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It Was Them's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Audio | #877 | 2.814 | 3.111 |
| Theme | #1124 | 2.814 | 3.111 |
| Visuals | #1240 | 2.613 | 2.889 |
| Overall | #1282 | 2.446 | 2.704 |
| Gameplay | #1347 | 2.211 | 2.444 |
| Innovation | #1387 | 2.211 | 2.444 |
| Enjoyment | #1549 | 2.010 | 2.222 |
Ranked from 9 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does the game fit the theme?
You play as a mentally unwell character who goes through a prison's hospital ward with the objective of escaping. They feel paranoid and can't trust anyone, including the monsters. But in reality, the one he can't trust is his own self.
What code and assets did you not make from scratch during the jam (if any)?
SFX was taken from freesound.org
CRT shader was created using a tutorial and open-source code
How many people worked on the game?4
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Comments
Well Done
I see this is a peak game, but I'm too scared to play this😭🙏
Nvm, I tried to play it but...
When I reached the parts involving keycards, my character simply couldn't pick any of them up to progress; I also couldn't find a screwdriver to get through the hatch. I didn't really understand the purpose of the pills, either (probably because I couldn't get any further).
It’s a shame such bugs crop up, because the game’s atmosphere is genuinely creepy!
Yooo thanks so much for playing it lol.
We didn't indicate it well enough, but some of the keycards are fake items that decrease your player's sanity (my bad).
The pills would help fix your sanity.
Unfortunately, I realized that the CRT shader was not getting updated as much as I wanted to (it would've indicated your player's sanity), so I will try to fix that.
Thanks again for playing!
Hello again! I read your message and decided to give the game a try.
Once all the mechanics became clear, I was able to progress further, and it's simply incredible! As I said earlier, the atmosphere in the game is truly eerie; I didn't even think top-down play was capable of such a thing. The sound design and dark levels combined really nailed it. Besides the atmosphere, avoiding monsters and gradually unlocking new passages was quite fun: the levels are really well designed. And I think the jam theme is fully realized. I can't believe they did this in a week!
But the game does have its problems:
1) The controls feel unnatural due to the inability to walk horizontally. Perhaps this is intended, and you get used to it over time, but at first it was unusual.
2) I really missed a sanity bar or something like that. You said you wanted to add this to the CRT effect, but honestly, I turned it off almost immediately (without it, the game is more vibrant and therefore much easier to play).
3) The game is quite difficult, and it's not even about the difficulty itself, but rather that it doesn't really try to explain how to play, and that if you drink all the pills on the map out of fear, you'll have to start over!
This is a game jam, so no game can be perfect, but I believe that such a game is not embarrassing to show off outside of a jam and that it will find its fans!!!
P.S. I also forgot to mention that the mechanics of taking pills to get rid of monsters and false items seem quite innovative.