I get the feeling that some of the mechanics weren't finished, and the UX layer isn't quite polished, which makes using the UI tiring.
Besides that, I can see huge amount of work that went into the game's content, and the strong inspiration from Papers, Please. Considering the one-week deadline, great job!
Play game
Stamp duty's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Gameplay | #622 | 3.045 | 3.045 |
| Theme | #703 | 3.318 | 3.318 |
| Enjoyment | #722 | 3.091 | 3.091 |
| Innovation | #893 | 2.818 | 2.818 |
| Overall | #899 | 2.932 | 2.932 |
| Visuals | #1066 | 2.864 | 2.864 |
| Audio | #1161 | 2.455 | 2.455 |
Ranked from 22 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 have been tasked with censoring the mail of a country under the rule of a fierce dictator. Can you really trust the orders given to you by them? Can you trust the rebellion to protect you? Can you trust this little child writting a poem to his grandmother to not be a terrorist asking for weapons in code?
Everyone is out to get you, so trust no one to survive.
What code and assets did you not make from scratch during the jam (if any)?
None
How many people worked on the game?1
Comments
REALLY interesting game. At first I thought it was just straight up papers please but it becomes more and more complex with the amount of reading, and juggling you need to do lol. Well polished UI, I think telling me to stamp the paper would be nice because at first I thought I was supposed to stamp the envelope. I also love the tone, and narrative you created with the dictator lol
My only gripe is that red = approved, while green = denied which really throws me off because it always makes me double check im selecting the right stamp LOL. But overall really cool game, and impressive you made this by yourself in a week great job :D
Idk how this would fare but I thought if you auto threw the letters onto my board while I was already reading it would increase the amount of stress and pressure I'd feel.
Submitted
Mail InspectorThanks! I think a tutorial or some sort of introduction would have been really useful.
And initially I wanted to have lots of letters on the board like you suggested but felt it might be too much; I think you might be right and at least later in the game it might be a fun mechanic :)
Thanks for playing!
Damn my workspace became a mess really quickly x)
I really liked the tone of the writing, especially the newspapers !
I think the game could be more enjoyable if it was a bit shorter or a bit more diverse with mechanics though (I know the second option would have been a lot of work with a game jam)
However, is it normal that so few letters actually fill the price requirements ? I feel like not 5% of letters checked could actually be approved, is that intentional because the prices are too steep for the people ? (if so, it could be really nice to see t mentioned somewhere in letters to be opened)
I don't remember having had a letter that was unpatriotic without being terroristic, either
Is there a penalty for not sorting letters in time ? The timer got to 00:00 quite often but it didn't seem to have much consequences (except being fired at the end maybe ?)
In terms of UX, the game experience would be smoother if all stamps worked on both letters and envelopes (re-opening a letter because you forgot to stamp it was really frustating), and the drop area for sending letters away often felt too small. The time errors remain on screen was also too short to fully read for me if there was more than one line.
I also had a bug where an error displays "true content flagged as null" or something adjacent
Submitted
Bureau of Military IntelligenceThank you so much for the detailed review!
I think the issue with the mechanics and the letter requirements come from:
- the fact that the cost of sending letters to various regions is randomized, but poorly randomized. Sometimes you have playthroughs where everything can go through, and others where none can go through. Instead of just randomizing, I should have the game pick values randomly from a table of 'interesting' values (e.g., 0.60 is 2 greens, one purple and anything else, but also just one red - that way you can't just tell yourself that you always need 2 stamps like you would for say 0.8).
-the letter distribution system didn't randomize well enough; I have like 10 letters with poems, 30 letters that are neutral, 10 patriotic ones, 10 anti-patriotic ones, the whole terrorist plotline, but most of them don't appear because the game's logic is faulty... This is also why you got the "content flagged as null error", my letter database wasn't finished properly.
There should have been a penalty but it seems to not have worked!
Interesting what you mention on the stamps; in my mind the stamps working on letters and not envelopes is part of the gameplay. Part of the story is the insanity of bureaucracy, where for instance you have to flag the fact that you opened confidential letters, or just stamp a terror threat. I'll keep it in mind if more people mention it!
And yes, the UX needs some rework; everything is just a bit too small to work, or too janky.
Thanks again for playing!
I really like the concept and the atmosphere i'd be happy to play a more completed version as this one has a lot of minor issues and some game breaking
Mostly:
- leaving a read letter on the mat will cause a softlock as you will not be able to read any other letters
- for some reason i was able to get the true art stamp earlier? randomly when stamping a letter? I couldnt get it to happen again however
- not sure if intended but you can go from day 2 to day 7 if you make certain choices (ex: not stamping enough letters, mostly accepting/denying letters etc)
- the ui is very good for this game but the hitboxes are not, opening a letter and closing it requires multiple attempts so if i had to suggest something it would be maybe have a dedicated button to closing them on the top right?
