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The Colors We Forgot's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Most Innovative | #4 | 3.750 | 3.750 |
| Best Christian Teaching | #6 | 3.250 | 3.250 |
| Best Overall | #6 | 3.333 | 3.333 |
| Best Mood | #8 | 3.417 | 3.417 |
| Most Fun | #11 | 2.917 | 2.917 |
Ranked from 12 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
AI Asset Generating Tools
ChatGPT
Grok
UpScayler
Suno
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Comments
Interesting mechanics, and the balancing of them must have been cool, I got stuck a few times on playthroughs. GG
well, actually there was only very little balancing done unfortunately. Started playtesting only on last two days, and was more of focused making sure it is completeable rather than actually trying to properly balance it.
basically i just made it so that the last level is at least a bit challenging and completeable, and then i made other levels easier, figuring out that there is anyway bit of challenge in them in figuring out how things work. Meant to balance them more carefully, but I think it about worked anyway.
Man, level one was rough, but once I figured it out, it was pretty fun! I was able to ignore the tower defense elements by just repairing, though. I like the concept, that felt pretty fresh and original.
thanks for playing. Realised while playtesting tgat you probably can beat the game just by repairing, but decided to leave it that way, since was worried someone might not figure out how defensive pillars work, as I didnt have time to implement any system to hint about how to use them (mainly the point that it had two different hotspots).
It does become mechanical then, and you do miss the main game loop basically then (which is about balancing between towers and building the beacon), but at least you can complete it.
I was extremely impressed with this game. I nearly gave up during the first level -- thinking that it wasn't a finished game -- but I decided to just click around and eventually I started to see the patterns. The storyline of the apprentice figuring things out that were forgotten felt really thematic, and it was actually the hook that kept me playing through this time of discovery, and I really enjoyed that feeling of figuring things out as I went -- it almost felt like Myst that way -- where you're presented with these undocumented puzzles from a world long-forgotten, and there is immense satisfaction in getting them to do something.
I think I beat the game (I hope I didn't accidentally click through the final cutscene, as it felt rather short, and when I tried to click "Continue" afterwards, it just went to a black screen?) -- but I really enjoyed the writing and the voice-acting. I'm very glad you didn't use an AI-generated voice for this -- your voice-acting was perfect, and it really drew me into the game. I think your selection and curation of the other AI-generated assets for the game fit together very well, and it was clear you put a lot of thought and care into this.
I don't think I ever learned what the defensive towers were for, and I certainly never got them to fire anything. My strategy for beating the game was to power up my flame generator and always keep a healthy stock of flames and just continually repair my castle.
Power up flames, then power up books, then build the towers, then work on the central beacon. That was my strategy, and it seemed to get me through the game, but after reading comments here, I'm sure there would have been better ways to go.
I really liked how you didn't hold the player's hand through this, but I think you're right -- that a few more indicators (such as hover-over effects, or possibly particle effects to draw the eye) would have helped to build a better intuitive sense of what things were going on. The "repair" icon felt like a "build" or "upgrade" icon, and it was a while before I learned that the bad guys were bad -- I thought it was letting me upgrade my towers or something, but it was difficult to tell. If the central beacon could crumble (instead of just fade away) -- or if there could be a falling stone particle effect -- that might give more indication of what's going on when the bad guys hit it -- but overall I was still able to figure things out and complete the game regardless.
Super good job on the storytelling and the cutscenes and everything -- it was very engaging, and I liked the discovery aspect of the game. It would be nice if there were more "cleverness" to the action of the game (like a match-3 game having some sort of strategic opportunity that could arise) -- as it was, it felt very mechanical towards the end, and I would alternate clicking between the same three spots (flame, book, repair - flame, book, repair) until I could charge my beacon and end the level. Once I figured out the basic mechanics, there was little reward for remaining mentally engaged.
Overall, I really loved the game. The storyline and writing was superb, and the graphical style and all of the elements were very cohesive. I felt like the game held together incredibly well, and I really enjoyed it. Great work!!
Thanks a lot from a long reply.
First, regarding the final cutscene. Run the game again, and Continue the game, and you will now see the cutscene.
I noticed just today myself that there is a bug there, that if after playing the game through, trying to continue journey (meaning, trying to check the final scene again), it will stay on black. I instantly realised where the problem is. I didnt reset my storycrawler after the final cutscene, and therefore, instead of continuing from the save point, it tries to continue after the cutscene, and as there is nothing more there, it just stays black, as it just look that there are no more lines to crawl through, and as nothing was initialized anywhere, it remains a black screen.
But, QUIT the game, and restart the program, and StoryCrawler is not initialized, and therefore correctly continues crawling from the savepoint.
