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A jam submission

My Time at The LighthouseView game page

Submitted by Jill Splades — 7 days, 16 hours before the deadline
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My Time at The Lighthouse's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Audio#3203.6863.686
Visuals#3654.0694.069
Overall#6253.5953.595
Creativity & Theme#6453.8113.811
Seriousness#12253.3653.365
Enjoyment#13253.0443.044

Ranked from 159 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Game Engine

GameMaker

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Comments

Viewing comments 100 to 81 of 105 · Next page · Previous page · First page · Last page
Submitted

Fun game, easy to catch on. I do think you can experiment more with the cards in addition to spawning them and keeping them from being eaten by the cat.

But cute game overall, great job!

Developer

Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, for my first game, I ended up being pretty limited in what I could execute by the deadline, but I agree that there's definitely a lot more I could do to experiment and enhance the gameplay. I'll work on improving my next project to make them a little more satisfying.

Thanks so much for playing and commenting!

Submitted

NOOOooo my cards!! It's short (other than fumbling like 5 times) and sweet, and I think games like this are part of the charm of game jams.

(p.s., let us pet the cat! would love to see more actions/existingness from the black void)

Developer(+1)

Nooooooooo! 

I hope you had fun though - and yeah, if I tweak the gameplay after the jam, petting the cat is a great call. I'm glad you found some charm in it (even with fumbling).

Thanks so much for playing and commenting!

Submitted (2 edits)

Really beautiful music, and stunning color palette! As another commenter mentioned, I thought you had to match the suits to what was on the table, which made it quite challenging! If that was something you wanted to end up doing, I'd recommend scaling up the cards a tiny bit. Their suit was a bit hard to see when trying to match and keep spinning the correct way. Almost hate to suggest it though, as the artwork is already quite lovely!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for the feedback! 

Matching the card suits to the table (and having cards 2x as large) was in an earlier iteration, but due to my inexperience, I couldn't figure out how to code it. I swapped the size of the cards to make them smaller so it was easier to see the cat (it got buried really quickly otherwise), but I really needed to swap that table sprite - I know to focus on assets in my final checks for my next project, as they are so crucial in communicating the player experience! I'm glad you liked the art and music vibes though.

Thanks so much for playing and commenting!

Submitted

Finally made it to this one (which has been on my list since day 1).  This ended up being a great experience.  A nice, cozy little game.  I really enjoyed it.

The art and the music are a serious vibe.  Adorable cat, cozy guitar, what more could you want?  And watching the cards stack up and spin around was really cool.  I did kind of hope that there would be an easter egg waiting for me if i kept scrolling up after making it to the top, but that lack of a final moment in the game is one of its few weak spots in my opinion (though there's something kind of cool about it ending the way it does, too).

This game is definitely not a walk in the park (in my opinion, way harder than it seems from reading the instructions), but I initially thought it was going to be so much harder than that because I thought you had to drop cards onto the right suits, which was really a lot to balance (and I was getting frustrated by the lack of feedback about whether I had hit it or not).  As it stands now, it's got a nice level of difficulty to it, so I'm glad I was mistaken.

All-in-all, this was a fun little game with immaculate art / music / general vibes.  Great work!

Developer

Thanks so much for the feedback! I'm glad you like the vibe and enjoyed the stacking, and I totally hear you on the bits that are lacking/have lots of opportunities for improvement, like confusion on the controls, the table, and the extra bits of polish I could have added to the "ends" of the world and the end of the game. If I started the jam over knowing what I know now, I'd definitely approach things differently, and I got a good list of things to improve in my next project.

Thanks so much for playing and commenting - I hope you enjoyed your time at the lighthouse!

Submitted

Lovely visuals and the cat is adorable. I enjoyed watching hundreds of cards pile up on the table and form a massive tower - the animation of them spinning was well done. The color palette is very soothing and the view from the top is beautiful.

Unfortunately it didn't feel like the game took much skill at all; once I figured out I could spam left click with no repercussions, I reached the top of the lighthouse in about twenty seconds.

Audio-wise, that guitar piece is gorgeous. I would kill to get a tab of it so I could learn it. I don't think the digital beep for changing directions matched it very well, so I wish that sound had been something softer and less harsh, but it didn't detract from the experience that much.

Nice work!

Developer(+1)

I appreciate the feedback! 

Glad the animation and vibes worked together well, and I absolutely understand the controls and overall gameplay could really do for some polishing for clarity, challenge, and overall gameplay length. And yeah, my husband is playing guitar (I don't have tabs for his finger picking, but I can ask if he can work something up - he's just better at playing than writing music), but I didn't have a decent other sound for the arrows, so sorry for that more abrupt contrast - I'll work on expanding my sound files for better options for my next project.

Thanks again so much for the feedback, and thanks for playing and commenting!

Submitted

Very cute, it was hard for me to understand what to do in the beginning, I was trying to match the card naipe with the table naipe at first :P

Once I understood it, it was easy to keep going and have a huge pile of cards on the table :D Congratulations on your game!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, a lot of others have mentioned the confusion on the controls and the card / table symbols. I'm glad you worked through it and figured it out though!

