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Treasure Hunter's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Interface feedback helped players understand game outcomes. | #1 | 4.500 | 4.500 |
| The art style and visuals fit the game’s intended tone or theme. | #1 | 4.917 | 4.917 |
| Music and sound effects supported the mood and gameplay. | #1 | 4.625 | 4.625 |
| Gameplay pacing kept the experience engaging throughout. | #1 | 4.167 | 4.167 |
| Outcomes were uncertain enough to support strategy and choice. | #1 | 4.458 | 4.458 |
| The game showed clear, thoughtful design and iteration. | #2 | 4.500 | 4.500 |
| The game’s difficulty felt appropriate for its intended players. | #2 | 4.375 | 4.375 |
| The game had no bugs, glitches, broken systems, or unclear results. | #2 | 4.083 | 4.083 |
| The game balanced challenge and reward effectively. | #3 | 4.042 | 4.042 |
| I would choose to play this game again. | #3 | 3.875 | 3.875 |
| The core gameplay loop ran smoothly and consistently. | #4 | 4.375 | 4.375 |
| Player interactions worked as intended in play. | #4 | 4.167 | 4.167 |
Ranked from 24 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.
- This was an amazing game. The horror theming was so good I was too scared to finish. The audio, first person perspective, claustrophobic hallways, and old graphics was amazing. I did make it to the last room, too! The UI was decent: I was able to tell what everything was. The font was great, too. As for things I did not like: the lockpicking mechanic was too vague. For UI in the walls about everything, there were no instructions about how the lockpicking functioned. I only got it because someone I knew played a game with a similar mechanic. The slowdown mechanic is great in theory, but in practice I was blindly running across hallways. I'm sure the mechanic worked, but with the mana constantly draining I was unable to get a good grasp on it.
- Appropriate difficulty, the inclusion of a short interactive tutorial made the controls clear and easy to master. As a Fallout fan, the lockpicking felt familiar, but it might be more confusing to someone unfamiliar with that particular minigame. I didn't encounter any noticable bugs, and the art/style and core gameplay loop were on par with what I was expecting from your description. I enjoyed the level music and textures as well. Really well done!
Game Description
As a Treasure Hunter, you've found a dark, trap-filled, crumbling castle that you're sure to strike it rich in. Beware, however, as you may be the one that someone else is hunting! Use your wits and magic to escape with your riches unscathed.
Gameplay Dynamics
The player must navigate a dangerous castle environment with a focus on exploration and discovery. The player will need to remember and recognize paths through the interconnected hallways, and must choose where and how to explore while managing resources like health, mana, and lockpicks. While navigating, they must perform simple challenges such as platforming or a lockpicking minigame. The player must also avoid a stalking NPC that will chase them in certain areas.
Game Atmosphere
The game is classic high fantasy, with the game environment being an abandoned castle filled with classic fantasy traps and items. The overall mood and modeling fits this serious fantasy tone.
Technical Details
The Stalker NPC is a special and challenging feature that guided our development throughout the entire process. The NPC AI script and mesh we were able to implement had some restrictions on the types of terrain and walls it could handle. These restrictions had notable effects on everything from level design to modeling.
The player's time-slowing magic is another unique feature that ended up being implemented very differently than our team originally intended. We learned very quickly that changing Timescale has many unintended effects on Unity physics, and had to redesign our implementation.
Names of team members
Evelyn Munoz - Game Designer
Garrison Hair - Game Designer
Mikhail Pisarev - Game Designer
Riley Sizemore – Game Designer
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Comments
This is a very polished action-adventure game.
Pros:
- Great atmosphere, due in large part to the music and level design.
- Awesome level design.
- Excellent feedback on all actions and happenings.
- Artstyle was compelling.
- Interesting mechanical depth (especially lockpicking).
Cons:
- Lockpicking minigame was slightly too difficult.
- Enemy AI was esoteric and nonthreatening
- Repeated use of the same horse whinny sound effects became grating.
Extremely well done, this game fits every single criteria in the rating system and handled extremely well. There were some slight issues I had with lack of feedback when lockpicking, but beyond that I would say this game is a very serviceable alpha build for a serious project. Awesome work!
Wow. WOW! This is probably, in my opinion, the best of all the games submitted. Every mechanic worked as intended, and the graphics and sound work together to make a wonderfully impressive tone (even if it was a bit much for me, being the wimp I am XD). The gameplay worked pretty well too, although I do have a few minor complaints. For one, the sheer amount of gold scattered about was somewhat frustrating as you naturally have a desire to pick it all up, but doing so is tedious. More importantly, the lockpicking minigame does not seem well designed for keyboard. The limited precision and lack of tactile feedback make it feel more like luck than skill. For another thing, the stalker NPC could still use some work. The fact that its sound effects aren't actually tied to the model quickly results in them going from tense to frustrating, as they serve essentially no function other than letting you know that you're in an area that it could reach you. In addition, on at least one occasion while not tracking the player, the NPC ran itself straight into the wall and proceeded to get itself stuck. Finally, the fact that a section that required time slowing magic was located in an area that didn't seem to have a mana recharge orb was frustrating.