I absolutely love the thought behind this game and the message that it conveys to the viewer, it’s really touching. The atmosphere is very nice and I love the piano track, it’s very soothing and heartwarming. Cool aesthetics with the handheld, and it feels really smooth and well crafted. As others have also pointed out, I think the main issue here is the difficulty of focusing on both the footage and the rhythm game at the bottom since one detracts from the other, plus there doesn’t seem to be any particular incentive to actually playing the rhythm game. One possible solution could be to turn the video into segments and insert quicktime events in between on the screen to progress the video, so maybe pressing the right combos lets the video progress in a more positive direction? I’m not sure how it could be done with real world clips though without scouring through a lot of relevant footage, but it could be a possible implementation I think. Overall love the concept and great work from the team! Wish you guys all the best!
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SomeoneFaraway's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Community's Voice | #106 | 3.071 | 3.071 |
Ranked from 28 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Creative Vision / Rationale / How Did You Incorporate the Theme
This story is about a truth found in a chaotic world. It’s about the most real, simple bond between us— Something we’ve all seen so many times. This is for friends who need a little courage, just like us.
Comments
Huge thanks for your thoughtful and generous feedback! It’s spot-on and cuts to the chase, but so kind—just like a gentle whale! QWQ This is precisely the key challenge we’ve faced, and a user interaction direction we want to refine and break through with post this game. Your proposed solutions are really valuable to us, and we’ll make every effort to test them out in our next work!! Thank you for opening up to us so kindly! We’d love to keep getting your feedback down the line. We have plenty of time to work together and connect! Thanks again OwO!
WOWOW! This was so enjoyable. The footage and audio was really moving. Its like a wholesome and low-stakes guitar hero, this was an all around great experience.
It feels like watching a documentary while playing. The atmosphere is very unique.
A truly memorable experience — thank you for creating such a moving game!
I like how you displayed everything on an old console, it adds something to it, especially a console well known for connecting people!
Gameplay wise, I did not expect a rhythm game, it's nicely done, maybe a few times no synched but otherwise it works. It's a bit hard to follow both the footage and the mini game though, especially rhythm games known for needing a lot of mental effort to focus on.
Where did you get the footage though? I'm curious, there's so much stuff!
Haha, I'm here! Thanks for playing! Let me answer your points one by one!
First, regarding the gameplay: while it is technically a rhythm game, my original intention was to capture that relaxed sensation of subconsciously tapping your fingers on a desk when you are deep in thought or entering a 'flow state'.
However, we obviously hit a snag in the actual design execution. Since we listened to the music so many times during development, the rhythm felt natural to us, so we took the difficulty for granted, hahahaYUY! This happened because we didn't seek enough player feedback, and we will definitely keep this in mind for future projects! Thanks for pointing it out!
As for the source of the footage, it was collected from public television and online media!
The music is absolutely gorgeous. I also do music, and I thought the general theme and composition, starting off simple, and coming together near the end, is really well done. The rest of the game was also really polished, and I liked it's simplicity a lot. The footage is inspiring, although I wasn't able to focus on it, otherwise I would fail the rhythm aspect. It took someone else on call with me to notice that it is strangers saving people. Well done!
Thanks for the love on the music! We actually planned to do a live A Cappella recording for the interactive tracks, but we ran out of time, lol.
Regarding the difficulty, I totally admit that was my bad. Since we made the game, the rhythm became second nature to us, so we lost perspective on how hard it actually is for new players. We definitely should have playtested it more. I’ll make sure to fix that workflow next time. Thanks so much for the honest feedback—it really helps!
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