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Perilous Escape's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Gameplay | #16 | 3.793 | 3.793 |
| Overall | #20 | 3.828 | 3.828 |
| Graphics | #25 | 4.069 | 4.069 |
| Audio | #36 | 3.655 | 3.655 |
| Innovation | #66 | 3.517 | 3.517 |
| Theme interpretation | #192 | 3.034 | 3.034 |
Ranked from 29 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
GitHub repository URL
https://github.com/mbrc12/gameoff-2025-official
Game description
A twist atop our beloved minesweeper.
Theme interpretation
Waves (the kind found in oceans) play two crucial roles in the gameplay, and also appear in the narrative and ambience. Without giving away too many spoilers, one of the "wave" mechanics act as a helping tool, and the other occurs as a hazard. Hope you have fun when you reach these aspects of the game!
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Comments
You’ve improved Minesweeper—it turned out awesome. The concept is great and it took me back to the old days.
I can’t even count how many times I blew up, just like in the old days :)
the art is great.
I really love what you did with the minesweeper mechanics! I agree with bartalomew in that it felt like i was getting hit with a lot of mechanics one right after another, but i think adding a level or 2 in between could help to smooth that out so that the player can get a good feel for a mechanic before another is introduced. The game looks great, its simple and feels just right for this kind of game
i love the music and art style, the CRT shader is a nice touch as well. The vibes are amazing in this game!
The whole experience is quite nice as well, my only suggestion could be to fine tune the way you build up the mechanics in the tutorial levels as they get a bit overwhelming at first. maybe the level complexity is too steep, but it didn't feel i have time to have the mechanics sink in. George Fan has an amazing GDC session about building tutorials, worth to check it out.
this is a great entry nonetheless, worth playing it!
Indeed, I too feel the levels ramped up a bit too steeply. Perhaps I will try to make it have a gentler curve in the middle.
Thanks for the thoughtful comments!
Excellent puzzle game. I enjoyed it . I really like puzzle games, and this is a good one. The music, graphics, and gameplay match nicely. Good work!
I just rated yours and left a comment.
One of the few puzzle games I enjoyed trying this jam. Instructions were clear and easy to understand. The art was simple and readable, and CRT look was awesome and nostalgic. Overall a good game i can see you building upon and having a good puzzle game!
Thank you for the kind comments!
Very cool game, really like the puzzles and tools that were available. The CRT shader works very well here. Only thing i can really think of is someway to somewhat randomize the levels, like having mine variants to prevent players from brute force memorizing the puzzles but its not that huge of an issue. Overall liked it alot!
Thank you for the comments, and very happy to hear you liked the game!
Also about the randomizer. I did have a random generator prepared during the jam, but had decided against releasing it since its quality was not up to standards. The memorization is a proper flaw in the design right now, and I will try to get around and polish things once the jam is over.
Thanks again for the kind words!
Always been a big fan of minesweeper type games so I easily got into this game! Firstly I love the visual style and the audio was on point. The CRT filter mixed with the pixel art always does wonders and I like it every time. Some of the puzzles genuinely took some time to get through so that's already a good sign that they are quite well designed. If I have to give one suggestion it'd be to remove the dialogue section every time there's a type of event since it slows the gameplay down but otherwise this is pretty solid! Awesome work!
Thank you so much for your kind comments and suggestions, and great to hear that you enjoyed the game!
The writing, visuals and audio were all good. You managed to enrich and improve on the classic minesweeper formula. I had a good time with this, nice one!
Thank you so much, and it is a great honor to hear you say that it is an improvement on the classic!
Very interesting concept. I feel like I’m way too stupid for this game though :(
I love the polish, aesthetic and vibe of the game, as well as the interesting and innovative concept. Great work!
Thank you so much for the kind words!
This was basically impeccable. Amazing work. There's not a lot to say about this one... maybe cut the dialog for all key collecting and level retries... But yeah, absolutely beautiful execution.
Thank you so much for the kind comments!
Really cool game, quite a bit of strategy involved, fun visuals, high chance of coming in top 100, good job
That is incredibly high praise, thank you for playing!
Super solid game all around! Music and sfx were great, basing the core gameplay off minesweeper made it fun and easy to understand, and the addition of the tools gave way for more strategy. This game is fun, balanced, and polished. My only feedback is that there doesn't have to be a short dialogue segment everytime you collect a key (especially since it stops your movement, and continuing dialogue is the same key as using a tool). You could put a short message on one of the corners of the screen to convey this without disrupting gameplay (Tbh this is just a small and pretty inconsequential nitpick lol). Good stuff!
The short message at the screen corner is a brilliant idea, I don't know why that didn't occur to me. Thank you so much for leaving a thoughtful comment!
Nice minesweeper'esque game. The help prompts did confuse me a bit in that they kept popping up, would be nice if they only appeared once.
Thank you for your comment and feedback! I will look into making the tutorials one-time only in an update after the jam.
A very "feature rich" minesweeper :)
I liked how art style fits the gameplay. And I appreciate the tutorial - it is very clear and guides player very well. But at some point you want to skip (maybe you can show tutorial once per round, but not after you retry the same level)
Not sure if it's my browser because also it didn't record sound for some reason ;( but sometimes the controls went extra step which caused me to blow up multiple times. I don't think it's a big issue though.
