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Mental Trap's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Innovation | #51 | 3.939 | 3.939 |
| Visuals | #65 | 4.424 | 4.424 |
| Audio | #121 | 3.712 | 3.712 |
| Overall | #144 | 3.687 | 3.687 |
| Gameplay | #254 | 3.470 | 3.470 |
| Enjoyment | #374 | 3.455 | 3.455 |
| Theme | #875 | 3.121 | 3.121 |
Ranked from 66 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?
Narrative wise (especially the ending) and mechanically wise.
What code and assets did you not make from scratch during the jam (if any)?
Some grid-based navigation code I made myself previously
How many people worked on the game?2
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Comments
The concept is really well done, I can feel the main characters messy mind. i love how the map disappears dynamically.
The dialogue and art style really fits the concept of you being in a mental asylum.
I did have a lil problem getting used to the arrow keys due to the camera perspective but got over that very quick.
overall, a really Great game.
Would definitely play it when you guys make it into a full release :)
Thanks for the great feedback!
Yeah, bridging to the gap between a "top down" keyboard and isometric perspective takes some time, but it's a part of the challenge of the game, and I'm happy to hear you got it down.
We're already working on the next version, and even though it'll take a while for the full version to come out, considering our plans, we'll definitely keep gradually updating and modifying the game.
Wow I really like this! What a fun game please give us a full version of this!
Thanks, really glad to hear that!
We're already hard at work on the next version (:
Woah. I really like this game. I love the black and white contrasting color scheme, The art style is beautiful. The game is somewhat difficult but it was fun and I enjoyed beating the game. The objective is clear. The dialogue is good. My only small critique is that the audio is a bit repetitive and it doesn't follow the theme super well. Those are tiny knit picks. Overall one of my favorite games I've played from the actually! Good job!
Thank you so much for the kind words; we're glad you enjoyed the challenge! We actually had other mechanics and expansions to the core game that tied it more closely to the theme. But in the end, we decided to focus on finishing with a solid starting point that we could expand on later, which is better than gameplay that's unstable or too complex for a jam. We plan to add more stages and features in the future. Some changes will be added shortly after the voting phase ends, so feel free to check back and check our progress! Thanks once again for playing and leaving a feedback!
This is very cool! I absolutely love the art style and the sfx/music was really good too! My only critique is that the controls really tripped me up and I kept pressing the wrong ones and falling off. I'm not really sure how that could be fixed though. Good job on your entry!
Thanks for the feedback!
Yeah, the mental adjustments required for remapping top down controls to isometric environment is quite challenging and confusing, but it is a part of our take on the 'trust no one theme'. Our immediate reflexes and intuitions are not to be trusted (:
Great Game
Thank ya!
Fun idea ! I Like how it looks !
Hi, Thank you!
Thanks for playing! :)
I've tried 3 times that my party member picks up the pudding, which it does, but then fails to give the pudding to the other one. So I can't progress further. Moreover, the controls felt weird as soon as I got the team member in front of me.
The jumping audio was fitting, but I missed more audio. The visuals fit quite well, but the theme was not present (at least at that early stage, so I don' know if it is later on). The gameplay just jumping along the grid is not really fun, at least not for me.
In conclusion, I have mixed feeling about your game guys. The art and idea behind it feels good, but the gameplay not that much.
Hi, thanks for the honest feedback!
The idea with the pudding is that the main character can recruit other characters but can't interact with items, while Dumbo (the 2nd character) can pick up items but won't interact with other characters, therefore - giving the pudding should be done by interacting through the main character. I agree that it isn't very clear at the moment, requires some experiencing and will be emphasized more in the next update of the game, once the voting period is over.
As for the core mechanic, to each his own I guess (:
The drawings and audio are so so good! This game has such a great personality. I also found the unstoppable cell movement really interesting.
The dot / comma / arrow signs were a bit confusing to me at first.
Completing the puzzles is really satisfying. Argh, I would have loved to have more content!
Great job!
Thanks for the kind feedback, appgreciated!
We're already at work on expanding the game, so more content coming soon (:
Very Innovative game, I wish I had more time to explore. Good use of a simple art style. It gave the game lots of character.
Hi, thanks for the feedback!
First of all, five stars on audio and graphics. The bass guitar as sound effect is really cool and fitting with the hopping animation. I've always wanted to use musical instruments as dynamic sounds on my games too. The visual style is also on point and fits the premise and story really well. For some reason it reminds me of the movie Pi (1998). The tiny details on the background really add to the tone as well.
My only suggestion is that I died a lot early on, especially since the controls take some time getting used to. I would have made the player die less, with fewer obstacles or floors you can fall off of. Secondly, although I eventually figured out what to do, some clues in the dialog would have helped. E.g. Dumbo hinting that he/she has hands and can interact with objects.
Other than that, this was a really beautiful and poignant game and I'd love to see more of it. Keep it up!
Thanks a lot for the detailed feedback!
