This game was really cool, although it would have been improved through a tutorial (the how to play screen wasn't enough for me to easily understand each character). Anyways, cool concept and I loved the character arts! (I think I remember seeing early work of this in a channel on the discord during the jam!)
Play game
Save me!'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Narrative | #469 | 3.810 | 3.810 |
| Artwork | #2654 | 3.524 | 3.524 |
| Enjoyment | #3141 | 3.238 | 3.238 |
| Creativity | #3505 | 3.476 | 3.476 |
| Audio | #8760 | 1.762 | 1.762 |
Ranked from 21 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?
The game features a strict turn counter that counts down with every movement. Players must carefully plan their steps and utilize character synergies to reach the exit before the count reaches zero.
(Optional) Please credit all assets you've used
see description for full credits
(Optional) What would you like to be called if GMTK features your game?
Filip Kraus
Comments
Tricky game, I got stuck pretty early. I like the concept and the character artwork, nice work!
Submitted
3, 2, 1, Jump!Nice little puzzle game. I found the levels quite intuitive, but I also totally broke at least two of them! You’ll see in the play-through what I mean. The story was nice too and added some compared to just solving logical puzzles. Personally I think I really would have liked to see the grid, at least locally around the active player, to make things a bit clearer.
Well done!
Play-through:
I got stuck in the first round. :(
I think a reset button would be great, also I cgundent see the step counter.
The character switch worked well!
Submitted
Countdown ChallengeThis is a nice initial stab at this concept! I like the idea of changing between characters to solve puzzles when their strengths are needed. I also enjoy games where I need to optimize the number of moves. One improvement that would make a huge impact is adding a reset button for when you don’t want to undo 1 key press at a time. You should also allow the player to hold Q instead of having to spam the key multiple times.
Great work!
Submitted
Chef Mike's Final StandThis was an enjoyable prototype. I can see the concept and I think it has legs, but this needs some work. Obviously this is a jam game so you had limited time and couldn't include things like a full onboarding tutorial, however I think with just a few more tweaks the first couple of puzzles you had could have served that purpose really well. I hope that you take this further because I think it has loads of promise and you were only a few tweaks away from something really strong here. Well done.
I like the premise of an asymmetric puzzle game where each character has different abilities, but the gameplay could do with a few more polish.
For the controls, players of this genre usually expects Z to be the undo button instead of Q. And a "level reset" function is expected as well. The interaction with objects are a bit unclear. While the barrel is color-coded red for Marcus, the panels that only Cole can fix is in orange instead of blue, and the terminals that anyone can interact with is colored red. It is also not very clear if I am standing in the right position to interact with an object which a highlight could be handy for.
As for the part that I got really stuck on, it's the while characters cannot usually overlap with each other, they are expected to overlap in the exit of each level. I didn't know walking into each other was what I was suppose to do on the first level so I spend a while trying to get through that. Separate color-coded destination might be a better way to communicate that intent for players.
A couple other oddities that ain't game breaking: it's quite funny that Chloe can slip through 5 pixels gap in yellow but not 10 pixels gaps between pillars; And there is a level that only require Marcus alone to push a barrel quite late in game which would have been a better level to introduce Marcus's ability earlier. In fact having some levels to properly introduce character ability would make the gameplay smoother in general.
Nonetheless good job on the submission! If you do plan on updating the game post-jam I would be happy to playtest it too.
Submitted
Murder SweeperThank you for the detailed feedback! It's really helpful.
You make a great point about the controls. I actually wasn't entirely sure which key to map the Undo function to, so that's good to know. And you are completely right about the level reset button - that is definitely a missing feature.
Regarding the colors, do you by chance have a blue-light filter active on your screen? The cables on the panels that Cole fixes are actually blue, unless there is a strange bug turning them orange! But you are completely right that it's hard to read. Working with the 16x16 resolution was a constant struggle for me during the development, so the details aren't as noticeable as I'd like. I also agree that the 2.5D perspective makes figuring out the exact interaction position a bit tricky. A highlight system would be a great addition.
I totally get the confusion with the characters overlapping at the end. Originally, I designed the levels with three separate exit tiles, but having such a massive exit door every time felt awkward. My backup plan was to make the characters grey out and trigger a "walking away" animation as soon as they reached the exit tile, but unfortunately, that didn't make the cut due to the jam's time limit.
Haha, yeah, the pillars are functionally just solid walls. I only added them to break up the uniform look of the levels. You are also spot on about the pacing and tutorials. I tried to introduce the abilities naturally, but there is a ton of room for improvement.
Thank you again for playing, writing this up, and for your kind offer to playtest! I will definitely keep that in mind if I decide to work on a proper post-jam build.
This was good. I liked that there was actually a story!
(I like narrative, in case you can't tell...).
Having the 3 different characters with 3 different mechanics was a good setup for a puzzle game, but it might have been a little ambitious.
There were a couple puzzles where it looked like I was supposed to use all 3 mechanics, but I managed to solve them without it.
It also felt like the ending was rather abrupt.
Most likely the ending was made (as is typical) at the end of the jam, with little time left.
The reaction of the characters to the outcome of the climax seemed like it should have been bigger/longer; and I'm not sure what actually happened in the very final/epilogue level.
Still, very nice; and all that work on the characters paid off.
They look really good!
:)
Submitted
4 Decisions to DoomsdayThank you for trying the game out and for the kind words! You completely nailed it - I definitely overscoped.
Every game jam, I try to go for something I haven't done before. This time I aimed for a story-driven puzzle game and accidentally added a visual novel element into the mix. I ended up using an entire day on the character design and the VN implementation, which was time directly stolen from the actual game and puzzle design. The game was supposed to be a lot longer and the levels much more complicated. Because the current puzzles are pretty straightforward, you can rush through them, which makes the story pace feel way too fast.
[Spoilers ahead for the intended story!]
The narrative was meant to show that Cole (the blue technician) was never fit for the job and couldn't handle the stress. The second-to-last level was supposed to be a highly complex puzzle where it would be mathematically impossible to reach the exit with all of the characters in the given turn limit. This would have tied the game mechanics directly to the story, forcing a sacrifice. But, as you guessed, those levels were rushed on the final day, so it didn't go as planned.
To answer your question about the epilogue: the second-to-last level was meant to imply that you, as Cole, directly activated the fire extinguishing system in the library. This system sucks all the air out of the rooms while Chloe is still inside, effectively killing her. It is also only mentioned once, but they were dating.
Crushed by the guilt of killing his loved one, Cole decides to take his own life, which is what that final level represents. Cole is already lost, and Marcus cannot help him at this point, no matter how hard he tries. This is symbolized mechanically by the fact that the level exit is exactly 1 space away from ever being reached by Marcus (since he uses 2 turns for moving, he will always be one turn short). The final fade to white symbolizes Cole shooting himself. Because of the rushed execution, I know it falls a bit flat and is hard to piece together.
Thank you again for playing and for the thoughtful feedback. I am really glad you liked how the characters turned out!
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