Post Jam "Jam" #13

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A jam submission

Corrupted ArcadeView game page

An anomaly game where you are stuck in an arcade

Submitted by SuperAwesomeH — 3 days, 15 hours before the deadline

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Corrupted Arcade's itch.io page

Results

Criteria	Rank	Score*	Raw Score
Gameplay/Design	#14	3.583	3.583
Fun	#26	3.000	3.000
Overall	#28	3.104	3.104
Graphics	#29	3.167	3.167
Audio	#36	2.667	2.667

Ranked from 12 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

What would you like feedback on?
I want to know if the tutorial makes you understand how to play the actual game and also would want to know if there are bugs I didn't notice or new features you want in the game.

What did you update?
Added an interactive tutorial, zooming and panning in the manual, two new corruptions per game cabinet, some visual improvements, manual redesign, new font used, bug fixes and other things highlighted in my Tutorial Update devlog

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Comments

snuffysamSubmitted8 days ago (1 edit) (+1)

I really don't understand the scream when you die. Just seems totally random, the rest of the game isn't particularly horror-y... maybe if the game glitches had more of a horror element to them, but you're just trying to maintain a bunch of normal arcade cabinets. Why is there a horrible scream sound lol.

The tutorial was good and helped me understand the gameplay. Wow some of these differences are subtle though, and make you wait a while to spot.

Instead of a scream at the end, maybe the end card should tell you what you missed instead?

Submitted

Clocksbane v.s. The Totally Radical Soldiers of Procrastinitro

SuperAwesomeHDeveloper8 days ago

Hello, thanks for playing my game.

For the horror part, yes you are right that it's not that horror-y because the original plan was to draw horror assets for the game jam but I found that it was hard for me and I need to learn pixel art and Aseprite first, that's why I added that there was only ONE horror element, particularly the scream.

Now let me explain the scream: After you insert a token on a corrupted cabinet, a hand grabs you from inside the machine and sends you inside the machine, which the player then screams then gets corrupted (hence the breaking voice of the scream). I found I needed to learn how to draw and animate that first, because I barely have experience with art, so I apologize.

And for the end card telling you what you missed, I think that's a bad idea as this: reduces replayability, streamability, puzzle solving feeling, and the psychological horror element of the fear of the unknown. These were the assumed reasons why Exit 8 and That's Not My Neighbor don't show you what you missed in the end as well.

Thanks for the feedback!

snuffysamSubmitted8 days ago

Do Exit 8 and That's Not My Neighbor have random elements? When I replayed the levels, an arcade cabinet that was broken on the first level on my first attempt was working on my second attempt. So it seems to me like the broken element on each arcade cabinet is random for each level rather than a puzzle you'd get a second chance to look at and solve, but correct me if I'm wrong here.

SuperAwesomeHDeveloper7 days ago

Yes, both Exit 8 and That's Not My Neighbor have random elements.

IggyminiousSubmitted9 days ago(+1)

Pretty neat idea, though I didn't get very far. It kind of bothers me how some of the corruptions (particularly the paddle ball ones) seem to require you to wait around a while to check if something's off.

Submitted

Scavenger Mouse

SuperAwesomeHDeveloper8 days ago

Hi, thanks for playing my game!

I made the game cabinet corruptions in a pattern. Two cabinets have corruptions that don't need you to wait to find the corruptions at all (Flapping Chick and Shoot the Aliens) while the other two cabinets may require you to wait to see the corruption but some other corruptions in these two cabinets don't need you to wait (Paddle Ball and Brick Brick Brick). Knowing that two cabinets are safe and two are unsafe, you should check Flapping Chick and Shoot The Aliens first before going to the other two. That's the strategy I can give to you to win the game faster.

Micah ArveySubmitted9 days ago(+1)

The tutorial is awesome and really helps a ton. I would have missed a lot of that for sure. I didn't care for the scream when I died at all. At least there was a warning of some kind of horror element but please consider changes to that scream. I didn't encounter any bugs and I really liked that you can actually play the game machines after you insert the token! Awesome stuff well done.

Submitted

Run Down the Count

SuperAwesomeHDeveloper9 days ago(+1)

Hello hello. Thanks for playing the game!

The part where you said that you don't mind the scream when you die but you want some changes to the scream, had me confused. Can you elaborate?

Glad that there are no bugs and that you enjoyed the little minigames as well.

Once again, thanks for playing!

Micah ArveySubmitted8 days ago

Hey hey! Thanks for following up, totally bungled that wording. I meant more that I appreciated the "horror element warning" so I was able to lower my settings and prepare for *something* to happen. But when the scream happened I didn't care for the sound effect itself or the jump scare. That said I don't really play horror games so this might just be me but I'd change that sound effect.

Yeah! The little minigames are such a fantastic surprise like I was hoping I'd be able to play them but fully didn't expect to be able to! Props for that! Thanks for contributing and engaging!!

