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Focus Bell's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Innovation | #532 | 3.161 | 3.161 |
| Theme | #579 | 3.452 | 3.452 |
| Visuals | #621 | 3.452 | 3.452 |
| Overall | #736 | 3.081 | 3.081 |
| Gameplay | #772 | 2.903 | 2.903 |
| Enjoyment | #916 | 2.903 | 2.903 |
| Audio | #1047 | 2.613 | 2.613 |
Ranked from 31 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 never truly know whether the person across from you is lying or telling the truth; no one holds your hand through the investigation. Your only duty is to listen to their words, rely on your own judgment, and decide who lies—whether that means sentencing them to death or marking your choice with a click. In the end, to trust or not to trust is entirely up to you.
What code and assets did you not make from scratch during the jam (if any)?
Only the audio (music and sound effects) uses third-party assets. All programming, 2D art, and game design were made entirely from scratch during the jam.
How many people worked on the game?1
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Comments
I love these interactive objects — they're so much fun XD
Interesting game, I liked that i could just shoot everyone lol. A small improvement i think would go along way is being able to tell what parts of the environment I'm able to interact with, something like the mouse cursor changing sprite or an outline around the object would go along way. I reached a point where i couldn't seem to interact with anything after talking to and shooting a few people and couldn't tell if it was a bug or there was something i was missing. Overall great job though.
I'm currently considering changing the cursor, thanks. However, I'm not really planning to add object highlighting. Everyone mentioned missing it, but assigning a function to every object feels like a better approach instead. And lastly, since I forgot to add an ending, the game just ends after 4 people. Thanks for your feedback.
4 days is insane! Very well-designed and I enjoyed the visuals!
Thank you so much! Really glad you liked the visual style.
I like the art style, might be helpful to add some kind of highlighting to the clickable objects. Well done!
Thanks for the feedback! I actually avoided highlights to encourage exploring, but I can definitely see how it would help with clarity.
Very interesting submission. The interface could use some polish, like some sort of indication of what you can and can't pick up. I couldn't tell if I was supposed to be able to pick up the stamps, and when I was able to stamp or not. For example the first guy I don't think I am able to green stamp his portrait, only red stamp, and I was a bit confused at first. But overall I could tell you put a lot of work in and had a lot of ambition, which is admirable.
I actually removed it on purpose. To me, giving every object a function feels better than just highlighting them. However, I might make an exception just for the stamps. Thanks for the feedback!
Hey I have just found out how to use focus bell! Pretty solid game for a solo dev especially in such short time. I've also started my project a bit late as I had no idea what to make and know the feeling lol. I loved the characters and conversations. Also the interactions were so cool and made me want to mess around with my desk while poor fellas were talking to me haha! Well done with your entry.
Really appreciate you giving it a try and figuring it out! The initial confusion was totally my bad. So glad you liked the atmosphere and tinkering with the desk, thanks a ton!
I clicked on the pen, and my cursor disappeared, then i clicked on the bell and the screen went black? could I please have some help?
Right-clicking cancels the current ongoing action/item. (I couldn't get the pen mechanic to work no matter what, so the leftover code just stayed like that, hehe.) The bell only actually works if someone is sitting across from you; that's its main function.
Very super impressive game- I love the mechanics you've put in here with the focus bell. I'm yet to get an ending but I've started to figure out what's going on :)
Love the art style too, it just adds to the vibes of the game, I'd love to come back to this in the future!
Thinking about adding a few minor details that I had to skip. By the way, did you ever try throwing a bottle at someone? haha. THANKS A TON FOR PLAYING!
OH! I just found out that's a thing lmao-
Very well written! I had some issues with the focus bell at first and had to refresh the page. After that, using WASD to find the bell pings worked and I was able to see the images. I had to read the help button a few times to understand what was going on. I also don't quite know if there's supposed to be an end screen? I think I know who did it and I used the approve/deny buttons on all of the pictures but nothing happened in the end.
First, due to time constraints, I didn't get to add a proper end-game state. If you ring the bell a few more times after the 4th person, nobody shows up—I'll make sure to add this note to the description, so thanks for the reminder! Second, the lack of a definitive outcome was actually an intentional choice. I wanted players to read through the dialogues and draw their own conclusions/theories instead. Thanks a lot for giving it a try!
Insane work for a single developer, and really lovely and cozy art :) do wish items had indicators for when u could click them though but besides that absolutely wonderful!
I deliberately chose not to include that; it was actually there at first, but I ended up removing it later.
very interesting choice, i can understand the reason not too lol
Great game for a solo dev. maybe make it more active, add indicators which items are clickable.
That was actually there initially, but I removed it later. I thought it would be better this way so the player would actively think about what's clickable before interacting. Thanks for the feedback anyway!
The game stops working for me when I click on the bell.
Could you give it another try? Are you on Windows or something else? Honestly, I don't think I have a fix for this right now, though.
Of course
really impressive for a first game made in 4 days, the hand drawn art is great and the bell/memory mechanic is a cool idea. took me a sec to figure out what to do but i definitely enjoyed it, good job
Yeah, that seems to be a common issue for everyone! It's not your fault at all; I just didn't explain it well enough while trying to squeeze everything into the time limit.
This is an amazing and super impressive for your first game, and in 4 days! The amount of art done is especially impressive! The story is also interesting and the bell mechanic is unique! But it took me absolutely forever to figure out what I was supposed to do and how. The game description was helpful, but I could not understand the in-game help page at all. Adding text to that would do wonders. But congrats on your first game, and good job!
At least it makes sense of a part of what's inside the game. The rest turned into nonsense, yeah—that's why I felt the need to add an explanation. Thanks for giving it a try!
This looks like a really good game for your first one, good job! I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to do, though. I read the description and saw the Help button, but I still couldnt really figure it out. but still, well done! It feels pretty polished all in all.
The game was actually supposed to evoke a sense of emptiness since nothing gets resolved in the end. But because of the tight deadline, that intended emptiness just felt like bad design instead :(
Thanks for giving it a try anyway!
I got confused at the bell thing at first, until I read the Help button. REALLY GOOD GAME OH MY!
I honestly didn't expect the Help button to be this useful haha! Seems like the onboarding part fell a bit short, so if I keep developing this, I'll definitely make how the game works much clearer. Thanks a lot, mate!
Really impressed, this was awesome!
That really means a lot, thank you so much for playing!
too good for words
thanks a ton! So glad you enjoyed it that much!
Good job making this alone. The game has a pretty cool idea with using the bell to visualize memories (though it took me a moment to understand this), then deciding whether the witness is telling the truth or not, or is actually a beast. The art is neat too. Overall, I think it holds potential. Nice work!
Thanks for the comment! If I develop the game a bit more after the jam, I'll definitely make the bell mechanic clearer.
Nothing to say, LOVE IT BRO!!!
thank u my friendo