D model, every sound, every visual assert was built in the last month by a very dedicated team. We all hope you enjoy the end result!
Thank you for playing and glad you had fun with it 😁 (By the way your own games art is aweome! )
Awee dam sorry to hear that :/ any chance could you share what CPU, gpu and ram you have? Some people have no issues in that spot but some do 🥲 I think its more of a issue for peope without a dedicated gpu though
I had a lot of fun with this. Just a lot of effort going into everything.
Only critique would be the last boss fight. It was done so quickly, even though it´s supposed to be the finale. The Soviet Rangers had a better fight (a real enjoyable one at that) than the final boss, which leaves you a bit disappointed? Like I was so hyped at the fused giant Mecha fight, I loved figuring out that I can extinguish the fire by rolling in the snow, but the last fight, the thing the player will leave the game with... didn´t have such a highlight. So maybe, next time plan the last fight at the beginning to have a goal to work towards? Or keep in mind to make it the highlight instead of the fights in the middle.
She could have caused a small earthquake with her purr or turned into a giant cat chasing you. Maybe lunge attacks or a second phase where you have to avoid stuff during her ult, because you can´t stop it and can´t attack her. Just to make her more threatening.
But you could just shoot her and she was dead... She was kinda the weakest boss.
Thank you so much for playing it, and I'm glad you had fun! 😁 I'll start with this quote from Byakko first;
"Nya Nya Nya! This is all wrong, this is not how it should be. This ending was meant to have a super dramatic battle with the W.M.D and lightning Nya, but we ran out of time"
So that is literally what happened 😅 Where the cutscene with Disguised Ranger and Byakko happens, there was meant to be another gameplay section to the left with another boss fight and two keys would be needed to get to Byakko and another sneaking section. We had three people but one had to leave due to work commitments after the first week, another was too busy with work (but he still did a lot of work like the Byakko model and helped with some programing and level layouts, concept art etc) and myself. Each one of us was meant to handle a section (mine was Rangers and Firebug) but basicslly then time constraints happened 🤣😋
I was stubbornly determined to get the Rangers and Firebug in, and I wanted an ending, so just quickly reused one of the Rangers Ai for Byakko 🤣 Plan on fixing up that final fight after the competition is over and will use some of you ideas thank you 😁
Salutations!
I'm a huge fan of the old PSX aesthetic on this one; I think it's really well done.
Truly remarkable how much you've managed to make considering the time limit.
The characters are so fun, I like the designs, and I loved the fact that the interpretation of the themes was kinda literal.
All the gameplay mechanics and changes during the story are fun to play. I think my favorite one would be the Snake Eating mashing button section with the Firebug boss battle (so creative and fun).
I was not expecting the meta commentary about the jam, but I did have a blast with the dialogues, haha.
Some notes I had are that:
Overall, I really liked this one so much, and I find it charming and fun.
Great Job, Everyone!
Thank you kindly for the big message!
We ended up using the ps1 design so we could keep the texture sizes low and then we could do a Web Build more easily! I worked on the style before with another project of mine and it's just nice and easy xD Can make a bunch of low quality ps1 models quicker than one high quality model so more content quicker haha!
Our two designers did so well with the characters! I think I said elsewhere for Firebug I gave the description "Creepy and uses a flamethrower"... xD Snailsn did very good with that haha!
The Firebug fight almost didn't make it but managed to get it in at the last moment! So very glad you liked that segment! :D
Just for your notes!
Thank you so much again really happy you enjoyed it!
Was a pretty fun and ambitious title considering the time limit; I've got me playing the game here(no commentary):
If we're trying to be honest with reveiws then I'd wish the script writer would have had a bit more confidence in their ability to create a funny scenario with elements of pop culture references. To me the final result ended up being a bit too self referrential and self demeaning for me to really get into it - it felt like the script said "I'm just a silly script please don't judge me!" very brazenly to begin with and I'd much prefer if it said "Yeah I know I'm funny what'cha gonna do about it"(I think a bit more confidence and bravado could have gone a long way in making the humor work personally)
The models were lovely and I enjoyed the character designs too (definitely see the megaman legends inspiration & the assets are real good)
The music was a bit short(especially the alert theme), I think it could have done with like two bars of minor variation and it would have done a lot for the loop not getting a bit redundant(though I think I suffered with this issue too; time constraints and all), beyond that it fit quite well
Some mechanics(like the first person view) seem to kind of get disabled somewhat arbitrarily depending on the scene of the game; I think whenever the camera is taken control of (and also on the fire boss guy I think it happens too) it seems to disable the mechanic(which is a little confusing given the kinda strict ps1ish controls) beyond that I didn't have any problems with the controls & generally had a fun time with the movement and gameplay
But yea I think this was a really ambitious and fun entry - I love the gall to include fully voice acted and motion captured cutscenes, that definitely takes guts (to both aim for and to shockingly practically deliver). I hope you dudes didn't crunch out too hard and still have plenty of game development to deliver, looking forward to more! ☺️
Thank you so much for playing and the big review haha! Script writer, programmer, level designer, cutscene person here!
That's the first time I've written something silly for a game jam but I didn't mean to get across "please dont judge me" 🤣 I didn't have too much time to do it, literally while I was eating dinner in a hungry jacks (burger king for anyone not Australian) but I just wanted to have some silly fun with it and I was happy with how it turned out 😊 Lesson learnt though, more confidence!
Our modelers did a lovely job, was very happy how the character turned out 😊 The only description I gave for firebug was... "He's creepy and uses a flamethrower" but they both churned out really good stuff!
Time did creep up on our composers too! Although with that alert theme honestly when I first heard it I thought it didn't fit at all but then I put it in game and loved it haha (thanks for proving me wrong Fae)!
