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Martian Manipulator's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Art | #79 | 3.958 | 3.958 |
| Polish | #104 | 3.292 | 3.292 |
| Gameplay | #129 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Audio | #152 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Overall | #193 | 2.833 | 2.833 |
| Limitation | #224 | 2.250 | 2.250 |
| Theme | #358 | 1.500 | 1.500 |
Ranked from 24 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
The game looks very polished and interesting to play, and it includes some complex systems like path finding, NPC trust + emotions, and buildings. But the core game loop now is simply solo among us (wait 15sec to kill next guy with no strategy), which doesn't take advantages on the systems you have at all. I believe it could be some kind of fun base construction/management game with further developments.
Yeah, I think youāre right. The killing ability is kind of a mistake and teaching it as the first thing and only real thing in the tutorial that you do is a bad idea. Iām going to remove the killing ability so you are forced to use mind control and actually interact with the game.
Very nice arts. However, due to the subpixel positioning, or float value scaling, it shifts and flickers quite a bit (on web).
I like systemic and emergent games a lot, but this one is too poorly explained to be enjoyable as is. There seems to be a lot of content and mechanics in the game that seems fun, but if Iām struggling to understand how to even interact with the game in the first place, itās not a good time. I would strongly suggest next time you plan your jam so that thereās at least some time left to do some tutorial, especially if itās a complex game like this. Or if all else fails, you could make various gifs and graphics, or video explaining how to play the game on the game page itself so it could be viewed if someone is so inclined. Less than ideal, but better than nothing because Iām sorry to say, walls of text donāt suffice as game instructions for game of this complexity.
The controlling mechanic itself seems a bit awkward to control. You have to press too many buttons to do give one simple instruction.
The menu music is nice, but no music in-game is a shame. Everything else seems to be very polished though. Sounds are good. Thereās lots of animations.
If thereās a post-jam update, Iām interested to try it out again.
Iām sorry you werenāt able to understand the game.
Iām not sure how much we want to keep developing this game but if we do decide to develop it further weāre going to playtest it and make a more dedicated tutorial.
The controlling mechanic is hard because you either do what we did or end up having 3 extra options upfront as abilities (too much). And for each ability you have to select both a target to possess and the target for the ability the possessed person is doing, adding at least 2 more button presses. We could remove the selection dropdown and just have it be a list of buttons, but that would only remove 1 button press (which we would do if we decide to do a post-jam update).
I know itās not enough, but to supplement the lack of instruction, we added more in-game text and also text below the iframe of the game. We did leave time to do a tutorial, but I think youāre right to say we need a complex tutorial for a complex game and obviously didnāt leave enough.
I agree that it isnāt very fun if you donāt know whatās happening, but Iām actually kind of glad that the problem is interface and tutorial and not the actual core game (as far as I know), and it only needs some testing (which is definitely doable; better than throwing the entire idea in the trash).
I appreciate the honest feedback.
It's like a solo version of among us. I couldn't really figure out mind control etc. Everything seemed to go into slow motion when interacting with others... outside of killing. Killing was quick.
right click on people to mind control them
Yes. Mind control goes in slow motion when selecting the target of the personās action. Select the target for the action or press escape to leave mind control.
Okay that makes sense. It was just really slow and I wasn't sure if it was a lag issue or on purpose. Thank you.
such a cute game !
pretty ambitious, i like
very cool & ambitious game and very polished. Was a bit confused at first, especially when building stuff for people didn't register as a quest completion, but once I got the hang of it it was smooth sailing :]
Since a lot of people were confused by our game I'm making this comment:
Quite the ambitious game with lots of ideas, i did get a bit confused at first but I got the swing of things quickly. Love the pixel art and atmosphere (or lack there of since its mars). Great job!
Thanks! I hope you enjoyed it! Yeah, thereās a lot going on, and itās kinda intended to be a sandbox experience. I really didnāt think we would be able to finish all that we had planned but somehow 90% of the cool stuff made it in.
im the artist so im glad you enjoyed the atmosphere, i put a lot of time into that
Its a very nice game but I couldn't figure out how to do most of the things like building or what mind control did, very well made otherwise!
Glad you enjoyed it. You can use mind control by right clicking someone (the phrase RMB is kinda confusing since it means "right mouse button" (which no one on earth says)). Building is explained in-game after leaving the starting room (also on the game page)
This is a very cool idea and the visuals are great! I had a hard time figuring out how to do most things, e.g. buildings didn't seem to build, and not sure what mind control or break did? Maybe a tutorial explaining how to use each of the features before starting would help a lot.
mind control can be used by right clicking an npc. Break destroys buildings which causes explosions. There's a tutorial for building after leaving the first room and everything else is explained on the game's page (separate from the jam page for some reason)
Nice work I especially like the artwork it feels cohesive and adds to the experience. Slow mo was cool I got caught in it for a while and was confused but it felt polished! I didn't see a connection to the theme or limitation but still I enjoyed it thanks for sharing!
the connection to the theme was the player giving false orders to the other npcs to have them kill for him. also npcs building things that will be used to kill them
fair enough cool stuff!
ty
Nice deal of polish, it feels super fluid. Great VFX and the pixel art is juicy too! The entry is completely unrelated to the jam theme and limitation but very fun nonetheless!
Yeah idk how but we forgot that the theme of the jam was summer, but we did integrate the limitation by making it so you can command people to build things that donāt actually help the colony but people think they do. Like o2 cans that seem useful but actually just explode and kill people. We also made it so you are the leader of a mars colony and you have to help everyone, but your job is actually to kill everyone.
Not sure how this ties to the theme of Summer but I guess it was quite fun. The game did remind me of Party Hard but the level here is quite big I think, could maybe split into many smaller levels so it smooths out the experience a bit more.
Pretty cutesy art and animation as well, the sprites are adorable.
Uh yeah we kinda realized that we took the limitation as the theme about halfway through and thought about shoehorning in summer stuff, but we didnāt end up following through on that. Thanks for the comment!
this game taught me some hard truths about myself
xD
My first impression was Streets of Rogue (or Escapists!). My second was Among Us. Wow, what a premise huh. I wonder if it's just my pc but I couldn't play the windows port. The browser ran like butter but yeah mind control was the laggy part... I got like 2 frames or something...
The art is just breathtaking, and I loved the mini physics system, I could interact with floating pieces of paper? I can just kill them, or move them, or build weird little things.
There's a lot of depth into this and wow, impressive!
mind control is not laggy it just slows time. unfortunately if you aren't near anybody else when this activates then you get stuck in it. thank you for the kind words though
I just updated the windows port to fix the crashing issue. Give it a try if you have the time!
this game was so smooth and well polished! the pixel art is super crisp and the particles are extra juicy with lots of crunch. i had fun making people morder each other then accidently had somebody explode themselves and got exploded. really amazing project! c:
thank you! i spent a while on the particles and extra polish. glad you figured out the explosions a lot of ppl missed that
Love the artstyle and it has Among Us vibe with nice pixel art. While the web build's controls can feel a bit lagging during mind-control but overall is a great game. It would be great if multiplayer mode is added in the future.
Multiplayer! I actually didnāt think of that somehow. I think it could be cool if itās similar to among us but there are many npcs you and your friends all have to kill everyone as aliens.
Loving the amongus vibe! great work on the artwork aswell!!
ty!!