- the tutorial could use some polish, a good chunk was spend trying to understand the game (especially on the first day)
- The purple stamp value looks more blue than purple and it took a bit to figure out
I dont know if this is your first jam but either way great job! excluding the issues mentioned this is one of my favorites in the jam a bit more polish and expanding (maybe longer days e.t.c) i think you have a very fun game here!
Submitted
Temporary trustThank you so much for the detailed feedback!
- The softlock is indeed an issue; I added that system just before the deadline and did not test it properly...
- Intersting about the art stamp! That really shouldnt happen; Ill look into it.
- Yes, jumping to day 7 is caused by you doing such a bad job that the Resistance wins! Unfortunately, thats CLEARLY not indicated in the game at this point, and just makes it very weird...
- Yeah; I had initially hoped the hitboxes would be challenging, and thus add to the mayhem of handling the letters, the stamps, the timer, but they are just annoying, so I need to rework thos.
- Interesting about the tutorial! I agree with you, I think the game needs to hold your hand for the first 2 letters or something. I also think the instructions are too wordy, and are hard to understand.
- Haha I actually asked about the purple stamp! I had the same feeling and everyone told me it was purple!
Cheers and thanks for playing!
Interesting idea and pretty creepy atmosphere, given in what time we live. Am I always supposed to be executed at the start of day 7? At least in couple playthroughs my lousy job helped the resistance.
Submitted
Grimoire ForestThanks! There is a third ending, where if you don't help the Dictator too much, and don't help the Resistance too much, war breaks out and you get to live on since you're needed to read stamp more letters. I haven't playtested the game enough to know whether the game's balance actually makes that ending possible :) The idea was, trust no one entirely, they're out to kill you, so make sure they fight one another instead!
I don't think the game gives you enough feedback to understand that though...
There's about a dozen different story lines depending on what letters you censor, don't censor, open and don't open though :)
Thank you for playing the game, and thank you for the multiple playthroughs, I really appreciate it!
Very cool entry, the accumulation of stamp becomes stressful extremely quickly.
I feel like, of all the paper please clones I've played since the start of the jam, this is the one that come closest to the original ludo-narrative tone. Having to read and censor letters while juggling with bureaucratic incompetence is a very neat idea.
I've encountered a pretty nasty bug however, if the player forgets a letter on the mat before archiving it then every subsequent letter will give the penalty "forgot letter on the mat" and become impossible to open. This put an end to my first playthrough prematurely.
Submitted
ConnivanceThanks! I've seen a "few" papers please clone so I'm really happy you enjoyed the concept.
I'm not surprised about that bug, since punishing players for forgetting the letters before filing the envelope was a feature I added, let's say 20 minutes before releasing my final build XD.
Thanks for playing!
Strong choice of inverting red and green, perfectly fits both the setting and theme in their own way, and got me confused multiple times :D. Congrats on making the game!
Submitted
Ways of seeingNice take on Papers Please mechanic!
I wasn't able to use the additional stamps when I got them. Also, when a stamp is over an enveloppe and you try to get the stamp, you get the enveloppe instead: I guess there is a Z index priority issue.
Just a few tips for immersion, I would add some background noise, like people chatter or something, and sounds when you make a mistake (I still remember Paper's Please old printer sound!) and some paper sound when the enveloppe arrives on your table and then when you drop it.
Also having the stamps have a slight random rotation to give it a more human way of using stamps, not being always perfectly aligned.
Had fun playing!
Submitted
MéfianceThanks!
I entirely agree :) I wish I had had more time to add music and more sound to the world; it would have added a lot...
On the stamps I thought them being tricky to handle would be part of the challenge but it turned out to be just annoying :D
And great idea on the stamps; I did it for the animation, but should have done it for the stamps themselves!
I found the hitboxes a bit small\confusing, the letter getting picked up through the stamp, for example. The mistake list also didn’t stay on screen long enough for me to be able to read it. Day three I made several mistakes and it seemed to bug out day four, I didn’t get any instructions and the stamps weren’t interactable.
Otherwise a solid Papers Please clone, captured the feel of the dystopian government well.
Submitted
Starship Reverse CentaurThanks and I agree! Initially I thought having stuff be a bit messy to pick would be part of the challenge but after finding time to play through a few times it felt annoying; the solution I have in mind is to have a to press hotkey to like Ctrl to pick up stamps, and maybe reset stamps at the start of each day. Thanks for the feedback
I like the concept! I think having a calculator available might have been a nice touch. Also the additional stamps for patriotic/unpatriotic etc did not work for me sadly. But nice job!
Submitted
GermstonesPretty well done and the inspiration from Papers Please was clear. Sometimes I struggled dropping letters, having to try several times before they went in.
Submitted
King's Taster
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