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The Journey for the Northwest Passage's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Theme | #7 | 4.163 | 4.333 |
| Accessibility | #42 | 2.802 | 2.917 |
| Fun | #43 | 3.122 | 3.250 |
| Overall | #55 | 3.008 | 3.131 |
| Controls | #56 | 2.962 | 3.083 |
| Audio | #72 | 2.562 | 2.667 |
| Originality | #74 | 2.882 | 3.000 |
| Graphics | #78 | 2.562 | 2.667 |
Ranked from 12 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Godot Version
4.5.1
Theme Interpretation
Players engage in an expedition to map the infamous Northwest Passage, inspired by the multiple expeditions through the Canadian north to find a trade route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Wildcards Used
Cartographer
Map a new world as you explore it
Discord Username(s)
QuickSilver [QuickSilver1095]
GWJ Participation Level
1
Team Size
1
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Comments
Nice, short and fun. I think the exploration dynamic could be pushed further. 100% within the theme
I just finished playing it and found it pretty enjoyable to play. The map-uncovering mechanic is very interesting but I feel like it is a bit underused - what is the meaning of uncovering the map / passage mechanically? I would like to see that one fleshed out in a future iteration (if there is one). thanks for uploading!
Thanks for the feedback, I may do a version 2 at some point with the feedback I've received to polish it up. At present the intention of the map was to produce a map along the northwest passage similar to the intent of the original expeditions that inspired the game, but I could make that more explicit within the game design itself and have it be more essential to the win condition in the future. I'm glad you enjoyed the playthrough though!
Looks like we had similar ideas for the game! Although your map and sprites look much better, I had to rush some programmer art and never had the time to improve later.
Some notes that I took:
Finally, great choice of narrative framework, I'll go and listen to the song by Stan Rogers now. :)
Thanks for your feedback! I had similar concerns about the UI midway through development but then decided to lean into it after spending a while playtesting and ended up liking the way it restricted overall view a little. The delay for the polar bears is intentional, I was actually having an issue with the way my code base spawned their drop and tried to solve it through slashing their movement speed and having them die for a second while still moving towards you. Although I'm not sure that landed quite how I intended it initially. In the future I'd probably end up creating a global audio manager instead of having the audio linked to individual instances of enemies to simplify my code honestly. The transition I handled through adding a bool data value to water and transition tiles and having character bodies check whether over_water=true before starting their loop, which helped to keep the trappers over land and trigger my animation transitions on movement.
As for the map reveal, that involved more troubleshooting that I'd like to admit haha. But I took a screenshot of my total Playable area, and had a global script track player position compared to total map size to get a percentage value of how far they had traveled, then have that update my player marker and my reveal circle. The screenshotted map was underneath a texture that I updated by creating a transparent section at the point of reveal. With that I had to dial it in for quite a while because my math was wrong initially and nothing was lining up 😅
That sounds like a fun challenge! Follow-up question: how do you determine if the exploration is completed (aka the win condition)? Does the player have to only reach the finish point, or do you require a % mapping of the righ path?
The win condition was set based on the expeditions that inspired the game, so as long as you successfully navigate through the Northwest passage (pacific to atlantic through the arctic), you get the win screen. I tried to give a bit of an in game hint on the map as well with the dotted like sketched across from the start to finish, but after playing some other titles I realize I could have made the progression direction a bit more clear.
This was really nicely executed and has an old-school vibe to it. I can imagine something similar on the NES or the Amiga.
Turning snowflakes and storms into enemies is a really clean, simple way to include the dangers of cold weather.
I was a little sad that there was no music. When I saw the title, I was sure I'd get to hear a chiptune cover of Stan Rogers...
It was a tough call to remove the in-game music, but in the end I wanted to go for a more barren feel to the environment, which ended up being just the footsteps and sailing sounds. I agree that the right 8-bit style theme music could polish the game nicely.
Uncovering map games are fun! Although I think it could have been a little harder (either less health or more polar bears and (Navy) SEALS). I really like the idea of using the real map but maybe a little more ice could have been added to make it more maze like. Still really enjoyed it though.
This game has a similar concept to my game - it's interesting how the same rough idea can lead to different games.
Navy seals is an idea I wish I had a week ago haha, it would have been easy to implement as well. More ice to make things more maze-like would also have rounded it out a bit more. I checked out your map and quite liked what you did with the diversions and misleads, I should have paid more attention to the discord during the jam to see what other devs were up to, glad to hear you enjoyed it though!
I never knew I wanted to shoot a polar bear with a cannon, but here we are! The controls responded nicely, but it was really hard to avoid the tornados/storms in the ocean, not sure they roam randomly, but I felt personally attacked haha
I spent a while trying to dial in the controls to make them smooth so it's good to hear it paid off. The ocean storms can be tricky to dodge if they catch you in the wrong spot, believe it or not they originally threw twice as many hail balls before I decided it would be a good idea to dial it down a notch haha