SuperAwesomeHDeveloper8 days ago

But what do you mean by changing the sound effect of the scream? Is it the base volume of the scream or how the scream was made (because if you're referring to how the scream was breaking at the end, that was to indicate that the character was getting corrupted inside the machine)

Micah ArveySubmitted8 days ago

Like I’d use a different one. It’s your game tho and it’s a good game so it’s completely up to you ofc

zack42Submitted10 days ago(+1)

Love the idea! Very original and genuinely fun.

The tutorial did a great job at explaining what you need to do. I first tried playing without the tutorial and there's no way I would have figured out what I was supposed to do without it, haha. Personally, I found no bugs during my playthroughs either.

The only thing I didn't like was the scream when you die. I would tone it down a notch, but maybe that's just me, haha. Otherwise, it's a bit of a shame there's no reason to actually play the arcade games, as they are great and you clearly put effort into making them! I think you could consider adding some motivators for completing them, as you have a great potential for nostalgic moments there.

Cheers!

Submitted

One Shell at a Time

SuperAwesomeHDeveloper9 days ago (1 edit) (+1)

Hi hi! Thanks for playing!

Yeah, the first version of the game in the game jam I joined had people confused on what to do without the tutorial so I had to make it. Glad the tutorial made the game make sense.

The scream volume was one of my fears after starting development on the new update, but then I thought I'll just let the people giving feedback to tell me if my fears on if they were too loud were true. I'm gonna tone it down if others also found a problem with it but my plans for the future is to add volume settings in the game. Hopefully that can solve the volume problem for most people.

Each cabinet (except Brick Brick Brick for some reason) has a game over screen that shows either a time left or score, which could be shareable, but I think it's better if I add an Itch.io high score system. I'm adding this as part of a future update.

Thanks for the feedback. Cheers to you as well!

Solo Man GamesSubmitted10 days ago

Video review:

Submitted

SuperAwesomeHDeveloper10 days ago (1 edit) (+1)

Hello, thanks for playing my game! And thank you so much that you made a video about it.

My thoughts:

1.) Yes, the first attract mode specification of Brick Brick Brick was confusing and I feel like it's unnecessary. I placed it there to indicate that hidden behind the 5 second Title screen (where the player cannot see) is already playing then it continues after the Title screen ends when it's already visible. I feel like the player don't need to know this because it's not visible to the player so I'll remove it in a future update. And also, I'll make the other text in the manual clearer to understand.

2.) Yeah, that could be a good idea that on the first rooms, it shows multiple corruptions, cause currently, all rooms show only 1 corruption per corrupted cabinet.

3.) For the horror part, I might draw some horror assets the more you progress through the levels. This was an idea during the game jam period but I couldn't draw pixel art that time yet so I have to learn pixel art first to draw horror assets.

4.) Yeah, I misjudged the replayability of the game, that's why I added it in the description. I'm going to remove the replayability part and just show that it's speedrunnable (for now)

5.) Lastly, for the replayability part, my plans for it in the Steam release is to add new modes, an in-game currency system, and hopefully in-game mod support. Since I'm a solo dev for this game project, this might take a while, but hopefully, I can do them all in the future.

Once again, thanks for playing, ans I hope you stick around for future updates.

DrDre3kSubmitted11 days ago(+1)

Movement is too slippery in my opinion and it seems excessive to have a lot more cabinets than are intractable, unless there’s some story reason for it. I definitely thought the tutorial was good and it explained every bit of the game, so I’d say that was a great addition. I do appreciate how many permutations there are in such a short time frame. Good job.

Submitted

Just One More Thing...

SuperAwesomeHDeveloper11 days ago

Hello, thanks for playing!

For the player movement, some people did complain that it was too fast so I have made the walking slower for the future update.

My main idea for why there are non-interactable cabinets was so that there would be obstacles, but I found many people complained on that, so my idea is to make it so that when you enter a new room, the lights of the entire arcade will flicker for a bit then it will briefly show that the screens for the interactable ones have a light shining out of their screens while the non-interactable ones don't. This might take a while but I think it will solve this problem.

Thanks for the compliment on the tutorial!

Is it okay if you explain what permutations mean in my game?

Once again, thank you so much.

LimokaSubmitted12 days ago (1 edit) (+1)

Really interesting game. Overall it was fun for me.

Regarding tutorial, I think its fine, though I have read your page before playing. I haven't had any confusion issues

Only issues I found were, sometimes its hard to tell if some arcade is interactable or not. It seems like half of machines in a room are there without being interactable, so I keep running to a machine only to not see interact prompt, and wonder is it me doing something wrong or what. Also I guess an outline around the machines once I'm in position to interact would be nice (I know there's text, but that would reinforce that even further)

Other than that, I think the game kinda gets repetitive once you got the gist.

Submitted

SuperAwesomeHDeveloper12 days ago(+1)

Hello! Thanks for playing.

Yes, I was also told about the issue of some extra cabinets that are meant to not be interactable are actually hard to distinguish from interactable ones from the streamer on Post Jam, which now I realize that this is an actual issue. Thanks for the idea for the outline around the cabinets as this is also extremely useful for the future mobile support where how you interact is by clicking the cabinet.

And for the repetitive part, the plans to combat that will be new modes, an in-game currency system and hopefully mod support in the Steam release. Expect more updates on this game in the future.

