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Sincerely, Skeletons's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Music and sound effects supported the mood and gameplay. | #4 | 3.868 | 4.048 |
| Gameplay pacing kept the experience engaging throughout. | #6 | 3.094 | 3.238 |
| The game had no bugs, glitches, broken systems, or unclear results. | #6 | 3.140 | 3.286 |
| Outcomes were uncertain enough to support strategy and choice. | #6 | 3.185 | 3.333 |
| The game’s difficulty felt appropriate for its intended players. | #7 | 2.958 | 3.095 |
| The game balanced challenge and reward effectively. | #7 | 2.730 | 2.857 |
| Interface feedback helped players understand game outcomes. | #7 | 3.003 | 3.143 |
| Player interactions worked as intended in play. | #7 | 3.185 | 3.333 |
| The core gameplay loop ran smoothly and consistently. | #7 | 3.322 | 3.476 |
| I would choose to play this game again. | #7 | 2.275 | 2.381 |
| The game showed clear, thoughtful design and iteration. | #8 | 2.912 | 3.048 |
| The art style and visuals fit the game’s intended tone or theme. | #8 | 2.230 | 2.333 |
Ranked from 21 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Judge feedback
Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.
- I think this one was harder than intended. The addition of the 4 level types to pick from allowed a degree of customization to the player's taste. That said, it was not executed well. Minimal visual elements with minimal player feedback as things were happening. Mouse look would have helped the combat system feel more responsive, because the need to walk towards the enemy to attack pretty much guaranteed death. I'm also not sure what made it a "silly skeleton game". Needs work.
- To start, the level variety was great. The skeleton models were a nice addition, and they fit the rest of the game well. I also loved the music used across the four levels. However, the skeletons, despite being the selling point of the game, felt like an afterthought. The parkour and Puzzle levels would have been unaffected if they were left out. For the parkour level, the routes were well designed. The difficulty ramp between the three was smooth as well. As for my issues, there is a noticeable delay in the jump button. I didn't realize it was happening until the blue route, when I was racing to make my jumps. For the puzzle level, I enjoyed the solution. This was the level where combat felt the easiest, and the only one where I can say I got every enemy out of the way. For my issues, the starting room was a bit big, which made running back and forth a bit tedious. I also found that I had to hold the escape button to pause the game. For the stealth level, I was unable to beat it. I tend to move very slowly/conservatively in stealth games. The skeletons moved faster than I would've liked. I did figure out their routes: I was able to identify at least three unique paths. However, there was almost no breathing room to move between them. If one got onto the path you were following you had no way to save yourself. I was also unable to beat the collectible level. This was the level where the camera became an issue, as I could not see the skeletons or most of the path I was walking. For some reason, this level also had infinitely spawning skeletons? I tried luring them all out of the maze, only to discover they kept coming from one particular spot. The concept was amazing. If I could change the camera to a top-down perspective, I think it would've been much easier. All in all, these are great ideas. With a bit more tweaking, they could go from a good game to a great game.
Game Description
Fight off enemies and solve puzzles in this silly skeleton action game!
Gameplay Dynamics
Enemies in tight locations forcing you to fight, puzzles requiring spatial awareness, pattern recognition, and quick thinking.
Game Atmosphere
Silly, but at times intense, depending on the music and overall challenge of the levels.
Technical Details
NavMesh to make enemies follow the player, and custom damage and health scripts to track player HP and damage dealt.
Names of team members
Jacob Peery - Programming
Grant Donovan - Music, Programming
Ava Boswell - Art, Programming
Dalton Hale - Programming
Calvin Wasilevich - Programming
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Comments
although the game is lacking in graphics, the actual gameplay is not bad. I found the tracking system of the skeletons to be very impressive. They never lose the player which is an impressive implementation. The gameplay is easy to understand but still levels that seem basic at first prove to be more difficult with the addition of the skeletons. The jumping has a weird delay which increases the skill required to beat the parkour levels. I really liked the music, its just the graphics didn't back up the gameplay.
It felt like there wasn't a coherent theme besides skeletons. I also kept having the issue of the camera randomly snapping in a different direction, which made it really hard to do the parkour or stealth challenge as it would snap in the opposite direction that I moved it to.
I think the game had a promising premise, and I liked the fact that you could choose between different minigames which was unique. The music was a little groovy too. Some of the levels felt like they didn't really need the skeletons though, like the parkour challenge. It made it more annoying if anything. Also wished more time was put into the art.
This game has no cohesive design, no effort put into the graphics, and minimal effort put into gameplay. The skeletons have the most primitive possible pathfinding, leading to them being a non-challenge in every level that actually uses them without modification. Since this game is actually just four games in a trenchcoat, I'll review each one separately
1. Puzzle Level: This one is the only one that was decent. The skeletons don't add much, it feels like they were shoehorned in to give the illusion of cohesion. It failed in that regard.
