Play game
Against the Flow's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Artwork | #144 | 4.576 | 4.576 |
| Narrative | #338 | 3.939 | 3.939 |
| Audio | #1639 | 3.394 | 3.394 |
| Creativity | #2033 | 3.788 | 3.788 |
| Enjoyment | #4700 | 2.909 | 2.909 |
Ranked from 33 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the theme?
Your 7 memories represent the 7 final minutes of brain activity before death. The game has two countdowns: The first is an overall timer constraint to find your reason to live before it is too late. The second is a personal countdown when you stand still, representing the need for constant brain activity to stay alive (you play as an hourglass when solving puzzles).
(Optional) Please credit all assets you've used
All assets by us (NO AI). See description for full credits
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Comments
Really cool and unique art style! The music helps sell the experience of reliving memories. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get past memory 4 as I didn’t know what I had to do. Really wished there was a hint to help out so I could get to the end of the game. Otherwise, great work!
Very cool idea and aesthetic!
Unfortunately, as comments mentioned before, it is rather unclear what to do on each level, but it's likely due to the jam's time constraint
You did a good job!
as the other reviewers have already mentioned before the goal of each memory isn't exactly clear which leads to the player getting stuck on them; hints would have been useful!
other than that the paperwork aesthetic is amazing especially considering the time restrains of the jam! deserves a postjam version for sure
I watched the stream and I loved it but that didn't stop me from playing it.
this game was so good.
please don't stop the development and continue it until you create a full release for it.
it has a great potential!
RIGHT in the FEELSSSSS! Loved streaming it and hope to see updates on this game!!! SO much potential!
Can't wait to see a finished version of this game, it looks so good!
I like this art style
an interesting experience! unfortunately, the controlling and collision boxes are rather clunky/unintuitive , and the it's often rather confusing what the puzzles want you to accomplish. i end up mostly just jumping around until i accidentally hit something - and even then, occasionally i'll hit the right thing and it just doesn't register correctly, leaving me more puzzled (haha). i did also get a bug where every interactable object would just be the Crowd saying "Hello Boss" lol.
conceptually though, i can really appreciate what you're attempting! and of course the art is all rather nice - i especially like the backing dioramas after completing the levels, and the rounded level world (shader?). i think with a bit more player direction and with less fiddly control-feel, you'll be able to convey the narrative here much more cohesively. even if the intention is for the levels to be more exploratory, things being too ambiguous (with both level design or with mechanics, like the collision boxes and physics interactions) can leave a player flailing moreso than engaging. there's a bit of a disconnect currently between how the mechanics are experienced, and the narrative that's trying to be told, which makes it a little bit harder to appreciate either.
of course though, despite my critique, I know all too well the struggle of getting a complete game together in the short jam time-frame haha, so it's very understandable - your team should still be proud of completing something of this ambition regardless! I think with more refinement (which sounds like your plan?), you could have something a lot more evocative, so I do hope you're able to get there!
(as a tip, maybe this is obvious in hindsight, but pass the game to someone who knows nothing about it, and see how they approach it without your guidance. that can do a lot to help you notice your blind spots as devs and adjust the experience more towards your intentions! i've had the same issues before where something that seemed intuitive or simple to the dev team was confusing or too challenging for players - because we'd become so used-to and familiar with our own mechanics that we developed certain blind spots!) good luck!
I'm a bit confused to what I'm supposed to do tho. Probably because I've never played paper mario and before your eyes, but great game nonetheless!
Reminded me of a level in Psychonauts, I loved this just the same, proud of your guys first game and you should be too!
Gosh the Art is just really good. But maybe the puzzle are a bit hard for me personally but still nice concept easily 5 on Artwork.
This art style was the most amazing part about this game and I was so excited to start playing just from the screenshots! However, I was very lost in gameplay and never really knew what I was doing. Every time I passed a level I had no idea why. Beyond that it looked breathtaking!
As the artist, I'm really thankful you liked our art! We will be updating the game once the jam ends to fix bugs, clarify mechanics and objectives, and include more cutscenes/lore. We'd love it if you popped back in to play again once our game is updated-- thanks so much for playing our game! ^^
Very lovely game! The art is cute, I love the duck hoursglass fella :) I got stuck on memory 4, I think some narative guidance could do wonders for this game!
The artwork in this is so good!!! I want to make a game with this style some day too. Some of the puzzles were a bit confusing on what I needed to achieve, so I kinda just flopped around until I got it. Overall though the vibes felt really good!
Great narrative and artwork. Can't wait to see the final cutscene.
Thank you! Oh man we were bummed about the bug that appeared last minute, but we'll definitely fix it after judging so people can see it :D
Wow, this is an incredible game! The art is incredible, storytelling and vibes are perfect. And overall, I think it really leaves an impact on you. Btw, you nailed the 2.5d paper mario style! I'd love to see what you do next.
Ahhhh thank you! We were slightly tripping over the perspective with the gameplay at first, but super happy to hear that you enjoyed it! We're hoping to introduce some more mechanics that were originally intended for the puzzles but couldn't because of bugs and time constraint after judging period.
So peak, i really liked the visuals and audio. And its pretty funny seeing someone have the same idea as you. At the start of the jam i was gonna do something with the 6 minutes of brain being alive without oxygen, but i kinda strayed away from it, but yall pulled it off well
Haha im glad we did our concept justice, and we plan to make the gameplay and narrative more clear post-jam so stay tuned for that! Thanks so much for playing!
Cool game! It can be a bit confusing, but the vibes are great. I think it might help if there was a shadow under the player to indicate depth better.
ooo noted, we'll be updating the game to be clearer right after the jam! thank you sm for playing!!!
Really interesting interactive short story. The art and the music are beautiful. Well done!
Thank you very much for playing our game and thanks for the kind words!! ^^
While it needs some polishing up, its clear to me the team behind this game is capable of telling extraordinary stories and selling it with equally as extraordinary art. This is a game one could classify as an experience and I hope more people give it a shot!
Thank you so much for playing our game-- I'm glad you enjoyed the story we made. We really appreciate the kind words towards our team (especially considering the amazing game you've created this year-- congrats!) and we're excited to create more in the future :)