Another thing I noticed is that rats are not really adding to the game much - you can traverse the map by making mistakes and memorize where the mines are and you will carry on all the rats.
I loved the teleport mechanics though you don't really know where it is. Say there is an information about mines around the cell, but there is no info on the teleport. Given that I "don't want" to investigate those cells because I don't want to step on the mine, but at the same time "I do want" to investigate those cells because there might be a tp.
All in all I really liked it and I will try to get back to it to beat more levels when I'll have a bit more time. I really enjoyed this game, thank you for submitting it :)
P.S. sorry for the audio missing, I didn't noticed that when recording ;(
Thank you for the great analysis! Not sure about the audio recording issue, but hopefully you enjoyed the music during the gameplay.
About the memorization, that has indeed been the primary point of complaint about the game. This was something of a tradeoff for me during the design because I didn't want a level to become unsolvable (if the player lost resources upon death). The other idea was to change the level if you failed "too many times", for which you need a random generator of levels. I do have one, but it is not yet at the quality I would like it to be.
Also, yes that is great point about the teleports. They incentivize you to explore (since the game might be unsolvable if you don't find the teleport), which sometimes incentivizes careful risk in places which you would otherwise avoid in fear of a mine.
I am definitely considering making some changes to the game after the jam (and will address the tutorial spam you point out), and your comment is very helpful in that regard.
Thanks again for leaving such a thoughtful comment!
I think your puzzle design is great there and I don't think there's a need to randomize levels after failing. Randomized levels might take away from the player experience in this case, unless done carefully. Maybe something like punishing with resources, or score deductions (like if you finished lvl in one go - 3x multiplier, in more than 1 - 2x, more than 3 - 1x, more than 5 - 0.5x, more than 10 -let player to explore next but don't give score) then rats become valuable resources because you want to solve with least runs.
Regarding the tp - I think you can make some "radar thingy" that would notify player - there's a tp nearby, even if it is a simple "!" sign above the player when in close proximity.
Good game. Nice design. Probably because I like minesweeper.
Poor rats :( shouldn't they blow?
I had only one issue - sometimes when I press arrow, the player went two times instead of one which make me die :(
Thanks a lot, and glad to hear you liked it.
About the movement, it is one of the points I am not fully satisfied about although I did spend quite some time tweaking it (there is also a sensitivity option in the menu as a stopgap). Sad to hear that was a problem, and maybe I should try out some other solutions.
Super polished visuals and gameplay, genuinely a fun game to play with a nice twist to the minesweeper mechanics.
Thank you for leaving a comment, and very happy to hear you enjoyed the puzzles!
This game is amazing, truly. The graphics are pleasing, the mechanics are simple yet highly fun, and the overall feel of the game is very enjoyable. I really want to congratulate you, this is excellent work.
Thank you so much, glad you enjoyed it!
Fantastically polished with a unique atmosphere, great visuals and effects. Terrific job!
Thank you for your kind words, and glad you enjoyed it!
holy moly I've never played minesweeper but i assume this is pretty similar. super polished, good-looking game that feels good to play. I really love it a lot, and one thing I would suggest is to incorporate waves more into your gameplay, rather than aesthetic and lore. maybe make wave tiles that wash you back somewhere or something. overall amazing submission, great job!!
Thanks a lot for your kind words, glad you enjoyed (and that the game actually ended up in your queue!). Did you get to the water waves tool and the wave-timed levels?
(I am hoping other players do not see this spoiler haha)
no i got stuck because ive never played minesweeper before and it was confusing lmao i kept accidentally pressing escape and having to reload the game because i couldnt get it back to fullscreen :( im so sorry for the feedback that probably isnt relevant lmao
(im probably not your target audience it took me like 10 minutes to figure out what the numbers meant ToT )
Solid submission. The concept is familiar and easy to understand. The puzzles did feel trivial after receiving the last tool as it came down to what is the fastest way to the flag rather than go through the key and lock sequences. It also turned into more of a memory game as it was faster to use up all of your tools to see where to go, memorize that path, and then die to refill tools. Lots of fun though and enjoyed playing all the way through.
Haha yes, thats definitely a strategy, and I would love to hear about interesting "punishment for dying" mechanics that would not block the player from solving the puzzle. Perhaps a randomizer for the level would be good, and I do have a randomizer (although unused in the game), but the risk is of generating low-quality puzzles.
Thanks a lot for playing and for leaving a thoughtful comment!
I think the prevention to skipping the puzzle would to make levels more linear (one path to the end), however I think the player creativity allowed by breaking the puzzle allows for rewarding player creativity. I'm not quite sure though on the punishment for dying. If you solve or perfect that mechanic I'd say the game would be one of the best lock-and-key puzzle games out there :)
If you make a more procedural level design that is self consistent with your level design, you could make a really interesting "infinite mode" with the wave closing in and trying to get further every time!
Yes! I love when my playtesters broke sequence, since you have to be somewhat confident about it to devote a costly resource. My procedural generator is "almost good", but not yet at the standards I would love to have. I will definitely think more on if an "infinite" mode is possible. :)
Thanks again!