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A jam submission

ガンロウ (GANROU) DEMOView game page

moon phases puzzle game ganrou demo
Submitted by nyankolate, Conizin, João — 2 hours, 18 minutes before the deadline
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ガンロウ (GANROU) DEMO's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Mecha​nics#13.1673.167
Use of Themed Item#72.7502.750
Overall#82.7502.750
Direction#102.6672.667
Visual ​Creativity#133.0003.000
Audio Creativity#212.1672.167

Ranked from 12 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

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Comments

Submitted(+2)

I like puzzle games but I am - unfortunatly - very bad in finding out, guessing and searching. So, not critcizing your game, but me, myself, I simply cannot do it. I liked Riven (Successor of Myst) and liked it, so drawings in books or on the wall are really great, but I dunno, I'm too dumb to even finish Level 1. I could make the box hide, also be inside the box, I see the door opens when "far away" and closes when the eye sees me (I guess). Shooting the eye surely does not help, I wanted to block the eye sight (by moving something between), but I cannot move the black box, even though I used the right "moon" for that - there is pull and push, I got it, but neither clicking, nor dragging... nothing really pushes or pulls this box in any direction - not outside the box, not inside. I'm sorry, I would probably just die in this room. I don't know what to do. I would like to say, maybe you should leak the how-to of Level 1 here, so people like me could understand and then - hopefully - try the other levels, BUT on the other hand, there are already people here you did manage to do it. :shrug:

And then there is the missing fullscreen and/or bugs in the game: Sometimes moving the mouse right does not work (while left does work). Sometimes, I accidentally scroll the page - I don't know how it happes, because I hardly get the mouse out of the game (using ESC sometimes does not work). I might try F11, but only when I get new ideas what else to try.

So, again, not your fault or your game. Maybe, I'm not fit for it. But also, maybe some easier levels would help and let the players start with less frustration. The challenges could come in levels after this simple ones!?

Anyway, cool effort and be proud you dared something and did not create a game that already exists in 1000 variants already!

Developer(+1)

We had a lot of internal debate while designing the tutorial. Our goal was to create a non-intrusive experience that gave players a sense of reward after figuring out the mechanics on their own and solving the puzzles we wanted them to feel good about accomplishing things by themselves. However, we got a lot of feedback saying the tutorial wasn't intuitive at all. Because of that, we added some wall art to offer hints, along with an indicator for the boomerang movement from the second stage onward. Still, we couldn't quite balance the levels and their respective difficulty curve well enough for players to grasp the mechanics in a smoother way...

Either way, we already have several ideas on how to fix these issues and, thanks to your feedback, we were able to outline a solid solution for them :D

Thank you so much for taking the time to review our game! We're glad you liked the overall concept and other aspects of it, and we're really sorry for the frustration.

We actually have a section right below on the game page explaining the mechanics to help anyone who gets stuck, but we failed to point that out, which was an oversight on our end just like pointing out how to switch to full-screen mode to prevent mouse scroll bugs.

In any case, thank you very much for your feedback!

By the way, to beat the first level, you need to make the black box disappear using the Gibbous Light to reveal the door, and then raise the water level using the Full Moon Light enough to block the eye that prevents you from going through the door.

Submitted

"We actually have a section right below on the game page explaining the mechanics" -> You need not do that. Some levels before the current level 1 where each of these mechanics has to be used (alone) to open the door explains it sufficiently. You don't need text, just make one level for each such mechanic. Then the game starts easy and with satisfaction.

Regarding the Level 1 solution (thanks for the info): I am very sure I tried increasing the water level multiple times, but it only got higher once. So, when I pressed it again, it did not increase again/more. When using the inverse, the water got down, but funnily did not go away totally. Then, increasing worked again, but I only got the water up 1 brick level, never higher. I just played it again now, and it's the same problem. Am I still missing something, or is this a browser problem or something on my side?