Again. Thank you so much!

ScySubmitted12 days ago(+1)

Love the idea! Each of the four arcade games feels genuinely playable, which means a lot to me.

The tutorial worked well for me. I understood what I was supposed to do before getting into the main levels. One thing that felt a little strange, though, was being able to accidentally zoom in/out or move around while reading the manual, especially since it breaks the pixel-perfect presentation. I think it would be really neat if all the text and images of one game could fit into just two pages.

The music works well overall, though the walking sound effect didn't feel quite as convincing to me.

Overall, it's a charming game with a really solid implementation of its core idea.

Submitted

Please, My Lord!

SuperAwesomeHDeveloper12 days ago (1 edit)

Thanks for playing the game (and glad that you noticed that the arcade games themselves are playable if they are safe)

For the manual zoom, yes, I'm still looking into the font's pixel perfectness settings. Hopefully I can fix that in a future update.

And about the manual fitting into two pages, I'm still deciding whether to go with that idea or to add more visuals in the manual, which would definitely increase the pages but it becomes easier to read the manual as a whole. Thanks for the idea though.

Thanks for the compliment on the music.

Can you explain further what you mean by the walking sound effect not feeling convincing? Like do you mean it doesn't sound like walking at all?

Thanks for the feedback!

ScySubmitted11 days ago

About the manual, what I had in mind was something like two pages shown on one screen, or four pages across two screens. For example, I initially thought page 8 was supposed to come after page 9, which confused me for a little while.

Page 10 was also a bit harder for me to understand without a supporting image, so I think keeping each game's instructions visually grouped together could help a lot. That said, I can also see how adding more illustrations might make the manual easier to read overall, even if it means having more pages.

As for the walking sound effect — yes, that's basically what I meant. I can tell the timing is matched to the walking animation, but the sound itself doesn't quite read as footsteps to me. It might be a little too heavy or impactful, though I'm not completely sure how to describe it.

Thanks for asking!

SuperAwesomeHDeveloper11 days ago

'four pages across two screens' - So what you mean by this is the ability to duplicate the manual so that it can show all four pages?

I feel like the multiple page problem can be fixed with illustrations under each attract mode specification

For example:

'Ball always spawn at middle, going towards the top of the Left Paddle' - For this I would put an illustration under this text showing a ball then an arrow pointing towards the top left going above the Left Paddle, with another arrow showing the Left Paddle is going up.

Now for the walking sound effect, I used this free sound asset From Zapsplat . I'll take note of this suggestion but first, I'll see if the footstep doesn't sound right for others too.

Thank you!

ScySubmitted11 days ago

Ah, I think I explained that badly before!

What I mainly meant is that I'd prefer the two pages shown on the same screen to belong to the same game, instead of having the left page be about one game and the right page already starting the next one.

For example, if pages 8 and 9 are shown together, I'd expect them to both belong to the same arcade game. When one side starts explaining a different game, I instinctively read the two pages as a pair, so it confused me a little.

So I don't necessarily mean showing all four pages at once — more about keeping each game's instructions grouped together visually.

And yeah, I think adding illustrations under each instruction could help a lot too!

THE LAST SECRETSubmitted12 days ago(+1)

Definitely an original idea. Be the repairman who checks whether an arcade is working as it should. Or maybe whether it's haunted if I understood my game over correct. ;)

The tutorial was working for me. Maybe it's too much text for many players, but then again – the game won't be for those who don't like to read much text anyway. :D

I understood the assignment, but screwed nevertheless. It would be good to give feedback what was corrupted after you lose.

The manuals would work a bit better if some games' texts were not split on different pages. I know that is realistic, but it feels just cumbersome. The cumbersome part is also my only big problem with the game: I don't know whether I would like to do these tasks on the long run. It feels a bit like work for me. ^^;

The music is good, but too repetitive. Please change that or I go crazy! &)

Anyway, you did a great job with the implementation of the idea, I think!

Submitted

SuperAwesomeHDeveloper12 days ago

Hi! Thanks for playing my game.

Yes, there are people complaining about having too much text in the game so my idea for a future update is to add more visuals in the manual.

The reason why I won't show the anomaly after you die is because in similar games like Exit 8 or That's Not My Neighbor, they also don't show you the anomaly after you die because I feel like the reason for that is so that players can keep playing to figure out the anomaly themselves and when they find out, it would give a sense of a feel-good experience when you realized the anomaly, like you felt you just solved a puzzle. Also, it preserves the psychological horror feel of the game which is the fear of the unknown. Also, streamability and replayability.

Yes, I'm still learning how to make music as the current music right now is a free music asset online being slowed down to match the feel of the game.

Once again, thank you so much.

Hallow_WestSubmitted13 days ago(+1)

Interesting concept.

The wall of texts is a bit intimidating at first but the tutorials explains the game well so it's ok after that.

Submitted

SuperAwesomeHDeveloper12 days ago

For the text, yes, I've heard many people complaining about that. Will add visuals on the manual in the future.

Thanks so much for playing!