The reference for Aronofsky's Pi is an interesting one, as it works both in regards to the palette as well as the general paranoia (:
And yeah, we're working on a couple of tweaks and additions such as checkpoints, extra dialogs and others, so stay tuned.
P.S - cool profile pic!
I do adore the artstyle and despite being short, it is quite a sweet game. I don't necessarily know if it fully fits the theme of the jam, as I think maybe that could have been explored more, but there was no other game where I played which clearly utilised ink coloured looking art (which naturally I will glaze since I did that myself) and a charming little maze game. Overall, great effort, definitely loved my time with it.
Thank you! We had a variety of plans and mechanics that related to the theme more (besides the ending), and we plan to explore them further as we continue developing the game after the jam. And yes, this is not only looking like ink art, it is also indeed done by hand using fountain pens :) I appreciate the feedback and thank you for giving our game a try! Looking forward to trying yours!
Great game, love the art. Sound is great too, nice bass/guitar hopping. It was a bit confusing since it was isometric and the keyboard directions are orthogonal, but minor complaint. Great work!
Thanks for playing and leaving feedback! Confusion is indeed a part of the experience in this weird asylum.. :^)
Very interesting theme and gameplay!
The isometric gameplay is kinda hard to grasp because my intuition wants the w key to be the top left not top right... good thing this game is short. I've actually never seen a game like this before.
Great art and sound too! Problems I had are that the instruction to press , . keys to switch is a bit unclear to me. And the block noises kept playing for a bit after I fell. Could be better if it plays a falling sfx instead.
Also I actually don't understand how this correlates to trust no one but it's fine. Great work! :D
Thank you for trying the game! You have to reach the end to understand the relation to the theme ;-) The isometric gameplay is indeed a challenge with a learning curve! As for the sounds, we will look into it. Thank you again for the feedback; much appreciated!
The visuals were great! I like the rhythm/timing movement mechanic and the music went along with it perfectly. The platforming wasn't too difficult but trying to perform directional movement on isometric layout had me struggling for some reason lol. I wish you wouldn't restart from the beginning each time, but it was very enjoyable. Great job!
Thank you for the feedback! The restarting point post-death is something we have looked into and addressed. It will be updated in future versions of the game as we continue to work and expand the concept!
Really loved the visuals on this one and the overall theme, great job. I would maybe add checkpoints as I kept softlocking myself by accidentally sending someone in my party over the edge.
Thanks for playing! The checkpoint idea is something we consider and will look into as we work on the game further; more to come. We appreciate the feedback!
nice clean black and white style, and the room drawing itself in around you as you step is a great reveal. dying to a floor you cant fully see fits the asylum setting well. good job
Thanks a lot for the feedback!
The art style and the atmosphere mixed with the sfx were astonishing and fabulous and so unique. Unfortunately I couldn't figure out what to do after I get my first companion :( but I really enjoyed the innovation and the style. Fantastic Job :D
Thanks for the kind feedback!
As for the companion, try thinking what a character that doesn't have their hands tied could achieve...
I unfortunately couldn’t get past what I’m guessing is the first level. The main problem I was having was the forced key-bindings. It really would have been great with WASD and perhaps also controller bindings for it. On my keyboard the arrows are split between two keyboard halves and it felt like playing a game with arms crossed, which made it much too difficult to me.
The art is really lovely and the general tone as well as the concept in the mechanics feels very fun. I do wish that the music would build up a bit more as you progress through the level and that there were some effects for NPC:s talking to me.
Play-through with more feedback:
Hi there, thanks for the feedback and thanks a bunch for uploading the gameplay video, it's always useful (and fun!) seeing others experiencing the game.
You actually came quite close to winning, if only you'd approach Nancique with the General after picking up the pudding with Dumbo... (:
Yeah, playing with that sort of keyboard sounds nasty, it's like a custom made Hard-Mode especially for our game. Adding key-binding or at-least alternative keys is a good idea, and we'll probably add it after the voting period is over (although we would need to somehow adjust the signs of the floating keyboard instructions for it).
I think you could get away with just adding WASD as secondary movement binding and not updating the arrow hints since that convention is very well understood. Otherwise you’d probably have to track what last input was (arrow or WASD and update accordingly)
Amazing game!!
I love the bouncy animations and sound effects! The way the character bounces around is so cute XD The character feels really lively and has so much personality!
I also really love the setting of being restrained in a psychiatric hospital!
But I got stuck on the second level when the movement controls started changing... I tried it about 5 or 6 times and still found it really hard to control TT
I wish there were checkpoints or some way to save your progress along the way!
I'll definitely keep trying to see if I can make it to the ending! :D
Thanks a-lot for the feedback!
With 'second level' you mean the room with the additional keyboard instructions? Yeah, controlling more characters gets even trickier (:
I agree about the checkpoints/respawning, we'll probably implement some version of it after the voting period of the jam.
Godspeed!
While not my type of game, I must commend the art style and implementation of the mechanics. It is quite different from many of the games i have rated recently! Congrats on your entry.
Hi, thanks for the feedback! Glad we were able to reach you with the game even though it isn't your go-to genre (: