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A jam submission

Castaway DudeView game page

Submitted by Function Unknown Studio (@func_studio) — 47 minutes, 22 seconds before the deadline
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Castaway Dude's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
I appreciate the mood/atmosphere#124.1094.421
I appreciate the art/visual style#154.0604.368
I appreciate the sound design and/or music#203.5223.789
Overall#243.3433.598
I would buy a longer/commercial version of this game#302.4702.658
I appreciate the game-feel (responsiveness of interactions)#333.1553.395
I find this game's challenge/puzzles interesting or compelling#352.7152.921
This game was intuitive and self-explanatory#473.3753.632

Ranked from 38 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Jam Entry Confirmation
Indie Game Clinic collab jam 26

The Team
Bruce Nicou : Game design, programming and music (Some pixel art)
Natascha Nicou (Wife) : Pixel art (Some game design)

Other Credits
GDC Free audio samples for audio samples

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Comments

Submitted

Love the art and how chill it is!

Developer

Thank you we appreciate it!

Submitted

I thought this game was wonderful. It was nice having a single-screen crafting game with a clear beginning and end. I was curious if adding some other survival things (hunger/thirst) could be fun to play with in a larger game, but I really enjoyed the simplicity as-is. I was having a bit of trouble seeing the greyed out crafting icons in the blueprints, but I figured em out eventually. Great music too
Here's a playtest

Developer

Thanks so much for playing and making a YouTube video of the jam games! Survival elements was part of the game idea but the scope was too large so we left it out for the jam. We are continuing work on the game post-jam and cramming in everything we couldn't fit during the jam. This will also include making the crafting recipes much clearer.

Submitted

I really appreciate this sort of linear, narrative game for a gamejam. The pixel art and music feels very passionate. Like some have said, the gray outline for items were a little hard to see and I didn't discover them right away. Fishing didn't immediately appear to give what I needed, but I eventually went back to it because the trees clearly weren't giving me what I needed to finish the raft (and I discovered I was right). Something like driftwood floating in the water might indicate the ability to get wood from fishing more clearly.

Developer

Thanks for playing and glad you enjoyed it! There are definitely some areas that need adjusting and polishing and we will address those as well as add more content soon.

Submitted

Nicely polished! Nicely textured pixel art without being too overwhelming!

Starting out was very intuitive but progression became a bit unclear as I went on, though that could be par for the course in a point and click kind of game (despite no pointing and clicking) if that's the direction you want to take it in. Great vibes all round though!

Developer

Thanks so much! We will be fixing issues and adding content after the jam.

Submitted

I was puzzled on what I can do and what to do at first. I could build hut and bon fire but that's about them.

I'm lacking materials and I couldn't find any clue on how to find those stuffs.

Developer

Thanks for playing. Some items are hidden on the island and others can be fished out , the seagulls also sometimes drop items.

Submitted

The pixel art and atmosphere is wonderful and sucked me in immediately, and I quickly understood what I needed to do. But then I got stuck building the raft, I needed certain types of wood and the seagulls were only giving me fishes.

It was only after reading the comments here that I realized I can fish for parts, I tried the fishing before for a little bit but nothing happened, so I assumed it wasn’t implemented yet :) With the fishing I got some of the missing pieces, then had to wait for several minutes until it was giving me the final wood pieces (most of it was just fish).

I really like this kind of puzzle adventure game, and would love to see an extended version!

Developer

Glad you liked and thanks for playing. 

The game still needs more work, balance and content. We are going to do just that.  

Submitted

Fun game! Really love the vibes and the music. Found the gameplay a little unintuitive - I wish it progression was a bit more clear after the first two structures are built.

Developer

Thanks for the input and playing. We had some ideas to clarify things but not enough time. But we will be adding it after the jam.

Submitted(+1)

I really enjoyed the art style on this one, captured that retro screen saver feel perfectly. I found myself pretty confused on how the construction worked for a while, I didn't realize the grey items were just indicators telling me what I needed to use, they looked to me like in-world items that I couldn't interact with for some reason. Maybe it could show the items in a little bubble only when you approach something under construction. I also didn't really like that I had to fish to find pretty much any of the necessary items after a certain point. There was a particularly bad issue I experienced with the fishing too where I believe it'll only give you the next item you need to use and nothing more, and it had given me a rope but the rope somehow landed under the grey indicator for a rope, and I didn't realize it was there. So I just sat there fishing for a few minutes, wondering why I wasn't getting anything hahaha. Other than those issues though, I really liked it. It looked beautiful and the atmosphere was impeccable. Good stuff!

Developer(+1)

Hi and thanks for the detailed comments. All of these issues will be fixed after the jam plus more content will be added. 