This bug is problem only with the cutscene, elsewhere in the game this bug doesnt happen.
End Cutscene is roughly 4 minutes long. Although, roughly 3 minutes of it are credits, but those credits can be slightly interesting in sense that you get to see those places where you played in full color and full light now, figured that would be somewhat satisfying for the player to get to see the world the player restored.
And yes, regarding the defensive towers, there were two problems with them. First one was AI not doing what I told it to, which was that I told it to make similar looking gem places as that main building had, but even I tried to do it twice, it kept doing it the way it did, hence making it difficult for player to figure out that there are two different hotspots on those deefnsive pillars. That could have eventually been fixed, but as I was using free version of ChatGPT and Grok, I was limited in image generations I could do in a day, which prevented me from trying too much. However, when time extension came, I could have used Grok to fix that actually, but probably forgot about it, concentrating on more essential things, like making the game actually playable and completeable.
Second was that I intended to have some sort of indication about it, light one possibility I was thinking was that there could have been this blinking effect on those hotspots when you build them, this way highlighting that these spots have some meaning, but I didnt have time to implement it. Therefore those defensive towers remained hard to notice and figure out. Although, since this Jams rules told to include instructions for the game, I trusted it would be enough to mention about it on the page, but I guess many dont actually read those game pages before playing, or dont remember about it anymore after starting to play, since there is lot of stuff there anyway to read through, although I do have tried to highlight that defensive tower part in three different ways (in here as reply under the game page, which is alreadhy buried a bit. Then as a first thing in the main page. And finally, as a first thing in instructions part).
I unfortunately didnt really do any playtesting until the last two days, and I was actually wondering myself that the game might be completeable by just repairing the castle. I first wondered should I change it or not, but then I figured, that in case someone doesnt figure out the castles, maybe it is better to leave it as alternative way to complete the game.
I might make better version of this at later point, where I think the repair only becomes an option on second last level or something like that, since I think the first two enemy levels would be more fun if you cant repair the castle, and actually have to use those towers to defend, also forcing player to learn to use them. However, they need to be clearer first then.
Anyway, point was that you were supposed to keep using thsoe defensive towers, and it was all about balancing with them. Idea was that red tower would only hurt red enemies, green one green enemies, and blue one blue enemies. Therefore it was a matter of on which one do you put most power to, since you cant keep much power on all of them. For example, you can have only one of them at that max power of 10, since they decay so fast that you cant keep two of them at 10, it is just not doable, even if concentrating solely on those two, on top of that, you need to keep building the light tower at same time, so you cant realy concentrate all your power on just two defensive pillars either.
I am not sure how the shooting actually works, since there is a bug, and I am not sure what is causing it.
But originally idea was that if you have 1 power, it will hit 1 enemy with 1 damage. If you have 2 power, then it hits 2 enemies, with 2 damage each, 3 power, with 3 damage each, all the way to 10 power hits 10 closest enemies with 10 damage each.
However, enemies come from both sides, therefore there is the question of should you have some power on both sides, as towers also make passive damage once to each enemy as they pass them, or should you perhaps just concentrate on one side of screen, since by using that shooting power, you can damage enemies coming from the other side too, although, then also comes the question of which colored tower should you place closest to the building, since farther away from the center the tower is, harder it is to hit those enemies on other side by shooting, since tower is shooting closest enemies, and especialy if it is the edge most tower, it means that enemies on the same side are always closer than enemies on the other side, meaning you need to be able to shoot all the enemies from your side out, before it reaches to the other side.
So, by other words, you lost a lot of strategy, basically the whole main thing and fun of the game, by having missed the defensive towers, since the fun comes by balancing between defending by which towers, and building the actual light tower.
Anyway, thanks a lot from detailed feedback. And remember, you can now simply run the software again, and click continue journey, and will work.
However, if you accidentally click to end the final cutscene, then you need to once again QUIT the program, and start it again.
Forgot to still comment about the Cathedral disappearing. I was thinking of rumbling etc. at beginning, but those would have needed some more work to get done. I went with transparency disappearance, since I was already using that all around there, therefore it was quick to implement and a cheap effect from making point of view.
It also worked thematically, since idea is that, while you might not really notice it, due to the coloring of the cathedrals, they are actually all in full color and full light. I think I told AI to do it that way, so the player wouldnt necessarily notice that they are in full color and light. For idea is that these cathedrals are not from this world, but they are heavenly things. Therefore they are not affected by the loss of color or light, since they themselves are it.
Also, one of the things is that places of all these cathedrals are known to people of the world, and therefore they could see there are colors and light there, but they have chocen to ignore it. Similarly as we have bible which tells how to live and have a good life, but most people ignore it. They know where to find it, from the bible, but they dont read it. Therefore, similarly even these cathedrals are, and have always been in full color and light, people are ignoring them, and therefore not seeing their colors.
