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A jam submission

Arcane KeeperView game page

Survive the magic library mayhem.
Submitted by Ilya Shevelev (@ilyalyly) — 10 hours, 5 minutes before the deadline
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Arcane Keeper's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Innovation#4153.1403.140
Audio#4233.1163.116
Visuals#4503.4653.465
Enjoyment#5363.0703.070
Overall#5513.0743.074
Gameplay#5832.7912.791
Theme#7292.8602.860

Ranked from 43 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

How does the game fit the theme?
It is a game about magic library keeping, and it's kinda strange place, where books can explode.

You have to survive in the library for 7 days.

Every day has three stages: sorting books, fulfilling the orders, upgrading you library.

To sort the book take it and put onto the appropriate shelf.

To fulfill the order place the required books to the portal. If you don't have any or all the books, just place the order to the portal to submit it.

To purchase the shelf click on it.

And keep an eye on the instability meter, once it's 100 you are done.

P.S. If you are rating the game, please spend a minute to drop a comment with some feedback, I would genuinely appreciate that.

What code and assets did you not make from scratch during the jam (if any)?
Few CC0 sounds from: https://freesound.org/

Few CC0 icons from: https://www.svgrepo.com/

One musical composition from : https://opengameart.org/content/medieval-rejoicing

How many people worked on the game?
1

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Comments

Viewing comments 32 to 13 of 32 · Next page · Last page
Submitted(+1)

I had a lot of fun with this game! The core gameplay loop is solid, with each phase feeding into the next for a constant sense of momentum. It's really satisfying getting to organize everything with a purpose!

I have no major critiques, just some nitpicks centering around polish for the basic mechanics. Hitboxes for the shelves are a bit wonky, instability as a mechanic is a bit opaque, and the UI elements at the top of the screen are too plain, especially give how creative the rest of the UI is. To be clear, I really enjoyed the experience! These critiques are all minor, but I hope they're helpful nonetheless!

Also, the game as a whole reminded me of a lot of the letter sorting minigame from Wind Waker. Was this perhaps part of the inspiration?

Developer

Thank you for playing and for the detailed feedback! Yep, there are a lot of things to polish, working on it!

As for the Wind Waker as a reference, not that I thought about it when working on a game, but when you said it, it’s obvious some part of my brain remembered, liked and it turns out tried to replicate the mechanic:)

Submitted(+1)

Nice game, instability effect and music all worked well for the experience. Found the mouse a little twitchy and some of the hit boxes on the shelves were tough to target.

Developer

Thank you for playing and for the feedback!

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Like others have mentioned, the start is a little rough and unintuitive. I think part of the issue is the more unstable you get, the less you are able to read anything lol. Once it clicked how the game works, the core of the game is quite fun. I think one way to improve it is to add some more player agency. As it stands, you are are more or less on rails and at the whim of randomness for what you get and what orders you can fulfill, so maybe you get a choice or orders you can fulfill so it is a little more in the player's control. Also having a bigger benefit for fulfilling bigger orders would make it feel more rewarding, instead of just feeling lucky when you get small orders.

All that said, I had a lot of fun. It is a quite well polished and creative idea, that I think has a lot of potential!

Developer

Thanks a lot for playing and for such a detailed and constructive feedback! Working on a post jam version, and such a feedback helps a lot!

Submitted(+1)

It was hard to understand at first some tutorial would be great. But when I got it, it became great. Love the style, love the idea and gameplay is pretty satisfying. Good job! :)

Developer

Thank you for playing and for the feedback! Yep, working on a tutorial for a post jam version.

Submitted(+1)

Bro, I couldn't even realise the time was passing lol, really fun game, I enjoyed a lot! In my first day I wasn't understanding exactly what I had to do, but the game is really intuitive, so in day two I was already playing the game fine and everything is good, really good job, congrats!!

Developer(+1)

Thank you for playing and for the feedback! Definitely have to add a tutorial on day one.

Submitted

Not easy to understand at first, the text is sometimes not very legible. Otherwise, I like the visuals and the background music :)

Developer

Thank you for playing and for the honest feedback! I’m taking notes :)

Submitted(+1)

Nice concept for a jam and it is some how more aligned with a theme. It was bit confusing in the start but later it clicked in my mind. good work.  

Developer

Thanks for playing and for the feedback!

Submitted(+1)

This ran really smooth for a WebGL 3D game, so already good job there. The whole vibe of the game is simply pleasant. The music, colorful look, and audio track are all so cheerful. And the SFX is nice on the ears. Considering how frantic things get later, the SFX never feels harsh or annoying.