Submitted

A nice little game, the only thing I wish there was is some kind of tutorial or on-screen guide on controls. Yes, by trying all solutions you will find the buttons you need to use, but I wouldn't call that self-explanatory. 

The art is lovely and the atmosphere relaxing. Towards the end the wait for materials started to feel a bit long, but I guess one could call that an immersive experience. :D

Developer

Thanks for the input. We will be continuing the game after the jam to fix issues and add content more content.

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

I love this one, and considering the material that inspired it, I'd say you did a fantastic job.  The art and sound worked very well together, the pixel art was especially standout.  It felt intuitive, for sure.

There seems to be a pity system for items?  Great decision, I would've been stuck!

Developer

That is correct, there is a semi-random system for items that favors giving an item not on the island. Glad you liked it.

Submitted(+1)

I felt sad leaving the island. I was having a rave on the island with the seagulls going past. I was hoping to fish up a volleyball and call it Wilson.

Really good job on the submission!

Developer

Congrats on your escape from the island! We have so many things we still wanted to add to the game and we too really enjoyed how it came out so we decided to continue working on it after the jam. So please, expect more...

Submitted(+1)

Beautiful game! Very well polished "juice", the art and music serve the vibe nicely. Intuitive and clear for the most part, both in terms of how you can interact with the world and what you need to do. I do think how many items you can get from fishing could be signaled better, I got a lot of fish in a row and thought that was all that was left to it so wasted a lot of time searching for other options, when the last log I needed had to be fished out.

Developer

Thanks for appreciating our game! Unfortunately we were running out of time (Submitted 30 minutes before closing ) and as a result we had to hack a few systems just to have the game functional. Fortunately, we will be continuing development of the game (after jam) to fix these issues and ad more content.

Submitted(+1)

What a gem! Glad I gave it a play. Beautiful art and sound. Ive never felt an affinity to seagulls before today.

Developer

I know right? Those seagulls! We even made the game icon a seagull. Glad you enjoyed it!

Host(+1)

This was really lovely! I've just been going through a lot of the download-only entries to make sure they get played and rated and feedback from someone and this feels like the strongest game I've looked at so far.
The mood and atmosphere is great; I only didn't rank it higher for sound because it wasn't made within the team, but the music choice was pretty perfect and made it feel like a chill little virtual-pet type experience. I got up to the point where I was building the boat and then I started to find that some of the ui didn't match with the items I needed to actually find, and also it became less interesting once I was just fishing for junk and waiting for the right item to show up.

This entry felt like you really understood the spirit of the jam and focussed on a very limited set of interactions, and a clear implicit goal, and then putting the time and effort in on UX/visual communication stuff for the mechanics. Great. 

Developer

Thank you very much for hosting the jam and playing our game. We really focused on what was expected  from the jam and it's awesome to see it appreciated. It was pretty hard but very much worth the effort.


I completely understand rating lower on audio but I just want to clarify that the music track was made for the jam using Fl Studio and only the sound fx was sourced from the GDC free packs.

Submitted(+1)

This was excellent, took me awhile to figure out some of the elements. I wish you had made this a WebGL build so more people would check it out, it's definitely one of the best in terms of art/theme/feel/audio!

Developer

Hi I'm really glad you liked it. I really wanted to have a web build but upon testing the game it didn't have sound for some reason.

Submitted(+1)

Calm little experience. Enjoyed the building and finding out what was next. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get the camp fire going... I fished and fished to see if I would get a wooden log but nothing :(
Despite that, I appreciated the old school graphics and calming setting.

Developer

Hi, glad you liked it and sorry you got stuck.

Spoiler:

 Maybe look out for the hidden log? Materials for the Shelter and Campfire are all on the island.

Submitted(+1)

Beautyful & Cozy!

Developer

Thank you!

Submitted(+1)

This reminded me a lot of an old screensaver called "Johnny Castaway". And it really felt like it too, while fishing for all the parts to make a raft. 
I think rating it based on its compellingness is unfair, since it didn't seem to be trying for that, so as a cozy experience, I'd say it was laid back, and the island was nice to look at and the music calming to listen to while I chilled out.

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Hi. The inspiration most definitely came from Johnny Castaway screensaver. This game idea has been on my plate for a while now. I just always thought it would be a nice game. 


We leaned hard into making it a calming experience so thanks for appreciating it.

Submitted(+1)

It's great but I got soft lock during the raft building I was missing wood and the birds were not dropping planks.

Developer

Hi, glad you like it and  sorry to hear you got stuck.


Spoiler:

The game only allows item drops if there is no other such item on the island.  Did you look around for any hidden items? This is probably the case, hope it helps.