Thanks so much for playing and commenting!

Submitted (1 edit)

I have a guilty pleasure for spamming, and I appreciate that you made both Space and LClick available for me to spam at the same time. It's pretty quick and easy, so I would have found it more interesting if the arrow didn't always point in the other direction, but it's fine, I still like it and got the gear.

Not me trying to place the cards on the matching symbols though

Developer

Glad you liked it, even though it was short, and congratulations on adding another cog to your MetaGame!

Thanks so much for playing and commenting!

Host(+1)

i am zen, and very relaxed <3  cute little game

Developer

<3 Thanks so much for playing, commenting, and hosting a wonderful jam! 

I've had the best time, and I hope you are too!

Submitted

Just like everyone else, I was silly and took a while to understand. It's a really cute concept! Once I realized how to do it, it was pretty simple. Nice submission!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for the feedback, and just like the others, I'm glad you were able to get over the confusion of the controls/instructions to enjoy it!

Thanks so much for playing and commenting!

Submitted

I, uh, might've misunderstood or something? I mindlessly spammed space like crazy for enough cards that the screen was covered and then just hit left/right as the floor rotated. I was confused at first, but that's on me; I didn't read the literal instructions to the left haha. Once I read those, it was pretty straightforward. I loved the cozy aesthetic.

Nice little game!

Developer

Glad you like the aesthetic, and glad you were able to figure it out! Yeah, I've gotten a lot of feedback on the confusion, so you're definitely not alone there. It's absolutely on my radar to make my next project easier to understand how to play.

Thanks so much for playing and commenting!

(6-7 forever)

Submitted(+1)

6-7 FOREVER

Submitted

Way too much spamming involved, so it got tiring to always click and frustrating even. Felt kind of unfair to fall from almost the top all the way down. The concept was great. The gameplay felt chaotic at the end, and the music did not really reflect that. But the art was really good. I would've enjoyed the game much more if i didn't have to spam clicking.

Developer(+1)

Thanks so much for the feedback! That's so important to call out the tiring, frustrating, and unfair feel to it. I definitely could have done a lot to improve the controls and the level of challenge, especially to fit the vibe of the music better. Your comments mean a lot, and they'll help me to pay a lot more attention to this stuff in my next project.

Thanks so so much again for the feedback - and thanks for playing and commenting!

Submitted

cat

Developer(+1)

😸

Submitted

Really cool game! Loved the art style and the music feels so cozy it's truly great!
At first i had a bit of trouble understanding, but once i understood it got really cool, almost making it to the top and then falling back down was heartbreaking haha great job!

Developer

Glad you like the art and music! And yeah, a lot of people mentioned confusion on the controls, so that's absolutely on my radar to make things more intuitive and explain things better as needed. 

I hope you made it to the top in the end and that you enjoyed the view when you got there!

Thanks so much for playing and commenting!

Submitted

I LOVE THE LIL CAT! The gameplay was actually quite unique. It took me a bit to figure it out at the start but once I did, it was so satisfying, the mix of card stacking, sound effects, and just the aesthetics overall was so relaxing but also addicting? It is also I would say kinda serious! Overall, I love the game and extra points for the kitty! Awesome work!

Developer(+1)

Thanks so much for the  feedback! I'm really glad you found it satisfying once you figured it out <3 and glad you liked the cat XD

Thanks so much for playing and commenting!

Submitted

The cat design was adorable! I really liked the calm guitar music. The game had just the right level of difficulty (Including the crushing disappointment of making a mistake near the end). It was fantastic game!

Developer(+1)

Aw, thanks so much, I'm glad you liked it!

Thanks for playing and commenting!

Submitted

Hello! I have finished your game and I have some feedback for you!

  • The cat is very cute! I love the fuzzball look!
  • It took me a second to figure out what I was doing. Like, what the relation to spinning and spawning cards was, and when to change direction.
  • Is there any reason to not just click as fast as you can? It seemed like once I got the arrow part of the game down the spawning cards part was a little inconsequential. Like, you had to do it, but you didn't really have to think about it. You could just click.
    • The cards themselves don't seem to matter? Like the Ace of Spades vs the 7 of clubs or whatever, that's just visual? 
  • The um... narrative I guess? of this game didn't make much sense to me. Are you building a tower of cards to stand on to get yourself higher? If you are, why do the cards you've spawned move up each floor with you?
  • I was unaware there was a metagame going on with the Jam until I finished your game! And I've played some of the other games in the metagame already!
  • The ratings page says you submitted 7 days 16 hours before the deadline? Were you finished then or did you just submit a prototype then update. If you got this done that fast that's really impressive!
  • There doesn't seem to be an ending. Just the cat.
  • There doesn't seem to be any menus. Not necessary, but nice to have.
  • This game is very easy. Once I figured out the controls and what I was supposed to do I beat it in like a minute. 