Once I understood the instability mechanic, I started really getting into it. Early on, I thought I was being clever by stashing books wherever there was space, but that backfired fast lol. After realizing that though, I started thinking about the layout and the flow, and that's when it got really addictive. The side shelves becoming my chaos/curse dump was a turning point. Also seeing the coins physically pile up in front of you was so satisfying, and a good design choice. I kept replaying just to optimize. Trying to shave seconds, reorganize smarter, survive longer, etc.

If this ever grows beyond the jam version, maybe there's room for some kind of bonus for really fast fulfillment. Like scaling rewards if you beat the timer by a big margin or something. Thought I can see how that might clash with the later pacing, so maybe it's already balanced intentionally. Just throwing ideas around.

Really fun game though and it definitely has that one-more-run feeling.

Developer(+1)

Thank you very much for playing and for the detailed feedback!

Submitted(+1)

Great game!

Developer

Thanks for playing!

Submitted(+1)

Very cool. The textures didn't load on Safari, but I got the greyscale experience. The coins being "physical" and dropping was very amusing. Excellent work!

Developer

Thanks for playing and for the feedback! Yeah, I still have to figure out how to properly do shaders and materials so Apple devices can handle them :(

Submitted(+1)

Nice game! I really enjoyed it. I was a little confused at first about how the game worked, I think maybe a tutorial could have helped? But once you understand the concept, it's really addictive haha

Good job! :)

Developer

Thanks for playing! Yep, tutorial is a must here, working on it!

Submitted(+1)

Thoroughly enjoyed that! Great job :>

Developer

Thank you for playing!

Submitted(+1)

WARNING: You won't notice how much time passed after playing this, Try if you don't trust me

cheers, Silent Comet

Developer

Thank you for playing and for the feedback!

Submitted(+1)

I REALLY enjoyed this!!!!

This was actually way more addictive than I expected. At first I was kinda confused and just clicking around trying to understand what was happening, but once it clicked, it REALLY clicked. I ended up getting super invested in optimizing shelves and planning ahead for orders.

The vibe is strong too. The music and visuals fit the theme really well and make the whole thing feel cohesive instead of just “jam assets thrown together.” Completing a big order and seeing the payoff felt genuinely satisfying.

If I had to nitpick, the start is a bit rough. It’s not obvious what you should focus on in the first few minutes, so a tiny bit of guidance would go a long way. Also, sometimes it felt like I got unlucky with what spawned versus what was being requested, which could get a bit frustrating. 

But overall, nice work!! You made a great game!!!!

Developer

Thank you for playing and for such a detailed feedback! Happy you liked the game beside the rough start, I surely have to work on tutorial and RNG control.

Submitted(+1)

Nice game! The visuals and atmosphere are great. The gameplay is enjoyable, and the 7-day length feels just right for a game jam. Allowing orders to be partially fulfilled is also a really nice decision.  Just a tiny nitpick: during the instability effect, the curse and chaos look a bit similar at first glance. Great work overall!

Developer(+1)

Thank you for playing and for the honest feedback! I’m taking notes📝!

Submitted

The art style and the medieval vibes music really set a great mood! I would suggest a quick in-game tutorial to help with that initial learning curve, other than this great! Congratulations!

Developer

Thank you for playing! Yep, tutorial section is must have, working on it for a post jam version!

Submitted

Really good idea to implement in a game! Once you catch it, it's really addictive. Good job! :)

Developer

Thank you for playing and for the kind words!

Submitted(+1)

I liked the visual style, and the gameplay is very creative! Good game

Developer

Thank you for playing and for the feedback.

Submitted(+1)

hey, first of all i really like the audio and visuals of this, medieval music is one of my favorites. the gameplay was also pretty polished, good job. i just found a bit annoying that the books and then the orders were so random because i collected a lot fire and not a single water in one round and the orders were mainly for water. but it felt satisfying to buy all of the shelfs ngl.

overall i really enjoyed this, thank you :D

Developer

Hi!

Thank you for playing and for the honest review! I definitely need to get this random under control in a post jam version!

Submitted(+1)

Very interesting game design I don't think I've played anything like it and I really enjoyed it! Super cool to see the coins drop after completing a complex request and then the strategy of expanding your storage. I think a quick in game tutorial at the start of the basics would make the game shine as it took me a while to figure out what was going on :) One solo dev to another, awesome job!

Developer(+1)

Thank you so much for playing, for the kind words and for the honest review! Yeah, tutorial is a must have here, need to add it in a post jam version!

Viewing comments 32 to 13 of 32 · Next page · Last page