And therefore this transparency fading was suitable way to tell the damage, as enemy cant hurt them, but they can hurt you, the player, to not see them anymore.
Really liked the atmosphere of this one. I think the AI, while it showed, was tasteful enough for a jam. Voiceover work was a really nice touch. I just didn't really get what was happening at all for a little bit since I've never played a game like this but we got there
the lack of instructions was a deliberate choice for two reasons.
1. I took a try at making a game which is intuitive enough that you dont need them. Except for the two hotspots in defensive towers, my guess is rest is figurable easily enough.
2. There was also thematic/story reason for this. Apprentice works through faith. Everyone else thinks this is all there os, while the Apprentice believes there is more since the book says so. So he by faith believes and decides to act upon what the book says, and therefore he also encounters things that others have forgotten / ignore to exist, and have to figure out hinself how to deal with them.
Therefore also the player, who too is one of those who have forgotten the existence of colors and light, will have to figure these new things out.
You could say that through acting in faith you receive light to thing, which reveals new things.
Very enjoyable!
The voice sounds like a particular youtuber that I enjoy following. Do you happen to have a Youtube Channel?
I do have a youtube channel, but not the kind you are looking for, for I have previous years speedgames playtests etc. In them, but I am not talking there.
Well, except for couple of exceptions. Right now with mobile, so harder to give the link.
Very fascinating! I was pretty much figuring it out until the end, which I liked very much. The escalation was very fun.
Yep, part of the fun was supposed to be in figuring things out. Also for thematic reasons, as I just explained in reply to earthfarers comment. As in, Apprentice is only one acting in faith, and therefore he encounters things forgotten/ignored, and has to figure out how those things work, since there is no one to instruct him (except what he read from the book)
there was actually supposed to be a big boss in the game too, already had generated graphics for it, but didnt have time to add it. Idea was that it had been this big black thing that sucks colors, and then you would have needed to damage it with all 3 colors, as in, it would have had separate health for each color. That you couldnt destroy it by just using red, but had to use all red, green, and blue to beat it.
It had been like a final attack to try prevent light coming to world.
Putting here too in hopes people notice this since this is only critical to understand thing that doesnt come out very well in the game.
Defensive Pillars have TWO hotspots in them:
GREEN CIRCLE Increase Power
YELLOW CIRCLE Shoot with the current Power (when 0, it was supposed to be unclickable, but there is either a bug, or I forgot to prevent it)
rest of the instructions you either learn by playing, or are not that critical to understand.
haha, wow -- I had no idea what these towers did. Thank you! I didn't need these in order to beat the game, but I'm sure it would have been a lot easier if I had known what these did!
Replying here too so that those who dont see the other reply would get this information too.
Yes, you can complete the game without towers, I realised while playtesting that it is probably doable, and considered preventing it, but came to conclusion that since those defensive towers are a bit hard to figure out, due to no good hints existing yet, it would be better to let player be able to get through the game, although the alternative way is the boring way, and missing half the fun of the game, since main fun was supposed to be in balancing the power between different colored defensive towers and balancing between whether to use them to passively damage enemies, or use shooting.
Although there are no instructions in game (by purpose), the first level forces you to figure out the basics.
However, the second level introduces the defensive pillars, and that might be difficult to figure out that there are two different places on them to put those embers/jewels, whatever they are.
One place increases the power, second place shoots with the current power level.
Didnt have time to make something that would have hinted about them, was thinking of adding sparkling effect or something on them to indicate player that you can do something with them.
I did mention it in the games page, but theres lot of stuff there, so not sure people will notice it.
Struggling to run this one on OSX -- I unzip the file, but it tells me: "You can't open the application "The Colors We Forgot MacOS64" because it may be damaged or incomplete."
The file is 124.9mb, so I'm guessing the whole thing downloaded -- I should have access to a Windows machine later so I'll try it there eventually
Thanks for letting me know. As Mentioned in the page, the Win64 version is the version I am joining the competition with, the rest, however, should be identical, as in, I just chose the option to compile to them, but have not tried them.
Especially when it comes to MacOS version, there were lots of versions to pick from, like PPC etc. and I chose the x64 version (if I correctly recall), not knowing any better, and I think you need to do something for the contents still after unpacking them on Mac, for I recall I once did make a compile (of another project) which I tested on Macos machine, and idea was that I was supposed to move the files to some certain location. That maybe there was a folder called "resources" or "content" or something like that, and then all but the exe-file was supposed to be moved there to make it work.
That essentially, I assume, it is easy for someone who keeps using MacOS all the time to figure it out, but not for someone like me who dont know much about it.