Ill take a look at the fps camera issue thank you! (First Ive heard of this glitch).
And thank you again for giving it a shot and your big review thank you 😊
Fae here, composer
Yah I kinda messed up with the deadline and a lot of the music got made last minute. There was also some miscommunication about how some tracks were used because of it, so that affected our workflow and the actual implementation. Post jam I plan on making more soundtrack variety so the final result is more polished, feel free to check back in after the jam is finished and DM with any suggestions. I am williamoakheart on Discord and my email is williamoakheart@gmail.com
Couldn't quite make it past firebug (too laggy for my old computer), but from what I did manage to play it's quite funny!
Oh ah that makes sense! So you got a CPU based gpu and the particles run of gpu! Hmmm I wonder if the fire effects in the web build would work better for you (they are different than the Windows one due to the gpu issue).
Your pc specs are actually pretty decent but if you can a new gpu would be good for extra milage for your system 😊
The parts of it I could get to on the web build were really fun! Will have to come back and update once I've played. the PC build.
I did get stuck in crouch, not sure if that was me or a bug.
Also, it would be nice to go back to the beginning of the level instead of having to watch the cutscene again (if you die in the beginning).
The windows build is completely unplayable on my pc. In the introduction level the explosions and fire are unavoidable and kill me basically instantly. Completely different experience on the web build of the game where I take way less damage and can outrun the explosions. Highly recommend looking into this issue if you can. My guess is that something is tied to framerate in an unintended way. Unsure if its damage thats the issue, or the player’s movement speed, or the speed at which the explosions catch up to the player on the plane.
This first video is the windows build
This next one is the web build:
Awee thank you for playing Nya :3 If you don't mind could I get your computer specs (Just cpu, gpu and ram please). I had no slowdown on my end so curious what's the difference! (Aka I'll have to make a less resource heavy mode haha). I really wanted to capture a forest fire though xD
Thank you :) I'll play your game in a jiffy!
This was a real-ass game! It was super cool and I'm really impressed with what you were able to get done given the time. I found myself playing this exactly like I played real MGS games: trying to sneak my way through, genuinely screaming in fear when I get caught, and then running and gunning my way through lol
There are a few points of jank I'm sure you're already aware of (like the character seemingly getting turned around when trying to crawl through certain points). When in the 2nd stage, trying to leave the initial opening area, after crawling through that section I had a hard time figuring out where to go. I almost gave up during the Firebug boss fight because it was really frustrating to try and fight an enemy that could attack me off screen. It was also frustrating because to put out the flames if you got hit, you had to roll, but because I hit the button to get back up too soon, I would often get stuck crawling. I was able to beat him I think on the 4th or 5th try lol
Oh, also, I really found myself missing a pause option. And I really wish there was an option to quit or play again rather than being thrown immediately back into the beginning of the game.
Again, this was super cool and felt like a real-ass game! Btw, I loved the Soviet Rangers haha
Thank you so much for playing and the kind words! Really glad it's a real ass game haha 🤣
Yes the jank is all known! Basically I got straddled with a lot more of the work load than I expected after the first week sadly but.. Had to have the Soviet Rangers and Firebug.. amd cutscenes and time ran away very quickly... Even yesterday still didn't manage to get a bunch of things in (such as the pause menu and a continue system haha) but wanted to make sure it had a start to finish.
Sorry bout the mess with firebug boss he was also a massive rush job yesterday 😅 But by golly i had thr forest fire working so needed to put him in haha! He can attack off screen though but he won't (isn't meant to anyway) start the attack till he's within 2 - 3 meters distsnce of the play i think 🤔 And the vents... deffinately need to fix them haha (it's a issue with changing between control types which i have not been smart enough to figure out yet...)
Thank you again for playing and I'll try to get some of your suggested fixes out this week 😁
Ps. Go go Soviet Rangers! And I'll play your game in a few hours 😊
Good to see a fellow 3d game in this jam. Loved the chaotic cutscenes. Soviet Rangers are definitely my favorite. You also got a nice variety of gameplay modes, that's really good.
If you are planning on continuing development, here is my feedback: tutorials inside the game explaining controls and goal for each partucular gameplay mode would be nice to have. I got stuck for some time trying to get into the hatch because I didn't know I needed to turn immediately after entering while the game immediately pulls you outside if you just continuously press W. In a fight with flamethrower guy I first thought that I just needed to escape from him and spent minutes searching for the exit.
I know you are imitating PS1-era games, but oh god the scenes with static camera. It can be really annoying trying to move your character with it when you're already used to usual 3rd person camera controls from modern games (this applies to Dreams of Leaves as well). This is just my personal opinion though. Also it is diffucult to hit people with a pistol using mouse and keyboard since the game only allows to fire in 8 directions, it seems.
Overall great game, I looked forward to it since I liked Dreams of Leaves and it's narrative through cutscenes and it seems that you managed to make more content this time, very nice.
Happy to see another Unreal user in one of these jams too, even more rare haha! Just had another person saying they loved the Soviet Rangers too 🤣 Very glad we got them in haha!
Thaynk you for the feedback! 😊 I will add tutorial points eventually just ... ran out of time 😅🤣 That's usually the case... onky one of my games I managed to get them in on time (Through the Catacombs). Ah the hatch/vent exit and entrance is just a big buggy at the moment... My own skill level issues and time sadly but I'll try to get it fixed.
Haha the camera/gameplay is meant to be pretty much a straight up clone of Metal Gear Solid 1! The first 3 3D entries all had the same camera 🤣 was just trying to recapture that haha! Dreams of Leaves though I tried to use them as horror angles though 🤔 (Expect a big Dreams of Leaves update before the end of the year though! 😁).
I'm glad you liked this and thank you for playing 😊
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