Great game, keep it up!
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ThePaleCourt's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Theme | #303 | 3.792 | 3.792 |
| Audio | #356 | 3.375 | 3.375 |
| Visuals | #650 | 3.417 | 3.417 |
| Overall | #666 | 3.139 | 3.139 |
| Innovation | #838 | 2.875 | 2.875 |
| Gameplay | #1028 | 2.625 | 2.625 |
| Enjoyment | #1029 | 2.750 | 2.750 |
Ranked from 24 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?
Murder Mystery among treacherous nobles each trying to claim their title as Duke of the Pale Castle! IT COULD BE ANYONE! Basically lightweight Among Us but youre always the hunted!
What code and assets did you not make from scratch during the jam (if any)?
Too much
How many people worked on the game?2
Comments
I really loved the game’s design! The animation and sound design were amazing, and I really enjoyed playing it. also It's great that you can choose your own game character. The idea and story were really interesting too. Great job!
Interesting entry, that's for sure.
The castle is immense and interesting to explore. Some rooms are partially hidden by the UI, making them gratifying to discover. Good variety of assets given the timeframe. Also very nice audio; your musical progression reminded me a bit of what you would hear in the most dramatic parts of Frostpunk.
From what I understand, the game plays like a simplified version of Clue. You get one testimony, one proof, and one murder weapon; every suspect is linked to at least two of them, but only one is linked to all three at once. Finding the best way to get all three as fast as possible before someone else dies is the entire point of the game. Is that correct?
It's a bit strange then that the game tries to look like there's way more under the hood than what's required. I feel like you've added a lot of pieces to the game, but not all of them seem to fit together. The concept looks like Clue, but the game itself plays like Among Us. Suspects are wandering about the castle, but none of them are useful to the case. It's possible to skip time, but no point in doing so. The pace is very slow, but the music is intense and dramatic.
You have a pretty solid entry here, but I think it would have been stronger with a tighter focus. Maybe make it so that the link between a guest and a clue is only discovered by talking to them?
Good job to both of you though, very nice result for such a small team.
The graphics are really singular and authentic! I quite like the audio as well.
The gameplay is pretty simple, but I like that it’s a 5-minute game.
Nice little game! I liked the hand-drawn style and talking to the different characters to gather clues. I think the deduction could be even more engaging if the suspicion meter was a bit less direct and the player had to connect more of the clues themselves. Overall, a fun murder mystery!
What could be the clue to crack the case? Is it the location where the body was found ? who was there the last time? maybe you should write them all on a note. I already collected 3 clues but still wrongfully accused someone. Great premise and if executed correctly it could be another Among Us. I like the sound design
The gameplay is put together really well - it is interesting to figure out what exactly happened and what is still happening. I did not quite understand what changes over time, besides the number of victims ^^
Also, the poster is very clickable - just as the end screen ;)]
The music is great too! Just one small suggestion: I would hold it back a little during gameplay and make it feel more restrained, almost as if it were moving on tiptoe. A bold, distinctive sound works well at the start, on the title screen, and during climactic moments, but during gameplay I would love a little more detective-story suspense.
If you are going for an orchestral or chamber sound, old detective shows are a great reference - Poirot and anything with a similar feel, Im talking about "feeler" music not the title itself. As Debussy put it "Music is the silence between the notes”—and Brahms certainly proved him right, despite the fact first not much like him.
Great project, good luck! <3
Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a thoughtful, detailed comment, feedback like this is honestly rare and I really appreciate the care that went into it.
For context on the choice: I wanted the score to reflect everyone at court performing normalcy while something's deeply wrong underneath, so the restraint was less about building tiptoe-suspense and more about the music staying composed the way the characters are pretending to be. A different, more atmospheric approach like you're describing would suit a lot of detective scoring beautifully, just wasn't quite the emotional target I was going for here.
Really appreciate the Poirot reference either way. Thanks again for playing, and for putting this much thought into your comment, means a lot.
Great game! Gathering the evidence and talking to the inhabitants was a lot of fun! I felt a little wacky when I passed through some objects, I can't really complain about anything else!
Great game, especially the music, Peppermint Butler and Hello Kitty toys!
Really cool idea how you can play as anyone. Only thing I didn't love was I just grabbed the 3 bits of evidence and then chose the person who had the highest suspicion level. I think in a detective game I would have liked to work that out for myself.
What a surreal expirience, haven't seen that Flash game style for a long time, overall fine game, good job!
As it was already noticed - characters are a bit too slow, perhaps a sprint button would fit in nicely
Guess I am the duke now! ;-)
This takes me back in the best possible way to the golden age of classic Flash games. The hand-drawn visual style is super charming and full of personality!
My only real wish is a sprint button (holding Shift would be amazing) with all the backtracking and exploring.
Maybe I had chosen the wrong character to play as because the admiral was an old dude and painfully slow to walk around with. I liked the cute level art design.







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