2. Collectable Level: it's a maze, but with no ability to see it, it lacks any sort of puzzle, as the only reliable way to solve it is to just follow a wall. The skeletons once again add nothing here. This level doesn't feature the big skeletons that take move hits to kill, which is a shame because it's the only level that would benefit from them. As it stands, they either come from in front of you and you simply click once and they're gone, or from behind where turning around adds a whole extra step and no additional difficulty. This level is ultimately a nothing-burger.
3. Stealth Level: this level is easily the worst of the four, which is quite a high bar. The mechanic of the stealth is unclear, as the other levels all teach the player to avoid the actual skeletons themselves, only this one needs you to avoid line of sight. Figuring out it worked by line of sight was non-trivial, since there is no indication as to where you were spotted from, so more often than not you lose to a skeleton that's not on the screen. The perspective being anchored to the player means that it's hard to decern what paths the skeletons are following, especially given the ludicrous speed at which they move.
4. Parkor Level: Here once again the skeletons add nothing, effectively acting like a pit of spikes. Furthermore, the jump has a delay so long that it must either be intentional or the result of truly abysmal code and frankly I don't know which is worse. If its intentional it shows a complete lack of understand of platformers and a genre, and if it's the later than I am frankly impressed by the amount of useless code that must be running to cause a delay of around half a second. It would completely recontextualize the seeming lack of effort in the project from being several competent people throwing something together in an evening to several incompetent people laboring to make something vaguely passable. Frankly I hope it's the former. In any case in addition to the jump being so abysmally slow to occur, there is no input buffering or coyote time, which are very basic trappings of platformers because they're integral to making the game feel fair. Between these three mistakes you have managed to take a genre who's signature is being fast and flowing and turned it into a sluggish choppy mess.
Overall, this is one of the worst games I have had the displeasure of being made to play. Do better next time.
This game was a fun concept because it was the same mechanics but you got to choose what type of level you played which was unique. I also really enjoyed the sound design in this one it was pretty fun to listen to. Overall cool game and all the concepts were developed well with a small exception of the combat being a little hit or miss.
Very nice design with a wide variety of (somewhat straightforward) challenges. The music was fantastic, especially on the puzzle level. I'd listen to a lot of it even without the game. Some other sound effects would have been nice, though. The controls felt good, although the jump cooldown felt a bit too long during the parkour level.
Overall, I enjoyed the game!
(Also, if the player is a skeleton as well, why not use the same model for the player?)
I really liked the idea of this game. Being able to choose between 4 different experiences is a really neat concept!
The stealth level was pretty challenging due to the number of skeletons there are as well as how fast they move. It seems they move on a set pattern so you can wait to see where they go. Leaving spawn can be tricky since 3 of them cross that starting zone pretty immediately. I would maybe remove 1 or 2 skeletons and make them slightly slower. I think some description of avoiding the skeletons eyesight and getting the key at the end would have been neat. The goal was pretty obvious but it would add more consistency with other levels descriptions.
The platforming level was fun, I liked that there were three different challenges for you to complete! The jumping is a little wonky though so you really have to take your time and make sure you are jumping then moving, but it all worked! I was a bit confused by the puzzle level, I liked that there were 2 different types of enemies and multiple rooms in the floor! I think some direction like other levels would benefit this one a lot.
I liked the maze level, it's neat that the juggler will keep track of how many balls you pick up, though I would have maybe preferred that be a part of the UI, that way you wouldn't have to leave the maze to check your progress. I think the skeletons were pretty balanced on this level, the camera and controls make things a little harder as you aren't the most responsive when turning and the walls can conflict with the camera angles. It was a good challenge to find all 5 of the balls and it took me quite a few tries to get them all.
I think the attack mechanic could be refined a bit more. Adding some visual flare would go a long way, but I really did like all the music in the game! That's something some other projects didnt have so it was cool to see here! Overall I think the game was fun with some nice variety in activities, and the skeletons were really nice!
Very simplistic game. I like the skeleton enemy design and the solution for the first puzzle level. Feels like a collection of minigames to me. I felt like the character's jumping controls didn't feel as smooth for the parkour section, and I also wished there were a few more levels with different designs.
i thought the enemy designs were cool - i'm assuming some of the other design assets didn't make it in on time but hey that happens! this is probably just a me problem but i could not kill the skeletons for a good couple of minutes i thought the attack mechanic was broken, though eventually i figured it out. i enjoyed the variety of levels and the music for them, my favorite was the parkour one! overall nice game, with more time i would be interested to see what everything looks like!
Clearly cobbled together last minute. 3 maze's and a parkour section.
