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Notes from Strange Places's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Gameplay | #15 | 4.083 | 4.083 |
| Innovation | #38 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Enjoyment | #54 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Theme | #105 | 4.042 | 4.042 |
| Overall | #105 | 3.736 | 3.736 |
| Visuals | #454 | 3.458 | 3.458 |
| Audio | #601 | 2.833 | 2.833 |
Ranked from 24 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?
You are exploring liminal spaces that behave strangely
What code and assets did you not make from scratch during the jam (if any)?
Reused some textures and movement code from older projects, plus most of the textures and sounds in the game were created from free assets found on the internet. All models are original
How many people worked on the game?1
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Comments
Such a cool game. This notepad makes puzzles more interesting. Yeah the graphics are not ideal but I think it suits the game. Great job!
The game has really good mechanics and ideas (love the labyrinth). And I like the way you take notes. Anyway good job !
Great puzzles and well executed game overall! I also struggled with the key part and didnt need the notebook for the labyrinth at all. So there you could increase the difficulty if others also experienced the same.
The notebook mechanic is a really nice touch, I’d love to see that feature used more in games.
The puzzles are engaging, I did struggle a bit with the key one at first.
A little more audio feedback could make it even better.
Great job overall, especially as a solo developer! 💚
I’d love to hear your thoughts on our game as well if you get the chance.
Always appreciate a non-Euclidean puzzle game! I think this was a really clever variety of puzzles. I found the maze confusing in somewhat a good way: a non-Euclidean hedge maze is a really fun idea, but because it is confusing, I just randomly took turns and brute forced it which is less satisfying as a puzzle. Maybe could have some little clues or something to figure out the correct hedge paths? Some more music and sound effects would have been great to set the settings and mood of the game too. Erasing could have been a bit more powerful/faster just to clear space easer, but that being said, erasing being the back of the pencil was a really nice touch/detail. Overall, I quite enjoyed this game. Great job!
It runs great in browser, which is already a win for a 3D puzzle game. The key puzzle was definitely my favorite. I love the idea of having an in-game notebook, even if I quickly realized I'm terrible at drawing/writing with a mouse lol.
There are some really cool ideas in here though. Clean design, strong puzzles, and never felt unfair. This is one felt thoughtful all the way through. Also I like how you managed to squeeze The All Mighty 'S' in there lol
Really fun puzzles! I liked the idea of the notebook in game, but ended up using an actual notebook so I could see the screen at the same time.
This was genuinely cool as hell. I loved how the environments shift depending on where you look or go - My favorite case of that had to be with the key smithing, where the room incetivizes you to see the setup first before it shifts itself and then you find the reference key.
Puzzle wise, this is case where it got better and better - I loved the morse code puzzle where you have to write numbers down. It was really satisfying to solve that on my own. It's geniuinely a really well designed puzzle game all around - On top of that, the atmosphere and immersion in general was absolutely on point.
This has to be one of my favorites from this jam. Great work!
A lote of really good ideas of gameplay, the level design is really good too i was never lost. I'm really impressed by a lot of your mechanics like the drawing or the key. Nice game !
this was a fun play, it gave me the same sort of mystery puzzle feel as blue prince! I found the code in the 4th section to be too small on the screen to make sense of, maybe the ability to zoom in would help. I also wish that the note book didnt obstruct the view of what I was inspecting. I ended up just using an IRL notebook haha. overall very cool! well done!
This is a really cool laminal game! I loved the puzzles and locations! We also have a slightly laminal game, it would be great if you played it
Nice little exploration puzzle game, not going to lie. The puzzles are quite well done too! The key one is genuinely my favourite, kudos on that. I would say that although the notepad system is very handy and would take you huge efforts to make, I ended up not using it much and just relied on my phone camera instead. (Maybe it's just me taking puzzle games too seriously). Not a big fan of 3D mazes with changing layout, though, it felt too "randomly walk and hope for the best" in my opinion. But overall, really nice working on making this game!
Other things I like:
Suggestions:
Thank you for your feedback!
I fully agree with you on all points, only thing I want to say is there actually is a pause menu with a mouse sensitivity setting
Really nice, the notepad is a great touch and really enjoyable to use. I gave up on the key after a few attempts, I knew what I was doing, had a drawing of the shape but couldn't be accurate enough with the shape I cut.
great one! the puzzles are quite polished and well done! notepad is a good idea. for the date keyword: well i'm not sure if everyone agrees on the format of date. some hints would be nice for those who are not using mmddyyyy
Thanks! Funnily enough, I'm also not a fan of that date format, and there is a hint for it, right next to the room with the keypad door
Brilliant. My favourite game so far. Really good variety of puzzles. I don't know how you programmed my handwriting to be better in the notepad than in real life haha. Great work, fellow solo dev!
I managed the key puzzle by the way. The key we're copying is a little difficult to read so it took me a few attempts to get right, but I got there!
Really love the game! Mysterious vibe, fun to solve puzzles... Ragequitted on the key puzzle, great game tho!!
I am a sucker for 3d puzzling game and this was promising! Really like the idea of having a notebook to write down solutions and maybe draw something M-rated on (not that I would ever do that of course). Sadly I got stuck on the key puzzle and I even tried clicking on the lock but nothing happened, I dont know if I did something wrong or if it's not working so let me know and I might try it again if I have time :)
The first two levels were great though so good job!
Man, I really need to make that key puzzle clearer lol. Only thing that comes to mind is that you need to first take the key out of the machine, and then go to the lock and click it
This is very well executed! Puzzle games are hard to make and I thought yours did it very well. The puzzles didn't feel too challenging (except maybe that key one, struggled with that!) and the way you laid out every level made it very clear for the player what they are supposed to do - which I like! It feels like a tutorial without a blob of text. I did notice one issue - it looks like you only grab the mouse after some movement input, and this resets after interacting with something. For example if I click E on an item, then when I go back I can move my mouse off screen. Otherwise it was great! The environment secretly changing behind you is a nice, subtle touch as well.
Thank you! It's really nice hearing that, as this was my first attempt at making a puzzle game. The mouse issue is classic webgl shenanigans, the workaround is to click after each interaction that unlocks the mouse
Great puzzle game! I was stuck in the key one, but the comments here helped me out. I liked the notebook system, was really cool. Great job!
These are good ideas (especially the notebook system), and the game deserves to be polished further.
I got stuck on the key crafting system. I thought I had correctly replicated the one from the other room, but maybe there’s something else I missed? I was wondering if the little drawings that get added to the notebook might be clues to something.
In any case, congratulations on your game.
Thanks! I see lots of people are getting stuck on the key. Did you click the lock after taking the key?
No, I didn’t realize I had to do that.
Yeah, I gotta add some kind of hover tooltip for clickable things after the jam ends