Submitted

It took me a while to figure out how the core mechanics worked, but once I did, I found it quite intriguing. I agree with several of the other comments that a better tutorial would really help this game. The first time I solved the first level, I had no idea what I did to solve it and I was completely stumped on the second. I looked at the tool guide, which helped a little, but it was still a bit confusing. I decided to restart, having read the tool guide, and something clicked. The second time I solved the first level, I felt like I had actually solved it instead of just clicking randomly and hoping for the best. The second level still took me a bit, and involved rereading the tool guide, before I was able to figure it out. Once I figured out the first two level, the other puzzles felt far more intuitive. There were still several times I had to really stop and think, but the solutions all made sense once I got there. I think the tool that I had the most difficulties with was the Crescent, but I did eventually get the hang of it.

I wish there had been a way to restart a level. I felt like I made a mistake on one of the later levels, and would have liked to start it over to look at it from the beginning. It's possible I still could have solved it as it was, being able to restart the level would have been nice.

On the final puzzle, I was able to walk through the door before it opened, and fell into the void. I had to return to menu and start over from level one. I was enjoying the game enough though, that I was willing to restart and try again to see if I could complete it.

The art was lovely. I particularly liked the moon phases, and how they looked in both dark and light. The dungeon itself had a good feel to it and it really fit the moon theme of the puzzles.

The game is a good length for a jam game. That said, I reached the end and found myself wishing there were a few more puzzles to do. I definitely think this could be made into a longer game, if you wanted to continue working on it.

Submitted(+1)

One of my favorite games at the moment. The graphics are good, the sounds are good. It's a shame I didn't really like the music. But the mechanics are probably some of the best at this Game Jam at the moment for me. There are different mechanics, and each of them works and is used at every level (almost every level). Although I agree with all the comments, I need a tutorial because I spent 15 minutes on the first level, and I also spent 15 minutes on the rest of the game. That is, I spent the same amount of time on the entire game as on the first level, so ideally something needs to be made more understandable. Also, add music to the menu. It's a shame that there is no fullscreen, because it would have immersed me more in the game and allowed me to enjoy the game's graphics more. Great job

Developer(+1)

thanks for the feedback! I thought a lot about the tutorial and I know we could do much better, though we didn't have time to, even the menu music, it was already done! but we were in such a rush in the last few hours that our nervosism made us forget it out of the game lol. also, we forgot to mention that F11 makes the game go fullscreen too... this is our very first game jam (kind of second one), so we're discussing and figuring things out all the time, and comments like yours REALLY help, I don't feel as bad for messing up here and there seeing people enjoy our work, and mainly hoping that we improved it a little more. thanks again! ❤️❤️❤️

Submitted(+1)

First of all, thank you for telling me that F11 turns on the full screen, it allowed me to enjoy pixel art and now it seems to me even better than before. Secondly, for the first game jam or the second, I didn’t understand, but still, the game looks very good and I wish you good luck in to continue creating it if you want.

Submitted(+2)

Nice game! I'm having a bit of a hard time getting used to the mechanics, though, and got stuck on level 1.

Submitted

me too! the game needs more tutorial

Developer(+1)

We tried really hard to create a game with non-intrusive tutorials that rewarded players for exploring mechanics and figuring out how things work on their own, but we really struggled to design levels in a way that guided those thoughts... We even tried adding illustrated tutorials on the walls, but apparently it still needed a little extra something, haha!

Submitted(+2)

Interesting game, could use a little more detail in tutorial haha.

Developer

Thanks for the comment! We tried really hard to make an intuitive, non intrusive tutorial, but apparently that's pretty tough to pull off xd

Submitted(+2)

Genuinely a really creative idea! Now unfortunately I’m a bit dumb and got stuck halfway through the levels but I see a lot of potential in these mechanics lol! All the best

Developer

thanks a lot!! much love ❤️❤️❤️

Submitted(+2)

i really tried. i think i moved a thing or 2, but my monkey brain cant figure nothing out

Developer(+1)

we did a lot of playtest, I guess it just is a bit hard to figure out lmao, thanks for trying ❤️❤️