The mechanics of the game felt good and smooth, and I liked that you could select the levels from the main menu screen. I think the camera-follow left something to be desired, sometimes it would get stuck behind walls (most noticeably in the puzzle level). The music was a nice touch, I thought each level's music track had a distinct vibe to it that helped the levels feel different.
the different levels was a nice surprise! It's not often somebody goes above and beyond. I found the red skeletons cute, and the music was a nice additional touch. This game seems to have done many thing s other games don't and that was a really pleasant experience. I did find some of the puzzles a little tricky to solve, and I ended up dying to the skeletons on multiple accounts, but I still think this game was very fun and I look forward to additions if you want to continue developing this project. Amazing work to you and the team!
I like the variety of levels in this, and I think with more time it could be a really cool, cohesive experience. The music was neat, and definitely enhanced the gameplay experience, and it was good to not have to repeat the same type of level for the duration of play. The camera often glitched around, which might have been to do with its collider, but it did not inhibit game play too much. With some time and polishing, this could be a really cool game.
This game was very unique. I really liked the implementation of not just multiple levels, but multiple types of levels. It gives the player the choice to play what they are feeling. The visuals in the game weren't the best, but they were simple and were made up for by the gameplay. The different music for each level was also awesome! Each soundtrack fit what was going on in that level and I believe that helped to make the game immersive. One thing I found a bit finicky was the camera. I felt that it was too close to the player to be able to get a great perspective of what was going on in the game. Additionally, I felt that the attacking mechanics didn't work amazingly. It sometimes didn't go in the direction I wanted it too resulting in me to miss the attack. That could have also just been a skill issue though. Overall, really good game, and very unique concept!
This game was really good! I loved the variety in the levels, and each one having a different music track definitely added to the experience. It would have been nice if the different elements were integrated together a bit more seamlessly, though. I've got a few criticisms on the controls, the main one being a lack of coyote time, which is pretty annoying on the parkour section. Overall, it's not too huge of an issue, but a little bit would go a long way in making the character controller feel less frustrating to use, especially for parkour segments. Another minor problem I had was with the camera sensitivity. For me personally, it was very low, so a slider to adjust it would have been nice. Lastly, I wish the player attacked in the direction of the camera, rather than the direction of movement. This would make it feel a lot more engaging to be able to look at enemies and attack them directly, rather than trying to spin yourself around and properly time the hit. The current method of combat has a huge risk of getting hit, which feels horrible when the player is so fragile and there is no way to recover health. I also don't feel like it was necessary to have enemies in the parkour level. It was easy to stand under the red challenge and kill the enemies without them being able to hit you, and they don't serve as an actual threat during the challenges. Overall, I really enjoyed this game. The different challenges were all unique and interesting, and offered a slightly different taste of the same game. Great work!
Update 1.1 Patch Notes (12/12/25)
-changed all enemy models to be skeletons
-Big enemy max hp increased from 1 to 3
-Stealth enemy speed increased from 5 to 7
-Player invulnerability timer decreased from 999 to 1 (this was a bug)
-Fixed a bug where puzzle boxes fell through the floor, making the level impossible
-Deleted one of the walls in the maze to make it less annoying
-changed all enemies in the parkour level to be big enemies
-increased the number of parkour enemies from 3 to 4
-buffed the blue parkour to make the final few jumps more difficult
-changed the color of the walls and floor in the puzzle room to be less offensive on the eyes
While you can see the effort everyone poured in designing their own unique level, the game does not feel completely cohesive or adventurous. It felt more like a puzzle game mixed with some action. I think it could be improved if it was just a game with one clear objective instead of different levels. But overall, the gameplay was not bad and everything worked well, such as the music, UI, interaction, etc.
The music on the game was outstanding. There were a lot of interesting ideas here at a base level, but I didn't find myself too engaged with them in practice. I think an overhaul of the models in the game would've contributed a lot to immersion, and the fact the player's visor-thingy was off center was driving my OCD nuts. The stealth and maze were my favorite of the four levels, but I couldn't figure out how to complete the puzzle level.
Pretty groovy game. Distinct lack of skeletons outside of the puzzle level, though. The puzzle level itself was really confusing because I didn't know what I was supposed to do or how I was supposed to do it. I wasn't able to complete that level because of it. There was never a dash in any of the levels, just an attack that sends out a red shape. The sprint button definitely made the player move faster, but it could probably be made a little faster. The maze level felt a little frustrating because of the camera. The stealth level was cool, but was far bigger than the player ever needs it to be. I'd say 60% of that level goes to waste because the player has no reason to ever tread from the most direct path to the goal, which is very easy to run straight to. The platforming was decent, but felt uninspired. The random enemies thrown in on the bottom did increase the tension and my engagement, but hardly. The music was very much appreciated.