That's all my thoughts. Hopefully I don't sound too negative, I'm trying to be constructive! I thought this one was very cute, but just too easy maybe, you can fly through it really fast once you know how to play.

Have a wonderful day and good luck in the jam!

Developer(+1)

Wow, thanks so much for all the awesome feedback!

  • Glad you like the cat! 
  • Yeah, I've gotten a lot of feedback about confusion with the controls. Thanks for speaking up about it still - the more feedback, the bet my next project can be!
  • Spamming is the "go-to" approach, and cards don't matter. Basically I ran out of time to implement other things with the card faces and the table and stuff, so I scrapped those parts of the code but kept the assets and polished what I could by the deadline.
  • Believe it or not, there is lore, but none of it is obvious or stated anywhere (though I did share it in another comment on the submission page if you care to read about it). But basically you're bonding with the cat by playing cards, and the more you play, the more the cat follows you around and eventually joins you at the top. You're basically using the spinning table to gain trust, and the cards are like time.spent together. But again, that's not intended to be known really, more like head canon.
  • So awesome that you're playing the meta! Tons of great games there!
  • I "submitted" a blank page with no game and placeholder text after the theme was announced because this is my first jam and I was nervous I wouldn't be able to figure out how to do it later. That way I could just drop the link to my game throughout the week with all of my updates. It was just less stressful for me to do it that way - and I updated it a lot lol.
  • Yeah, with the ending, again, I just ran out of time. It's my first game, and I kept running into coding problems, so this is basically where I ended up by the end of the day on Friday and I was worn out from 10+hr days between coding and a full-time job all week. But I hope people take however long they like at the top to enjoy the view and the vibes and just rest after the somewhat hectic play from the upper levels!
  • Yeah, no menus, just that Tab instruction screen. Everything is in GameMaker and in 3D, so I couldn't get the mouse to hover over and click things since you're looking at z-space instead of x,y space. Again, just totally new to this, and playtesters didn't like using arrow keys to navigate menus so I just gave that Tab side bar instead. 
  • Yeah, definitely a simple-once-you-get-it super short game, but it was the best iteration (out of 5 different versions I tried to make) and I polished it as best I could. I had to spend so much time on tutorials to learn this much - it was a fantastic way to learn, but it's definitely not here to try to be a Steam game starter project or anything. I just wanted to try to make something, and I did, and this whole experience (especially feedback) has been great!

Thanks again so much for all of the awesome feedback (I hope I responded to everything!) and thanks so much for playing and commenting!

Submitted

this is a really nice little game, i love the art style and the game play is simple but fun

Developer(+1)

I'm glad you liked it! 

Thanks so much for playing and commenting!

Submitted

The art was very charming, and I found it to be surprisingly difficult near the end! Also, the cat kind of reminds me of my rabbit, she'll eat anything you put in front of her face including books and cards lol. The audio is also nice, and I like the atmosphere of the game! Overall a nice relaxing game :D

Developer(+1)

I'm glad you liked the atmosphere - and so funny about your rabbit lol that's great. Glad you found it relaxing and that you enjoyed your time at the lighthouse.

Thanks so much for playing and commenting!

Submitted

Enjoyed this game quite a lot! The Art is pretty cute and I like the Sound!

Couldn't quit until I got to the Top xD

Developer

Glad you liked it, and congrats on making it to the top! I hope you took some time to enjoy the view. <3

Thanks so much for playing and commenting!

Submitted

Lovely little game, very cute! Unfortunately my eyes were fixated on the arrow, so I couldn't really look much at what was happening haha. but I did see that the cards stacked up in a very pretty way. You could've probably done a bit more with the arrow mechanic, but it was already quite difficult, so I'm unsure how...

At the end I thought: "Oh, they're having me pan the camera up into the sky to fade into credits or an ending sequence, so pretty!", but eventually I just met the edge of the sky background lmao. So that could've used some work lol

This entire game feels like something out of a fever dream (that's a good thing in this case), very unique and neat! 

Developer(+1)

Thanks so much for the feedback! It's good to know that the arrow felt a bit lacking (even if you can't pin down exactly how you'd change it), and it's good to know that the extra focus made it hard to enjoy the visuals. I can play a lot with the balance to adjust that stuff in my next project thanks to feedback like this!

Haha, yeah, I didn't have enough time to figure out how to set camera limits before the deadline (this is my first game), but hopefully you enjoyed soaring through the skies that were there.

Thanks so much for playing and commenting!

Submitted

Maybe having the arrow be more in the center (or having it be some other indicator, like the whole cat somehow signaling a direction. That would keep your eyes centered. And changing the card-release button (space) to be something you time instead of spam, might make the user feel more in control and the game be less hectic (...you were supposed to spam it right?)

Developer(+1)

Oh, those are great suggestions, thanks!

Yeah, spamming is the "default" way that most people play based on reviews. You can technically take as long as you want as long as you keep matching the arrows the whole time, but the way it's setup, it definitely drives spamming as the go-to method.

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