Play distraction
Distraction Therapy's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| I appreciate the mood/atmosphere | #22 | 3.745 | 3.745 |
| I appreciate the art/visual style | #31 | 3.600 | 3.600 |
| This game was intuitive and self-explanatory | #37 | 3.727 | 3.727 |
| I appreciate the sound design and/or music | #42 | 3.109 | 3.109 |
| Overall | #45 | 2.969 | 2.969 |
| I would buy a longer/commercial version of this game | #59 | 1.927 | 1.927 |
| I find this game's challenge/puzzles interesting or compelling | #59 | 2.200 | 2.200 |
| I appreciate the game-feel (responsiveness of interactions) | #63 | 2.473 | 2.473 |
Ranked from 55 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Jam Entry Confirmation
Indie Game Collab Jam 26
The Team
Garry Gatling - Programmation and Music
Paul Ward - Art
Other Credits
flowing grayscale waves - stockcake
griffith park 49747 - freesound community
neonlight highpitch 7058 - freesound community
steam 2 36231 - freesound community
water drops 26638 - freesound community
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Comments
I'm pretty sure those toys with the long curvy wires and rings that run through them just manifest from thin air into hospitals and dentist's waiting rooms, nobody has ever made or purchased one, they just show up outta nowhere. Very cool theme, you get the feeling that these toys don't really bring any joy to the boy.
I had a lot of trouble with rotating the blocks, it felt like I had pretty much no control at all, so the toy of getting all the blocks into one box felt more like gambling where I'd just spin a block quickly, pray it goes into the hole somehow, and reset if one fell behind the box. And you can break a few of the other puzzles entirely, like the one where you try and get a yellow peg to the end of a maze can be solved by ripping all of the black pegs out of the frame completely, or phasing the yellow peg through the walls to the end.
Nice attention to the individual toys. I thought the solution for rotating the pieces was quite novel. The visual and sound style was definitely communicating a mood, and it was nice to see a game trying to work through some deep emotions. I would have enjoyed some slightly more concrete solutions for each of the puzzles, but I get the point was just fiddling with something to pass the time. Maybe sometimes there is no obvious solution, and things just are the way they are.
Anyways, thanks for allowing me to reflect a bit, here's a playtest
Thanks for the kind words and the playtest, I did watch it and commented on the video! Thanks and good luck!
This is a pretty unique game! I gave it a try, but I didn't make it all the way to the end. No idea what I was supposed to do on the green puzzle. LOL
you just have to put the red pin inside the hole/spiral at the bottom, but it is true there is no colour showing it, apologies for this oversight.
I was giggling to myself when doing the children’s wooden shape-sorter toy puzzle. I wanted to put everything in the square hole like the meme, and it worked! 10/10 in my book.
Pretty heavy theme narratively, but you tie the puzzles in nicely.
Great Submission!
The game felt pretty intuitive, but some of the puzzles finished before I thought I was done.
The controls are very fiddly but I guess also hard to get right in this kind of game. I got to the roundabout puzzle (maybe the last one?) but was unable to complete it due to the top-down perspective (how do I drag pieces upwards?), and some pieces falling outside of the screen :)
Would have really appreciated a fullscreen mode to see things more clearly.
the finishing early is intentional, although intentionnally frustrating. for the roundabout, the red car needs to go to the hospital, thats it. the other toys re just a throzback and purely aesthetic, but realise now maybe it would have been better to make them not respond to mouse clicks, apologies
nice weird mood.
narrative is pretty clear, puzzles suffer from physics issues like objects flying off but its a common issue with this style of controls
I never quite knew if I had properly "completed" a puzzle but I think it fit the experience well. Thank you!
i wanted the puzzles to end early, like not completed, because it would make you feel like you don't have enough time, but not with an actual timer
I think it achieved that really well.
Nice short narrative with simple gameplay. Really liked the dichotomy of the playful toys and the hospital scenes. It goes in the square hole
... but what about the cylinder?
There were a number of sticky points throughout. The block matching puzzle, I couldn't get the physics to cooperate and get the blocks to fit in the holes. The rose & vase, I couldn't move any of the roses for a while . . .? And then I could? There were some scenes, like the playmat, where I was clueless on what the game was asking from me, and I still don't know what I did that advanced that scene.
The idea is there, and it does communicate distraction therapy. I probably would've leaned further into the "warioware" designspace, and made the kid's toys puzzles bright and musical and dopamine-y and a little bit action-paced, but the slow, serious tone over the distractions serves the theme and atmosphere well.
The playmat scene is a logic puzzle. I appreciate the feedback, we will probably go back and adjust these things once the jam is over.
hard hitting and interesting! i found some of the physics a little tricky to use but very interesting overall. you know i put everything in the square hole btw
The narrative was perfect. Would've just liked the physics and interactions to go a little smoother, so that I wasn't fighting with the mechanics and could immerse myself into the story some more.
The puzzles were extremely intuitive!
The combination of physical childhood puzzles and story was an excellent one. You don't even need to be that explicit in your visuals, just audio and the paraphernalia is evocative enough.
The puzzle box reminded me of the viral video "which hole does this shape go into?" "That's right, the square hole"
thanks for the kind words, the meme of the hole popped in my mind too while making it :) i understand the physics give a bit of resistance, but i feel that with puzzles this simple, it gives a little bit of friction. though it can probably be fine tuned
You could, for example, pick up a block by it's tip, then the weight of that block vs where your pivot point is would make it rotate to a more vertical position.
Also I appreciate that you have the little cone to help demonstrate where the object is in 3d space, but perhaps a more explicit drop shadow / blob shadow would help line things up easier.
Thanks for your kind words! Always pick the easiest hole to get in to. um. In the game.
This captured how surreal it feels trying to just be a kid despite constantly being in and out of the hospital. Great job.
Thank you for your kind words
Excellent narrative design!
I got to the part with the empty wheelchair and flowers
thats the end :) thanksfor playing
I’m not sure what I just experienced, but I still enjoyed it :)
Fancy seeing u here :D